Thread:Abbykurle/@comment-31148069-20180624180830/@comment-30921738-20180701200021

Mr. Buttons was exhausted. Caustiously, he stepped down onto a lower ledge where the others were gathered. "What's the hold-up?" He asked.

...

Zyla buzzed through the air as fast as her transparent wings could carry her. Four guards flew alongside her, but they were having trouble keeping up with her. Her wings were much larger, making her a much faster flyer, despite her size.

Ahead of her, the two tall mountains loomed over her. They were tall and rocky, the tips draped with snow. She flew toward the side of one of the mountains. The other had a large crater at the top, which was only visible if you were right above it. The crater was larger than it seemed, because the sides curved in. Zyla couldn't see the crater from this distance, but she knew that it was there.

She swooped down the side of the taller mountain, straight toward an enormous ledge that jutted out of the side of the mountain. Surrounding this mountain was a thick forest of tall pine trees. Zyla flew even lower, slowing her pace so she didn't crash into the trees at top speed. Finally she lowered down enough to see the underside of the cliff ledge. The trees were right below it, and hanging from underneath the ledge was an ENORMOUS wasp hive made entirely from yellowish silk.

Thick strands of pale silk stretched down and attached to the trees below and the underside of the cliff ledge. Short but wide tubes stuck out from all over the nest, with holes on the end. Covering the holes were doors made entirely from silk that only a flying creature could get to. To anyone else, it would have been a horrifying, disgusting sight. Yellowish silk strung across the whole thing, like an enormous spiderweb, and millions of huge red wasps buzzing around it. But to Zyla, this was a masterpiece. A beautiful scupture, made from hundreds of years of hard work to create.

Despite its size, the wasp nest was mostly hidden. From above, all you saw was a cliff. From below, just trees. From a distance, the trees usually covered it, but the yellowish tan silk was shadowed in the cliff and blended in slightly with the gray rocks.

Zyla flew down and landed on one of the long silk strands. She paused for a moment and rubbed her aching wings with her back legs, then wiped the grime off her antennae. Her guards waited patiently beside her. She signaled for them to stay and crawled up to one of the tubes. Using her front legs, she opened the silk hatch and climbed inside.

Inside looked more like a beehive. The walls were covered in hexagonal shapes, and ledges stuck out along the wall for her subjects to rest. The silk doors were slightly seethrough, allowing light to travel in. Tint holes covered the ceiling, letting in even more light. There were even more wasps in here, constantly working and buzzing around tirelessly. Zyla flew down to the bottom of the hive where it was darkest and landed at the buttom. One of the hexagonal spaces was covered with a silk hatch. She opened it and crawled through into a dark tunnel.

The tunnel was pitch black. Zylawaved her antennae around to feel her surroundings. Carefully, she crawled down and into another section of the hive, which was ctually inside the cliff wall. She had just crawled through one of the thick silk strands keeping the place from falling.

In here was more light, but it was still dim. Only a few wasps moved about the wide room. Zyla flew up to a specific wasp and buzzed to get his attention.

"Did you find anything?" She hissed.

He landed on the ceiling and turned his enormous black eyes toward her. "Yesss. The othersss look for him. We found ssskin." Unlike most other wasps, this one had horrible grammar and a lower, smoother voice alike to Queen Zyla's.

"It's a girl! And what do mean, you found 'skin?"

"Oh. Hard to tell girl and boy apart. And I found a clump of her ssskin!" He wasp answered excitedly.

Zyla snapped her jaws together in annoyance. A clump of skin? How was that supposed to make sense? "Show me."

The other wasp nodded and reached into a hexagonal cubbyhole in the wall. He pulled out a clump of bright blue fur. "Ssskin." He said.

"That's not skin, you idiot! That's fur! Give that to me!" She snapped.

The other wasp inched away. "Oopsss. Thought animalsss had ssskin on bodiesss." He gave her the clump of fur.

Zyla stared at him. "They do have skin!"

"But you sssaid that isss fur."

Zyla was about to yell at him again, but she realized it was pointless. His horrible grammar was driving her insane, anyway. She turned away and crawled up the tube, holding the fur in her jaws. She buzzed out of the hive and landed beside her guards, who had been waiting patiently for her the whole time. She gave one of them the fur and they all took off.

They flew toward the other mountain with the crater. As Zyla neared the crater at the top, she noticed a few animals climbing up. They had almost reached the top.

"We have to go a different way." Zyla told her guards. They changed course and flew down the mountain a bit, where they found a small cave. Zyla and her guards climbed through the twisting tunnels until they reached the huge cavern the Dark Lord had previously had his throne. Instead there were tons of guards, all different kinds of monsters. A few of Zylas own faithful warriors were there.

The monsters stepped aside to let her through. The ceiling was high, but not enough to fly. Instead she crawled through another tunnel at the end of the room. This one slanted upward, enough that Zyla had to climb. Eventually it wasn't as steep and she was able to crawl through easily. Finally, she came out into an enormous crater.

The crater was fifty times bigger than Zylas hive, and her hive was pretty big.The whole place was boiling hot and tinted with a red glow. Zyla was standing on a pathway that circled a huge crater in the middle. Zyla peeked over the edge and saw lava boiling below. The cavern reached a thousand feet high, and above there was a large hole that showed the sky.

The pathway cut into the die of the mountain at one part, where it slanted upward and onto another circular pathway. On that level, another path cut into the side of the cavern led up into another circular pathway, and so on for five more levels. There was no pathway that lead out of the crater. Fifteen guards were stationed at each level. Three of the top levels had a pathway from one end to the other, straight across the lava.

Zyla looked down and realized that there was one more level below her. That level was right next to the lava, close enough that if the lava splashed high enough, it landed on the path. On one end was a throne made of bones where the Dark Lord sat. On that level, there were twenty-five guards. In all, there were nine levels.

One of Zyla's guards flew down, but that was a bad idea. His wings started to burn as he got close to the lava. He turned sharply to the side so he could land on the path, but his wings weren't fast enough and he plummeted into the lava. All was silent.

Zyla froze. She could feel the pain her guard had felt before burning into nothingness. Every time one of her subjects fell, it felt like a peice of her was missing. She silently mourned his death and turned to stare at her guards, of which there were only three left. One held the fur.

"Follow me. And let me take that." Zyla grabbed the fur in her jaws and crawled down the path, not daring to get close to the lava. Her guards did the same, but they would jump into the lava if it meant saving their queen.

She stood before the Dark Lord, staring him right in the eye. He was staring blankly at the lava, as if it was hypnotizing him.

"My Lord?" She asked. She hated calling him that, but he would rip her head off if she spoke his real name.

"Find anything?" He muttered, turning his attention to her. His eyes refltected the lava, making it seem as if his eyes were made of fire.

"This." She grabbed the fur in the two claws on her front foot and handed it to the Dark Lord.

He snatched it away and stared at it. A smile spread across his face. Then he gave it a sniff, and bared his teeth. Zyla stepped back.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

He snarled.

"Cronin."