I awoke next to my Queen, the light of the rising sun pulling me from unconsciousness, I climbed out of the bowl we had dug the night before and stretched with a yawn.

after working out the stiffness in my limbs I opened the elytra lid on the water cavity on my sides and took a drink from a cupped hand.

As I was drinking, I heard my Queen shifting around and turned to see her standing and stepping out of the sleeping bowl, after a couple of steps she stopped and stretched as I had moments before.

"Good morning, Scarab, sleep well?" My Queen asked in her reverberating voice.

"I slept well, my Queen, you honour me by asking," I said giving a small bow.

My Queen shook her head, seemingly finding something amusing, "no need for that, Scarab, I was only asking how you slept."

She truly is strange for a Queen, not that I would ever dare say so, but I think I like this strangeness more than a normal Queen anyway. I thought to myself as my Queen finished her stretching and walked over to me.

I offered the open cavity to her, "please, take a drink, my Queen, I must leave soon if I am to reach the villages by midday, I feel I will have more luck if I arrive in the daylight rather than under the cover of night," I said as she took some water in her own cupped hand.

After taking a long drink, my Queen, looked Northwards, "Sounds good, Scarab, I will head north some way and see if I can find a good place to set up a Hive," she stopped for a moment and looked as though she was thinking, "Scarab, is there a maximum range on the Hive mind?"

I thought back on everything I knew and once again found holes where there should have been information, luckily I still had enough to answer my Queen's question, "there is, my Queen, but it is at least a hundred miles even with just the two of us so there shouldn't be any problem and when your eggs hatch each one will increase the range by adding their minds to the Link."

For some reason, my Queen looked a little uncomfortable, "maybe she is already feeling the need to lay, I must find a reliable source of Love soon, I can't fail my Queen!"

Hoping to distract my Queen from any discomfort I continued, "When you find the place you wish to claim as your new Hive simply call to me over the Link and I will make my way to you with all haste and if I don't hear from you before I have filled my affectus ventris I will come to you to deliver the Love."

My Queen nodded her head, seeming to forget whatever discomfort she was feeling a moment ago, "ok, sounds like a plan, Scarab. oh and don't hesitate to contact me, even if it's just to talk, I know we have been travelling for almost a week but most of that was me lea-... Me re-learning to fly, talking about flying or just sleeping so I still have some questions I would like to ask at some point," my Queen said.

"Of course, my Queen, I will check in daily and answer any questions you might have."

"Great, ok I'm going to head North along the hoofhills, I won't go further than the plateau so if I don't find a place by then we can regroup and think of what to do next," my Queen said with a nod.

"As you command, my Queen, I wish you luck in your search," I said with a bow before turning towards the North-East.

I walked to the edge of the cliff and with a jump took to the air, beginning the flight to the plains below.

As I flew through the quickly warming morning air I began designing the Zebra identity I would use to gather love for the Hive, I decided on a male with a strong yet lean build, a short mane and tail, and some light scarring, just enough to make my story of being a travelling nomad believable but not enough to seem rough or dangerous.
I would explain away my lack of possessions as having been the victim of bandits and that would also give me a reason for coming to the village in the first place.

With any luck the fact that I'm a victim of bandits will win some sympathy, not as good as love but certainly better than suspicion.
I thought as my flight took me down to the plains, I flew low, only a couple of body lengths above the ground, hoping that by doing so I would remain hidden from view and thus be able to fly until I was only an hour or so from the village at a trot.

After a couple of hours of uneventful flight, I could just about see the shapes of the huts in the distant village.

I slowed my flight and then landed in a patch of long grass, laying down in hopes of masking the red flash of the change. With a directed thought, the fire washed over me and my Changeling form was gone and in its place stood a young yet strong looking Zebra stallion.
I did a few small alterations to make myself look mildly dehydrated and then rolled on the ground to add some dust and dirt so I looked like I had been walking without much rest for a day or two.
After taking a last look over myself, making sure I looked just how I intended, I started the trot to the village.

After about an hour of walking through the short grass of the savanna, I finally made it to the village just after midday.

As I approached I could see that the village had a short wooden fence, its top being just below my eye level, it looked more to be for deterring wild animals from entering rather than defence against any attacking force.

TThe Zebras here had some fields growing some kind of grains and some other plants that I was not sure about the use of off to one side of the village, it too had a fence that was connected to the village main fence with the entrance leading straight into the village enclosure.

I could see several Zebras working within the field, some seemed to notice me as I made my way around the small wall and I could see one trot over to the wall separating the fields and the village, they seemed to be talking to somezebra on the other side, most likely warning of my approach.

As I made my way around the fence I saw an opening about two body lengths across, obviously being the main entrance to the village.
Looking through the open gate of the entrance, I was able to see the buildings of the village, there were around twenty-five small huts, all made of wood and pale mud walls with long dry grass for rooves.

