Lucy was very much grounded. For the next month, in fact, her Papa had said. She shouldn't have gone in to see the Queen, her Papa had said. It was very-very dangerous and she didn't know what she was doing, Papa had said. Papa said a lot of things. Most of them she didn't understand. She said them right back to Bunny sometimes, in her deepest voice, all stuffy and mad and pointing her finger in Bunny's face. Bunny didn't seem to like it very much. But neither did she, and she had to deal with it, so Bunny would too. Yelling made her feel better.
Why wasn't she allowed to see the dragon (Queen? No, dragon.) that they had in the dark room? Miss Dragon was so pretty! So scary, too, but very cool. Dragons were always cool, she supposed, because she had never seen a boring dragon and doubted she ever would. But this one was especially cool. It was like Miss Dragon was—what was the word? "Lurking?" Yes, "lurking" was it. A big, growly dragon, lurking in a cave!
She made Bunny do a big roar, and hopped into her bed. It wasn't very comfy, but she'd rather be here with Papa than back home with Auntie Susan. Auntie Susan wasn't much fun, and she never let Lucy have any cookies.
Papa wouldn't let her have cookies either, she thought, now that she was very-much grounded.
Maybe the dragon wanted cookies! Maybe that's why she was so mad. Lucy flopped onto her back, bouncing Bunny off her pillow with a sigh. Poor dragon, all locked up. Was she grounded, too?
XXX
The Mother had had enough. She had been sick and tired of her situation as long as she had been in it, but now she was thirsty for blood.
She didn't know when this revelation had come upon her, but suddenly she was a bit angrier when the humans gave her smaller rations, had to stop herself from screaming when they threw her their little gibes. Every one of them seemed so much more insulting.
That wouldn't help her get out, though. Anger had never helped her. She needed a real plan. She wasn't stupid enough to think that all she needed was to break her chains. There would be armed guards, many of them. She could barrel through as many of their metal projectiles as she pleased, but the larger, explode-ier ones would pose a much greater challenge. She had no idea how to navigate the place, either—if she left even one human alive while she fumbled around looking for an exit, it would call for reinforcements and she'd be killed.
She needed help.
The only one around who was incapable of killing her was—
No, no, no, there was no way that would work. Even if the security was low enough that the girl got in again, there was no guarantee she could be convinced to help, let alone competent enough to do the job.
But it was her only chance.
How could she get the girl to come back? Feigning illness would only draw the attention of the medical team, being aggressive would only get her a death sentence. The whitecoats would never just conveniently bring along a little girl to a cell holding something as dangerous and powerful as she, even locked up as she was.
She would have to sit, and she would have to wait; hopefully, the child would come back on her own somehow.
The Mother was sick and tired of waiting.
XXX
Papa didn't like the dragon.
Lucy could tell because he still seemed mad that she had gone to visit her. She asked, "why can't I see the dragon, Papa?" but he didn't answer, not really. He just told her that it was a bad idea and he couldn't trust her to have "free reign" to run around the facility anymore.
Was he going to send her back to Auntie Susan's? She hoped not.
But it was so boring being grounded! She needed to run around, she needed to play! Frustrated, she stood up with Bunny and swung him around in a circle like a merry-go-round.
"So bored," she muttered, sticking her tongue out and blowing a raspberry. "Sooo bored. Are you bored, Bunny?" She made Bunny do a little nod. "I know you are. So, you know what, we're gonna do somethin' fun."
She threw Bunny in the air and caught him in a hug. Grinning mischievously, she whispered in Bunny's ear: "We're gonna go see the dragon!" Grabbing a plastic baggie full of cookies—because that's what grounded dragons really need—she spun around and pretended to roar.
No grounding could stop a seven-year-old dragon tamer.
XXX
Blood stained the Mother's maw as she ripped into her latest victim. The deer had been a result of her feigned starvation; she never thought she'd have to resort to begging, but here she was. In all her glory, she was pathetic-whining and screeching for food until the half-wits assigned to her care gave her extra rations. The animals were piling up in the dark corner behind her: ones that were edible to humans, ones that weren't, and ones for which she had no name. All fell prey to the Mother. The humans, she knew, wouldn't like the mess she was making.
Quite frankly, she didn't care. It didn't matter either way; she'd had enough.
Her belly full to bursting, she turned back towards the corner. Her muzzle dripped with blood and drool. She waited, waited for so long, until she felt her stomach turning and a tightness in her chest. Propping herself up against the wall, she coughed, and choked, and retched...
To escape, she'd have to be able to communicate.
Thick, translucent liquid poured out of her open jaws, landing in a pool behind the remains of her regurgitated meal. Jelly, the whitecoats called it; Royal Jelly, finally coming, weak though it was due to her malnourishment and mental state. She continued until her head hurt and her throat ached. Stomach now largely empty, she laid back down to catch her breath.
It had been a long time since she'd done that. She didn't remember it hurting so much.
