Another Mother

Chapters

Prologue: Arriving Alive
Chapter One: AND NOW, THE FIGHT SCENE
Chapter Two: Welcome to the Hive
Chapter Four: Jin and Jod, Disguises Flawed
Chapter Five: Fie and Fly Aren't Quite as Shy
Chapter Six: Zan and Zod Spot Some Odd Pod Squads
Chapter Seven: Pik and Snik Pick a Thick Brick to Kick
Chapter Eight: Lun, Lod, Trespassers Trod
Chapter Nine: Devourer and the Dreaded Ichabod
Chapter Three: Hot and Tot's Sing or Spot

Prologue: Arriving Alive

Electricity crackled lightly through the air in the dark, damp tunnel. After a few moments, a dim blue glow lit up the surroundings: in the darkness there was naught but stone and dirt… but there was something just outside the reach of the gathering energy. Something was embedded into the wall, and as the field of blue grew slowly the electricity eventually reached the small gem that lay untouched in the rock, barely visible sticking out of the wall.

The energy reacted and the field quickly moved to center itself on the gem. As though using it as a focus point, the energy gathered in closer to the gem, shrinking to cover it more densely with the energy. After a few moments, the field had expended itself to cover the gem in a solid ball of light. There was silence…

Lightning suddenly began flashing from the gem, striking the nearby walls and rocks. It homed in on other nearby gems that had not been dug out of the walls, and before long there was a small network of arcing electricity; a web of blue energy. The lightning stopped flashing and instead formed a solid, steady connection between each gem.

There was one final clap of thunder as the energy in the web suddenly drew inwards, into the tunnel. There was a bright flash and a series of thumps and thuds as a number of things were dropped into the dark tunnel. The light faded on a series of fourteen unconscious beings, all lying on the damp, cold stone floor.

Silence and darkness reigned in the tunnel once more.

“Mm…… wha… what?” A voice broke through the silence of the tunnel, some time long after its owner’s arrival.
“What is… where am I!?”

The being rose, startled by the sudden change of scenery. It raised its left hand and extended its pinkie finger. Powerful magic began to emanate from it, and after a few seconds the being was cloaked in flames that lit up the large tunnel. As the flames began to die down and a steady glow settled in their place, the being looked about and got a hold of its surroundings.

It appeared to be in a tunnel. A mine of some sort? There were small chunks missing from some of the stone walls, indicating that someone had been digging there. Where…? A sound interrupted the being’s thoughts. There was groaning from the floor nearby. It moved to the familiar shape, startled by what it saw.

The being on the floor opened its eyes and looked up at the one standing over it. It reacted with shock at first, gasping at the sight.

“Mother?” It said in disbelief. Then… it began to smile. A huge grin broke out across its red face.
“Mother, is that you?”
“Yes, my child,” she replied. She had been as surprised as the being on the floor was at seeing it, but chose to spend her shock in silence. “Ichabod…”

The being on the floor leapt up and embraced its mother, lifting her off the ground. She was suddenly glad that the tunnel ceiling was high.

“Ichabod, you can put me down now,” she said smiling. It had been a long time since she had seen her son, and she had never expected to do so again.
Ichabod set his mother down on the floor and looked around at the other beings lying on the floor. “My brothers and sisters…” he said, confused. “…mother… are we…?”
His mother shook her head. “I don’t know. Does that mean that you, too…?”
Ichabod flinched when he realized that she didn’t know. “…yes” he replied after a shameful moment of silence.
His mother shook her head again before replying. “It doesn’t matter. We’re all together again, and that’s what matters.”

Ichabod nodded, smiling again. Together, the two began to wake Ichabod’s siblings. Most drew back in shock and fear at seeing Ichabod again, but his smile and their mother’s presence calmed them down before anyone reacted violently. When they were all awake, they all filed into an odd line in front of their mother as she looked over them.

“Hello again, my children…” she said after looking over the group. She seemed very happy to see them all, and that made them happy as well.
“So…” she said after a moment of happy silence. “Does anyone here know where we are?”
One of her smaller children spoke up. “Hell?”
His twin brother replied, “Hell’s supposed to be hot you idiot, and there’s no fire here!”
The first one reacted. “Oh yeah? Well aren’t you the smart one? Didn’t see that much cleverness in the fight with Ichabod!”
“What!? You died at the same time as I did!”
“Yeah, I was relying on YOU to watch my back!”

Their mother facepalmed as the argument continued. She had almost forgotten how much they all liked to fight with each other, a trait that was now showing itself once more as the rest of her children gathered around and encouraged the two to break out into a fist fight. While the two proceeded to try and beat each other senseless while shouting insults, their mother looked around the tunnel.

Upon observing the walls, she discovered that they had not been dug by ordinary tools, which surprised her as she had thought the tunnel to have been dug by dwarves or such. Instead, it looked like the walls, floor, and ceiling had all been shaped by claws. The claw marks were more visible in the spots where things seemed to have been dug out of the walls.

“You lame muddlet!” *smack!*
“You did NOT just call me that!” *pow!*
“Enough!”
The two fighting siblings stopped fighting and grumbled as they separated into the crowd of children.
“We’ll have to find our way out of these caves,” their mother continued. “Is everybody ready to go? We don’t know how far these caves go.”

There was a quiet murmur of agreement. “Then let’s get started,” she said as she began walking down the tunnel, having picked a direction at random and with her small herd of children following her.

The group walked for several hours, taking breaks as needed. The herd followed their mother closely so that none would get lost intersections, and they talked amongst themselves in the meantime. The glow of her magic was enough to light up at least forty feet out into the darkness, which was more than enough to light up the width of the large tunnel as well.

“What do you think they mean?” one of the twins from the fight before asked his brother.
“What do you think what means?”
“What? What… mean?”
“What do you mean, what do you think they mean?”
“Mean? You mean… oh. You mean, what do you think.”
“No, I mean, what do you mean, what do you mean, you think?”
“…”
“…”

There was a moment of silence as the two contemplated the butchered conversation before the first one spoke up again.

“The pictures on the walls.”
“What?”
“The walls. Some of them have pictures carved or painted onto them.”
“Oh, those.”

The group stopped at a large clearing. Their mother intensified the glow to encompass the entire intersection of four tunnels and turned to her group.

“We’ll take another rest here. I think we’re almost out, so we should be well-rested by the time we exit. We don’t know where we are or what awaits us, so we should be ready to deal with anything.”
She looked upwards. “If we are indeed in the underworld, then what is above us will need to be dealt with with force, if that can even be done. If not, we may still be in Deltora and will have to deal with what I presume to be the united tribes. If that is the case, we’ll find a hiding place and come up with a plan later.”

She then waved for her following to disperse in the room and sat down, conjuring a small fire in the center. Several children sat down near her, warming themselves on it while the twins from before observed a wall.

“See?” The first one pointed out a carving on a wall.
The carving depicted a group of horse-like creatures, some with horns and some with wings. There were long lines cut through the picture, parallel to each other and running down the entire scene.
“Yeah, I see. It’s creepy.”
“Why do you think that?”
“I don’t know, it’s just something about those lines there. See how they rake across all of the horses?”
“Rake?”
“Rake.”
“We’re in a tunnel. Rake… shovel?”
“Shovel… digging. Digging the tunnels with a rake?”
“Rake cutting stone?”
“Shovel cutting stone.”
“I thought there was a rake.”
“Raked the stone with the shovel, you idiot!”
“Ohhhhh…… unless it wasn’t a shovel.”
“Not a shovel?”
“Maybe a hoe.”
“Nah, it had to have been a rake.”
“Why?”
“Rakes are sharp.”
“But rakes aren’t THAT sharp.”
“This one might’ve been.”
“How do you know?”
“The only other thing that rakes that hard other than a really sharp rake is claws.”
“Oh okay, so it has to be a rake because it couldn’t have……. been………..”

The two suddenly grew silent and looked back at the lines. Claw marks. Their faces grew pale, realizing the size of creature that would have to be digging these tunnels to cut stone with its claws.

“Do… d-do you think it’s a Vraal?” The second one asked.
“No… Vraals don’t dig like this, unless there’s something to kill that they’re digging towards…”
“What’s going on over here?” Their mother asked, suddenly behind them. She had apparently decided to join them in looking at the wall.
“GAH!”
“Don’t be afraid, it’s just me. I’ll protect you from anything down here, now what’s this about claw marks?”

The two pointed at the wall, where their mother saw the carvings. She recognized crudely-carved unicorns and pegasi, all seemingly traveling in a herd. She observed the claw marks; they were deeper than the rest of the carvings, indicating that they had been done without care for detail and were more than likely a spur-of-the-moment addition. Anger, maybe?

There was a gasping noise down one of the hallways that caught the attention of everyone in the room. The woman and her children quickly gathered in front of the tunnel, the children beside their mother ready to fight rather than hiding behind her. The woman raised her finger towards the noise and sensed something in the darkness, beyond the glow of her light spell.

Digging once more, ah it feels good!
I think I left a few gems down here, but I’m not sure if they’re of good enough quality for the queen…
Ah well, it should be a good snack at least. Nothing goes to waste down here, heheh.

“Do… d-do you think it’s a Vraal?”

What? Was that a voice!? Who could be down here, and what’s a Vraal?
I don’t recognize the voice…

“No… Vraals don’t dig like this, unless there’s something to kill that they’re digging towards…”

…I don’t think that’s any changeling. It’s coming from over in this direction….
……………………light… there’s light over here. What is—
WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE DEAR QUEEN ARE THOSE THINGS!?

Chapter One: AND NOW, THE FIGHT SCENE

Note: the very violent fight scene. Fair warning.

The magical field of light expanded to encompass what was in the darkness, and it didn’t move to escape it. A moment later, the children and their mother saw what had found them down there in the tunnels.

A huge humanoid creature stood before them, eyeing them carefully; the light seemed to dim considerably within a small radius around. It stood at what the childrens’ mother estimated to be between nine and ten feet tall, with a dragon-like head and a form of black chitin covering its body. It vaguely resembled a Human in shape, with two arms and two legs, but its arms reached entirely to its knees and it had claws on its hands and feet.

