Unlike Any Other

Stirring herself to consciousness, Karlene’s first impulse was to scowl. She had the nightmare again, and though the details were rapidly slipping from her mind, she had noticed something odd about it. There was something in it this time that seemed to have been caused by the one before it, although she couldn’t recollect it beyond a few vague aspects.

Something about being in a cave, while being watched and… was she even paralyzed in that particular instance? By that point, Karlene couldn’t recall much of the usual nightmare either.

Resigned to no other alternative, she tried to shift her body to get a better position. There was something irritating her side; perhaps the egg had changed? For some—

Karlene stopped herself, suddenly very alert.

She was breathing.

Memories then flashed before her mind’s eye: her birth; the dark cavern; the dozens of glowing eyes; the black insectoids; the fangs… that had all been real!

With her breaths growing short and shallow, she gingerly opened her eyes to see that she was, as she feared, in a cavernous chamber. The humidity felt heavy all of a sudden, and the air was thick with the ‘emotions’ that she had grown used to, though they were muted compared to all of the other times. Scanning her surroundings, Karlene spotted two of the small insectoids —her companions— peacefully sleeping by her side.

They were different, however. Their pale coloration had darkened to a gray tone, like ash, and no longer appeared to be the frail things as they had before. She was about to look down to see if her own body had grown dark as well, when one of the ‘emotions’ flared to life.

A sound followed it. Karlene would have almost called it a chirp of some sort if it weren’t for the reverberation that made it resemble more like a trill. She had heard a similar sound before, and that meant…

There was one of the larger insects, sitting like a dog would, a short distance from them. Its eyes stared unblinking, and the fanged jaw was fixed in such a way that part of her recognized it as hopeful.

Karlene stilled; the rising sense of anxiety that she had lately been experiencing had formed a lump in her throat. Her mind drew a blank as it had before, and she dumbly stood there, her eyes locked with the creature’s own.

For its part, the insect’s brows knitted in such a way that, in combination with its mouth movements, appeared to be apologetic. Or was it the ‘emotion’ that it emanated? Either way, it had also brought up a forward limb in a placating manner, not dissimilar to how a person would have done it with a hand.

Her senses returned, if reluctantly, and Karlene did eventually feel the lump in her throat disappear. Still, she eyed the being with a healthy amount of caution. Apparently sensing this, it put on a small smile. Just how an insect had the mechanical capacity to form such a smile was beyond Karlene, especially when she considered the chitinous structure of the face.

As she watched, she noticed that its eyes weren't entirely featureless. Yes, they were a solid blue, but looking closely, she saw a whitish discoloration that seemed to move independently from what little light there was. Whenever Karlene felt that its eyes focused on her, that discoloration also seemed to follow her. It behaved just like a pupil, so perhaps that's what it was? If her own eyes were the same, that would explain why her vision wasn't a kaleidoscopic mess as it ought to have been if they were compound eyes, if she recalled her middle school biology correctly.

The creature then pointed with the same scarred limb —A paw? Or is it something else? How can it function with so many missing chunks of flesh?— to four items that were arranged in front of it. These were crudely shaped bowls made out of some rocky material, each filled to the brim: three of them with water, while the fourth contained what almost looked like opaque marbles.

A low grumble from within Karlene’s midsection cleared up any doubts as to what she was looking at. Even if she herself didn’t know what they were, her body knew when it saw food. The pang of hunger tempted her to approach, but she still warily watched the creature. It seemed genuinely interested in her wellbeing, but her apprehension proved difficult to shake off.

The insectoid’s ears wilted somewhat at Karlene’s suspicion, but it sought to make its intentions clear. It dug its paw-thing into the small mound of food, and lifted one right at the cusp of its limb, displaying both the single glass-like pellet and its own impressive dexterity. In one swift motion, it brought the piece up to its mouth and lobbed it straight into the open maw, much like one did with a single piece of popcorn.

As it munched on the food, the creature let out a satisfied hum, rubbing one of its paw-things below the chest in a circular motion.

Karlene’s wary gaze turned into one of disbelief. She had guessed that there was a higher intelligence in the insects, as they had displayed signs that were indicative of it, but this… this was absurdly human-like. What other animal performed such a gesture?

Once it had finished its charade, it looked on with a new smile and chittered something in its alien tone. Again, Karlene’s body clearly had the advantage in recognising the insect’s behavior, as she once more felt compelled to trust its apparent intentions.

Biting back her reservations, she struggled with her limbs to draw herself closer to the bowls. As she moved, Karlene caught glimpses of dark grays on her body. Same color as the other two, she noted.

