Tribal

1

She was very young when she met him. She had not even lost her wings yet when she saw him. At the time, she just wanted to be friends. But her tribe ruled that any intruder must be killed, so she attacked. He paid her no mind, and with a single swipe from his nail, she had almost died. Expecting the tiny knight to finish her off, but he didn't. He walked away. He spared her life. She was confused but grateful. She followed him to her mother's throne room and watched as he challenged her mother and aunts to a duel. He was fast, faster than anything she had ever seen, and he quickly defeated her aunts. When he was alone with her mother, the two fought with such speed and ferocity that she didn't notice how quickly her mother was defeated. The three took their defeat with respect and knelt down, expecting him to end them, but what happened next surprised her more than anything else he had done. He bent his head down in a bow. That's when her curiosity began. It was customary that when defeated in battle, the consequence was death. But the knight hadn't delivered such a punishment. He was merely looking for powerful opponents to test his strength too. He had no interest in ending the life of the three and left.

Many years later, after training so hard she could barely stand, she became an adult and became a lord, along with her cousins, Ash and Clover. She loved them; they were practically siblings. They did everything together. Ash was always quiet and distant, preferring to keep his distance and oversee everything, as was his job as the oldest. Clover was more adventurous; she never hesitated to leap right into the heat of battle, and nothing scared her. She was the youngest and hadn't had the same experience as Ash, or seen how powerful opponents were outside the fungal wastes like she had. In the depths of her heart, the day she watched her mother be bested by the tiny knight, she trained harder than ever just so that one day, should he return, she could repair her mother's honor by defeating the knight. By now he was an adult as well. Oh, how glorious it would be if she could defeat him at full power compared to his younger self! She would gain the respect of the whole tribe and the approval of her mother! Her mother always said that she was proud to have such a strong daughter, but she believed she could be better and strove for perfection, and would do anything for that perfection.

"Acacia? Hey, you there?" chirped Clover. "You're staring off into the distance again." Acacia hadn't even noticed their visitor, a messenger from the neighboring kingdom of Deepnest. The three lords were invited to Deepnest for a very important celebration: the birth of their queen's children. Acacia was intrigued at the thought of meeting the spider queen. She was described as being a fierce warrior who fought with the strength of a beast but the elegance of royalty. Without a doubt, she was likely to be a very interesting person, but what had her attention even more was how the messenger had said that the newest king of Hallownest, the one who was said to have been the vessel for the old god of light, The Radiance, Hollow, would be there. Wherever Hollow went, his personal knight followed him, Ghost, that is what they called him. The thought of laying eyes on the powerful knight excited her; the thought of meeting this enemy once again lit a fire in her heart. She was determined to go. "I do apologize; however, we have many matters to attend to here. Please let the queen know that we shall likely not be able to attend her celebration," Ash lamented to the messenger spider. "Wait!" shouted Acacia, "It would be ever so rude to decline this invitation to the queen's domain. Perhaps at least one of us shall go?" Acacia hoped that it was enough to convince Ash to let her go. "I suppose you have a point, Acacia." He thought it over for a moment. "I can see you are determined to go, so I shall allow you to do so, as a peace offering to Deepnest." Clover stood up and began to question Ash. "Why can't I go? It's not fair!" Ash looked at Clover, who was trying to beg with her eyes, "Clover, don't you have something very personal to attend to these next few days?" Ash was speaking of how Clover and her mate had scheduled today to be the day that they conceived. Clover wouldn't shut up about it. Understanding what Ash was getting at, Clover quietly sat down with red dusting her face.

"We greatly appreciate taking time out of your busy schedule to attend our celebration, lord," the messenger spoke up. "The celebration is taking place tonight, and we would be happy to escort you to the location. Deepnest is very dark, and one could easily get lost. We do not wish anyone to be wandering around and accidentally falling into a pit of spikes." Acacia listened to the arachnid speak and responded, "Transport would be greatly accepted, thank you." After receiving his response, the spider looked at her and said, "We should leave as soon as possible; we wouldn't want to be late." Acacia understood and immediately stood to gather her travel supplies and a gift for the children. According to the messenger, the queen was expecting three eggs to hatch, so Acacia prepared a gift for one child, while Ash and Clover crafted one for the other two. When all was ready, she had everything set up, said goodbye to her beloved cousins, and departed into the darkness of Deepnest.

While he would never show it, Ash was concerned for her. Up until they had been crowned as lords, the mantis tribe was not on good terms with the citizens of Deepnest. He had done his best to repair relations left by his grandparents; they began this whole thing after all. They declared war on Deepnest based on the rumor that Deepnest had planned to infiltrate the tribe and poison them from the inside. Such fools they were. When war was declared, Deepnest revealed their strength; they were barely able to close the gates to Deepnest and protect themselves. That one mistake is what caused the tribe to cut off all contact with the outside tribe. Ash hated how idiotic the previous generations were. He sought to rectify their follies. The same could not be said for Clover. She respected the previous generations with more respect than anyone else. Perhaps one day, she would realize how foolish such respect was.