The tiny bug awoke slowly, a gnawing hunger clawing at her. She stirred, her limbs feeling stiff and unfamiliar. She had never used them before. Despite feeling starved and sore, she was still tired. Her restless slumber left her feeling exhausted and confused in ways her fresh, young mind had never experienced. The instinct to wake and seek food warred with the instinct to return to her incubation for a few more days. The poor bug chittered pitifully as the great battle was waged in her infantile mind.

  Eventually, the need for sustenance won out, the small bug began to explore her environment. Granted, the inside of the egg wasn't very big, so the burst of curious exploration didn't take too long. She couldn't see too well, as very little light managed to pass through the semi-translucent surface. The shell was thin and felt hard against her chitinous hands. She was coated in a thin layer of some sort of thick, embryonic fluid that felt slippery and stuck fast.

  The bug was unsure how to continue for a brief moment before her instincts helpfully explained how to escape her confinement. She stretched her limbs wide, pressing against the hard surface of the egg until it eventually cracked. The sudden release of pressure left the tiny bug flailing to catch its balance. Her underdeveloped muscles and uncoordinated reflexes betrayed her, leaving the small bug girl falling out of the spherical prison and onto the solid, cold surface below. She chittered in dismay, her burgeoning consciousness completely overwhelmed by all the new sensations she was suddenly being subjected to. Bright lights poured into her compound eyes, forcing her to blink rapidly. Scents assaulted her from every direction, and the chill of a cool breeze touched her sensitive skin for the first time in her short life.

  After a few moments, the bug girl managed to rise to her hands and knees. This was about the extent of her physical prowess, at the moment. She would have felt proud of the achievement, had she had the mental capacity to comprehend such complex emotions.

  She wanted to go back to sleep, but her tummy hurt too much to let her. How did she make the hurt go away?

  The instincts guided her once again, directing her attention back towards the semi-transparent, slimy eggshell. Instantly, without conscious input, the bug began to chew on it, grinding the hard casing with her mandibles and swallowing pieces with a sudden frenzy. Her undeveloped limbs were pushed to their limits as the tiny bug began to devour the discarded eggshell, the need to feed overwhelmed all other senses for a while. It took some time to finish the entire meal. By the end, her hunger had finally been mostly sated, and her tummy was no longer rumbling in pain.

  The tiny bug, completely worn out by the ordeal, lay down on the hard surface below her and curled up into a ball, falling asleep nearly instantly; a soft, content smile on the girl's face.

  So, it was to her extreme displeasure that, only a short time later, after finally having her belly somewhat filled and getting back to her much-needed rest, she had been quite rudely awoken once again. A powerful and foreign scent assaulted her antennae, thrusting her into wakefulness. Adrenaline coursed through her veins as her instincts screamed.

  Enemy!

  The small child panicked, looking every which way. Her underdeveloped compound eyes had trouble making out much of her surroundings. Everything was still blurry to her, and she could only see the most basic of shapes and colors. Where was the enemy? What was attacking her? Why wasn't her hive defending her? Not that she could properly rationalize all these thoughts as words, or any true conscious meaning. But her instincts, her inborn knowledge, and her understanding of the world made its displeasure quite well known.

  She quickly noticed a massive, looming figure hovering above her. She couldn't make out the details of the figure, but its size was more than a little intimidating to the small creature of barely twenty centimeters. She shook slightly in fear. Where was her mother? Where were the drones?

  The bug hissed at the predator, clacking her mandibles as hard as she could. Her antennae twitched wildly, trying to pick up as much information as possible. She backed up, still in a crawl, and all too quickly her feet hit the other side of the cage. She was cornered! Trapped!

  And then, the predator began to make strange sounds. Was it threatening her? Calling the rest of its pack? She didn't know, and it put her on edge.

  "Oh, you're a shy little thing, aren't you?"

  She hissed again, loudly.

  "Feisty, too." The figure made a quiet wheezing sound, almost like a series of deep hiccups or gasps. It wore a wide smile on its monstrous face, baring its horrifying teeth in a show of dominance.

  She didn't like that. She was so scared, beyond terrified. Had she been able to see, and more importantly, comprehend the expression on the predator's face, it would have been amusement. But the small child could not possibly have understood that. All she knew was that she was afraid and alone, with a monster about to eat her.

  Where was the rest of her hive? She cried in her mind for help. Someone, anyone, protect her! She threw out the mental plea with all her might.

  Her instincts guided her, and in her desperation, she felt something in her ignite. She didn't feel it directly, per se, but some deep, inborn part of her made the sensation clear in her awareness. Her instincts told her how to burn it, and she did without hesitation. She didn't know what she was burning. She didn't know why. But that primal voice in her subconscious told her she needed to do it if she wanted to live, so she obeyed. She had the vaguest sensation of something important draining away. A part of her. More than Mana, more than blood. She didn't know what either of those things were, but her instincts insisted. It drained and drained, and she felt lesser for it, yet her magic flared. She knew not what she was doing, only that she needed help. She let the command fly.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Protect me!

  ...But there was no answer, and she detected no familiar scents approaching.

  The predator made more noises at her, its tone suddenly a bit softer. She didn't know why it was making sounds at her. Couldn't it just eat her and get it over with? Was it toying with her? She hissed again in defiance. She wasn't going to let this predator enjoy her fear, even if she was glad for the hesitation.

  "Oh, calm down, already. Stars, you are going to be quite the handful aren't you? Not that I was expecting anything different, I suppose. It's still eerie how human-like the faces of you queens are. It's uncanny. Although, I guess you're more of a princess still, aren't you? Not quite a queen until you're older." The predator made a few more of those soft wheezing sounds at the joke she couldn't possibly comprehend.

