Benjamin Vryce

When night fell, they stopped. They could all see just fine, but the majority of the locals were most active at night. Benjamin didn’t want to have to fight his way to the battle, so instead they settled in to wait it out. He used the time to watch the local’s movements, plan their advancement, and fiddle with the aged copper acorn.

Jade had tried to talk to him after they settled in, but when he ignored her, she quickly got bored and went inside her void space. She wasn’t a bad person really; Benjamin just had a lot on his mind. He sat at the entrance to the pill bug construct, with Ice at his side. They were listening for the wingbeats of the Hive.

When he heard them, he would look up, mentally catalog their color and what direction they were going in. When the air was quiet, he focused on the core forming inside the acorn. Once he learned that he could make use of the essence it held, he wanted to increase its capabilities. His own core had grown considerably, but an additional and rechargeable source of essence would always be useful.

The thumping noise of wings entered his ears again, and he looked up. It was another group of the large brown Hive, flying towards the towers with chunks of dead reptiles in their scythe arms. This wasn’t the first time a hunting party had flown over carrying prey, but there was something about these browns that caught his attention.

“Jade, would you care to join me?” He said to his fellow human soul. She looked up from her near napping pose, she adopted when meditating.

“What’s up Vice?” she asked, moving over to join him. “I been working on a new technique, you gunna be jelly, anyway what’s up?”

She made it to where he was sitting while she was talking and sat down beside him in the entrance. She was, perhaps, a little closer than she needed to be. Sitting down with her hip touching his like that, but he let it slide, the entrance to this construct was quite small after all.

“What do you make of those Hive right there?” he asked, pointing to the brown ones.

He watched her face scrunch up in confusion, while she looked at the group in question. Eventually she shook her head and looked at him with a shrug.

“Hunting party of ugly brown Hive, bit bigger then normal maybe, but otherwise normal, why what’s up?” she said at last.

“Does anything stick out to you about their color, for starters?” he asked, wanting her to come to an answer without having been led there. She looked again, the hive were getting further away but with essence flowing into her eyes, he knew she could still see them just fine.

“Alright, well, I guess if I had to be specific, I’d say that they look like the brown you see in autumn when the trees change color.” She finally said.

“Yes, that’s what I had thought to. They aren’t a uniform brown. They are burnt orange, brownish yellow, tan and so on. They look like a mix of several colors, which turned brown but maintained some of the original tints.” He said elatedly, glad that she had been able to confirm his guess.

“Ok, Vice. I hear what you’re saying. But what’s your point? Who cares, it’s just the color the horny dude made em.” She said with a shrug, not understanding what he meant.

He looked at her after a long moment, he had kept his eyes on the autumn Hive. She didn’t understand, that made sense when he took the time to consider. She hadn’t talked to the Erlking before coming here. She also hadn’t been watching the skies all night.

“Did you see the purple eggs; you even made a joke about them remember? Well, there were purple eggs from when the reds and the blues mated. This is the same, these hive have several colors mixed together to create this autumn brown.”

“Still not getting why its important chief.” She said, exasperation in her voice.

“Because, the autumn hive; they are bigger than normal, making them born of multiple-colored monarchs, travel only in large groups, and always go as fast as they can. Their carrying food towards the towers. I haven’t seen any of them move by themselves, always in big groups, and always hunting. I think these are the ones we are after. It’s just like the red hive, when they felt threatened, they stocked up on food, remember?”

He could see the gears turning as she thought about what he said. Eventually she nodded her head, looking up at him with conviction in her eyes and spoke.

“Not a fuckin clue chief.” She said, with a straight face.

He wanted to slap his face with his palm, but instead he just sighed. At least she wasn’t being dismissive.

“That’s alright Jade, I might even be wrong. You can go back to your meditation; I’ll keep watch. When the sun starts coming up, we’ll check out where they went. If we’re lucky, it will only take another day or two to find the right tower.”

She just nodded, and rose to move back over to her spot. If she accidentally, rubbed her body length against him as she rose, he completely ignored it. Her trying to run her fingers through his hair though, he couldn’t ignore. He scowled up at her as she moved away, but all he got for his trouble was a wink and an extra hip sway.

He shook his head and looked back outside; he didn’t have time for these games. He needed to find the right hive and figure out how they were going to get inside without mass bloodshed.

* * *

Grace

The small blue hadn’t distinguished himself in physical combat. He was too small, and his scything limbs to weak. He had shown a knack for tactics however. He had dropped a rock into the maroon toad’s eye, at a critical moment, allowing the rest of the party to cut it down.