The child was useless to her if they couldn't communicate. With this, hopefully that would change. With this, the girl could become a member of her brood-if only for the purpose of aiding in her escape.
XXX
Lucy couldn't wait to see Miss Dragon again. She wanted to tell her Papa, but he wouldn't be happy about that, so she kept it to herself. Still, she wondered how Papa could keep something so amazing so hidden away. Why did he keep her here, if he didn't want anyone to see her? Either way, he didn't seem to have any plans to let her go visit.
So, she thought she'd make her own.
It was 12:33; lunchtime had just started, so everyone would be in the cafeteria eating. Papa's friend Leon wasn't "supervising" like he was earlier. Maybe he figured Lucy had gotten the idea that she wasn't supposed to leave her room until Papa came back. Her Papa had told his friends she was a good listener, after all.
Maybe she was-but not today.
She inched open her door, holding her Bunny as she peered out into the hallway. It was empty! With a quiet giggle, she tiptoed out of the room, and gently closed the door. The dragon's room was on the other side of the building, aaaall the way downstairs, she remembered. It would take a little while to get there and back, but lunchtime was supposed to be an hour and fifteen minutes long. That should be enough time.
Was anybody watching? No? All clear! Lucy ran across the hall at top speed, giggling all the way to the elevator at the end. She lifted up Bunny's paw and had him press the "down" button. The elevator opened with a "ding!" and she stepped inside. What floor was Miss Dragon on? B something... B-10, that was it. She pushed the button for Floor B-10 and watched with excitement as the doors slid shut.
The elevator ride seemed to take forever. Lucy didn't much like elevator rides (they made her feel woozy) but she could bear with it if it meant she would get to see Miss Dragon. She wasn't woozy at all, no sir! ...But Bunny was.
The ride was over soon enough, and little Lucy found herself all the way down on Floor B-10. She ran fast-fast-fast down the hall-not because anybody could see her, but because she was a seven-year-old about to do something she knew she wasn't supposed to and that was as exciting as life could get.
XXX
It was quiet for a while, but then it was not. The Mother, while tending to her store of life-jelly, heard tiny footsteps thunk-thunk-thunking down the hall, all the way to the observation room. There usually weren't any patrols during lunch hour. But that was no patrol.
Lucy burst into the room, smile on her face and plush toy in her arms.
Lucy! Oh, she might actually get out of this hellhole after all-! She crooned excitedly, despite the crushing shame that she was seeking aid from a human youngling. The child squealed, hopping in place, and returned the Mother's greeting with an enthusiastic wave. She hop-skipped over, humming to herself.
"Hi, Miss Dragon!" The girl's voice was squeaky as ever, maybe even more so this time. The Mother gave a soft chuff of amusement. "It's nice to see you again!"
The Mother was surprised (and slightly alarmed) to find herself agreeing.
"Me and Bunny got something for you." The girl rummaged around in her big sweatshirt pocket, pulling out a clear plastic bag filled with... something. The Mother tilted her massive head, confused.
"You've never seen these before?"
She snorted in the negative. Should she have?
"Oh, that's so sad! You've never had cookies!"
Apparently.
The girl unzipped the bag and pulled out a small, flat, round object speckled with dark-brown dots. It smelled sweet, and she felt fading warmth from its surface. Did the child want her to eat it? "It's chocolate chip. Papa and I baked some this morning. Want one?"
She wasn't so sure she did, but she took the object anyway, more to examine it than anything. It looked safe enough, and she had expended all her energy making the life-jelly...
The life-jelly! She'd almost forgotten.
She nudged Lucy with the flat of her tail, beckoning her over to the corner.
"What is it?" the girl asked. "What's back here-ew!" Lucy kicked a pig bone, crinkling her nose in an ugly human expression of disgust. "It's all wet and smelly! Why's this here?"
The Mother ignored the child's reaction, sweeping the remains of her prey aside and gesturing to the corner with a nod of the head. Her life-jelly sat in a pile, glistening and wet and ready to fulfill its purpose. The child wouldn't know to eat it, though. The Mother leaned down and slowly extended her inner mouth to take a small bite.
"You want me to EAT that?"
She nodded.
"No offense, Miss Dragon, but that doesn't look very tasty. Or clean." The girl thought for a moment. "Papa tells me not to eat anything off the floor, especially when it looks...
blecky. And that does."
The Mother snorted in frustration. She'd expected non-compliance, but it was still extremely irritating. The girl needed to eat it, not complain about how unappetizing it looked. Never mind the insult-it was getting in her way.
Trying her hardest not to intimidate the girl, she scooped up a clump of the jelly in her second pair of hands, holding it out and moaning softly. Hopefully the girl would accept it.
"I really dunno if I should-" Lucy smelled nervous now, and certainly looked the part with her brown eyes darting from the jelly to the Mother and back again. Finally she gave, and took a bit of the jelly in her own hands. She sniffed it hesitantly. "Smells like peaches," she said. "I like peaches."
