When I was a kid, Mom told me she would take care of me and when I grew up, I would be a good soldier in the Queen's army. And so I was, but what I saw will haunt me for the rest of my life.

Our whole clan was born out of the life cycle of a warrior nation and we have been very effective for centuries.

Smaller nations fear us because we do not farm in the usual way, we do not gather food. When the pious groups hear the sounds of our clan, the buzzing and the clicking, they panic. The alarm bells sound and the terrified masses appear as tiny, scurrying dots. My people generally loved the sight. We are one of those rotten, sadistic bastards who enjoy watching the weak writhing and pleading. Our kind love it because it gives them a euphoric feeling that only the strange taste of oppression and suffering can give. When I was older, I asked my mother if what we were doing was right. She just sighed and stroked my head as she said,

"Everyone tries to survive in a different way."

This answer was not reassuring. I was young and zealous, running away from responsibility and destiny when I should have faced them. I didn't want to hurt those who couldn't defend themselves. As I continued to grow, I witnessed a huge war. I lost my mom that day. The scene was burned into my retina, even now I can see that as clearly as I did then…

I felt the time slow and jelly-like, as if I were stuck. The loud noises and the sudden roar that circled the base almost shattered my head. My heart was pounding so loud... I thought it will break out of me. I didn't know where to look. Mom hid me in one of the cavities, but I foolishly ventured to the edge of the fight… I could have been kidnapped so easily by the invaders. I haven't even learned to use my weapon...

When I saw the main scene unfold, all my blood fell into my feet. My legs started to numb, I fell to my knees, I wanted to mill into the ground and pull it up to kill that black female.

She was a big one, wearing black, and She slapped my mother... Mom just groaned and fell to the ground loudly. The female was so large that she shielded Mom's whole body.

I had never heard her whine before, she was the bravest female I had ever known. But the black woman caught her neck, slowly and painfully raising the prey over her eyeline. Mom writhed in the black's grip and begged… tears flowed from my eyes, I barely could not see what was happening. Something swung and Mom curled up in the woman's hand.

I screamed that the whole base was shaking. I yelled my mother's name on the ground, holding out my arm to her as if I could save her. My legs were too weak to stand up. The woman's fingers relaxed, letting Mom's poisoned, helpless body fall to the ground. I've never seen such a slow moment in my entire life.

The figure turned towards me and I looked at her. I saw nothing in those huge black eyes. There was no soul behind those, as if the last drop of her heart had been purged. She could only one thing to do, and she was determined to finish it as well as she could.

Kill.

A black, sharp weapon flashed. Mine wasn't even sharp, there was nothing I could do. I dropped to my knees, waiting for he reach me, pick me up and bite me. Then, there... I wanted her to eat me alive like the others.

I sobbed with tears streaming down my face, I never took my eyes off my dead mother lying behind the black's footsteps. The female reached me. She kicked me straight in my chest and I flew far away. Painfully, I spun further and further until I stopped. My chest hurt like hell... I squeezed it hard so she couldn't hurt me again.

This world was dangerous for children. They were easy targets, not yet hard-skinned, and could be dropped without any particular pain.

I would have recognized her footsteps anywhere... they had a slow, heavy, tapping melody. Her feet contained her own cruel grin, mockingly laughing at my helplessness. She turned me to my back with her foot, and all I could see was the darkness of her sole.

I squeezed my eyes shut, ready to die even though I was barely alive. I opened my eyes to a nervous buzzing, for my attacker was momentarily thrown off as someone rushed her. My mind screamed, commanding my feet.

GET UP!

And I got up. A man in a yellow and black uniform attacked the black intruder. I knew him... I knew everybody with that color. I didn't know what had happened there at the time, but I cried out again, but this time it wasn't just from grief. The black female was five times my size, but my instinct, the instinct that had been the driving force of the species for centuries, kicked in. I was still so small... I couldn't even fly, I didn't have a sharp weapon. But I had teeth and jaws that I was determined to use.

My fellow clan member has been defeated, the hostile black female hissed angrily at the corpse. I never felt such a sense of purpose as I did then. I leapt, using my tiny wings. I grabbed her straight in the head, pushed out my weapon and began stabbing at her neck. It was a thick surface, I had to find a chink in the black's armour, and at last I did. My weapon was still blunt, but it was all the more painful for her when I finally stabbed him in the neck. She cried out when felt it, and howled in pain when I pushed deeper, deeper and more deeper. Something filled her throat, because after that she could only gurgle. My jaw was stronger now and I bit her eyes out cruelly slowly. It was disgusting, the way the phlegm filled my mouth, but I didn't stop until she collapsed. I could feel her voice catch and she slowly lost her balance, then collapsed in a decisive arc towards the ground.

I never saw my mother's body again. Probably taken by the other attackers and consumed. Every day I had to spend alone without my mother was incredibly bitter. I finally understood that there was no room for weakness in our world. There was always something bigger that could kill me, I had no doubt. It hurt terribly to grow up... but I did. I was drafted into the army, and I did what I had to do. I didn't kill much unless my life depended on it. I haven't found any pleasure in killing since we were ambushed.

And one day, when I just wanted to spend a quiet hour, the roof of the base fell in. A huge... No. A gigantic figure blocked out the sun, reached into the structure, and then... something happened. I fled through the air, but a black smoke caught me, I sped in vain. I coughed, my throat and lungs burning with the poison, but I got out of the base.

I fell at the root of a tree and lost consciousness. It seemed like the end of everything. I saw my mother in front of me, as happy as every day I smiled at her. I reached out for her as I had that day, but then she was gone. I heard my onetime little girl voice scream, and then the darkness swallowed me up. When I opened my eyes, only the moon was shining in the sky. It was like a sickle... it was burned into my memory like everything else. Because that night I returned to the base, but I couldn't find it. It was as if it had been bombed, leaving only ashes...

Grey, lifeless fly ash floated down from the sky, the last dead pieces of my former home. As I walked, the air filled with a terrible smell. I bent down and started to dredge the ashes, fearful of what I would find. A pale yellow and black face looked back at me with blurred eyes... They no longer glittered. I slowly stood up to see how many hundreds of these mounds were bulging out from under the ash. It didn't take much sense to realize... all of them.

I don't know how many hours I cried in the ashes and among the corpses. It was so bitter that I curled up and could only cry. I layed in grey snow, unable to see anything else every time I opened my eyes. I never wanted this again... I don't want to live in colonies anymore, I don't want to slaughter innocents and I don't want to be weak. I don't want to run away anymore.

It was a lot of time work to process the events to the point where I could think rationally afterwards. But I know I should mind my own business. Somehow I never managed to do that... I always try to keep myself busy, taking jobs where I need to.

Now I'm the best hired muscle around the city... even though I'm a female.

I fluttered my wings and flew to the top of the tree from which I had the best view of the world before me. I will never forget the day when the enemy troops invaded, weakened us, and then one human wiped us out. My antennae vibrated furiously, I shook my head to quiet them. Life is hard when you have a stinger, but you have to hold back every time you get insulted. Somehow after I expel them, they see me less as a female and more as a wasp.

My name is Pin. I travel the world as the last survivor of my colony, and I never mind just and only my own business. I go until I came across something that made me forget the tragedies. For example, the dismantling of a protection racket...