She was adorable and looked different from the lazy girl, as they all did. She had been plump, but she hadn’t been as plump or fluffy as them. They all had fluff around their heads.

  Why… why is this part of the evolution?

  I looked at the food gathered, then at them, twenty adorably chubby larvae, and ten of them that were a little more robust, for lack of a nicer word. As the lazy girl was helping them and feeding them, I stopped her.

  “Go nectar. Need more. Not enough. Be careful.”

  We need more, and I will raise them as well as I did my lazy girl. She was so lazy, and now she is clumsy and doesn’t listen and doesn’t learn very fast, but she is a hard worker and adorable. But that was, of course, because I’m a great mother.

  I looked around to be sure she had left, then lifted the nearest one and cuddled my chubby larva, putting my head into her fluff.

  POV: Esme

  I had left the hive a while ago, but I was still worried about Queen Mother. She did things that something inside me said were wrong. Like her working. She isn’t a worker. And protecting me. I really wish she would stop. Even during the last flying creature attack, after I pushed her away, she still put herself between me and the creature.

  I smelled my mother and followed it, and then I saw the flying creature from my nightmare. The memory made me angry, almost the same way Mother feels about wasps.

  I calmed myself. I need to get food for the hive, and I’m not ready yet.

  The memory made me think of Mother in a strange way.

  “My queen. Best queen.”

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  POV: Queen

  I didn’t spend too much time cuddling or rolling around with them, as I remembered they might remember this and get the wrong idea.

  I wasn’t really sure what to do now.

  I have fed them.

  I even spent my precious time entertaining them.

  I couldn’t really figure out what to do, so I went back to my projects.

  First, my quest.

  It’s great, but why isn’t my hive finished? I tried thinking about the hive, but nothing happened.

  Stupid system. Why isn’t this hive!

  Okay. Okay, I calmed down and started to think. Getting angry won’t help, but finishing the important tasks will.

  I looked at my unfinished chandelier and the hall, then at the nectar.

  This sucks.

  I don’t have enough.

  The only thing I can do now, when I have some time and I’m more or less alone, is plan the destruction of that shitty wasp nest.

  I worked through it, me leaving the nest protected and safe, the warriors ready to defend it.

  I hadn’t realized that I was much sleeker and faster, fully healed and in top form.

  I gathered the mana crystal and flew toward the nearest undead to the shitty nest.

  I should probably take a rest, then entice it to follow me. Like I will even need to try, as enticing as I am.

  I started to do a little wiggle.

  Okay, the entitlement is checked. Next step probably take a break just before the shitty nest, and then I need to make it more or less crazy so it runs. Not like the first time, but faster and more desperate, so it will jump instead of only shuffling.

  Because when it destroys the shit-for-a-nest, that should shift its focus from me to it, and I can get away.

  The question is how to plant the mana stone in the nest.

  It would be easier if I could just wooden-horse it in.

  Or not. I’m not really sure how I would build a wooden horse.

  Maybe a wax horse.

  I looked at my throne.

  To be honest, my uneven, too-wide, not-high-enough throne.

  Maybe that was the problem. Maybe I hadn’t finished the quest because my throne was like that, and I don’t have a crown or a scepter.

  That isn’t good.

  They might have some great significance, like humans used them. I can’t figure out why, but most things have meaning.

  Probably a stupid human one, but I can’t be sure.

  Yeah. The plan. Focus.

  How to stick the mana stone in the nest.

  I imagined standing on the other side of it, between the undead and the nest, and only saw wasps swarming and eating me while I stood waiting.

  Bad idea.

  Okay.

  But couldn’t I just fly up and crash through the nest with the stone?

  Maybe it won’t go all the way in, but it should get stuck in it. I think.

  I will figure something out as I go.