It was then that I noticed what must have been some kind of village militia as ten or so Zebras trotted out ready to meet me several lengths before the entrance.

A muscular stallion at the front of the group stepped forward from the others, "hello, stranger, who are you? We don't get many visitors out here, what brings you to our village?" He said in the Zebra tongue in an authoritative but not threatening tone

Ok, you can do this, for the Queen! I thought to myself as I opened my mouth to answer.

"Hello, my name is mzururaji, I'm sorry to bother your village but I'm in some trouble. I was held up by bandits two nights ago and they threatened to kill me if I didn't give them all I was carrying, they took all my food and water, even my sleeping mat, I have nothing left. Please, I'm willing to work if you will help me," I said, trying to sound a little desperate but not grovelling.

"Well you do look like you haven't eaten or drank anything in a while, I suppose if you are willing to pull your weight we can feed you, but be warned, we will be watching you so don't try anything," the lead Stallion said before his face softened a little, "My name is Kwato Kali, I'm the lead stallion of this village, don't make any trouble and I'm sure we will get on fine," Kwato said beckoning me to enter the village with him, two of the other stallions following us while the other went back to whatever they had been doing.

We walked to the centre of the village where they had a stone well dug deep into the ground, Kwato grabbed a rope in his mouth and hooves and began pulling up a bucket of water, after a short time a wooden bucket with the rope looped through two holes at the top was pulled out and offered to me.

"Drink slowly, if you drink too fast it will make you sick, now you stay here and drink that and I will go and see about getting you some food," Kwato said as I took the bucket and started to take sips from it, "after that, we can find you some work that won't be too hard on you in your weakened state," he said as he turned and walked over to one of the huts, it was a bit bigger than most of the others and I could see some smoke rising out of a gap in the roof.

Most likely a communal food hut of some kind then, I mussed to myself.

As I drank I also noticed that the other two stallions had stayed with me.
Makes sense, I would be suspicious if they trusted me right away, anyway.

After about five minutes of slowly drinking to keep up my deception, Kwato came back with a wooden bowl on his back, "lunch was just about ready for the field workers so you can have some of that, you can also help them when they go back out, and don't worry, they won't make you do anything too back-breaking," He said, hoofing the bowl to me.

"Thank you, your kindness is truly appreciated," I said as I started to drink from the bowl, it seemed to be some kind of stew, but I hadn't eaten enough Zebra foods to say exactly what was in it.

As I sat and drank from the bowl I saw many Zebras coming into the village and all heading to the food hut, chatting amongst themselves as they entered, then coming back out carrying a bowl like my own and finding a place to sit and eat.

I had finished the bowl in fifteen minutes and stood up to take the bowl back to the hut, Kwato and the other two stallions seemed content to simply follow me as I entered the building.

It was reasonably large inside with a fire pit in the middle that had a large clay pot gently steaming in the glowing embers. To one side of the fire, there was a table where a few mares and stallions were cutting some kind of plants and root tuber before adding them to the pot, while on the other side there was another table with bowls being filled by a younger looking stallion.

I noticed there was a slowly growing pile of used bowls being added to by a Zebra.
I walked over to the table and added my own bowl to the pile and said a quick thank you to the stallion, who nodded with a smile as he continued to fill bowls from the clean pile.

Leaving the hut I looked around again before feeling a hoof on my shoulder, I turned and saw it was Kwato who had touched me.

"Come with me, some of the farmers will be heading back out soon and you should get introduced," he said as he began to
lead me to the entrance to the fields.

We walked past some more huts on what seemed to be a well-walked path and after only a minute or so reached the entrance to the fields.
There seemed to be a collection of Zebra nymphs or rather foals all being talked to by a young mare, she seemed to be telling them about the importance of weeding and removing harmful insects from the crops.

Kwato walked around the herd of foals and headed right to the mare.
"Moyo Wazi, I have another who is to join your group," he said as the mare turned to look at us.

Looking at me she smiled and said "He seems a little old to be under my care, Kwato, but I see he is also looking a little thin, light work?" She asked.

"You are correct, Moyo, he is a nomad that fell foul of some bandits, we are giving him food and shelter while he recovers and I figured working with your team wouldn't put too much stress on him," the stallion explained.

The mare nodded her head and looked at me, "My name is Moyo Wazi, but you can call me Moyo. I teach the foals who are to be farmers the basics, I guess I'll be showing you as well," she said with a little kind smile, "what's your name, nomad?"

I could almost see the positive emotional energy coming off of her, with most of the Zebras I could feel some contentment and friendliness but this mare was practically letting out waves of kindness.

This is perfect! I couldn't have ended up near a better source of love if I had planned this!

