I looked at the Changeling sitting on the floor in front of me, they looked so small and thin, fragile would also be a fitting description, and they were asking me, no, begging me to kill them so they didn’t have to starve to death, while I sat here feeling better than I ever have before.

I can’t do that, it’s bad enough that I killed people that were doing something horrible but at least they somewhat deserved it for trying to rip someone apart.

This Changeling has been nothing but helpful and given how easy they were restrained before I don’t think they are strong enough to be some kind of violent criminal.

So, no, I’m not doing that, but I can’t just leave them to suffer, that would be worse than killing them, but what can I do- I suddenly had an idea, a possibly crazy idea but I needed help and the Changeling was the only person I knew here.

“Umm, hey, Changeling? Sorry, I just realised I don’t know what to call you,” I said apologetically, "you said only Changelings in the same hive could transfer love, right?”

“Yes, that is right, your Majesty, and I don’t have a name anymore, I lost it when I was banished.”

Wow that sucks, don’t even get to keep your name?

I thought to myself before continuing.

“Ok, we will fix the name problem later, you said a hive is led by a Queen, right? So, if I’m a Queen, like you say I am, then that means I can start my own hive, right?”

“I… well, yes, your Majesty?” The changeling said, looking confused.

I clapped my hands and said, “well the problems solved then, I can just start a hive, you can be part of it and that way I can do the love transfer!”

The Drone just looked at me like I had told them I was sent to bring them to the promised land, “but, but I’m a banished Changeling, that means I’ve not fulfilled my role in my old Hive, I’m useless," the little Worker looked like they might be about to cry as they said that.

“Hey, I have no idea what I’m doing, if you hadn’t told me what to do then I wouldn’t have known how to get the love gland things out of the Soldiers. Hell, I didn’t even know I needed to eat love and I can tell you now, I wouldn’t have ever figured that out, so you’ve basically saved my life and that doesn’t sound like the kind of thing a useless Changeling would do, does it.”

Hearing that the Worker did burst into tears.

“Why are yo- hic- are you being so nice to me? This isn't how you should be treating me, I don’t understand,” they said through their tears.

I looked down, a bit embarrassed by the Changelings outburst of tearful emotion, after a couple of minutes of getting my thoughts together and listening to their quiet sobbing, I said, “I'm doing this because you’re in trouble and you’ve already helped me, it would be pretty messed up if I didn’t do everything I could to help you back.”

The Changeling looked up at me, their tears slowing as I talked.
“Ok, so, I declare you part of my hive, now how do I do the love transfer thing?”

The Changeling let out a little choking laugh and tried to wipe the tears from their face as they said in a slightly shaky voice, “it- It doesn’t work like that, your Majesty, to make a Changeling part of your Hive you have to link your Hive mind to them.”

“My what?” I said looking confused once again.

“Your Hive mind, your Majesty, um, ok if you truly want me in your Hive, then just come over to me and touch your horn to mine, then just concentrate on the desire for me to join your Hive,” they said wiping the last of the tears off their face.

Doing as they said, I walked over and sat directly in front of them, I then bent my neck down so the sides of our horns were resting against each other and closed my eyes, I concentrated hard on wanting them to be in my hive and my desire to be able to help them the same way they had helped me.

I felt a jolt, like a static shock but without the sting, I opened my eyes to see red fire slowly moving down their horn towards their head. Needless to say, I started to freak out again.

“Fuck! Shit! How do I make it stop! I didn’t mean to set you on fire, I’m sorry!” I said, scrambling trying to find anything to put it out, I was just about to pick them up and throw them in the lake when they raised a claw to stop me.

“Your Majesty, stop, this is what is what’s meant to happen.”

At their relaxed words, I started to calm down.

The crimson flames slowly moved down onto their head, they flinched and grit their teeth as the fire washed over their wound, as it passed it burnt away the resin and, in its place, left the beginning of a new crest, they closed their eyes as the fire past over their face and down their body.

As the fire reached their wing cases the damaged ones fell away and were quickly consumed by the flames as new ones appeared, growing with the fire as it travelled down their back.

The resin on their tail wound was also burnt away and just like with their head, the beginning of a new tail frill was left. The crest, frill and wing cases had all changed colour from an earthy orange to the same blood red as my hair and shell.

As the fire reached the tips of their back hooves it spread out in a small ring around them on the ground and then suddenly surged up in a pillar of red fire, bright enough that I had to shield my eyes.

After the light faded, I looked back at them and saw they had grown to the same height as the Soldiers I had killed, only with less bulky chitin.

“Are you ok?” I asked, still a little concerned.

The Changeling opened their eyes, and I saw they too had turned to a crimson that matched my own, they even had cat-like slits, rather than the solid colour they were before.

“I’m… I’m ok, you really meant it, you really took me in… I, I’m…” he looked like he might start to cry again.

“Yeah, I said I was going to do what I could to help you, I wouldn’t lie about that, you do look a bit different though.”

“That’s… That is normal, your Maj-… My Queen, all Changelings in a Hive have the colours of the Queen.”

