Fifty three… I have fifty three children. I knew what was coming when I asked for a headcount… but hearing the exact number is so strange. 

Those are all my children? All of them? They all came out of me, and see me as their parent… 

Less than a week ago I was a twenty something guy in a research facility, being zapped for who knows what reason. Now I’m a mother of fifty three, a ruler of a growing nation, and a new species. 

Life is funny sometimes.

“Out of the fifty three, only twelve are fully grown. Ten are pupating, and twelve are larvae, the rest have yet to hatch.” Lenn explains. “Our castes are currently lopsided, with three soldiers, two tenders and manants, and one of each workers, striders, crafters, messengers, and entertainers.” The bug continues to list. 

I quickly scrawl into the ground with my finger, tallying up the data provided. After everything is written down, I look up at my eldest. 

“I don’t know what half of those castes even are.” I say flatly.

Claire moves closer to me. “I can explain them later.” She offers.

Nodding, I move back to planning. What does the hive need most? Food is the highest priority, and without the proper workforce we won’t be producing any. Which means we need to secure an alternate source in the meantime. 

Up until now, we’ve been relying on the fruits in the grove where our hive resides. But the once heavily ladened branches are quickly becoming bare, and we’re only getting more mouths to feed as time goes on…

“Lenn… Tell the soldiers to meet me outside.” 

 

────────────

 

After a quick egg laying session, I head outside. The sun on my skin and carapace feels pleasant, and I find myself smiling. Looking down the large mound, I see the three large insects chatting with Lenn at the base.

I jump down the hill, my wings partially unfurling to slow my fall. Dropping near the largest soldier, I hear the tail end of their conversation. 

“...could she want us for? I me— CHK” The insect is cut off as I slam into the ground next to them. 

“I’m here to tell you that.” I say to the feminine humanoid. It’s odd to me that soldiers, out of all the castes, are humanoid. I wonder if that’s exclusive to my hive or not.

“M-mother! We were worried, since you needed us specifically.” Brekka, the largest of the three, says. 

I nod. “I need your help. I’m planning on hunting.” 

Immediately all four of my children yell in opposition. 

“Mother!” 

“Why do you have to go?” 

“We can do it!” 

“It’s too dangerous!” 

I block out the cacophony of scents, waiting for them to finish. After a minute or so they all stop talking, and I explain.

“I’m the strongest here, I’m going.” 

Okay, maybe it’s not explaining, but I’m not in the mood to argue. Thankfully the kids seem to pick up on this, and don’t say anything further. 

I look over my little group, noting the differences in the three. Most obvious is Brekka, being the largest. Then one of the remaining two has a large crack on one side of their face, which renders their eye useless. I’m assuming that’s Romulus. Which leaves the last. 

They’re the smallest, standing in the back. Their frame isn’t only the smallest hightwise, but is also much slimmer. Like a runner, where the other two look like bodybuilders. 

“So… How do you fight?” I ask them.

Brekka steps forward. “I’m currently using my fists… But I’m not sure if I’ll stick to that.” She sounds unsteady, like using her fist makes her anxious. After I nod, she steps back.

Romulus is next to step forward. He meets my gaze with his good eye, causing a pang of guilt to run through my gut. He doesn’t seem to notice, and gives me the insect equivalent of a smile by moving his mandibles apart slightly.

“I use this…” He says, flicking his wrist. As he does, a long, serrated blade extends from the palm of his hand. It glints in the sunlight, its edge glistening with oil. 

“Wow!” I chitter. “Do you have one of those?” I ask Brekka.

The larger insect looks at the ground, shaking her head. 

I turn back to Romulus and look closer at the organic blade. It looks like it’s made of extremely dense chitin. The compressed shell is almost black, where the rest of the kid is a light orange. The oil on the blade’s side is slightly green. 

“Have you practiced with it?” I ask the apparent swordsbug. 

He rubs the back of his head. “Y-yeah, a bit… But it only showed up today.” 

“Ah…” I say in understanding. “I guess you’ll get to get some experience with it today then.” 

Finished with Romulus, I don’t wait for the third soldier to move forward. Instead I walk around Romulus, and step in front of the last of my warriors. 

“So, how do you fight?” I ask the startled bug. 

The insect looks up at me, frozen in shock. After a few seconds, they blink and take a nervous step backwards. 

“I… I’m Wrok…” They say quietly. 

“Alright, but how do you fight?” I repeat my question. 

Suddenly there’s a loud cracking sound that makes me jump. I quickly realize what made the noise, as two deep red pieces of shell open up behind the lithe kid in front of me. Soon after, two translucent wings pop out of either side of the boy, whirring quietly. His demonstration over, Wrok closes his wings. 

“I also will use this…” He says, revealing a long abdomen, tipped with a nasty looking spear of a stinger. 

I nod, shocked. How the hell did I not see that earlier? “Alright…” I say, dumbfounded. 

I step away from the trio. After making brief eye contact with each, I smile. 

“Let’s go get some dinner!” 

 

────────────

 

I duck, narrowly avoiding the creature’s cleaving swipe. Glad to still have my head, I launch myself away from the monster. It moves to follow, but Wrok flies in, spearing the beast in the eye. With an angry roar, it turns its attention to the smallest soldier. 

With a moment to breathe, I take stock of our opponent. It’s an overgrown lizard, or a dragon without wings. Watching as it fruitlessly tries to land a hit on my children, I notice something odd. Every so often, one of the creature’s scales will blink out of existence for a second, letting me see straight through the beast like it isn’t even there. 

After observing for a few more seconds, I feel confident that I won’t learn anything more from watching. So, not wanting my kids to be in all the danger, I leap onto the monster’s back. Instantly it begins writhing beneath me, trying to throw me off. It turns its head around to look at me, and I give it a grin. 