Once she had a good view of the bowls, Karlene felt her long, serpentine tongue run along her teeth. She probably would have recoiled at the alien sensation, but her thirst and hunger made it rather easy to pay little notice to that. She first went for the water, being the more familiar sustenance that she was used to. After a momentary quandary on whether or not her new lips would allow for easy drinking, Karlene was greedily lapping up any stray droplets from her snout soon after.

Then came the food, which had brought about some hesitation. There was the question as to just how much she was allowed to have, as she understood that this was supposed to be shared. Seeing this, the creature nodded —it actually nodded its head!— apparently understanding her concern.

A familiar green glow encased its horn, and one of the marble pieces began to glow as well and—

Karlene’s eyes widened at the sight. The little bit of food had lifted itself from the pile, always radiating that green aura, and lazily floated towards her.

Her hunger temporarily forgotten, she merely watched in fascination as the pellet came to her and stopped just in front of her face. Tearing her eyes away from it for just a moment, Karlene looked to the insect for some sort of approval. She took the slight tilt of its head as such, and she clamped her mouth shut around the food.

Whatever structure that it had immediately melted upon coming into contact with her tongue. It was remarkably similar to crystallized honey in substance, and was possibly just as sugary. Its flavor was far closer to some kind of berry, though Karlene couldn’t come up with a close analogue asides from perhaps raspberry.

It was delicious.

As the exterior came apart, the harder core required her to finally put her teeth to use. The molars were farther back than she had expected, but grinding the food was thankfully both straightforward and incredibly satisfying. With a particularly loud crunch, she was rewarded with the near-liquid contents, and where the previous taste was somewhat close to raspberry, this felt like a mixture of different berries; Karlene thought that she recognized blueberry somewhere in there.

She lolled the food all around her mouth with her dexterous tongue, enjoying every moment of it. Soon enough though, it was all gone. Now that she had gotten a taste, Karlene couldn’t hold back her body’s impulse:

More.

Sclerite was pleased with herself: she had managed to get through her little sister’s unease and had gotten her to eat and drink up. Of course the apprehension was still there, but at least she was willing to move, unlike during the… incident a few hours back. Sclerite was perfectly happy with any progress, no matter how small it was.

It was clear that their mother had made the right call by limiting the number of faces that the little ones saw. Odd as it was, agoraphobia was the right diagnosis, at least when it came to this worker. The little bit of coaxing had managed to get her out of the comfort zone, and she now seemed comfortable with Sclerite’s presence.

Using the opportunity to get a bit closer, she offered another pellet to her sister. Like before, the little nymph was far more interested in the food than she was in the nurse. By the time that she was wolfing down on it, Sclerite had settled herself by her side. A part of her was almost hurt by the fact that the nymph wasn’t paying attention to her, but she knew how nymphs could be when they were hungry.

She glanced to the two clutchmates behind them. Sclerite wondered when they would finally wake up. Keeping the food dehydrated enough for consumption was a chore, and if the other two siblings were going to wake later, they’d be even hungrier which mea—

Sclerite’s ears twitched to the sound of clattering, and when she turned to look she found the little worker trying to get inside of the food bowl.

“Ah-ah– hey!” Sclerite immediately lifted the nymph with her magic to separate her from the bowl. This was exactly what she was afraid of. Turning her in midair so that they were eye-level with one another, the nurse brought up a reprimanding hoof. “No,” she said with a firm voice, “you don’t play with your food.”

The nurse readied herself for a confrontation from the nymph. Even workers tended to react badly when their food was taken from them.

The nymph barely moved, and that anxiety from before had begun to radiate in waves once more.

Sclerite’s features softened at once; she hadn’t expected this response, at least, not at first. Had she perhaps exaggerated with her authoritative pheromones? Regardless, the nurse mended her mistake by first setting her sister down and then switched to friendlier smells, offering a consoling smile all the while.

Sclerite lifted another pellet. “Oh come on, sister. You can eat these, but you need to pace yourself.” She playfully cocked her eyebrow. “Understood?”

The little worker still barely moved, but at least she didn’t reek as much of fear as before. Nymph steps, Sclerite reminded herself. Nymph steps.

“Alright then.” She hoofed the pellet over to the nymph and watched it get gobbled up with a little more restraint. “See?” she asked when her little sister finished. “Was that so bad? Here,”—Sclerite picked another bit of food—“have some more.”

