//------------------------------// // CH 45 (a new dawn) // Story: Accepting Change // by drFraud //------------------------------// Patchwork   ‘This is becoming awkward’ I was gently patting Chrysalis’ back, five minutes after she started hugging me. We were sitting on the top of the dome I found her on, her larger frame holding tightly onto me, and it did not look like she would let go anytime soon. I wasn’t even able to move much in the first place, as every time I tried to so much as shift my weight she would just pull me back towards her and start crying again. I stopped trying at this point and just focused on making her feel better. “Do you… umm… need any help?” Silent Drop asked and I felt Chrysalis start shivering again. “It’s okay, it’s okay, she is a friend,” I whispered to the newly freed queen while I indicated to Drop with my claws to come around so I can see her. “Drop, could you find Mantis, Dicty, or someone else?” I mouthed to the thestral while trying not to make too much noise. Drop didn’t question it, immediately launching herself into the air and flying off out of my sight leaving me alone with Chrissy. Shifting my weight one more time to make myself more comfortable, making her squeeze me harder, I used my free left arm to pull her head a little bit lower so I could talk to her ear. “Hey, you take all the time you need,” I whispered to her making her relax for a moment, “But I need to warn you that some lings will be coming in a moment. Okay?” I got a shaky nod as an answer, “I’m sorry, my son.” “You have nothing to be sorry about,” I hugged her harder, “absolutely nothing.” “Thank you.” It didn’t take long for a buzz and flapping of wings to reach us and I could feel Chrysalis start tightening again. A few comforting words got her to relax slightly but that was about it. “Found Ponera and Spectrum,” a whisper to my ear made me jump as I didn’t hear Silent sneak up to me. The two new arrivals entered my field of vision and both of them looked like a miracle was happening before their eyes, mouths wide open and Spectrum’s legs barely carrying him. I guess seeing their queen like this is an eye-opening moment after all the years of portraying herself as an untouchable wrathful goddess. I heard of Ponera a few days ago, but Scurry was usually dealing with her and this was the first time I actually saw the giant changeling. I would like to talk to her later but for now… An angry buzz of my wings got them to shake off their shock and look at me. Before they even could ask any questions I gave them their order. “I need you two to go to the love pool we left the queen in and see if you can find Husk,” I saw Spectrum’s jaw set and Ponera mouth Husk, “if you do find her, use whatever means you can to restrain her and keep her there.” Spectrum nodded his head and flew off while Ponera followed after him reluctantly. I could feel my ears twitching as the… city, I guess, started waking up with shouts of surprise and the occasional buzz of the wings reached us. It was a matter of time until they found us and I wasn’t sure at this point if Chrysalis would be able to deal with it. A deep resigned sigh tickled my left ear and I could feel her trying to relax and letting go of the vice grip she held me in. “You are in desperate need of repair,” I told her as the scraping of her mangled chitin reached my ears. “It will have to wait, I’m afraid,” Chrysalis straightened her back and pulled away from me. “I am fairly certain that my changelings would much rather assail me with questions first,” She obviously did not look forward to it if her voice was any indication. “Well, too bad,” I shook myself of and stood up stretching my stiff legs, “I am their prince and you are their Queen, I’m fairly certain that they will listen if we ask them to be patient.” Before Chrysalis could say anything I turned to our resident thestral, “Silent, would you mind finding the rest of the lead lings, Scurry preferably, and ask them to prepare a cocoon for their queen?” “Are you going to be okay until then?” Drop’s emotions spoke of worry, but I truly doubted anyone would harm me or Chrysalis. “We’ll be fine. I and her will slowly make our way to the headquarters on hoof,” hopefully a bit of exposure for Chrissy and my presence would keep everyone from going insane. Silent’s eyes moved from the queen to me a few times before she shrugged and, with a strong flap of her wings, she blasted off. “Are you certain that that is a good idea, my son?” I frowned slightly at her constant insinuation that I was her son, but I faced her with a smirk. I could see some lings flying a fair bit of distance away and pointing hooves in our direction as they rapidly approached us. “Yeah, we’ll be just fine,” turning around and making a follow me gesture with my claws I made my way down the dome, “if worse come to worst I’ll protect you. But I doubt it. I’m fairly certain that everyone is just curious at this point.” The buzz of her wings was the only indication that she was following me and when she landed on the ground next to me with a hiss of pain I turned my head to look at her. “It will take us a bit of time to get to the dome I’m using, if you get tired of if the pain is too much let me know and I’ll figure something out. Okay?” With a loud gulp and a nod of her head, we were off. There were a few lings around the dome and based on the way they were looking at us I knew that this was the right call. ‘Whoever is in charge of destiny here will probably be pissed off at me,’ I waved happily to a few bewildered lings as we were passing by them (Chrysalis repeating my action made their jaws drop), ‘But I don’t care. This is better than waiting almost fifty years for Thorax.’ … The trip was, astoundingly, a relaxing affair for the first ten minutes, making Chrysalis’s gait more confident with every step we made. It made her incredible love ‘production’ flare up from a trickle to a soothing wave and I made a note to ask her about it after she was healed. We did gather a large following of lings as we made our way to the dome near the castle I have been using for the past seven-ish days. The changelings following us were mainly adults with only the nymphs having the courage to approach us and talk to Chrysalis. The other adults preferred to talk among themselves and follow us at a respectable distance with a small group of guards keeping an eye out for trouble that never came. It became swiftly obvious to the other lings that this ‘new Queen’ genuinely cared about her people and especially the young ones and it also became obvious to me that I would develop a headache by the end of the day. As her confidence grew Chrysalis went from a worried and shy ling to an ADHD, crack-fuelled maniac, turning our gentle walk into something akin to an infuriating game of tag where I had to catch the crazy Queen as her rapid change of behavior and manic movement was scaring everyone more than Husk did in years. Every injured ling had to be either hugged or assured; every single nymph was either tickled or chased down and smooched; every show of fear or resentment made her start crying or profusely apologizing and on and on it went. I was both worried and laughing my ass off at her manic behavior but I hardly had it in me to actually stop her. She deserved to let loose like this. What was supposed to be a thirty-minute walk turned into two hours of a rollercoaster of emotions for everyone including myself. Still, even after two hours of frantic ‘exploration’ Chrysalis barely slowed down and even though I was developing a decent headache I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. My initial impression of Chrysalis when I saw her in the astral plane was that she was quick to action but very loving and full of life, a stark contrast from what I was told Husk’s behavior was. I was worried, scared even, that after centuries of being led by Husk’s horrid existence the other lings wouldn’t be able to accept such a queen in the first place. They were hardly unruly with me, but it was obvious that they didn’t exactly believe in the little changes I made over the week. However. Chrysalis became finally tired after two and a half hours of running around and as I watched her leaning on large pillow someone brought out for her, and reminiscing out loud about the times before Husk, it became clearly visible that she will have her lings wrapped around her hoof. She was surrounded on all sides by changelings of various ages (the nymphs being the closest, almost laying on top of her) all enraptured by her and her stories and questions flying all over the place. She didn’t shy away or appear to be frantic anymore (her emotions seem to have finally settled) and a large toothy smile didn’t waver not even for a second. There were a few dissidents, of course there were, but they either had a look of deep disbelief or left the gathering with a huff and a grumble. I spent the entire time walking around and asking the enraptured lings about those that left and very soon I had a list of about a hundred lings that were not pleased with the change in their queen. The other ‘leaders’ along with Silent found me at some point as well and I gave them all something to do while I slipped away and took my time walking over to talk to Velvet. Dicty was asked to keep an eye on security, Mantis continued with my list of unhappy lings, and Keratin was tasked with being a loyal huggle-bug. Apparently, Chrysalis found him adorable and nabbed him in a hug the moment she saw him. He protested, of course, but I didn’t stay long to hear how she ‘bought’ his loyalty. … The news of their queen spread like wildfire and I shook my head or chuckled every time I saw lings either run past me or fly over me. A few of them did stop to ask me some questions only to run towards Chrysalis the moment I told them she was awake. Silent Drop followed me the whole time, expertly keeping to the shadows and only stepping out when lings approached me. It took me almost half an hour to reach the dome I left Velvet in and by then midday has passed and the streets were desolate. I could have talked to Drop during the trip to get an update on what had happened while I was napping but I chose to keep to myself. I had plenty on my mind as it is, and the long walk allowed me to sort it all out somewhat. Chrysalis being able to feed the changelings by herself certainly made things significantly easier if she could do it on a regular basis. It also brought to question my ability to produce emotions as a changeling. Her ability to do so was certainly far superior to mine and it made me silently despair at how much Husk has ruined this society over the centuries. I could only guess how far the changelings could have come if the possession never happened. Chrysalis being able to feed everyone on her own also meant good things for almost a thousand captured people of various races that have been kept in ‘storage’ in numerous tunnels under the castle. She sheer scope of the changeling love ‘production’ made me sick to my stomach the first time I heard about it, and my teeth still grit in frustration when I thought of it. Now though, there is a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel, for everyone. There is still quite a bit of work to be done, but at least now I could deal with a few personal things. ‘First to deal with Velvet, then finally an actual shower… or a bath.’