(The Mother didn't know what peaches were, but she decided to take that as a compliment.)
Grimacing, the girl gulped some down. "Doesn't taste like peaches," she said. "But it's not that bad. Slimy, yet satisfying." The glob in the girl's hands was gone in less than a minute. The Mother was glad to see it. "But now you've got to have my cookie."
Ah, yes, the cookie. She'd been holding it the whole time but it had slipped her mind. She was reluctant to eat something that the humans had made out of her sight, but the girl had eaten the jelly, which wasn't exactly typical human cuisine... so down it went.
It was so sweet! She'd never tasted anything like it! Despite herself, the mother purred. She grabbed the bag from the girl (who seemed like she could start bouncing off the walls at any moment-from excitement or the life-jelly?) and hoarded it beneath the bones for later.
"So? Do you like it?"
She nodded with genuine enthusiasm, crooning. Whatever was in that "cookie" was not something to which her body was accustomed; everything seemed to be going much faster, herself especially, and she had no doubt that were she not chained up she had enough energy to run across oceans. It gave her the jitters.
"Good! I liked your treat too, even if it was a little gooey."
She gave the girl a nudge with her maw, turned her around with gentle hands. She could feel it coming, even after such a short time-the mental link that would make Lucy one of the brood. So to speak. Tentatively, she reached out with her mind-voice. A slight, staticky buzz tickled the back of her neck. Her grip on the girl's shoulders unconsciously got tighter.
"What are you doing, Miss Dragon?"
Almost there, almost there... The girl's mental barriers were weak, but they did exist. She overrode them.
All at once, the Mother knew the child. It went beyond words, beyond simple empathy-she could feel what Lucy felt, through their link. Just as she had with her own children. Thoughts, memories, emotion collided together in a slurry and bled through. They were vague, coming from a mind so young and so foreign, but they were strong. She hadn't done this in a very long while.
Lucy was taken aback; the Mother could feel her recoiling at the shock of mental contact. Confusion, fear, welled up in the child's psyche like poison; the Mother swept them away with a wave of forced calm.
/Hello,/ the Mother said.
The girl jumped, physically and mentally. "Miss Dragon, you can talk?"
/To you, yes. You ate the life-jelly./
"I... Oh." The girl contemplated this for a moment.
/It's all right. Don't be afraid./
"Who said I was?"
/I can feel it./
"Huh."
The Mother couldn't help but be gentle; it was impossible for her to willingly harm someone to whom she was linked, since doing so meant pain on both ends. Though she was hesitant to regard a human as anything better than a convenience, what was done was done. They were linked now, with all the baggage that carried.
She knelt, touching the girl's head. /We are friends. Right, Lucy?/
Friends, with a human? What had she come to? It was just until she got out, she thought. With enough distance and enough time, the link would fade and they could both go about their lives in relative peace. She would build a new Hive, have a new brood.
"Hey, Miss Dragon?"
/Yes?/
"I wanted t' ask you before, but you couldn't talk then... Why do they have you all locked up down here? Are you grounded?" The girl bared her teeth in a mischievous expression. "I'm s'pposed to be."
Grounded? She would never understand all these human terms. Did "grounded" mean "imprisoned, tortured, and barely fed?" She doubted even a species like the humans would do that to their own younglings, so it must not be nearly so bad.
/No,/ she replied. /Not grounded./
"Oh. Then why?"
/They hate me./ It was true. Her children consumed their colonies quickly. She wouldn't be surprised if this was their revenge.
"Why?" Confusion steamed across the link. "You seem nice to me."
/Because I am not like you. You would not understand./
"Oh."
A moment of quiet. The Mother could feel Lucy thinking. (It sort of tickled.) Then:
"I could help you get out, if y' want."
/...I had plans to ask, eventually./
"What would I have to do?"
/Tell me everything you know about the layout of this facility. How many guards, when and where./
Dark brown eyes flittered around nervously. "Y'see, Miss Dragon-"
/Please, do stop calling me that. Call me whatever your kind do./
"Uh, okay-um-I would, Miss Queen, but you see I really don't know all that much about this place. I was asleep when we got here. I've never even seen the front door."
No. No no no, that wouldn't work. /Find out then. I need to know. / She could feel herself growing angry, willfully suppressed it. She needed out as soon as possible. /Please./
"I'll try, Miss Dra-Miss Queen." The girl out her hand against her head in a mock salute like the ones she'd seen the humans do so many times. "Maybe Papa will finally give me a tour if I ask really hard."
/Good./ But not good enough. Not guaranteed. /Thank you./
"And, Miss Queen?"
/Yes?/
"Thank you for your treat. It was very nice of you. I'm glad I can talk t'you now."
/You're very welcome. And you're good at making-ah-"cookies"./
Giving a big grin, Lucy walked out the door.
Neither of them noticed the cameras.