The monster horde had already lasted for several days, but it would go on for a few more. Tim had managed to get that information from one of the elven rangers in the group. He didn’t mind it much, since it would offer him and his Hive the opportunity to gain more experience and, hopefully, levels. But listening to the constant sounds of monsters from the forest around them wore on his nerves, even if he did his best not to show it.

He and Max both reached level 8 the day after they arrived at the elven outpost. They fought another pack of Lionits, with the elves watching them. One of the monsters was higher level than them, but they were never in real danger. Regina leveled up again in the same fight.

After that, she took Mia and followed Anuis and a few others into the forest again, heading for the site where their new hive would be built. She hadn’t said so in so many words, but Tim was sure of it anyway. He might not be as smart as Max or his Queen, but he tried to keep his eyes and ears open, and he could put two and two together.

They were only gone for a minute when Tia sought him out. She crouched on a branch half a meter above the wooden platform some distance from the main structure where he was practicing with his blade. “Teach me how to fight,” she asked.

Tim nodded and tossed her the wooden sword he’d begged off Bianorn to practice fighting with different kinds of blades. He wasn’t too surprised at this request. He’d seen how fervently she’d thrown herself into the fights with monsters lately.

“Hold the sword like this,” he told her. “No, a little tighter, you don’t want it to slip out of your hand.”

The wooden sword was a short one, roughly carved out of a piece of wood in a way that made him suspect that the elves had just made it during the trip on a whim. But it worked well enough. They’d had to leave their weapons behind at the human village, so he appreciated it.

He led Tia through some exercises, mostly about how to hold the weapon and some basic movements. This was all instinctual to him, and teaching someone else often made him pause uncertainly. He’d never received any training himself. But he did his best to convey what he knew about fighting, and it even helped him better understand what he was doing. Even if he probably wasn’t the best teacher.

But at least this way, he could help Tia. He wouldn’t put it past her to sneak off and try to train on her own. Tim watched her closely, trying to see if she was overexerting herself. Her injury was mostly healed, but he could tell that it still bothered her. Besides, why else would their Queen have left her behind? So he focused on basics that weren’t physically demanding, just holding the weapon and a few stances.

"Alright,” he said after a while when it was clear she was getting frustrated. “Give it back to me, please, then we can work on some exercises using your work-limbs.”

“For all the good they are,” she muttered as she handed the wooden sword back.

Tim frowned. “They are,” he said. “Besides, if you have to fight and we’re not there, it’ll most likely be when there’s a surprise attack by monsters, so you probably won’t have any weapons on you.”

Tia mirrored his frown. “But -“ She hesitated.

They were interrupted by Max jumping onto the platform from a neighboring one. He landed with a thump and straightened to his full height. “What are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m just showing Tia a few things,” Tim replied. “Do you want to join in? We could do a bit of group training.”

The other Warrior looked at both of them for a moment, narrowing his eyes. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” he said. “Don’t we have better things to do, and what if someone gets hurt?”

Tim paused. It hadn’t occurred to him that Max might not approve. He opened his mouth, but he wasn’t sure what to say.

“We’ll be careful, and why not?” Tia asked, putting her hands on her hips and stretching her work-limbs a little to the side. “I need to fight better.”

Max shook his head. “You’re doing fine, and you’re a Worker, not a Warrior. Maybe you should focus on what you can do in that area?”

“But Max! I need to learn how to fight. I don’t want to keep being useless.”

Oh. Tim took half a step back before he caught himself. “You’re not useless,” he said. He had felt pretty frustrated trying to build the shelters, but he wasn’t sure how to say that, and he didn’t really want to talk about that. So he just said, “So what if you’re not as good at fighting as us? We’re higher level and Warriors.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to protect you from that monster.” Max’s tone was a lot gentler now, and he brushed the side of his blade-limb against her shoulder for a moment. “I promise I’ll do better from now on.” He glanced at Tim, who nodded. “We both will.”

“But we’ve been fighting all the time, and we need it to level and grow stronger for the hive.”

“You won’t need to fight to level,” Max countered. “If Mother had wanted only drones who could fight, don’t you think she would have laid only Warrior eggs?”

Tia hesitated for a moment before she responded. “But that was before the monster horde!”

"Which will be over soon.”

Tim cleared his throat. He interjected hesitantly, “Maybe we should ask our Queen when she gets back?”

