This was the last day of Hollow's vacation and the last day Orchid would be unoccupied before beginning her new life as an official inhabitant of Hallownest Heart. It had taken her a couple of days to assume that she would never return to the Fungal Wastes. In the bottom of her heart she still had hope, one that manifested itself through her dreams, where she saw herself defeating the hunter and cutting off one of his claw to take it home as proof of her victory, then she woke up excited at that prospect, but as she sat on her bed, looking at the fine furniture, the silk sheets, and the gleaming walls, she knew it was just an illusion that would never come true.
Despite how depressed she was, she hid it quite well, Big being the only one who noticed the problem. As an expert when it came to hiding feelings, it was not easy to deceive him and he became a great emotional support for the mantis, which she was very grateful, Hollow was a very sweet and nice person, but sometimes he was a bit clumsy in that sense, although she did not stop recognizing his determination to help her, probably triggered by the jealousy that Big caused him.
The situation between the brothers was something that Orchid was extremely confused about, she knew that Hollow was in love with her with all that that implied, but Big's feelings and intentions were a mystery. His tender actions and his gestures of kindness he had not it with other people and it were an unmistakable sign of his affection for the mantis. But how intense was that love? Orchid had no hesitation or embarrassment in asking directly.
"Big, do you love me?" Big was surprised by the sudden question, but he had no hesitation in answering.
"Sure, why do you ask? Are you afraid that I will kick you out of the castle?"
"No, it's not that... It's just that... You... You know I'm something like Hollow's girlfriend, right?"
"Yes..."
"And is that okay with you? Doesn't it bother you if I'm his partner? He loves me too."
"The fact that he loves you doesn't stop me from doing it, and I'm sure that with time you'll win the affection of many others, I think Ogrim and Kairi are starting to like you."
"I don't mean that .." She gathered her courage for what she was going to do, it was a daring question, but she needed to be extremely direct with this to clear her doubts. "Doesn't it bother you that I sleep with Hollow sometime? Aren't you jealous of that?"
"Jealousy? Not really, I'm very big and sleeping with someone would be a problem, and I also like my solitude and privacy, sharing a bed is not something that really excites me, so if you want to do it with Hollow I have no problems. I love you Orchid, but I prefer to love you in other ways."
"I see, thank you. It was something I needed to know."
Big had interpreted Orchid's words in an entirely different way than they really were, and his responses were also misunderstood, but at least this helped reassure her about provoking a dispute between the brothers, and at the same time led her to draw some interesting conclusions.
"There are many ways to love and love does not always imply sex" thought Orchid "Although I wonder if Big has ever been physically interested in someone, surely he could have anyone he wanted"
After that she did not worry about the issue anymore, she did not have the head for it either, dealing with her own pain was enough, but she tried to convince herself that little by little it would pass and that she would eventually love her life in that place, just as Sharpy or the Green Lands mantises did. If they could adapt, she could too, so she put all her effort into preparing for her new life in the castle.
"The training starts at 8 o'clock, but considering that the first hour is only warm-up, it would be nice if you arrive at 9, anyway tomorrow it will be just a small introduction so that you have an idea of what your duties will be from now onwards."
At Big's suggestion, Orchid would start working as Ogrim's assistant and that was why he was now giving her a little introductory talk. At the moment, she did not see anything too complicated, in addition to the fact that the first days she would be mostly an observer, so she was optimistic about her future.
"And I think that's all you need to know for now," the beetle completed. "Any questions?"
"No, none."
"I'm glad, so enjoy your last day off because starting tomorrow we'll work really hard."
"Understood."
At that moment Hollow was entering the training room that was where they were, he looked in a very good mood as he carried his board with a written greeting.
"Hello Hollow. Enjoying your last day off?" Ogrim asked, to which Hollow nodded enthusiastically. "I think this is the first time I've seen you really enjoy a vacation."
"Really?" Orchid looked at him curiously.
