//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: To Be Determined 
// by xXLostChangelingsXx 
//------------------------------//

It's been a week since we left the only home I've ever known. Every few days, us scouts gather around as the Queen gives us just barely enough emotional energy to last just long enough. Peytrol was taken by a sand dragon the fifth day, right before a desert dog ravaged Asillion, leaving behind nothing but orangey-red blood and a few scraps of the poor scout's wings, probably the first to go. There's little time for rest, to soak up the heat the sun piles upon us, but I manage to find time to sunbathe just a bit in between runs. Noling seems to mind, sometimes joining me if their report was dull and unimportant.  On about the seventh or eighth day of dangerous desert travel, we come upon some green things quite unlike the cacti we usually see, even though they're usually more pale and definitely not as soft and yielding as the green I found. 

"It's the edge of the Equestrian borders, Slip. The short stuff you're standing on is grass, and the stuff up there, on the brown stuff? Leaves. Really green ones. With the brown stuff, which is a trunk, the leaves make a tree. Lots of animals live in the branches. Why don't you take the next couple of days to explore, and I'll have Kaerson take over running duties?"

"Y-yes, sir, Gradeen!

Of course, that was a few hours ago, and I'm thoroughly lost in all the towering greenness around me. Out in the desert, at least, you could see for miles in any direction. Here, I'm stuck sitting in a tree, waiting to see if I can spot a fellow changeling. So far, I've only seen small flashes of blue and yellow, some pink, and little things I assume are bugs with really big and really pretty wings. Below, I've seen several brown and gray animals moving around, but I don't dare go down, just in case they think that changeling is a tasty thing to have for dinner.

After a few minutes, I hear a small whirring sound, different from the sound my wings make in flight, but similar. I glance down at myself and realize that my desert coloring stands out very well in this green stuff. That makes me a much easier target, but I can't use illusionary magic in a place I've never been in before. Not even SkyBreak can do that! He needs to be really familiar with the place before he does, and he encourages us to do so, too.

So I close my eyes and hope for the better, that whatever it is that's coming will pass below me and not look up, or go above me and not look down, but I dread the worst, that it passes on the same level as me and decides to eat me up.

"Hey, you look lost, and you're obviously not from around here...."

Opening my eyes, I see a changeling with very different coloring than myself. I stiffen. This is one of Chrysalis's hive, no doubt. He has the exact color pattern that Gradeen told us to watch out for when we started this crazy adventure. "R-right...."

A smirk crosses his fanged mouth. "Midget."

"Hey! I'm just not fully grown yet!"

"They let hatchlings out of the hive alone? What kind of Queen do you have? That's ridiculous!"

I stand and flap my wings, becoming airborne a second before I run out of branch to stalk towards the other changeling on. "Well, at least mine doesn't order to attack Canterlot, lose, and hope to still take over Equestria with a meager force of whatever changelings she has."

"Sliiiiip! There you are!" Gradeen says, careening out of a curtain of leaves and coming to a stop in between me and the other changeling. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd gotten lost out here. Come on, we'd best get back to camp."

"But--"

"Slip."

The sting of authority touches me, and I bow my head a little. "Okay...."

Gradeen makes some excuse to the changeling and leads me away, while I follow dejectedly. I was really looking forward to see if those self-defense classes I'd taken back at the hive had paid off. Or maybe it was just to wipe the smugness, arrogance, and obvious pride from that changeling's emotions. I could have drowned myself in them and still had plenty left to drown the other scouts, maybe a few warriors, too. I mean, what did his Queen do to him to make him so smug???

"Slip. Let it go. He didn't even try to start a fight, it was all you."

"Yeah, but at least my Queen wasn't idiotic enough to show the whole of Equestria that changelings exist. Now it's so much harder for the gatherers, especially the ones in Equestria!" I reply, shaking myself slightly. Gradeen had felt the enmity flowing from me in waves, most likely. That changeling probably did, too, but he hadn't shown a reaction in the slightest.

"Well, Thistlebrush is going to speak with Chrysalis about her actions in the past, but she also has to discuss the future as well. Remember the whole reason we came out here in the first place? We'd heard of some other plan she has for Equestria. Now, just relax and keep an ear out for anything that might be a problem, okay?"

