Chapter 20: Chapter 20: Rise and shine.

 

The world around me was completely devoid of any sort of light. Did I die again? I looked down at my and flexed my clawed hands. No, This is something completely new. I looked around more, but there was nothing but an inky black void around me. Where the hell am I? I looked around some more when Suddenly a cold howling wind blew past me. The wind blew past me harder and harder, chilling me to the bone. My hands shot up to cover my face to try to block it, But the wind blew harder, knocking my hands out of the way. The wind didn’t relent, pushing me further and further and then out of nowhere. It stopped. And pure silence reigned the darkness again.

I moved my hands away from my face and in front of me was an old, no, ancient woman. Her eyes were sunken, her face and skin were leathery and wrinkled. Her bones could be seen through her flesh. Her hair was mostly grey and falling out. This person is almost a skeleton, And the weirdest part of it all is that a part of me felt like it knew this girl. Could it be?

<Cindi?>

The Skelton slowly craned its head up to me and opened its jaw.

<No. Stop. Don’t talk. You still need rest..>

The Skelton closed its jaw and dropped its head down. I knelt down to her level and rubbed her hands. Just what happened to her that she would end up like this? Just how much did it cost for her to bring me here? Arghhhhh. So many questions! And the only person who can answer them would probably die if they tried.

“don’t do anything. You understand. You can tell me later.”

 The more time I spent with her, I felt pity for her. It was clear at some point she was some all-powerful being. But now she was this frail husk of a person. I held her hands firmly. I don’t know why but seeing her like this pissed me off.

“Give me time, ill fix this.”

She didn’t respond. We just sat there and held each other's hand. Soon the inky black around us started to grey.

“I guess it's time for me to go back.”

She ever so slightly nodded her head. Soon her hands started to fade, followed by her body, and then nothing. I looked at my hands, and the same was happening. I closed my eyes and waited. Soon the inky blackness started to fade away as a bright light started taking over. Getting brighter and brighter until it was too unbearable to deal with. I shot my eyes open. And found myself staring at an off-yellow roof.

<Where am i? Am i->

<MOTHER!>

<MOTHERS AWAKE! GO LET EVERY ELSE KNOW>

I looked around me. I was lying down in one of the tents. I tried to sit up, but doing so sent shooting pains throughout my body.

 < guess, I’m not fully healed>

Suddenly a large swarm of insects flew into the tent and swarmed all over my body. Deafening Cries of happiness came from all of them.

<yes, yes, I’m happy to see you all.>

They all swarmed me for attention. Oh, how I’ve missed this.

Suddenly, the tent opened.

“what’s all the ruckus abou-“

Apollinaris stared at me, eyes wide open and mouth agape.

“heeeeey” I said casually. “Im  ba-ACK!”

In an instant, she jumped the gap and wrapped me in a bone-crushing hug.

“AI, AI, AI, Please be gentle. I’m still a little bit fragile.”

My hand gently rubbed her back. She really was worried,huh.

“You're awake. I thought you were..... I’m so happy. Your awake.”

“Yeah, me too. Can you help me up?”

“Oh yeah... sorry.”

Apollinaris put her hands under my back and gently helped me sit up.

“That’s better, thanks.”

From up here, I could see bits of fabric covered in green blood and bowls filled with water.

“Wow, did you.....”

“yep, for the last 3 days.”

“Wait! Three days?!”

“yeah, you were out of it for 3 full days.”

“No. That. The children! I need to ARGH”

Sharp pains shot out from my back. Appolinaris’s hands touched my shoulder.

“Relax. I took care of it. The larvae are in that room right now….. eating….. you know. That”

“thank you for your help, but I’m their mother. I need to -.”

“you NEED to sit here and rest. You can’t look after them like this. You know you can’t.”

“but”

“No buts. You need to rest and recover.”

I ground my teeth. Dammit, she’s right. I’m useless right now. All because I stupidly went out that night. Dammit! I swung my hand into the pillow.

“Fine. I'll stay put.” Anger welled inside of me. This is all that stupid wolf’s fault. I swear I’ll kill them all.

“So uh…….. what happened.”

I snapped my head at apollinaris, causing her to back away.

“S..sorry f…. for asking. I'll leave”

“No!” My hand instantly wrapped around her arm.

“Don’t go.” I sighed. “Sorry, I shouldn’t be angry at you. You’ve helped me a lot. Sit down. I'll tell you all the gory details.”

I let go of her hand, and she sat down. I told her about the whole sordid ordeal between me, the otters and the stupid alpha. She just sat there and listened in shock.

“And that’s the gist of it.”

“Wow…. I'm sorry that happened. I never knew food was that scarce. If I did, I would have gone with you and helped.”

