Queen Vespa

post/619871652500684800/queen-vespa-of-the-dark-ambient-trolls

Trollex had settled into the flow of things down in the Abyss, home of the Dark Ambient trolls. It was strange, seeing random trolls from other tribes scattered amongst the natives here. Whenever he'd run onto one, he'd stop to have a chat, most mentioning that they either didn't remember arriving, or had been here since they hatched.

Those few that did remember, often said they had been in danger, about to be eaten or terribly injured, and then they woke up here, cared for and given refuge.

None were all that upset about being unable to leave, save for most of the Techno trolls that had been brought en masse after the Pop troll rave at Techno reef. The Blush family was particularly distressed, isolating themselves in the place they were given.

Trollex made a point of visiting them every day, reminding them that Coral Blush was fine, safe in the care of the Rock trolls. Of course, this didn't lift their spirits any.

It was after one particularly depressing visit that Trollex found himself floating near the barrier that kept them all within the Abyss, and everything else out. He stared out, seeing past the bubble out into the deep, dark ocean.

When he was younger, he remembered feeling like the darkness was alive. Being here, staring out into the water, that sensation was never clearer than now. He floated closer to the barrier, reaching out to it. He felt like if he could push hard enough, he'd pop himself right through the bubble and out into the water.

He held his own hand back. He'd seen what happened when others tried to leave, even Myla couldn't. She had just set her hand on it and it had given her a rather nasty looking shock. He pulled himself back, making his way towards the center of town once again. Honestly the territory here was so small. He was able to stand at one end of the bubble, and see clearly to the other if he went above the buildings.

Once he was back at the center of town, he spotted two familiar figures, chatting with someone he didn't recognize yet. He flew over, landing on his fins as he gave a small bow. "King Sheo, Princess Myla, it's been a few days, hasn't it now?"

Myla smiled brightly, giving a small curtsey with a flutter of her wings. "Yeah, I'm sorry Trollex, we needed to talk with my mother and see about a few family matters in the tunnels below. It's safer if outside trolls don't try to enter the tunnels, or I'd have invited you…"

He waved her concern off. "It's alright Myla. But… do you mind if I ask who this is?" He gestured at the faded golden troll standing between the king and princess.

She giggled, holding a hand out to gesture at the gold troll. "Trollex, this is my mum, the Queen of Dark Ambient, Queen Vespa."

His eyes widened, and he bowed again, a bit deeper than he had before. "I-I'm sorry, Queen Vespa, I should have guessed…"

Vespa held up a hand, her wings set against her back. She was only slightly shorter than King Sheo, who he had noticed was a good deal taller than most of his tribe. She had soft fur on her chest like her daughter, her antennae longer than either of the two royals. She held herself with authority, clearly used to the role of ruler. "It is fine, King Trollex. I apologize for not having greeted you with my husband and daughter when you woke initially."

Trollex smiled nervously. He could feel something strange about the queen. A tenseness that came from years of anxieties. Of course, she was a queen, so that was to be expected, but he had never gotten such a strong feeling before.

The queen seemed to pick up on that. She stepped closer to him, her footfalls making no sound as she leaned in to inspect him. "Rainbow… A true descendant of the original… They did not lie…"

In a panic, Trollex pushed himself off the ground and hovered, coming to eye level with the queen. "P-Pardon me, Queen Vespa, but… what are you talking about?"

Even Myla and Sheo seemed confused, giving each quizzical looks. All gathered jumped when the queen suddenly snapped her wings open and lifted off the ground. That was when Trollex noticed that her wings were the largest he had seen here yet. "Come, I will tell you in my family home." She offered a sweet smile. "There is no need to fear, now, come along." And with that, she was off.

He hesitated a moment, watching as Sheo took off to follow his wife, Myla leaping into the air shortly afterwards. She gave him a confused shrug and zipped off after her parents. He followed behind, glad that while they were quick fliers, he could match their speed.

Once the queen set down, he had to pause in the air to marvel at the structure ahead. It looked positively ANTIENT! Despite the old nature of the building, it looked to be in a perfect state of repair. When he flew through the main door, he glanced around. It was surprisingly modest, given they were the royals. It was clear that the palace once glittered like a jewel, but many of the slots that once held precious gems were now empty.

