Forgotten Children

Roddi followed Chrysalis around her chambers, frantically making notes.

“...and I will need you to be present during the hatching, of course.” Chrysalis had been giving her instructions for nearly an hour. “You need to get all of your assistants on board and have a steady supply of new books to record them in.”

Roddi followed along with Chrysalis the best she could as her mind kept focusing on other things. Chrysalis seemed to notice and interrupted her instructions with: “Are you thinking about him, child?”

Roddi, not paying attention, repeated as she scrawled in her notes, “Keep thinking about him…okay, what else?” She looked at Chrysalis and back at her notes. She squeaked and frantically scribbled on top of her last note to obscure it. “Ack! No no no, um, no, I’m not thinking about, uh…sorry.” She looked down at the floor.

Chrysalis walked over to Roddi and lifted her chin. “Its okay. I suspect a lot of you will be thinking about him. He seems to have taken a liking to you. Why don’t you go ahead and return to the archives and send someone else back in your place, hmm? He actually left for the archives shortly before you arrived.” Seeing Roddi perk up at this, Chrysalis added, “And you have my permission to accompany him. Be his tour guide, yes? Make sure he’s happy. Whatever that might mean to you.” She gave Roddi a knowing smile.

Roddi blushed, but thanked her mother. “Do you have a preference who I send in my place?”

Chrysalis looked up for a second, thinking. “I would probably say not Fici. She was in here watching earlier and I think she’ll want to be around our guest. Thrax seems like she could use something to do.”

Roddi nodded, then paused before she left. “Mother, why do you think he won’t give us a name to call him by? It seems so odd not having a name to refer to him as.”

Chrysalis walked over to her and scooted her towards the exit, saying, “I believe that he has become disillusioned with the changeling lifestyle and after having had so many names is enjoying not needing one. But ask him yourself. He never gave me an answer but maybe he will for you.”

Roddi bounced in excitement and made her way out of Chrysalis’ chambers. After carefully walking across the bridge she ran down the halls to her archives. She burst through the entrance and almost ran right into Audax who was coming out.

“Woah! Sorry Audax.” Roddi started to run past her but whirled around and asked, “Have you seen Thrax around?” Roddi tapped her hoof impatiently.

“Uh, yeah,” Audax replied, “She’s up in her quarters. What’s got you in such a huff?”

She didn’t answer, instead tearing off in flight to the back of the archives. Audax simply shrugged and continued on her way. Roddi, who was already landing on the ground of the living quarters, took a moment to compose herself. Inhaling deeply, she held it for a few seconds and exhaled slowly. She took a few steps into the dimmer quarters and called out, “Thrax, come here, I have a task for you.”

A shuffling noise sounded in the darkness, followed by an exasperated moan. “Oh come on,” sounded Thrax’s reply. “I seriously just woke up.”

“Thrax, now,” Roddi demanded impatiently.

Shortly, Thrax’s figure emerged from the darkness. She was still rubbing her eyes. “Roddi, what do you want? Audax is on duty right now. Go find her for your task of dusting, or organizing, or whatever.”

Roddi uncharacteristically stomped her hoof on the floor. “Thrax, don’t question me. Go to Chrysalis. She is asking for you.”

Thrax stiffened and said. “Uh, ok, sorry Roddi…” Thrax shook her head to wake up and hurried out past Roddi and towards Chrysalis’ chambers.

With her gone, Roddi carefully inspected the quarters. Fici was sleeping in here, but it did not appear that any new bunks had been used. Sighing, Roddi moved back towards the exit and looked over her archives. She smiled, she had always taken a little bit of guilty pleasure in calling them “hers”. They really didn’t belong to anyone, instead being more like a communal resource.

She stood there for several minutes, just being happy about the events of the last two days. Chrysalis getting what she needed, new siblings on their way, and that interesting male that said he liked her! Roddi continued to smile, but eventually the smile faded as she realized she didn’t know where he was. Chrysalis had told her that he left for the archives, but that didn’t mean he was even here. She chided herself for not asking either Audax or Thrax, but remembered that Fici was sleeping back in her bed.