“It’s fine. I'm in the wrong as well. Going out without thinking like that. What was wrong with me.”

Apollinaris placed her hand on my shoulder. “There's nothing wrong with that. From my experience, mothers tend to do the wildest things to help their children.” A sad smile crept on her face.

“Well, enough about that anyway.” She said, sitting up and walking to the tent's entrance. “I need to get out of here and make some room for people who have been really eager to meet you.”

“Wai-“

Before I could finish, she left the tent. Who could want to see me? Suddenly, Rustling came from outside my tent.

“Who’s out the-“

<MOOOOOTHEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRR!>

Suddenly 5 large yellow things dove into my tent.

<MOTHER! WE’VE BEEN WAITING SO LONG. IT'S SO GREAT TO FINALLY MEET YOU.”

<WHO HURT YOU! TELL US AND WE'LL FIND THEM AND KILL THEM.>

<YEAH!>

<TELL US. MOTHER!>

I chuckled and waved for them to come closer. They were instantly on top of me. Trying to get in contact with me as possible.

<Ha ha ha ha, Be gentle, okay? I'm still a bit sore.>

I gently patted their heads. They were the combat units that came out a few days ago. I guess they are fully grown now. I gave them a closer look to see if they came out okay. The combat units shared a lot of similarities with ants; however, one big difference was the size. They were Huge! I wouldn’t say they were as large as the alpha mana beast, but they were a lot bigger than the regular ones. The combat units had a set of dark black jagged mandibles and six black compound eyes. On the top of their head, they had a set of antennae that constantly twitched, Intresting.  

Tentatively I wrapped my hand around the antennae, And suddenly my mind was flooded with mountains of information. It was incredible. I knew exactly where everyone in the hive was and their current status. Whether they were in trouble or needed help, I could tell. So that explains the amazing coordination of my children.

 

Wow! That is a very strong skill. Does that mean I can send orders out without vocalizing them. I closed my eyes and used the [Hive Weave] skill. My head lit up like a Christmas tree with information. I ignored most of the information and sent a command through the weave. Asking for 10 royal flies to come to my tent. I watched as my command flew through the weave taking priority over anything else. I opened my eyes and in front of me were 10 royal flies.

<You called mother.>

<Its fine. I was just testing something. As you were>

Without questioning it. They left the tent.

That will be very, very useful.  I turned my attention back to the combat units, pining for my attention.  I looked further down their bodies towards their thorax, which was made of several dark green armoured plates with 6 thin, pointy, armoured legs sticking out of it.  I looked further down towards the abdomen. Which was several times larger than my head and was a very dark green, almost black colour. At the end of his abdomen was a sharp stinger which I’m guessing could deliver venom just like me.

<You are the most beautiful things I've ever seen!> I brought them in closer for a hug. They all shivered in happiness.

<mother?>

<Yes.>

<When can we go on for our first fight?>

<Yeah! I wanna show mother how strong I am. >

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<Me two.>

I rubbed their heads. That question reminded me of that little one I didn’t answer. I really need to speak to him.

<In a moment. In the meantime. Can you leave the tent. Your mission now is to defend the hive from any possible attackers.>

<Yes! Mother!>

They all gave me a small salute and swiftly left the tent. Then through the weave, I summoned the royal fly from yesterday. In no time. The royal fly in question flew into my room and landed on my nose.

<Mother? You called.>

<Ah yes… A few days ago, you wanted to ask me a question. What was it?>

He shifted slightly on my nose.

<Come on. I won't get mad or anything. I think I already know what you're going to ask me.>

He shifted a bit more before finally speaking. <Mother, why did you stop us from helping you? It doesn’t make sense to me.>

Ah, so it was what I thought. To be honest, he’s right. Stopping them from helping doesn’t make sense but….

<I don’t know….. I guess I just don’t want to see you die. Seeing you die is hard.>

<I don’t mind dying. If it helps mother or stops mother from getting hurt. Then I don’t mind. >

I chuckled <You might not mind, but I do.>

<But if mother gets hurt and dies. We die anyway. We can't  live without our mother.>

Wait, if I die. The hive dies as well?

<If mother were to die…..” he placed his little legs on his hands.

<Who would lead the hive? Who would make more members of the hive? Who will make sure hive lives on for future generations? >

At that moment, it hit me. He’s right. I’m too important to die. If I die, the hive goes with me. There is no one else to replace me. I sighed. I guess in the grand scheme of things. It will always be better for them to die for the sake of my survival.

<Im’ sorry>

<Hmmm? Why is mother sorr->

<Im sorry that I didn’t let you help, sorry that I almost let the hive die. From now on. I won't let that happen.>

<It’s fine, mother is always right! Anything mother wants me to do. I will always follow!>

I chuckled and gave him a pet on the head.

