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The following was found on a small document written on a stack of leaves in an abandoned hut near the New Camp a little over a year following the fall of the Great Barrier, although it is dated to thirty years prior to that event. With the help of a magic scroll, the following was translated from it.

*

My name is Yrenvan, although that's not all that important. I'm writing this for historical purposes only, in hopes that some day my brethren will come across it. Although with the barrier, that's not likely to happen. Anyway, here's the real story of my people and I.

Most humans, barbaric as they are, don't realize that most species of their so-called "monsters" have societies as well. The world of the meatbugs was an incredibly unlucky one; the constant danger of being stepped on, the inability to outrun any predators, and the great misfortune of some idiot one day discovering that we taste good in a soup. Our biggest disaster, however, occured not much longer than three years after the blue shield was formed by the humans. I was there for the tragedy, and I'll tell you about it as best as I can - but first, I'll have to explain a little about myself.

I was born in the our main colony, located in a large cave in the Agnobe Mountains, a range that runs in and out of the blue shield and overlooks a large, wooden elevator which humans use to send food down though the shield. I was something of a seer where I lived - I had the unique ability to send telepathic messages to species of all kinds.

I didn't really have to put this to use until much later. We led the good life, there in that cave. Mountain moss and hell mushrooms grew in an abundance, and not even the old 'bugs could remember any time of famine.

That's enough about me. The great tragedy I mentioned and am going to start talking about happened one stormy, hazy-skied night just after Sol cast his last rays of light unto the world. Soon after I slipped off into a peaceful slumber, another 'bug, one named Hoppalig, woke me up.

"Hurry, Yren," he told me in a series of panicked squeaks. "That cave is collapsing!!"

Well, as you can imagine, that roused me in a hurry. A massive crowd was crawling out towards the enterance, while the old timers stayed behind to make sure no one was forgotten. Hopple and I piled out into the shower of frigid water near the middle of the line. I was about to make a nasty remark about the rain, which was roughly one-tenth the size fo us in bigger drops, when a massive tremor shook the mountain. Quite a few 'bugs who had been eagerly standing near the cliff's ledge tumbled off and fell to their doom. Then, my vision was obstructed by a massive cloud of dust.

When the smoke cleared, what was once the entrance to our grand city was nothing but a pile of large boulders, as was the ancient trail the founders of the place had used to climb up the ridge. We were trapped. To add insult to this fatal wound in our society, halves of some crushed meatbugs were sticking out from the cavern mouth, their antennae fixed in a silent scream, their bright green blood forming a puddle around them. I tell you - if meatbugs could throw up, I would have and I can bet that nearly everyone withing seeing distance would've tossed their lunch as well.

We meatbugs were lost, hopeless. I was trying to think of what I could do to help remedy the situation, when the keeper of leaf-scrolls, Isylas, pulled me aside for a private word. We drew aside to a secluded corner near one of the boulders blocking the old path. I saw that he had put there a fairly-new looking book. And for those young meatbugs who may be reading this and do not know of our old ways, our books were bound in the cover, back and spine by the shells of deceased meatbugs. The pages, as you already know by reading this, is made on leaves. I asked the good fellow what this book was and why he had saved it, with none of the others.

"To your first question, this book is our only hope of reaching civilization again. I will explain, but before I forget, the answer to your second question... I can only carry so much, you know. You try carrying more than two at a time and just see if you don't split in two. If your memory is any good, you'll remember that when the great blue shield appeared, one of our young ones, Galion, wanted to go explore it. We couldn't stop him; and besides, it was a good idea. Also, do you remember that time recently when I went out to collect some more parchment? This is when I found the book. He wrote it, and was trying to bring it to us. He didn't make it. I found the book, sticking half in and half out of the shield, and through the ripples I could see a burnt exoskeleton. Blasted human trickery. I guess the thing lets you in, but that's the one-way ticket. Now, look."

Isylas opened to the last page. It was a map with some locations circled. The rest of the book, evidently, contained notes that Galion had made through his journeys.

"It's a map of the inside of the shield," Isylas said. "I can't say anything for its accuracy - Galion wasn't that bright a bug - but its the best one we've got. Now, look here."

He opened to another page. "This... it tells of a small group of abandoned human houses outside a large human occupied colony. He couldn't describe very well, but from what he does say, it sounds like an excellent place to migrate to. I don't think we have any other option. Here, you take the map - if anyone can get us there, it's you."

I remember stammering for a while, then finally asking him why he chose me. He said I was the one to do it because I was different from the other meatbugs. And, as much as I may not like to admit, it's true. We 'bugs are social creatures, and everyone relies on the other bugs to work with them to get the jobs done. We can't do much alone. But I was different; I was independent. Maybe it was because of my telepathic abilities, I'll never be sure.

With that, Isylas walked away. I knew that although I was a self-thinker, I couldn't just lead the bugs to what might be a false hope without every last one of them agreeing.

wo days later, while my colony was waiting in despair and confusion for some kind of decision, we were attacked by a wandering scavenger. We managed to push the bird off the cliff's edge, but not before Isylas, Hoppalig, and four dozen other bugs had been slain by either sharp beak or trampling feet.

The sight of how much damage a scavenger - a scavenger! - could do to us in this abysmal state strengthened my resolve. I knew that I had to act. The next day I stood atop a boulder, asked the question, and recieved unamimous agreement to the migration plan. And thus began the exodus.

Every time I let my mind wander these days, it always returns to the horrible deaths and dangers of the long journey. Pardon for the lack of detail, but if I delve too much back into those twenty-three days and nights, I won't be able to write any longer, and this needs to be written. My time is short.

The beginning was the worst. In order to climb up the massive stones that blocked the ancient path down to earth-level, we had to form living staircases upwards. In almost every case, the bugs on the bottom one or two ones were crushed under the weight of their fellows. We were completely demoralized and our numbers cut down by nearly a third when we saw grass. The horizon seemed featureless and I began to think for the first time that Galion had just been a fool and made the whole thing up.

But in that moment, when I had taken the book out and was ready to cast it aside, the light shifted... a wall of sky-blue beams, each at least twelve times my diameter, shimmered at nearly every direction in the world in front of us. We sat there, stunned by its beauty. After it slowly faded into the transparent air once again, I turned to face my fellow meatbugs. I was about to ask them - because, as Isylas had said, this was a one-way ticket only - and then saw that I had no need. They all had sacrificed all they had to come this far slone; to ask them if they wanted to turn back would portray me as a coward, too afraid to risk going through the bubble and search for Galion's promised land. There was no need for words now, with the possible exception of a few chatty bugs in the back talking amongst themselves. A mere nod (as much of a nod as a creature without a neck can make, anyway) was all it took. We walked through the invisible wall, into whatever destiny may await us.

Strangely, I do not remember much of the rest of our journey, except for a few points of interest. When we crossed into the shield, feeling a slight tingle as we filed in, I saw for the first time how weary everyone, including myself, was. All the bugs agreed that a night's camp was needed. When we departed in the morning and marched on, I noticed after passing through a wooden gate of human construction that we were missing nearly twenty bugs. I asked two of my closest friends, Tonyc and Ceonvan, to stay near the wooden gate and wait for the missing bugs to catch up. I made a copy of Galion's now treasured map and gave it to them to locate the promised land when they began the long walk themselves.

I never saw them again.

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