The New Princess of Insectoids

Ah, I'm glad you could make it. I am the new princess of all insectoids, Laurena. I have a multitude of brothers and sisters, who all live with me and our mother in a big, lush forest. There is one thing you must bear in mind. We are on a foreign planet, so relative to you, even fresh born insectoids are as large as an adult "cat", as you call them. We insectoids are of one race, so we have no species name. We all have the same general appearance, four "legs", with two "arms", a head with an animalistic, square mouth, beady eyes, and a big appetite. The main difference between our worlds is that we insects are massive. The females grow up to 300 feet big, while the males are roughly 2/3 of that, and only the males have wings.

One very odd aspect of our species is that all females hatch already pregnant, as our species needs no genetic changes. The females' wombs are also transparent, and he eggs are a translucent orange. The only reason the males exist is to collect food for the species. The males have no sexual role in our species. That's why they have wings, for greater mobility to hunt for food. The females don't have wings, instead they have another pair of limbs that they use to walk. I should explain the females' whole "born pregnant" thing.

The eggs stay in a female's womb until the female matures and finds an appropriate nesting area, and the eggs grow with the female. The eggs themselves are akin to chicken egg yolks, with a tough membrane on the outside. What that means is that the eggs are perfectly round and yellow and squishy, but also durable. The rest of the female's life is spent caring for the eggs before they hatch, and the young hatchlings. As a result, only younger females have large, squishy bellies. The male mate often spends the later third of its life solely hunting for food, with one day out of five relaxing.

Ah, I should mention that the male's wings are fleshy, and we insectoids have grayish skin, rather than an exoskeleton, in addition to having teeth and a tongue in our mouths. Plus, while we do not have fingers or toes, we do have opposable thumbs, kind of. We can hold objects in our hands, that is for sure.

So, moving on to actual plot, the story begins on one summer morning. Being the young, 100 foot, energetic female that I was, I decided to go a bit further out of the normal hunting grounds in the forest. Mother insisted that a male accompany me, but I didn't want any of my brothers to come with me. So, mother spoke to another female who's eggs had hatched roughly at the same time as mother's, and the other female sent over Ithsan, a surprisingly chubby male. He was looking for a mate anyways, so mother got us to stick together while we explored the forest. We found a few rivers, valleys and even a mountain, but what was the most curious was a small mammal, that would have made a tasty snack, but spoke our language.

The mammal referred to itself as Alexander, and said that he could hunt for food really well. To prove his point, he waved his hand, and a nearby deer collapsed on the spot. He then lifted the carcass and gave it to me as a gift. I snapped it up, and let out a small burp. Ithsan grumbled that he had to do all the work with no praise, as a burp generally meant that a piece of food was particularly tasty, because the insectoid who burps gobbles up the food so fast because it tastes better than the other food, thus they burp. Alexander noted my pregnancy, and being intellectual, dismissed it as nothing special, because only the older females that have laid their eggs aren't pregnant. In fact, more females of our kind are actually pregnant than those who are not. It's kind of weird if you think about it, but for us, its normal.So, anyway, Alexander, the kind being, slaughtered many more animals for me and Ithsan.

With full stomachs, Ithsan and I considered bringing Alexander back to the other insectoids. Ithsan was reluctant, because the others may eat Alexander, but I had the idea to act as if Alexander was very precious to me, caressing him while he sat on my head, so that other insectoids would know that he was valuable as a living creature. While Ithsan contemplated that groundbreaking idea, Alexander pulled a piece of cooked meat out of a fabric bag and ate it. The smell of it was delicious, so I asked, "What kind of meat is that?"

Alexander said back, "It's meat from a very unusual bird. It has pure red feathers from head to tail, and is very hot, like fire."

I wondered silently what kind of bird would be like that, while Ithsan decided to go ahead with the idea of me acting like Alexander was precious to me. Alex suggested a difference in his positioning, where I would hold him in my two arm limbs, like I was keeping him from falling and getting hurt. Ithsan agreed, as it would show that I was actively trying to keep Alex safe, rather than just having him passively sit on me, where another insectoid could misinterpret him as food.

As soon as Alex was ready to go back to the other insectoids, I put my short arms together like a "U" shape, and Alex sat in the middle. Ithsan mentioned later that Alex sat there and admired my unborn children, or was he just admiring the fact that they made my torso bulge? Either way, he seemed to be pleased with the quantity of eggs in my womb. I might have forgotten to mention that.

A female can have up to a whopping 50 eggs, each of which is roughly half the size of Alex at full size. So, the luckiest females are often very encumbered and ungainly. And if you're worrying about population size, don't. We have an entire planet to ourselves, basically. My mother recently estimated that I had roughly 25 eggs, which was fairly high above the average. My favorite sister, Marica, had about 17, still above average.