My internal celebration was ended when I felt another nudge from Kwato who was looking at me with a smirk on his face, looking back to Moyo I could see she had a hoof up to her mouth trying to hide a laugh.
I then realised my foolish internal self-congratulating had left me basically string at the young mare.

Fix this, you idiot! If you mess up like that again you will make them suspicious. If you are found out then it doesn't matter how kind the Queen acts, there is no way she will let you off for messing up a task directly given to you by her!

I quickly left out a cough into a raised hoof and said, "sorry, miss Moyo, my name is Mzururaji, it's good to meet you," I said giving her a slight bow of my head.

With a smile still on her face, Moyo nodded and said, "it's nice to meet you too, Mzururaji, now follow me and we will get you working."

She then turned and looked to all the foals standing before her and said, "come along, young ones, it's time to get back to work," as she lead them and myself into the fields.

I watched Scarab jump off the cliff and heard the buzz of his wings get quieter and quieter as he flew off.

Alone again, well not really, he's just a directed thought away but it's still uncomfortable being physically alone again.

Shaking off the feeling I looked out Northwards along the mountains, thinking about what exactly I wanted in a Hive location.

That is not something I ever thought I would be thinking. For now, I'll just get going and see if anywhere jumps out at me.

I was about to take off before I realised I was still holding onto my star opal, I definitely wanted to keep it after what Scarab had said about them but it was rather large to just lug around in my hands all the time.
I then had an idea, taking inspiration from Scarabs water holders I closed my eyes and concentrated, trying to visualise the change I wanted to happen.

I tried to hold the image of a ring with a gem in it, or more specifically the way the gem was held onto the ring with an indent and little claws to hold it in place and then imagined the same thing just on my chest between where my arms attached.

After a few seconds of concentration, there was a flash of red fire and I looked down the front of my body to see an indent big enough for my opal with what looked almost like clawed fingers around the top and bottom edge. After a few minutes of experimentation I found I could move the claws back and forth and with all the fingers out straight I could place the large gemstone in the indent and then flex the claws back to grip it leaving my hands free.

Not going to lie that is hella creepy, being able to do this is both cool and kind of horrifying, I'm like the monster in some sci-fi movie. I thought to myself.

After shaking off that thought I unfolded my large translucent insect wings and slowly buzzed into the air and started moving North over the hills.

It's odd to just be flying, I mean this is all odd but the way it already feels natural is really strange, This body adapts to things far faster than my human one did. You know I think I'll miss this part when I get home, if I get home.

As I flew over the arid hills my mind wandered back to the short journey Scarab and I had already made, despite having travelled for days we didn't really talk all that much, to be honest, only really having a conversation if I started it or asked a question.

He's still afraid of me, I know his life can't have been great, his own Hive cast him out and was going to cripple him then leave him to die after all and... I suddenly realised I hadn't actually asked why they were doing that to him, ok that will be something I should ask but maybe once we meet up again, I don't want to bring up something painful while he is trying to keep a cover.

I flew for hours along the hoofhills, mostly checking out rocky cliffs and gullies to see if there was anywhere that jumped out as a good location but every time I found a place I thought would be good there was either something I didn't like about it or in the case of one cave, they were already inhabited, FYI there are lizard dogs here, they would have been kind of cute if they hadn't tried to jump me!
Luckily I could fly and the lizard dogs couldn't so I was able to get away from them without having to fight.

By the time the sun was setting, I still hadn't found anywhere that seemed right to me, so I decided to settle into a small cave that was in a rock face next to a small stream that flowed down from further in the hills.

I wonder if Scarab's day has been more productive than mine, couldn't really be worse, well unless something bad has happened but he would have contacted me if that happened... Right?

I suddenly felt the need to check up on my Changeling, not that I didn't trust him to look after himself but I also had my doubts about if he would actually tell me something was wrong because of fear or just from a desire not to bother his Queen.

"Scarab, can you hear me?" I thought, trying to will my thoughts to my Changeling.

I hear you, my Queen, I was just about to report in, what do you need of me?" He replied, I felt that had he been standing before me he would be bowing right now.

"I'm just checking in, I haven't found a place that feels right for a Hive yet so I will keep looking tomorrow. How has your day been?" I asked.

My mission is going well, my Queen, I have infiltrated one of the Zebra villages and might even have secured a reliable source of Love! They have both fed and watered me and I have been allowed to sleep in one of the unattached stallion huts."

"Really? Well, I'm glad the Zebras are so friendly, with an entire village to collect from we shouldn't be in danger of starving any time soon," I said, quite happy to have one less thing to worry about.

"Well, maybe not the entire village, my Queen, not that they are unfriendly but they are naturally a bit wary of an outsider, I am even now being kept an eye on by a guard outside the hut. There is one Zebra that is far friendlier though, a mare that is in charge of teaching the villages young and she is positively brimming with Love! I have taken the form of a young adult male in his prime and with her caring attitude it should not be too hard to get her infatuated with my disguise and from there she will be easy to feed off for as long as we need."