"Oh yeah, it won't look like it but Hollow is a workaholic, he had to be forced to take his vacation, even when he didn't have to work he kept hovering around the other knights, worried they weren't going to do a good job."
"How lovely." The mantis gave a soft laugh that embarrassed Hollow, who was trying to gesture to Ogrim to shut up, but he pretended to ignore it.
"Now he took all the days off he had accumulated. Congratulations Orchid, you have made our dear knight finally take a break, it is quite an achievement."
Hollow crossed his arms in annoyance.
"I'm just kidding, tell me what plans do you have for your last day off?"
The knight erased his whiteboard, he was about to start writing his answer when something red ran through the door, its speed was such that there was only a spot of color that caught them off guard, no one could react in time, that thing stopped in front of Hollow and practically hit him with a basket.
The somewhat stunned vessel took the basket automatically before even understanding what was happening, after coming out of his stupor he was able to notice that his sister was in front of him and that she wore an expression of absolute seriousness, then before he could say or do anything she spoke.
"Keep them alive, don't give them candy and turn off the saws, I'll be back for them in the afternoon."
And after delivering her message the spider queen ran out of the room as quickly as she had arrived.
The three bugs were perplexed and confused looking at the place where Hornet had gone, after assuming that all this had not been a dream, they fixed their attention on the basket that Hollow was carrying. Of the three Ogrim was the only one who guessed what was inside, but he needed to check it out, so he lifted the sheet that covered its contents and just as he thought inside he found three little sleepy grubs.
"What? Babies? Hornet left us her children?"
"I think she needs us to take care of them for a while, although she should have asked first. Well... I guess she was an emergency, I mean, she's very apprehensive with her kids." The beetle scratched his chin. "Well, Hollow, I think you have your panorama for the rest of the day, you will have to take care of your niblings."
Ogrim could not even imagine the anguish that Hollow felt at that moment, he did not like very young children, they gave him the feeling that they were so fragile that the slightest neglect would destroy them and now he had to take care of three of them, it was such his fear that was paralyzed with the basket in his arms.
Meanwhile the kids had already removed their drowsiness and were inspecting the place with interest, they had the notion that they had been there sometime, but those memories were not very settled in their minds, so it was as if it were the first time .
While Chester and Silky were entertained browsing what was outside the basket, Ren looked everywhere for her mother, after her tragic experience with Ania, she panicked every time Hornet, Quirrel or Henry were not around. Her fear was such that she burst into tears, but not a scandalous whimper, since she associated that with pain, it was rather a silent whimper in which she limited herself to shedding tears while trembling, something that immediately generated the desire to protect her and cheer her up.
Concerned Hollow shook the basket trying to cheer her up, that resulted with Chester and Silky who laughed in amusement at the experience, but Ren kept crying.
"Okay, calm girl, look what I have here."
Ogrim tried to animate the pill bug in his own way, he took out a mass of dung from who knows where and began to mold it into a pretty pill bug figure, it was nice if you discarded the material from which it was made. Then proud of his work he showed it to the children. The spider and the shadeling looked at him with disgust and moved as far as possible from that mess, as for Ren, she continued crying.
Finally Orchid seeing the nefarious work that both males were doing, she decided to take matters into her own clutches.
"She's scared. Can't you tell by the way she cries?"
Without asking anything, she took the sheet that the children were previously covered with and grabbed the baby with it, wrapping her in a comfortable fabric cocoon, then hugged her to her chest while rubbing the baby and spoke to her in a kind way.
It took her a while until the hatchling finally calmed down, her cloth shield and the gentle voice of the mantis made her feel safe, although not enough to sleep or be completely comfortable, but for adults it was enough. Both males now looked at Orchid in utter admiration.
"Oh, come on! It is not so hard."
"I think it's more than Hollow and I could have done. Hehe, with this I am calm, I think they will be fine with you."
"Do I have to take care of them?" Why?
