Hello there, sorry for the republished chapter but I didn't know of any other way to try and make the edited version show up in the feed so people know it's been done.

This is an edited version of chapter 5, as some people pointed out, the older one was not up to the usual quality that I'm going for and I agreed, so here it is! There are about 500ish more words and some sentences have been altered to make them seem more like they are actually being said by a person and less like they are being read off a script. I have also clarified some things that needed a little more info to make clear.
All in all, I hope this is better than how it was before and if not well then at least I tried lol

After I had a small freak out from being reminded exactly what one of the main roles of a Changeling Queen was, I calmed down and got my mind back on track.

Turning to my Attendant, I asked, "so, which way did you say we should be going?"

"I hadn't yet, my Queen, but the best idea would be to head North, sticking near the hoofhills until we get near to the old bones, after that, we should head East into the Hive lands and try to find a Zebra village that is not in another Hives territory," he said.

As he talked, I could swear I was almost able to see the landmarks he described, rocky hills bordering the mountains, the shape of bones so large I have seen so-called mountains smaller, all the way down to how a Zebra village would look.

"Are you sending me images over the Hive mind?" I asked.

"Yes, my Queen, I apologize for their lack of detail but I've never been to the old bones myself and I don't know the specific village we will be going to so I'm having to go off my imagination," he explained.

I nodded my head, "no problem... my Attendant, You really need a name," I said, looking him up and down.

"I would be honoured to be named, my Queen," He said, bowing his head to me.

Ok, I don't think a normal name is really going to fit, well, it should be something cool but also meaningful. He is helping and supporting me while I learn how to function in this world, but this is also a new start for him as well so maybe it should be something to do with that. I thought to myself.

After a couple of minutes of thinking, I looked back to him and said, "ok, I have an idea but I want your input on it, I wouldn't want you to end up with a name you don't like."

"A name is a gift given by you, my Queen, I would never dislike something you gave to me," he said, sounding like he really meant it.

"I'm sure you wouldn't but I think it will be better if it's a name you also like," I told him before continuing, "my Idea is Scarab, I thought it sounded right since your starting a new life in my Hive and they represent new life," I said to him.

"Hmm, I've never heard that name before, my Queen, but I like it, and not just because you're giving it to me," he said with a small smile.

"I'm glad you like it, Scarab," I say with a nod.

Scarab had a beaming smile on his face, "Thank you, my Queen, I am honoured to receive a name," he said with a low bow.

"You're welcome, Now, we should get moving," I said as I looked towards the water, "we should also drink as much water as we can."

"As you say, my Queen, I will also carry some with me just in case we don't find another source of water on the journey," Scarab said.

I looked at him, noting his lack of water bottles and said, "as much as I would like that, how do you plan to carry it with no containers?"

"I will just make some extra chitin and leave cavities to hold the water," Scarab said as he walked over to the water's edge.

Suddenly the crimson fire washed over him again and when it was gone he looked a bit chubby, it was actually kind of cute in a horrifying nightmare bug kind of way. His grasping claws had also fused together into a cup shape and he started scooping up water and pouring it into openings on his back.

"I know you said we could look like other people to get Love but I didn't expect us to be able to do things like that! Is there anything about ourselves we can't change" I asked

"We can change most things about our bodies, my Queen, but it takes Love to make the change and the bigger the change the more Love is used, there are also some things that you can't gain from the change, like magical powers you didn't already possess," Scarab said as he finished filling his new water cavities, a small set of elytra like coverings moving over the opening like a lid.

"Ok, we have water for the journey, also you need to teach me how to do that at some point but we should really get moving now, we don't know how your old Hive will react and I would rather not hang around to get swarmed by a load of angry Changelings," I said, turning and starting to walk to the North.

After taking a couple of steps I heard the buzzing again and looked back to see Scarab hovering in the air, "if we fly till sunset then we should be able to make it almost half of the way to the old bones, it will probably take about two days in total, or maybe a little into three, my Queen," he said, looking off into the distance.

"Um, Scarab, I can't fly, how long will it take if we have to walk there? And will our Love supply hold out that long?" I asked.

