//------------------------------// // 2- Tantalus // Story: Changing Expectations // by KKSlider //------------------------------// ‘W-what? Who’s there?’ The voice did not speak again. ‘Hello? Are you the… queen? And am I a prince?’ As I wondered this, I noticed myself in the reflection of the queen’s massive eyes. My head was black for the most part, though it turned into the white that the lower parts of my body were, starting at the ears. Speaking of ears, they were near the top of my head, and extended outward. My eyes were the same as the queen herself, only I had faded orange slitted irises, rather than the villain green.  Strange, I took after her rather than the other two similar creatures, the Changelings. That was probably important, I noted absently. ‘Wait, changelings? How did I know that?’ ”Grow strong, my larva. For you will bring me the future,” continued the voice. ‘It must be the queen speaking, but she cannot hear me.’ The queen opened her mouth, giving me a nice view into her elongated muzzle, filled with teeth and fangs. Pink wisps of fog started to emanate from the back of her throat, drifting lazily outwards. Almost immediately, whispering started to drown out the dull skittering and clicked that filled the back of my mind. “With you by my side-” “- very best-” “- You shouldn’t have-” “-say you and I go-” There was something else. Some thing beyond anything I had ever experienced. It was good, but I could not place how it was good. Did I taste it, like a shark tastes blood in the water? Could I smell it like a bloodhound smells a steak? I didn’t know how, but I wanted it. I needed it! My mouth opened and I drew in gasping breaths, my tongue rolling out and trying to grasp at the ethereal tendrils of love. The pink mist flew into my mouth and I instantly tasted the most divine thing that I could possibly imagine. This ambrosia and nectar filled every inch of my being with warmth and filled my stomach to the brim. My mind… Clouded. So good. Wanted…. More love. The queen broke eye contact and I felt myself being moved again, this time to the queen’s back. I could hardly care, I was already starting to slip into what I assumed was the best food coma I had ever experienced. I barely noticed that the whispers had vanished, leaving me alone with the skittering and chirping again. I hiccuped. As I curled up on the green shell that housed the queen’s now retracted wings, I stared out with half-closed eyes at the small eggs, which had now begun to crack and break open. Smaller versions of myself, though with the blue eyes of the, what I could only guess to be, drones poked their fat heads out. They too started to hiss and flail, only at each other rather than their new existence. Or maybe they did, I wasn’t in a state to care. ‘I have no idea what’s going on,’ I remarked with a quiet giggle that came out as muted hisses. ‘Nap time, I think.’ As sleep took me, I noticed– and then immediately discarded– the fact that the small hatchlings were now crawling towards me, or rather, the queen. Psocid rose after Queen Chrysalis past her, then moved to stand beside Lethocerus. They shared a glance before returning their attention to the royalty in the room. They were silent until their queen started to feed Prince Phasma. “Her Majesty must care for the larva’s condition no small amount if she is feeding him undiluted love, from her own personal store no less,” Lethocerus whispered. Psocid’s muzzle scrunched up as she thought, “Makes sense. When was the last time she laid a prince or princess?” Lethocerus was silent for a moment. “... Not anytime within the unsealed nursery records.” The eggs around the queen started to crack and break as the rest of the brood entered the world. “More than an entire century?” Psodic asked, and Lethocerus nodded.  The larva was now starting to swarm over Queen Chrysalis, a few fighting over the best spots. This generation seemed to favor the holes of Chrysalis’s back legs, closer to Prince Phasma. Soon enough the larva’s collective hissing died down as they curled up on the queen, and a silence once again took the chamber. Psocid counted the intact eggs scattered about. Comparing her count to the figures available through the Weave, Psocid commented quietly, though loudly enough for Chrysalis to hear, “Four out of fifty one eggs. That is the most successful clutch we’ve had in decades. In the entirety of the records, in fact.” Queen Chrysalis looked over to the two broodnurses, who immediately straightened up, before glaring at the Prince’s egg. “As expected. Even as larva, the new drones feel the pull of Prince Phasma on the Weave.” “His voice is quiet, My Queen,” Lethocerus remarks. “He is as silent as the rest of the larva.” Chrysalis sneers, “simple minded dolt! Do you think I have forgotten basic changeling biology?” She questions with a hiss. “He does not speak words, but his mere presence is felt. And this nursery better be cleared out by the hour, Broodnurse Lethocerus, or you’ll be going into the recycling vat as well!” “At once, My Queen!” Lethocerus ducks and says. A bit too loudly it would seem, as several larva rustle, earning another glare from the queen. Psocid helped clear out the egg shells and the diluted love-infused albumen fluids off of the ground. The two changelings worked deathly quiet, the slightest noise earning yet another signature glare from their queen. It was quite the trip from the nursery to the recycling vats, but the broodnurses worked quickly with practiced expertise. The Hatching. The day when the broodnurses welcomed the young into the world, and the day when the nurses squirmed under Queen Chrysalis’s scrutiny.  Psocid remarked that she had no idea whether she looked forward to Hatchings or whether she dreaded them. As I woke from my dream of medieval France ruled by giant moths, it became immediately apparent that I was not, in fact, still on top of the queen. I was laying on the ground, covered in warm things. Opening my eyes, I saw that once again I was in the circular cavern. The light green light flowing in from the ceiling hadn’t changed in the slightest. These changelings really need a new interior designer. The warmth was not from my blankets, and the hard floor was definitely not my bed. Whatever this strange new existence was, it was here to stay. I really was still a changeling, and now I was covered in smaller changeling larva; they seemed to have piled around me. The chirping in my mind had quieted even more, I had to focus to listen to it. ‘Well, this is not going away, I need to take stock of what I know. I am a changeling larva. I feed on love.’ How did I know these two things? ‘The voice that spoke to me without words, it was as if it was projecting straight into my mind.’ Maybe it did. Maybe the queen was communicating telepathically. Anything was possible at this point. ‘The changeling queen, it called me Prince Phasma.’ That must be my new name. And since I was a prince and she was a queen…. ‘She… is my mother.’ The matching traits supported this; no other changeling had the eyes we did. All these drones have blue eyes with a clouded iris, meanwhile the queen– my mother– and I had slitted irises, like a cat. I was also comparatively massive, surrounded by these smaller changelings.  That all suggests she laid my egg herself, and no other egg. ‘My last memory, I was being robbed. There was an intense heat…. I must not...have...’ I had died. I had died and was reborn into the body of a royal insect horse. ‘Fuck.’