The supervised feeding continued for some time, with Sclerite praising the worker everytime she behaved, which, pleasantly enough, was very often; that had left Sclerite both surprised and pleased. When they had gotten to the tenth pellet, Sclerite noticed her other two siblings finally stirring. The one who had rose up first was Farris, slowly blinking away the sleep with heavy eyes.

“Hello there, sleepyheads,” the nurse said with a smile. She beckoned both him and the warrior over with a hoof and an inviting smell. “Lunch is ready.”

And then Farris began to speak.

Karlene tore herself from her food when the Spanish had started up again. Turning to look behind her shoulder, she saw both of her companions awake, the one with green eyes loosening a torrent of Spanish. His breakneck speed was far too fast for her to catch the meaning beyond those of a few words, of which she had definitely heard ‘where’, ‘why’ and ‘who’.

The impromptu refresher on her high school Spanish stopped when he switched over to an accented English.

“Do you…” His eyes narrowed at Karlene’s caretaker by her side. Looking directly at it, he spoke once more in Spanish, but at a slower pace.

“¿Me entiendes?” he asked it. Karlene stayed quiet despite understanding the question. Judging by the creature’s blank stare, it hadn't.

Her companion pouted before switching to another language. “Est-ce que vous me comprenez?”

This time, the purple-eyed companion joined the large insect by dumbfoundedly gazing at their companion. This time, Karlene spoke up.

“Yes. Un peu.”

Despite her voice being utterly unfamiliar to her ears, Green’s lips and ears twitched upwards. “Canadian?” he asked.

“American,” she said with a shake of her head, smiling genuinely all the while. Finally: something that was familiar in this strange world, even though it had come in an unexpected form.

He let out a snort. “Obviamente,” he muttered. He began to speak before he was cut off by a third voice.

“You too?” asked the other companion, carrying a subtle Western accent.

Karlene took in the person before her. Unlike with the other companion, she couldn’t quite tell if they were male or female; their voice, much like Karlene’s and the Spaniard’s, were child-like in pitch, with the latter’s being deep enough to distinguish as male.

She promptly found the current situation absurd. There she was, trying to understand if one of the creatures that sounded American was a male or a female, while Karlene herself wasn’t entirely certain of her own body’s sex, or even if it had one.

Putting aside all of her doubts and concerns, she took a deep breath. “I’m from Stafford, Virginia. How about you two?”

Green answered first. “Barcelona,” he said, before hastily adding, “Spain.”

Purple looked at Karlene with a cocked eyebrow. “Huh, no kidding? I’m from the good ol’ DMV.” They smiled. “This shit’s just getting weirder and weirder.”

Green gave them an odd look, but said nothing of it. He instead turned his gaze on the caretaker. “You, do you understand us?”

Blue merely blinked, its expression surprisingly easy to read along with the confused air about it. It then chittered something that none of them understood, and forced out a smile; it wasn’t very convincing.

Green grumbled something that Karlene didn’t quite catch, only for his stomach to protest as well. Both he and Purple then finally took notice of the bowls.

“That’s food,” Karlene provided while pointing to the small collection of pellets. “It’s like honey, but with a weird berry mix taste.”

The insect seemed to pick up on her meaning and, when both of her companions hesitantly (yet hungrily) approached, it brought up two of the edible marbles for them. Having done so in its physics-defying way, the two companions stared.

“That’s not possible,” Purple said immediately.

Green uttered a breath that almost sounded like a whispered ‘pero’, though Karlene wasn’t entirely sure. With a bit of a huff, she said, “I’m sure that what we’d normally call possible has stopped being relevant since I woke up in that egg.”

Purple kept their suspicious glare on the pellet, though Karlene did spot their tongue quickly wet their lips.

“And ah…” Purple turned to face her, occasionally glancing at the creature’s glowing horn. “It’s safe to eat?”

“I ate eight or nine of those,” Karlene replied automatically. “I’m not suffering from anything at the moment, although the lack of symptoms doesn’t rule out food poisoning or anything similar.” Her eyes met Blue’s. “Though I don’t think that it’d try to poison us.”

Purple cocked an eyebrow. “That’s a concise answer.”

They’d meant it as a joke, but Karlene noticed how she had reverted to her training to calmly provide the answer. The fact that she wasn’t making more of a fuss out of, well, everything, was itching at her mind. And now that she thought about it, wouldn’t the others, if they were humans like she was before all of this, be panicking over everything that had happened? How had they all skipped multiple steps of grief?

