Everything was silent around him. The world nothing but a thick inky blackness, an empty void free of even a speck of dust. Gradually his consciousness began to return, slowly knitting itself together like a healing wound.
The first thing he noticed was how he felt. It was... warm. Like the warmth you might feel under a soft blanket. No, it was more like a warm bath, if the bath was made out of something with the thickness of honey. He tried to open his eyes but they didn't respond. Next he tried to reach out, hoping to feel around and maybe understand his surroundings better, but the limbs also ignored him. He had the same disconcerting outcome when he tried to move his legs. Panic set in and he tried to call out for help. That panic increased when his mouth didn't open. He was trapped. Blinded, muted, restrained and confused.
Time passed and he remained suspended in empty darkness, trying to think, to remember how he got here, who he was. Images slipped past in his mind, always just beyond comprehension. Memories of blank faced creatures with names he couldn't remember, flowed past him like leaves in a stream. Stories and events jumbled together and flittered around as if they were nothing but pieces of paper scattered in the wind. Words, letters and numbers... things he knew he should be able to remember stayed just beyond his understanding. It was both disorienting and terrifying.
He wasn’t sure when it started but gradually he could sense something new, a calming feeling, something telling him he was safe, that he was cared for. Then he started hearing the voices. They sounded distorted, like if your body was submerged in a pool and somebody was trying to talk to you. In hopes he could understand them better he tried to reorient himself to face the direction of the voices. However the distortion was too heavy and the voices remained muffled. Over time the voices would leave and return always bringing with them that calming feeling.
Eventually he could detect periods of light and shadows. He realized he could see again but only a pale milky green that varied in translucency. Periodically shadows would eclipse the light and with it the voices would return along with the feeling of calm.
This series of events continued over and over again through an ambiguous amount of time and as it did the strange green milky world around him felt like it was growing smaller. Worried he might be crushed by the shrinking enclosure, he started to thrash about, twisting his body every which way. The act took a lot of energy out of him but he continued until eventually he felt something at the center of his forehead break through the barrier. He twisted his head forward causing pieces of a shell to crack and give away. A viscus slimy liquid cling to his body as he pushed himself free of his confined space and covered his eyes, leaving his vision impaired. He tried to call out for help but only ended up coughing up some of the muck that coated the inside of his mouth and throat.
While he laid halfway out of his strange gooey prison, panting and gasping for breath, a new sound caused his ears to twitch. A clip clop sound was getting closer and soon a shadow blocked out the light and the calming feeling returned. He felt himself lift into the air without anything touching him and he writhed about in confusion. Something warm and wet ran over his face, cleaning off the slime, causing him to squirm about and clench his eyes shut until it stopped. He tried to open his now uncovered eyes, but the light stung and he had to squint until his vision could focus.
At first what he saw looked like two large blue orbs floating in a sea of blackness. Then he started to make out features. Not orbs but big solid blue eyes. A muzzle with two nostrils at the end and a mouth that was curled up in a small smile with two white fangs that poked out in the front. The sea of blackness he first saw was this creatures' skin, no, its' shell. It had two split ears that stood straight up and flickered or turned in direction occasionally. At the center of its forehead sprouted a single horn that curved slightly up and glowed with a gentle green aura. Its body was quadrupedal, like a strange equine, standing on four hooved legs that looked riddled with holes.
He started to shiver nervously, floating helpless in front of the bizarre creature that was many times his size. Looking back into its eyes he noticed a reflection in them, the reflection of another odd creature. A smaller one that also had a pair of large blue eyes, a little muzzle with two fangs in the front and a horn at the center of its forehead. That was where the similarity ended though. Instead of being equine like in body, it was more of a large grub. Squishy looking, mostly white in color, specked with small black spots. Below its head, sticking out of its body, were two little black nubby legs that currently just dangled down.
Heart racing in his chest, he slowly lifted his arm, and watched in horror as the little creature in the reflection mimicked him. Swallowing hard he looked down, down at two little black legs and a larva like body. His body.
Just as he was about freak out he felt himself moving again through the air. He looked up at the large bug horse, who was turning around with him to face yet another of its kind. They all stood, him floating, in a large stone cavern. The floor was littered with patches of a plush olive green moss and a luminescent lichen grew along the walls and ceiling, gently giving off an aquamarine color that lit the room. Also scattered about the room where about a dozen large pale green eggs. Some sitting alone and others in small pairs or in groups of three.
The creature said something, its voice feminine and strangely motherly. If he could have understood her, he would have heard her say. "Send word to the queen. Tell her the first of her new brood has hatched."