Ngh, they see me… again, what ARE they!?

Ichabod stepped forward, the only one of her children that rivaled the beast’s size. Several others stepped up behind him as well, ready in case he somehow fell to the monster before them.

They’re organized… and that one is using magic of some kind.
I can taste the aura of it in my mouth…
I’ve never eaten magic like this before.

After several tense moments, Ichabod whispered. “Mommy… what is it?”
“I do not know,” she replied. “I know many legends and tales regarding Deltora’s creatures, but… I’ve never heard of or seen anything such as this…”
“And you speak,” the creature said out loud in a grating, gurgling voice.

The act of speaking startled the group, but they recovered quickly. Their mother replied to the creature.

“What are you?” she asked firmly. She could feel the light magic being tugged at as it got closer to the creature but she held no fear of it.
It looked past Ichabod (having to lean a bit to do so). “I am a… guardian of sorts. If you comply with me, I will take you in gently,” it continued past answering her question, “but if not…”

The beast cracked its knuckles, showing off the size of its hands; it could easily grab her around the waist with just one of them. Ichabod stepped further towards it and took an aggressive stance.

“We’re not going anywhere!” he yelled at it. “You’re not going to so much as lay a hand on our mother!”

Mother? They are her children…?

‘Ichabod should be able to handle this,’ she thought. ‘If not, I’m sure I can find a spell that will get through that neat little anti-magical aura while the rest keep it busy. I just hope it’s not as strong as it looks.’

Her face…… I see… concern……………………….. hm…

‘This thing wants to hurt us… I won’t let it do that. I won’t let anyone hurt my mother AGAIN!’

Ichabod charged.

“Hahaha, tell me another one, Juke!”
“Of course my Queen!”

Juke was Queen Chrysalis’ royal jester, and a good friend of hers. A little cowardly, as those of his position usually are, but loyal nonetheless. He was constantly coming up with new jokes on the fly, and was always quick to please anyone whether it be his queen or a sad sibling.

“My Queen, have you ever heard of the no-me-neether?”
“…no…”
“ME NEITHER!”

Chrysalis stared at him for a few seconds while he fell to the floor in laughter before she finally got the punch line. She gave a little laugh; he wasn’t ALWAYS top notch, but he at least tried.

Suddenly, the hive shook. There was a moment of silence as they awaited further tremors, which did not come. Several servants appeared by Chrysalis’ side, ready to take a command. She thought for a second before giving them orders.

“Servants,” she said, turning to the left side of the group of eight, “I want half of you to check the housing section that was scheduled to be renovated, in case it has collapsed unexpectedly. I want the other half—” she turned to the right side, “—to check on the Devourer, in case he’s been caught in a cave-in again. He informed me that he was to be mining today, and we all remember what happened last time the tunnels collapsed on him.”

The servants dispersed in the directions of their goals. Juke came out from hiding behind the throne, where he had rushed upon feeling the tremor.

Chrysalis sighed and laughed. “Juke, you can go now.”

Juke hurriedly bowed and ran from the room, tripping and falling on his face once in the process. Chrysalis recalled that he’d been doing this ever since he copied the form of a certain unicorn that had wandered too close to the nest but got away… either way, it hadn’t harmed anything yet and it was kind of funny.

Chrysalis stood from her throne and walked to the huge stained glass window behind it. Well, it was sort of like stained glass: it was more of a thin membrane that had hardened into a substance resembling glass. In addition to copying other beings’ forms, changelings were masters of replicating substances as well.

She looked out the window and into the mountains that surrounded it. It was a location that was difficult to find by most species, and so the hive was safe there for the most part. Occasionally a travelling pony or gryphon got the bright idea to take a shortcut through the mountains to get between the Glass Sea and the territory of the Dallis (a tribe of primate reptilian creatures) faster than travelling around them, but most simply figured it was too much trouble since the mountains were too high.

She gazed out over the scenery, another reason that having the hive in the mountains was a good idea. Changelings certainly had an appreciation for beauty, even if their views of it were slightly different from what other races might value. Mountains just happened to be one type of scenery that they enjoyed in common with others.

Chrysalis looked down towards the clear area around the hive. She recalled that the Devourer had a set of tunnels directly beneath the surface there, specifically so that if need be he could quickly ambush enemies that approached. If something was too big to ambush effectively, then it would break through the relatively thin ceiling of the tunnels and be slowed by the holes created. With this in mind, she pondered the heavy thumping sound that was audible even up on the second floor and through the glass in front of her, coming from the ground down there.

Her questions were answered when a part of the ground erupted upwards and a creature came flying up into the air: her loyal servant and guardian of the hive, the Devourer. It arced backwards, its eyes and maw clenched from the impact. It landed and rose to its feet as a variety of other strange creatures began to emerge from the hole that was created, many of them seeming to relish in being out of the tunnels.

One in particular, though, caught her attention: the first to come out, looking like a huge sack of baggy red flesh with a toothy mouth; whenever it moved one of its limbs beyond a certain point in its range of motion, the skin pulled tight to reveal powerful, dense muscles. It had a body shape similar to the Devourer’s though much thicker, and even stood a little taller than it. It looked angry.

It charged at the Devourer once again, hitting it dead in the chest with a bull rush but stopping short at letting it go tumbling instead of carrying it forward. Yeah, it was definitely angry.

The Devourer stood up again, covered in dust from being slammed around in the tunnels. Ichabod stood before him, still angry. His siblings and mother remained by the hole.

As Ichabod approached the Devourer again and readied yet another blow, the twins from before got an idea. They positioned themselves in the field where they could be heard by everyone involved and began… singing, coordinating their voices so that it sounded like more than just the two were harmonizing.

The Devourer and Ichabod continued fighting, ignoring the battle music. The mother of the group, though, stood near the back of the group. She was satisfied with how well Ichabod was doing, but… why wasn’t this creature dead yet? Ichabod had landed several crushing blows so far that she had been sure would have killed it, yet it just kept getting back up. In addition, she could tell that it wasn’t really fighting back; any blows it struck were very light and had no effect on Ichabod, and it was taking more hits than it should where it could have dodged. Something wasn’t right…

Ichabod slammed the Devourer into a stone wall near the edge of the clearing, holding it up against it by the throat. He began to squeeze the plating just below its head.

“You wanted to hurt my mother. Do you have any last words, monster?” Ichabod said with a wicked grin.

The Devourer opened its eyes. It held up both of its hands in front of Ichabod’s face rather than attempting to pry his fingers from its throat. It held up four claws on each hand.

“Forty four,” it said perfectly clearly, even though Ichabod was sure that it couldn’t be getting air with its throat between its hands.
It then reared one of its hands back and struck Ichabod in the side of the head with a tremendously powerful, staggering punch. Ichabod stumbled sideways, releasing the Devourer from his grip.
“One,” it said.

The Devourer looked to Ichabod’s mother, observing her reaction. She seemed to have been expecting something like this to happen; she had guessed that it was gauging Ichabod’s strength. The Devourer looked back to Ichabod as the twins continued to sing.

Chrysalis’ servants suddenly flew out of the hole that the group of children were gathered around and rushed to the side of the Devourer before they could be caught, having figured out what was going on quickly.

“No,” the Devourer commanded them as they attempted to take up fighting stances next to him. “This is my fight.”

The four servants reluctantly backed down. By now, Ichabod was recovering from the surprise attack, but the servants figured out something they could do. They took up positions near the twins, who were surprised but continued to sing. Then… the changelings began to sing as well. The twins smiled for a few seconds and then adapted their singing to the new tune, assisting it.

Ichabod charged at the Devourer again in a rage. He swung his right arm in a powerful right hook, but the Devourer ducked beneath it. It twisted its torso at what seemed to be an impossible angle while folding its right arm and pointing it upwards. It then moved itself upwards very quickly, connecting its right elbow with Ichabod’s jaw and knocking his head upward. As it continued its motion, its left arm revealed itself to be in the form of an uppercut that immediately followed the upwards elbow, also hitting the now-stunned Ichabod square in the jaw and lifting him off the ground a little bit.

“Two, three.”

Before Ichabod landed on his back, the Devourer twisted back to his normal stance and did a jump-slam onto Ichabod’s chest with both fists, further stunning him.

“Four, five.”

The Devourer climbed on top of Ichabod’s immobile form, ignoring the tingling running through its back. It was feeling spells of an alien type hitting its hide, each having no effect. Ichabod’s mother was trying to protect him.

It sat on Ichabod’s chest and began repeatedly hammering Ichabod in each side of his head with its fists. It counted off each blow, Ichabod too stunned to react.

“*POW* SIX *POW* SEVEN *POW* EIGHT *POW* NINE *POW* TEN *POW* ELEVEN *POW* TWELVE…”

The Devourer felt several more, much stronger spells hit its back. It continued the assault, continuing to beat Ichabod senseless. The twins' singing stopped, but the changelings continued.

“*POW* THIRTEEN *POW* FOURTEEN *POW* FIFTEEN *POW* SIXTEEN *POW* SEVENTEEN *POW* EIGHTEEN *POW* NINETEEN *POW* TWENTY…”

Ichabod’s mother gathered a lightning bolt into her hands and hurled it at the Devourer in desperation; the bolt vanished into its hide without a trace. The Devourer took notice and stopped its beatdown for a moment, looking over its shoulder at her with a wide grin that chilled her.

It was counting up to the number it had stated before it knocked itself free from her son. Whether it was counting towards unconsciousness or death, though…

The Devourer turned back and continued slamming Ichabod’s head, right as he had begun struggling to get free again. Ichabod’s siblings reacted, moving to assist him but the changeling servants stood between them and the fight, carrying on the tune without the twins even as they assumed fighting stances. The children recoiled; if the large one could do this to their strongest brother, what could the smaller ones do?

The Devourer continued as Ichabod’s mother kept hurling progressively more powerful spells at it. Lightning bolts, fireballs, transformation spells, agony spells; they all vanished into its body with no effect.

