Chrysology

by Bad

Chapter 2

“...”

It’s been at least half a day.

She didn’t want to admit it, but the wait was wearing her. Plus, the darkness did nothing to help her sullening mood. She could not see anything beyond a hoof from her face. That was irritating, given the uneven floor, because she could trip over easily. Her leg was still hurting from trying to walk around.

She wondered where the light had come from anyways. The throne room had no magic lamps, she was sure of that; she had worked here last month. It was strange, she never missed that kind of details.

She gazed upwards and found the tiny spot of light that denied complete darkness. Despite she could not discern its shape, it was an unmistakable object; it was as if the light wasn’t there until now.

Had she missed anything else?

Turning around, she saw light seep from a horizontal aperture, albeit faintly. That was one more thing she could not remember seeing before. She had to move closer to make sure it wasn’t her eyes deceiving her. It had to be an exit, but the only one access to the throne room was supposed to be at other side.

She hesitated, but finally yielded to to curiosity. She tentatively pushed the surface above the opening. It moved; it was a door.

She opened the right side of the door enough to take a glimpse of the other side. It looked like a normal corridor, perhaps a bit too narrow and low. It wasn’t the pompous hallway that lead to the throne, but it hadn’t any otherworldly attribute besides its size.

Time passed as she pondered. Should she go through the door?

Convinced that waiting would not lead her to anything, she decided to proceed. Closing her eyes in an attempt to reduce her fears, she ran ahead. Unfortunately, she forgot the size and orientation of the corridor and consequently she hit the opposite wall of the corridor with her horn and face.

“Unsurprising,” she said, amused by the sound of her own voice amidst the silence. Forgetting her sprained joint, she yelped in pain shortly after moving her rear legs.

There was a barely audible squeak, just next to her. It was enough to terrify her, even if the sound wasn’t of the menacing kind.

Opening her eyes she saw an abnormally small changeling keeping a shallow distance from her. Its proportions were right, it was only that he seemed way too small, in likeness of the whole place. His eyes—which she found fixed on her—were at most at one third of her height and depicted a deep violet, instead of the usual blue.

She tried to communicate with him as usual, but found again the blockade Chrysalis had imposed around her. She would need to try another means.

“Greetings,” she said. “I’ve been to many places in the hive, but I do not seem to know this area. Could I ask for your help?”

There was no response.

“Could I know the reason of your stare at least?” she asked. Despite sense, the changeling’s eyes remained on her and his mouth didn’t dare to emit sound.

Mildly annoyed, she started to get back on her hooves, to which the changeling responded by slowly backing up.

“Can you hear me?” she said, her tone louder. The response she got was the said changeling bolting as if chased by some monster.

“Thanks anyways.”

Ananke stood there a good deal of time, trying to comprehend what was happening. Was she supposed to be here? Waiting some more hours in the previous room sounded more reasonable now. Here, she could only feel foreign.

Despite the similarities, this certainly wasn’t her hive, it didn’t feel like it. It had to be. The place she called home had a strong scent of belonging and strife. This place felt less piquant, in a manner of speaking, almost bland. She could probably tell-

“Thus… under conditions… you know what… want may be…”

Her thoughts were interrupted. She was sure she had overheard someone. She waited silently.

“But… we ever.... it’s needed…”

The voice was different this time, but came from the same place as the previous. She considered the possibility to get more information.

The dangers of exploring this place was outweighing her curiosity at the moment.

She suspected hives were hostile towards each other. The little changeling might have ran away because the size difference. With advantage in numbers, she unsure of that fact. Looking behind her, she found that the door she came from had vanished.

Confused, she probed the walls with her hooves. Completely solid. And idea came to be. She inspected the area in the search of suspicious apertures, cracks. She found none.

There were two possibilities, she considered dramatically. One, the throne room was enchanted so trespassers would be lost in a always changing labyrinth. She might have found one of those poor souls—she had heard that some changelings literally shrunk under food deprivation—who probably fled in the fear of being cannibalized.

Two, she was in a magically induced dream, probably under the control of someone who wanted to extract information from her.

Ananke was sure she didn’t know much, though.

She found her ease knowing it was likely she was dreaming. She had probably dozed off at one point while waiting for the Queen’s instructions.

She had almost forgotten. She wasn’t supposed to take a nap! A reprimand was surely on its way for her fault. She needed to wake up. The problem was she had no idea how to do so; she had never dreamed under circumstances like this.

She had only heard tales. The protagonist would endure deviously machined nightmares, created with the purpose of destroying the soul, to which the character would suffer. In the end, though, it was said about whom prevailed, that they had found something more valuable than life.

Those were works of fiction. But that didn’t remove their inspirational value.

She was convinced now. She might be admonished many times in her life, but how many times one has a lucid dream? As the Queen had said: “I can allow myself to have some mildly useful fun.”

She headed towards the voices without doubt. She didn’t need to pretend to know anymore.

Comments

[Luyten]

This is a very intriguing story you have here.

And I cannot wait for the next update!

Cheers

[nioniosbbbb]

The strangeness continues. Where does this lead? Hmmmm