The Burning Hive

A Cold Peace

Cricket was tired. Of what, she wasn't quite sure, but she was definitely feeling the strain of helping out Bloodworm Hive's residents, helping to deliver necessary goods and treat injuries, while the remnants of their old home towered over them, like some sort of twisted effigy. The constant ash falling from the sky didn't help either. Still, she felt it was the least she could do, especially considering she may have had a personal part to play in what happened here. Sure, it was minor, maybe even insignificant, but it was still a role she played, nonetheless.

Her Rainwing supervisor, noticing how Cricket seemed to be feeling, told her to take a break, which the Hivewing did, thanking her boss as she did.

She sat down outside the makeshift clinic, looking up at the sky and morbidly watching individual particles of ash slowly make their way to the ground. The curious part of her couldn't help but wonder what those ashes used to be. The rest of her yelled that she didn't want to know. Ever. All of this as she pointedly avoided turning toward the burned out hive a short ways away.

The sound of rushing footsteps interrupted her thoughts, Cricket looking back down on the dirt street as a black-and-green Hivewing dragonet ran, a piece of meat hanging from her mouth.

The bespectacled Hivewing was fairly curious about that , of course, but that curiosity was quickly replaced by surprise, when she saw Queen Jewel herself , along with a retinue of bodyguards and an apparent guide, seemingly walking after that dragonet. For several moments, Cricket sat there in shock, wondering what she just witnessed, what Jewel was doing here, before becoming determined to find out for herself.

Getting up, she yelled over to her Rainwing boss that she was going for a walk, the Rainwing replying, "Don't be too long!"

"I won't!"

She hurried to catch up to Jewel, before she lost them to the crowds.

Whatever Cricket thought was going to happen, it wasn't... this .

Cricket was deep in the Ashen Fields now, following Jewel's group as close as she could without getting caught. In her head, the Hivewing was completely confused about what was going on, and all her little mission had done was give her more questions than answers. The amount of dead bodies around her, awaiting burial, plus the bodies that were already buried beneath her feet, wasn't helping her state of mind either.

After what felt like ages of walking through what was basically a hastily-built graveyard, walking past the section where the bodies-to-be-buried were kept, Cricket heard the footsteps stop after the retinue rounded a corner.

Thinking quickly, she hid herself behind a nearby grave marker, a simple slab of stone that had the buried Hivewing's name, date of birth and death carved onto it. Cricket tried not to look at just exactly whose grave she was hiding behind.

Peeking around the corner, she found the dragonet from before and Queen Jewel's entourage standing before another grave, pieces of meat being laid before that grave, for some reason. The sight was so perplexing that she almost missed what was being said, before she snapped out of it and began straining her ears to hear their conversation.

"What are you doing here, little one?" Jewel asked the dragonet.

"I'm eating with my mama and sis!" the dragonet replied, matter-of-factly.

Cricket subtly craned her head around, looking for anyone coming to meet said dragonet, but saw no one else. Of course, it was silly to think anyone would want to have a picnic in a graveyard , but what did the dragonet mean?