The Changeling looked down at me with an expression of concern, "on hoof it will be at least eight days and that's if we trot all day, my Queen. Luckily we should have enough Love but we will have to minimise making any changes or using magic to conserve our supply."

Shit, what I wouldn't give to have a dune buggy right now... haha buggy.

Shaking off my stupid thought I looked back up at Scarab and said, "is there any way to teach me to fly quickly? you could show me stuff over the Hive link so could you just beam the knowledge into my head?" I said, imagining some matrix-like skill upload.

"Yes and no, my Queen, I can share the feeling of the muscle movements and the theory of flight but that will only help speed up learning, it isn't a replacement for real experience," Scarab said, landing next to me.

"Ok then share the feelings and I can practice while we move, we don't have time for me to sit around and learn," I said.

Scarab gave a nod and then seemed to concentrate for a couple of seconds, as he did so I started to feel a light pressure in my head, I rubbed just below my horn to try and get rid of the odd sensation.

"You need to let me fully link, my Queen, I can't transfer feelings over the normal communication link I can images," Scarab said.

Realising it was Scarab doing something over the Hive link and not the onset of a headache I relaxed and felt the pressure dissipate, then I suddenly felt like I had two bodies, the sensations of the smaller body were a little muted but definitely not coming from me.

"I will go over the movements now, my Queen, as you say, you can practice them as we walk, I don't know how much flying you did before your memory loss so you may also need to strengthen your flight muscles," Scarab said as he opened his elytra and started to move his wings, going through a load of different movements that would be used to pitch and angle himself while flying.

I committed the movements to memory, my new ability to remember things with perfect recall proving very helpful in the task.

After about ten minutes of going over wing movements, we set off north at a fast trot, my wings buzzing away on my back as we travelled.
By the late afternoon, I could actually get off the ground but I could only go straight up and stay there for a minute or two before getting tired.
Landing, although not terrible,other than the first couple of times, ouch, was defiantly not smooth either.

That night we slept in a small cave barely deeper than I was long, it was no more glamourous than my other sleeping places over the last few days but at least it kept the wind off and with another body laying against me it was almost comfortable.

The next three days went on much the same, trot and buzz over dry rocky hills and sleeping in a cave or under a rocky outcropping at night. By day four, I could actually fly forwards but my max safe speed was only a little faster than a gallop and I could only hold that for half an hour before having to land and landing had gone back to being a painful endeavour.

My bouts of flight did cut our travel time though and by the end of day six, we were resting near the top of a tall rocky hill, a little before the sun had fully set.
Off in the distance, under the glow of the still setting sun, I could see something that, quite frankly, shouldn't have been possible.
Laying on top of a distant plateau, that on its own must have been several hundred feet tall, was a truly enormous skull and what I could just make out as massive ribs going off into the distance behind it. The closest shape I could liken the skull to was that of a T-rex be longer in the snout and with what I thought were horns sweeping backwards, the fact that I could make out that much at what must have been at least eighty to a hundred miles was absurd.

"No living creature could possibly ever get that big, surely it would be crushed under its own weight! And what would it even eat?!" I said out loud, shaking my head at the ridiculousness of this world.

"No-ling knows, my Queen, I don't know of any reliable information on the old bones, but the Zebras have legends that say it was one of the gods that made the world, a builder of mountains and canyons, and that when it had finished its work, it simply lay down to die, giving its flesh to the earth that life might grow," Scarab said.

Huh, well it doesn't sound any stranger than some of the stuff back home I guess, I thought to myself as Scarab continued to talk.

"The Zebras don't often go there, they believe it's dangerous, not that the being was meant to be evil but that it is unsafe to walk where an old one rests, something about becoming one with the stones of the earth or something," Scarab explained.

Huh, creepy.

"So no villages there then?"

"Unlikely, my Queen, but there might be one in the planes below, most tribes try to stay away from the place but some smaller ones don't have much of a choice," He said as he scanned the flatlands to the West, "we should stay here tonight, my Queen, we can look for any sign of fires from our high vantage point and then head for any we find in the morning."

