2 months after the burning of Bloodworm Hive

—

Jewel had seen much in her life, a lot of it being things she would rather sooner completely excise from her memories than keep in her mind if possible. Such was life in the Hivewing Royal Family, especially one headed by her oh, so dear cousin Wasp. Being the new queen of the Hivewings didn't make things any easier. Only the presence of her mother had made things bearable, and even then it wasn't too pleasant at times.

Yet, almost nothing her incredibly messed up family had said and done could compare to the sight that stood before her now.

It was a massive husk, a blackened, smoking shell of a structure, one that looked all too ready to cave in if someone even so much as sneezed at it the wrong way. An extremely far cry from what had once given her cousin Bloodworm something to be disgustingly smug about. Even after these few months, even after she had made sure that what was still standing was reinforced as much as possible to allow for rescue and recovery work, Jewel understandably didn't trust how the wrecked hive was holding up now.

Ashes idly floated away from the former hive with the breeze, forming a dark, dusty cloud that hung oppressively over it all, before slowly, almost leisurely settling onto the ground around it, colouring its surroundings a lifeless dull grey, which was undoubtedly appropriate, given what those ashes probably originated from. But somehow, that wasn't the worst part of it all.

No, for Jewel, what caught her attention the most… were the sheets.

Row upon row, some even stacked onto each other, lined up perfectly for what seemed like miles, of white silk sheets… and beneath each sheet, under each clean piece of fabric… was a Hivewing that would never breathe again.

She stood there, frozen, seemingly descending into shock, absorbing this apocalyptic view, letting the staggering number, the sheer scale of covered corpses, with the burned-out remains of Bloodworm Hive as the nightmarish background, seer itself into her brain for as long as it would remember.

Jewel vigorously shook her head, tearing her eyes away from the horrific scene as she reminded herself of what she was here for.

'Focus, Jewel,' she scolded herself, 'you have to be there for your people, you have to be strong for them…'

Yet, looking at the devastation before her… she almost wished she had listened to her mother's advice of staying away until everything wasn't as fresh in people's minds as before.

"I am the Queen of the Hivewings now, mother," Jewel had said to her. "What kind of a queen would I be when I refuse to show up for when my people need it most? I've already put this off for as long as I need to, I don't see any reason to delay this any further."

Internally, she'd thought that Scarab had been trying to baby her, perhaps thought she wasn't up to having to see the aftermath of it all.

'Who does she think I am,' she'd scoffed in her head. 'I may be younger than most of my cousins, but I've seen my fair share of terrible things. I'm sure I can handle this.'

Back in reality, back in the present, seeing the aftermath now… Jewel silently admitted that her mother might have had a point. This was something that had never happened in the history of the Hivewings, ever. And the scale of the devastation she saw… the last time this level of death and destruction had occurred, Jewel was sure, was when Wasp had set out to completely eradicate the Leafwings…

Leafwings that, with the help of suffocatingly suppressed Silkwings, eventually returned to exact their extremely lethal vengeance upon their would-be exterminators.

'It all came full circle, in the end, didn't it…', the Queen thought, melancholy.

One of the bodyguards she'd brought with her (an insistence from her mother), must have noticed something about the look on her face, as he asked her, "Your Majesty, is… there something…" He trailed off, uncertain how to word his question. He knew full well the likely, even probable cause, of his queen's misery, given he could see as well as she could, yet still, he couldn't help but show some concern.

"It's fine," Jewel brushed it off. "Just… taking a moment to think. Nothing to worry about too much…" She turned to the guard, her face trying to attempt a reassuring smile. Judging from the guard's rather perplexed reaction, she judged that the results had been… mixed, to say the least. She immediately dropped the expression at that.

Without giving her guard a chance to answer or ask about her weird smile, the new Queen of the Hivewings drew herself up, and walked seemingly resolutely forward, towards where the surviving residents of Bloodworm Hive had made camp, a cluster of tents and other makeshift shelters … right next to the long lines of dead bodies.

—

The atmosphere within the camp was just as desolate as outside it, only made worse by the stench of death and char that permeated the air around her. The near-omnipresent smell, however, was only the second worst part of being in the camp, for Jewel.

The dubious honour of that particular aspect went to the people of the camp themselves; listless, dead-eyed stares seemed to be the depressingly most common expressions that made up their features, numerous dragons staring seemingly at nothing in particular, staring far off into the distance or a bit too intensely at the side of a makeshift house, sitting deathly still as if an Icewing had come and blasted them with their breath.

