Man, Mare, Machine

Paul and Walt continued to trudge through the thick forest, the former still stuck on Chrysalis duty. They had made fairly good time toward their goal, a location that they weren't fully sure of but which Chrysalis assured them they were nearing. Sometimes they were instructed to follow trails, sometimes to diverge from them. Either way, the continuous walking had taken them far outside of the scouted portion of the forest, forcing them to rely on Chrysalis completely if they hoped to get anywhere.

"We're close." Intoned Chrysalis, speaking for the first time in quite a while. She hadn't said anything for nearly half-an-hour since she had told them to keep going forward.

"To what exactly?" Inquired Walt. Unconcerned with appearance, Walt had removed his jacket, tying it under his suit with the excess fabric tucked into the back of his pants. To his credit, his refusal to remove the equally dark suit made it impossible to recognize the otherwise uncouth fashion statement.

"A changeling nest. Not a hive, just a small location that my people use when things are... complicated."

"Like a safe house?" Asked Paul.

"Well yes but I was hoping for a better comparison." Responded Chrysalis with a small added puff to show slight exasperation.

"Ah, gotcha."

"So where is it?" Walt hadn't objected to any banter prior but it was different when they had finally reached where they needed to be, especially after walking for what felt to be a generous portion of the day.

"It's not open to outsiders, I can call whatever changelings are there from here."

"How will they know you're here?"

"I've been releasing hormones for quite some time, leaving a trail through the forest. With the wind today, it should spread over quite a large area. All that my children need to do is reach our original trail and they can follow it straight to us."

"Why didn't you just tell us that was what you wanted to do?" questioned Paul.

"Would you really want someone to tell you that they're going to be using their scent glands to their greatest extent while you hold them the entire time?" She posed the question with an incredibly triumphant look on her face.

"Point taken." responded Paul as he quickly but carefully laid her on the ground. "I'm not going to get looks from them, am I?"

Chrysalis laughed at the honest worry evident in the question. "Maybe a few, I could always try overlapping the scent with pheromones, if that would work better."

The gap between Paul and Chrysalis widened, causing another laugh from the Changeling. "Not exactly pursuing a dream of unreserved romantic conquest, I take it?"

"I don't think that's for me."

"Well, either way, I don't think you'll need to be worried about changelings in your future." She thought to herself a moment before continuing. "I don't want to seem derogatory but... your kind... smell unpleasant."

"We smell, really?" Although static-laced, Paul's voice coming out of the mask was clearly amused.

Walt, finding a log to lay his jacket on before seating himself atop it, just sighed.

Nearly an hour had passed before they heard the first shifting in the foliage. "Come out, they are helping me." spoke Chrysalis in a clear, loud voice. Tentatively, several changelings of various sizes emerged from the brush, looking warily at the two humans present before approaching Chrysalis.

"Our queen." Spoke the changeling in the center before kneeling.

"Queen." echoed the three changelings behind him, kneeling as they spoke.

"Are you all there is? Where are the others?" asked Chrysalis. There was the unmistakable trace of worry hidden in her otherwise strong demeanor.

"My queen, the forest past here is untamed, there are many changelings there, but many are unable to fly and must move slowly to stay safe. We were lucky to be near the nest when we... landed. Most of the able-bodied are defending the... others. They will come, my queen, but they will be slow."

Chrysalis let the information stir a moment before reaching a decision. "I see... Then we will wait, once there are no more changelings coming, we leave."

"Mother, you show unlimited generosity to allow damaged changelings such as ourselves to walk alongside you."

Chrysalis showed little response to the honors bestowed on her. "Can any of you fly?"

Two changelings of the group extended their wings slowly, the thin membrane shining slightly against the dark backdrop of the forest. "We apologize to our queen, begging her for forgiveness, only two of us are able."

Once-more Chrysalis stayed silent as she thought. "The less damaged of you two will fly into the forest, look for whichever changelings are releasing the least fear, they will be the ones who are guaranteed to not be near anything dangerous. When you find them, bring them here. If they can fly, they will continue to gather more changelings. The more damaged one of you two will stay here and patrol this area from the sky."

"Our queen is fair." hummed the leader of the group. After briefly inspecting one-another, the two changelings with working wings decided on roles and took-off into the sky. The remaining group took places around the camp, all of them much closer to Chrysalis than to either Paul or Walt.

It wasn't long before more changelings began to appear, appearing just as often in groups as they did alone. Upon their appearance they were quickly ushered into the growing group of changelings before becoming completely indistinguishable from the others. Occasionally a changeling would fly away after reaching the camp, joining the group in the sky.

Some of the changelings watched the humans with suspicious eyes. More than one seemed ready to ask about the tag-along humans but, willing or not, none did.

