Spoiled Princess

Chapter 2

The centipede gnawed on an ankle bone. 

Pity, humans were tasty enough, but so skinny. Elves had a certain sweetness to them, dwarves tasted like week old deer.

He continued to count off the many flavors they recently had come into contact with.

Arthropodas were not natural products of nature, at least not at first. 

An insane salamander from the tribe of lizardmen, by the name of Munroe, ran amok and began mixing alchemy with black magic, creating Arthropodas after testing his mixed potions on regular invertebrates.

Munroe had loved his little children, nourishing them, teaching them the ways of the world.

The ones to gain the most intelligence were spiders, centipedes, stag beetles, wasps, and dragonflies.

They learned the native tongue and had basic cognitive functions.

However their intellectual capacity had a low limit, often resulting in some epic failures.

Their leader though, Queen Bina, was not stupid. 

Raised by none other than Munroe himself, she was his pride and joy. 

Arthropodas were located far south, where not many had ventured.

Quricuc had a simple job: reconnoiter and information gathering. He was not to engage. 

Of course, Queen Bina had told him that if an opportunity arose, to kidnap Warmon Roogervald, or at least someone close to him.

Quricuc wasn't exactly sure what Warmon or his family looked like.

He sincerely hoped it had not been that elf he devoured on the way up here.

They would keep an eye out but mainly they neededYito see how united the warm blooded were.

***

The red forest consists of thousands of cedar trees. 

They have grown so close together you cannot walk outside the path or you will be hopelessly lost.

The cedars are tall, one hundred fifty feet at least. No branches for the first fifty feet. 

The pleasant aroma of cedar scents a traveller's nose throughout the two hundred mile journey west through the forest.

It is a path not oft taken, most denizens preferring the waterways of the Plutomac river.

There are not many inhabitants in the red forest, a small settlement or two of wood elves twenty miles south.

"How much farther?" Anastasia whined. She was getting tired as her and Lumber Phil had been walking for several hours.

As paleface elves, they rode giant snow eagles in the winter. The snow eagles could go anywhere in no time it seemed like. 

The paleface elves had a pact with the eagles: they would feed them in hard times if the eagles gave transportation in the winter.

Summer time was too hot, unfortunately, or Anastasia would have ridden Osiris.

That was the name of her pet eagle. Well, she called it a pet but it really wasn't.

Wishful thinking.

"My legs are so tired, I wish I was a bird, then I could just fly there!" Anastasia said dramatically.

Lumber Phill glanced back, a smirk on his face. "Even birdies get tired. Do you want me to carry you?"