Max paused, then nodded. “You’re right. In the meantime …” He glanced around and raised an eyebrow. “We should patrol the perimeter. And someone needs to move the eggs to a better spot, and Tia should study the treehouse to see how the elves built it and assess if we could do something like that. You’re not going to argue that you’re obviously the best suited of us for this task, are you, Tia?”

Tia winced and stood up straighter. “I’ll get right on it, Max!” Then she turned and vaulted over a branch to the next platform.

Tim nodded at Max and grabbed one of the ropes to descend to the ground. He’d start looking for signs of monsters around the base of the outpost. Glancing up, he caught an elf watching them, who quickly turned once he caught his gaze. Tim winced. In the future, they really needed to make sure conversations like this were more private. Maybe our low Wisdom stats are a problem after all.

Their Queen returned after several hours, looking tired, but also smiling slightly. Mia, on the other hand, was looking more excited than he’d ever seen her. Granted, that wasn’t saying much.

Tim hopped onto a branch near them and sat down, waiting for the rest of the Hive to gather. As he did, he glanced at his status sheet again.

He’d gained another point in Str with his newest level. The next one would probably go to Con. His Int and Wis hadn’t risen since he hatched, so he had no idea when their turn might come. Although he felt like he was smarter now than when he’d just hatched, so how well did they really describe someone’s intelligence or wisdom?

Max and Tia showed up shortly, and Regina smiled at them all. “We’re going to be staying here,” she announced. “In the place they showed me, I mean. We’ll wait out the end of the monster horde with the elves, then we’ll get started on building a proper hive. They’ll leave by then. I also got promises for a bit of help, so it should hopefully go better than last time.”

Tim smiled, and saw the others grinning, too. He couldn’t help but feel excited. A real hive! A place to stay and build, at least. He knew it would mean a lot of work, but he didn’t mind that. And if his Queen thought they could handle the humans they would undoubtedly have to deal with, that was a bit of a relief, too.

“What can we do to prepare?” Max asked.

Regina chewed on her lower lip. “Try and learn as much as we can from the elves, I guess. We can also keep fighting monsters, but we’ll have to do that once we’re on our own, anyway.”

“What about the eggs?” Tim asked in a low voice. That bothered him. Did they trust the elves enough to show them new drones hatching? It would probably be pretty obvious what was going on.

Regina glanced around, presumably checking to make sure they were alone. He couldn’t hear or smell anyone else close by, though, and that was probably a more reliable indicator.

“We’ll take them to a secluded spot in the forest,” she replied. “Then we’ll just come back with a few more people. I kind of already told Alenas that would happen, and they’ll probably figure it out soon no matter what we do. If they haven’t already.”

Tim cocked his head. The way his Queen was frowning slightly, the way she spoke that last sentence, implied that she suspected they did. And considering what he’d heard Anuis say, that made sense.

And if the elves had, could the humans figure it out as well?

He shook his head and made himself focus on the conversation. Tia was asking about getting combat training.

“Sure,” Regina answered easily. “If you have the time, I don’t see why not. Actually …” She frowned thoughtfully. “I guess I could make that a rule, once we have more Workers. They all need to get some self-defense training, at least. And more advanced training if they want, as long as it doesn’t interfere with everyone’s work.”

Tia gave Max a pointed look. He glanced away, scratching the base of his right blade-limb. Mia, on the other hand, looked apprehensive, if anything.

“Go take a nap or something, Tia, I don’t like your color,” their Queen said. “Mia, go see about tools like we discussed. Max, I’d like to go on a patrol around the camp with you. Tim - do what you do, I guess.”

Tim felt his chest puff up a bit before he made himself stop. He’d seen the small smile on his Queen’s face, before she turned to jump to the ground with Max. He felt gratified that she didn’t feel the need to give him any specific instructions.

Gods knew (if they were real) she had more than enough to deal with already. He didn’t want to add to her burden. Even this crap with Tia and Max arguing over combat training. Tim shook his head and resolved then and there to solve problems, not make them.

He knew that he would probably end up in a leadership position once they had more, younger Warriors. Even if he would rather act on his own, fight without having to worry about others, he’d do his best.

He climbed to the higher platform where most of the elves had set up camp to talk to Bianorn again. Maybe he could get him to make them some more training weapons. They could use those. Or even real weapons.

Anything was better than a stone ax.