Her memory of being mute, blind, deaf, and bodiless flashed in her mind. Noting the long period of denial and pleading that she went through, that image had instantly put paid to that line of questions. It wasn’t a satisfactory answer, but Karlene didn’t have the luxury to think of a better one right then.

Lips thinning, she insisted: “They’re safe.”

Taking her word for it, her fellow possibly-former-humans went for the floating food. Their eyes shot open in ecstasy once they started eating.

“This is delicious,” Purple said with a pleasured hum. Green didn’t say anything; he merely continued eating and looked at their caretaker with expectant eyes once finished.

Blue didn’t seem to take offense at his exigency; it simply continued to offer the food, sharing it between the three of them. This went on for some time, without anyone speaking a word. Only the sound of grinding teeth and crunching marble-food was evident throughout.

Karlene ate her meal slowly. Compared to the others, her pace was almost lethargic, though she paid it little mind. When Green decided to take a gulp of water, Purple followed suit and so too did Karlene. During this water break, as she and Green were lapping up their snouts, Purple looked to the two of them.

“Since we’re ah, probably gonna be stuck together for now,” they began, rubbing their chin with a paw-thing, “do you have names?”

Both Karlene and Green looked to their companion. Purple continued, “I mean, I’m still not sure whether or not this is one hell of a fever dream and you’re just figments of my imagination, but I’d like to know.”

Karlene scrunched up her face at them. “We’re definitely real,” she immediately said, “and there’s no way that this is some sort of dream.”

Purple regarded her with a cocked eyebrow. Eventually, in a mutter, they finally said, “That doesn’t answer my question.”

Before Karlene could snap at them with something vulgar, Green interjected. “Marciano.” After a moment, he added, “Marciano Cristobal Zacarías Vargas.”

Deciding not to let her irritation to stew, she relented and gave her name.

“Pender, huh?” A thoughtful look came upon Purple. “Your name isn’t new to me…”

Karlene suppressed a groan. “It might help if you gave us yours.”

“Montgomery Franklyn Hackett,” they... he provided. “Most people just call me Monty.”

Now that she had heard his name, Karlene felt that she had read it somewhere. It suddenly hit her: “Are you a firefighter?”

Hackett’s eyes narrowed. “Rescue One, Engine House Two, DC,” he replied slowly. “How did you know?”

“I’m an EMT from Gateway International, we did a cross-agency EMS drill with your fire station’s medical personnel and I worked with a paramedic.” She paused for a moment as she tried to recall a name. “Russel?” she said, uncertain.

While he furrowed his brows in thought, Karlene thought that she saw Vargas mouth something, but having been just out of the corner of her eye, she wasn’t certain. “Russel,” she repeated, somewhat more sure. In a huff, she tried to remember details that she could offer: amber eyes… had scruffy brown hair. Or was it black?

Slowly the image of the paramedic formed, and she soon had a face to concentrate on: he had a somewhat tanned and round, clean shaved face, a short and stout nose, and soft amber eyes that complemented his—

Green fire that engulfed Karlene’s vision tore her from her thoughts. A curtain of the fire flashed by and faded just as quickly as it had come. It washed over her so swiftly that it did not even leave the impression of warmth.

Every set of eyes were solely fixed on her. Vargas and Hackett stared in utter disbelief; even Blue’s unblinking eyes were wide, though perhaps with more of a sense of wonder.

Not that Karlene had time to dwell on it. Where had the fire come from? “What ha—”

She had begun to speak, but the reverberation was gone. By all accounts, her voice had become human again, but it had the wrong timbre and frequency: it was deep—male deep.

It sounded exactly like Russel’s voice.

Her dark-gray snout/nose was gone. In its stead was a fleshy pink-white nose that Karlene could spot if she crossed her eyes.

The silence did not last for long. “What th– what the fuck happened?” cried the human-headed insect creature.

Sclerite knew her place in the Hive, just like all of her brothers and sisters knew theirs, and she was a gamma nurse. A respected position, even if every other role was just as integral to the Hive’s function and survival as hers. Regardless, she was well versed in the care of younglings. Egg, larva, cocoon or nymph—she knew all of the possible scenarios involving them and the proper procedures to handle any situation.

Ever since the emergence of these three particular nymphs however, the worker realized that her knowledge and experience only fully applied to normal changelings. After all that had happened since the previous day, it was safe to assume that these nymphs were not ordinary.

With no experience or wisdom to draw from in regards to rearing marked changelings, Sclerite had simply followed her instincts where her prior knowledge failed.

To her credit, asides from the little worker's unusually timid attitude and their (supposedly) incredible grasp of the spoken word, her gut feeling had carried her through the first several minutes alone with them.

