Chapter 75 Lyn’s Story part 3
Lyn flew through the forest like lightning, her wings beating as fast as they possibly could. Her rage and adrenaline kept her pushing ever forward, beyond what she would normally be capable of.
She looked for signs of the nearby beehive. And follow any clues that she could find to go deeper into enemy territory. She searched for hours, getting frustrated by how long it was taking her to find one measly hive.
Just when her frustration was about to boil over, she noticed a worker bee out of the corner of her eye. Pausing in thought, she then immediately hid, knowing that if she were to make a scene now, she may never find the hive anytime soon.
She then followed the worker as silently as she could, back to its hive, letting her anger simmer just under the skin, ready to unleash it at a moment's notice. Once the bee entered, she waited in case any other bees came by.
And so she waited, and waited, and waited some more. To the point that even though her anger, she was beginning to get confused as to how a hive had so few patrols and workers around. Then remembering the battlefield, it came to her that the beehive she was stalking, probably wasn’t doing as well as she first thought.
In her head, the ones that killed her Mother and so many of her sisters had to be overwhelmingly powerful for them to deal such a blow to her old hive. But it very well could be that that was true before, but not so much now.
Extending her senses, she found that the hive before her had about a little over a hundred bees. Which felt absurd, for a beehive to have that few bees, not even her zapper colony could do that. She knew her colony would have given a good showing of itself, and if at peak condition probably wouldn’t have lost to a beehive.
But normally a zapper colony consisted of only a few hundred to a few thousand zappers. A beehive thought, usually numbered a few thousand to a few tens of thousands. So to see a beehive in this state, meaning that they either focused on producing and maintaining insect-kin. Or they were in very dire straits.
She recalled that on the battlefield, the corpses on both sides were too young to be normally sent to the war unless they were scraping the bottom of the barrel. Which made her more easily believe that the colony before her was doing very badly, perhaps so badly they would not be able to recover, considering how few bees there were left.
But even if they were greatly weakened and there were far fewer than she was expecting, it still was probably more than enough to kill her if they dog-piled on her all at once. So she had to think, how was she going to get inside and deal with the queen? From what she remembered from her sister, Mother lost her life taking down a greater insect-kin. Which meant that the queen must be a greater insect-kin herself at the least.
And she was just a lesser insect-kin, but even so, she was also a lesser chimera and a lesser storm fairy, which meant she was far stronger than a normal insect-kin. But would that be enough?
“What was it that Ren used to say, about being a good ruler? Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer? The best way to destroy an enemy is to make her your friend?” Lyn thought as an idea came to her.
“My old hive may be close to being destroyed, but by the looks of this one it's not faring much better… and I am a storm fairy…” as the wheels in her head continued. “I could probably walk right in, acting all self-important… they will have no choice but to treat with me, after all, a storm fairy is paying them a visit… I’m like a noble, or a celebrity, a rarity, and who knows who could be backing me.” Then her eyes widened.
“Master is backing me… he is the greatest thing to ever live… and I was planning to make a few friends and allies while I was here while I preach the greatness that is my master. So I might start with this hive…” as the evil thought took her mind. “I’ll wrap them around my finger and coerce them to serve me, and then they will serve my sisters. That should fix everything up!”
With that plane in mind, Lyn flew towards the hive, waltzing in like she owned the place. Quickly switching her clothing using her soul realm into something more dignified. And bringing out her spear that was gifted to her by her master. While not the best looking, it was at least something to show she meant business.
She was a bit surprised to so easily just walk in, but remembered that this hive was hardly doing better than her own one. But at least they noticed her eventually, and when they did she pointed to the nearest one and shouted at the poor soul.
“HOW DARE YOU ALL KEEP ME WAITING! IS THIS HOW YOU TREAT AN IMPORTANT GUEST! Why I have half a mind to do away with all of you right now! Does no one here know how to treat a fairy? Let alone a storm fairy!? Where is your queen? I demand answers for this affront!” Lyn demanded with great pomp and arrogance.
The surrounding bees, who were just suddenly realizing that there was a stranger amongst them. Did the closest thing that a bug could do to covering their ears when Lyn started to shout. Now more confused than ever, they were at a loss as to what to do next. Especially the one that Lyn was pointing at and seemed to be the focus of her ire. She was just back from a long day of collecting pollen, and now a crazy fairy barged into the hive and was yelling.
“Well! If no one’s going to answer, then I will just have to go to her myself! And when I do, I hope you're prepared for the consequences of your actions in starting another war!” Lyn said, stomping her way towards what she suspected was the throne room.
That seemed to snap them out of it, and their first instinct was to drive the invader out of the hive. But, since they were not like most beehives, they after all had an insect-kin ruler, which passively made them all a little smarter than the average bee. They were frozen with indecision because they knew that if they accidentally started another war that would be the end of them.