Deciding not to wake her, Roddi instead took off in a slow flight around the room, looking down between the stacks. Everything appeared to be in order. Well, such as it was. She flew front to back several times, but did not find what she was looking for. On an approach to the front, she did spy Audax coming back and descended to greet her.

“Hey, Audax!” She landed nearby, waving her sister over. “You seen uh, our male guest anywhere in here?”

Audax rolled her eyes. “You really are in love with him, aren’t you?”

Roddi looked toward the ceiling in exasperation. Still looking up, she said, “Audax, Chrysalis wants me to watch over him during his stay here.” She lowered her head back down and continued, “I’m just trying to find out where he ran off to. Mother said he came here, have you seen him or not?”

“Yeah, I’ve seen him. He was reading back in the corner there. I saw him when I came by earlier. I heard Fici talking to him but I don’t know what about.” Audax pointed to a far corner Roddi had not checked yet.

Roddi put a hoof to her face. “Oh, I have an idea what Fici talked to him about. I’ll go find him. Thanks again.” She flew carefully between the stacks this time, not wanting to miss him but not wanting to crash into something either. Near the back where Audax had directed her, she found him amongst a pile of books.

Landing gently, she asked, “Have you been enjoying yourself? I’ve been looking for you.” Roddi tried to sound inviting, but wasn’t sure if it was working as he didn’t look up. She smiled a bit and moved in closer. “Hey, uh, Chrysalis wants me to be like, around if you need me, so, uh…” she trailed off, shuffling her feet.

Still not looking up from his book, he said, “I’ve asked twice now if someone else was Roddi and they both said no. Just start telling me your name when you come by and it’ll make my life easier, okay?”

“Oh, uh…” Roddi paused. “How about you tell me your name and I tell you mine?”

Her attempt to be coy was met with disinterest as he flipped a page in the book. She sighed. “I’m Roddi.”

He immediately put his book down and looked at her. “Ah, well why didn’t you say so earlier? I’ve been waiting for you to come back.” He got up and looking around, said, “I’m really impressed by the collection you have here. Mostly a genealogy, far as I can tell, but interesting nonetheless. I do want to ask, why are some books written in different languages? I can’t read them.”

“Oh, those books.” She looked away from him and towards other parts of the archives. “There are many eras of changeling history here. Those books are written in an ancient language that few can read and yet fewer can translate accurately.” She turned her gaze back to him and continued, “But fortunately for you, I am one of those who can. But its not much different in terms of information. What are you looking for, anyway?”

He stood up and stretched. “Eh, I don’t know. I was just curious. Maybe we can go somewhere? Take a tour of the places we didn’t get to before?”

She smiled and motioned for him to follow. She led him out of the archives and through some seemingly random hallways, talking all the while. “I’m so glad you kept your promise to come back, I’ve been wanting to spend more time with you. Are you uh, planning to go back to sleep with Mother?”

“No, I wasn’t planning on it,” he replied, “But looking at the sleeping arrangements in the archive has got me a little concerned. I’ve slept on a lot of floors but I did not think this would be one of them.”

“Well…” Roddi cocked her head to the side. “We have gone a long time without any bedding replacements but the replacements themselves are hard to come by these days. Usually surface agents bring things back for us, but there are so few left that we just don’t have that supply line anymore.”

He had fallen slightly behind, and hurried to keep up. Walking directly beside her, he asked, “Can you take me to the Hive treasury? Chrysalis told me about it and I’d like to see what funding options there are.”

Roddi shot a sideways glance at him. “Funding options? What are you talking about?”

“Oh, I forgot you weren’t watching Mother and I. So you would have missed that part,” he said apologetically. They turned a corner and he continued, “Chrysalis and I are setting up an operation above ground to funnel money through to the Hive. I’ll use some of her resources to get it going, and in return she’ll get more funding to help you down here.”

Roddi smiled. “So that means you’ll be coming back every so often?”

