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Hornet sat on the palace's floor, playing with her weaver doll.
The Hollow knight watched over her, standing still in the hall, almost blending in with the statues adorning the walls.
"Do you think mama is done by now?" she asked looking at her sibling.
But the Hollow knight just stared back at her.
Not that she expected them to actually answer, obviously. They never talked.
What a weird sibling.
"Are you sure you don't want to play with me?"
She offered them the weaver doll, hoping to get some kind of reaction (even if not verbal).
Still nothing. Just staring.
Hornet was growing more and more bored.
The royal retainers had confiscated her nail after the "unfortunate accidents" she had caused last time she had visited the palace.
As if she had made those on purpose!
...maybe she had made one or two on purpose, but still. They were innocuos pranks! Those overdramatic bugs.
They even told Hollow (as she liked to call them, it was weird father hadn't named them anything, what a weird father) to watch over her and make sure she wouldn't wander freely around the palace.
"This is boring!" she exclaimed, putting her doll down on the ground.
She looked at it and then crossed her arms.
"I want my nail back..." she mumbled angrily.
She then stared at Hollow, who in return stared back at her.
She squinted her eyes and, without breaking eye contact with her taller sibling, threw the doll away in a dark hall.
"Can you get it back?" she said, pointing the direction she threw the poor doll.
Hollow looked at the hall and nodded.
As they walked away, little Hornet made a big smug grin.
Now the real fun could begin.
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Even if those old mean bugs had confiscated her precious nail they could never stop her from exploring the palace grounds.
It was very different from home.
In Deepnest houses were mostly made of silk while in Hallownest they were made out of stone and metal.
The first time she visited with her mama she thought it was very silly: without silk how could you easily walk around your nest?
Turns out Hallownest's bugs didn't climb the walls or the ceilings of their houses.
What weird people.
She looked down from the balconies to the lush garden below.
There weren't lots of plants at home, so she found the palace's gardens fascinating.
Pheraps she could have gone down there and picked up some flowers for her mama.
As faint steps approached her she quickly hid behind one of the statues in the nearby hall.
Just in time! Two royal retainers passed by, too busy chatting to notice the young hidden princess.
She giggled, proud of her stealth skill and quickly walked down the yet to explore hall.
Hornet wasn't familiar with this area of the palace: a new place to explore, how excting!
She started to slow down when she saw a big adorned door: it was covered in silver flowers and roots all tangled in a complicated pattern.
Could it be...a treasure room?
She smiled widely and pushed with all her strenght the heavy door, opening it enough to pass through.
She peeked inside, carefully looking in the room: no one was there, perfect!
She quickly sneaked inside.
The room was filled with enormous pretty flowers, a big mirror and an even bigger silver chest-
"A treasure chest!" she exclaimed happily, dashing to it.
She tried to lift the lid, but it was way too heavy for her.
If only she had have her precious nail! She would have opened it in a second!
But she wouldn't give up that easily.
As she attempted to open the chest again, Hornet felt something pulling her away from it, upward.
"Hey!"
Hornet looked up and saw who her capturer was (who was she kidding, she already knew who it was).
Hollow held her close to their face, as if to make sure little Hornet wasn't hurt.
Then they tilted their head, maybe trying to ask what was she doing in the room.
"I wasn't doing anyhting bad..." she said crossing her arms and looking away from her sibling.
Hollow gently put her down and gave her the little weaver doll back.
They then turned to the chest Hornet was trying to open.
Pheraps...sister wouldn't be so upset if she knew what was inside the chest.
They patted her head as they walked towards the chest, opening it with ease.
Hornet eyes gleamed, as she discarded once more the poor doll to see what was inside the chest.
Only to find-
"Oh. They're just dresses." What a disappointment.
Hornet realized this must have been the Queen's dressing chambers, hence the big chest filled with clothes.
"They're all white or gray- don't you have any other colors in this place?"
She looked at Hollow, waiting for their usual "response"; but they completly ignored her.