There weren't just silently traumatised stares though. There were more than a few dragons who lay sobbing in their tents and shacks, curled up and rocking back and forth, weeping for everything they had lost… their property, their possessions, their wealth… their friends and their family.

Of course, not everyone was lying about in some form of emotional trauma-induced catatonia. There were plenty of Hivewings up and about, going about their day, as if nothing was wrong. However, it wasn't too hard for Jewel to see through the facade, to see the true emotions being reflected in her subjects' eyes, the overwhelmingly grim and hopeless expressions, the lack of light in their eyes… the air of sheer desperation that radiated from them in choking abundance. These weren't dragons moving on from the tragedy that had befallen them; these were dragons just trying to survive.

The light coating of ash over everything and everyone certainly didn't help with that image. Once brightly coloured Hivewings were now covered in a thin layer of dull, depressing grey, their natural coloured scales barely peeking out in some spots, even then in a sickly tone. No one seemed bothered to dust any of the ash off, as if they had already accepted the ashes as something they had to live with.

All of this, on top of having Wasp forcibly take control of all their minds, tearing most of them away from their homes in a mad, frenzied hunt for the perpetrators of the fire, not caring for the fact that the fire was still burning down what could be saved, not caring for the fact that some of them were injured, or that their loved ones may have still been trapped within the burning rubble, or that they'd just lost their homes and workplaces. It was a criminal understatement to say that these dragons had been through a lot, knowing everything they had experienced in not even half a year.

Further back into the camp, she could see a few Pyrrhians, dragons from the continent far, far east, across the ocean, working to treat and assist the Hivewings; bandaging them, distributing food to them, helping feed them some exotic herbal medicines, and even propping up some of the more heavily injured dragons, letting them lean against them as they made their way around camp. Despite them being very much foreigners to Pantala as Pantalans were to Pyrrhia, the expressions on their faces clearly showed they were just as miserable as many of the dragons they were helping, not that that was particularly surprsing.

The helplessness, the despair; it was everywhere, evident all around her. She couldn't escape it, no matter where she turned, and it was already beginning to make it harder for her to breathe. Already, Jewel could tell this was going to be a long, long day, and a long night after that too, and her regret for not listening to Scarab's advice started to grow.

As if that wasn't enough, as soon as her guard loudly and clearly called out her arrival, as per custom, the residents of the camp immediately and almost simultaneously turned their heads toward her, and the looks they were giving were NOT warm, to say the least.

They weren't outright hostile either, though. No, the looks they were giving her… if there was a pit emptier than the looks these dragons were fixing on her, Jewel would've gladly dived into it just to get away from them. The numerous unnatural gazes now aimed at her were making her scales crawl, and she could tell even her bodyguards were becoming unnerved at the display, one of them, the concerned one, shifting uneasily where he stood. It wasn't as bad as when she'd witnessed Wasp taking control of an entire crowd all at once, but it was a close thing.

For several, painfully long moments, both sides simply stood and… stared at each other. It did nothing for Jewel's anxiety, and it left her holding her breath, wondering how long everyone would continue to mindlessly gaze at her like this, like she was some sort of unfamiliar specimen of something before a dragon in the crowd, finally, turned and called out for someone, simply yelling, "Hey, the Queen's here!"

It was as if the loud shout broke a spell hanging over the refugees, all the dragons thankfully breaking off from pointedly looking at her and resuming their lives, allowing Jewel to finally exhale and relax, even if only slightly.

She didn't have to wait long before one dragon, a Hivewing whose orange scales were washed out and covered in grey ash, strode out of the mass of people, making his way towards her.

"Your Majesty," the Hivewing greeted her, bowing. "My name is Cane; I was chosen by the survivors to be the representative for Bloodworm Hive… what is left of it, anyway."

The drake turned a rather bitter-looking glance back at the burned-out ruins of said hive, before turning back to her, asking, "What brings you here, to this wrecked and wretched part of the kingdom, after all this time, if I may ask so kindly, your Majesty?"

Jewel, taking note of the rather cold tone of voice, and the dark expression underlying his face, chose her reply carefully.

"I realise that I have not been… keeping as close an eye on the wellbeing of my subjects as I should have been, and that I am ultimately responsible for the state of affairs of everyone in the kingdoms, so I have decided to… see for myself the conditions you are all in, so that I may be able to better find a solution for all of you."

