Elise arrives at her home together with the hunted prey and the mysterious girl she found in the forest. Her house is on a small hill near the border of the Everglade forest, the place where she also just hunted, the town a day’s walk away or a couple of hours on horseback. The house itself is quite big with three floors. Right next to it is a smithy, where Mark works regularly and a small stable with Geber, their horse for traveling or moving stuff. The residence is mainly made of wood and some stone near the base of the building. It has a comfy style with some minor decorations here and there. Right now, the lights are on, indicating that someone is inside. They are made of a magical stone, which provides light if you channel some mana into it. It is quite common for humans to learn basic mana control, but few learn proper spells like Elise.
Magic spells on the other hand require three additional things. These are first a comprehension of the operating principles behind the spell, second the correct use of the matching chant and third a very fine control of the mana provided to the right places at the right time. If the first is missing nothing happens, the same result as if mana is missing in total. If the chant is not correctly spoken the mana for the spell can be wasted, but there is no danger for the user. The last and third part is critical. If the mana that is provided goes to the wrong places or is sent at the wrong time, the spell can go haywire and injure the caster or even kill them.
Elise proceeds to the door and enters the house. A small bell at the door rings automatically when it is opened, therefore notifying Mark and their son Erik that Elise came back from her hunting trip. Shortly after Elise entered, Erik already comes running to his mother and screams excited, “Welcome back mother. What did you bring this time?”. Erik is a 4-year-old boy with brown hair, just like his father. He has dark green eyes like his mother and a handsome young face. Erik is quite excited about what his mother may have brought back for dinner tonight and wants to see what she got as soon as possible. When he enters the hall where Elise just dropped the prey she hunted, he is greatly surprised to see a little strange looking girl in her arms.
The Hive Queen put her hopes on Elise and allowed her to carry her. When they arrived at the house she genuinely inspected the strange structure before her. After they entered through the door she concludes that this must be the Hive Complex of her new benefactor. She delicately sniffs the air and is amazed by all the new smells. Shortly after a new small humanoid arrives and stops as soon as he sees her. The queen stares with her big black eyes at the new arrival in great interest and uses her antenna in an attempt to use her synaptic senses again. She gets the same result as last time and can’t establish a connection.
Erik is stunned for a moment but then his curiosity takes over and he gets closer to the strange girl. Elise explains, “I’m back home. I found this girl in the forest and decided to take her with me.” As soon as she finished her sentence Mark also enters the hallway. He heard what Elise just said and looks a bit concerned. “Welcome home Elise.”, he gestures toward Erik and continues, “Erik, I have to talk to your mother in private for a moment. Can you go back to your room for now?".
Erik looks a bit unhappy but agrees. He proceeds by going up the stairs in direction of his room. Elise waits for Erik to go to his room, still holding the girl she brought back. Mark uses the time to take a closer look at the girl, which Elise is holding in her arms. The insectoid-like features don’t lessen his concern about the topic. After Erik arrives at his room, which is signaled by the sound of a closing door, Elise looks awkwardly at her husband and continues to explain at a bit faster pace, “I found her alone in the forest, you see …”, pointing her head to the girl in her arms and swallowing one time before proceeding, “She clearly needs our help and would starve to death in the forest … I had to take her with me!”
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Mark waits for Elise to finish her explanation and carefully thinks about the situation. After a moment of silence he answers, “She looks quite young. I would guess maybe two years old?”.
Elise continues her report, “On the way back to our house I was mesmerized by a strange magical aura. I followed it and found the remains of an egg with the girl inside of the remains. She screamed for help and I couldn’t ignore her.” Another short moment of silence follows.
The Hive Queen looks with interest at the third humanoid that arrived and tries to follow the conversation that follows. She can’t understand the language yet, but she can learn given enough time. She notices from the tone of the speakers that the topic is very important, which triggers her fear of being abandoned again. She starts to panic and starts her soft high-pitched scream for help. At the same time she snuggles closer to Elise.
Elise immediately tries to calm her down by rocking her gently, “Hush Hush, everything is alright little one. You are safe now. Hush Hush …” The Hive Queen slowly calms down again and her soft scream becomes quieter until it stops completely. Elise continues to gently rock her back and forth while making a motherly face. When Mark sees how much Elise cares for the child, he gives an indulgent sigh and yields, “We can keep her for now.”
Elise beams all over her face and responds, “Thank you Mark! I knew you would support my decision!”, carrying the child further to the living room. Mark takes the stairs to get Erik now that he finished his talk with Elise and afterwards takes the prey from the hunt to the kitchen for preparation. Erik is fascinated by the little girl and asks a lot of questions, which Elise answers calmly. Mark starts to prepare the animal in the kitchen, while Elise is preoccupied. After Erik’s questions are all answered Elise searches for the bestiary that she uses for her adventurer jobs. She quickly finds it, then she sits down on a sofa in the living room and carefully places the little girl in her lap. Then she grabs the book with both arms and starts to search what species the girl may be. Erik sits right next to her and looks at the pictures inside the book.
The Hive Queen is quite satisfied with the outcome of the situation thus far. After Mark starts to prepare the animal in the kitchen, which Elise brought back, the Hive Queen smells the delicious meal around the corner. This quickly grabs her interest, but she doesn’t want to crawl off Elise’s lap for now. After some time Elise finds a matching entry in the book. It is a quite new entry, which was added just this month to the back of the book. The entry describes creatures of different forms, which share a collective will and always have purple-colored chitinous armor on some body parts. There is also a picture as an example of the purple armor, which is matching with the girls purple colored armor in the exact same pattern. This species is called the Sylv and they are classified as an organic Hive Mind.
The entry states that the Sylv dislike big masses of water like lakes or oceans and they also hate direct sunlight. They live underground in so-called Hive Complexes and consume flora as well as fauna near their dwelling. So-called Synapse creatures are responsible for connecting the smaller Sylv creatures in their proximity to the Hive Mind. The Hive Queen is the highest form of Synapse creature and is often found in a humanoid shape. Hive Queens are very intelligent and can comprehend human speech, as well as tactics. The article states further that the Sylv are a newly found species with unclear origins. They are described as a fast-growing threat to human society and are normally eradicated as soon as they are found to ensure human supremacy. Sylv Synapse creatures also form magic gems with high value, which can be extracted after elimination. Reporting a Sylv colony to the adventurer guild for eradication is rewarded handsomely by the kingdom.