"Pale King" Vespa began, "Are you aware of Pasture Valley? It is an area of greenery not far into the wastelands that I and many of my children would like to visit to honor the bees that once lived there."
"I was not aware of such a place. Truthfully I believed the wastelands themselves to simply be sand and rock. Now, how inconvenient would it be to go there?" the king responded.
"We wouldn't have to turn far from our current path. Besides, it possesses a notable amount of greenery, water, and some wildlife. It is a perfect place to rest for a short while." Vespa explained.
"Well, it is decided then. Cartographer, we will need to make a small change of direction." the king said as the group began turn to where Vespa pointed.
And then the king saw Wander run to him, giddy than usually.
"I can write better now father!" they scribbled with that excitement seen so commonly in children.
"Splendid, I assume Quirrel is acting as your language teacher?" the king asked.
"Yeah, he has been telling me about the things around us too, like the weird grey sand and caves." Wander informed.
"I don't know why some bugs hate sand. It feels really nice when you dig it and pick it up."
Wander explained.
"He also said something about how I should learn 'sign language.' What's that?" they questioned.
"Oh, it is simply a way of communicating with hand gestures. However, your hands currently look more like nubs than real claws, so it would likely be difficult to communicate that way." the king told his child, chuckling under his breath a bit at their tiny nubs.
To say that Pasture Valley was beautiful would be an understatement; It was a tiny slice of paradise with the sprawling moss, flowing waterfalls, and tiktiks and crawlids scurrying through the undergrowth.
Although they had their immediate needs met, the citizens of Hallownest certainly had a need for answers. Not only about the future, but also of the tiny black grub running to and from the king himself; Were they his child? They just seemed to show up when the group left the kingdom and start following him around. And if they were his child, with whom? Certainly not the queen, considering that both royals had very bright shells, unlike them.
"You could just ask them." one of them pointed out.
"Hey, they are just a grub, if he did have an affair like you folks are gossiping about, should you not go up to him instead and ask?" another teased.
"WHAT? I'm not just going to ask the king himself that." they responded.
"Relax, I am simply jesting. Although, like I said, they are only a child, they should not get caught up in our rumors. Not like they seem one for talking anyway." the other clarified.
"Mommmm I'm bored." Wander scribbled to their mother a few hours after settling into the valley for the time being.
"Oh, there are plenty of people around here, why don't you learn about something with one of them?" she asked. She both cared about them but also wanted to save at least some of her free time from their already boundless energy.
"Ok, thanks mom." they wrote as they ran off to take a look around the valley.
"Just be careful, alright." she told them as they rushed through the moss.
They peeked around the area; seeing bugs cooking some tiktiks, some simply resting, and then they saw a big bug, smearing some oily colorful stuff on a big paper. Oh, a new activity! Although they weren't sure what it was exactly, that didn't stop them from dashing over to him, he seemed friendly enough.
"Oh, hello little one." he said as he noticed them at his side.
"What are you doing with the paper?" they asked as they looked at the giant brush he wielded.
"I'm painting, do you not know of it?" he asked, eager to teach another pupil.
"No, but it looks nice." they replied.
"That is the goal, to look nice and usually resemble something real. Do you mind answering why you're writing instead of talking anyway?" Sheo explained.
"I can't speak, but I learned how to write from my dad. He's really cool." they explained.
"Why don't you try to paint? Here, I'll show you." he said as he grabbed a small brush and canvas for them.
A short while later, and Wander found they really liked painting. They already drew themselves and their father. Although they were a bit frustrated with how theirs turned out so much worse than Sheo's, he explained that everyone is bad at things at first.
They were about to toss their painting when Sheo asked what they were doing.
"I should make a better one before I show it to my dad. I want to be really good at it." they explained.
"Oh, that makes sense, but you should show him this one. Even though it isn't very high quality, I think he'll still appreciate that his child made it for him."
"Really?" they asked, giddy at possibly making their father proud.
"Yes, of course. Who is your father, anyways?" he asked.
And at that, they just pointed at their painting.
Sheo was… surprised to say the least, he hadn't heard anything of the king having a child, but he supposed that was his fault for spending so much time alone in Greenpath.
