The Mother of Monsters

TheWebVagrant

Good lord, I am blown away by the sheer volume of good vibes from you guys. You make my heart happy, you really do. Thank you again for everything! I'm so glad to be back.

Don't forget that we're still funding the initial launch of TMoM Volume 1 on Kickstarter with my publisher, Henlo Press. As a special note, all physical copies released as part of the Kickstarter will be signed, just so you know. I hope you all give me a work out~

The link to the Kickstarter is in the post-chapter note.

The little creature scuttled along the ground, its shiny carapace darting about between the blades of the tall golden grass. In this sea of fertile gold it was invisible to the naked eye. Even so, it kept its movements erratic and cautious, honed behaviors from generations of it’s kind growing wiser and more capable with each new cluster born into this world. Its many eyes opened silently and peered around, looking for its destination before closing again. It changed directions, zipping across the earth as it deftly avoided disturbing the grass around it. Instinct was its guide as it found the stalk of grass it was looking for. It climbed up the side of the blade and to the fluffy peak, perching itself at the top. Around it, a veritable ocean of waving grains greeted its eyes.

A hand, white as snow, paler than pale, and soft as powder, reached down with taloned fingers to run a knuckle across its disk-shaped carapace. It trembled beneath the beatific touch before climbing eagerly onto an open palm. It hurried up the outstretched limb, across strange fabric and metal, its tiny legs clicked against skin that had hardened into gem-like scales before it arrived on her shoulder, the river of white hair that fell down from her head a comfortable place to hide itself in the summer heat. It opened its eyes again and peered out over the sea of golden grass and to the city being built at its heart.

The great tower-city of Osan had been devastated in the brief war against the Katali humans who had come to put an end to their king. Their gambit had been successful; in a way, the King of Osan, the ruler of the Azar, had fallen at the hands of a human ascendant. That was the official story anyway. Yet where a ruined and dead city should be, the capital of the Azar people had sprung back to life overnight. Now, a year later, in the summer sun, the tower had nearly been restored and the city that surrounded it had begun to expand. Humanoids riding great insects came and went, delivering materials from afar. Some of the insects flew in the air, patrolling the skies with their riders. It didn’t fully understand what it was looking at, but it didn’t need to, as long as she was pleased with the progress.

“Come to get a good view, cutie?” A melodious voice greeted it. It scuttled out from its hiding spot within her hair and alighted on her shoulder, its many eyes opening in greeting.

Queen Teyva Akura, The Great Demon Lord, turned her two pairs of eyes down to look at the tiny creature on her shoulder. Her forehead and cheeks glittered with gem-like scales in the afternoon sun. The crown on her head set her appearance alight, she seemed to glow, but it was her gentle smile that sent a warmth through the tiny creature’s body. It chittered a greeting to her and she chuckled, reaching up to stroke its carapace again before turning her eyes towards the city. “It certainly took a while, yes,” She said softly. There was a deep love in her voice, a longing that transcended simple emotional attachment. She looked at those buildings like she had given birth to them herself.

Something moved nearby, a terrible shake that rattled the earth and nearly sent the tiny creature splaying off of her shoulder. It gripped tightly and watched in awe as something enormous rose from the ground behind her. It had thought it was a great rock of some kind, but now it could see the many legs adorning its body and the terrible mandibles so large that it could chew through a crowd of trees in an instant. The creature let out a keening sound and shook its enormous body, throwing its head back with a triumphant roar. The Queen mother glanced up at the terrible beast with a reproachful smile, “Viira, you’re going to scare the baby…”

The great beast, Viiranavalar, paused in its howl and turned to look down at the woman beneath it, diminutive compared to the creatures enormity. “Forgive us, great one,” It’s voice was like a raspy hiss of a thousand voices collected as one, “This ruler of the wildlands is simply overjoyed! The great hive of our mother will soon be whole once more!” It rattled, shaking his entire body eagerly and turning its many eyes on the city. The tiny creature trembled and hurried beneath the Queen Mother’s hair, finding safety within the silvery strands.

“Let me check our resource collection,” Teyva said and held out her hand.

Teyva smiled warmly at the prompt and dismissed it, she sensed the items appearing in her inventory. She’d find someone to give them to when she had a chance. More pressing was the construction job. She pulled up the dungeon construction menu. There were numerous tabs that she could select, [Dungeon Buildings], [Traps], [Monster Allocation], [Design Rewards], [Statistics]. On top of them were many other subcategories, the most dense of which was the [Dungeon Buildings] tab which covered everything from [Surface Structures] to [Hallways]. Each had its own category.

She snorted, “Who designed this user interface?”

“Something upsetting you, Great One?” Viira asked in her booming rumble.

She waved a hand, “No, just a minor inconvenience,” Teyva said and navigated through [Surface Structures] to the [Special Buildings] section. She found what she was looking for.

Teyva made her selections.

“Yes,” Teyva said and before her the ground around the city began to glow. She held up her hands and concentrated, pinching and dragging as she altered the shape. Another prompt appeared that helpfully provided a birds eye view of the city as she made her adjustments. Instead of keeping the walls tightly around the buildings inside she took the time to expand the walls as far as the resources collected would allow, giving room for expansion. She didn’t need to worry about farmland, the farms that had been brought back to life beneath the city provided more than enough in the way of food to her people.

She settled on a pentagram shape, the most defensible orientation she could think of. After that she began placing the towers at regular intervals, making sure to place two on either side of where she placed the gates. Her lips parted in a smile as she took in the finished product, it would use pretty much everything she’d gathered for the project but that was the point. They could always gather more. It was more important to her that her people were protected.

Azrael. She called out through her mental connection with the four.

Yes, My Queen? Came her beloved sister’s voice.

I’m getting ready to build the walls, please get everyone away from the outer areas of the city. She ordered, taking one last look at the design.

Ah damn, I’m going to miss it! Conrad’s gravelly voice came through, joining in on the conversation. She smiled and shook her head with bemusement. He was off in the Green Sea, harrying adventurers who dared get too close and training the next generation of his personal shock troops. 

This better not shake things up too much, Sari’s voice came in grumpily, I’m in the middle of something.

Teyva grimaced, You might want to secure your laboratory, Sari, sorry.

Ugh! Sari groaned.

I’m so excited! Myranda chimed in, Just a moment, let me get to a higher vantage! This will be the biggest building you’ve ever created with your new power! Oh, there’s Yaga and Stella! They’ll want to watch too!

Teyva scratched her nose, she probably should have kept the message to a one on one with Azrael but figured the others would like to hear as well. She sighed and felt a warmth wash through her heart, her Four, her champions. They were more like a small group of siblings and friends than the people sworn to fight at her side, until death would they part. 

She squinted against the sunlight and spotted numerous people moving away from the areas outside the buildings that made up the city proper, hurrying to find safety in their homes. As the tiny dots of moving people disappeared she heard Azrael’s voice in her mind again.

All clear.

Teyva nodded to herself, Go join Myranda and the others, you don’t want to miss this.

Oh I’m already there, keep up your majesty, Azrael teased.

Teyva laughed and cleared her throat, reaching up to gently stroke the coin-like body of the tiny creature on her shoulder, “Hold on tight, sweet thing,” She said softly and poured her will into the floating image of her designed wall.

“Yes,” She said and the ground began to shake.

TheWebVagrant