“THIRTY EIGHT.”
There was no choice.
“THIRTY NINE.”
It had to happen.
“FORTY.”
The Devourer raised its fist to strike the next blow when it heard a cry from the crowd behind it.
“STOP!”

It froze. The servants stopped singing. Ichabod was not moving.

“Just….. stop………. We’ll… we’ll go with you…” Ichabod’s mother said painfully. The thought of obeying another’s orders once more angered her, but her son…

The Devourer climbed off of Ichabod and stood next to him. It motioned for his mother to approach.

Ichabod’s mother complied, walking out of her group of children and past the changelings. She reached the Devourer.

The Devourer lowered its arm to waist-level. “You and—“
“What about Ichabod?” she asked, interrupting it. Oddly, it didn’t treat the interruption as an insult.
“He will be alright. Just unconscious for a while,” it said in an assuring voice.
“……alright.”
“You and your group will come with me. My brothers and sisters will carry your unconscious son, and the others will follow us. This is understood?”
“…yes.”
“Then come!” The Devourer said loudly enough to startle most of her children. It picked her up by the waist with its other hand, stood, and then placed her sitting on its other arm.
“I have someone I wish you to speak with," it said in the same volume with a wide smile.

The Devourer stood and called for a small swarm of changelings, which grabbed Ichabod at various points on his body and began to (slowly) follow them while flying low to the ground. The herd of children followed as well as the Devourer led them all into the hive.

Chapter Two: Welcome to the Hive

The mother and her brood stood shoulder to shoulder in front of Queen Chrysalis, save for Ichabod who was only now regaining consciousness and making sounds akin to that of a whale call. Changeling commanders and assorted guards stood at-hand, ready to react in case someone got the bright idea to attack their queen or run, in addition to a host of normal changelings.

Chrysalis looked the group over, having seen the fight. They were certainly varied in appearance, but she stopped in front of the one that truly interested her: the mother. Chrysalis looked her up and down, trying to recall if she had ever learned of something with her description. After a few moments of thinking, much to the woman’s annoyance, Chrysalis backed up and addressed her.

“Who are you?” she asked curiously.
“My name… is Thaegan,” was the reply. “I am the sorceress Thaegan.”
“Thaegan…” the queen repeated. “I do not believe I’ve ever heard of someone by that name, and considering the power of your spells that you displayed in the fight with my servant I would think you would be quite famous.”
Thaegan remained silent.
“If you don’t mind me asking… what are you, exactly?”
Thaegan seemed surprised. Surely she was joking…?
“I’m a Human…” she said. Did this hole-proliferated unicorn bug really not know what a Human was?
“I’m afraid I don’t know what that is…”
Of course.
“But…” the queen continued, “my servant, the Devourer, told me something. These… the, uh…” The queen seemed to lose the word she was looking for as she looked awkwardly over the mixed crowd before her. “…they… are your children?”

Thaegan looked over her brood, all who looked back at her with worried expressions. Normally they were only scared of her previous master, the Shadow Lord, or their brother Ichabod when he got out of control… but now they were in an unfamiliar place, being held captive by unfamiliar creatures. They were afraid, and that was something that was highly uncommon for them. She sighed.

“Yes,” Thaegan said. To her confusion, the queen’s eyes lit up. What was…?

A loud groan interrupted the conversation. Ichabod began to stir and sit up, and the Devourer, who had been standing behind him through the conversation, backed up a bit in anticipation.

“Miss Thaegan, will your son here be a problem? I think you should speak to him before he does something…” Chrysalis said, staring at Ichabod as he shook his head.

Thaegan quickly approached her waking son and called his attention to her, so he wouldn’t spot the Devourer first.

“M… mommy?” he said confusedly when his vision cleared. He seemed a bit dazed still.
“Mommy’s here, Ichabod. It’s okay now,” she replied soothingly.
“Did I get ‘im? Are you okay? What about my brothers? And my sister?”
“They’re okay, Ichabod, they’re okay.”

Ichabod sighed with relief and leaned down to hug his mother. In the middle of the hug, he opened his eyes and saw where he was. He looked around at the changelings that surrounded them, thankfully not spotting the Devourer behind him.

“Ichabod, I need you to listen to me,” Thaegan said, placing a hand on each side of Ichabod’s face.
Ichabod nodded in response.
“Right now, you can’t start a fight. You cannot fight any of these creatures, and if you see the one from before you can’t even fight him. Do you understand?”
“......I didn’t get him, did I?” Ichabod said sadly.
Thaegan closed her eyes and smiled. “You kept us safe, my child, and that’s all that matters.”

Thaegan turned to Queen Chrysalis again. Strangely, Chrysalis seemed to have been enraptured by the conversation with Ichabod. When they made eye contact, Chrysalis briefly shook her head before saying anything.

“Well…… it’s good to see that your son won’t be causing any problems,” she said after taking a moment to find her words.
“Just be careful. He has…” Thaegan turned to look at a sheepish Ichabod for a moment. “…temper problems.”
Chrysalis closed her eyes and nodded. “I understand, we’ll be sure to keep it in mind. But now, for what I was speaking of earlier.”

Chrysalis cleared her throat a bit before continuing.

“You and your children appear to be from a foreign land, lost in our own. You use a different type of magic than any we’ve seen, and you are all creatures that are alien to us. But it’s obvious to me… that you love your children dearly and you want no harm to come to them.”
Thaegan looked confused. Where was she going with this…? If they wanted them gone, wouldn’t they have just thrown them out already?
“Thaegan, I am Queen Chrysalis. All of the changelings you see here are my swarm, my children. I understand your concern for your childrens’ safety, and the love between you is intense. Thaegan… since you are lost in a dangerous land, I am to presume that you have nowhere to stay right at this moment?”
A look of surprise appeared on Thaegan’s face. Was she really…?
“Sorceress Thaegan… would you stay here in the hive with us, at least until you are ready to leave?”
Thaegan’s expression of surprise turned to shock. She had been thinking that this was where Chrysalis was going, but to hear it out loud and so bluntly…
“We have a small library of books that may help you get up-to-date on this land. We have full food pods, and feeding fourteen more won’t exactly be a major strain on our food supplies considering that I have several hundred children!” Chrysalis laughed, motioning to the many changelings that surrounded them.
“And of course you’re safe here!” she continued, pointing to the Devourer. Ichabod began to stand but relaxed when he felt his mother’s touch. “The Devourer is a magnificent protector, and past him there are many, many more than capable guards… and myself, of course, a queen has to know how to fight.”
“We can more than accommodate for you and your children… will you at least consider it?” She finished.

Thaegan thought about the proposition. They did indeed need somewhere to stay, and if they were to join these “changelings”, then they would indeed be very well protected. They had been offered shelter, food, knowledge, and safety in a land that they knew nothing about… she looked over her children, which were already looking around the room and inspecting the architecture. They were obviously anticipating the answer that she was moving towards.

Thaegan sighed. “I… I suppose we shall—“
“WONDERFUL!” Chrysalis interrupted. “Thaegan, you will not come to regret this, living among my swarmlings will be a unique, wonderful experience!”
“But,” Thaegan interjected, annoyed. “I must ask something first.”
Chrysalis calmed down. “Of course, what do you want to know?”
“Are we to answer to you? Are we to be treated as your servants?”
Chrysalis became quiet for a moment. “…you will have to answer to me… but I will ask very little of you. The only thing I ask of you is to get along with my children and keep your own under control. If you wish to make a major alteration to the hive or to leave it for a significant amount of time I need to be informed, but otherwise you have free reign.”
Thaegan had heard the “ask very little” thing before. One time in the past, she had been asked to simply keep a gem safe, and recalled how it had led to her death when a group of adventurers came for the gem and killed her. Granted she would have attacked them for being in her territory anyways, but all the same… she looked across her children again, all of whom were looking back at her expectantly. They wanted to stay.
Thaegan sighed. “We will stay,” she said after a long pause.

There was a large round of cheering in the crowd around her. She looked about and noticed a few of her children cheering as well. Perhaps this wouldn’t be so bad.

Chrysalis smiled broadly. “Now then!” she said. “Would you care to introduce your children to us? I cannot introduce all of mine, sadly, for obvious reasons…” she chuckled.
Thaegan nodded and then walked to one side of her line of children. She called out their names as she walked back past them while the noise died down.
“Their names are: Hot, Tot, Jin, Jod, Fie, Fly, Zan, Zod, Pik, Snik, Lun, Lod, and of course my wonderful Ichabod.”
The swarm and Chrysalis paid close attention to the names, memorizing them and matching them to each child’s unique appearance. When she was done, Thaegan approached Chrysalis again.
“What happens now?” she asked.
“Now,” Chrysalis replied, “we get you and your children some food! You may not know the food of this region… tell us, what do you usually eat?”
Thaegan slightly smiled before replying. “Do you have any… birds?”
“We do, do you wish for a certain kind?”
Thaegan’s smile widened.

Chapter Four: Jin and Jod, Disguises Flawed

A creature resembling a bald white ogre looked out of the front gate of the hive from around a corner. She made sure that no changelings were nearby before she quickly made her way through the arch, careful to note spots that may be trapped. When she made it to the other side, she looked back through the archway one more time before moving to the edge of the clearing around the hive where she proceeded to hide behind a boulder.

Once she was sure she was there and unseen, she scanned the edge of the clearing intently. No changelings, good... but where was her brother? He was supposed to meet her here, and it had been a pain to get away from the horde of curious bug-horse-things that wanted to constantly be around her for some reason.

She had been waiting and watching for several minutes when she heard a sound behind her. She turned and saw what appeared to be a glaring, angry changeling standing in front of her, it stance indicating that it was ready for a fight. She merely laughed in response.

"Jod, you were supposed to be here when I arrived!" she said.

There was a flash of light and the changeling disappeared; in its place was now an ogre-like creature similar to her, but brown in color and with much longer teeth. It appeared to have some sort of skin condition as well, but wasn't as fat as her.