As we neared the other insectoids, Alex became uneasy. Ithsan went ahead to inform the other insectoids, so that they wouldn't kill Alex on sight. Indeed, it made sure Alex survived among the insectoids. We headed right to my mother, who was unsure of how to respond to Alex being my companion. She did, however, like how Ithsan and I got along so well, and asked us if we were considering becoming mates. I said I was unsure, as did Ithsan. Mother didn't try to force us, so that was nice.

Alex said he wanted to introduce me to his mother. It was my turn to feel uneasy, as Alex's species was quite small. He only smiled and asked if Ithsan would fly him to his kind to give them a heads up that I would be coming. Ithsan was daring enough to say yes, so Alex climbed on top of me and jumped to Ithsan's outstretched short arm. Ithsan then held on to Alex like I had, but Alex held on a lot tighter. Ithsan used a jumping take off, leaping into the air in one jump.

Alex would give directions to Ithsan, and told me the general direction to go in. When I did come into viewing distance of Alex's home, my jaw dropped slightly. His kind lived in structures carved from rock, that could be as tall as I was! There was solid air in the sides of the stone structures, and on top were many oddly shaped things.

Then I remembered that I was in a foreign area and things would be very very different. I spotted Ithsan to the front and right of me, off in the distance. I headed towards him, walking around the stone structures so as not to smash them. When I had caught up to Ithsan, he was huffing and puffing and just in general out of breath.

He said, "Never make me fly this far again. Ok? I am not fit enough for this."

I just laughed.

Alex interrupted our bonding moment to introduce us to his relatives. There was what I assumed to be a younger sibling of his, along with his mother and father. They were all standing on the top of the structure, so I had to stand on my back legs to see them properly. I asked Alex if they understood me, and he sadly said no. He explained that all they heard from our language was a moaning rumble, or at least that's how he worded it.

He spoke in his own language to his family, and his younger sibling pointed at me and looked at Alex. Alex spoke their language, and the sibling gasped in awe of me. Alex's parents were relieved to see that me and tiny little Ithsan would not be smashing up their home. Alex said something to his family, and then jumped onto my head.

I picked him up with my arms and held him like before, standing on six legs again. We would have headed back to my own relatives... But none of us remembered which way to go. Ithsan took off and began circling around the stone structures in a spiral pattern to see if he could see where the other insectoids were.

It took all day, but he found them. I followed him straight back, walking as fast as I could due to my large quantity of eggs. When we did get back, mother was very worried, as it was the longest time I had been away. She was glad I was okay, and decided that I would be able to survive with just Ithsan and Alex. She even asked me if I wanted to search for a place to live for the rest of my life.

I thought that near Alex's relatives would be a good place, as newborn insectoids would be a good, friendly size for a while, and wouldn't be destructive. Another young female, slightly smaller than me, overheard our conversation and asked where Alex's home was so she could see it. Ithsan said he would be happy to escort her there, so the two of them headed there.

I decided to find a nice spot to live, so I followed them. I noted that the smaller female had very few eggs, 5 at most. I was kind of sad because of that. My stomach rumbled loudly, so Alex jumped to a tree and climbed down, then used his power to kill a few mammals, which I consumed greedily, burping after filling my belly. I needed to make sure I grew up big and strong, to be able to take care of my eggs. I continued back towards Alex's home. There was a mountain not far off from there, so I headed over to it. Luckily it was an extinct volcano. I began to dig on the side opposite Alex's home, but I wasn't ready to lay my eggs yet. I just wanted to have a nest ready for them.

The moon was rising, so I decided to sleep for a little bit. A little bit for me was roughly a quarter of the night. Ithsan found me and gave me some food as a nighttime snack. He said he wanted me to follow him, so I did, and we went a bit further south than Alex's home. Ithsan asked me to speak quietly for a little bit, and he admitted that he did indeed want to be my mate. I was happy to be his mate, so we decided to tell our mothers in the morning. We heard loud voices from Alex's kind, and a lot of rumbling, but we were too far away to really care.

I slept from midnight to sunrise after my nap, and found something disturbing. Somehow, for some reason, every other insectoid on the planet had disappeared, other than Ithsan, myself, and a few other mated pairs, including the smaller female. All of the females who had already laid their eggs were gone, along with their mates, and many of the females who had very few eggs had also vanished, along with their mates. Almost exclusively, the only females left were ones with many eggs, and only their mates were left too.

I told Ithsan, "I'm worried about the other insectoids. My mother was the oldest female insectoid in this area, so she was kind of like a leader to all the other insectoids. Now, I guess I'm going to be doing her job."

