Zala´laixa, crimson carapace still tainted with black ash, found himself in a peculiar prediciment. The sun was high in the sky and he was approximateky 15 meters of ground, stuck in a tree, with little recolection of how he got there. The last thing he remebered was the teleportation spell going of. But instead of the the Devilkings, his father´s, black castle where the spell should have taken them, he was now in a forest of trees he never bother to learn the name of. Some were white and black striped while others had the darker shades of bark he at least recognised, all however had green crowns witch he found comforting.
With a heavy thud he jumped down from the high branch he woke up upon, the foreign ground cracking in protest as his huge frame kissed it for the first time. Small branches and leaves falling around the chitihn clad insectoid. Zala looked around and found nothing, no enemies in metal armour with swords raised high nor allies redy to patch him up. He observed that some of his exoskeleton was partially melted. Ugly in his opinion, but better then the alternatives.
He needed to find out where he, if there was any citizens of Ker´xaba he could regroup with and most importantly find his queen. His one queen now. A deep sorrow filled his mind at the thought of his deceased queen, at the thought of his dead mother. The twin empresses had never been very motherly to their brood in the eyes of the humans and their like, but the swarm they led they had been benevolent godesses, gracing this land with their presence. The way Xhaxhin would thank them for bringing her food or the way Xoto would congratulate them for fine sparring session meant the world to their subjects.
Of course the queens could be strict to, ordering the slaves or misbehaving swarmmembers to go construct forts right in enemy territories or simply crushing them with legs, mandibles or stinger. Yet most thought fondly of the twin rulers. The crimson beatles that were Zala´laixa and his siblings even more so, having been dotted on thanks to their blood ties to the Devilking. And now several scores of his lifelong brothers were now dead, some entirely oblivirated. A mournfull sigh escaped Zala´s mandibles.
After a moment Zala took a deep breath and braved into the unfammiliar forest, in hope of simply finding anything. His wish was soon fullfilled as he found a doe grazing on the forest floor, a meal to strenghten him. In speed that seemed unfair to the doe the insectman sprung through some bushes and buried his left arms deep in her neck, breaking it and killing her instantly. As Zala munched on the raw red flesh of his victim he felt uncomfortable, and not only beacuse of his missing right arms. He missed his Ball, his weapon and constant silent companion. The ball was bigger than him, almost 3 meters in diameter, and made up of his queens enimes´s corpses. Human, elf, orc, wyvern and insectmen alike were grafted into his masterwork. Over decades had he worked on the rolling graveyard with his very own special secretions acting as an adhesive. Sadly Ball was probably still in the throne room of the montain hive, left behind after the burning elfs hellish fire burned both him and his queen, another casuality of war.
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Zala clicked his mandibles dissappointedly as he rose from his eating position, he had not eaten the whole doe but wishes he could, but his sense of urgency and disorientention did not allow it. In semi-high spirits he coninued his aimless treck through the forest, yet it was not untill nightfall that he found anything, at first he thought his antenae was pulling his leg or that his daydreams had started seeping into the real world, but he found a trail. And not just any trail, a pheromone trail. A pheromone trail smelling of his comrades. He quickened his step as the trail grew easier to follow, the closer he got the faster he went. After a while he could see a cave in the distance, an obvius place for his allies to take shelter, his heart felt lighter at the thought of them being safe and sound whoever they were. As he reached the cave entrance he felt fear for half a heartbeat but then he fell to his knees in relief as he spied his queen´s ragged form, limbs raised high and ready to strike him down had he proven to be someone that wished her harm.
"My queen, Zala´laixa high executioner of Ker´xaba, reporting for servi-" Before the scarlet beatle could finnish his sentence Xhanxhin had scooped him up and forced her healing honey down his throat, golden nectar spilling over his mandibles and down his front armor. Before he was even let go the healing properies of the queens divine ambrosia had started regrowing his lost arms and molten carapace. Zala coughed a bit as he was again allowed to move freely, taken back by the sudden procedure, his gaze however quikly found its way back to the queen infornt of him as she spoke.
"Zala´laixa, I am thankfull and impressed that you have found me with such haste in this obsecure land, but after everything that has transpired I must rest," The queen´s uneven eyes met his own, and he could almost physicaly feel how tired she was.
"Would you honor me with standing guard so that I could sleep safe and soundly for the night, high executor?" She continued.
"I live to serve my queen, I shall stand guard untill the end of time shall it prove necessary." The scarabae answered, relived that his queen´s nectar also had reinvigorated him. Xanxhin relaxed her body and quikly fell asleep.