"Is that so?" Cane said neutrally. "Well, I do apologise for the way things are at the moment, but, as you can see, materials are very lacking here."

"Yes, that is a… significant problem, which I am putting full effort into resolving as quickly as possible."

Internally, Jewel was cringing at how… generic her response was, and wondered if Cane would notice and become displeased with her.

Cane, for his part, didn't seem to react much at all, though he still looked rather unenthused about it. He gave a short sigh, turning around before walking back into the camp. As he did so, he looked over back to her, saying, "Well then, if you'd follow me.

"If you wish to know more about how you can come to a solution regarding our state of wellbeing, then I will show you around the camp. It'll be easier for you to understand that way, your Majesty."

Taken off-guard by the sudden move, Jewel glanced at the guards, only to find them as nonplussed as herself. Sighing hard, she tamped down the dread rising in her stomach at the prospect of having to witness the heart of a camp whose outer edges were already making her feel unusually ill.

No, she could do this, she could do this… she had to. There was no other way that didn't involve most likely irreparably ruining her reputation with these dragons, as well as screwing up whatever plan she would draft without having seen the root issues herself. She had to go into and see the rest of the camp for herself, depression, desperation and all. Taking one last breath, Jewel raised her voice to as authoritative a tone as she could manage.

"You heard the dragon, we're going to observe the insides of the camp. Follow him."

Once again not leaving her guards any time to protest, Jewel purposefully strode in after Cane, all the while mentally preparing herself for even more of the dark and terrible sights that had greeted her at the front of the camp, fully expecting that this was just the beginning of this newest nightmare she'd gotten herself into.

—

Her small, miniscule hopes that it wouldn't be as bad in the inner sections of the camp were completely and utterly dashed.

More destitute, struggling dragons and their deteriorated hovels lined the streets (if they could even be called that) that the camp was laid out around, and this time, the view was all encompassing, present in every direction, far too close to her face, the mass of survivors pressing around her as they tried to get around, headed to wherever they were going. It was honestly a miracle she and her guards were able to keep track of Cane, let alone keep up with him as they pushed their way through everyone.

"We've tried our best to organise everything here," Cane called out, looking back as if to make sure he hadn't lost them, "but, well, the dragons here, including myself, get quite… desperate for space at times."

Jewel didn't have a hard time believing that; all the makeshift shacks were uncomfortably tiny-looking, and clustered incredibly close to each other, enough to be quite concerning to her.

"How do you deal with any of the problems that come with stuffing this many dragons into one space like this?" she questioned the camp's representative.

He glanced back at her, and for a moment she thought he would've shrugged or said something along the lines of "improvisation." She wouldn't have been surprised, at least, considering their circumstances. Thankfully, the explanation he deigned to give her regarding how they kept the camp running was far from being an ad-hoc affair.

"We have several dozen firefighters and doctors who survived the fire, enough that a few of them can help train new ones or at least advise everyone on safe practices without leaving us short of them in an emergency; it's not the best, far from it, but it has worked for us for this long, at least. The Pyrrhian volunteers have been a great boon for us as well. Makes it a bit easier to keep everyone healthy here."

As he spoke, they walked past what looked like a tent serving as a simple clinic, staffed by a few Hivewings, plus a Rainwing, who looked busy preparing a herbal brew for the handful of patients in the clinic. Cane respectfully bowed his head slightly at the Rainwing, who in turn gave them a kind, if rather tired, smile.

'Well, at least they don't look too miserable here, for once,' Jewel thought idly as she followed Cane's lead and respectfully bowed towards them, as thanks for coming all the way out here and providing some sorely needed assistance.

They walked on, deeper in towards the centre of the camp. Cane continued his statement.

"As for law enforcement, we also have a few dozen professional guards with us, both from Bloodworm Hive and outside it; they make sure no one is causing any trouble or making anyone's lives harder than they need to be.

"Hasn't been easy for them, not when a majority of us here have barely anything to lose at this point, thinking they'd have better chances of surviving by going against the law, and it's difficult for us to adequately pay them for their work, but they've stayed on. I don't know why, but they've stayed on, even with everything they have to deal with on a daily basis."

Cane fell into a pensive silence for a moment after that, his head now bowed in apparent contemplation, before he spoke up again.