  The bug kept her tiny muscles taut, ready to lunge and bite the monster as soon as it got close, but she slowly stopped hissing. It was making her throat sore, and it didn't seem to be helping anyway. She still kept occasionally clicking her mandibles, though. That was essential. She made sure her razor-sharp rows of teeth were bared the entire time. She also made sure to let out a screech for good measure.

  The predator looked down at the defenseless Vex princess and shook its head, a smirk on its face.

  "Well, here. Let's get something in your stomach. Maybe you'll calm down a bit. You're a loud one, little bugger, I'll give you that."

  Suddenly, a slab of raw meat fell into the cage, making a loud sound as it landed on the metal floor of the cage. The Vex jumped in terror, scurrying back as far away from the object as possible.

  After a few moments without the inanimate slab of meat attacking her, the princess hesitantly crawled forward a single step. She glanced up at the looming figure, and back at the meat.

  Her instincts warned her something was wrong, but her mind was not yet capable of understanding concepts like traps or deception. So, it was with the naivety that only small children and animals could have that she approached the suspicious food offering. She always kept the predator in her sights, ready to scuttle away at a moment's notice.

  When nothing further happened, she finally gave in to hunger and took a nibble. It was amazing, filling in a way that the eggshell could never be. As the bloody flesh slid down her throat, she instantly forgot about her present company. She had discovered the secrets of the universe and they were not found wanting. The texture was perfect and the taste was divine.

  Of course, the extent of her culinary expertise consisted of only a single meal. But, that didn't stop the child from falling in love with the dish. She was a Vex. Meat eaters through and through. She devoured the treat with a passion. Her mandibles tore off massive chunks of bloody flesh, and she chewed with vigor. Her tiny claws ripped off small pieces of the food and she shoveled them into her jaws as quickly as she could swallow.

  As the child enjoyed her second meal ever, Randell watched with a complicated expression. He tried hard to remind himself that the creature before him was a monster. It was a bloodthirsty killing machine. Despite it liberally showering itself with gore as he watched, he couldn't shake that strange, sudden disconnect he felt. Why? He had studied hundreds, perhaps thousands of monsters over his many years, many of those looked just as human-like as this immature Vex queen did, sometimes more so. Yet he always had a professional, detached mentality with his subjects. Yet, for some reason, he couldn't quite explain...

  He tried to imagine the cute, minuscule creature, currently making happy sounds as it ate and had instantly dropped all guard when presented with a tasty treat, was actually a monster capable of leveling cities. In his mind, he superimposed the image of reapers, dripping with human blood, and hulking juggernauts caving in the skulls of adventurers with minimal effort over the image of the child-like creature that was now beaming with joy.

  The disconnect left him confused and conflicted. Did he make a mistake? He didn't fear the Vex. He knew full well its limitations and capabilities. He knew how to handle the hatchlings and keep their sharp claws away from his precious skin when dissecting them. And he was more than aware of the powerful telepathy queens could wield at higher levels. But this was barely a hatchling. Maybe in a few years, it would be something else, after it had time to acquire some Essence of its own and start leveling. Was that the reason for his cloudy mental state? He chided himself for underestimating it despite its age.

  But he wasn't prepared to see a living one act so... So different than the drones. Sure, they were both acting like feral demons, but in very different ways. Most drone hatchlings charged at him mindlessly, trying to rip and claw until their limbs gave out. Any offering of food was completely ignored while he was present, and they had no sense of self-preservation. This Vex queen on the other hand reacted with fear and caution, trying to scare him off instead of fighting. Then diving into her peace offering with a gusto that rivaled a child receiving a birthday cake. In hindsight, it wasn't that surprising. Drones were ultimately expendable meat shields, while the queen was the beating heart of the hive. Of course, their priorities would be as different as night and day.

  He glanced down at the sketchbook in his hand, a carefully drawn rendering of the specimen's sleeping form. He set his quill down on the nearby table.

  It had four arms that ended in razor-sharp claws, and talons on its feet. She was sleeping, curled up in a fetal position to keep herself warm and protected. It had grey skin and dark grey plates of chitin. She had a patch of raven-black stubble on the top of her head. Its arms and legs were covered in this armored chitin that reached up to its elbows and knees respectively. She had a human-like face, smiling peacefully as she slept. It had mandibles and antennae. She had a delicate, almost fragile air. An aura that evoked an almost paternal urge to protect. It had six, small, semi-translucent wings growing out of its back. She was so small and still so uncannily human-like.

  He shook his head and snapped his notebook closed, not even bothering to wait for the ink to dry. He took one last glance at his newest acquisition, her bright, violet, compound eyes meeting his own. Her gaze was still wary, but not nearly as on edge as just a moment ago.

  Don't name it, you fool, he chided himself. Don't grow attached.

  He would have to euthanize her one day. She couldn't be allowed to start a hive of her own.

  "Enjoy your meal... Rythica," he said with a pitiable smile.

  The cowardly man turned and left the room. Why in the nine realms did he name it?! He shook his head, the weird cloudiness in his thoughts slowly fading. Perhaps he just needed more sleep it seemed. It was odd. He never considered himself a sentimental type, but... well, what did he know? Life was strange like that. He promised himself to be more professional in the future. He was a researcher, not some doting caretaker. He stepped out of the small room and locked the door behind him.

  Rythica kept chewing on the remaining bits of her meal. A small corner of her mind idly noticed the predator was finally scared away by her fearsome presence. As was expected, of course.

  As she swallowed the last bite, she couldn't help but already grow excited at the thought of the next time she could eat. Perhaps she could eat that predator? She wondered what it would taste like. Her long, forked tongue flicked out, licking the blood off her lips. She couldn't wait to find out!