After Elise was done reading the article from the bestiary she felt much better informed. She already made her decision to protect the innocent girl she had found and the kingdom's propaganda simply slides off her mind. In the meantime, Mark is nearly finished preparing dinner, when Elise calls him over to the living room. Elise declares, “We still need a name for the Sylv girl!”

“Of course darling, let's decide after we have eaten dinner, ok?”, her husband responds with a friendly attitude.

Erik listens to the conversation and presents his idea, “What about Sylvia, because mother called her a Sylv girl?”.

Elise and Mark think about the name for a second and find no problem with it. Elise responds, “Sylvia sounds fine to me.”, and looks to Mark, who nods in approval. Mark acknowledges, “Then it is decided. I'll quickly finish preparing today's meal in the kitchen and then we can celebrate our new addition to the family.”

Some minutes later dinner is ready and everyone gathers at the big table in the dining room. The main course is the roasted meat from the Zaramander. In addition, there is salad and some bread, as well as water to drink. Elise is a bit worried if Sylvia could already bite and chew properly. She puts Sylvia on her lap and then cuts a tiny corner off the meat. Elise picks the tiny piece of meat up with her fork and then tries to feed it to Sylvia …

Sylvia waits patiently until Elise picks her up again and starts to move to the big table in the dining room, where Mark already started to place the food for dinner. Her eyes focus on the delicious meat in front of her, which she smelled for what felt like an eternity already. Sylvia's patience is finally rewarded, which makes her quite happy. Then Elise sits down at the table and tries to feed her a small piece of the meat she craved for. Hardly is the meat within reach of the young Hive Queen, when she already rushes forward and quickly fetches the meat. For a brief moment, Mark could see rows upon rows of tiny teeth before they consumed the meat.

“That … was interesting!”, commented Mark and turns a little pale. Elise only sees the reaction of Mark, who sits in front of her and states, “She seems to have a huge appetite. This also answers the question if she can properly eat the food you made.”. Mark recovers quickly from the small shock and agrees with Elise. The rest of the dinner is uneventful.

As the young Hive Queen consumed the first piece of meat she notices that she can extract a little part of the genetic information from the creature. With enough samples, she could get a complete genetic blueprint. In addition, she needs the nutrients for her development and therefore is eager to eat as much as possible. She is still quite small and can’t eat too much, but she really tries. Her benefactor continues to feed her calmly until she is full and gives her some water from time to time to drink. At that moment she is convinced that she had made the right decision to let Elise take her to her human equivalent of a Hive Complex.

After everyone finished their meal, it is time to go to bed. Elise asks Mark if it is ok for him if they take Sylvia into their bed for now and he agrees. Some minutes later Elise and Mark are together in their bed on the second floor, with Sylvia in the middle. Sylvia is full and very satisfied. She also enjoys the soft mattress with Elise right next to her. A satisfied purr, like that of a cat, escapes the little Hive Queen. Shortly after everyone glides into sleep. Normally the Sylv are more active in the dark and sleep when the sun is shining brightly, but Sylvia is still developing, well-fed, as well as a bit exhausted from all the new things she experienced on her first day.

In the morning the sun slowly rises and throws its first rays of light into the parents' room. A short time later, slowly, little by little, everyone is waking up. After a short visit to the bathroom, Mark starts to prepare breakfast. In the meantime, his wife takes Sylvia with her and proceeds to the water storage of the house on the bottom floor. When Elise arrives, she puts Sylvia down for a moment right next to her and starts to speak a short chant, while conjuring the mana for the spell. Shortly after she casts “Conjure water” and fills the water storage to the top. She usually does this in the morning as a kind of magic practice and to avoid the long way to the river nearby. The spell costs little mana for the amount of water generated and within 1-2 hours she has regenerated the lost mana. The amount of water that gets generated by the spell can be controlled by the amount of mana given and the duration of the spell itself. While Elise does this, she is closely monitored by the young Hive Queen, which saw her cast a spell for the first time. With her antennae, Sylvia can trace the flow of mana that is used for the spell and is fascinated by the fine control, in addition to the precision that Elise showcased.

The mother smiled warmly when she notices the interest of her new fosterling. The following breakfast is consumed together at the big table in the dining room. Sylvia waits patiently until Elise starts to feed her again and shows a strong appetite, just like last time. After breakfast is over Mark proceeds to work in his smithy right next to the house. He produces high-quality armor and weapons which he sells every two weeks in the nearby town in return for goods they need back at home. For these occasions, he uses their horse Geber in combination with a wagon for transporting the goods.

Elise collects the laundry of the whole family and then tries to proceed to the river in order to clean it. She could have used the water she conjured earlier, but she needs a lot of water for washing and doesn’t mind taking sometimes a walk to the river. She carries the laundry by using a robust basket and puts Sylvia on top. She assumes that her new fosterling likes to stay near her, but when she steps with her outside the Sylv Queen gives a sharp, “Hissssssss” and shows clear signs of displeasure. Elise stops in her tracks and then slowly retreats back into the house. The Hive Queen calms down and becomes quiet as the distance to the door increases. After a moment of thought, the mother remembered that the article of the bestiary states that Sylv hate direct sunlight. She puts the basket down and decides to do the laundry later when the sun isn’t shining so strong anymore.

Elise concludes that they actually need several new things now that they have their new charge. For that, shopping in the village would be perfect. She calls her son and asks him to please bring his father into the house. Erik complies and shortly after arrives with his dad, who has an interested expression. He gets a quick update about the situation and receives the request to take care of Sylvia while she goes with the horse to the village for the shopping. Mark agrees and takes the Hive Queen from Elise.

However, the Sylv Queen does not want to part with Elise and shows her displeasure with a few soft yelps. The parents comfort her together and Elise gives some instructions to her husband on how to hold Sylvia, before departing. This triggers the same reaction as earlier, but after some time the Hive Queen calms down. While Elise is on her way Erik shows clear interest to play with Sylvia. After some thought, Mark agrees and supervises both while they play with some of Erik’s toys.

Elise first heads to the stable where Geber is resting and then harnesses the cart in front of the horse to transport the goods she wants to buy. She also takes some money with her for the shopping and then starts her journey to the nearby town. The day has just begun, and she should be back for dinner. She is quite confident that she should get most of the things she needs for Sylvia. While she visits the town she could also try to acquire more information about the Sylv in general and take a look at new assignments in the adventurer guild.