<Good. Now return to me. I need to rest.>

He happily flew off my nose and back inside of men. I slumped straight back onto the pillow. I pulled up my system and was instantly assaulted with several notifications and messages. I ignored them and went straight into the hive management section. It had been a few days, and I had finally regenerated my eggs. If I had to guess, it probably takes me around two days to regenerate back up to 15. Too bad I didn’t have enough resources to specialise them all. I hope Apollinaris got to work on those mushrooms. After that nothing eventful happened. I spent the next couple of hours lying down and experimenting with the hive weave eventually, night arrived.

“Knock knock, any one home?”

“I'm completely bed-bound, Apollinaris. I'm not going anywhere.”

“Sorry, just trying to lighten up the mood.” She said as she peeled the curtain open. She came in holding a steaming bowl of something.

“What is that?”

She briefly looked between. Me and the bowl.

“It's soup. Mushroom soup, to be specific.” She said as she walked closer to me and handed me the bowl with a spoon.

“I did some rummaging through the camp. I figured if this was a bandit camp. There are surely going to be some food and cooking utensils around. Lo and behold, I was right.”

I dunked the spoon into the soup and ate a mouthful. A sweet, nutty aroma filled my mouth. This was amazing.

 

My eyes bulged. I forgot just how good those mushrooms were. I'm going to need more of this.

“Judging from your face. You like it.” She said with a massive grin on her face.

“Yeah! And very good for me. Thank you.”

“Thanks. I put quite a few in there. I figured it might help you heal faster. ”

We sat in the tent and chatted casually as I ate the mushroom soup.

 

 

I put the soup down. And rubbed my stomach with gusto.

“Thanks. That was the first warm meal I've had since I've come here.”

“Really, it wasn’t much, really. My mother could make something way better with fewer stuff if she were here, she would…..”

She stopped mid-sentence. The happiness on her face slowly melting away. I gently raised my hand and rubbed her cheek.

“It's okay. We’ll get those people back. In fact, I plan to start working on that goal very soon.”

She nodded, quickly shook her head, and looked at me with a straight face.

“So, what's the game plan.” She said.

“Well. First things first, this hive needs to grow and fast. And for that, I need to level up and earn more points.”

“Level up?”

“Ahhhh, let me explain”

I briefly gave apollinaris a quick overview of what my system could do and how I plan to use it. For someone very new to this sort of stuff. She caught on quickly.

“Wow, that’s amazing,” Apploinaris said. “It would be pretty useful if I had one. Being able to gain strength on demand like that.”

“Well, I have an idea of how I could give it to you, but I'm still working out the details. How do you feel about completely changing races?”

“……..What?” she said with a confused stare.

“well, one of the abilities I can get is called [conversion process]. It would allow me to convert you into one of my own.”

“Wait you're telling me I would turn into one of those combat things outside Or a fly?” Her face twisted in shock.

“What?! No, Not at all.  I imagine it would be something in between. Look if it works like how I think it does. Then you would have access to a system as I do. Additionally, you would be able to speak with my children. I imagine communicating with them  for the past couple of days has been difficult.”

“It helps that your children are very smart. But having them land on words inside books to make them spell out sentences has been tedious”

“You see. More of a reason to go for it. And even if it fails, you will be stronger than you are now. It’s a win-win. “

She looked at me briefly for a few minutes before sighing. “I don’t know. Can I sleep on it?”

“Of course.”

“thanks. What else do you plan to do.”

“Right. So besides points to expand the hive, I need two more things. I need more children and more women.”

“Women? Wait, You don’t mean you plan to-“

“Yep! We are not discussing it. All you need to know is that the more I have, the faster I can expand. Thinking about it, We will probably need another place to stay as well, So I will need to start scouting out this forest. For a suitable place,

Apollinaris let out a defeated sigh. “Fine. Why are we moving anyway? Isn't this place big enough?”

“It's fine for now. But for the rate I plan to expand, this place is too small to house all of my children.

“Right, I follow you. What else?”

 I also want to find some sort of civilisation. The humans who used to live here mentioned a place called Doonvatel. If it was, I think it is. I want to pay that place a visit.”

“Why?”

“mainly curiosity. And I want access to a library.”

“Library? What could you possibly want with a library?”

“Knowledge is power, my dear. The more I know about this world and its history, the better I can plan for the future. ”

“Wow, you really have this thought out.”

“Not really. I just have set goals in mind. How I'm going to achieve them is a different story.”

“Well, I suppose you're 50 per cent of the way there.”

“Thanks. I'm not sure if I've said this already but thank you. I will repay you for saving my life. Trust me”

Apollinaris smiled, and we continued chatting casually. Soon she left my tent, and I went to sleep.

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