I woke up to sunshine in my eyes, and a breeze blowing over me. Something broad and flat like is brushing the top of my head. Blinking my eyes open, it takes me a bit to form cognitive thought. I've never felt so relaxed before. Did the Overlord rock me the whole night? Only four of its original eight tendrils are still holding me up and keeping me in a cup shape so I don't fall. I start to get scared for a moment, before I realize if the Overlord has held me up this high while I was asleep and didn't let me fall, it's not going to let me fall now that I'm awake. Realizing that helped me calm down again.

I nearly had a heart attack when the tendrils below me suddenly threw me up and then dropped me back down. I only had a moment to, not scream thank you very much, but yell very manly like, before it caught me again. I didn't even have a chance to say anything before it did it again. It kept doing that until the fear gave way to exhilaration of flying through the air even this little bit. I realized then what the Overlord was doing. It won't let me fall, and it's proving it.

I started laughing, and just let it all go. No worries, no problems, no nothing. Just me and the Overlord, flying through the air. The freedom and lightness I felt in that moment made me feel as though I really could fly.

After a while, the Overlord stopped tossing me up, and cradled me as I rolled in its tendrils, giggling like a kid. That was so much fun! Grinning, I crawled to the edge of the tendrils and looked down over the Hive Cluster. We're really high up, but for once I didn't feel the fear associated with it. I know instinctually now that if I fall, the Overlord will catch me.

Looking over the Hive, I take a glance at my Bio Energy count, 525. I can afford 4 more Creep Colonies, or I could upgrade a single Hatchery into a Lair for 350 now that I have a Spawning Pool. That would also give me access to upgrades for Overlords, and making this big guy faster sounds like a great idea!

Choosing one of the Hatcheries that I don't usually sleep in, since my original Hatchery still has my shoes in it, I order it into a Lair. To my surprise, it'll only take an hour and forty minutes to finish. I was originally planning to use the leftover 175 for another Creep Colony, but now I think I'll wait and see how much the speed upgrade costs.

In the meantime, I relaxed and grinned lazily, as the Overlord continued to sway me back and forth. I am so getting spoiled at this rate. I actually barely notice the time and it takes the Overlord sending a burst of warning to catch my attention to the fact that the Lair has finished.

Looking up the new command list made available by the Lair, I frowned in disappointment at the 450 Bio Energy cost for the Pneumatized Carapace upgrade. Ah well, that just means I'll have to wait until tomorrow to get the speed upgrade. I ordered up another Drone to morph into a Creep Colony and spent the rest of the day lazing away in the pseudo hammock, being rocked and tossed lightly by the Overlord. This just may be my new favorite past time.

I eventually had to take a break though and landed for food and restroom time. As soon as I stepped off the Overlord, I actually felt like I had jelly legs. They tingled and made it a little difficult to walk. A light jog around the Hive fixed that up though. The Overlord waited for me near the ground where I'd left it. I think it might be smarter than I give it credit for. Heck, most of the Zerg are starting to seem that way to me. For an animal like instinctual conscious, the Overlord in particular is seemingly doing a pretty darn good job of anticipating my needs, irregardless if they're higher functioned or not. Anytime I started to feel lonely or wishing I had someone to talk to, it'd often distract me by getting my attention towards something.

While thinking this, I slowed to a stop and finished my jog, then slowly approached the Overlord and looked it in the eye.

"You're smarter than I think you are, aren't you?" I asked.

It didn't reply. I didn't really expect it to. I'd heard of Overlords that gained sentience as they age and grow. Perhaps someday this Overlord just might be able to say hello, rather than the other way around.

The Overlord caught my attention by linking its tentacles back up for me to sit down on. I smiled and did just that, and it lifted back off to its previous altitude before we landed. I feel a bit precarious, sitting on the edge like this. I wonder, would it really be able to catch me if I suddenly pitched forward and fell to the ground? The Overlord isn't that fast, so once I fell out of range, that'd be it.

Before I could think any further on the subject, a tendril wrapped around my torso gently so there'd be no chance of my falling off. I smiled and leaned against it, draping my arms over the tendril that held me.

"Thank you."

A tendril came forward and brushed the top of my head in response. I smiled and sighed happily. I could still go for a nice conversation, but in terms of companionship, this isn't so bad. No, I thought as the Overlord continued to brush my hair and down my back softly and methodically, this isn't so bad at all. That was my last thought as I drifted off to sleep.

-END CHAPTER-

Overmind Matthew
PSI Energy – 50/50
Status – Normal

Abilities
- Spawn Hatchery – 50psi – 12 hour build
- Regeneration – Passive – Heals anything not instantly fatal; time needed depends on extent of injury
- Anaerobic – Passive – No longer requires breathable atmosphere to survive
- Temperature Resistance – Passive – Currently able to survive temperatures between -450 and 118 F
- PSI Regeneration – Passive – Regenerate energy at .5 points per second.

Zerg Swarm
Bio-Energy – 50
Support – 0/19

Entities
1x Lair
3x Hatcheries
1x Evolution Chamber
1x Spawning Pool
11x Creep Colonies
1x Overlord