It was during this time that Sclerite wished that she had some linguistics or deciphering training, even though such matters were exclusively taught to infiltrators. She had never had the desire to learn them prior to then, and why would she? She was a worker, and a nurse at that; these things were simply not needed in her line of work.

Still, she suspected that she could maybe begin to understand the strange language that the nymphs spoke had Sclerite been trained as an infiltrator. It was a ridiculous thought, but one that was surprisingly compelling.

Alas, circumstances limited her usual options for interaction. She knew that the siblings before her were far more intelligent than they had any right to be by this stage, and yet she had no way of verbally communicating with them.

It was a curious problem, and one that the changeling had no real answer to.

So she fell back upon the tried and tested method of teaching nymphs speech: talk until the nymphs catch on the meaning and repeat her words.

Once Farris had opened his mouth however, none of them seemed interested in Sclerite’s attempts. They either barked —barked! Did they think themselves to be diamond dogs?— to each other in their cockamamy language or focused on eating. The latter was understandable, normal even, but it left few opportunities to use her tactic.

She was considering stepping in when something that wasn’t altogether unexpected occured:

The worker had partially shapeshifted.

Now that, in it of itself, wasn’t something that was unheard of. It was perhaps uncommon, but even at such an early age, all changelings could achieve some level of this. So when Sclerite had seen that ubiquitous emerald ring of fire engulf the small nymph, she wasn’t all too surprised.

She was however surprised when she finally saw the head that remained.

It was mammalian in nature, what with the bare skin and fleshy face that covered most of the head, except for the messy mane of hair on top. It reminded her of a primate’s head that had been squashed and flattened, with a strange nose thing separate from the mouth, jutting out like an unwelcome growth. Its beady little golden eyes were sunken into the skull, and while they did not carry as much emotional weight as larger eyes, the hairy little brows on top of them sufficed in displaying the nymph’s surprise.

She spoke in a decidedly male voice that was clear and distinct, though confused and anxious. Just what was she even supposed to be? Sclerite didn’t recognise the creature whose visage the nymph had adopted.

Her clutchmates froze immediately, watching with growing worry before they too were roused to yelling in their own, distinct tongues. Everything had blown out of control all too quickly. It wasn’t quite the same as an upheaval caused by rowdy behaviour, but it was the closest thing to it. Thus, Sclerite decided to take the appropriate course of action.

The gamma let out a sharp trill to grab the nymphs and stomped a hoof, releasing a smell that was unmistakable: cease.

While the warrior and drone followed her order almost immediately, the worker did not take heed, still stuck in her manic state. Sclerite was almost impressed by just how wide those beady eyes could get, but she had a more pressing matter.

Before she proceeded, a small voice in the nurse cautioned against what was supposed to come next. She knew that Mother loved all of her children, but these three marked ones were her favourite; it was a poorly kept secret by this point, even if no one would say that aloud in Mother's presence. Sacrosanct as younglings were, these three were even more so, and the voice warned of the consequences of mistreating them.

But what other alternative was there? The nymph would risk magical exhaustion if she kept the imperfect form for too long. Sclerite had to defuse the situation, one way or another.

The youngling’s hysterical movements diminished as her body was lifted up once more in mid air. Gently, the strange head was forced to face forwards and to lock eyes with the adult’s own. Sclerite let loose a new chemical signal and spoke with a hard, sharp edge to her voice.

“Calm down.”

It was unsubtle and blunt, something that bordered on abusing one's innate power of suggestion and the vulnerability of a youngling; a recourse for those desperate for results.

Sclerite needed said results.

Mercifully, the worker stilled once more. Unfortunately, it was a stillness bourne from abject terror. Its smell was foul to Sclerite’s nose, but she maintained her glare. Now that she had the nymph’s undivided attention, she modified the pheromones to impress her command upon her sister.

Strange as the youngling was, there would be no mistaking the nurse’s instruction.

At least, that was Sclerite’s hope.

Too much was happening too quickly for Karlene to feel anything that was more tangible than the confusion that persisted. The others only added to the chaos with their own incredulous shouts, forming a horribly mangled mockery of a male trio barbershop group. Her cries and theirs continued until the insectoid made its presence known with a powerful smell that couldn't be ignored.

It spoke in its alien voice, adopting an element of that firmness that it had done earlier while chastising Karlene. She couldn't attach meaning to the sound, but the tone and glare were unmistakable. Even the odor that brought back the debilitating shivers seemed recognizable, though Karlene didn’t realise it at the time.

