[Ashia's view]
I opened my eyes and looked into the yellow eyes of the girl that I had saved. I was lying in her lap, and she smiled down at me.
"How are you feeling?" The girl asked me and then spoke again before I could. "Thank you for saving me."
Could this person be the one that the others had told her about? Well, not specifically this girl, but I was pretty sure that she was a Wasp Folk.
That's why she looked similar to a Bee Folk, but not quite the same. This is the person that would start a war with the sky, yet I didn't get that feeling from her.
"I am alright, just a little tired and hungry," I said, not remembering the last time I had eaten anything.
"If you can walk, I know of a place up the tunnel that has some Crystal Flowers, and we could drink some of the Nectar from them," The girl said, and I slowly sat up, and then she offered me two hands.
"My name is Ashia; I am a DragonBee, and lost. Do you know a way out of here?" I said after accepting her hands, deciding that I didn't need to mention that I was a Queen yet, if ever.
I was unsure how to deal with this person, but for now, the girl seemed to want to help me because I saved her. I would have to take this slow, and maybe I could do something that would stop the swarm from starting?
"I am sorry… I umm, I came here last fall after… but now I don't remember how to get out. I was running from people that were trying to kill me for something that I had no part of. I created a cocoon and slept until just a few days ago, but now I am just as lost as you are. My name is Helaina, and I am one of the Wasp Queens that will bring about the next swarming," Helaina said as she looked down.
I was able to track her heart rate from this distance and her body temperature. From what I could tell, nothing that she said was a lie, but that was only a tiny part of it.
"How many other Queens are there? Come, let's walk and talk. I am just getting hungrier as we stand here and talk," I said, taking Helaina's hand and pulling her to the tunnel she had gestured at.
"I don't know the exact number, I was told that there were six hives, and in ours, twenty-five Queens were hatched," Helaina explained as we walked, and I felt ill.
That was one hundred and fifty Queens as an average. My plans of being able to stop the Swarm Wars were nothing more than pipe smoke now.
"Out of the twenty-five, all were killed, but me. That is why I am so lost now," Helaina said casually, but I stopped her.
"You are the only one that survived?" I asked in shock, suddenly changing the equation.
"Yes, the Sky Council attacked during our mating flight with ten of the Fly Whale Fortresses and three Elder Sky Kraken. I was only able to escape because I was flown out by forty thousand workers, who were all killed trying to get me to safety. Only the vastness of the tunnel system in this place saved me," Helaina explained, and as she did, I willed my blue lights to disappear.
There was glowing fungus, but it all seemed to be the same kind that I had seen before. I concentrated on it, and then a small window appeared next to the one I was looking at.
[Biological Item: Mortaris Shotiggi]
I stopped Helaina and asked her to wait as I collected some of them, and then a section on my hip opened for me to place them in. I was not sure how I felt about my body being robotic-like, but I touched the skin when it closed.
It was soft just like it had been before, but maybe a bit dirty from my trip through the tunnel.
"Do you know where we are then? Like whatever this place is?" I asked, but then I got a message that popped up, and I skimmed it to not seem rude.
[Item Processing] Activated!
[Alchemist](Passive) Acquired!
[Bio-Grafting](Passive) Acquired!
[3 Partial Recipes Found]: Blasting Power/Reactive Armor/Bio-Blaster Graft
[Missing Components]: ???/Pewter/Magnesium/Platinum/???/???
[Scan Set to Components]: Nothing in a thirty-foot scan radius.
Hot damn, I'm an Easy Bake oven! That was a lot to take in, but the System seemed to be working on its own with this one, thankfully. I had also gotten to more passive skills and turned into a walking science lab, but now I had to turn back into Helaina.
"This is the Sacred Mountain of the Meccat and home to their ancestral tomb that holds the preserved body of Ria Cait, God of the Meccat. The workers that raised me told me many things about this world, and the story is that the Meccat placed the temple deep in this mountain and then lost it," Helaina explained, and I looked at her with a raised eyebrow as we started to walk again, and she just shrugged.
"So, you are telling me that they don't know where their own go is buried? You have to be joking, right?" I said, almost starting to laugh at the absurdity of it, but Helaina shook her head with a smile.
"I don't make the history; I am just taught it," Helaina said with a small laugh, but I could see that she had a troubled look on her face.
"What's wrong?" I asked as I could see a sparkling cavern up ahead that was filled with flickering rainbow lights that twinkled off the wall.
"Why did the other Queen attack the Sky Folk? Why do they always do it? I was never taught this thing, and when I asked about it, all they would say is that I would know when the time came, but I don't want to fight and die after only living for a year," Helaina said in a broken and shaky voice.
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