He shook his head. “No. One of our agreements was that I won’t be coming back at all.” Seeing her smile fade he poked her side. “I won’t be leaving for a while. Don’t get all pouty on me. There are a lot of preparations to make and I’ll be needing your help with some of them.”

She smiled shyly at him. “What will you be needing from me specifically?”

“Oh, many things. You know so much and I’ll be needing that knowledge. You can help with some of the planning, and some company.” He stepped to the side and bumped against her. “You can’t honestly tell me you’re against that, can you?”

“Well…given a choice I suppose I would like to be around you.” Roddi stopped and looked around. “Uh, I haven’t been down here in a while. I think we missed the turn a ways back.” She turned around and they started back the way they came. Shortly, another changeling guard came by. The guard nodded to the two of them but said nothing.

Roddi stopped the guard and said to her, “Hey, little lost down here. Can you point us toward the treasury?”

The guard scowled at Roddi, then at her purple-winged companion. The guard pointed down another hallway. Thanking her, they set off in that direction.

“Is it me that they don’t like,” he asked Roddi after walking away, “Or are you also somehow on a shit list around here?”

Roddi sighed. “That’s a longer story. As previously mentioned, archivists are seen as being odd. We don’t usually go wandering around the Hive like this. We are typically sequestered to the- ah, here we are.” He motioned for him to follow through several sets of doors. There were empty locks on all of the doors, and Roddi motioned to them, saying, “There isn’t much in here, which is why there’s low security. I come by every so often to take stock of what we have. Another one of my duties. Haven’t done it in a long time and no one has noticed yet, though.”

Passing through the final door, he beheld a great hall that was unfortunately empty. Spiderwebs hung in the corners. “Like I told you,” she said, “There isn’t much here. I’ve been told by the oldest among us that at one time this hall would have been filled with glittering jewels and gems, and gold bits stacked to the ceiling. Now…we have only a bit of old gold in one of the rooms over here.”

He looked at her in confusion. “Old? What do you mean, old?”

“Well, come here.” She led him over to a side room, and brushing away the cobwebs, pulled out a small chest. “These have been in here for a long as I can remember. Don’t know what good they might be to you.” She opened the box and reached in to pull out a small, tarnished gold coin.

He reached out and took the coin from her. Squinting, he looked closely at it. It was not round but had an octagonal shape. He searched about the room looking for something to rub the tarnish off. Not finding anything in the dark chambers, he brought it close to his eyes. He could barely make out a stamp of some kind, but unsure what it was he put it back in the box.

As Roddi closed the chest and put it back in its place, he remarked, “You’re right, I’m not sure what good this would do me. Its still interesting, so later I’ll get something to clean that off with so I can have a better look at it.”

They walked back into the main chamber. He looked up the walls, and noticed that there were several magical lamps not lit. “Hey, why is it so dark in here, anyway? Just unused?”

Roddi shrugged. “Not sure. Probably just to save magic power. No one comes by here and hence, little light is needed. Where do you want to go now?”

He sighed. “I don’t know. Are you going to be heading off soon for your official archivist duties?”

She giggled. “Nah, I got special permission to be with you. My assistants can handle it. I’m all yours!”

He raised an eye at her. “Oh, are you now? You sure that’s the way you want to phrase that? Very few have ever wanted to be around me for extended periods of time.” He lowered his voice and grumbled, “Especially around here…”

Roddi sat on the ground. “Why don’t we stay here and you tell me a story? I love your stories.”

“But I already told you them all,” he replied. “There are no more stories to tell you.”

She motioned him to come sit next to her. “Then just talk to me about whatever you want. Please?”

He came over and sat down. “I don’t know what to talk to you about,” he admitted.

Roddi smiled and scooted herself a little closer. She leaned into him but before she could speak they heard the sounds of someone coming through the doors. Roddi scooted her self back just as the doors swung open and several changeling guards entered, followed by Chrysalis.

Chrysalis smiled, seeing the two of them sitting together. “I’m glad you two are getting along so well,” she said, walking toward them. “I decided that since this room is so empty, you could have it for your training room.”

