She had never been alone in her life—at least, not until the humans took her. They came, destroyed everything, hauled her away. Their home was burned, her children killed…
And now she was here.
She wasn't entirely sure where "here" was, only that it was dark, and cold, and she couldn't move more than a few paces in any given direction. They'd had her legs chained to the floor, cuffed both her sets of arms. Her tail was restrained in a similar fashion, held by a thick rope to the ceiling. The restraints made it hurt to move; but that didn't matter, since she'd lost the will to try.
She hated it here.
Food came rarely, sometimes not at all. When it did, it was disgusting: rotted meat and dirty water were all she'd eaten in the past months (years?) since she'd been whisked away to Hell. But she wouldn't have minded, if her children had been with her. No, she wouldn't have minded one bit. But it hurt to think of those things now, because they were all gone and they were not coming back.
The humans had cut her link to them, somehow. So many had been killed-so, so many-but she knew not all of them could have died. She had made especially sure to protect a clutch of young hatchlings from the humans' fire. She remembered it, yes; remembered their panicked cries, remembered the searing heat of fiery tongues licking at scarred chitin. Where were they now? She missed the touch of their little minds, purring and happy among those of her Hive.
They should have been safe there. But she couldn't protect them. They must be full-grown now, confused, afraid… It was her fault. All her fault.
So she sat; miserable, alone, and rotting in her own thoughts.
XXX
A human came in to her cell, one day. The light from the opening door nearly blinded her, used to the darkness as she was. She drew back her lips, baring her needlelike teeth in a growl and partially extending her inner mouth. She wasn't very intimidating anymore, but she wouldn't let the intruder know she'd given up.
He smiled his ugly human smile, pulled out a tranquilizer gun. She knew what was coming, and lowered her head in reluctant submission. They had come for samples again.
To her surprise, the human withdrew his gun, tossed her a sack full of meat. It was fresh. Was it feeding time already? It couldn't possibly have been that long.
She was starving., but she couldn't let him see her give in. She turned her head away, her stomach screaming in protest all the while. The human smirked, nudged the meat towards her with the butt of the gun. She pretended to ignore it, giving a low roar to shoo the human away. He scowled.
"Fine then, bitch. Don't eat, for all I care. But the boss can't say I didn't do my job." He turned around, walked out the door, and left her in comfortable darkness. She sighed in relief.
As soon as the door hissed closed, she shot out her inner mouth, grabbing a chunk out of the sack and devouring it in a single bite. Oh, she was starving. She knelt, grabbing the sack. Not even bothering with her inner mouth, she wolfed down the remains of her rations. It didn't fill the void in her stomach, but it was better than nothing.
XXX
Her wrists were starting to chafe. She was glad. Maybe they would bleed, and she could be free.
XXX
Despite her confinement and despite her willing it not to, her body continued to function. It was times like these when she was at her worst—tired, hungry, and in heat. Her body wanted so badly for her to lay the carriers, but she did not have enough nutrition on which to do so. She couldn't even make an egg sac, let alone the eggs to fill it with.
She wanted to, though. She wanted to bear children, and for her children to take her captors' bodies and leave them for dead. But she couldn't.
She hated herself.
XXX
It was feeding time again. She was pleasantly surprised. So soon? The light hurt, but they brought her a whole pig this time, so she had that meager comfort. It wasn't nearly enough to fill her, but she was so hungry she didn't even bother with her nonchalant façade. She didn't care anymore. Ripping and tearing into an animal, even dead, felt too good. Reminded her of freedom.
She missed the outside.
This time the human was a female. She seemed very afraid, but the Mother didn't care. She hissed at the woman, baring her teeth and letting the saliva dribble down her chin as she tore at the flesh. Blood spattered on the ground. The woman squeaked, held her gun close. Inside, the Mother laughed, for the first time in too long.
XXX
Today, there was "combat evaluation". The shackles came off, but there were guns all around. A few humans held grenades. She decided it would be best not to fight them when they were so heavily armed.
They led her to another room, much larger this time. It smelled like the liquid they used to clean her cell. The large doors slammed shut behind her, and she was once again in complete darkness. She stretched her arms and lashed her tail, enjoying the lack of restraints, and waited. What was she to engage in "combat" against?
As if in answer to her question, a creature emerged from the darkness. It wasn't very tall, compared to her, but looked to have thick skin and powerful limbs. A set of four curved horns atop its head and a short neck led her to the assumption that the creature was built for charging. It smelled strongly of blood and sweat—the humans', mixed with its own.
The creature examined her closely. Looking for signs of weakness, no doubt. She would give it none. It reared on its hind legs and roared, landing back on all fours with impact that shook the ground. After its arrogant display, she couldn't help but respond, swiping at the air with her four arms and lowering her head to give the creature a full view of her enormous crest.
It charged.
She sidestepped it, shifting her huge body around and slamming back into it full force. It squealed in pain, but got up and began circling her, waiting for her next move.
She hissed, striking at the creature with her tail. It jumped back, growling, and charged again, this time hitting her square in the leg. She staggered, swiping at it with her primary arms and managing to give it a nasty gash on the back. It bled profusely. She smelled it.
She was hungry. So hungry.
In a sudden burst of rage, she snatched the creature out of its run, shooting out her inner mouth to pierce its skull. Its blood filled her. It screamed in agony.
She was happy.
Off came the creature's skin, cut by her bladed tail. Off came its fat, all into her mouth. Out came guts and muscle and sinew, to meet the same fate. Food, food, food. She loved food.
Still, she was hungry. She was always hungry.