That did not sound very nice to me, I really hope I'm misunderstanding here. I thought privately.

"Scarab, are you saying you plan to trick this Zebra into loving your disguise? That doesn't sit well with me, I get that we need the Love but that just seems really cruel. If she falls for your disguise she will be devastated when you suddenly leave, not only that it's just wrong to mess with people like that so if that was your plan I'm going to have to veto it." I say over the link.

"I live to obey, my Queen, but may I respectfully ask a question, your highness?" Scarab said in a nervous tone, once again it was like I could feel how he would be acting if he was standing in front of me and I could tell he was nervous to ask the question.

"Of course, please feel free to ask."

"Well it's just that, I'm sorry but I don't understand, my Queen, she is just a Zebra, why does it matter if she is upset? She is just food and it's not like we can't just pod her later anyway."

I had to stop for a second and process that.

The Zebras here are literally people, I know we eat their emotions but that doesn't mean we should abuse them! Bloody hell and so far Scarabs seemed like a mostly ok kind of guy and if this is his opinion on the Zebras I hate to think what other Changelings must think, I thought to myself, having trouble seeing how treating the Zebras as just food could be anything other the wrong.

"Look, Scarab, the Zebras might be where we get our food from but they are still people, we can't just abuse them because it's easier for us." I thought at him, shaking my head a little, "jeez, how would you feel if someone you thought loved you just abandoned you?"

My eyes widened as I instantly realised what I had just thought, it was a reflexive response to someone saying something like that, you know? How would you like it if that were done to you? It's the classic response when trying to get someone to see they should have empathy and without really thinking I had just tacked it on without really considering that he would already know exactly how that felt.

"Look, Scarab, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that in the way it sounded," I thought over the link.

"It's... It's ok my Queen, you're right, that's not a nice feeling, I'm sorry," he said in a smaller voice.

"No, Scarab, I shouldn't have said that, it was insensitive and cruel and you don't deserve to have what happened to you thrown in your face for not understanding something. Now, although I shouldn't have said it like that, I need you to understand we aren't going to treat the Zebras like that, we shouldn't hurt others just because it's easier to get what we want by doing so, do you understand what I'm trying to say?" I asked, trying to get across my point and apologetic feelings with the tone of my thoughts.

"I think so, my Queen, but you don't have to apologise to me, you're my Queen, you can say and do whatever you want to me."

"No, Scarab, just because I'm your Queen doesn't mean I should hurt you just because I can, just like we shouldn't hurt the Zebras for no reason." I thought while letting out a sigh.

I stayed silent for a few seconds and tried to think of a way to get actually Scarab to see the Zebras as more than just food.

Ok, here's what I want you to do, Scarab, I want you to try and make friends with this Zebra mare and I want you to try to actually mean it, I may not know Zebras all that well but I know most people I've met can love their friends and it might be good for you too." I thought to my Changeling.

"It will be done, my Queen," he replied.

"Ok, good to hear, I will check in again in the morning, let me know if anything happens before then, ok?" I said before letting the link fade from my mind.

I let out another sigh, as I curled up in the small cave.

I really need to be more careful with what I say, I don't think Scarab is going to hold it against me, he seems almost obsessively devoted to me but I don't want to say stupid shit that hurts him, he's been nothing but good to me so far, if a bit odd sometimes, I let out a large yawn, my mouth opening far further then felt normal, almost unhinging like a snake's, briefly reminding me of the battle with the other Changelings and that I could easily fit someling's head in my mouth now.

Shivering a little at the memory I tried to get comfortable and closed my eyes.
Once we are back together in person I should give him a hug, he seemed to really like the last one. I thought as I drifted off to sleep.

Author's Note

Wow, it's been a long time!

Really sorry for how long this one took, I got halfway through it and then I got stuck on how exactly I wanted it to go and when to end the chapter and then one thing lead to another, my mental health went downhill a bit, not fic related or anything super bad just enough that I didn't have the energy to write and that messed with my sleeping pattern and that made my energy even lower so all in all it was a bit of a shit show.

But saying that I'm starting to feel better, I've somewhat fixed the sleeping pattern, although there is still some work to do there and I went on a small holiday and that has helped me feel a bit better too.

All in all I hope to get back into the swing of things, although I may have to shorten the chapters, one of the big things with the delay was trying to get the chapters to about 3.5 to 4k words (it was 3800 before editing yikes) so I may aim for more like 3k and that way it will probs end up about 3.5k lol

Anway, I know there's not much action in this one, but there was moving about and introductions of the Zeebs so I hope that it was enjoyable.

Have a map update