Instead, they stared at the dresses almost in awe and carefully took one in their hands.
What a weird reaction, but after all it was her weird sibling they were talking about.
She looked back at her discarded doll and then back at Hollow.
And an idea popped in her head.
She grinned.
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"This is way funnier than dolls!"
The Hollow knight sat still on the floor wearing the big white dress they had found in the chest. They raised one arm, studying how the sleeves slipped down their forearm.
They tilted their head, confused.
In the meantime little Hornet was admiring them, proud of her excellent work.
Taking off their armor had been incredibly easy, it was so light that it didn't even felt like a real armor.
It almost felt like a simple decorative shell.
Which was absurd, how would Hollow protect themselves with such a poor excuse of an armor?
At least now they looked more comfy!
She took their hand and hurried them to see the result in the mirror.
Hollow stood slowly and stared at their reflection.
Well, staring was their typycal reaction, but it seemed they liked it!
Now that they were standing there, wearing the long dress, Hornet noticed Hollow looked a lot like the Queen (when father build them he must've thought of the Queen, that's why they're so tall, she was sure).
And that's when she realized.
Of course Hollow liked the dresses so much, they reminded them of their mom!
Now that she thought about it she hadn't have seen the Queen for a long time.
How weird.
Maybe she was busy doing queen stuff.
Hornet didn't like when her mama was too busy with queen stuff. Sometimes she could spend hours or even a whole day without seeing her mama; but at least after that mama would always play with her and treat her her favorite snacks.
She wondered if Hollow missed their mom; she couldn't even think of spending so much time away from mama.
She also wondered what their favorite snack was. Did they even eat? She had never seen them eat.
"Hollow"
They looked down at her. She smiled.
"Wanna raid the pantry for some snacks?"
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How they got away with it was a complete mistery.
Surely, Hornet was small and sneaky enough to pass unnoticed, but Hollow, despite their "ghostly" behaviour, wasn't exactly small. Plus they were still wearing the oversized white dress.
And yet they managed to sneak past the retainers and steal a whole jar of honeycombs.
As soon as they found a quiet place to hide they shared their bounty.
Hornet took an handful of combs and shoved them in her mouth, happily chewing the sweet golden treasure.
Hollow just stared as the little princess finished half of the jar herself.
"Aren't you hungry?" she asked, offering them the half empty jar. But Hollow just politely shook their head.
Always better than just staring.
She put down the jar and stood up, then got closer to her taller sibling-
"Tag!" -and put a sticky hand on their head, before running away giggling.
The Hollow knight just sat still for a couple of seconds, trying to understand what was happening. Why was sister running away? Was she angry? Scared? What was a "tag"?
Running through the big halls, Hornet managed to avoid all the royal retainers with ease hiding in the nearby halls or, in some cases, climbing on the ceiling.
When she thought she was enough far away from her sibling she hid behind one of father's statue (which was ridiculously tall, father wasn't that tall, everyone knew that).
But suddendly an hand raised her up.
When she was at Hollow's eyes' level she made a face; in response Hollow softly put the other hand on her face, mimicking what Hornet had done before. She shoved it off with her hands and smiled at them.
"Now you have to run away and I'll chase you! But you are taller and you have long legs so you gotta run slower, or it won't be fair!"
Hollow just stared at her, before hugging her gently.
"Wow, you really suck at this game" she yawned.
All the sugar she had eaten before was quickly dissipating, leaving the young energic bug sleepy.
"You are lucky I'm feeling tired, or you would-" another yawn interrupted her midphrase.
She softly put her head on their shoulder and closed her eyes. Hollow put and hand on her head to secure her and started walking down the hall.
Even without her nail she had have so much fun today with her sibling. She smiled.
Even if they were weird and quiet all the time, Hornet loved them dearly and wished to be just like them one day.
A strong knight that protects people. Minus the weird and quiet part.
As she dozed off to sleep she felt Hollow press their face on her head.
Was it... a goodnight kiss?
No no, what a silly thought.
But... it was a sweet thought.