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// Young Subjects 
// Story: The Naming of the Queen 
// by LeapingEquine 
//------------------------------//

  The Queen blinked, and stared at her surroundings.
It was all so...strange.
A huge cavern was spread out before her. It's occupants were busy. Busy at play.
The place was crammed to the capacity with young changelings. 
Thousands of hatchlings ran amok. The younger ones called out to each other in egg-speak, an odd, insect-like language made of clicks and chirps. They laughed, cried, loved, and hated. They swarmed up the stalagmites and flew in circles around the stalactites.
The older ones buzzed around in groups, mindful of their "elder" status. They were only a few years younger than the Queen, living out the last of their youth before they were Judged and made to work, to become Scouts and Guardians and Breeders and all the other numerous types of workers the Hive needed.
The Queen was looking at the next generation.
This was the place they came from, they place they were sent to after they were pulled out of a Breeder's warm embrace.
They were so...noisy.
Don't they have a Regent to tell them to hush? What are they doing!? They are too small! Too loud!  
A few Caretakers patrolled the Nursery, specially trained to take care of its inhabitants. They Gave to the unruly hatchlings, not only to simply feed them, but also to quiet them.
What seemed utter chaos to the Queen was relative peace and quiet to the Caretakers.
The Queen's feeling of power was diminished when she saw them in their full glory, an endless sea of changelings. She was simply one of them.
Nonsense!
Queen is Queen! Queen of changelings, defeater of the Burning One. They call me Beloved Queen. Scouts and Guardians and Breeders and H-Guardian. Even Regent calls me Queen.
Regent says Queen has subjects.
These things are Queen's.
My subjects. 

She launched herself into the fray, and knocked down one of the hatchlings.
"Watch it, larvae-brain!" 
"Queen does not have larvae in head! Queen say subject should not give her thing-that-burns! "
"Look!" shouted the hatchling to her companions, " An oozy-brain!"
Almost immediately a group formed around the Queen, pushing and shoving to get a ringside view, to make sure they saw the full extent of an oozy-brain's oddness.
Imperfections were strange.
"Does she talk?" 
"Does she drool on herself?"
"Is she crying?"
"Are her wings torn?"
"Does she have a leg missing?"
"Bet she has two heads!"
"Ewwwww!"
"She might!"
"Apparently, she talks, but really funny.", said the hatchling the Queen had bumped into.
"Queen does not "talk funny"! Queen does not have two heads! Queen is Queen! Regent says so too!"
"What's she babbling about?"
"No idea!"
"Queen is talking about Queen! That's what Queen is talking about, you...you slime scum!"
A silence fell upon the hatchlings. It could almost be seen, a throbbing stillness in the air.
It lasted only seconds.
"I think I know what's wrong with her!" piped up one of them.
"What?" asked one of the eldest.
"She thinks she's the Queen!"
The group tittered. Their childish laughter seemed pure and innocent, but it scalded the Queen's very soul, and she shrank against a stalagmite. 
As their laughter reached a crescendo, the sound of chuckles, and full, deep, slime-snorting belly laughs became unbearable.
Queen is Queen. Of course! Regent says so...and scouts... all changelings. Queen is Queen. Possibly. Maybe. 

The young ones descended into silence again.
"Hey," another almost-fully-mature changeling asked, " If she thinks she's Queen, shouldn't we all give her a royal welcome? You know, pay our dues to our glorious monarch?"
Yes! thought the Queen. Exactly! Big words- big words- more big words!  
The words sounded perfect, just like the speeches Regent gave.
But... doesn't sound like Regent.  
There was something in those words the Queen could not identify. Airy and light, it somehow bordered on cruel. It felt like a joke she could not understand.
"Yeah!"
"We should!"
"It's the only way to treat royalty!"
"First, we should throw the ceremonial ground larvae sack dust into the air, to signify how our most glorious Queen gives our Hive life."
" I don't think we have ceremonial ground larvae sack dust."
"No, we don't seem to, do we? We'll just have to throw something else."
A hoof-full of dust was suddenly thrown at the Queen's face, filthying her coat, and choking her. She coughed and hacked up slime, trying to get the stuff out of her.
"Next we have to robe her in fine cloth. Usually changeling-silk's used."
An old, dried up piece of hatchling-slime was roughly draped around her, with a crinkling noise.
Dirty...dirty! Filthy! Icky! Get it off Queen!
"Is any of this real?"
"No. Haven't you ever heard of making stuff up?.
"But it sounds fancy!"
"And so does our Queen's ramblings."
"Finally, we've got to sing her illustrious praises!"
"One...two...three... all together now!"
Their voices burst into a clumsy, make-shift song.
"Oh our glorious, oozy-brain Queen, there's no changeling as fine as she! With larvae for brains, which give her strange pains, she's our leader for eternityyyy!"  

They broke off, and dissipated into hysterical giggles.
For the Queen, the song was the very last straw. The whole thing had been a nightmarish experience, but to see herself named and shamed in poorly-rhyming verse was just too much.
Regent says not only Queens like Burning Queen can betray. Subjects can betray too. Regent say betrayal must be dealt with.              
   
The magic once again flowed from somewhere deep inside of her, filling her limbs with fire.
But this time, her mind was full of ice. Cold, sharp, clean ice, allowing her to see every detail with crystal-clear intensity. The energy wasn't overpowering her. No, quite the opposite.
She was channeling it, gathering it for one perfect attack.
The Burning Queen was a Queen. Betrayal among Queens was strategic, and the emotion born of it, the humiliation, the pain, was only the shame of oversight.
But this, what her subjects had done to her, was personal. Deeply, deeply personal. She had been ignored, taunted, mocked.
And for that, they would pay.
They will go same way as Burning Queen.
It was already happening, the air was full of blue mist... no, it had changed to green, her green, her eyes, and she could see the hatchling's faces; puzzled and confused.
And then the green touched them, only lightly, lovingly brushed them, and they understood.
And they screamed.
It would have been the last noise they ever made if a small group of Guards hadn't burst into the Nursery, their stampede breaking the magic, shattering it into fragile emerald wisps that clung to the air, then finding nothing to cling to, drifted away like smoke.
A few gazed at the terrified hatchlings in confusion, wondering what had happened, before linking the green to the Queen's still-glowing horn.
Most, however, had no intention to be distracted from their task.
Head Guardian had been racing across the Hive for the last hour, trying to find the Queen. At the moment he wouldn't have cared if she'd sprouted moss on her coat.
His task was over.
Regent's however, had hardly begun.
The moment he stepped out of the group, the Queen knew she was in trouble. Particularly painful trouble.
As expected, he gave her the thing-that-burned almost the moment he saw her. 
Then unexpectedly, he turned away.
Head Guardian explained.
"The Healers have finally decided to give you your Proving, Queen. We're proceeding to Tunnel Five Hundred Ten."
The Queen knew what a Proving was, of course.
The first thing every Queen knew was that she was not truly Queen. Not until a Proving, that is.
The Healers in their dark caverns spent years trying to figure out when to finally give a new Queen the dangerous task that would give her the full rights to the throne.
A Proved Queen would be able to cast all Regents and advisers aside. She would have true, indisputable power, the power to punish and reward, the power to rule.
And she would finally receive her name.