Scarab suddenly stopped and looked at me, "I will also need to show you how to shapeshift, you're a war Queen so your mimic field will be basically non-existent, I'm an Attendant so mine should be ok for this, but we will still have to make up some Zebra identities for ourselves."

"Ok one, what's a mimic field? And two, why does an Attendant have a better one than a Queen? I thought Queens are meant to be the most powerful cast," I asked.

Scarab looked rather uncomfortable all of a sudden and lowered himself slightly, seemingly trying to be as small as he could, "forgive me, my Queen, I mean no offence but it's not that Attendants have good mimic fields, not at all, ours are the same as any other non Infiltrators, it's just that, as a War Queen, you are most like a Soldier and Soldiers are known for having particularly weak mimic fields."

"Huh, well I guess that makes a kind of sense," I said before noticing Scarab was still trying to shrink into the floor, " will you please calm down, we have been travelling for days now and I haven't given you any reason to think I will suddenly turn on you," I said.

Scarab was getting better but even after what I had thought was a pretty intermate moment between us, he still would slip back into being afraid of me, like he expected to be harshly punished just for saying the wrong thing.

Your old Hive really messed you up, didn't they bud? I thought to myself.

At my reassurance Scarab straightened up a bit and began to explain in his textbook-like way of talking, "a mimic field, my Queen, is a magical and chemical aura that Infiltrator Queens, Infiltrators and to a lesser extent all other Changelings all have that makes non-Changelings see them either as friends or just unimportant while they are in disguise, it also makes them not notice inconsistencies with a Changelings behaver compared to the individual they are mimicking, it is a great passive supplement to more direct mind magic but only skilled Infiltrators or Infiltrator Queens really use that for more than minor spells."

That sounds absolutely horrifying but also really useful... If Infiltrator Queens get that, then I better get something cool as well, Scarab said I'm most like a Soldier but it better not be that I'm just really good at hitting stuff because if it is I will be royally pissed.

I had a sudden thought as we started to dig a shallow bowl to sleep in, "Scarab, I'm not angry or anything so don't freak out again but I feel like shapeshifting is something I should have been learning on the way here, it sounds like it's going to be more important than the flying is if we are going to go into a village so soon."

Despite my reassurance that I wasn't angry, Scarab quickly bowed his head again as he said, "I apologise, my Queen, the only reason I didn't show you how to do it sooner is because it will take less time to learn than the flying did. Muscle memory may not be able to be shared over the Link but how to feel for your magic can be, and once you can touch your magic, shifting is as simple as willing it so, it's simple to learn but can take time to master though, as you must add the detail of your new shape entirely from your mind, that is why taking the form of another being is easier than making up an identity from scratch. That being said we are only trying to mimic some nomads, not infiltrate the guards of a tribe chieftain so if our Zebra identities are a little bland then it shouldn't matter too much."

"Ok, that makes sense but what are we actually going to do once we get to the village? I mean I know we need to get Love but I don't think I would be able to hide my- hide my eggs in some small Zebra village," I said, still really not looking forward to my apparently imminent Queenly duties.

Scarab seemed to contemplate for a moment before saying, "you are right, my Queen, it might be best if we split up, I will go into the village and start to gather any love I can and you can search for a place to start the Hive. Once I have gathered some love I will make an excuse for leaving the settlement and rejoin you to start construction."

"Ok, sounds good, I assume I should look for a place with water and maybe somewhere defendable, just in case your old Queen sends someling after us."

"A rocky outcropping is often the sight of a new Hive, my Queen, water is easier to dig for than it is to find on the surface," Scarab said as he finished the sleeping bowl.

"Ok I will take a look around and see if I can find anywhere that seems suitable, you should still show me how to feel for my magic though, that sounds like it will be helpful even if I don't need to pretend to be a Zebra."

Scarab looked to the sky only barely illuminated by the last bit of the already set sun, "of course, my Queen, I will show you now and then we can get to looking for the fires of a village."

We laid down in the bowl and then, just like when he transferred the feelings before, I could feel what Scarabs body was feeling. This time instead of feeling his wings like before he instructed me to focus on his horn, it lacked the crimson glow it had had when he had used it to lift things but I could feel it doing something as he lifted a hand and I watched as it changed from a hand to more of a chisel-like shape.