They made their way through the castle, the royal family having opted for walking, with Trollex floating quietly behind them. He paused as they passed by a hall, staring in disbelief at what he saw. "W-Wait, guys? Where did the hallway go?" Where he was sure was once a hallway, it abruptly ended a few feet in, filled with what appeared to be hardened lava. But that was impossible! There was at least a few hours free swimming between Techno reef and the only volcano in the land, and he was positive they were further out than that.

Myla poked her head down the hallway, and shrugged. "One of the halls lost to the disaster. Back when our home was connected to land on the surface, the volcano erupted and… well, it destroyed most of our home. At least that's what the ancient texts said."

His eyes sparkled, remembering what he and Branch had discussed. "How old are your history books? How far back have you recorded? Before the strings…?"

That seemed to catch the attention of the king and queen, but Myla just gave him a curious look. "Strings…?"

His jaw dropped, and he stared at her in disbelief. "So… it's true then, a tribe lost before the time of the strings…" He looked back towards the frozen lava flow. "If Branch were here, he could make sense of this…"

Vespa stepped forward, setting a gentle hand on Trollex's arm, causing him to jolt slightly. "Come, we may be able to clear up some of your questions, even without your stick here."

Trollex was about to respond, but the queens wording gave him pause. "I… my stick…? Oh! You mean Branch? No, he's a pop troll. A really smart one, too."

She blinked a bit, then smiled again. "Be that as it may, unless we send the Guardian out, we cannot speak with him. To my knowledge only Critters and the Guardian can come and go freely. Sadly, we have no critters that call this place home. The Guardian seems to prefer not bringing them, and if they do come in, they leave before we can speak with any."

He stared at her, then pointed up at his hair, where Beat had been sleeping. He had refused to leave Trollex's side, and he felt more comfortable with his little buddy close at hand. "Beat's a critter, could he leave?"

Vespa smiled brightly, looking into Trollex's hair. "Oh, if he is indeed a critter, he can leave. The Guardian could even take him anywhere in the world he wishes to go, so travel time would be very short."

He nodded, reaching a hand into his hair and gently patting Beat's head to wake him. "Beat, can you come out and give me a hand?"

With a yawn and a groggy nod, Beat slipped out of Trollex's hair. "I would man, but I got none. Will a fin do?"

Trollex laughed softly at the joke, and nodded. "Willing to make a trip to the surface to let everyone know what's going on?"

Beat tilted a bit. "I thought we couldn't leave? Did you figure out how to get home?"

"Only you, lil' buddy. Turns out critters can come and go freely. So what do you say?"

He did a little flip in the air. "I say, what are we waiting for!"

Vespa took a step forward. "I think that perhaps we should discuss what should be said before sending you out. We would like to share what we can with the outside world, while we have a chance. It's possible that this is the chance our ancestors have been waiting for…"

Beat and Trollex both looked at the queen quizzically. "What are you talking about, lady?" Trollex nearly swatted Beat out of the air. Myla turned away, racing up the hall in an attempt to hide her giggling.

Vespa puffed up indignantly, before sighing and deflating again. "Just… come along. I will explain." And with that, she swept off down the corridor after her daughter, her footfalls just barely audible.

When they eventually made it to a rather large sitting room, with a map table in the centre, they each took a chair around the table. Vespa gestured to the map. "Can you tell us what has changed? We haven't been able to update our maps since we were first trapped. Those trolls that come to us are often not well versed in the world. Almost as though they didn't know any other tribes existed to begin with…"

Trollex blushed, rubbing at the grey scales on his wrist, the ones that used to be a bright green. "Well, uh… that's not that far off, actually. After Pop tried to steal all of our strings, we all split up and that was that…"

Myla arched a brow curiously. "You mentioned these strings before, but… what's so important about them?"

He hummed softly. "I guess nothing now, since they're gone. But since our recorded history started, the trolls used to live in silence. Until one discovered music. They came together to make six strings, one for each major Genre of music at the time. There was Pop, Country, Funk, Rock, Classical, and Techno. It was peaceful at first, but then Pop tried to steal the strings for themselves… The elders decided enough was enough, and stole their respective strings back, and we lived isolated since then… Until recently, anyway."