"I had some trouble with the bugs," he replied. "Did you, Jin?"
"Yeah, they just plain refused to leave me alone..." Jin said, rolling her eyes at the memory of being swarmed by changelings.
"Ugh, they're just so persistent," Jod agreed. "And they don't have any smell to them. I couldn't tell if they were good to eat."
"Well," Jin said, happy to snap out of the memory, "we'll find out soon enough!"

The two laughed quietly together before checking if the coast was still clear. When they were sure it was, they moved out of the clearing through one of the paths through the valley that the hive was in. As they got farther away, they were able to tell more details about the hive itself.

It really almost looked like a giant church from the side they were viewing it from, but they could tell that it was mostly because of the large stained-glass window that they recognized from the throne room. The structure looked like an actual hive of some sort, with most of its walls seeming to be made of some kind of green-tinted wax, but otherwise at least resembled normal buildings in structure.There was a considerable gap between the hive itself and the slopes that quickly climbed into steep walls, protecting it from two sides while making a long valley that presumably twisted and turned through the mountains before branching off anywhere.

After traveling for several minutes, the hive was now out of sight behind a curve in the valley. Jin and Jod grinned at each other and held hands. A spell began to gather between each others' palms and then there was a flash of light similar to the one from when Jod dispelled his changeling disguise. When the light cleared, there was now an inviting-looking little cottage set snugly into a little nook in the nearest slope. They admired their work before continuing.

"Do you think it needs anything else?" Jin asked her brother.
"Hm... do you think it looks suspicious?" Jod replied, looking the cottage over again.
"Eh, we'll throw some decorations inside that look like they came from the hive, that should fix that problem," Jin said.

Jod nodded and followed Jin into the cottage. There was another flash of light from within as they cast another spell, and the outside of the cottage took on a slight green tint, similar to most of the materials used to make the hive.

Inside, they themselves had changed appearance. They now both looked like friendly old people of their respective genders. Once their eyes cleared from the light, they looked at each other and laughed, having instinctively put on their old disguises. After finishing appreciating whatever humor they had derived from that, they cast another spell: the right spell this time. When the light cleared once more, there now stood two changelings in their places. Both bore the signs of age that they had seen in some of the older changelings: slight splintering near the end of the horn, a small chitinous spike growing in place of a beard, and a dull shine on the midsection armor.

The two looked each other over in satisfaction and then turned to some mirrors they had on the walls. After making sure they had gotten the details right, they had another laugh and then proceeded towards the door to the cottage. Their advance was interrupted, however, when there was a knock on the door.

"This fast?" Jin whispered to Jod, excited. Perhaps they would be able to get a steady stream of live prey if the trap was already working.
"Act natural!" Jod reminded Jin, neither of them aware that they knew next to nothing about acting natural as a changeling.

They Jod opened the door to see a changeling, as expected. The changeling at the door smiled.

"Hello!" he said, "I just wanted to welcome you two to your new home!"
Jin and Jod hesitated. Did they know who they were still?
"It's a great honor, you know, our dear Queen doesn't often allow her swarmlings to live outside of the hive!"
They relaxed. Apparently he didn't know.
"Yes, we are very proud!" Jin replied with her disguised voice, sounding similar to another changeling she had heard in the hive.
"Would you like to come in?" Jod added. "I'm sure the queen wouldn't mind you stopping for some tea!"

The changeling seemed to consider it for a moment. Said moment stretched out for longer than expected, and Jin and Jod became nervous. Had he figured them out? They readied their true selves behind the disguises, ready to grab him if he tried to flee. They didn't notice him flinch ever so slightly in defense.

"I think..." he said, trailing off for another second before continuing. "I think... you two will do wise not to harm any of my siblings that come through here," he finished, his face suddenly turning serious.

Jin and Jod froze. Each of them saw the changeling and heard what he said, but at the same time they saw and heard themselves in his place somehow. They could see both himself and a perfect image of themselves in an approximately equally defensive stance as him, and heard both his voice and theirs when he spoke.

"Our dear Queen does not appreciate it when her guests hurt her children, and I'm sure your own mother appreciates this concept as well," he continued, both of them entranced by their copies. "Don't think the Devourer is her only defense for the hive. Every changeling is trained in at least a few basic combat techniques, but if you so prove yourself capable of harming them..."

The image of the changeling himself disappeared, leaving only their respective copies and only their voices. There was a flash of green light, and when it cleared it at first seemed to do nothing... until Jod spoke.

"You see, the dear queen is protective of her swarm, as you mother is of you," he said. Both of him reacted with shock and stumbled backwards a bit identically.
"She has trained elite forces, such as myself," the copy Jin said, though Jin could feel her own mouth moving. She suddenly realized that she was seeing from the copy's position, having switched places.

The Jin that was in her original position spoke next, and Jin suddenly realized that she could feel, see, and hear from that position too. What was going on!?

"I am Dapul, the forty-eighth Shapestealer to ever be trained under the Queen herself."
The original Jod spoke again, "Shapestealers are legendary in the hive: we are trained so that our disguises are so powerful--"
"--that our victim can't even tell themselves apart from us," the copy Jod finished as Jod came to the same realization that Jin just had.

Dapul clapped his wings together behind his back and the hypnotism and illusion spells broke. Jin and Jod blinked for a moment in a daze before focusing on him and drawing back in fear and surprise.

"I'll be keeping an eye on you two..." Dapul said, eyeing them both. "...but for now, I have to get back to the hive. You two have fun, and don't hurt anyone!" he finished with a cheerful smile and tone.

He nodded respectfully, turned, and flew off towards the hive. Jin and Jod, still slightly dazed, looked at each other and noticed that their disguises were no more. When the after-hypnotism headache kicked in they satisfied themselves with falling asleep in the small bedroom of the cottage, completely forgetting any notion of fooling, catching, and subsequently eating any changelings.

Chapter Five: Fie and Fly Aren't Quite as Shy

"Well I think it looks better over here!" said a changeling in a small dwelling within the hive. He lowered his head and pushed the small table along the wall to the corner opposite of where it previous was.
"But that's where I planned to put the beds!" said his sister, who then moved to try and push it back. Her brother stood his ground and refused to let the table slide.

Decorating new rooms in the hive was tough.

The last thing the two changelings expected to see was a pair of Thaegan's children walk in, having thought they would still be fending off other curious changelings that didn't have any duties to fill. They stopped their bickering and turned to the two beings.

"Hello!" one of them said. He looked almost like his mother in shape, save for having brown, sharp teeth and a few spikes occupying the bald spot in his head.
"I'm Fie," he continued, "but I'm sure you already knew that."
"Yeah," the female changeling replied, "we were there when your mother introduced you."

The changelings looked to each other again and sighed. Might as well introduce themselves.

"I'm Connor," the male said, "and this is my sister Muta."
Muta forced a smile and nodded, irked that her brother hadn't let her introduce herself.
"It's nice to meet you!" Fie's brother said. He looked highly similar to his brother, save for a lack of hair and spikes and having lizard-like features to his face. "My name is Fly!"

The changelings nodded in confirmation. There was an awkward silence as Muta and Connor tried to come up with something to say. They really just wanted to get back to work, but didn't want to be too rude to Fie and Fly, who were smiling broadly at them. After several moments, Fly spoke up.

"So, what'cha doin' here?" he asked while breaking eye contact to look around the room. Some furnishings seemed to be incomplete, whereas others were strewn about randomly.
"Oh, we're decorating a room that was recently constructed," Muta said, making sure to beat Connor to the punch. "We're having some disagreements about what should go where."
Connor shot her a sarcastic look, but Fie and Fly didn't seem to notice. "Why is that chair missing two legs?" Fie asked, noting a chair in the corner that was indeed missing two legs.
"Well," Connor said, cutting off Muta, "some of the furniture wasn't made right and it kind of fell apart on arrival to the room. We're kind of having a hard time here, so..."

Connor politely motioned towards the door with his head, but neither Fie nor Fly seemed to take the hint.

"Oh! We can help!" Fie said excitedly. Connor and Muta looked at each other worriedly.
"I don't know if that's a good idea..." Muta said in a tone that reflected her expression.
"We're good at this stuff!" Fly replied. "Our mother always let us arrange a section of her home and she would go there when she needed to calm down about something!"
The changelings exchanged glances again.
"Just trust us!" Fie said as he and his twin began to move towards the chair.

Muta and Connor hesitated, not knowing whether to stop them, say something, or even ask what they planned to do. Maybe they really were decent at designing rooms. They decided to give them a chance, so they sat back and watched them as they picked the chair up and began to look around the room.

Fie and Fly flew through the air and landed face-first on the floor outside of the room, both skidding a few feet before coming to a stop. Connor glared at them and closed the door, the sounds of Muta stuttering at the destruction she had just witnessed still in the background. The twins stood up and brushed themselves off.

"Well that could have gone better," Fie said, looking back towards the door.
"You'd think they had never seen creative improvisation before!" Fly added.
"I still think the lamp was a better choice for a makeshift chair leg than the vase was," Fie noted thoughtfully.
"You're the one that practically jumped on it when you sat down and broke the entire thing," Fly said. "I don't even know how you managed to break the desk across the room when you did that."
Fie teasingly glared as his twin. "I think you kicked one of its sides in when you accidentally broke the mirror by leaning on it."
Fly blankly stared for a moment before responding. "Oh, right," he said, remembering.

The two looked around again, seeing that no other doors in this residential section of the hive were open for investigation. The one they had just been thrown out of was obviously not an option as well...

"So where to next?" Fly asked.
"Hm... I'm still hungry. Want to go check out the food pods again?" Fie responded.
"Yeah!" Fly replied enthusiastically.

Fie and Fly set off back in the direction they originally came from, towards the food pods and kitchen areas.

Fly raised his goat leg and took another bite out of the top of it, smiling. The changelings attending the pods were more than happy to offer them more food, but did seem a little shocked when they opted to take their snacks uncooked.

"So what all do you guys usually have in the pods?" Fie asked the changeling at the nearest pod, who was named Mod.
Mod made sure the pod was sealed and moved on to the next one a few feet away in the large circular room before replying. "Oh, usually just wildlife that our hunters find out in the mountains. That goat your brother is eating really put up a fight!"
"Haha, did he kick the hunters or something?" Fie asked, taking a bite out of the leg he had been provided with.
"Yeah, knocked a few out with headbutts, too. He was tougher than normal ones, a translator we sent with the hunters even caught him saying something about defending his home. We finally got him to calm down and come with us back to the hive when we agreed to leave his family alone."