Stomper agreed that there was something different about this blue. He had taken over watching him with the hatchlings. After a night of seeing how he interacted with the little ones, he went to speak to the red queen.

“Apparently, he is a potential monarch.” He told Grace, once he had returned from the conversation.

“A potential monarch? Grace doesn’t understand, she thought that only the original Hive could be monarchs.” She was confused, and didn’t mind saying so. Why had the blue king fallen so far, if a new queen monarch could have been born?

“I don’t actually speak the Hive tongue, Grace.” He reminded her with a sigh. “I just got the feeling that sometimes, new monarchs pop up. They are either killed, or sent away to start their own Hives.”

Grace thought about that, it made sense in a way. Many of the predators that she hunted in the forest where the same, kill the challengers before they grew up to fight for the alpha position.

“Grace understands, this is good. Benjamin was worried that without the monarchs the reds and blues would die out. Now you and Grace can tell him that won’t happen.” She said excitedly.

Stomper just looked at her a little sadly, she didn’t like it when he gave her that look. It meant that he thought she was being foolish.

“Go on, clan brother. What is Grace wrong about?” she said sarcastically.

Stomper laughed at her then. He laughed and slapped his leg, pointing at her and wiping tears from his eyes. She didn’t understand what was so funny, but she was getting embarrassed.

“Grace, my dear clan sister.” He said at last, “I am happy to see you growing bolder, the chief is good for you I think.” He doubled over again laughing. “No, Grace. You’re not wrong about anything. It’s just…we gathered these hive together to go to war. At a minimum, all the adults will likely die.”

Grace pouted a bit at hearing that, she already knew that of course but still, she didn’t like being told. She looked at the potential monarch, training the hatchlings. She made a decision then, about the fate of at least some of the hive.

“When Benjamin calls, this hive along with the female’s eggs and hatchlings, will be left behind with enough soldiers to keep them fed.” She said with conviction.

Stomper looked at her again, she knew that he was the tactical one. She also knew that she was being emotional and that she might be going against Benjamin’s wishes. She just didn’t care, she wanted these hive at least, to not die out.

“Very well, clan sister.” He said at last, “I believe it’s likely that the chief will order something similar anyway. So, we will be ready in case he does. We should check all the others as well, it’s unlikely but if there should be another possible monarch among them, they should be spared to.”

The two goblins shared a smile, before setting to work. Grace knew it was a small thing, but she just couldn’t watch while another clan was wiped out. Until the call came, they would hunt, feed the Hive, and prepare for the rift war.

* * *

Benjamin Vryce

When the sun rose, they mounted the wolves and followed the blue king forward. He could see the towers in the distance, they had grown steadily as they approached. The pair were rendered speechless when the scale finally dawned on them.

The towers weren’t like the ones they had fought to claim the red and blue monarchs. These towers were on another scale entirely. They were bigger around then any of the shopping malls either had been too, and taller than any skyscraper from earth. The hive who built these must have started construction well over a thousand years ago, and never stopped building.

“Whelp, I can see why the invader dudes haven’t been able to get out yet,” Jade said succinctly.

Benjamin was forced to agree, he would have to reevaluate all his plans now. His eyes tracked the blue king as he scouted out ahead for them. He was a scarred veteran from the beginning of the Hive, and terrifyingly efficient on the battlefield. Yet he had been relegated to that spindly little tower on the outskirts. Just how much more terrifying were the monarchs that had ruled these monolithic towers be?

“We need to find a spot to set up camp. Watch the movements of the autumn hive for a time, and summon the others here.” He said at last. Not knowing what else to do other then follow his original plans for the time being.

“I mean, I guess, but you know that the reds and blues we got aren’t gunna be of any help here, right? I mean, there must be more than a million ‘autumn hive’ in there” she said, again using air quotes to mimic him.

“Probably, but let’s find that out before we go giving up,” he said back.

Moving as close to the base of the tower as he could safely get, before finding a house to settle down in. He pulled the acorn from his pocket; he had taken to funneling essence into it while he was thinking. He had made slow progress with the acorn, but having the essence moving through him was good practice if nothing else.

After moving into an abandoned pill bug constructed building, Benjamin settled down for the night. He wanted to do some thinking in his meditation chair so he asked Jade to watch and closed his eyes.

Ice’s growl brought him back to his senses, to find Jade had crawled into his lap. When he opened his eyes and looked at her, she only laughed manically and moved away. He really didn’t understand her at all. At least it was better than when she was attacking enemies, they didn’t have good odds of beating, he supposed.