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The fields of green could stretch for miles, feeling endless in expanse. Hunters littered the tall grass, as did evidence of their presence: bones, weapons, lights. The Skarrs had built a life in this place, wild, untamed, free. Ants beneath the wild and queen: Skarrsinger Karmelita.
Her voice was angelic as well as her fluid movements. Ants watched from afar while two guards always stood at her side. In contrast, Karmelita sang with the voice of an opera singer, her voice uniting her kind beneath her rule. She danced fluidly upon her stage where any could challenge her if they desired.
Though, not many would dare to challenge the Queen of hunters.
Except a hunter in a red cloak with a needle at her side that shimmered with gold that was reminiscent of a honeycomb, sweeter times that were spent training beneath another queen’s watchful eye.
Karmelita continued her dance, her voice serenading the battle as some ants fought her first, then her own guards. It was amusing to her how one so small and unknown had the will and strength to challenge a queen on her own stage.
When the guards fell, she jumped to meet her. This Hunter who fought with silk and had eyes of steel. Karmelita would raise her voice for a brief moment before taking charge. The battle was fluid with grace and determination of two hunters with strength that rivaled the other’s own. It was a true test of will and might, a dance of blade and bone. The ants could watch their queen fight with great grace and boldness, no fear in their eyes as they expected their queen to rise to the challenge again.
Eventually, however, the Skarrsinger fell. She hit her knees as the hunter moved to take the final blow, exhausted and outmatched for the first time in a very long time. She didn’t even know this hunter’s name, yet she fell.
The hunter held the queen’s heart in her hands, feeling it beat in the center of these great fields, once bright with light and freedom. The heart of a hunter and her once great kin, who were still loyal to her.
Until she felt herself standing in an old dusty cave again, before her the body of the aged ant queen, deceased.
Hornet felt herself pause as she observed the great queen she had just challenged deep within the recesses of Karmelita’s own mind, at glory where her determination and strength were all she needed, where her voice carried her power.
Hornet felt some sadness as she took in this new sight. The grand queen was now gone as her civilization was left beating with none but her memory. Hornet could not help but wonder what the Skarrsinger’s final thoughts had been as she realized that she would perish here, frail and alone as her civilization had begun to collapse beneath the inky black threads of the abyss; beneath Hornet’s doing, her efforts to save a kingdom rather than become a sentinel again.
Hornet felt a guilt she’d buried in her chest rise. She would not give up trying to save this kingdom, but that did not mean she didn’t feel guilt for its current state. She was aware it was not entirely her fault, but the memories a situation like this forcefully resurfaced were painful and guilt-ridden, twisting her steeled heart as though it were knotted silk trying to break free.
Her grip on her needle tightened. She knew she had more to do and could not remain here, but something about Karmelita’s form made it difficult to turn away, her deceitfully peaceful stature, it almost looked as though…
She was asleep.
It reminded Hornet of something she greatly missed, deep within her own silk ridden village, her home. It reminded her of what she’d lost.
But eventually she compelled herself to turn away, a stupid and softer part of her mumbling a small promise as she walked away from the hidden place the queen had remained in.
“One day I will return with a flower for her.”
A small and oddly sentimental promise that meant more than Hornet would ever allow herself to express; She didn’t like to be vulnerable.
As she looked around the kingdom while she walked back, it greatly reminded her of her own fallen birthplace. Though, the inky tendrils of the abyss threatened to tear it apart. She let out a breath and sped up her walking to the Bellway, humming a tune to herself as if it was a distraction from the distant scream of the silk mother.
She was humming the song of Karmelita herself. A song of determination and will, that kept the heart Hornet had taken from her beating beneath her cloak.
Hornet almost felt as though her thread was humming in sync.
Beating with the heart of a hunter.