Fly coughed and spat out a bit of the leg he had been eating. Fie and Mod looked over and saw him reach back into his throat to pick out a piece of bone that had gotten caught before happily continuing his little feast.

"Wait, so they can talk?" Fie asked.
"No, not like you or I do. That's what the translator was for, he's a specialist that can usually translate what animals are saying," Mod replied.
"Oh, okay," Fie said, taking another bite. "So you just slaughtered him when he got here?"
"We don't just kill him on arrival," Mod said, moving on to the next pod. "Because of his sacrifice, we took him to our dear queen so he would receive her blessing before dying. It's a thing we do, since he obviously loves his family a lot and that adds more to his value as a meal for us, so we honored him and what he did."
"Why's that?"
"We feed on love, so his sacrifice was kind of like doubling the nutrition."

Fie and Fly stopped eating for a second. This was new news.

"You eat love?" Fie asked.
"Yeah, sort of. It can provide us with some nutrition, though we do need to eat other things too. It's not like we have fangs for looks," Mod laughed. "The more love we eat, though, the stronger we become. It wears off after a while, though, so once we go a month or two without feeding on love our magic goes back to normal."
"I see," Fie replied. He took another bite, unperturbed by the knowledge that it was once a sentient being rather than just an animal like back at home.
Mod looked over to him. "Do you... usually eat your meat raw?" he asked.
Fie looked down at the leg for a second, chewing and swallowing before replying. "Nah, we usually cook our meat. Sometimes we do it while it's still alive, but usually we just kill it first. Every now and then, though, Fly and I find it nice to have a bit of rare meat, you know?"

Mod nodded, understanding that it was a taste thing. He himself found vegetables much more appealing when chopped up finely, even if they aren't treated in any other way.

Fly finished with his leg, having picked it clean to the bone in even that short period. "You have a lot of brothers and sisters... how do you feed them all?" he asked while looking around the room for a place to put the remains.
"Our territory is pretty big," Mod said, moving onto the next pod again. "You don't understand just how big this mountain range is."
"Heh, our mother had a big territory too!" Fly said happily, happy to have both found something in common between them and having found a pod designated for inedible remains.

Mod smiled. The ceiling shook, causing Fie and Fly to glance upwards.

"What was that?" Fie asked.
"Probably just the Devourer on a demolition job. Want to go watch?" Mod replied, looking upwards with them.
Fly hesitated for a moment. Mod noticed and said, "He doesn't want to hurt you guys anymore, it's safe."

Satisfied with the response, Fie and Fly set out to find their way to the floor above.

Chapter Six: Zan and Zod Spot Some Odd Pod Squads

Zan and Zod moved about in a room at the edge of the hive, most of the movement consisting of Zod trying to get out of Zan's way as he scurried around the room on his six legs, looking for something.

"*sigh*, you're sure there's something here?" Zod said as his massive circular maw ringed by needle-like teeth stretched to its full extent in a yawn.
"Yes, told you. Saw something move here. Or here," Zan replied, moving over to what he assumed was a multi-layered couch and nearly flipping it to look underneath.

Zod shook his head and turned his pale lumpy humanoid form over to the window. Zan tended to do this a lot; ever since an incident involving an angry little blue man with red hair and a flute, Zan would occasionally become paranoid about thinking he saw something small hide behind something. The fact that he was now living in the company of similarly-sized Changelings didn't help at all.

Zod flinched as a pot of some kind shattered on the wall next to him. He whirled around to see Zan with a very large, crooked-toothed grin on his face.

"Got it!" he said proudly. Zod simply shook his head and placed his palm over the top half of his face.

Zod turned back to the window and continued to look out of it. Zan eventually came and sat down next to him after checking a few pieces of furniture one more time.

"What you thinking of?" He said after a moment of silence.
"...What do you think about these 'changelings' we're allying ourselves with?" Zod asked.
"They seem nice. Small and tricky, but they seem nice," Zan said. Zod saw him shudder a bit at the word "small", but that was normal for him.
"And what do you think our mother's intentions for this place are?" Zod continued, not breaking his gaze from something out in the valley leading away from the hive.
"She wants best for us. She did not want us to fight them, they are too many."
"Yes," Zod acknowledged, "but she's never been one to bow down completely to another. Not after the Shadow Lord's orders got her killed, I would think."

There was a moment of silence as Zod watched a changeling in regal-looking armor round a bend in the valley, towards where he had just watched his siblings Jin and Jod disappear.

"I think there are more plans going on here than we might think," Zod continued, not breaking his gaze from the valley.
"I think you think too much," Zan replied, suddenly fascinated with some shards of the pot he had broken. Why did he throw it again?
"I think you don't think enough," Zod remarked. "Our mother is intelligent, like I am. Or should I say, I'm intelligent like she is, considering the order of family. I don't think we're being kept here entirely out of sincere benevolence, Zan. I think they are keeping us here for another reason as well."
"Something else, too? You mean you think there is some nice in it?" Zan asked after giving up on answering his previous self-questioning.
"Yes. I could see it in their queen's eyes, she had some sort of respect for our mother. She looked over us with a kindness similar to that which our mother shows us, though of course not the same."

Zan flinched and Zod sighed, knowing what was coming. Again, Zan began to look around the room in a small panic. He moved towards the couch as Zod turned towards him, reaching out to stop him but what he saw caught him off-guard.

Zan had picked up the couch again, but this time there was something under it: a small changeling, seemingly quite young. It was stunned at having been found out and cowered before Zan's intimidating form. There was a moment of silence before Zan suddenly roared in rage and began to reach for the changeling.

"STOP!"

Zan froze, his hands nearly around the changeling's small form. His eyes cleared and he stepped backwards with his palms up, having suddenly regained control of himself. The changeling on the ground was whimpering and slightly crying, covering its eyes with its hooves. After a moment when it didn't feel itself being hurt, it slowly stopped shaking and uncovered one of its eyes to see Zan backed up against the wall on the other side of the room.

"You there," Zod said, causing the changeling to flinch and look at him. "Come here," he continued, motioning to a spot next to him on the bench he was sitting on.

It took the changeling a moment or two to decide what to do before it slowly got up and slinked over to the bench. Zod didn't look at it, instead keeping his gaze out the window as he waited for it to seat itself, which it did so as far on the side of the bench away from him as possible.

There was another moment of silence as he waited for the changeling to stop cringing as though it expected him to turn and gobble it up at any moment. When it finally did, he spoke while still looking out the window at the changeling in armor from before as it came back around through the valley.

"What's your name?" he asked, with a tone closer to curiosity rather than the demanding tone he had been speaking to Zan with.
The changeling was once again quiet for a few seconds before answering. "M-my name is Piece, sir..."
"Now now, Piece, there's no need to address me as 'sir'. You may call me Zod if you wish," Zod replied in a surprisingly soothing voice that one wouldn't think someone that looked like him could manage.
"Okay..." Piece said.
"Now then," Zod continued, "why were you hiding in the room with us?"
"I was... I was curious si-... I mean, I was just curious..."

Zod raised his eyebrows, maintaining his outward gaze though the changeling in armor had disappeared by now. There was a moment of silence, and Zan could tell that Zod was thinking something over.

"You were curious?" Zod asked. "About us? You know, we were alone in here in the first place because most of your... siblings, yes?... most of them were made nervous by the appearance of my brother and I."
"Well... I'm kind of scared too, but you're both not bad, are you? You didn't try to hurt anyone and you stopped your brother from hurting me..." Piece replied.
"Yes, so it seems," Zod said. Ah, the naivety of youth; it seems that childish innocence wasn't lost to changelings.
"How old are you?" Zod asked, changing the subject.
"I'm four months old," Pierce said.

Zod raised his eyebrows again, partially at what Pierce had said and partially at something that was happening out in the clearing around the hive; particularly around the area where the clearing tapered off into the valley as it lead away. There was some sort of electricity beginning to arc around the ground out there, but he paid it minimal attention: it was probably the doing of changelings somehow.

"Four months?" Zod said, surprised. "My, your kind grows quick."
"Yeah," Pierce said, sounding a little bit more comfortable. "Mommy and the duh-ver-rer say we grow faster than other kinds of things. It's one of the things that make us strong, they told us."
"M-hm, I see..." Zod replied, contemplating Pierce's answer and the energy outside as it increased in power.
"And the duh-ver-rer plays with us too," Pierce continued of his own accord. Zod suppressed the urge to roll his eyes, knowing the storm he was about to have to endure.
"And he teaches us to play hide-and-seek, and he always does it in another part of the hive so we can learn where stuff is, and sometimes Mommy joins in too, but I don't like Juke because he's not as funny as Mommy is, and he sometimes trips over us and he tripped over me one time and broke a mirror, and mommy laughed and the duh-ver-rer laughed but I didn't laugh because it kind of hurt, and it looked like it hurt him too so I didn't think it was funny, but then--"

Zod raised his finger, signifying Piece to stop talking: he did. Zod was now staring intently at the field of electric-looking energy as it arced wildly around the edge of the clearing in that one area. Shapes were gathering in the bright glow. Familiar shapes.

The electricity dispersed in a bright flash and his eyes widened at what he was now looking at. Forty humanoid shapes of almost identical build and coloring, all wearing grey armor. They looked human but their expressions communicated an aura of utter seriousness and inhumanity.

Grey Guards.

"Piece," Zod said. His tone had returned to its former seriousness. "I need you to go with Zan to the throne room and alert our respective mothers of what I have just witnessed."
"What did you see?" Piece asked while peering out the window at the Grey Guards as they looked around, getting their bearings.
"Zan, take him and alert our mother that there are four pods of Grey Guards outside the hive. Queen Chrysalis should know as well. Go now!" Zod commanded his brother, who quickly nodded, grabbed Piece (who squeaked in surprise), and ran out of the room.

