Honey ran for her life, as the inferno that used to be her family home raged behind her, She’d been asleep when the giant insect had crashed through the kitchen window, scattering the contents of the worktop, including a lit oil lantern. Soon smoke had begun to fill the house, and her older sister, Lotte had hurriedly woken her up.

“Honey, Honey, get up … there’s something here… in the house… I can’t find mum or dad.. Get up - we have to run.”

Honey blearily looked up at Lotte.
“I have to put on my loincloth… where is it? I think I left it in the hamper. ”
“No time, just get up and run” screamed Lotte, pulling at Honey’s hand roughly. The force yanked her to her feet, and before she knew it, she was sprinting out the door; which was a good thing, because there was a great creaking snap, and the foundations of the house collapsed in a shower of sparks.

Beyond the red haze of the engulfing fire, the shadow of a giant predator rose, its chitin protecting it against the lapping flames.

“Oh gods, it’s right behind us…” shrilled Lotte, jst as it reached out and encircled her in its pincers. Her naked body was lifted high in the air.
“It’s gooot meeeee!” She screamed “Get it ooooofff meeeeee!!!!”
Honey didn’t even pause… she knew what happened to girls that hesitated. She’d seen it at school when that Razorkite had swooped down and grabbed that shy girl, Tricia Pennings. When everyone else had seen the shadow, and made a break for it, Tricia had been slow, asking with genuine curiosity “What’s everyone running for?”

The bird had impaled the stupid bitch through the chest from behind, and all the foolish girl could do was stare like a moron at the blood covered claw that slid out from between her tiny breasts. Tricia had squealed like a live whole roaster as the Razorkite had proceeded to tear her into tiny strips and pulled her apart with its bladed beak. Later that day, the teacher had told the entire class that they had learned a valuable lesson. It wasn’t always necessary to outrun the monster, only the slowest girl. It was a lesson that Honey had taken to heart afterwards.

She’d practiced every day, honing her legs till they were precision running machines. She was so confident, she knew that she could outrun anyone in her scout school class. Honey wasn’t the strongest fighter by far, and her test scores proved she might be one of the dumbest girls to scrape through the course alive.

However, unfortunately for Honey, this would turn out to not be one of those cases. In addition to razor sharp pincers, and a mouth full of teeth designed to snip off the heads of its male partners, the praying mantis had one other feature that would seal her doom… It had wings.

The wings of the female mantis are not strong enough to lift her bulk entirely, but they give an enormous boost to her ground speed.

Honey, her eyes still focused on where she was sprinting, didn’t even see the lightning fast blur as it zoomed up behind her and conked her on the back of her head. All she knew was that one second she was about to escape from sure death…. Then everything hurt real bad, and blackness overtook her vision.

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