“Oh, no I didn’t mean the colour change, I meant your eyes and your size, and your voice sounds more like mine too, it has the odd echoing effect.”

He looked confused, then looked around and shakily got to his hooves, and made his way over to the side of the water, once he got there he just stood, staring into the water.

I walked over and stood next to him and looked at our reflections in the almost still water, after about thirty seconds of silence I looked over to him, he just sat there, staring at his reflection.

“Hey, are you sure you’re ok?” I asked with genuine concern.

“I’m not a Worker anymore,” he all but whispered before turning to me, “my Queen, you… You elevated my cast, I’m a Drone again, and a higher form at that.”

“Oh, well that’s a good thing, right? Being a higher caste, I mean,” I asked, not totally sure how the caste thing worked yet.

The Changeling nodded his head, “in the Hive, there are several different castes of Changeling, each has a different role and the higher the caste, the better the Changeling, physically at least,” he said, again starting to sound like a teacher reading from a book.

“Worker is the lowest you can be… well you could be a captured Worker, one not born from the Hive but taken and converted after a Hive take-over.”

“Dose that happened a lot?” I asked.

“Conflict is common between Hives, but I can explain more about that later,” he said before getting back on track.

“So anyway, there are different castes in the Hive with different roles, I'll get back to Workers in a minute but before that, I'll go from the top," he said, getting back into lecture mode.

"First are the Attendant Drones, they see to the Queens day-to-day needs, look after her eggs and the nymphs and also distribute Love to other castes, they are also good magic users too,” he said as I nodded, committing the information to memory.

“Then there are the Infiltrators Drones, they are in charge of collecting love, well at least when it’s not being taken by force anyway, and they are very good at taking on the identity of other people to gather Love from their disguises loved ones.”

"Ok that sounds a bit more like the fae Changelings I know about," I thought.

"What's a fae? My Queen," a voice that was not my own said inside my head.

"Jesus fucking Christ!" I screamed as I may or may not have jumped several feet into the air, "what the hell was that!"

"I'm sorry, my Queen, I didn't mean to startle you, I'm so, so sorry!" the Changeling said bowing his head to me, "I heard you say something through the link, but I didn't understand the words, I apologise if I wasn't meant to hear it."

"The link? You mean when you said Hive mind you meant that literally?! Not like pheromone trails or something?" I asked, starting to wonder if my thoughts would now be broadcast to him and leave me with no privacy at all.

"Yes, my Queen, the Hive mind, or Hive link, is a way of communicating to any other Changeling in the Hive, although workers have a very limited capacity for it." He explained.

"I can turn it off, right? I'm not hearing your thoughts so how do I choose whether or not you can hear what I'm thinking?"

"You, um, already are, my Queen, I haven't heard anything since your exclamation," he told me, looking like he still expected to be punished, although thankfully not cowering like before.

I stopped and specifically thought, "can you hear this?" at him.

I got an immediate reply, again in my head, "Yes, my Queen, I hear you," and now that I was expecting it, I could easily tell it was his voice.

I then thought the same thing again but this time without meaning it as a question to him but rather just as a set of words in my head, after five seconds of no reply I asked, "did you hear me the second time?"

He shook his head, "no, my Queen, I'm sorry."

I sighed with relief and said, "no that's fine, I was just seeing how this worked."

Ok, so, don't think while concentrating on him, or he'll hear it, got it. I thought to just myself.

"I'm sorry, I interrupted your explanation of the Hive castes, please continue with that," I said, apologetically.

"It's no problem at all, my Queen," he said before clearing his throat and continuing, “next is Athenaeum Drones, they are the lowest Drone caste but are still important, they keep track of the Hives knowledge and are mostly adviser to the other caste leaders and even the Queen if she requests it.”

“Then there are Soldiers, they are the main fighting force of the Hive and are bigger and stronger than all but the Queen, although not as magically talented as Attendants, they do have some skill in offensive and defensive casting,” he said, the mention of magic once again stirred my hopes of finding a way home.

“Right at the bottom, you have Workers, they, as their name suggests, are the basic workforce of the Hive, they build and farm, they also help the soldiers in battle, often by carrying things but mosts Hives also use Workers as light troops” he finished.

I sat for a minute and thought back over the new information, as I did I found I could remember the exact words he had said rather than just the infomation.
Huh, that’s new, but also very useful, I thought.

Looking back to the Changeling I said “so, you were a Worker before, what are you now?”

He looked back down at his reflection before saying, “I’m an Attendant, only the Attendants and the Queen have voices like this, I'm also a bit bigger than I was as an Athenaeum Drone.”

He was quiet for a couple of seconds and then said, “My Queen, a Worker might get elevated to a soldier if they did something in a battle that showed they were worthy, and an Athenaeum or Infiltrator Drone might be elevated to an Attendant on very rare occasions, but a soldier would never become one and a Worker most certainly wouldn’t and I… I’ve gone from a Worker- No, not just a Worker, a converted Worker, basically a slave, all the way up to as high as it's possible for a Changeling to be…”

They just stood there, looking into my eyes.

“This isn’t real, is it? I’m passed out after having been banished and this is just my mind trying to comfort me as I die from blood loss, that has to be it, right?”