"Strictly speaking, Hollow should take care of them, they are his niblings, but he doesn't seem very sure of it." The knight's anguish at the idea was evident. "But with you I know they will be fine, besides, you don't have anything better to do today, right?"
Ogrim was right, this place was not yet her home at the moment, so she didn't have much to entertain herself if she didn't have the knight. She had no choice but to resign herself.
In the end the beetle withdrew because he was late to fulfill his duties, the couple was left alone in the room with the children in their arms, resulting in a very uncomfortable situation, finally the vessel directed his eyes towards her with such an expression It clearly said "What do we do now?"
"We'll have to take care of your nieces and nephew" She placed the pill bug in the basket to examine the three children carefully, for their part they did the same with her. "What a bummer, she didn't even tell us their names. Do you know their names?"
Hollow put the basket on the ground and reached for his magic whiteboard where he drew the three little ones, under each one he wrote their respective names.
"Wow, you draw pretty well." She examined the illustration carefully. "Silky, Ren and Chester, I see."
On the day of the ceremony where the crown princess was introduced, Orchid had only had a chance to see Silky from afar without much detail and she didn't remember Ren, so for her it was like meeting those offspring for the first time.
At first glance she could tell that Chester was the one she liked the most, both because he was a pureblood bug, and because he reminded her a lot of Hollow as a child, but the resemblance was only physical, Hollow was a calm person and this child was noticeable clearly he was a rambuctious boy, the best thing would be to have him watched. As for the girls, they were disgusting crossbreeds, she couldn't help but feel repulsed by them. What did their parents have in mind when they conceived them? She was bothered by the idea of having to take care of them, but she wasn't going to refuse it either, she was also honestly worried about the knight's ability to take care of them and the girls were not to blame for being what they were.
"Well, let's get these babies to a more appropriate place to take over."
"Your room or mine?" He wrote quickly.
"And why would we take them to a bedroom? It is not time to sleep."
"For them to play in a safe place"
"To play? What are you talking about, we will take them to the garden, these grubs must be trained."
At the time Hollow thought maybe it wasn't such a good idea for Orchid to take care of the babies.
........................................
"Come on Chester! Attack!" Orchid screamed, but the little one just looked at her confused, wondering what she was doing pointing a branch at him.
Hollow behind her just watched the scene with concern, next to him was the basket where the girls rested. Silky with her princess manners did not want to get off and touch the dirty earth, as for Ren, she preferred to remain hidden in her fabric cocoon where she felt safe.
Finally the knight approached Orchid to try to calm her down, she looked so angry that at any moment she would throw fire from her eyes or something, so he cautiously approached, tapped his pencil against the whiteboard and showed her the message he wrote.
"They are too small to fight"
"Too small? Please, children in the tribe start training from birth." The horrified look Hollow gave her forced her to delve into her explanation. "We don't push them to a point of cruelty. When they are born instead of we feed them, we make them walk to reach their food and when their wings allow them to fly we hang their food so that they practice their precision in air movement."
With these details the vessel felt somewhat calmer, but he still did not seem appropriate that a grub had to be subjected to training from so young, in part it made him think of his own childhood. In his eyes children should live without too many worries and little by little being integrated into adult life, an opinion that of course he made known to Orchid.
"It's not so bad, exercise is good for them, and the sooner they start the stronger they will become. These babies are going a very bad way, too spoiled, surely they have neither strength nor speed, anyone could catch them easy..."
In that moment she realized that even without training Chester had enough speed, at least enough to escape her surveillance. They quickly panicked when they learned that they had lost the child, but he himself made his presence known by shouting at them from above, the little one had climbed one of the trees in the garden and now he was swinging happily from a branch.
"How did he get up there? You're not that good at climbing."
Hollow was a bit confused by her statement, he was not good at climbing, to achieve it he had to wear special gloves made of mantis claw, but he guessed that since he and Chester were so similar, she assumed they should have the same abilities.