"I think I speak for many of the survivors here when I say that we're grateful for their help; it's probably very well overdue that we try to give them a show of appreciation for all their hard work…"

Cane, seemingly forgetting who he was leading, trailed off into an illegible murmur as he seemed to start brainstorming some way of showing the camp's guards the survivor's thanks- not that Jewel minded all that much, the police force here, and definitely the camp at large deserved some form of celebration, if only to distract from just how hard and tragic their lives had become.

While Cane absentmindedly continued leading them on through the camp, Jewel tried to recall if she had ordered soldiers from the other hives to assist in the care of all of Bloodworm Hive's surviving residents.

Honestly, it was exceedingly difficult for her to remember something like that, given just how many orders she'd had to write as the new Queen of the Hivewings in the wake of the Breath of Evil nearly taking over the entire continent and its populace before being (hopefully) fully eradicated.

Those days were something she was eager to put at the back of her mind, permanently. Not many experiences and memories she'd had could claim the same honour.

Still, a hazy image started appearing the more she concentrated; an order for extra troops, supplies and construction materials to be sent to Bloodworm Hive to at least start reconstruction of the place. Clearly, the guards had made it, and she assumed the extra supplies had helped to keep most of the refugees alive.

As for the materials… those had had to be removed from the list due to a sudden (but not surprising) shortage of treestuff and silk, their two most used construction materials, owing to the formation of the LeafSilk Kingdom and the subsequent tariffs that had come with dealing with another sovereign state. Especially one that had a good reason to be wary of the Hivewings. The LeafSilk tariffs, however, were high, almost extortionately so. It had been one of the major stumbling blocks in starting reconstruction work of the Hive.

The reminder of the LeafSilk Kingdom soured Jewel's mood slightly, as she once again panned her gaze at the densely packed in hovels and their wretched inhabitants. The extreme price they had paid, for something they had so little to do in…

"Ah, my apologies, your Majesty," Cane's voice brought her back to reality. "I… just became lost in thought for a moment."

"It's nothing to be sorry about," Jewel assured him. After all, she'd been guilty of doing the same thing as him.

"Regardless, I must apologise…"

Cane trailed off once again, though this time, it appeared his attention had been caught by something. Jewel followed his gaze… and saw dragonets.

Dozens of them, all huddled under one unusually large tent, all sitting on their haunches while an adult Hivewing stood in front of them all, using what looked like a board of slate and a piece of chalk to teach them, about what, Jewel couldn't quite make out.

Turning to Cane, she asked him curiously, "A school?"

The suddenly sad look Cane had on his face as he looked at the children made her heart sink as he replied, "Yes. This one here is… unique, however."

"Unique? How so?" Jewel questioned, wondering just what about that school could be making Cane look that sad.

"It's… part of an orphanage." he told her bluntly, first sending a shock, then a wave of sadness and pity, through her.

Cane proceeded to elaborate, "Some of them were from orphanages within the hive, before it all burned down. But for a lot of them… they had a home and a family before… everything that happened."

"I… I see…" Jewel softly said, turning and regarding the children differently now, the initial spike of sadness and pity only growing, wondering just how many of them were alone now, how many of them had their parents and family members be taken by the fire.

She pondered, then. About the cost of the conflict. About what had been done in the name of "justice" and "liberation". The broken families, the sheer amount of death, the sharp increase in poverty and destitution, the number of dragonets who'd have to grow up, knowing their parents were dead, or worse, having to live with images of the inferno seared into their minds for Clearsight knew how long.

It was all she could do to suppress the snarl on her face, as she was reminded of the rather unpleasant fact that the perpetrators of this particular action had not only gotten away scot-free, they had come out on the winning side of the conflict, being seen as popular figures, heroes of their tribe.

And of course, the LeafSilk Assembly would tolerate no criticism of the "brave" and "courageous" dragons who'd catalysed the liberation of all Silkwings, as if their actions didn't result in an excessive number of deaths, with most of the dead having played next to no part in their mistreatment, while the ones who'd had more control over that had mostly managed to survive. It was telling, what the Bloodworm Hive Chrysalis had chosen to do, over any other option they'd had to "catalyse their liberation".

"Your Majesty, are you alright?"

With a start, Jewel realised she had stiffened up, her breathing suddenly harsh, while she'd let her anger, her rage at all the injustice, temporarily overwhelm her mind. She shook herself off, hastily recomposing herself before Cane.

"Apologies, I… just had a thought."

