World of Alvarra: Rise of the Vampire Lord

Chapter 76 Lyn's Story part 4

Lyn wasted no time, when she left the beehive, she stretched her senses as far as they could go and zipped all over the place looking for any outcast or those who had lost their hive and queen.

Far and wide she went, fighting and challenging many bees and zappers for the next two days. Ambushing small groups of them, asking questions of where others like them can be found, and seeking them out to repeat the cycle.

Never slowing down, she didn't stop until she felt like she exhausted every outcast or hiveless she could find within a day's area of her. Slowly forming a small posse of about twenty-one zappers and forty-eight bees.

Now normally some might wonder where she was going to put so many bees and zappers, and even a few ants. But Lyn had a plan, she wasn't just dueling and coercing others to follow her... no she was also scouting the area around her. Forming a mental map of the area around her and of the two hives she now protects, when she was suddenly interrupted.

"Mistress Lyn! Mistress Lyn! I found another group without a hive!" one of her new zapper followers said. "But... there's just one problem... they have gone, mind dead..." making a few of her followers gasp. Mind dead being what happens to an insect that has gone without being ruled by an insect-kin for too long, their minds degenerated. Which meant that this new group ethier had a non-insect-kin ruler, or they were hiveless for too long...

While considered incredibly rude, if they were ruled by a non-insect-kin, if she so wanted to, she could ask if they would want to join up with her, but if refused, she would have to accept it. But if they were hiveless and lost their minds, then she could collect them, free manpower. And having her as their ruler would slowly bring back their minds.

The only problem was... if you could even communicate with mind-dead insects, as they are notoriously difficult for intelligent insects to understand. For when an insect becomes an insect-kin or is ruled by one, they gain intelligence despite their, admittedly, small brain, but at a cost that they lose some of their natural instincts that helped them before. Like a bee's ability to dance in order to communicate, now replaced by a form of telepathy when they get close to each other.

But Lyn wasn't deterred, she merely turned to the zapper that spoke and asked. "How many." in a confident tone.

"A full eleven! They are just milling about, it seems, doesn't look like they plan to go anywhere anytime soon. I think I found them just in time." the zapper said proudly.

Which made sense, most hiveless, whether ruled by an insect-kin or not, would slowly die without a colony to serve and be a part of, leaving many to die over the course of a few weeks unless picked up soon. So by telling Lyn, the zapper was effectively saving their lives in a way.

Wasting no time, Lyn set out and followed the zapper to the small clearing that had the bees just laying about doing nothing.

"There! There!" the zapper said excitedly, pointing at the bees.

A few of the others also came to look, watching with interest. "How are you going to get them to follow you?" another one of Lyn's followers asked when they stopped a good distance away to watch.

Lyn just smiled. "Don't worry, I got this," she said with confidence, gently flying down towards the small group of bees.

The bees then noticed her and started to buzz agitated by the stranger. But Lyn sensed no touch of an insect-kin on their minds or the pheromones of a regular insect queen. Meaning they were truly, free real estate.

Gently flying into the middle of the group, they buzzed with warnings and threats. But she ignored all of that and instead... began to dance!

She whirled around, shaking her hips and sticking her ass out. Making sudden turns and sharp angles, spinning in place and using her aura in place as pheromones, spreading it out to engulf her potential new recruits. The bees could not help but watch the majesty of her dance, buzzing ever closer to her with curiosity and awe. After a few minutes of this, they had accepted her as their ruler, and in their buzzing ways, swore allegiance to the new queen.