Ask to meet the Hive Queen

From Create Your Own Story

Four of the bug-men take off in their sky-craft, while you go with the fifth bug-man to the palace of the Hive Queen. It turns out, the bug-men live in the stone dwellings carved in the undersides of the floating islands. He brings you to one of the larger ones. After landing, he guides you to a large chamber where an enormous bug-thing sits on a nest of eggs, honey, and slime.

"Our queen will be so pleased you have come," your guide says. "You shall be honored and remembered as a hero for countless generations!"

You step closer for a better look at the humming, bloated thing that the bug-men call a queen. She has eighteen eyes, each one more yellow than the last, and her mouth is a mass of feelers and mandibles. Her body is green and pale and has eighteen short tentacles which are probably vestigial limbs. At her far end, a pile of broken bug-men lie covered in yellow discharge. "Those are her other suitors. Brave bug-men who have given their lives for the Hive," your guide explains.

You reach for your laser baton. You finally understand the bug-man's choice of words -- a "meeting" with the Hive Queen. You thought you might get a reward. Maybe another quest, but that's not what he meant, is it? Your guide places his hand at the back of your neck, and you feel a sharp prick, then nothing. A neurotoxin. Oh, cripes. More bug-men approach and strip you of your clothes and equipment. They bring you close to the Hive Queen, who raises herself with her vestigial limbs. You find yourself stuck to her slimy underbelly, as the mass of miniscule feelers there bring you closer and closer to her. You close your eyes and try to think of England.

THE END