“Bored”

“Very bored”

“Bored”

“Super Bored”

“Incredibly bored”

“Let’s do something stupid!” the first spirit suggested.

“YES!”

Several of the spirits within the hive immediately shouted their approval but just as quickly, they were met with cries of, “NOOO…!”

“Come on guys, you know we can’t do that.” A spirit said. “We need to have full power when the werewolves return.”

“Who promise that?” Another spirit asked.

“Uh…everyone.” The spirit replied. “No one objected remembered?”

Of course the hive remembered, and several of the spirits weren’t happy about it. The first spirit was right; no one had objected back then and several of the spirits now believed that was a mistake. It all happened over 3 weeks ago when the hive was, once again, testing out their power…

After days of changing the various creatures within the tunnels, the hive noticed a strange problem; the creatures were fighting each other! The bats were eating everything in sight outside the werewolves; the ants, the worms and the spiders. On a few rare occasions, the opposite happened and the spiders ate the bats. Once, a Mist Spider ambushed a bat, brought it down to the ground and the ants swamped it before it could fly off.

The hive looked on with interest as it was spilt on the matter. Several spirits wanted to stop the fighting but several others couldn’t be bothered. Some of the spirits actually wanted to encourage the fighting as it was entertaining. Still, with all the fighting, the hive decided to hold off creating new creatures till the creatures it had currently sort themselves out.

So the hive decided to try out new things like creating the Emperor Daisies the wolfgirl had; the potions the wolfgirl created which the hive nicely stored inside new bottles it created; a few new clay pots; and even a new piece of leather chest armor which the alpha immediately made a claim for.

After all that, the spirits within the hive discovered something; they actually much preferred to create more creatures to new items and plants!

However the creatures it had were still fighting so the hive had to do something else. Looking at the situation inside the tunnels, the hive noticed the werewolves were the only ones not fighting. The hive went over all the things it had created so far and the single biggest success they had was also without question the werewolves.

Naturally, curiosity and power got to the hive and the spirits decided to see what they could duplicate the werewolves. It can’t recreate the werewolves directly because there were no wolves nearby but there were a bunch of creatures within the tunnels and after much discussion/arguments, the spirits within the hive decided to see if they could recreate the werewolves with another creature; the rats!

The hive decided on the rats as there were numerous of these creatures in the tunnels.

The hive thought back to the first time it created the werewolves and back then, it just poured energy into the dying pups. That was the first time the hive tried to do that but in the numerous times since, it had failed to recreate the werewolves with other creatures. Something was missing.

Thinking back, there were two things that stood out. First, the hive was trying to save the pups. Second, the hive was trying to turn the pups into something new. Wondering if these 2 issues were the main points, the hive decided to give it a go.

Figuring changing the rats can’t be that different from creating the werewolves, the hive focused its energy on a single rat first and poured the energy into it. The rat in question was on the third floor of the tunnels and it was selected because…well, it happened to be in the same room as the hive.

The rat stopped when it felt the energy entering its body. Pouring energy into creatures was almost second nature to the hive now, so the hive concentrated its focus on changing the rat into something humanlike and keeping it alive. Much like what happened to the werewolves, at first nothing happened. Then the rat started to glow.

The glow got brighter and brighter before the body of the rat began changing. It got bigger and taller. Then the light began to fade. The hive stopped pouring energy into the rat and waited for the light to fully disappear. When it finally did, the hive finally got a good look at the new creature.

The creature was covered in fur. It had claws on its fingers, and its head was that of a rat. The creature had a very long tail and its eyes shone with curiosity as it began looking left and right. Then it stood up.

The creature was about half the height of a normal human and the hive saw that the new creature’s arms were much shorter than those of a human, much less that of a werewolf. It’s legs were also very short and it retained the long tail it had as a rat. Outside these small differences however, the spirits within the hive were struck by how similar the change had affected both the werewolves and the new creature. Outside the differences between a wolf and a rat, the change had affected them in an almost similar fashion. There was no question the method worked and that the new creature and the werewolves were somewhat alike. The spirits within the hive immediately wondered if they could do the same to other creatures.