Zod lowered his head while watching the Grey Guards below. This was not good, not good at all. Grey Guards were ruthless, and whatever reason they were here at the hive for it couldn't mean anything positive.

There was a sound of smashing glass from a floor above, and Zod saw two large shapes blur past the window he was at. They landed, and he recognized the two very familiar shapes as they stood directly in the Grey Guards' path to the hive.

Chapter Seven: Pik and Snik Pick a Thick Brick to Kick

Rep stood at attention, at his normal position. It was a normal day in the hive, really. Except for the whole "bunch of strange creatures are now living with us" thing. But other than that, yes, it was pretty normal. He saw mostly the same changelings pass by today as any other day, save for the ones he figured were probably ogling the new guests. Honestly, he didn't really care about them so long as they let him do his job: stand there and stop any arguments or fights within earshot.

As a changeling Hiveguard, his duties were pretty simple. Keep the peace, and if danger comes to the hive then he was to be one of the first to respond. Really, Hiveguard wasn't all that high of a position... but it was an important one, and he was proud of it. The Devourer may be an unstoppable juggernaut, but there's not much it hears down in its little den without a messenger, and Rep was determined to prove that the hive could defend itself just find without him.

It was already embarrassing enough when their dear queen had sent orders to not interfere with the fight between it and the red demon. Rep still wished he had been there to give it a few hits... maybe a will-o'-wisp spell, just something! He admitted to himself that he was a little jealous of its power, but he more hated it for the fact that it invalidated himself and his purpose in the hive.

How does a changeling grow to be that big in the first place, anyways!? The dear queen had always told him and his siblings that the Devourer was a changeling just like them, just a little different, but he almost didn't believe it. If it weren't for its exoskeleton and loyalty to the hive, he definitely would completely disbelieve it. But, it's not like the dear queen had anything to hide from the hive that would be important to know. The Devourer's presence in Canterlot during the raid was kept a secret so that everyone could fight to their fullest without worrying about it, so that was excusable. And honestly--

"Hey Rep," a voice spoke up nearby. Rep snapped out of his thinking and shook his head before looking around.

After he finally cleared the lingering thoughts out of his head, he spotted his sister Lia, another Hiveguard, nearby. She had a smirk on her face that could only mean one thing.

"I was making the face again, wasn't I?" Rep said.
"Yeah, but time!" Lia laughed. "You always make that weird face when you think too hard."

Lia proceeded to tilt her head slightly sideways, turn her eyes upwards and and stick her tongue ever-so-slightly out the front of her mouth. The demonstration really wasn't necessary, and Rep rolled his eyes.

"What were you thinking about?" Lia asked after straightening her face.
"Eh... nothing," he replied. He didn't want to bring up the Devourer, even though he knew that some of his fellow Hiveguards shared his feelings about it.
"Tch, fine," Lia said. When Rep shut his mouth about something it was so hard to get him to talk you'd think he was impersonating a mule.
"So...." she continued, turning to look down the hall he was looking down. "...what do ya' think of the new guys that--"
"I KNEW IT!" Rep yelled suddenly, pointing a hoof at the now madly-giggling Lia. "I knew you were coming to ask me about the things staying here!"
Rep calmly waited for her to stop laughing and return to her hooves before saying anything further. "Why do you want to know what I think about them? Why is our dear queen letting them stay here in the first place, anyways?"
"Come on, you know why," Lia said in return. "They all have a family bond between each other, we're passively feeding on their love just by being near them! Chrysalis probably wants to find out if their love has any special properties or something like that, haven't you tasted it?"

Rep sniffed and looked back down the hallway. He'd tasted the love, alright, everyone in that half of the nest had back when the new group had been in the throne room. It tasted and felt different from normal love, though it didn't appear to grant them any more power than normal. He'd been to several different countries before and the love in each place had a slightly different flavor, but this love... it was just so radically different, he would almost think he'd hooked up his tongue to a waterwheel generator rather than eat a meal.

"Mph," Rep grumbled in response to Lia's question.
"Heehee, suit yourself," she said. "I didn't actually come here to ask you about that anyways."
"Then what did you come here for?"
"Pik and Snik are headed this way."

Rep's ears perked up at this and he looked down the hallway from her smug grin. Sure enough, two bipedal creatures he had seen in the throne room were walking nonchalantly towards his post: each one was roughly smaller than their mother and resembled her in most of their main features, but they were both covered in thick carpets of shaggy brown fur and seemed to be male. One of them seemed to notice Rep looking at them.

"Hey," he said, bumping his brother with his elbow to get his attention. "Hey Pik, lookie there."
"Oh," Pik replied to his brother Snik, "what's this here?"

The two stopped a few meters from Rep who had gone from staring at them to trying to look like he was watching for trouble, knowing full-well that it had just found him. He was, however, kind of thankful that they had said each others' names since he hadn't bothered to remember who was who back in the throne room.

The two stopped in front of him and seemed to wait for a response. They were standing directly in Rep's line of vision down the main hallway he was supposed to be watching, so they didn't have to wait long.

"Er.... *ahem*...." Rep said, coughing as politely as he possibly could. They smelled horrible.
Neither Pik nor Snik reacted, simply looking at him expectantly.
"You're, *ahem*... standing in my way." Rep said. "Could you... please move?"
Again, neither of Thaegan's children said or did anything. They began to look as impatient as Rep was feeling.
Losing patience, Rep decided to try another approach. "Move, you are impeding my duties as a Hiveguard and are thus breaking hive law," he said in an authorized-sounding voice. Really, they technically were breaking the law by impeding his duties.

Pik and Snik smiled, revealing teeth that looked heavily rotted; Rep was able to tell that their teeth just normally looked that way, but it was still disgusting.

"But you're in our way!" One of them said. Ah crap, was that Pik or Snik? Rep couldn't remember.
"What do you mean?" Rep asked, suddenly confused. He was between them and a solid wall.
"You're in our way, we just said it!" the other of the two said, motioning towards Rep in annoyance.

Rep turned his head to the wall, trying to figure out what they meant. No sooner did they move out of his view than he felt a slap on the back of his head, and he whirled his face back forwards to see them both innocently standing with their hands at their sides. One of them moved up beside Rep and leaned against the wall, looking down at him.

"You know," he started, looking down at Rep who was waist-high to them, "back where we came from... we had servants."
"Yeah," his brother said, stepping forward a bit. "we had a bunch of 'em. They'd do things for us like... like go and get us... some water," he said, Rep assuming that he was making eye contact through his impossibly hairy eyebrows.

Now this was NOT going to fly. "I'm not leaving this spot...." Rep said firmly and slowly.
The closest one (leaning on the wall) stood straight up and circled around to the other side of his brother.
"You know," he he said, "sometimes our servants didn't WANT to be our servants. Right, Snik?"
Good to see that mystery resolved.
"Yeah, that's right!" Snik replied with mock enthusiasm. "Sometimes, we'd have to..."

Snik stepped forward quickly, yelling "MAKE THEM!" while attempting to bring his knee into the side of Rep's head. Rep replied with a swift dodge and a headbutt to the stomach, making sure to tilt his horn far enough to the side so as not to stab the assailant. Pik began to move towards his twin but was rebuffed as Rep immediately turned away from him and nailed his stomach with a quick, powerful buck that sent him skidding on his rear a few feet backwards. After recovering their abilities to breathe, the two quickly regrouped a few meters away from Rep.

"Uff, looks like we picked a too thick of a brick to kick..." Pik said, bending over.
Snik replied, "Yeah, let's get out of here," before quickly running off with his brother.

Rep called after them something along the lines of a rage-filled "and don't try that with anyone else" as Lia walked up beside him. When he finished yelling, he turned to her.

"And where were you during all of that!?" He said, nearly yelling at her.
"Laughing, of course," she said with a grin. "I was around the corner listening to the conversation. Sounds like you gave 'em what-for!"
"Dang right I did," Rep replied, looking down the hallway they had fled down. "I didn't get into the Hiveguard on account of having great poetic skills."
"Wait, you can write--"
"No, I can't, I was just using that as a sarcastic example."
"Oh," Lia said, disappointed.

Ten Minutes Later

"Was that good enough?" Snik said, looking down.
"Yeah, it was. You two did great!"
"Better have been great," Pik replied, groaning and holding his stomach again. That was going to turn out to be a painful-looking bruise... under the fur...

There was a moment of silence as Lia handed over a small bag of food from the food pods. Of course they could've simply gone and gotten some from the pod rooms for free instead of being paid with food to tick off a fellow Hiveguard, but they didn't know that. In the end, so long as she got her laugh Lia didn't care what she was paying them; it was just convenient that she didn't have to really pay them anything.

"So why did you say that brick line?" Lia asked. "It sounded... kind of like you didn't think it out too long. You probably would've been better off if you had just... I don't know, not said anything there."
"Eh, we've said worse," Snik said. "Like that one time we were talking about a dumb bum to drum... or... something..."
Pik continued, "Besides, it kind of felt like I had to explain something to some extra-dimensional being or something."

...

Lia shrugged. "Oh well. You two have fun out there, and..." she sniffed the air for a second before continuing, "take a shower or something, we have some places for that. You smell like troll dung."

Pik and Snik smelled their own armpits, looked at each other, and then shrugged before turning and going off to find someone else in the hive to mess with.

Chapter Eight: Lun, Lod, Trespassers Trod

"So why are we here again?" a pale, bald humanoid with thick teeth asked his brother quietly.

"They're alive," came the reply from the other humanoid, highly similar but with a pattern on his skin similar to that of a leapord and larger fangs. "That means they breed."

The first one recoiled. "What's that supposed to mean!?" he asked louder than he should have, considering they were sneaking. "You don't want to watch, do you?" he continued with a sarcastic smirk.

His brother quickly approached and slapped him upside the head. "It means they have babies you idiot," he said. "I swear, Lun, sometimes..."

He turned to the doorway. It was marked in another language that he couldn't understand, not that he could read in the first place, but it had previously been heavily guarded by two tough-looking changelings, which indicated importance. He didn't figure that something akin to a colony had any sort of treasure room, meaning that there were few other options as to what this could be: a nursery.