What she did notice was her body’s lack of responding to her will: it was almost as if there was some other part of her giving conflicting orders, leaving Karlene static. She wanted to understand what had happened and why, but something about Blue’s actions also made her want to sit down, shut up, and pay attention to the big black creature that was staring her down.

Karlene did neither: her joints locked and she trembled like an autumn leaf, her new neck and jaws tense with anticipation.

The noise had died down, and had she been paying attention, she would have felt the eyes of the others on her.

Something changed. It was subtle in the grand scheme of things, but Karlene’s keen senses picked up on it as if it were a warning klaxon. The musk! It had grown even heavier and would likely have been unpleasant to Karlene were she still human.

Her body knew better.

Every fiber of her being relaxed, starting first in her muscles, soon calming her mind. It was as if Karlene had taken a dose of Diazepam without the drowsiness or exhaustion that often accompanied its calming effect.

A warmth had cleared her mind; something within herself willed her to release… well, something else.

Karlene did so, and her world was momentarily consumed by green fire once more. Surprisingly enough, this time it had felt perfectly natural, as if a load had been taken off of her mind.

A quick once over didn't show any of the human features that she had suddenly adopted, and that grey snout that was both out of place and perfectly natural had returned. Letting out a relieved breath, her voice seemed to have regained that doppelganger falsetto as well. Karlene was back to normal.

Or at least, what constituted as normal in this new form.

She began to smile, feeling the warmth spread to her face and chest. When she glanced at Hackett and Vargas, they still had those shocked looks on their chitinous faces.

“Ha,” Karlene said in a long breath, “wha– whadda drip.” Funny, her tongue felt numb.

As if on cue, she felt a new warmth considerably lower down from her chest, spreading like a little rivulet along her right hind leg.

Karlene’s mind immediately sobered up; the warmth in her face flared up in an unpleasant manner that she was accustomed to, once she recognised what exactly was the liquid warmth that was running down her leg.

Her limbs shot like coiled springs in an attempt to cover her embarrassment, only for her to lose her unstable footing and falling face first unto the dirt.

Her nostrils flared as Karlene sent specks of dust flying with a strained snort. She wanted to say ‘fuck me,’ but her tongue and mouth weren’t really responding, so the words came out instead as a long ‘fffffaah-mmm.’

Not one of her better introductions.

Sclerite immediately knew that her plan had worked, and that it had produced the results that she was looking for… and then some.

The little worker nymph lay sprawled on the ground like a ragdoll, wet with her own urine, saying something in her tongue that, even to the nurse’s untrained ears, sounded incorrect.

It was safe to say that Sclerite's command had worked too well, though she told herself that this was temporary and that Mother needn't know of the incident.

As she prepared to lift up her sister with her magic, Sclerite brought one of the bowls of water by her side. She dipped a hoof into the water and proceeded to clean the nymph; this was nothing new to her—nymphs were typically messy changelings, after all.

The aura from the little worker intensified to the point that Sclerite couldn’t ignore it any longer: her sister was embarrassed.

It was also a very adult sort of embarrassment, as if she was fully aware that others had seen her unfortunate incident. Again, Sclerite could only guess at just how intelligent her siblings were, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something else besides them being marked behind their intellect. That would be something for the Beta and Alpha nurses to figure out together with the others.

The worker was shaking in her grip. At first Sclerite thought that her charge was resisting, but then she noticed the tears welling up in those rosy eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Sclerite asked innocently, still wiping away at the little one’s shame. “There’s no reason to cry, little sister.”

She knew full well by now that it was the wrong thing to say had the youngling been able to understand her. Still, the nurse had put on a comforting voice and realesed the appropriate smells to try make her sister feel better.

Still the nymph trembled, threatening to cry.

Sclerite finished up her task, and brought the little one close for her to slip a foreleg around her sister. In a hush, she said, “It’s fine. Accidents happen.”

Finally the youngling quieted down, letting out her breath with a shudder, allowing for her elder to continue her soft coos.

It was only then that the other nymphs seemed finally compelled to act. At least, the warrior seemed to do so, clumsily approaching to offer some sympathy along with some words that at least sounded consoling.

Sclerite smiled at the gesture and genuine concern that the warrior held; this was something that she could identify as typical youngling behavior when around clutchmates. Farris’s sat still, keeping an impressively neutral expression and silently taking in the scene. That was a little more concerning in Sclerite’s mind, but she had other things to fret over.

She squeezed the worker a little harder. “It’s all going to be fine.”