she floated in comfortable bliss for a long time a vague sense of a happiness and warmth outside the cradle as she slept, then a thud, and another aand another suddenly she felt the warmth and happiness reseed and in its place a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions. Surprise, fear, confusion, hate and most of all a burning desire for, something? "I don’t exactly know what but I have to do something anything! But what can I do I’m not even a hatchling!".

An instinct she barely realized she had told him what she was and what he was meant to do, it was fragmented however, parts that shouldn’t be there haphazardly stitched together. she was an egg that much she knew but of what? she felt two answers fighting for his attention one gave a vague sense of royalty and motherhood as well as a cunning mind, a radiance and control of a hive queen she knew while the other gave a sense of endurance and strength, might and ferocity to overcome all challenges a guard or worker of some kind? she had no time to ponder this as a sudden cacophony of of both physical and mental tremors hit her all at once.

Pain, pain, pain! Anger, fear, and that desire redouble in strength all at once, it took her a few moments to process what had happened something had just hit the queen. Hate was the first emotion she felt after the realization he wanted to hatch to go forth and battle whatever had just dared to hurt the queen. she could feel the thoughts dampening growing quieter before a sudden burst of surprise before foreign though overcame her awareness of the queen and in her mind words began to appear.

Name: Null Species: Mutantur Carnes Type: Mutant Hive Queen Level 1: Explanations: Buffs/Debuffs: Experience: 0 how much experience you have. no experience buffs Titles: None your titles. Feats: None your feats. Stats: your stats. Intelligence: 34 how intelligent you are. no intelligence buffs. Wisdom: 18 how much wisdom you have. no wisdom buffs. Will: 38 how much will you have. no will buffs. Strength: 14 how strong you are. no strength buffs. flesh regeneration: 12 how fast you regenerate flesh no regeneration buffs. Speed: 14 how fast you are. no speed buffs. Stamina: 18 how much stamina you have. no stamina buffs. Dexterity: 12 how dexterous you are. no dexterity buffs. Mana: 0 how much mana you have. no mana buffs. Attribute points: 0 how many attribute points you have. Skills: your skills. Analyse(common): level 1 allows you to analyse objects, effects or entities to learn more about them.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

…

what, is this? a glowing blue screen appeared in her mind before he had any time to understand it she blacked out.

////////

"what just happened?"

before another thought came to her Thea remembered everything, her brood, the surprise attack, the portal. "the attack! I have to get to the portal" as panicky began to enter her already muddied thoughts she tried to look around her only to find she didn't know where she was, not that she didn't know her location relative to the stars but that she couldn't see any stars. "where in the universe am i and where is the swarm, the brood, the portal anything?" as she looked around panic giving way to confusion she realized what she was looking at, however impossible it was her swarm's memories told her that is was the case, "I...im in a cave?".

all around her she could see grey rough walls adorned with green things her memories told her were plants similar to that of the swarms birth planets terra or as they used to call it earth. "how in all the stars am i in a cave? how can i even fit it here and why am I floating on what's assumed to be a planet? am i hallucinating or did the..." her internal ramblings were cut off by a single thought "it's the portal isn't it, but i should be in deep space! how am i on a planet? and one with life no less!". she turned her eyes to herself and saw that she was... a ghost? she knew what they were from the memories of the humans the swarm had consumed, translucent floating creatures of myth and fantasy she could accept that, but she had no recollection of being this small she was only a few meters long! "am I dead? then why am I here?".

as she continued to look around she noticed something that caught here attention "the eggs!" Infront of her where countless grey sagging eggs all dead "no, no, no! this can't happen" she used all of her mental strength to send a signal to all nearby swarmling it was a simple if effective call to action, to give any indication of ones mere existence, to her surprise it was much more powerful than anything she had seen before at least a few orders of magnitude so! with not time to ponder she listened and searched, at first nothing answered "please, please, anything anyone!" but then as she franticly floated about she saw... orange? "wait, was that yes finally!" she hurriedly floated towards what she was growing more sure of was a live egg, battered and bruised but none the less glowing faintly in response "oh my sweet, preciouses little brood." she hurriedly tried to pick it up but failed as her hands floated through it "ah...yes, this. am i really a ghost? the last thing i can remember was a blue screen that said something about being a guardian? is that what this is?"

Name: Thea Species: Mutantur Carnes Type: Guardian Entity Level: 1 Explanations: Skills: your skills. Analyse(common): level 1 allows you to analyse objects, effects or entities to learn more about them. Experience: 0 Blessing level: 1

Blessing types:

Physical enhancement: all stats are increased by 1.5 * per level for 1hour can only be used once per day.

Mental enhancement: all mental states are increased by 1.5 * per level for 1hour can only be used once per day.

One time boosts:

Health boost: restores health to maximum can only be used once per day.

Mana boosts: restores mana to maximum can only be used once per day.

Maximum blessings: 1 how many blessings you can use at any given time. Active blessings: 0 blessed entities: Current species count: 1 (warning, species count critically low!) how many members of your species are currently alive.

she once again looked at the mental message still tucked away at the back of her mind she realized it had changed it now showed her...status that sounded about right, though she struggled to understand it's meaning. "does this mean I'm some kind of spirit or what was it the humans called it a good, god? oh a god! that sounds about right, but more importantly does that mean i can bless my egg to heal the bruising? worth a shot".