More changelings came in as she spoke, cleaning up the cobwebs and lighting the unused lamps. They brought in straw beds and a few rough blankets, which they placed in the various side rooms.

He stood and bowed. “Thank you Mother, this will do nicely indeed.”

She smirked. Turning to Roddi, she asked, “And how have you been, my dear? Enjoying your free time?”

Roddi blushed, but managed a quick yes.

Chrysalis turned back to him, and put an arm over his shoulders. She moved him away from Roddi and whispered, “You be good to her. Roddi can be very fragile. She’s not like you or I.”

He pushed her arm off of him. “No,” he said, “I don’t think you know who either of us really are.” He walked away from Chrysalis and back towards Roddi.

Chrysalis scowled and motioned to her assembled group that it was time to leave. Pausing at the door, Chrysalis smiled back at Roddi and said as she closed the door, “Now don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, dearies…”

As the door closed and the footsteps died away, Roddi turned back to him. “I suppose you have a place to sleep now…” she said, looking at the floor.

Her disappointment in this development was obvious to him, so he changed the subject. “Hey Roddi, why don’t you go grab one of those blankets so I can have a better look at some of those coins?” She nodded and walked off to get a blanket, and he went to retrieve one of the coins from its chest.

With the lamps now lit, a much brighter whitish-green glow came down from above and he could see the coin much better. Roddi came back with a bare-threaded blanket not much bigger than himself. He rubbed vigorously at the coin, checking every so often to see how much was coming off. Slowly, he began to see the details in the coin revealed.

He gasped. “Roddi, do you know what this is?” He looked at her and then apologized, “Sorry, no, of course you don’t. This is a lunar coin. Look, it has the moon on one side and the sun on the other. These are incredibly rare.”

“And how exactly do you know all of these things?” she asked, looking doubtful.

“Aye, remember I told you I once worked in a fine gem shop? The owner had a collection of rare coins. He told me about these. Even he, with all his money, could not afford one. These were minted before the Nightmare Moon incident and Luna’s banishment. They were melted down shortly afterwards and finding one is an exceptional rarity. Just one of these is worth a fortune to the right buyer.”

He and Roddi looked at each other, and simultaneously rushed to the chest in the storage room. Cracking it open, they looked in at its contents and back at each other.

“There are not many,” she said.

“Yes, and we can’t just spend them, it would raise too much suspicion,” he replied. “This will still take some work to find a reputable buyer and make the deal. But this will get me a long way.”

Her smile faded. “You said we, then me. Which is it?”

“We,” he said, drawing back a step, “Refers to me and my daughters. And ‘me’ refers to me. This is to fund my next operation. And then I’ll decide what I want to do after that.”

He dropped the coin back into the chest and turned to leave. As he approached the door, Roddi thought of something and frowned. “I thought I’d heard that you don’t want to run ops above ground anymore. What’s with this plan of yours?”

He sighed and slowed to a stop. He turned to face Roddi. “Its not something I want to be doing,” he told her, “But more a matter of what I have to do. I may not like the way my life is going, but what I’m good at is the only thing I know how to do. So I’ll just do that on my own terms.”

Roddi squinted at him. “That doesn’t make sense to me. What do you mean its what you have to do? Why do it at all then?”

He sighed again, slowly starting to walk towards here. “Roddi, I know you’ve never been outside the Hive, so please don’t take offense when I tell you that you don’t know enough to understand. You like what you do here and that’s great. But image you hate it and that’s the only option given to you. That’s where I’m at right now. I have no options available to me so I’ll just make the best of it. And honestly,” he paused and gave her a cold stare, “I don’t want to talk about it right now either.”

Roddi looked down. “Sorry…”

They left the room together and walked around the hall, inspecting the various rooms. “Roddi, why don’t you tell me about you? You speak about the old Hive like you were never there. But Chrysalis told me no children have been born here, so how is that possible?”