The swarm continued to grow, spreading out further and further into the rather small clearing they had claimed as their camp. Paul was glad he had found a tree to sit against near the edge of the camp, it kept a favorable distance between him and the changelings. He would have liked to have tried talking to one of the changelings, but they were so tightly knit together that he felt his presence would go unappreciated. He did smile a little when he noticed Walt's log was becoming overrun with changelings as their numbers increased. After letting himself get bumped several times, Walt rose and marched across the camp before sitting himself against a tree adjacent to Paul's.

Neither of the men said anything to each other for quite some time, each idly watching as the occasional changeling appeared.  It wasn't particularly exhilarating, but it was that or looking at shrubbery, something they had both had their fill of. At a glance it looked as if their plan had succeeded quite well, there were certainly a lot of changelings. Closer inspection, however, showed that there were likely no more than fifty or sixty changelings total, hardly a number close to the original force they had heard Chrysalis mention. Even with the addition of the changeling flying above and deeper in the forest, they couldn't have numbered over one-hundred.

"Must be hard." Walt spoke suddenly, not even turning toward Paul. He seemed to be typing into a small device he had fished out of his suit. "The missing ones, I mean." He said it more as a thought, not so much as a conversation topic.

When Paul turned to look at Walt, he saw him removing a small clear tube from his ear, Walt apparently felt that translators were not appropriate for this conversation. Paul took the hint and switched his off as well. "Yeah." he said dumbly. He didn't know what else to say, what else was there to say? "Has to be horrible. The waiting, I mean."

"Probably," Walt placed his hands behind his head, "she's probably been expecting this since before you found her though."

"That doesn't make it easier."

"Of course it doesn't," he wriggled himself into a better position against his tree, apparently he had abandoned the plan of keeping his clothes spotless and was content to just keep them better than ruined, "but she should at least be able to keep herself together until we're done here."

"I don't think you can fake in front of a species that can tell what you're feeling."

"Oh please," Walt scoffed "from what I heard they had been ignoring her feelings for years. They let her invade a vastly superior country for God's sake."

Paul leaned forward from his tree, staring at his companion. "Is that how you actually feel about all this? She was a fool for trying?"

Walt just kept looking forward. Like in the cave, he seemed to be picking his words in advance with extreme care. When he spoke, it came out calm. "I'm sorry, that was cruel. I didn't think about what I was saying." He slid the tube back into his ear before closing his eyes, rotating himself away from Paul so as to use his jacket as a pillow. Walt made it very clear that he wasn't interested in holding a conversation any longer. Paul couldn't help but feel distinctly scorned at that moment. The way that Walt had said his apology had been oddly cold, even for him.

Paul found his attention brought back to Chrysalis. Sitting amongst her people she was stoic, regal. Even while sitting on legs that he knew couldn't actually support her, she managed to maintain her pride. He found that proud look eerily similar to Walt's, and the thought disturbed him. It looked almost challenging, like they had just demanded something and were waiting to receive it.

Time passed slowly in the camp, the night had come and gone with the number of new changelings decreasing every hour. By the time the sun had risen there had only been one changeling in almost four hours.

Chrysalis raised her head above the other changelings. "Paul, come here."

He complied, maneuvering through the changelings, popping joints until he reached her. "Yeah?" He got some looks after he said it. Of course casual speech isn't appropriate, you idiot. Chrysalis herself didn't look offended, but it did little to help.

"It's time to go, if you know what I mean." She gave a quick glance down toward her legs.

"Ah, okay. Just give me a second... my lady."

"Paul, are you alright?" Intoned Chrysalis as he heaved her into his arms. "You seem to be unusually fidgety." Of course she would notice his hands were unsteady in his position but he really wished she would keep it to herself.

"Just-" For the love of god man, do not tell her you're nervous around her people. "kind of cold by where I slept, hands got pretty cold and haven't warmed up yet."

Chrysalis eyed him oddly but let it go. He really hoped that she hadn't just read his feelings. Either way, he doubted she would have addressed the issue if she had, especially after he had bugged her about it. He had started to call-out for Walt but saw him looking over from their individual trees, mindlessly beating the collected dirt off his jacket. He wasn't looking at Paul, though, his gaze was clearly fixed on Chrysalis. Paul had noticed that particular quirk quite some time ago, Walt seemed to have a need to be able to see Chrysalis at all times from his current location. At first he had waved it off as part of his job but Paul felt that even a job did not require quite this much attention.

"Are you feeling well this morning?" asked Walt as they approached.

"Yes, I believe the sleep has done me some good." responded Chrysalis.

They are all smiles this morning, thought Paul, though I'm not sure what it is each of them have to smile about.

"I hope you are ready for quite a full day, because I'm going to promise you one."

"Where are we going now?" asked Paul.

"We're leaving the forest. If we haven't gone too much further than I think we have then we should reach the edge by nightfall today."

"What are we going to be doing outside the forest?" asked Chrysalis.

Walt lowered his stance so he could look Chrysalis in the eye. "I'm going to get you a kingdom."