"Chester is part spider"
"Ah... Sure, even if he's not a crossbreed he has inherited characteristics from his parents... I guess these mixes of species are sometimes favorable." She sighed defeated, she couldn't believe that she was considering crossbreeds weren't so bad "Anyway, there's no time for this, we have to catch Chester."
Both adults ascended the tree where the boy was perched, from their basket the girls watched the scene with interest, even Ren had left her cocoon of sheets to join her sister.
Meanwhile Chester was pulling a twig trying to break it, he maintained a great balance and did not seem scared at the idea of falling, in fact he did not even consider that possibility.
Orchid was about to reach the boy, she just needed to stretch her claw and catch him, she was completely focused on her task when a light touch on her back interrupted her, behind her Hollow was showing her a message with his whiteboard, but she didn't read it.
"Hollow this is not the time to show messages! If you don't hold the tree well, you will fall!"
Said and done. Hollow was unable to support himself with his legs and lost his balance, falling towards the floor, luckily not much happened to him besides his pride being hurt.
"Are you ok?" The mantis cried from above, her response was a dejected thumbs up.
Just at that moment Chester managed to break the twig he was busy with, but the force with which he did it caused him to lose his balance and fall into the void. Orchid screamed terrified fearing that he would be damaged, but the boy had more hidden talents than they believed, he turned in the air until he had all four limbs down and like a cat, he landed without suffering any damage on the chest of his uncle.
Chester laughed happily and began to dance on top of Hollow waving the twig he had gotten, the mantis soon landed next to them, with much more grace than the knight.
"Okay, I take note, climbing trees is not dangerous for these children and Chester is in great shape even without any training." But Orchid wasn't going to resign herself to being wrong so easily, so she turned her attention to the girls. "Which cannot be said of you."
Without asking anything, she took Silky out and put her on the ground. The baby immediately began to cry from coming into contact with that dirty substance and raised her arms asking to be taken. Orchid of course did not give in to her cries and ignored her, she proceeded to remove the pill bug from the basket who also began to cry, but more out of fear than anything else, fearing that at any moment she would hurt her. But unlike her sister, as soon as Orchid left her on the ground she calmed down, she even let out a squeak of excitement and began to dig.
Silky, seeing Ren so happy playing with the earth, stopped crying, feeling ridiculous for complaining about something that made her so happy, although she didn't understand how good she saw in it. For her part, the pill bug finally managed to make a hole of a size that seemed comfortable, then she curled inside, exposing only a section of her bluish shell, in fact someone who passed by the place could easily mistake her for a rock.
"Hollow Is this behavior normal?" Orchid asked to which the knight shrugged, he did not remember that Quirrel used to do those things, but perhaps it was a behavior typical of children.
The mantis was a little scared at the prospect of the unknown and not knowing what else to do, she gently scratched that shell making it shake a little, as she got a small reaction, she did it again, this time achieving a more violent shake, doing it for third time finally the girl uncoiled laughing at the tickling that caused her to be scratched.
The little girl looked adorable laughing and waving her little arms full of emotion, at that moment Orchid almost even forgot that she was a disgusting crossbreed, generating a conflict with herself
"Ah, you fucking bastard. Stop being so adorable!" She, exclaimed in frustration.
A tapping on the whiteboard made her turn back and meet the accusing gaze of Hollow, who was not at all happy that she called his niece fucking bastard, the mantis just turned her back without any intention of apologizing.
"Don't give it so much importance. Oh look, now they're playing together."
Silky had finally forgotten her disgust with the earth and was tickling her sister, she was fascinated with the new power to make her laugh, but that new learning also applied to her, Chester soon joined the game and tickled her. Somehow with that innocent romp the siblings finally fixed their problems and began to develop the good relationship that they would maintain for the rest of their lives.
And the innocence with which children solved their problems often applied to vessels as well. Hollow was very angry at the words Orchid had said, even saying it directly to her later when they were both in one of the pools of warm water cleaning the children, but again the mantis downplayed the matter, which made her worthy of a fierce tickling attack. Of course the mantis tried to defend itself as best it could and between one thing and another, both ended up falling into the water loudly splashing everything around them.
