Fires are burning all around the underground cave-like stronghold. It has an eerie feeling to it how the flames dance along the walls, providing light to the normally dark cave. In the middle surrounded by the now-dead hive guardians and slain human soldiers is a big purple egg. The hive guardians are big insects with six appendages ending in sharp claws or scythe blades. They are protected by a light purple-colored chitinous armor, which now has many cracks and holes from combat. The egg in the middle is still unharmed, but in the distance the noise of battle is ongoing.

Several hive drones, workers who are not designed for combat, enter the cave and head straight for the egg in the middle. The hive drones look like smaller versions of the hive guardians, but with big claws for lifting and more versatile claws for finer tasks. They quickly grab the egg and tried to flee, when the opposing corridor lits up with a fiery light. A fireball flies out of the corridor and hits the floor, where the egg was resting just a moment ago. One of the hive drones carrying the egg catches fire from the explosion and is quickly replaced by an unharmed drone.

The drones manage to take the egg out of the cave and into one of the dark corridors. The darkness is no problem for the night vision capabilities of the hive creatures. Through their connection to the hive mind, they planned the safest route to flee with the egg. As they get further away from the main cave, the battle noises also slowly disappear. After traversing multiple corridors of the underground hive complex, they reach the surface.

They leave the exit of the tunnel, well camouflaged by vegetation, and escape into the night. The drones make haste and try to get away from the dying hive as quickly as possible. They enter a dense forest and are quickly hidden from view. Some minutes later the hive mind collapses, leaving the drones carrying the egg in a feral state without intelligent control. As a result, they drop the egg and start to disperse in different directions.

The egg, which is about one meter in size, lies on the ground nearly in the same position as before. This time inside the forest, near the former hive. It will stay there for the next few days …

Some animals look at the egg from some distance but didn’t come too close. The development of the creature inside is nearly finished, generating a magical aura that repels the animals of the forest. After some time, the first cracks start to form on the surface of the egg and out of it crawls a humanoid creature with insectoid features. She has big, black-colored, oval eyes and a pair of antennae on her head. The rest of her looks like a female human toddler with some spots of purple chitinous armor on her stomach, her legs, her arms and her back. A new Hive Queen is born and with it, a new hive mind is created in the aether. With the Hive Queen forming the basis of a new hive mind, the magical aura disperses, having too little mana to sustain itself any longer.

The young queen searches her surroundings with her eyes and with her synaptic senses, but she can't find a connection to any hive creatures nearby. Her instincts tell her that the absence of any other hive creatures is abnormal. She panics and opens her mouth, screeching a high-pitched scream. In addition, she transmits her distress in the newly formed hive mind, but nobody else is there to answer. After a few seconds, the Hive Queen notices a new presence coming closer to her location. She tries to use her synaptic senses to establish a connection, but fails to do so …

Elise Sternensucher is an adventurer, traversing the Everglade forest on the hunt. She is a skilled huntress who uses a bow. It is already quite dark and she wants to hunt something for dinner. In the past, she did more missions from the adventurer guild, before she started a family. Elise married Mark, a blacksmith and has a son now. She cannot go on missions with high risk or long durations anymore. After some time she reaches a clearing in which a Zaramander, a lizard-like creature the size of a small dog, is eating some kind of rodent right now. Elise stops without alarming her prey and aims with her bow. She stretches the string of the bow to its full length before firing. The arrow races through the air, hitting the lizard with an unstoppable force, penetrating its scales and piercing the heart. With a thud, the Zaramander collapses and Elise appears to dress her prey. She cleanly takes the arrow out of the animal and grabs her knife, opening the lizard up to drain the blood before it starts to clump. Then she proceeds to remove the organs carefully and buries them. After she has finished gutting the animal she prepares to head home.

Elise is a pretty 24 years old woman. She has shining blonde hair and dark green eyes. Her delicate face looks quite smooth and has no traces of her dangerous job as an adventurer. She is 1,71 meters tall and has a well-trained body. She can cast some support magic, three spells in total. She is usually equipped with her elven-crafted longbow and matching arrows. In addition, she carries a dagger and wears a green-colored hunting robe. Her dagger is a masterpiece created by her husband Mark and has several ornaments.

On her way back home, Elise thinks about how to prepare the Zaramander she hunted earlier. She should have everything she needs to create a delicious meal for herself and her family. She does not need to hunt but likes the activity and exercising her skills. She moves quickly through the forest but it’s dark and in the forest are a lot of obstacles, so Elise chants the words for the True Sight Spell to improve her sight.

With True Sight active, Elise notices a strange magical aura near her route back home. Her curiosity is sparked and she approaches silently. Just a moment later she hears a screaming noise, like that of an infant. This triggers her maternal instincts as she gets closer to the source. It did not take long to reach the remains of a strange-looking egg and in it lays a small girl with a couple of non-human features. Elise stops in her tracks as she sees the alien-looking features of the small girl. With her True Sight spell still working she notices that the girl sends a tendril of mana in her direction, which fails to connect. A storm of different emotions hits Elise. On one hand, her maternal instincts tell her to help the little girl. On the other hand, is the fear of the strange features the girl has. The huntress needs a few seconds to collect herself and then decides to step closer. As she comes closer, the wailing girl focuses her eyes on the approaching human and goes quiet.

The young Hive Queen looks at the new arrival. She knows that the humanoid is not of her kind, but she urgently needs help. Underdeveloped as she is right now and without any hive drones to feed her, she will likely die. The young queen does not comprehend her whole situation, but she knows these things deep down. The humanoid is Elise and as she comes close enough, she slowly picks up the young Hive Queen. At this moment Elise decides to help this little girl and take her home. She cannot let her starve to death alone herself in this forest. As she starts to move again, now with the child in her arm, she thinks about how she will explain her decision to care for the alien-looking girl to her husband Mark.