Vespa gave a small nod. "That makes some sense, based on the information we do have." She looked down at the map, pointing to a landmass connected to what Trollex knew as Volcano rock city. He tilted his head slightly. "This is our home, or, was before the disaster that buried us."

Trollex had to lift himself into the air to get a proper bird's eye view of the large table. He pointed to each territory in turn. ""This is where Pop village is now. The Funk trolls live in a UFO over the glitter desert here. The Country trolls live between the desert and the mountains, along this stream. Classical lives in the mountains. Rock lives in Volcano rock city, and we live here, in Techno reef."

Vespa set little colored pins into each territory he pointed out, then nodded. "They really did scatter to the winds. How sad… What of the world now? You had said the strings are gone now, yes?"

He nodded. "Yeah, just recently as a matter of fact. The current queen of Rock tried to steal all the strings, which had the power to turn anyone she attacked into a Rock zombie…" He visibly shuddered at the memory, curling up slightly. After a moment he recovered. "But surprisingly, it was the current king and queen of Pop that saved everyone… go figure, huh? I asked Queen Barb though, she doesn't even know how she knew the strings could do that…"

That gave the queen pause, staring up at Trollex. "She didn't know? Perhaps it was an outside force influencing her… Or perhaps it was fate playing her hand at last…" She smiled softly. "Trollex, you've told us much of your world, now let me tell you of ours, limited as it may be."

"In the past, when we lived on the surface, there was no such thing as the strings. However it wasn't silent as your ancestors claimed. No, the world was full of light and music and color. We all played, sang, and danced together in those days, or so the ancient texts claim. None recall what our ancestors looked like, as our current appearance is thanks to many generations of mingling with those brought here."

Trollex perked up at that, looking between the three. "You're ALL mixed with other tribes?"

Myla nodded, holding up her hand. "Yup! I'm Dark Ambient, yes, but I also have strong ties to Classic and rock!"

Sheo set a hand on his chest. "She gets the rock from me. I also have some prominent Country troll in me."

Vespa gave a small bow of her head. "And I am descendant from Classical and Funk."

He stared between the three, never having imagined the tribes could mix like this. Let alone on such a mass scale! "This is… it's so cool! I didn't think… wow…" He rubbed the back of his head. "Far as I can trace back, I'm pure Techno. I don't think anyone on the surface is a mix… we have some Trans genre, of course, but no mixing… yet anyway."

The queen smiled. "I know a lineage you take from, just by looking at you. Rainbow troll."

He perked up a little. "Well, I mean yeah, I'm colorful, but the only rainbow troll we know about is from a little trolls' story. I didn't think it would actually make a difference, or that they were a tribe of their own."

"They weren't, and that is what made them so unique. They were able to easily adapt and change their music, able to take on traits from any music they wished… They were powerful, especially when you consider how rarely they were hatched to any tribe. One of our earliest ancestors was a rainbow troll, but… he angered the clouds, and as such had his colors taken away from him…"

He sagged a little. That didn't sound at all like what happened in the story… "Wait, that can't be right… In our story, the little rainbow troll asked the rainbow to take his color, so he wouldn't be so different from the others."

"In your experience, Trollex, have clouds and their ilk been a benevolent bunch?" Vespa gave him a knowing look when she saw his face fall a bit.

She was right, he had been introduced to Cloud guy by Branch, and… he didn't seem like quite the nicest guy. "Ok, alright, you got me there… what happened after that then?"

"When our ancestor had his color taken, the other trolls banded together, giving them each a small aspect of themselves. Something that meant more to them than anything else they had. They shared their music with him."

His eyes widened, and he looked down at his missing green, and all the other colors on his arms. "That's… that's what we've been missing! That's it! That's why it was music…!" He did an excited flip in the air. "That's why I got my colors back with the music! Haha!"

Myla snickered softly, leaning closer to her father to whisper to him. "Awfully excited, isn't he?"

Her father snickered softly, which earned them both glares from the Queen. She then returned her attention to Trollex. "However, it seems your journey is not yet complete, young king."

He paused at that, glancing down at the queen. "You mean my green?"

Vespa stood, brushing her clothes off and settling them correctly. "Yes. I believe it's time we share our music with you, Trollex. If I am right, this should return to you your green."