The creature then turned its’ back to the hive and looked back at the entrance of the room. The display of energy got the attention of the werewolves and the pack stepped into the room. They saw the new creature and the hive were surprised on the disgust on their faces. Even the wolfgirl was clearly uncomfortable with it.

For a moment, the werewolves and the creature just looked at each other. Then the alpha stepped forward. Moving to the creature, he touched it. It wasn’t a strike, it was a more like a firm touch, and the creature fell back on its’ back! The spirits within the hive went silent, shocked at what they were seeing. Then the alpha said, “Weak.”

Indeed it was. In some ways, the creature was a success but it was also terribly weak. The creature came from a rat after all and several of the spirits within the hive immediately decided that the creature was a failure. Not too many spirits disagreed but some did. As the spirits were discussing the matter, the wolfgirl stepped forward.

Kneeling before the hive, the wolfgirl clasped her hands together to her chest and asked, “Great Creator, this…creature. What is it?”

The hive was surprised at the question. It hadn’t thought of a name for it yet because it didn’t even know if the change would succeed. The Naming Committee of the hive immediately got to work and quickly came up with a name.

“It is a new creature of ours.” The hive said. “It came from a rat and it’s a small little thing. So we are calling it a Ratling!”

The wolfgirl nodded. “Great Creator, this…Speaker congratulates it for the success.” The hive waited. It was clear the wolfgirl had more to say. “Great Creator, may this Speaker asked why it created the Ratling?”

“Oh…,” The hive instinctively knew “because they were wanted to” was not the right answer to give. They need to come up with something else. “Well, since you werewolves had been so successful, we believe it was time to create something similar.”

“Great Creator, you wish to create some…like a kin to us?” the wolfgirl asked incredibly.

“Well….yes,” the hive answered.

“Great Creator, you wish to create new…may this Speaker asked why you chose rats as the creatures to do so?” the wolfgirl asked incredibly.

“We actually wanted to create more werewolves but since we can’t, we decided to do so with the rats as there are so many of them in the tunnels.” the hive answered almost immediately. There was no need for any discussion on something so simple right?

The wolfgirl’s eye shone at the answer. “Great Creator, if you would, may this Speaker asked why you couldn’t create more of the pack?”

“More werewolves? Of course, well we need more wolves and pups but we see no problem with that.” The hive answered truthfully.

“Great Speaker,” the wolfgirl carefully asked. “If the pack could gather more wolves and pups, could you then create more werewolves?”

The spirits within the hive had a quick discussion before agreeing. There was no reason not to. They could do it and if the “pack” wanted more werewolves, it had no problem with creating them.

That was 3 weeks ago!

The day after the hive agreed to create more werewolves, the pack left and since then, the hive had been waiting for their return. After a few days, the hive got bored. Several of the spirits within the hive wanted to experiment with their powers again so the spirits to create more of the Ratlings while waiting.

The hive found that the more Ratlings the hive created, the easier the process became. Soon there were two dozen Ratlings running around in the tunnels and the hive got into another problem. The third floor was getting too crowded!

Unlike the werewolves, the Ratlings seems to enjoy staying underground and always crowd around the hive. Several spirits commented on what would happen when the werewolves came back with even more wolves. Everyone agreed that conflict between the Ratlings and the werewolves was almost inevitable! So when the Earth Spirits within the hive wanted to dig a new level, even the Fire Spirits did not object to it. This was when the hive first discovered the uses of the Ratlings; the guys loved to dig!

After the hive created a tunnel down from the back of the room, the Ratlings immediately went down to investigate. As they saw the level being created, they began to help out without any prompting from the hive. In fact, the hive couldn’t get them to stop.

The two dozen Ratlings began digging out the fourth level without any help from the hive and they seemed to know exactly what they were doing. Somehow, tunnels dug by individual Ratlings joined up and before the hive knew it, the fourth level came into being. Much like the third level, the fourth level was a maze of tunnels and small rooms, and it was almost wholly created by the Ratlings. About the only thing the hive had to do was to increase the size of the tunnels and rooms so that the werewolves could enter.

The ease of the creation however meant the hive now had a problem; it became bored again! Super bored; very bored; incredibly bored! Then the hive sensed the movement. Spreading out their focus, the hive noticed the group. The spirits within the hive cheered. Their period of boredom was over.

A new group of humans had arrived to destroy it!

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