Little Dreams and Hollow Nightmares

Ph3 Ch21: Guest Hives

Mono flung himself across the floor, in order to avoid the Hive Guardian chasing him. Once it slammed down, Mono glitched himself in order to avoid its random bouncing. Once it stopped, he unglitched, and started striking the Hive Guardian. After three hits, the Guardian screamed, and flew back in order to slam into Mono again. Mono was ready to glitch, but his head still hurt from how weak his power had become now.

But just as he was about to get crushed, Six pushed him out of the way, and the Hive Guardian screamed. Mono looked up, and saw a Hive Soldier had slammed into the Guardian, drilling its stinger into it. Mono ran up to both of the bugs, and finished them off with two good swings of his ladle. Once they were defeated, Mono took a few deep breaths.

"Are you okay?" Six asked him.

"Yeah. Nice move luring the Hive Soldier into the Hive Guardian," Mono complemented.

He looked up above him, and saw the room the knight had entered while fighting the other Guardian. Mono started making his way up to the room, leaping from ledge to ledge, and catching Six when she followed. Once both of them made it into the room, they noticed that it was nothing but a long hallway

"I'll look in this direction, you look in that one," Mono said to Six.

She nodded, and Mono walked down the hallway, looking for his friend. As he walked down the hallway, he heard... chewing. The knight must've gotten hungry again. Mono walked further down the hallway, but then stopped. He stared at the sight he saw. The knight was sitting down, eating something in front of a jar. The same jar that held the grubs. It didn't, it wouldn't, it couldn't have- Mono's thoughts started racing. It remembered how much the knight cared for the grubs. How it worked so hard to save them when they were trapped in the Tower of love. Did it really just eat a grub?

Mono took a step forward, and reached his hand out to the knight. It turned around, and Mono saw everything. Beneath the jar was a small hole, that looked like it was dug recently, and in the knight's hands, was a hiveling.

Mono felt a huge wave of relief wash over him. The knight was still the same friend that it was before. The knight's jaw mended back into its shell, and it stood up, offering what was left of the hiveling to Mono. Mono realized he hadn't eaten in a while, so he took the opportunity to eat something. He bit into hiveling, and tasted the sweet, honey-like nectar inside it. It was delicious. Mono understood how the knight managed to not eat the grub. The hivelings tasted better!

It must've flown in at the last second, and the knight went for it instead of the grub. Mono ate the rest of the hiveling, and he and the knight walked down the other side of the hall. Six was on her way back, and they all regrouped.

"I found another way out," she said.

She lead them down to the end of the hall, and showed them a wall she had broke open.

"The combs were weak, so I broke through with my shovel," she explained.

"Great! Let's get out if here!" Mono said.

Once they left the Hive, Mono realized the knight was shoving things into the hole Six made. Mono didn't understand why, but he decided to help his friend in its mysterious mission. They pushed a large barrel in front of the hole, then continued their journey. They were back in the industrial part of the Hive, where only a few hivelings and Hive soldiers resided. At least, that was what Mono thought.

Once he and the knight caught up with Six, she was stone still, looking down at a horrendous sight. Mono looked, and felt extremely nauseous. There were large tables, filled with honeycombs and bug meat. But the tables weren't what made Mono nauseous. Sitting at the tables, were large, bulky bugs and humans, overcome by the infection. But their bodies were the most disturbing. Their bodies were hives! Hives with little hivelings popping out of them! Mono looked back at the knight, who was looking at a page in its journal labeled, "Husk Hives".

If there were Husk hives, then these were Guest hives. Mono remembered how dangerous the guests could be. All he could hope for was that the knight had spare rancid eggs. But it didn't. They were going to have to run for it.

Without thinking twice, Mono jumped down on one of the tables and started running for his life. The guests and husks noticed the little boy running on their table, and reached their arms and mouths out to grab him. Suddenly, the table shook, throwing Mono off balance. He looked back and saw that the knight had slammed onto the table, and was defending Six with its nail. As Mono was watching his friends, a large hand grabbed him. He quickly glitched himself, and he slipped out of the guest's grasp. He unglitched, aware of his power's limit, and continued running.

He pulled out his ladle, and hit away any obstacles such as bottles, plates, and food. As he was reached the end of the table, he leapt off. The guests and husks started crawling on the floor, trying to grab him, but Mono hit their tiny hands away with his ladle. He kept on running and running, hoping he would find an exit soon. Bees above him started to swarm, and swoop down towards him. Mono glitched himself again, but suddenly heard a loud shriek. Although he knew it was the knight, he didn't dare to look back, for fear a guest might grab him.

He continued batting away the hands of the guests and husks, until finally, he saw an exit. A long string, leading up to a vent Mono knew the guests couldn't reach. He leapt for the string, and grabbed onto it. Surprisingly, it stuck to his hands a bit, letting him climb the string easily! Once he got high enough, he looked down, and was relieved to see Six and the knight climbing up the string as well. The guests tugged at the string, trying to break it, and the husks threw honeycombs to break it off, but all three if them managed to escape their clutches.

Mono pulled himself into the vent, but before he could recover, he felt something familiar in the vent. It felt like the dream he had when he and the knight first arrived at the Maw. And across the vent floor, there were embers. Red embers, that looked like they came from a small fire.

Just who else was in the Maw with them?

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Hello everyone. Sorry this chapter took so long, but I really wanted to release a chapter today, specifically.

Why today? Because today marks the 1 year anniversary of Little Dreams and Hollow Nightmares. That's right, I have been working on this story for a whole year!

I can't believe I have come this far. I've never been able to work on a project for this long.

That being said, I would like to thank all of you who are reading this story. YOU motivate me to keep working. YOU are what keeps me going. YOU are the reason this story has reached this mark.

And as of today, this story has reached 21k reads, and 900 votes! That is just amazing!

So look forward to reading this story for another year!

Happy anniversary! I'll see you all in the next chapter!