Ithsan replied, "I'm sure you will do just fine. After all, you've made a connection with those mammals living in the stone structures. They might be a lot of help if they'll cooperate."

"True..."

Another female approached us with her mate, frightened about the disappearance of the other insectoids. I silently noted that the female had quite a few eggs, but not as many as me. I consoled the pair of them by saying that we would have a new generation soon anyway. They cheered up a bit, and Ithsan offered to gather food for all of us. He flew off, returning every few minutes with some sort of large mammal, but we waited until he was done hunting before gobbling up the food. With full bellies, we decided to look around for the other insectoids.

Well, we looked for quite a while, but found no sign of any other insectoids besides the few that were still here. The sun was beginning to dip lower in the sky, and I was sleepy, so I decided to take an early nap.

I woke up roughly 2 hours before sunrise, feeling really hungry. Alex got me a ton of food to eat, which I consumed quickly. I was wide awake after that, and noticed that I was a lot bigger than before, like I had grown a lot while I was asleep. Alex was smaller than before relative to me, which is what tipped me off. Maybe my body knew that our species was in danger, and was making me mature fast so that I could repopulate.

Nothing of much interest happened for a few days, I grew fast, Ithsan hunted for food, Alex helped out. Then, I realized every other insectoid had vanished like before, but me and Ithsan were the only ones left. Alex was still around, so that was good. Something strange happened after the other insectoids vanished. My body seemed to produce more eggs, as I felt a bit more encumbered after a while. I hadn't known that a female insectoid could do that. I asked Ithsan to take a look, and he said there were in fact more eggs in my womb. Peculiar.

Alex theorized that it was because I knew the species was endangered, so my subconscious made my body create more eggs to repopulate the species back to a suitable population. I would change the way the species worked. I would be an insectoid queen, and the first female to hatch from my eggs would be the new princess of the species. Ithsan would be the king, as he was my mate, and my firstborn female's mate would be the new prince as well.

I thought of other rules, like how when I perished, my firstborn female would become queen, along with her mate replacing Ithsan. The last five males to hatch would be hunters exclusively for the royal insectoids, and the other insectoids would live under the rule of the queen, so if the royal family was particularly hungry, then the queen could have the other insectoid males hunt for the royal family for a while. Satisfied with the rules that I had come up with, I decided to take a nap.

Time passed, as we were simply waiting for me to mature and lay my eggs. I grew, and I was constantly famished. I had a seemingly bottomless appetite.

Eventually, I felt hostility from Alex's home area, as if the others of his kind were not happy with me and Ithsan about to repopulate the species. I was almost fully grown, and my appetite had started to shrink. I was anxious to lay my eggs, as life had become awfully dull, but I didn't want my eggs to be underdeveloped, because then they might fail to hatch. I thought about the hostility coming from Alex's home area while I snacked on some food.

Why would there be such hostility? I decided we would move far away from them, to protect the species. Ithsan was uncomfortable with the idea, because he was afraid that I wouldn't have a proper nest to lay my eggs in. I stubbornly argued with him, and since I was the bigger of the two of us, I was able to intimidate him into coming with me. Alex was unwilling to come with us because he didn't want to leave his family behind. I bid him farewell, and Ithsan and I headed away to some other part of the planet. We traveled for many days, and found a grassy plain with a few large hills near it, and decided that it would be a good place to start our royal family.

A few days passed with the only notable event being me digging a nest in one of the hills. Then one day, I just... knew that the eggs were ready to be laid in the nest. I told Ithsan, and he admitted he was excited for it. He gathered food to put in the nest for the hatchlings' first meal, and I prepared to lay my eggs. Instinct took over, and my womb undulated to move the eggs into the nest. The eggs were laid in a spiraling pattern on the floor of the nest, and Ithsan put the food in between layers of eggs. Suddenly unencumbered by my 30 eggs, I felt light as a feather. I was excited for the first female to hatch. Already, small dots were forming in the translucent orange fluid as the young insectoids grew.

It would be a week at most before the eggs hatched, as they had matured slowly while still within me. Ithsan gathered some food for me to eat, as laying eggs works up a surprisingly big appetite. I nuzzled him lovingly, and I was excited for the royal families to start. One lucky thing about the younglings is that they would know how to speak the basics of our language right away. Things like, "I'm hungry," or "gimme food," or "get off me." Silly examples, I know, but hey, it's been known to happen.

Ithsan and I waited anxiously for the eggs to hatch, when one day, prior to the first female's birth; a mammal that looked like one of Alex's kind showed up and introduced herself as Marai. She had long brown hair, a purple shirt, jeans, and brown boots. She wasn't... in shape, though, and had a fairly podgy belly. She was out of breath, and asked to stay with us for a while, as she was in danger from wild animals attacking her. Ithsan and I agreed to protect her and feed her, as a bonus.