Sighing, I nod. "Fine. But I really don't think I want to see that hive they're living in right now. Can you imagine what it must be like to live somewhere so damp??" I shudder at the thought of having to stave off so much water from invading the hive and the nests.

"Well, this area suited Chrysalis fine, so this is where she decided to make her hive, remember?"

"Of course I remember. All of us remember that story, of how the changeling sisters all hid during the reign of Discord, eventually getting into a row and leaving each other. The two oldest sisters still talk with each other, that's our Queen and Queen Sliver of the Southern Ocean, but Chrysalis eventually became the bitter little sister."

Gradeen is proud to see how well I remembered the tale I was told as a bedtime story as a hatchling. I know better than that now, of course. I've even met Queen Sliver in person. It was amazing, being among the two eldest changelings in the world.... "You've still got your amazing memory, don't you, Slip? You might be slipping and sliding everywhere on the ground, but nothing slips your mind."

"Um, I think that was a complement, so thanks. Now, where did they decide to camp? Outside the green?"

"It's called a forest, and yes, thankfully. We're keeping to the sand, able to blend in more, until tomorrow. Queen Thistlebrush wants to be ready for anything, and anyling, so we're spending the rest of the time until dawn to plan and make guesses. She also doesn't want anyling sneaking off," he adds, glancing at me pointedly as we exit the gre-- no, the forest-- and land on the sand we blend into.

"I promise, I won't. Besides, I know nothing about 'forest' and anything to do with the animals that live in there." My wings flick back to indicate the forest. "The best thing to happen to me would be getting back home in alive, more or less."

Amusement just rolls off of my companion as we walk along, his small talk just making him more amused as he tries to come up with some reason I'd want to be home so soon after my first mission started and so long before it ends. "Oh, maybe there's a special someling you have waiting for you back at the hive? Is it Dew? Maybe Rishelle. Or Crest? Is it because she's expecting?? I wouldn't doubt you doing something like that."

I feel my face start to burn with embarrassment, and I know that the normally light colors of my face are slowly darkening, especially along my cheeks and across the top of my muzzle, close to the base. The blush is probably turning red when I manage to choke out a reply. "I-I- don't have a special someling at home, Gradeen. It's just me."

"Ooo, is it maybe a male? Perhaps it's Haxxon? You two do spend quite a lot of time together, even for the situation you're in. You don't have to admit it if you don't want to, it's perfectly alright for you to like a male, there's nothing wrong with that."

I stop and lay down, my face buried in the sand. The small slits on the back of my neck open up to let me breathe, despite my face being full of sand. Even though the sand has a cooling effect on us, my face still feels like it's been set alight, burning with the red flames of our magic. Gradeen just laughs. He can feel the embarrassment just as much as I can feel his amusement that I haven't said anything. "So it's true, then? I've heard rumors that maybe a couple of your age group have been turning up liking the same gender."

"Shut the buck up, Gradeen."

Still laughing, he pulls my face up out of the sand. "I know you're still just a bit young to start a family or anything, but you and Haxxon make a wonderful couple!" His hoof pokes my cheek. "And it seems you've been fairly heated up by the thought of your coltfriend."

I simply go limp and fall back into the sand. "Gradeeeeeeeen," I whine into the sand. I really can't honestly say that I haven't occasionally had maybe a little bit of feeling toward Haxxon, but only just a little! It's not like he'd like me back or anything!

"Slip's got a coltfriend, Slip's got a coltfriend!" he replies in a singsong voice.

"Hey, Gradeen! What're you teasing him about so much he's got his face in the sand?" Several changelings touch down around us, and I can tell that they're some of the warriors, who fared the desert perils far better than the scouts.

"Oh, just the fact that he won't admit he's got a coltfriend."

The laughter is loud and happy, but I can feel the genuine curiosity seeping from the warriors. They're probably wondering if it's true, or if Gradeen's just being embarrassingly annoying again. "Well, I have to admit that he and Haxxon would be a good couple. They seem like they'd be great coltfriends.

"Yeah, imagine having several more Axens and Haxxons running around, but condensed into maybe two or three little changelings."

"What a nightmare. Remember how many pillars we're always fixing because Axen slips and slides everywhere?"

"Haha, yeah, my back's still aching from that last one he knocked over!"

I just bury my face further into the cool sand. Why do I have to be the youngest and easiest to tease in the whole expedition??