I could feel, something, kind of like a warmth mixed with a light thrumming coming from the core of his horn and running down into his forehead and then deeper into his brain. I could feel the flow of Love energy being pulled from his affectus ventris and channelled up into the part of his brain just below his horn, felt how it was changed to become the crimson fire that let him change and how the fire was directed with his willpower.

"That is the feeling you are looking for, my Queen, now just mimic it and want the change to happen," Scarab said, still making the small change, over and over.

I lifted my right clawed hand and started to focus on the feeling of how the Love would move through me and then how it would be changed and willed into the red fire.
I fell into an almost meditative state, the rest of the world being blocked out as the feeling of moving the Love energy was all that I focused on, then before I even realised it, I had done it, the red flames rand over my hand and it turned into a solid chisel, just like the once Scarab had.

"You did it, my Queen, I knew you would take to it with ease, the change is part of body magic after all and that should come easy to a War Queen" Scarab said, a smile on his face.

Ok, maybe hitting things really good isn't all I get as a War Queen.

I focused again and this time the feeling of the energy was near-instantaneous, I looked to my chisel tipped limb and simply wanted it to be a hand again and just like that, the fire ran over it and I had a Changeling hand once more.

I let out a very manly giggle and smiled at Scarab, "this is going to be awesome, Thank you for showing me what to do, Scarab," I said as I grasped him in a hug, he only flinched for half a second too, before relaxing into my embrace.

"I live to serve, my Queen," he said, sounding more tired than he had only moments ago.

"Hey, are you all right? You sound like you're about to fall asleep," I asked him with a tone of consern.

"I'll be ok in a moment, my Queen, normally such a small change would not be a problem even done over and over but after travelling and having no top-ups of Love, doing the sustained rapid changes took a bit out of me," he said, suppressing a yawn.

"Why didn't you just say you were running low? You can have some more of mine," I said, leaning back so I could look him in the eyes and asking, "how do I do a Love transfer?" My tone showed that it was not up for debate.

"Grasp the Love in the same way you would to change but instead of changing it to the flames direct it to me," he said.

I pulled on the Love, taking about 30% of what I could feel and directed it to him as he said too.
Scarab opened his mouth and a pink mist seemed to seep from my horn and was drawn into his maw as he seemed to take a deep breath that went on far too long to actually be what he was doing. It was an odd feeling, giving away the Love, it was like it tried to cling to me, almost like my body didn't want to give it up and once it was gone it left a cold feeling behind in the place where it had been.

"Thank you, my Queen, you honour me," Scarab said, bowing his head again.

"You're welcome, I need you performing at your best, you are going to be collecting the Love we need, I'm counting on you and it's only fair you stay fed," I replied, giving him a light pat on the shoulder.

We went back over to the edge and spent the next hour or so looking out into the night darkened planes, in total we could see 4 villages but Scarab said there could be more that were simply not burning fires big enough to see at such a distance.
After that, we went back to our bowl in the dirt to sleep.

So, tomorrow, Scarab will go on the hunt and I will start looking for a place to make a Hive, I thought to myself.

I wonder what my family is doing right now, it's been more than a week at this point, they will have got the news that I'm missing and even if I could talk to them they wouldn't even recognize me, I let out a sad sigh and curled my large body around Scarabs smaller form, swiftly drifting off to sleep.

Author's Note

Wow, this chapter is so late I'm really sorry about that, I wasn't well at the end of last week and had only got about 1k words by Saturday so I thought it better to leave it than release something short and half baked.

The plot is actually starting to move again, slow as it may be. I know I'm being very wordy and kind of slow pacing wise but I've always thought that a slower pace is better than one that's overly fast, it should pick up a bit in coming chapters, although that doesn't mean there won't still be chunks of world-building, I really like to do world-building and I feel it makes the world more believable in the long run.

Anyway, I hope you like this Chapter, a bit small but this seemed like the best stopping point for now, see you in the next one!

I have altered the map, pray that I alter it further as needed.