Unfortunately, they did not have time to figure out what to do next, for Lyn was making her way ever closer to the throne room. Causing the hive to go into a panic, thankfully, one of the bees seemed to have the forethought of rushing towards the throne room ahead of Lyn so as to warn her queen of the uninvited guest.
So when Lyn finally entered the throne room, followed by a few dozen worried bees, she found an utterly confused greater insect-kin queen sitting on her throne trying to make sense of what was going on, alongside her aid, another greater insect-kin. The queen and the aid looked like what any other typical bee insect-kin would look like, bipedal like her, with wings on their backs. But instead of black and blue, they had yellow and black with white floof.
“What the hell is going on!” the aid yelled, as Lyn entered the room.
Lyn then puffed herself up and looked at the aid. “I’m what's going on!” She then pointed her spear at her. “And I demand answers for the atrocities wrought on the zapper colony that is under my protection!”
“And who wants to know!” the aid demanded in return. “Who are you to walk right into our hive unannounced and give us orders!”
Lyn gave a vicious smile. “LYN! That’s who!” That made many of the onlooking bees gasp, even the queen next to the aid seemed in shock, and the aid herself seemed to have taken a mental step back. After all, it doesn’t matter who you are, if you have a name, then you either have a powerful backer or are powerful enough to name yourself. And that doesn’t even include the fact that named fairies and insect-kin were naturally more powerful than those without names, thanks to the names themselves.
“Now that you know who you are dealing with… I think I am due some answers…” Lyn said smugly.
The aid paused to think. “...Is that zapper colony truly under your protection?” she asked.
Lyn nodded. “It is under my protection…” not bothering to mention the little fact that it had only been under her protection for only a few hours now. The queen and the aid shared a worried and concerned look. Which gave Lyn some time to truly look at them.
The first thing she noticed was that the aid was very old, more, she had a scar on her right eye, an old one too. The queen, on the other hand, looked far too young to be leading a colony of her own. “By the master… she is almost if not younger than my own sister!” Lyn realized as she watched the two whisper to each other.
Taking a look around her, she noticed that the hive was just as in a bad spot as her own one was. “They are both greatly suffering… what in the world is going on for two hives to go under like this?”
It was then the queen gave a polite cough to get Lyn’s attention, her voice young and carrying the sound of naivety with every word she spoke. “L-lady Lyn, it seems we did you a great dishonor in attacking a hive under your protection. Please forgive us for our ignorance, if we had known, we would have found another way. Sadly… we do not have much in the way of recompense… not that it will matter anyway…” she finished sadly.
Lyn looked at the too-young queen. She thought she would be angrier. That she would demand justice and force this hive that killed her mother through the wringer and make them wish they were never born. But she couldn’t help but see the signs of defeat in the young queen's eyes, who was trying to do her best to show a strong front for her subjects, despite having no hope herself.
So despite all the demands that Lyn wanted, she instead asked. “Where… is your Mother?” in a soft voice, her previous anger gone, or at least more subdued as now she wanted to get to the bottom of all of this.
The young queen looked surprised by the question, then hurt, her hands gripping her throne tightly as she seemed to have a surge of pain and memories flash across her mind and face. “She… is… dead…” was all the young queen could bring herself to say.
Lyn crossed her arms, now more determined than ever to figure this out. “How did she die…” she asked.
“Is this truly necessary!” the aid said, getting angry at Lyn for putting her queen through this. “Why in the world do you want to know!”
“Enough…” the young queen said.
“But!”
“Enough…” the queen repeated, then looked at Lyn. “Will telling you help repay our debt?”
“If the information is worth it…” Lyn replied.
The young queen sighed. “Then I suppose I have no choice…”
“We weren't always like this…” she began, waving an arm to encompass the shoddy conditions of her hive. “We were a great and powerful hive that ruled over a great amount of our old home. We had thousands of sisters, tens of thousands in fact, with dozens of insect-kin. We were happy, we were content, we had everything we wanted… that was… until they attacked…”
The young queen balled her hand into a fist as the memories came back. “The wasps were always a nuisance… but they were never truly a great threat. That was… not until a high queen came around to unite them under her rule…”
Lyn for the first time had to stifle a gasp of her own, the idea that wasps, or any wasp for that matter, would bow to another even of their own kind, was too crazy to even believe!
“We thought such rumors were crazy… when rumors spread of them taking down nearby hives? Madness! oh, how wrong we were when they came knocking on our doorstep.” the young queen said, recalling the memories.
“At first it was just a few dozen, probably to test and probe our defenses. Nothing we couldn’t handle. But then it became hundreds, and as you know, considering the power difference between a wasp and a bee, we had to start fielding thousands to take care of those few hundred. And then… hornets…”
Lyn looked on wide-eyed.
“Somehow… they were able to bring the hornets into their number, the high queen ruled them both with an iron fist. Not only that, she had formed a… strange alliance with the termite king, taking each other as a mate to create an unholy union! We had no idea what was coming… Slowly we were forced to send more and more of our bees and even some of our insect-kin to deal with the raids on our territory. But none of it prepared us for what was about to happen next!”
