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// First of the Still 
// Story: Faux Mort: The Queen of the Still Hive 
// by Lightning Flicker 
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When a changeling thinks of their hive, usually one would be filled with a warmth that radiated from their deepest reaches.  It's their home, their family, it's what they work to improve and where they belong.

I had no such sense in this newly dug 'hive'.  It had been an excruciating process, digging down into what I had not been prepared to do for as long as I would have liked.  Usually, when a Queen Changeling leaves its home hive to create a new hive for itself, they are allowed some drones to make the initial cutting in of the hive into the earth, and these drones would continue on to help with as much of the set up of the hive before they would get too old to be 'useful' to the hive and thus, new workers would have been birthed, taught how to dig, and so on.   Chrysalis had not granted me this boon, but perhaps I was also panicking in my attempt to flee my dark influenced sister.

Whatever the case, the initial diggings of my hive had left me...less than pleased. I had managed to get deep enough, but what chambers I'd managed came across as slap shod, definitely rough.  I had merely had to shake my head, it was not going to help me now, and at the very least it was...workable.  When I had finally managed to lay a few eggs, I had felt relief.  I didn't lay many...perhaps a dozen.  It was a start, and I worried for how it would come along.  I would have to teach them how to dig, would need to get them connected to myself so that we would have an infant Hive Mind that could eventually grow as more members were brought into it.  It was an exciting, and daunting, prospect to take into consideration.

My first hints that something was amiss was that, the eggs didn't feel...right.  They felt alive, yes, but missing...something.  It was like looking at a house, but the inside was empty.  I had brushed it off as simply needing the grubs inside, my children, to grow before they would hatch.  I watched them, fed the eggs from my own reserves of Love.    This, again, was a reason for my small hive.  I certainly didn't have the ability to keep feeding my grubs Love.  It would as surely starve me as it would help them.  Of course, this had also had me thinking on if I should lay a 'Successor' egg.  A changeling princess would not go amiss, however I did not have what would be needed for that.  And for now, I figured that it was for the best to aim for menial labor tasks and guard drones.  Infiltrators were another thought, but this also troubled me.  Infiltrators were needed for the gathering of love, but they would need to be larger, older before they could gather love enough to supply this small hive.  I wouldn't risk it...I would need to be my own infiltrator for a time.  Gather love in small trips and try to keep my hive going in that way.  Infiltrators would need to come later.

The next day was spent watching the rapidly growing eggs between going out to quickly forage and gather what emotions that I could from the wildlife nearby.  Having a forest nearby had been a welcome boon, squirrels, rabbits and other small creatures provided emotions, even if it was not much, before being used for actual food.  I gave them swift deaths, wished their souls a quick departure, and ate.  It was...a bit strange, at first, confirming that I could, actually see the spirits of my departed prey.  It had not been a thing that was normal in Mother's hive, perhaps it was the way that I was branching out with my hive...or perhaps due to my possible brush with death at the hooves of my sister.  I decided to not think on this overlong.  It was much too depressing, and depression would lead to a quick death of my beginning hive.

This being said, when I realized that I could see the souls of those around me, how bright everything was aside from those who were not long for this world, I had to scramble back for my eggs.  The scenery passed by me quickly, and as my breath burned in my throat, I could only hope that it was a late coming ability.  Something that had only just come out once I had run out for the meal that I needed for myself and my future children.  I slipped into the darkness with hardly a rustling of the concealing greenery of the hive's entrance, and I made my way towards the faintly glowing room.  I felt my legs feel like jelly, my breathing couldn't come fast enough.  As I stepped into the nursery, my eggs awaited me.

My slowly growing, soulless eggs.  I lowered myself down, I tried to squint, I begged silently to the first Queen that it wasn't true.  I prayed to Order.  I prayed to whatever deity would listen that my eggs were not dead.  That I wouldn't be alone, that my hive mind, prepped and waiting for the voices of all of my children, would not remain with me as the sole occupant.  It was that feeling of having a stone crushing upon my chest, making it hard for me to breath and choking the life out of me.

At some point, I believe that I cursed Chrysalis' name, I screamed and cried, but never did I break the eggs.  I didn't...couldn't just smash them, not now.  I gathered them, all of them, as close to myself as I could, and then I settled out beside them.  I was tired, my throat was dry but I couldn't bring myself to leave the eggs for a drink of water.  Perhaps I would just...stay with them for now.  Sleep seemed like a good idea, and I suddenly found myself singing quietly, tears streaming down my face as I held them.

"Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head...hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to bed..."