Both bugs soon emerged from the hot springs and after taking a look at each other, they burst into laughter, which was followed by the sharp laughter of the children who watched the scene with fun.
After playing and bathing, the little ones had to eat something, in the castle the children of the servants sometimes wandered, the place had the appropriate conditions for the children to be there while their parents worked, there was even a fly that was in charge to keep an eye on them and ask if they needed anything from time to time, but they were all slightly grown children, not small grubs that needed special food, so they went straight to the kitchen to ask if they could prepare something for the babies.
"Oh by Wyrm! And those children?" The ladybug head chef exclaimed when she saw them arrive.
"They are Hornet's children, we are taking care of them for today," Orchid replied.
"Did she let you take care of them?"
"We suspect she was desperate, she practically came running, she threw the basket at Hollow, gave some instructions, and left again."
"I see... what kind of instructions?"
"Not much, keep them alive and not give them candy. Speaking of which, does you have something around for these kids to eat?"
"Not right now, but it doesn't take long for me to prepare something."
"Wonderful, if you could tie their food on a rope and hang it from the ceiling for them to fight to reach it would be wonderful."
"What?"
The ladybug noticed that Hollow behind Orchid was showing her a slate.
"It are mantis customs" read on the surface of it.
"Ah... Sorry, I don't think I have a suitable rope or a hook on the ceiling that works."
"Too bad, I think one of these days I'll install a hook myself so I can feed Hollow's nephews or any children who come."
The mantis had said that, thinking that sometime someone else would ask them to take care of their children and they should be better prepared. But the cook immediately thought about the children that Orchid would have with Hollow (Or with Big, she was still not very clear about that relationship ). Sure some gossip would come out of this, the servants were experts in inventing them.
After a while the two females ended up with a baby in their arms feeding them, while Hollow watched them sitting from a distance.
"Do you want to try?" Orchid asked him offering Silky, to which he energetically denied. "Come on, it's easy, don't get nervous."
Even against his will, he had to receive the little spider that settled on his arm with complete confidence and extended her little hand indicating that she was ready to continue feeding.
"Okay Hollow, now bring the bottle closer, very good. Don't tilt it too much or she'll choke. That! Let her eat what she needs, now take a little pause, okay, another sip."
After a while and after verifying that feeding babies was not as terrible as he thought the ladybug announced that she had also finished feeding Chester.
"Well, now we just need to feed Ren, to all this, where is she?" Orchid looked around for the girl but she was nowhere to be seen. "Ren? Ren! Where are you brat! You're supposed to be the quiet one and Chester the escapist!
"Yapapa!" The boy exclaimed proudly.
They spent a while looking for the girl in the kitchen, until they noticed that a basket with round black breaad had a blue one, the mantis gently scratched its surface and the bread uncoiled revealing a laughing girl.
After eating they took the children to Orchid's room to sleep there, they assumed that Hornet would return soon so they only had to wait for her to arrive. After that day of games and fun, the three grubs were exhausted, but only two of them fell asleep automatically, Ren was reluctant to leave the mantis's arms, in just a few hours she had lost her fear and became fond of her .
"Come on, the beds are for sleeping, not my arms, go with your siblings," Orchid urged her, but the girl just hugged her and settled on her. "Bastard"
Hollow gave her a disapproving look again, to which she replied with a soft laugh.
"I'm not serious Hollow, it's almost like affection, this poor creature is a mixed race, but it is not her fault that she is what she is. The damn even is cute. I honestly doubt that I will like crossbreeds one day, but not for that I would kill them and right now I don't know how someone could kill one, look at this offspring, she is adorable."
Ren had finally fallen asleep and Orchid took the opportunity to put her in bed with the others. Hollow watched the mantis watch over the little ones, she showed so much tenderness and intensity that he wondered if this was a manifestation of her own desire to be a mother, Ogrim had said that perhaps he did not want children, but she could long for them.