My kids, being the little geniuses they are, don’t waste the opening. All three strike, going for the nearest vital spot in reach. 

The beast screams in pain, prismatic blood gushing from multiple wounds.

Just as I start pulling at its skin with my sharp fingertips, the atmosphere shifts. The clear air suddenly drops in temperature, becoming stale. I don’t have a chance to react as the scales in my hands vanish. Bit by bit, the creature blinks out of reality, the air getting more and more stagnant as it does. I jump off just in time as the section of back I was mounted on disappears as well. 

As the last bit of dragon vanishes, I realize I can still see its glowing eyes. 

Then all hell breaks loose. 

With a bang, the lizard reappears, pushing all of us back as the air rushes away from it with a wave of intense heat. Its once dull copper scales are now a vibrant orange, like they’re superheated. As I get to my feet, several scales vanish from the monster’s hide. 

Pain sears through my chest as a beam of white light shoots from the hole in the creature’s skin and spears me through the middle. My vision blurs as I fall to the side, the laser cutting through my chest and both my right arms. I collapse to the ground, the attack slicing through the trees behind where I was standing. 

The pain muddles my mind. I want to scream, but can’t find the strength to. I look from my position on my back for my kids, but I can only see blurry movement. As my vision starts fading, I see a shadow appear above me.

The last thing I feel is warm limbs wrapping around me.

 

────────────

 

As Mother is taken away, I turn my focus back towards the creature. My heart burns in fury. This filth touched my mom? An overgrown lizard? Heat bubbles under my shell, pushing me to action. One shouldn’t argue with their body.

I kick off the ground, dirt spraying behind me. Thanks to Wrok’s fancy flying, the monster is facing away from me, letting me attack unseen. Just as I reach the creature, it notices me. 

Too late. 

My fists collide with the searing hot lizard, but the fire inside me is hotter. My anger channels through all four of my arms, through my furled hands, and into the monster. I recoil as my fists explode on the creature’s flesh. 

The force pushes me back, my feet digging shallow trenches in the ground. Quickly glancing at my limbs, I see that all four of them are intact, if a little sooty. The same can’t be said for where I hit the dragon wannabe. 

Where the explosion made contact, a huge chunk of flesh was blasted away. The orange scales are gone, leaving the red muscles underneath exposed. It seems that the reptile’s flesh isn’t able to take the heat of the it’s own ability, and starts to bubble and steam.

The lizard screeches, twisting and writhing around on the ground. As the pathetic thing wallows in its pain, I rush it again. 

This time my explosion blows off one of its legs, not that it needs it with how it's squirming in the dirt. As I skid to a stop after being pushed back again, a shape rushes past me. 

Romulus weaves through the monster’s thrashing form, dodging its flailing limbs and errant lasers like an expert dancer. Without even being nicked by the creature, he reaches its head. With a swift slash, he cuts the beast’s throat. 

For the second time, the monster’s prismatic blood splashes onto the ground. Except this time, the monster doesn’t wail in pain. Instead it goes stiff, before collapsing onto the ground. 

The beast dead, and Mother avenged, the anger quickly drains from my body. I drop into the bubbling, bloody, multicolored mud, exhausted. After a few seconds, I’m joined by my siblings. 

“Fuck…” Wrok whispers. 

I nod. “Agreed, fuck.” Lightly, I punch Romulus’ shoulder with a steaming fist. “Where the hell did that fancy footwork come from?”

The one eyed guy shrugs. “It just… came to me.” He snickers. “Must be my genetics.” 

We sit in silence, leaning against each other. Eventually, Wrok breaks the quiet.

“How are we gonna bring this back?” 

 

────────────

 

My head throbs painfully as I wander out of my deep sleep. Cracking my eyes, I only see a deep, black nothing. I push against the nothing and find that I’m restrained. Despite the undeniably upsetting situation, I find myself calm.

Did I die? That would be so embarrassing, if some random lizard did me in. …But that wouldn’t make sense, my phoenix core should’ve saved me. Maybe it failed? Or that attack hit it? What is a phoenix core, anyways?

The space I’m in shakes with a loud thud, everything sloshing around like I’m floating in fluid. Wait… I am floating in fluid! But why— 

I’m in a cocoon! I’d slap myself if I could move. I must’ve gotten pretty fucked up if I have to be in one of these. I wonder how long I’ve been in here… It’s pretty comfy, honestly. 

I mentally check over myself, and notice that my two missing arms aren’t actually missing, and are perfectly fine. That means, if my memory serves me, I’ve been in here for at least six days, assuming I grew them back. There’s also a noticeable lack of pain. I shudder thinking about how much that beam of light hurt. 

I wonder if the hive is okay, if they’re all doing alright without me. Worry squirms in my chest at the thought of them having to figure things out on their own. 

…I’ve really come to care about them, haven’t I? I’m kinda surprised, with how bad my own family was. At least as bad as I think they were from the fragments I remember. Maybe it's because of that that I’ve become so attached to them? Whatever the reason, I’d be devastated to lose them at this point. 

Alright! If I see them as family, as my kids, that means I have to make things nice for them! I’ll turn this dump of a hive into the best in the entire race, I’ll make one better than the Queen’s. Then my kids will be able to enjoy themselves, and not have to be stressed any more than necessary. 

My blood bubbles with determination, and then quickly cools due to my current situation. 

Stuck in a healing pod, right. Can’t really do much in here… Or can I? 

I pull up the plans that the Queen gave me in my mind, expanding them so I can see them clearly. I’m going to learn these things inside and out, find what their purpose is in detail, even improve them if I can. Then when I get out there, I’ll design the best hive in the world! 

Just wait kids, Mama’s coming.