“I guess technically, I was there.” Roddi looked off into the distance while she spoke. “Did mother tell you of how she fought your…um, your father in uh…in her nursery?” He nodded, so she continued, “Well, there were precious few pods that he did not destroy. I was in one of them. My earliest memories are of great sorrow and sadness. Its was the battle and long migration to this Hive, as I learned later.

“I uh, I didn’t say so earlier, but I really like you because you remind me of myself. I heard a lot when I was young that I was different because of that experience. That I wasn’t ‘normal’ as a result. I understand how you may think our Hive is one big collective, but its not. We will even exclude ourselves.”

She walked about the empty room, looking around aimlessly. “I don’t think Mother really likes to think about it. It must be hard, watching your children grow up and sometimes away from you. But she puts on a strong face for all of us. I know she loves me. But I don’t really feel like I belong here either.”

When she turned back to look at him, he could see the tears in the corners of her eyes. He walked to her and placed a kiss on her cheek. “You give me hope Roddi.”

Her tears held back for the moment, she asked, “Why?”

He backed away a bit. “You give me hope for our race. I really thought for a long time that this Hive would waste away under its own damned arrogance. Changelings like you are the future of us.” He reached up a hoof and stroked her head.

Roddi took one timid step forward, then another. “No, I think you are the future here.” She paused, and meekly asked, “Please let me stay here with you. I…I want you…” She took another step forward, and suddenly planted a kiss on his lips.

He reached up with one leg and wrapped it around her head, pulling her close and kissing back. Beneath him, his slick purple member poked out of its slit. He growled, pulling her head away. “If you want to stay, then prove it to me.” He pulled her head down towards the floor. Simply, but firmly he stated, “Submit.”

Roddi complied and freely allowed him to move her around, kneeling to him. She was so captivated by him that she didn’t care what might happen next. Her ass still in the air, he released her head and walked around her, inspecting. Roddi trembled, waiting.

He looked her up and down. Her did not need or want an equal. He had considered previously that Roddi might make an excellent body to fill his bed. He continued his inspection, noting that her smooth black shell did not reflect the light around the room, but seemed to swallow it. Her thin greenish-blue membrane wings stayed flat against her sides, and he saw that her legs shook slightly. Raising his head as he continued to circle her, he asked, “Why do you tremble so? Do you not trust me?” When she did not answer right away, he barked, “Speak!”

Keeping her head down, Roddi winced. “I want this so badly. Tell me how to please you and I will do it.”

“It would please me that I know you apart from your sisters.” He moved around behind her, facing her backside to get a full view of what she had to offer him. Between her legs a sliver of green showed, the entrance to her awaiting sex. “How will I know you as mine?”

“Mark me as you wish,” she replied, keeping her head down and her eyes squeezed shut. A part of her mind cried out in protest at what she was saying, but continued, “Bite me. Rut me. Make me yours and I will wear it proudly. Take me here, and wherever, whenever you wish. I am yours.”

He grinned triumphantly. His member continued to grow, stretching from his body until it reached its full length and bobbed underneath him. Approaching her from behind, he lowered his muzzle to her sex and inhaled deeply.

The sudden air movement made her eyes shoot open in surprise, and she let out a needful moan as he exhaled hot air back onto her. Panting, she looked back underneath her and saw his throbbing purple and black-spotted member behind him. Roddi opened her jaws and licked her lips in anticipation.

He slowly mounted her, placing his front legs on her back, and moving himself forward. As his tip bumped against her backside, she instinctively clenched shut. He paused. Laying down on her back, he wrapped his legs around her chest. He whispered to her, “Are you sure you want this? I will allow you to leave me now, if you do not wish to choose this path.”

Still panting, she relaxed herself. Her mind screamed again for her to tell him to stop, and to flee. But she nodded vigorously. “Yes…do with me as you wish, if it means I can be with you.”

He opened his mighty jaws wide, and brought them down around her neck with one swift, gentle motion. The back of his long canines pressed uncomfortably against her throat. Roddi found it harder to breathe, and his hips pushed forward, penetrating her.