Lun rubbed his head for a moment before stopping. "Wait, you're not going on about that dream about being the boogeyman, are you?" he asked. "Lod, you know that-"

"I know!" Lod hissed back, interrupting. "But we don't know if this place has one like back at home. I'm going to be the freaking boogeyman and be feared by kids, alright!?"

Lun stared back for a few seconds. "Lod, why do you want to be the boogeyman? Please remind me."

"It's... just a title I've always wanted!" he stated, glancing back down the halls to make sure they were still unseen. "Besides, you like lamb chops, right?"

"Yeah...?"

"Well imagine that, but with human flesh!"

"...Lod, these aren't Humans."

"I KNOW!" Lod repeated, almost yelling this time. "But it's a start, isn't it!? Now come on," he continued, "Let's get in there while the coast is still clear!"

With that, he slipped in through the doorway. Lun sighed heavily and moved in behind him as well.

The passage beyond was dim and silent. It was a hallway, tinted a darker green than the rest of the hive, and the walls were lined with doorways with cloth hanging over them. Lod smiled as Lun looked around.

"Where did the guards go, anyways?" Lun asked.

"I don't know. One looked like he went to take a break, and the other disappeared when I went to get you. I thought I heard Zan and running as we got back, but whatever."

"The fact that you heard Zan running and a guard disappeared doesn't concern you?" Lun whispered.

"No... now which one should we pick?" Lod said. Lun did a short double-take.

"You're actually serious, aren't you?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm serious!" Lod replied. "If you don't pick one, then I will!"

"Fine," Lun said. After a few seconds of consideration, he pointed to the end of the hallway. "Back-right."

"Why the back?" Lod asked, turning to his brother. "You aren't trying to stall and get me caught, are you?"

"You asked, I picked," Lun said with a shrug. Lod let out a grunt of frustration before making his way quietly down the hallway.

A moment passed as they sneaked to the end door. Lun made sure to get there first and enter, glancing around the room to confirm that it was empty. To his dismay, it wasn't.

Several cribs lined the opposite wall, each with a tiny black form in it. Indeed, the changelings had young: said babies didn't look all that different from a normal changeling, only smaller. And asleep. Lod moved into the room behind him.

"Why were you in such a hurry to- ooh!" he said, grinning as he saw the cribs.

"No," Lun said as he stepped forwards and put himself between his brother and the children. "No, at least not yet."

"And why not!?" Lod asked furiously.

"They're alien to us, how do you know they don't spit acid or something?"

"Then we'll find out!"

"Not like that you won't," Lun warned, stepping towards the cribs. "We'll ask."

"Oh, ask who?" Lod replied sarcastically. "A maid?"

Lun glanced over Lod's shoulder. ".......yes."

Lod turned and immediately dove for the intruder as he saw the shocked female changeling standing in the doorway. She struggled in his grasp, but found herself unable to call for help as Lod placed his hand over her mouth. He'd had experience with silencing those he captured.

"Looks like we do get to ask," he said sinisterly as Lun walked up behind him. "Lun, stand guard outside the-"

*PANG*

*thud*

The changeling maid stared at Lod's unconscious grimace as he lay on top of her. She glanced up and saw Lun holding what looked like a long, flat piece of metal. There was a dim aura of magic that she couldn't recognize around it as well.

"You okay?" he asked, reaching down and pulling his brother off of her. She scrambled to her feet and backed against the cloth of the door, but didn't leave. She hesitated for a moment before nodding.

"That's good. Sorry this had to happen," Lun continued. "He's got some sort of pipe dream about being the boogeyman. You have that around here?"

She responded with a look of confusion, still speechless.

"Boogeyman, real or not, creature or person that comes around and snatches up or eats bad kids?" Lun explained. She answered with a short shake of her head.

"...Dang."

The maid finally seemed to regain her voice. "...you... what was he going to do in here?"

"Try and eat the children," Lun said casually as he glanced back at the cribs. None of the babies seemed to have been disturbed by the commotion as he had expected them to.

The maid recoiled a bit. "...eat them!?'

"Yeah," Lun replied. "Eat them, he fancies being the boogeyman but back home there already was one. He thought that this place was another opportunity for gaining the title."

"...w-why would he want to be the boogeyman?" she asked, feeling a bit silly at saying the term.

Lun shrugged in response. "It's just an obsession he's always had. Wants to compare eating babies to eating lamb chops."

"...lamb chops?"

"Lamb chops."

She shuddered. "Well... if you were going to stop him, why didn't you do it before he got in here?"

"Had to take him by surprise," Lun responded. "He's stronger than me, and you provided a distraction for me to bring out my knock-out metal. You didn't get hit by the sleep spell any, right?"

She shook her head.

"That's good, still sorry he was on top of you when it hit."

The maid glanced out the doorway for a moment before returning.

"So you weren't planning on doing anything, right?"

"I haven't hit you with the sleep spell, have I?"

She gave a small smile. "I... thank you for stopping him. I don't know what I would have done if something had happened to..."

Something seemed to ping in her head. "Were you two the ones that... do you know why the guards that are supposed to be up front are missing?"

"No," Lun answered bluntly with a shrug. "It's one of the reasons Lod brought me back here, though. He wanted me to help him take down the one guard that was here, and he was missing when we got back."

The maid raised a hoof to her chin. "Odd..." She then looked back to Lun.

"You still shouldn't be here. If anyone else caught you-"

"Yeah, I know," Lun said, bending down to grab his brother's arm. "We'll be going now."

She nodded and moved aside, so she could let Lun and his face down brother pass. "Thank you," she repeated as he passed, and he nodded in confirmation.

Lun had just reached the door out when he head a deep, gravelly voice from behind him.

"Out," it demanded in a voice indicating that that was to be the only warning.

"Was on my way, sorry for the trouble," Lun replied without looking back, Lod's head bumping on the door frame. The Devourer stared at the leaving trespassers with no small amount of confusion as the maid approached.

"Lun and Lod, right?" the maid asked. The Devourer turned to her.

"I recall those being their names, yes. I found nothing in the first room here," it said, motioning to the first doorway on the right that it had come out of. "Did you see them before I?"

"Yeah," she said as they disappeared from view. "They didn't take the guards out, they don't even know where they were. Before you ask."

"And what were they doing back here?"

"The sleeping one tried to eat the babies," she said. The Devourer began to recoil but she quickly continued, "but the standing one stopped him by knocking him out, it looked like this was a normal thing for them."

The Devourer looked back at the path they had taken. "If they were not here as guests to the queen, I would have......" it said, trailing off.

"Don't worry, big guy," the maid said. "I get the feeling that the children were safe. It was just... odd."

The Devourer relaxed a bit, though its eyes were still narrowed after the twins. A moment later, a voice reached through the doorway.

"Hey, Cooler? You in there?"

The guard on break had returned, opening the doorway. He jumped when he saw the Devourer.

"...do... you know where Cooler went?" he asked.

The maid shook her head. "He was gone when I got here, and the Devourer noticed the lack of guards and investigated at the same time."

"Weird..." the guard said. "Now what?"

"Just wait here until he returns," the Devourer stated. "Until then you are not to leave your post."

"Yeah, yeah," the guard said as he turned and moved to his post. The Devourer sighed.

"I have to get going. Ichabod awaits me once more," it said, ducking through the doorway.

"You take care, don't hurt him," the maid called after it. It waved over its shoulder back as it moved down the hallway.

When it was completely gone, the guard spoke.

"How are you not scared of it?" he asked. "It's huge and... unnatural for a changeling to be that big."

"I grew up with him," she replied. "While everyone else grew afraid of him, I just sort of didn't for some reason."

The guard shrugged as the maid went back down the hallway to check the other rooms.

"Ungh...... my head..."

Lod sat up from the floor, with Lun sitting in a chair nearby. They appeared to be in an empty room somewhere in the hive.

"What happened?"

"Stairs," Lun replied. "A changeling startled you as you went down some stairs. You managed to keep your balance on every step but the last one and hit your head, and you got knocked out cold."

Lod shook his head, and promptly regretted it. "...but... ugh, stupid bug horses."

He sat in silence for a moment, trying to subdue the throbbing in his skull. Eventually, it seemed to start going away.

"Hey Lun," he said as a grin began to form on his face. "Want to help me get revenge on them?"

"Revenge?" Lun asked his brother.

"Yeah..." Lod replied as he stood and held a hand to his chin, facing away from Lun.

"I'll bet that these bugs breed, right? That means they-"

*PANG*

*thud*

Chapter Nine: Devourer and the Dreaded Ichabod

Ichabod sat on the floor. He'd been waiting for a while now... when was that thing going to come back? It left him to check on babies or something some time ago... how long had it been? Ichabod glanced around, noting a few nearby changelings in important-looking armor keeping their eyes on him. He idly contemplated how easy it would be to smash one compared to the really big one that beat him up earlier... probably not that hard. They were much smaller. They looked kind of like horses... his mind went back to the days when he simply ambushed travelers on the road with his siblings, in his mother's territory. The horses or mudlets that travelers often rode made good side dishes...

Ichabod looked around again, hearing heavy footsteps. It was finally coming back! He stood up and waited a moment more before the now-familiar lumbering black shape came into view. The Devourer didn't look happy with whatever had happened wherever it went.

"You're back," Ichabod said.

"Yes," the Devourer replied. "Your brothers are lucky..."

"...what about my brothers?" Ichabod asked, a small feeling of urgency and anger rising in him.

"They are lucky," it restated. "I caught your brothers Lun and Lod somewhere they shouldn't have been... were you not guests of the dear queen, I would have crushed them."

Ichabod nearly lurched forwards towards the Devourer, but had a rare moment of personal restraint... mommy had told him to play nice with the changelings. He couldn't let mommy down again. He sighed, releasing some tension.

"...I forgot why you took me here," he said, trying to change the subject.

"To help me," the Devourer replied with slight annoyance. "A demolition job was moved to today from a week in the future, so that I could watch over you..."

