>>5678692You are humming happily and wiggling at the thought of your mate’s return—that you might hold his hand and sing his praises for gifting you this planet—when one of your sons alerts you that you have a visitor. It takes you a moment to remember the name of this son—a runty one, a strange one, but he always seems to know when someone is visiting before ever his brothers do. You think your mate called ‘Natvodask, the Unknowable’. You wouldn’t know—hehe!~
The visitor arrives, shadowed by the twinly sons—the two who always follow each other’s scent trails and trills, and kill together. It is the little unpleasant hairy thing which your mate keeps as a pet—not the ‘Junior Novice’, but the other one, who <hums>, like you <hum> to make your sons listen.
“Throat-zzinger,” you greet him pleasantly.
He nods—he doesn’t bow, you note, but you don’t mind. You don’t bother yourself with what bite-sized morsels do or don’t do. Pageantry is for lizards! Part of that pageantry is that they do not yet know that they are your food, and you their patient Queen, so you would forgive the silly little thing anyway. He doesn’t know better! He puffs his chest and pretends not to be afraid of you and your sons. He does not fool you, but you are kind and do not tell him so. Only the elf with the centipede and the lance is truly at ease with you and your sons, besides your mate and MAYBE his funny priestess.
Eventually he realizes you are waiting for him to explain his presence. It is funny to fall quiet and make them talk first! You didn’t have a voice for so long, not one they understood, so you have no need to fill silences as the monkeys and even lizards do. You are never alone, with the <hum>, and never at a want for conversation!
“Ah,” he vocalizes, clearly uncomfortable, “You are the Greatworm, yes? The… Princess?”
“Queen,” you gently correct him.
“I was given to believe your mother was yoru people’s queen?”
“Every hive hazzz a queen,” you say.
Mother surely thinks herself Queen of Queens, of course—first and greatest, made by a goddess directly. She isn’t the one with nine dragon-sons, though, is she? Mother is so silly! You will give her a chance to surrender and bow before you before you devour her. You love Mother~
“Well, Queen of Greatworms… I have a request. As you know, your race’s grubs have been immensely valuable for carrying messages and supplies, and observing and reporting upon dwarven strongholds, as well as the humans in the valleys below.”