Roddi clenched again, but there was no escape to be had now. She was under his control, and she had chosen to be this way. He pulled back with his head, forcing her to comply by pushing her hips back against him. He pressed deeper into her, and Roddi’s eyes shot wide and she managed a muffled scream and he hilted himself in her, pushing far deeper than she expected him to go. A tear rolled down her cheek and landed on the floor.

Trembling with fear, she clenched again, eliciting a growl of pleasure from him. Her neck still in his mouth, he drooled, saliva running down her neck and past her face on its way to the floor. She panted, not in lust but in fear as he slowly, achingly pulled himself back. She knew what was coming and started to cry as he rammed himself back into her.

He pulled back slowly again, and she whimpered, “Please…you’re hurting me…”

He responded by tightening his jaws around her neck and pulling her back, burying himself into her again. She cried out again, and feeling his jaws move against her shell, he growled, “You wanted this.”

Roddi looked to the floor in shame. She had wanted this. She asked for it, twice. And now she was getting what she had asked for. Her body went limp with this realization but he held her up, thrusting with greater frequency. She cried freely, tears falling to the floor, forming a puddle with his saliva. She had asked him to do this of her own free will. Her body shaking, she let go and allowed him to use her.

“Better,” he said from around her neck. He tightened his embrace around her, pulling back and slamming home faster and faster, violently shaking her body with each thrust. Roddi looked vacantly at the floor, only barely noticing that her tears had stopped.

Drool pushing out from around his teeth in a froth, he ordered, “Clench that cunt of yours hard, bitch. Or I’ll clench down on your neck.”

Roddi complied, clenching herself around him as he pushed in in one last rough thrust, and felt herself being filled with a warmness that seemed to explode from somewhere deep inside her.

He stayed there for several minutes, lost in the bliss of releasing himself into her. He slowly released her neck from his jaws, and stood on his own legs. She fell to the floor in a heap, her ass still in the air, clenched around him.

Looking down, he smiled again. “You’ve done well, slut.” He could feel his member shrinking, and he leaned his head down to hers and licked the tears off her cheek. “The last mare I fucked like that died shortly afterwards. But you’re far too good to let die.” He stepped backward, and let her rear far to the floor with a smack. Cum leaked out of her, pooling on the floor around her abused body.

Using his magic, he picked her up and moved her to the sleeping quarters of the training area, setting her on the bed. He sat beside her and kissed her cheek.

Curling herself into a ball, Roddi started to sob into the rough bedding. Her life had gone horribly wrong, and she could only blame herself.

Grinning wide, he started to laugh. His laughter echoed across the walls as it grew, then died in intensity. He leaned and kissed her head. “I thought you wanted this, Roddi.”

She recoiled from his touch initially, but rolled back over to face him. “It was so much more than I expected…it hurt…”

He cooed and petted her head. “It does the first time. Next time will be easier. You’ll see.”

She sniffled. “Next…next time?”

He grinned. “I kept my promise to you to come back. You promised to be mine and wear my marks proudly. Do you intend to go back on that promise?” He leaned in close to her and whispered, “You can’t go back to the life you knew before, you know that. Why don’t you join me in being an outcast? I can enjoy it. You should as well.”

He pulled his head back and paced back and forth by the bed. “Tell them to go fuck themselves. Tell them you don’t care. And don’t. Your sisters have already proven that they don’t care for you. Why care for them?”

Roddi started to cry anew. “They…they don’t hate m-me…”

“Yes they do. And they will push you farther away now.” He approached her where she lay on her side, and lifted her chin to expose the marks where his teeth scraped against her shell. “Once they know why you have these marks, you will be in the same lot as me.” He paused, leaning over her, then said, “Do you still want to be mine?”

Roddi sniffled, wiping away her tears. In her mind she had no choice. She nodded to him. “I do…can you be more gentle this time?”

He smiled, climbing over her and positioning himself. “I will this time, but not every time.”

She reached up and hugged him tight to her as he slid into her again. Exhaling, she closed her eyes and tried to imagine happier things. As he slowly thrust in and out of her, she cried softly.