XXX
They weren't happy with her behavior in the "combat evaluation", so they locked her up again. They would have done that anyway, she reasoned. They had no intention of freeing her any time soon, no matter how obediently she behaved. She heard them, knew they were watching her through the reinforced glass window of her cell, discussing what to do next.
She had come to understand the basic meaning of their words after her long time here, and so heard one suggest killing her. She scoffed, insulted-as if they could. She was a vicious fighter. But another human agreed, saying they should dissect her. Her blood was too dangerous, another said. Too many would be hurt.
Then all went silent, and she heard footsteps. A deep, male voice began to speak.
"What's going on? How is the Queen?"
Queen. Somehow she didn't think human "Queens" were treated so poorly.
"The bitch is livid, Davis. Ripped apart the Visrhin we sent in yesterday. Ate it alive."
"Is she fed?"
"She'll survive."
She doubted it, and let them know with a low growl.
"She doesn't seem too happy there, Lefner. "
"You said she didn't have to be, Davis." The voice paused. "Why are we even keeping her here? We're not exactly making any breakthroughs on their biology. Bitch can't even lay anymore."
"That would be classified information you're inquiring about, Lefner. Need I remind you of your position? You were very close to activating clause 88C of your employment agreement last week."
"N-no, sir."
"Good. Now feed it. I'm not going to have a dead Queen on our hands thanks to your neglect. "
"Yes, sir."
The noises stopped. Some time later, the doors were opened again, and this time she heard snorts and squealing. Live prey? Excluding the combat evaluation, she hadn't had such a treat in a while.
Another young Visrhin was shoved into the room. It cowered before her as she stood to full height. She snapped its neck without hesitation and ripped greedily at the meat. It tasted even better than it had the day before. After she finished, she gnawed at the bones, savoring the last of the flesh-taste until it was gone.
She wasn't hungry any more, but she was very tired. She curled up and fell asleep, as satisfied as she could possibly be in such a horrible place. Without the gentle touch of her children's minds, sleep was all she had left.
XXX
Warm, dark, tight. A wet noise went thump-thump-thump inside and outside and all around her. She liked that noise. It was all she could hear, there in her cocoon. She wiggled her tiny arms, pressing lightly against the walls. The thump-thump-thump got faster. She liked her cocoon.
But she couldn't move. It was too tight. She needed to get out.
She bit and struggled and writhed, shoving her head past layer after squishy layer of wall. The thump-thump-thump was so fast now, so loud! It shook her as she pushed, but she kept going.
With a final rrrip and a horrifyingly loud scream from her cocoon, she was free. The world was so big, though! Frightened, she gave a scream of her own.
She was alone, she thought, with her tiny mind. All alone in the great big world. But she wasn't alone-there were shadows overhead, though her vision wasn't adjusted well enough to see them. There were a lot of them, whatever they were; all murmuring in some foreign tongue that she had no intention to learn.
She could feel heat from them. They were very much alive. She heard their breaths. They sounded ragged, irregular, tired. She was tired, because she had just fought to live. Why were they tired?
She knew this was the part where she ran away. The dream skipped this part, because it was a dream and dreams make a habit of being capricious. A flash of light and she was on the ceiling, panting heavily and weighed down by a large, gelatinous presence underneath her tail.
"Bless Mother, bless Mother!" said voices from below. Her first generation. "Look how she lays the carriers!"
Her body heaved with each deposit, a deep ache that rumbled through her and gave her a shiver down her dream-spine. It hurt to lay, she noticed. It shouldn't have hurt, that meant bad things. But each egg required more and more effort, until she felt she might burst. Her children were frightened, but what could they do to help her?
Nothing. The spectators stood helpless as their Mother groaned in pain. Her breathing was shallow and labored—her heart was hammering harder than she even thought it could—oh, it hurt, it hurt so much—
The egg sac was gone, and she was in the humans' cell, alone. She was bleeding, but the floor didn't burn underneath. Why was that?
It was very dark. She was so alone. She bled.
The Mother died.
XXX
She woke with a jolt, clattering her chains and smacking her head against the wall. Her heart still pounding, she sat up, breathing deeply.
Did she just dream of her own birth? She was accustomed to nightmares, had gotten them frequently since her capture, but... That one was new. She shook her head, snorting in a mix of frustration and amusement. She was going mad, she reasoned. Remembering such long-ago things should be impossible for her, even if she was relatively young for a Mother.
She had been so small, so confused…
But that was past her, wasn't it? She was huge, she was strong, and she would crush them beneath her feet like ants should she get free. When she got free. She could only hope the opportunity would come soon. Giving her massive head a definitive shake, she settled down to try and fall back to sleep.
Before she could, the door opened, shocking her out of her thoughts. Footsteps clink-clanked on the metal floor. They were light, though—very light footsteps, and there was only one set. There were no voices talking about her imminent demise, no scientific nonsense being thrown back and forth in irritating high-pitched barks. Something was amiss. Chained up as she was, she couldn't do anything but sit and wait for the human outside to act.
"What a weird place! Look at all these buttons!" The voice was even smaller than the footsteps. She wasn't quite sure what that meant.
A sudden beep echoed through her cell, and the locked steel door hissed open. Was the human planning on taking her to combat evaluations? Surely it knew that just one of them would not be able to hold her back? Oh, well. It was to her benefit. The soft footsteps got closer, and closer, until she could see a figure in the near-blinding light of the main room. It was small. Too small.
A human whelp, clutching a toy, stood in the entryway to the Queen's cell.
A/N: Thank you for reading! I'll try to upload weekly. I would love it if you'd leave a review-constructive criticism is greatly appreciated!
3/4/14: Major edits made today for Chapter 1, mostly to maintain consistency in later ones for plot points I hadn't yet come up with. Reread it!