Well he supposed he was a bit proud that he just taught a child—supposedly the king's—how to draw.
"Well, off you go. I might teach you about sculpting lat—" Sheo stopped talking, seeing that they had already ran away through the underbrush.
"What do you wanna teach me mum?" Hornet asked as she ran up to her mother, having been called for at the same time she's usually taught something new.
"Today I will teach you the very basics of combat with a needle. Here, you'll need this." Stated Herrah as she handed her daughter a small needle, too tightly wrapped in a silk sheath at the moment to be a truly effective weapon.
"First, I have a training dummy for you here to practice your hits on. Remove the sheath, then just stab forward." the queen explained.
"Haha! Dummy!" shouted Hornet as she prepared the small needle and herself for to lunge forwards.
"Try to aim between the stone plates, those are meant to be tough shell." Herrah instructed.
"Why do I need to learn this right now anyway?" the weaverling questioned as she skewered the dummies 'flesh.'
"I don't know what we will face in our journey, but most likely there will be at least a few fights that you'll need to be prepared for." Herrah stated, "And besides, skill in combat is always a good tool to intimidate rivals or assassins."
"Well, next I'll show you how to throw your needle." Herrah mentioned, "Here is some weaver silk rope, pull it through the loop of your needle."
"Next, look to check if there's anyone in the direction you're throwing it that you don't want to hit." Herrah instructed.
"If there is none of the such, just throw it straight forward." Herrah told her daughter as the dummy got skewered again.
"Wow, it reaches so far. Can I swing on it?" Hornet mused.
"Yes, now I'll show you how to retrac—what?" Herrah asked.
"Can I swing on the rope if I put the needle somewhere high up?" Hornet reiterated.
"That's a novel idea Hornet! Here, I'll get it stuck in that rock up there." Herrah stated, both amused and impressed at her daughters idea.
"Yay." squealed the weaverling as she swung through the air, feeling the air rush around her.
"Hornet, you can continue doing that later, but there are still two more things to teach you." Herrah stated, much to the disappointment of her daughter.
"Ok… what are they?" Hornet asked, miffed at her play being stopped so quickly.
"First, I'll gently swing my needle towards yours, raise your needle to block it, then push back." Herrah instructed.
"There, good. This is called parrying. Be aware that it won't work on opponents stronger than you though." Herrah stated as her daughter pushed back her half-hearted swing.
"Finally, even with all of this, you are still small and, at the moment, rather weak. " Herrah reminded, "As such; if someone tries to really hurt you, like this dummy, stab it once in somewhere important and just run away, maybe swing like you did earlier if it helps you go faster."
"Then just keep going until you find one of us, do you promise you'll do that when you cannot defeat an enemy, Hornet?" Herrah asked.
"I promise, mum." Hornet said, slightly miffed that she is still small.
"Alright, well it's getting late and we should both get some sleep now." Herrah said, scooping up her daughter.
Wander couldn't sleep. It wasn't that they literally couldn't, but there was simply so much buzzing in their mind.
There were going to be new places they would visit, and they might paint more, and see their father so happy with their painting skills again!
But at the same time, there was also the fact that the other bugs might find they are the reason they had to leave, and then they would be angry, and their father would probably be angry at the bugs for being angry. Also, just because this valley was nice, didn't mean the other places ahead would be nice.
So, they—heh—wandered slightly out of the valley and into the sands.
Then, they just started digging through the sand; They had no goal, no true motive for it, it just felt nice to dig through it and shape it.
They had always found making things, manipulating matter like this to be calming, beautifully consistent no matter the circumstances.
Their thoughts were beginning to get dragged away to sleep when they felt one of their nubs rub across something rough and rocky, very unlike the surrounding sands.
And so they looked down, seeing an odd, deep purple piece of rock, and then they were filled with excitement; They could dig it up, give themselves even more digging to do!
But despite their endless fervor, they just kept finding more and more of that stupid rock until they finally began to see a definite shape, that of an odd, slightly warped rectangle.
But with a heavy heart and tired arms, they decided that since it was taking too long, and they still hadn't dug up all of that weird rock, so they would try to sleep for now and find help in the morning.