It tried to control its expression to neutrality instead of the grimace of disapproval it felt trying to take over... right now, it would much rather be down in the mines rather than babysitting these outsiders. However, it did feel some content with the situation... keeping the sorceress and her children happy in the hive would do the colony much good -- a steady source of love for them to passively feed off of for a time, at least until the dear queen decided they had outlived their usefulness.

"...Demolition?" Ichabod asked after a moment, breaking the Devourer's train of thought.

"Yes," it responded. "Over time, even the hive's construction sometimes begins to decay, or falls prey to the damage of daily use... when walls or rooms must be dismantled, I am usually called up from my den to take care of it."

"Ohhh..." Ichabod replied. "...you mean you... destroy them?"

"Yes," the Devourer said. "I destroy the walls, that is what I was implying."

Ichabod smiled. "That sounds like fun...!"

"Yes... it most certainly is not boring." The Devourer smiled with him. It liked Ichabod's enthusiasm.

"What needs breaking?" Ichabod asked.

"These three walls..." the Devourer said, pointing to the one behind Ichabod and the two adjacent ones. "These are showing signs of aging damage..."

Without hesitation, Ichabod turned and put his fist through the wall at his back.

"IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME!"

Some time later, Ichabod felt the Devourer's claw wrap around his forearm, stopping his punch.

"...we're done," the Devourer said once Ichabod began to come to his senses and calm down again.

"What?" Ichabod asked. He knew what the Devourer meant, but he was having fun...

"We've destroyed more than we should have," it growled. "Or more accurately, you have."

"But I broke what you told me to," Ichabod retorts.

"You broke what I told you to, and everything next to it. Walls, not the rooms. I'm also surprised the wall window is still intact", it said, motioning to the single wall in the room that was actually a window at the side of the hive.

"I don't get it."

The Devourer facepalmed, frustration rising. It slid its claws apart to look at the childish monster.

"The walls, you imbecile. Not the furniture."

"But when you break furniture nobody gets mad!"

"I don't go out of my way to do it, if it is broken during the demolition of a wall that's okay since it's easy to remake!"

Ichabod huffs. "Then what did I do wrong?"

"You made sure to break everything in the room!" the Devourer says, raising its voice. "Not just what was next to the walls, but everything in the middle of the room as well!"

"...I don't get it," Ichabod says.

"AUGH!" the Devourer cried. "We are DONE, that's all you need to know right now! If not for-"

Ichabod was suddenly concerned with something outside, through the window. The Devourer made a hand motion at him indicating frustration, a perfect blend between anger an the incomplete phrase indicating 'why he's not'. It gave up after a moment and followed his gaze.

It took it a second to realize what it was looking at: a large number of humanoid figures, all of them dressed completely in the color grey. They were advancing towards the hive.

"...what are those!?" the Devourer growled.

"......G-Grey guards...!" Ichabod responded, stuttering with surprise.

"Grey whats!?!"

"Grey guards! The servants of the Shadow Lord!"

"The servants of who!!?"

"The Shadow Lord, he took over Deltora...!"

"Took over where!?!?"

"...okay, now you're just pulling my leg."

The Devourer roared in frustration. Or more like gurgled/coughed, and then jumped through the window -- it didn't matter what they were, what color they were, who they served, nor where they came from: they were intruders. And it didn't look like they were going to be as easily subdued as Thaegan and her children.

Ichabod stood alone in the room, looking at the large hole in the glass. His mind briefly flicked back towards what they were arguing about before: what was it again? Walls and furniture? Ichabod grunted and punched out a bit of glass that was remaining, and then jumped back down after the Devourer to ask him.

Chapter Three: Hot and Tot's Sing or Spot

Hot and Tot looked around the corner, Tot standing on top of his twin brother.

“Are they there?” Hot whispered.
“You tell me, you’re looking too.”
“Then why are you standing on my back and looking with me!?”

Tot giggled and jumped off of his brother. They continued down around the corner and crept slowly and quietly towards the pillar they had chosen as their goal. They got halfway to it before they heard a chorus of four voices call out from above.

“AHA!”
“RUN!” The two brothers cried out to each other simultaneously as they broke out into a very un-sneaky sprint towards the pillar.

The two yellow goblin-like creatures named Hot and Tot closed the gap between themselves and their goal quickly, but to no avail. The sound of buzzing filled the air as four changelings swooped down from their positions on the ceiling and tackled their targets sideways, catching them before they reached the pillar and pinning them to the ground easily. The two smallest of Thaegan’s children found themselves at the mercy of their grinning captors.

There was a moment of silence…

“CHEATERS!!” the brothers cried out as they struggled to their feet, the changelings now getting off of them. “Cheaters!” they repeated in tandem, now with their arms free to point at them.
“Well you never said we couldn’t fly!” said one of the changelings. “Isn’t that right, Fraud?”
Another changeling answered, “Yup, yup, didn’t say Guile and us couldn’t fly!”
“I call a do-over!” Hot said, a heavy pout on his face.
“Me too, you didn’t say anything about flying!” his brother continued.

The group of changelings looked at each other. They were more than willing to go another round… but there was something else to take care of first…! The two that hadn’t yet spoken stepped forward. Hot and Tot looked even unhappier, knowing what was about to happen.

“Bam, are they forgetting about something?” one said to the other.
“I don’t know, Boozle, are they?”
“I think so. What do you guys, think?” Boozle said to Fraud and Guile, who replied by nodding.
“Boozle, what are they forgetting?”
“FINE!” Hot and Tot said loudly, having had enough of the teasing.
“Hey, no need to yell,” Fraud said, “you two were the ones who made this game up!”
“Hmph,” Hot said while Tot sighed and dragged his brother forward.

The game they had played was something that Hot and Tot played with their other brothers (and sister) anytime they all got together; it was called Sing or Spot. The premise of the game was similar to what we know as Hide and Seek in that one party searches for the other, but there were a limited number of preset hiding places at least a certain distance apart. Other than that, it was fairly standard: find and tag the hiders, if the hiders get to “home base” then they win. However… there was one more difference, concerning which party lost…

The twins stood in front of the winning party, looking down and certainly showing their displeasure at having lost the game. It’d been quite a while since this had happened… They looked back up and saw Bam and Boozle eagerly motion for them to proceed. Hot and Tot gave each other one last look of reluctance before raised their hands, rolled their eyes, and broke out into the song agreed to pre-game.

“Tickle fight! It's a tickle fight! Don't bring no knife to a tickle fight! Just bring your fingers, bring a feather, and everyone can sing together, now: tickle fight! Tickle fight! La-dee-da dum dum tickle fight! Tickle fight! Tickle fight! Whoopy-doo zig-zag tickle fight! Ding dong doodly Nick nack noodly Fee fi fo fum kitten kaboodly! Tickle fight! Tickle fight! Tickle Tickle Tickle fight! HEY!”

The two ended with a little pose accented by jazz hands and their audience went wild with laughter. They let them have their fun for a few moments before pulling them up from rolling on the ground. As they stood and stared eye-to-eye, they suddenly realized that they weren’t all that much different from them in height, able to look them in the eye without looking too far up or down (depending on exactly which changeling they were looking at). For some reason it made both parties a bit uncomfortable.

“So…” Tot began, completely forgetting about the rematch. “You guys wanna’ get together and sing again sometime?”
The group collectively remembered their spontaneous teamwork back when Ichabod and the Devourer were brawling.
“Sure!” Guile replied for his friends by nature of being the first to speak. “That’d be great.”
Hot said, “Heheh, you guys have got some good talent for singing.”
“Yeah,” Fraud said, “we practice. It’s too bad none of our other siblings seem to take as much of an interest in it…”
“Really?” Tot asked. “Just you four?”
“Just us four,” Boozle replied.
“We’ve never even had any prisoners that wanted to sing with us,” Bam finished for him.
The twins got an odd look on their faces. “Prisoners?” they asked together.
Bam shuffled a little bit uncomfortably. Maybe mentioning that wasn’t such a good idea…
Fraud had no problem discussing it, though. “Yeah, prisoners!” he continued. “Sometimes we take people we find wandering near the hive as prisoners, or when we invade kingdoms and stuff.”
Hot and Tot looked surprised… but not in a way suggesting they had a problem with such a thing.
“Really, you invade other countries?” Hot asked.
“As in, kingdoms are invaded by you guys?” Tot said.
Guile replied, “well… yeah, it’s kind of what we do.”
Hot and Tot grinned and high-fived. “You guys are AWESOME!” they said in tandem, and the four changelings smiled at the compliment.

There was a smashing sound through the wall and the floor shook. A familiar yelling echoed through said wall – Ichabod’s yelling. The group exchanged looks.

“Was that Ichabod I just heard?” Hot asked.
“I think-*smash*” Tot replied, his words cut off by another smash.
“You think what?” Hot said, looking to his brother.
“No, I think so, so…” Tot answered, not realizing that the smashing sound overrode his original sentence.
“…So what?”
“So what about what?”
“…What?”
"But I... I what?"
"You what? I meant so what, so what?"

The two continued in their normal storm of vocal confusion as the changelings spoke amongst each other.

“That’s the section the Queen ordered the Devourer to take down, isn’t it?” Fraud asked.
“Yeah, it is,” Guile answered.
Bam shivered. “The thing still gives me the creeps, what about you guys?”
“It’s not that bad, I mean he defended the hive didn’t he?” Boozle said.
“I mean yeah, but…” Bam replied, “…it’s just… it gives me the heebie-jeebies if you know what I mean.”
“You got that right,” Fraud added, “heebie-jeebies, creeps, willies, jitters…”
“I try to look past that, but I know what you mean,” Boozle admitted. “It’s just something about being near it you know?”
“Hey!” Guile called over to Hot and Tot, who had somehow degraded into a rolling fistfight. “You two want to follow us and see what’s going on with the Devourer and your brother?”

Hot and Tot looked at Guile for a moment and then twisted to look at each other. When they looked back, Hot unclenched his teeth from Tot’s arm and answered.

“Sure, I guess.”

With that, the group gathered themselves and went to check out what may have been another fight between Ichabod and the Devourer.