"Do you want to be a mother?"
Orchid was surprised, but didn't mind answering
"Yes, it was within the plans, actually... I already had a scheduled date. This year my older sister Lavender would have her children, the following year Lily would and the following year I would. We cannot have children the same year for various reasons, including because when one lays eggs, three days before and three days later, they cannot move much or fight, that is a period of weakness that anyone could take advantage of to take power. That is why while one was convalescing the other two would defend her but... "Concern came to Orchid's face "I will no longer return to the tribe... I hope that Lily can defend Lavender alone, now that I think about this is worrying."
"And now will you have children?"
"This year it is too late, my heat will end tomorrow or the day after at most. It would also be irresponsible to bring children into the world in my situation, I have no home or money, I absolutely depend on your hospitality, but... I guess if later I manage to stabilize my situation I would like to have babies, but I would not like to have crossbreeds... Sorry Hollow, you are handsome and strong and all that but I would not have children with you, I would look for another mantis for it."
Being a father was not something that excited Hollow, but that Orchid had children on her own with another male, he did not like anything. He did not understand this feeling well, but that idea made him feel tremendously angry.
As the adults talked, one of the children opened his eyes and sat up in bed. As expected, it was Chester, who had suddenly lost sleep and wanted to get up to play. He could have caught the attention of adults but he liked more to explore things on his own, looking for secret passages or any interesting nooks, a characteristic similar to that of his uncle, but in this case misguided.
The door to the room was ajar, it was enough for him to push a little to run down the hall. The squeak of the door alerted the older people that something had happened, they immediately looked at the bed where only the girls were and after being scared, Hollow ran to look for the fugitive.
Chester was fast and elusive, he really enjoyed a good race and being chased, unfortunately for Hollow he had a lot of practice escaping thanks to his experiences at home with his parents. He now ran looking to get as far away as possible from his starting point to make things more difficult for his caretakers, but what he did not know was that he was getting further and further away from the safe area of the castle.
The palace had a safe area where the bedrooms, the bathroom, the kitchen, the garden and other places of interest were, but approaching the exits and the limits of the construction were the saws, originally set as a defense and training mechanism, today nowadays an extravagant tourist attraction for visitors and a potential danger to a grub.
Things were precipitated in the worst possible way. Hollow managed to spot Chester in an extremely dangerous corridor, the boy when saw his uncle ran more eagerly, excited by the chase, looked back with challenge and did not realize that a saw was just heading towards him.
Hollow used his shade cloak and all his dexterity and speed to push the boy in time and save his life, but he was not so lucky, the edge of the metal buried in his mask cutting it like butter, the shadow that lived inside he broke free unfolding like a dark ghost with bright eyes. The little boy looked at the sinister creature with enraptured eyes, he did not know what had happened but it seemed great to him, at his young age he still had not well established what was normal or safe.
But who already had it more than clear was Orchid
Wanting to help in the search for Chester, she entrusted the girls to a maid and set out to help Hollow. When she finally managed to find them it was too late, she could only watch how tragedy unleashed, how the knight's head was smashed by a saw and a horrible shadow emerged from him.
She screamed in terror when she saw the true form of her loved one, then she was stunned contemplating that thing, she did not know what to do, attack, flee, scream, ask for explanations or rescue the child who was dangerously approaching the shadow.
"Leave him alone!" she screeched while running towards that thing.
Finally her desire to protect the offspring was stronger and she overcame her fear, extended her claws with murderous intentions, but before she could reach the shadow a figure appeared out of nowhere in front of her and blocked her attack with a pure nail. Orchid looked up and to her surprise who had stopped her was neither more nor less than the King of Hallownest, who was clearly more than annoyed, his expression was sharp, very different from his usual sweetness, if she did not know him, the mantis would almost say he was even capable of killing her.
"Don't take another step Orchid. I won't let you hurt my brother!"