The Burning Hive

How the other Tribe lives...

"Keep moving, you damned lazy maggots! I don't need to deal with any of you slacking off today!"

Redstripe sorely wished he could shut the overseer up, his claws just itching to reach out and strangle the vile drake, with his equally vile words and vile attitude, but he was currently too busy hauling extra building materials and was much too exhausted from hauling heavy loads for hours on end to do any real harm anyway. That, and a strong sense of self-preservation stayed his hand. A sense of self-preservation that had been sorely tested these past several weeks, ever since their new overseer came in.

When the last overseer had died (choking on some food at a party, funnily enough), Redstripe had quietly rejoiced, having nothing to say but, "Good riddance, asshole."

Most of the other workers had joined in, laughing at the dead drake's expense, even throwing a small party for the occasion. Of course, the drinks selection could have been better, but with the (rather petty) laws restricting Silkwings from legally obtaining any quality hard liquor, they had to make do with shitty "legal" Silkwing wine and (illegal) homemade moonshine. Still, it had been one of the happiest things he'd experienced in years at that point, just drinking and laughing with his friends over the death of their terrible boss.

Unfortunately, as it turned out, it was quite a premature celebration on Redstripe's part. Their new overseer turned out to be even worse than the last one. Redstripe didn't think the last one had ever been this active in trying to "motivate" his Silkwing labourers by way of bombarding them with threats, insults, and on some days, when he was in an especially bad mood, actual physical abuse.
Sure, their last boss had chronically and massively underpaid them, worked them to the bone and then some, acted like they were barely worth his time, like speaking to them taxed him more than it should have, and asked them to do overtime on seemingly random days for no apparent reason, without extra payment, but at least he didn't go out of his way to demonstrate how much contempt he had for Silkwings, unlike how their current supervisor was doing now.

And, oh, how Redstripe loathed him. If what level of hate Redstripe had for their late overseer could be described as "simmering", he was sure the level of hatred he had for the replacement one was several notches over boiling point and well into steaming. And judging from the subtle, vitriol-filled side glares most of his fellow workers directed at him, Redstripe was far from the only one with those sentiments.

The only reason he hadn't already lashed out at the bastard of a drake, aside from his sense of self-preservation, was because he'd managed to vent his anger and frustration on the walls of several back alleys around his workplace after hours and outside the public eye, so nobody could possibly witness him violently punching the treestuff walls, fuelled by the force of his rage.

Of course, it hurt a lot, and did absolutely nothing to alleviate his current situation, but at least it gave him a way to effectively release the emotional pressure within him without getting either himself or his colleagues into trouble, as well as calming him down enough before the next day of work. Losing himself in fantasies of all the creative ways he'd get revenge on his hateful overseer helped significantly too. At least, that was how it worked, under his old supervisor.

Now, Redstripe was finding it harder and harder to contain himself, the hate and frustration still roiling beneath the surface no matter how much he punched the walls, his emotions threatening to spill over into irreversible actions with some very severe consequences.

After all, in Bloodworm Hive, physically assaulting your superiors (who, funnily enough, were always Hivewings) was grounds for state-sanctioned torture of different kinds, depending on the guards' creativity. And that wasn't counting the (at least) 12 months of imprisonment in a dark, dank cell in Gadfly Prison, where conditions were said to be horrific, to say the least.