They came by the thousands! Tens of thousands! Both wasp! Hornet! And Termite! My Mother took the field herself to fight them off, but she fell in battle and died… after that, I was in charge… and taking to heart my mother’s final order should she fall… we fled… until we reached here. Now a fraction of ourselves.”
“But our hardship didn’t end there…” shaking her head. “We had to flee for not days, not weeks, but months! All the while we meet others who were also fleeing the expansion of the wasp horde. Some poor souls didn't even have a queen anymore…”
That last part seemed to tear her up a bit, even Lyn felt sad hearing that.
“But finally we arrived at our new home, there were so few of us left, but oddly that worked in our favor. We had room to grow and enough food in our surroundings to feed everyone, even share it with another colony that recently moved here…” she paused a little at that, looking at Lyn before continuing her story.
“Things were looking bright… until they were not anymore.” her tone took on a more menacing turn and almost under her breath, as if even she didn’t dare utter the words out loud she said. “For a spider matriarch made her nest nearby as well.”
This time it was even harder for Lyn to stop herself from gasping in horror.
The queen nodded. “The spider matriarch spread her influence and her kin far and wide. She preyed upon our workers slowly picking us off. So we simply moved on to safer pastures to get our resources. But it seems that the spider matriarch foresaw that, and had her minions web up all the flower beds they could get their hands on. Forcing us and your zapper colony to slowly contend for the few flowers that were left. After all, even if we worked together, neither one of us was strong enough to take on a matriarch.”
“Time went by, and food and resources grew scarcer, we didn’t even have the resources or food to move again, we were stuck, and so it appeared, was the zapper colony… in the end, it was war… and the last of my generals, died… taking the life of the queen of the zapper colony…”
The war took what little we had left, and brought us down even lower. Now it doesn't even matter anymore… we are so few in number, that there is no reason for us to fight anymore.” she then gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Think about it, it probably would have done us more good to fight the spider matriarch, knowing the costs, then to fight each other! Either way, we probably would have ended up like this, and it wouldn’t even matter who got what little flowers that were left!”
“And that’s how we got here. That’s how it happened… two desperate hives fighting each other because we were too afraid to fight the real threat. Perhaps if the hives back home worked together to fight the wasp horde instead of over the ever-shrinking pastures. We may never be in this predicament. Funny that right?”
Lyn thought about this for a long moment, her thoughts going wild at everything she heard. Closing her eyes, she opened them again and pointed her spear at the queen. “You are under my protection.”
“P-pardon me?'' The queen looked stupefied, alongside the aid and everyone else who was there.
“I said. You are under my protection! Do you disagree?” Lyn said menacingly as if it was a threat. “Say yes, and I will take care of your spider problem. But that means you have to do what I say, understand!”
“Wha-what?” the confused queen could only reply before shaking herself. “Can you really take care of the spider matriarch!?” she asked in disbelief.
“If I can’t… then my master can… and if anything at the very least I can deal with their encroachment and bring back the flower pastures,” Lyn said, full of conviction. “I promise you, on my life and my master's honor, I will take care of the spider infestation! And bring back the days of peace our hives used to have!” she tapped the but of her pear down hard, and let her power flow out, electricity coursing through her body and her aura flaring to life.
Everyone looked at Lyn as if she was crazy, but they were too shocked and awed by her confidence and aura to say otherwise. Some even going so far as to have… hope…
Lyn let her aura fade and looked at the young queen. “Do you accept my protection…”
The aid turned to her queen, panic in her voice. “No matter how strong she is, she can’t take on a spider matriarch, not even your Mother could! And to accept protection is an insult! It's one step away from being visualized! My Queen!”
But the young queen ignored her aid, and looked at Lyn and only at her. “Lady Lyn… if you can truly defeat the spider matriarch, or at least bring back our flower pastures, then not only will we accept being put under your protection, but should the time ever come where you have enough followers and meet the prerequisite of becoming a high queen, we will also accept you as our high queen.” the young queen said, taking on a far more regal and formal tone and posture.
“My Queen!” the aid gasped.
“I have spoken! Besides… What else are we going to do? If we refuse, we would have made ourselves the enemies of a powerful foe and her master and hive. I would rather face servitude than let our hive end here.” the queen said, more sure of herself than ever. It was something in Lyn’s eyes that made her agree, a feeling, a confidence, she couldn’t place.
“Lady Lyn, will you truly kill the spider matriarch…” the young queen asked one last time. “Will you help us and bring our hives peace?”
Lyn nodded. “I swear, not just on my honor… but on my master…” she said, full of conviction as if swearing on her master was the greatest oath someone could ever make. It was so much to the point, that even the queen and aid wondered who this master was that had Lyn’s unwavering loyalty.
With that, Lyn turned to leave. Promising victory and peace. Watched by the few hundred of the bees and the aid and queen. Hoping against hope that she would somehow succeed.