His legs seemed to give out from under him and he started to fall, luckily, I managed to catch him and bring him into an awkward kneeling chest to chest hug as he just held onto me with shaky claws.

“Hey, hey, you’re ok, I promise this is all real, you're not dying, and you’re not banished, you’re safe, you're with me now, ok?”

I said, gently stroking the new crest as my Changeling shivered in my arms.

We stayed like that for a good fifteen minutes before he stopped shivering and stepped back onto his hooves.

"Do you feel better?" I asked.

"I do, my Queen," he said, rubbing the back of his head with one of his claws before saying, "my Queen, thank you, I may not remember my old Queen but I'm almost certain that she wouldn't have held me for even a second, let alone several minutes, so thank you for not destroying me for my weakness."

I lay one of my own clawed hands on the shoulder of his grasping arm, "you've been through a lot, and even when you thought, best-case scenario, I was going to kill out of mercy, you still helped me," I said giving his shoulder a light squeeze before dropping my arm.
"I'll be honest, I'm going to need you to keep helping me, I don't know anything about this land, or about being a Changeling, or about magic, so if you're ever feeling bad or need a hug or just want to talk, you tell me, ok?"

I could see his eyes moisten a little and he rubbed at his muzzle with a sniff, "thank you, my Queen, I’ll do that, and as for the rest, I live to serve," he said, giving a little smile.

"Good to hear, I think?" I said, not sure if we would need to talk about that at some point.

Shaking my head, I asked the question that I felt was top of my list of things that really needed an explanation, "So, speaking of you helping me, I have a question, right before I attacked the Soldiers I had some kind of mental break, I was still me but I wasn't really in control," I said as my Changeling nodded along.

"It started off as a headache that got worse and worse while an intense high pitch whine blocked out almost all another sound, other than you I mean," I mentioned with a sympathetic look.

"I just got so, so angry, the rational part of my brain just seemed to stop and I ran out and attacked, it's all a bit of a blur but I can still feel and- and taste their blood when I think about it," I gave a little shudder, "Do you know what happened to me? Is it normal? What coursed it? is it going to happen again?" I asked, stepping forward with each question.

My Attendant looked deep in thought for a couple of moments before saying, "that sounds almost exactly like a Queen's reaction to a nymphs distress call, but I don't know why it would have happened to you, even with my screams it shouldn't have triggered it, not only am I not a nymph but the reaction is only triggered by the cries from nymphs of the Queens own Hive and I was an outcast," he finished.

"Ok, well it's the best explanation, for now, maybe my maternal instincts are just really strong or something?" I said in a joking tone.

"Not likely, my Queen, please forgive for saying this but war Queens aren't known for their compassion, it's one of the reasons I was so confused about you being so kind to me," he said and then looked in thought for a moment, "actually maybe that does make sense, you're kind, at least you have been so far, maybe that's what's triggering it?" he said with what I think was a shrug.

"Well, I really hope it doesn't happen to changelings from other Hives," I said, walking back and forth as I talked, "what if we get attacked? As much as I would really prefer not to get into any fights, I also don't want to suddenly feel the need to protect the Changelings I'm in the middle of fighting, that sounds like a quick and stupid way to get killed."

I stopped and looked back at my Attendant, "sorry, I just realised we haven't done the Love transfer thing, how do I do it?" I asked.

He looked at me a little confused and replied, "my Queen, you already have, when you elevated me, without a cocoon I might add, you left excess Love behind, I should be ok for at least four or five days, after that though we will need to gather more Love though," he said.
Suddenly he went wide-eyed, "my Queen, we need to leave! The Workers that fled will be flying as fast as they can to their Hive and if their Queen gets word of another Queen so close to her territory she may send a force to attack in an attempt to remove you as a threat." he said as his wing cases opened and his wings started to buzz.

"Shit, that's bad, I'm bigger and stronger than the Soldiers but I have no illusion about how a fight without the element of surprise is going to end," I said before looking back to him, "but, where do we go," I said to myself.

After thinking for a moment I said, "we will need more Love soon and a place we can hide, somewhere we can go back to if things get bad, where is the nearest, and preferably the safest, source of Love? We can go there and sort out the hiding place after our food is guaranteed."

"An excellent plan, my Queen, secure Love and then build a Hive so you have somewhere to lay your eggs," he said with a nod.

I stood completely still for a few moments and then looked back at him.

"Lay my what?" I said in a strangled voice.

Author's Note

And there is ch4, a shorter one this time, mostly because I'm almost 4 days early, but I have people arriving for the holidays tomorrow and I won't be able to write while I'm hosting.

Anyway, this is the last chapter at the water lake, sad I know but it's time for the mc to move on to greener pastures.
I know there was a bit of an info dump in here but 1, I wanted to give more info on Changelings, and 2, I want to build into the un-named Changelings love of knowledge and his tendency to ramble out info if no one stops him.

So, I should be back to the normal schedule after Christmas, I might even get a ch out next week on Saturday, it will all demand on how long people end up staying.

Anyway, Happy/merry (insert appropriate holiday here)
I hope you all have a good time