Deciding that discretion is the best option, you made your way to the cave, it took you a good two hours to reach it from your current position at the edge of the bog, and by then the moon was completely out, and apparently all zerg seemed to have night vision, because to you the environment remained clear as day, which worked to your advantage, being able to avoid a roaming pack of timberwolves by curling up next to a bunch of roots and simulating being a rock.

When you finally arrived to the cave entrance, you took your time to properly study it and the surroundings, the entrance itself was narrow enough that the manticore that attacked you the other day wouldn’t fit, an excellent bottle neck if you ever manage to research impalers, or hydralisks for that matter.

The area directly around the cave entrance was covered in patches of thorny bushes with some trees sprinkled here and there, fairly concealed, it suited you just right, slithering in, you found yourself with the fact that the entrance was more of a crack on a wall than an entrance, the tunnel itself was natural, with several ‘bridges’ growing from and connecting the walls, the ceiling was covered in bioluminescent worms, providing a soft blue glow, and allowing you to see the gems that speckled the walls and ground, slowly, you made your way to the bottom, examining one of the half buried gems.

‘an emerald, straight from the ground and already perfectly cut and polished, this world is all kinds of weird, but for now it works in my favor’ gems meant minerals, minerals meant drones, queens, zerglings and overlords, not much, but you’ve beaten well rounded armies with just zerglings before ‘well, enough reminiscing, time to find a place to evolve’

With that in mind, you ventured deeper and deeper, exploring as much as you could, all the while a strange feeling began building up, the deeper you went, the more noticeable it was, until eventually it clicked, as you entered a chamber like space, the pressure ‘uncoiled’ and you realized what it was.

‘This is it’ you thought, looking around the chamber ‘this is where the Swarm will rise, from the dark depths of the earth we will spread, through the lands, through the skies, through the seas, none shall escape us, for We. Are. Zerg! We. Are. Unending!’

Whisper shivered when a wave of Bloodlust* all but erupted from the larva when it reached the center of the chamber, it reminded her far too much of the creatures in the badlands, only far far more crushingly suffocating, Whisper felt like drowning, like a titanic being was crushing her very soul in it’s grip, then, as quickly as came, it went, slowly, as she regained her breath, Whisper dared to look back at the larva, and nearly gaged in disgust when it bulged grotesquely, carapace and flesh tearing away with loud, wet noises that made her stomach turn, then the dread and disgust gave away to confusion as she witnessed the thing the larva had turned into.

‘an egg?’ admittedly, the thing could barely be called that, it was about half again the height of Queen Chrysalis, sickly green, and covered in bony spikes, whisper didn’t hesitate in sending a ping to her queen, leaving her mind open for Chrysalis to see what she was seeing, along with her memories of the day.

‘what have you- oh… Oh… this could be bad, very, very bad’

‘my queen?’

‘the only other time I’ve felt this kind of bloodlust was when the trice dammed goat walked among the living’ her queen’s words made whisper shiver a little, everyone in equs knew of the goat, of Grogar, how could they not? When his birth created the badlands and the monsters that call the infernal place home, and his death reduced most of the world to barren deserts, no one dared utter his name, Grogar, the tyrant of an era before time, before the first alicorns, before even Discord, back in the era of the Great Hive, when Queen Chrysalis was but a grub, learning from the All-Mother.

The infiltrator gazed back at the egg and swallowed thickly, feeling her heart drop to the pit of her stomach ‘orders, my queen?’

Chrysalis remained silent for a second, pacing back and forth in her throne room, weighting her options very carefully, her forces were stretched thin as it was, she couldn’t spare a force big enough to put down a creature capable of producing such all-encompassing Bloodlust, regardless of what stage of it’s development it was in.

But at the same time, if left to it¿s own devices, such a creature was a threat not just for her children, but for every being on the world, sighing heavily, the ancient Queen sent her orders to the faithful little changeling.

‘return to your original mission for now, I will send someling to meet with you in a week, they will deal with the creature’

Never in her life had Whisper been more thankful to return to her duty, the changeling wasted no time in flying out of the tunnels and magic fire engulfing her mid-flight, leaving behind a pink maned, yellow Pegasus mare that timidly made her way to a cottage at the edge of the forest, picking up multiple fruits along the way, smiling lovingly at the multitude of critters that ran out to receive her.

“h-hello everyone, i-I hope I d-didn’t make you wait t-too much, i-i brought some fruit”

Consciousness returned slowly, you were different, you could feel it, limbs, you now had them, there were other differences, but you couldn’t really identify them yet, your mind was still muddled, and there was only one thought currently in mind, get out of the cocoon.

Suddenly, your mind snapped into focus, your body jerked violently as it instinctually struggled against your cocoon, eventually it began cracking, splitting, until finally, with a final cracking sound not unlike that of breaking bone, you were free.

Recovering from that little ordeal, you took the time to examine your body.

"well... this is my life now, i guess”

You were:

[] A queen(medium combat capabilities, limited essence weaving, just enough biomass to produce a single larva or creep tumor, cocoon will degrade into creep, just enough to plant a creep tumor)

[] A drone (minimal combat capabilities, essence weaving locked for the moment, can mutate into hatchery right away, can collect resources right away)

[] A… chibi abathur? (minimal combat capabilities, frail body, sophisticated essence weaving, can produce and modify any strain as long as there are enough resources, cocoon can be consumed for biomass)

Author's Note

winning vote:
[X] Go back to the cave: less starting biomass, safer, hidden

well, here's the next chapter, hope you enjoy it

*Bloodlust: the most reliable way to measure a creature's viciousness, and the danger it poses, think of it as a powerlevel of sorts