[View of Pendra, amputated Virgin Queen]

The Hive buzzed incessantly, the place was packed with workers, and I was ready to get out of here. I had been kept in my room since my failure to capture the witch that was stealing our nectar, but I still have my girls, but I was getting bored of this.

Something was going on, and I was being kept in the dark, but it was a comfy dark. I still didn't understand why I would have there were so many Bees in the Hive; the whole place was practically vibrating.

I started to get myself off the bed; it was time for a snack or two, anything to get my mind off this buzzing! But, before I could act my hunger, I heard the buzzing getting closer; that meant that they were finally coming to get me!

"Attend me!" I yelled at the two girls, and they rushed over.

I had them trained well, but they liked it, so I ordered them to. I turned to wait but was instantly turned on my edge when I saw what was beside the Queen as she lighted into my chamber, which was just the end of a hall.

"Why do you have another Virgin Queen with you?!" I growled as they approached.

"Watch your mouth, child. You are lucky to still be in this Hive after your dramatic failure! I should have just killed you myself like the girl suggested! She was the real Queen, but now she is gone, lost by your incompetence and laziness!" The Queen raged at me, and I shrunk back.

All of it was true. If I had taken the job I had been entrusted more seriously, I would have flown out to find Ashia that day or marched in the night with the legions. I was running on borrowed time, but what did that other Virgin Queen mean?

"Then what is it that you want from me?" I asked plainly.

"You will be swarming tomorrow with Lexia, and she is no longer a Virgin Queen. Lexia has Mated, and she is ready to start a new colony. You will be joining the swarm, but the mating will be left for after you find a new home," the Queen explained to me.

The little tart looked embarrassed, and she even blushed! How dare she hold me back from getting some real action, and now I was to be the smaller swarm?

"You're kicking me out?" I asked in disbelief.

"I will be sending the 9th legion with you, and it will be your responsibility to create your own Hive just like Lexia will. I am sending you south, and Lexia will Bee going to the west to the canyon just beyond the Skunk village," the Queen explained, and I was left speechless.

I was in no place to complain, a single legion was barely anything, but it could be nothing. Still, the south hates us for what the Queen did to those that didn't want to pay.

I had the girls explain to me about some of the past things that the Queen had done, and this was one of the worst.

The Queen had sent six legions of workers to kill and destroy the homes of thirteen races, and she would have done more if the other races hadn't gone into hiding. After, she made the legions collect salt and spread it over fifty miles of jungle in a snowstorm of the stuff.

Two years later and the jungle was nothing more than a wasteland, and Everyone there hated us. So now, I was being forced to go and try to make a new home!

This was all the stupid Ashia's fault! If she had never helped that other Queen, none of this would have happened!

"Bee thankful you have this chance, and if you do well, I will reward you, but only if and when. Girls, you will Bee coming with me now," the Queen told my attendants.

"Wait! Why are you taking them?! I was just about to eat!" I complained but became silent when the Queen glared at me.

"You need to drop some weight before your flight; Lexia will be doing the same thing. Now, stop acting like a brat and think about what you will be doing tomorrow and how you might hope to succeed. If you do not have a plan, I can guarantee you will fail!" The Queen warned me before leaving to go.

I raged in my mind at the ludicrousness of this all, I was beyond frustrated, but the Queen was right. If I didn't have a plan, then I would fail again, but this time it would cost me my life.

My stomach growled, and I went back to lay on my Hex-Bed, sitting down on it and slowly leaning back. As I did, my tail pushed into the soft gel, and I slowly sank back until I was lying completely flat on my back.

The question was, how did I plan on achieving success with so many things that were stacked against me? I could pretend that I was from another Hive, but I would have to make a more extended trip around.

That would involve more risk, but my chances of survival would be much more significant. I closed my eyes as I went over my plans.

The next day I was summoned to fly outside, and then I was directed to my legion. These were not the best, but not the worst workers, but I was going to miss Brill and Connie.

They had become my little pets, but now they were part of the seven legions that were going to be going with Lexia! That nettled me more than them leaving, and I wanted to beat something into a pulp, but now was not the time.

"You all know what your orders are and where you are to go. We wish you both the best of luck and hope that you create prosperous Hives just like our own Hespera, Queen of Bees!" So announced a Worker Bee while Hespera stood silently.

Even sending us out on our own, she still considered herself the only Queen! That was fine, this was all fine, but I would be back one day. Even if it was just to take that self-important Queen's head, I would be doing the world a favor, but I could be angry as we flew.

Suddenly the air was filled with buzzing Bees that moved like an orchestrated storm. I lifted into the air and watched Lexia and her twenty-one thousand Bees fly off to the northwest, and it only made me more frustrated.

I turned to my four thousand and signaled for them to fly and then used pheromones to spend my plan.

The trip should have only taken two days, but we had been attacked by Sky Shark Folk twice. We had lost half of our legions in those two attacks, but we finally made it to our destination; but the moment we landed, we were ambushed.

Someone must have told them that we were coming, and now there were less than one hundred of us left. After that, it didn't matter if we flew or ran; every race, land or sky, tried to kill us.

"My Queen, there are only eight of us left! Therefore, you must return to the H...urgh!"

The Worker Bee was impaled in the throat by a long spear that was thrown by a Tiger Folk. I watched as they brutally killed the last of my Workers, and I was left defenseless and alone.

"So, the Queen finally sends out a new spawn and with barely any help? You must have pissed her off; good, too bad for you, I guess. I always wonder what a Queen would taste like?" The biggest Tiger said as he stalked towards me, and I prepared myself to at least take one with me.

The Tiger looked lit. It was about to dive at me, but just as it crouched to spring, a blade pierced his eye. The next thing I knew, a hail of blades came raining down on the Tiger Folk and my dead or dying people.

The blades all mutilated the bodies until there was nothing but metal-filled carcasses. The scene was enough to make me vomit, but I had nothing left to retch.

I sank to my knees, and then two figures in white robes with red swirling marking leaped down from the ledge above me. If these were the ones that had done this, then I was just going to be killed by a more skilled person.

"Just get it over with! I have had everything taken from me! Take my life and be done with it already! I screamed in frustration.

"I have a better idea; he said that you would be here, so answer me this. Have you grown tired of being the Prey? Would you like to know what it's like to hold real power? To become… a predator?" A female voice asked, but when she pulled back the white hood of her cloak, I screamed in pure terror.