'Ben' The figure named Ben rolled in his sleep as the darkness whispered in his ears. 'Come on Ben, time to wake up' The voice came again along with the prodding from a long black tail, it moved carefully to avoid piercing Ben's skin. The owner of the tail sighed as the boy clung to sleep.
'I swear you can be a pain sometimes' The voice sighed but it couldn't hide the amusement that came with the words. 'Ben if you don't wake up I will have no choice but to crush you' The voice warned, which in response Ben only shoved his head into the soft bedding in an attempt to block out the voice. In the darkness the owner of the voice shook her head slowly at his attempts to stay asleep.
'You asked for it Ben' She hissed quietly as she moved closer to the bed and promptly sat on top of the sleeping form. She applied more weight slowly, yet she was careful enough to not crush the boy under her weight. It didn't take long for the Ben to start to squirm and try to escape.
"Gahh!" Ben grunted as he finally woke up. "Alright! Alright! I'm awake now!" His voice muffled by the bedding. He tried to roll over in an attempt to throw the extra weight off of him. After struggling for a bit, he managed to get his hands under him-self and push the extra weight off of him. Ben panted slightly to catch his breath while the serpent who had woken him up sat on the ground quietly giggling. Once the air filled his lungs he sat up to face the merry serpent, a grin finding its way on his face. "Of course it was you Lorana, what time is it anyway?" He asked as he turned slightly to slid his hand across the moss covered wall, causing them to glow and give himself some light to see. He let his gaze fall onto the large and slender serpent who had awoken him, her miniature crown shining light from the glowing moss.
'The sun still has not risen yet, but mother has a task for you.' Lorana informed him.
"A task this early? Man, what is the Queen tasking me with this time?" Ben asked as he rubbed the sand out of his eyes.
'She told me that she requires you to go with two serpents towards an old hive, some sort of scouting mission.' Lorana told him as she got up and walked over to sit next to him. 'She had sent a few scouts to the hive to see if it was of any use to us, but the scouting party was killed before they could even get into the hive.' She paused, turning her crescent shaped head towards Ben before speaking. 'The Queen saw that the hive was tainted by the presence of humans. My mother does not wish to risk the lives of any more of the hive, not with the the other hives getting restless, so she wants you to go to do the scouting.'
"So in other words the Queen is sending me to my death" Ben complained "But I guess it's better than sitting here and waiting to die slowly" he shrugged as he said that. It wasn't like he had to worry about starving or disease, he was fed two times a day and with him being the last human slave in the hive, it became rare for him to catch a cold or worse, especially since the serpents couldn't even carry diseases or viruses. Yet even with that kind of death out of the way, he could still die from being overworked, being crushed in some fashion, or if a serpent got bored and decided to hurt him badly. It wasn't a question of if he would die, but more of a when.
The female serpent shook her head slightly, a gesture unused in the Xenomorph society, but it was something she had picked up from her friend. 'You're being a little too pessimistic Ben. Look on the bright side of things, at least you still have me as your friend.' She tried cheering the boy up, she hated seeing him upset.
"True, I am glad to have you as my friend" He leaned against Lorana and relaxed at the touch of her cool skin. "Still it's hard to be positive about all this, it's not like I have had a good life, all things considered." He spoke softly with a slight shrug.
They sat in silence while leaning against each other for some time, sunlight slowly filtered in through the small hole that served as a window. When the weak light reached the foot of his bed, Ben forced himself to his feet and made his way towards his locker. Kneeling in front of it, he open the lid and grabbed a simple leather pack filled with a few things he would need in case he was allowed outside the hives borders, which admittedly was a rare occasion. He opened the bag as well and rummaged through it before his fingers found what he was looking for, a small wooden block. An old switchblade he had found during the last harvest. Useless against the serpents, whose exoskeleton was too hard for such a small blade to pierce. Yet even though he couldn't use it against them, he could still use it for other tasks like cutting cloth and other such tasks. Reassured that it was still there, he released it from his grip so he could stuff the bag with most of his clothing.
"Well looks like I'm all packed up to go" He told Lorana as he slipped the pack onto his back. He didn't really want to go, preferring to stay and relax with his friend who actually treated him with kindness, but instead he had to travel with two serpents who would probably let him die out in the real world.
'Stay safe out there Ben, make sure you come back' Lorana said softly as she walked on all fours towards Ben and pressed the dome of her head into the small of his back. He turned around towards her and knelt down to give her a hug.
"I will Lorana, I will" He whispered before letting her go and made his way out of his room and towards the entrance of the hive.
Hey guys and gals! Sorry for taking so long, I got slammed with three essays from three different classes and my English class likes to give us an essay right after we finished one. I only got the chance to work on this story recently. So please enjoy it! Also please leave some reviews about this story, I like to get the input of my readers, helps me gauge if this story is something I should continue and also allows me to take in any suggestions and possibly twist those suggestions into the story. One last thing before I go, i remember someone asking for some BenxLorana shipping, while not making it official for now, it might change, or it might not, but here is a little taste of it.
Enjoy! Review! Do what you like!