I figured with such a chubby belly, she must eat a lot. I myself had put on a few pounds, but to a 300 foot creature, a few pounds was nothing. I was intending to bulk up for the wintertime, and I wanted to make sure my hatchlings did too. Marai said she could help with that, and asked for a few animals' worth of meat. Ithsan complied, flying off and returning repeatedly with some animal's carcass. Eventually, there was a pile of about seven animals next to Marai, who took out a sliver of shiny rock and took the skin off the animals.

She then took several sticks, and made them light aflame. We insectoids are not foreign to fire, as lightning strikes had burned down many a tree in our old home. We were not, however, aware that the fire was simply trapped within the wood of the tree itself. Marai continued to add wood to the fire until it was a decent size, then began to cook the meat by sliding a thin stick through a hunk of meat, then supporting it with two other sticks stuck in the ground. My stomach rumbled at the sound of the meat cooking, and Marai gave me the first few pieces to satisfy my stomach's craving for the meat. It was delicious. Ithsan tried a piece and loved it as well. Marai put the rest of the cooked meat in the nest with the rest of the first meal, and then proceeded to fall asleep outside by the extinguished fire.

Marai ended up being a good friend to us, cooking food for us whenever we were hungry, and I began to put on some more weight for the wintertime. Ithsan and Marai remained pudgy as ever, and I began to catch up to them in the chubbiness area after a few days of eating like... Well, like royalty! How fitting. Then, one day, I noticed sounds of eating coming from the nest!

I rushed over and looked inside, and saw that a female had indeed hatched from an egg; I could tell it was female from the multitude of eggs in her womb. She was chowing down on cooked and raw meat alike, then sat back and let out a satisfied burp. She licked her lips, then yawned and walked slowly over to me due to her full belly and eggs encumbering her.

I nuzzled her, and she licked my chin and said, "That tasted good. Is there more?" She knew not to eat all the food from the first meal pile, so she wanted food from elsewhere to eat. Ithsan brought her a whole bear, slain neatly by piercing the throat. The young female gobbled it up, burping afterwards. Her belly was quite large after eating so much, and she promptly rolled onto her back to take a nap. I took this opportunity to count the number of eggs in her womb. I estimated 15, though it could be a few more or less than that. It was a decent number for a firstborn female. I decided to name her Marith, a combination of Marai and Ithsan. They were both flattered by the name, as it meant that they both had names worthy of my firstborn possessing.

Speaking of my firstborn, she was snoring away, but I heard eating sounds coming from the nest again! This time it was a male, with adorable little wings and a not so little appetite. He devoured a ton of food before approaching me and nuzzling me. I named him Ithai, again a combo of the other two names. Ithai was very energetic, jumping about and flapping his tiny wings in an attempt to lift his fat form into the air. At least if he was fat, his wing muscles would be super powerful from lifting a heavy weight all the time. Over the next few minutes, several other eggs hatched, with varying genders from hatchling to hatchling. One of the stranger hatchlings I named Glenda, and she had an absurd amount of eggs in her womb, to the point where the skin on the outside of her womb was rubbing against the ground. Her legs were fairly short for now, so that might change in the future.

Unfortunately, two eggs of mine failed to ever hatch. But, that's why insectoids lay so many, in case some don't hatch. Now that my eggs had hatched, things would become more lively and Ithsan would be super busy. The males would accompany Ithsan a pair at a time while he was hunting, so they could learn how to hunt from him. Some of the females wanted to learn how to cook food like Marai, including Marith herself, the glutton. She probably just wanted to learn to cook so she could eat food whenever she wanted. I asked her to have her mate cook for her, though, as it would be beneficial to have cooks in the royal families. Marith agreed, as it would allow her to be even lazier than she had planned, and that was her attitude.

Ithsan went hunting with two young males, and he had the brilliant idea to have their families be royal hunters or guards. He decided to only train those two, and their mates' hatchlings would learn from them how to hunt. I decided I would simply stay near the nest, and make sure everything ran smoothly. I was the queen, after all.

Ithai, the cute little boy, he decided to be Marith's mate, for the sake of simplicity. Marith accepted his proposal, and Ithai went straight over to Marai so she could teach him to cook. Unfortunately, it began to rain, and there was a bit of thunder and lightning too. Luckily the lightning never got too close to us, but we were all soaking wet after a little bit, and the cooking fire went out. Since the nest was in disuse, I dug a small trench outside the entrance and asked Marai to start cooking in there, as it was protected from the rain. She whacked herself on the forehead for not thinking of that.