"...I understand, Your Majesty." Cane's expression as he said that seemed like he truly did understand. Jewel had to wonder just how many times he'd felt those same emotions as he managed this camp, day after day, being reminded of what had been done to them, how helpless he was to do more than to maintain what they currently had. It was… disheartening, what the camp representative's life was now, surely something that could hardly compare to her own struggles as queen.

At least she had a comfortable bed and luxurious home to come back to; for these dragons, their accommodations and bedding consisted of the ground, and a sheet of silk as a roof, and sometimes not even that. Sometimes a mere few pieces of rubble and driftwood was all there was to keep the rain and ashes out. Jewel was no architect or engineer, but even she could tell it was far from sufficient.

She had to fight down another surge of anger, this time at the thought of the LeafSilk Kingdom's trade policies, and the gouged up prices for materials she had to pay now.

'I swear, I need to get my feelings under control…'

Returning her attention to reality, Jewel saw that the dragonets from the makeshift school (or was it orphanage?) were now getting up while their teacher reached into a barrel off to the side, pulling out pieces of meat and handing each dragonet one piece of it, before the dragonet shuffled off to where they would eat it. Lunch time.

However, when it came to a certain dragonet, the adult Hivewing stopped and leaned down and talked to her, a rather stern yet pitying expression on his face, though Jewel couldn't be sure what they were talking about, not from this distance, and especially not with this much noise from so many dragons nearby messing up her hearing. The pleading expression the dragonet had on her face didn't help clarify anything for her either.

Eventually, the teacher gave a weary sigh, and handed over an extra ration of meat to the green dragonet, her jubilant face clearly expressing her gratitude for him, before running off with the extra meat held in her mouth. Meanwhile, the teacher who'd given her the meat leaned back with a weary expression, before resuming giving his students their lunch rations.

Jewel was left… rather perplexed at that series of events. She looked back at Cane to gauge his reaction, only to see him staring after the dragonet with a melancholic look of pity.

"What was that?" she asked him.

For a moment, Cane remained silent, still watching the young Hivewing, before telling her, "Her name is Aster. Lived with her parents and an older sister before the fire."

"Why did she get more meat? And what's with that dragon acting like that to her?"

"She says she needs it for her family."

"...Didn't you say this was part of an orphanage?"

"It is. She's no different from the rest of them. We checked."

Cane fell silent then, his face becoming closed off while Jewel tried to make sense of what she'd seen and been told. A young dragonet… who was demanding more meat for her family… yet said dragonet was in an orphanage, with confirmation that she was supposed to be there. The implications of that behaviour struck her then. Horror and pity couldn't even begin to describe what she was feeling at that moment.

Slowly, she returned Cane's gaze, and wondered what he was thinking then; perhaps he was finding her actions and expressions, her empathy strange for a queen, especially when he only had Wasp as an example. But she didn't care about that. She only cared about the dragonet.

"Where is she headed?"

For a few moments, the other Hivewing stayed silent, his eyes looking at her, contemplation clear on his face as he regarded her question. Perhaps he really was thinking about how strangely empathetic his queen was being. Regardless, it didn't matter.

Sighing, Cane answered, "The Dead Fields; it's where we… leave all the bodies we've found, since we don't have time to bury them all. The only thing we can do in the meantime is cover them up with something rain-proof, nothing much else, and even that's getting harder by the day.

"...It's where her mother and sister are. We haven't found the father yet."

"..."

Jewel digested the information silently, her face now unreadable.

'The Dead Fields…'

With a name like that, she clearly wasn't going to be in for a pleasant time, but had she ever been, since she came here? At least here, she might have a chance of doing something, no matter how inconsequential it was, right here, right now, instead of having to work through royal bureaucracy beforehand. She'd, at the least, be actively helping someone. Maybe that was good enough for her.

Drawing herself up, she steadily asked her guide, "May we follow young Aster to… to help her family?"

Cane stared at her, his eyes widening, and Jewel could imagine him asking her whether she'd lost it. Maybe she had. Maybe she was going crazy, Jewel wouldn't deny that. But she wasn't going to back out of this. Judging from the defeated expression taking over Cane's features, she guessed he could see her resolve too.

Sighing softly, he replied to her, "If that is what you wish, your Majesty."

Turning in the direction Aster had taken off to, Cane led Jewel and her retinue, a resigned slump in his posture, forward.

Forward, towards the Dead Fields.