Flames and Swarms

==⚠️WARNING⚠️ This page contains violence, mild language, poor mental health, and discrimination (specifically racism and homophobia/transphobia). There is also some intense, emotional scenes that may frighten or upset certain users. Viewer discretion advised! Prologue==
Click's heart pounded as he buzzed through the winding halls of his wife's palace. Oh, Clearsight, please don't let me be too late, he thought to himself. She'll kill me if I miss this.
As the dark red HiveWing finally came to the entrance of the palace, he landed with a huff. "Jewel-" He started when he saw the bright gold dragoness. 
"Hush!" she hissed, flicking her tail across his snout. "Mantis will be here any moment! Locust is so excited and you're not even here for him!"
Click hung his broad head in shame. He craned his long, black-striped neck to see his son. The orange-gold dragonet was sitting on the front porch, his claws fiddling with the fluffy grey scarf wrapped around his neck. His bright green eyes were glued ahead, as if he could already see his elderly cousin arriving. As if she had heard his thoughts, an orange dragon swooped down and landed in front of Locust with a loud thud.
She buzzed her wings in greeting toward the young dragonet, who jumped up to touch noses with the striped dragon. A small group of armored dragons in shades of oranges and reds and yellows and blacks flew down, standing next to the lady.
"What took you so long?" Locust chirped, clawing at her playfully. "I've been waiting foreveeeeeeeer!"
The royal dragon pushed her spectacles up her snout. "I'm so sorry, great Lord," she bowed exaggeratingly. "I didn't mean to be late, your great Lordship!"
Locust fell into a fit of giggles, snorting. "I'm not a Lord!" he said, pouncing on her tail.
"Are you sure about that?" the bejeweled dragon said playfully, whipping her tail away from the dragonet. "I think you are!"
Lady Jewel stepped forward and bowed her head towards the orange dragon in mutual respect. "Lady Mantis."
"Jewel, please, stop," The dragoness said. "Just call me Mantis. I haven't seen you in ages."
A smile spread across Lady Jewel's face, creasing the black scales that dotted her cheekbones. "It's good to see you as well." The two cousins touched noses with each other, and Click strode forward, nodding to the Lady. He may have been a Lord, but he would never share the same power as a dragoness, let alone a Hive ruler.
"Click," she said his name in a friendly tone, as if he was her equal. "It's great to see you again."
The sire nodded. "Likewise."
Jewel swept her tail over Locust, pulling the dragonet close to her. There was a look of hesitation and heartbreak in her iridescent green eyes as she said, "Are you sure you can deal with him? He's a talonful, you know?"
Jewel didn't voice the real concern that both of them shared: How would he be treated in a separate Hive for his gender? Surely no one would bully royalty, but the thought kept him up, day and night, ever since the dragonet had announced he wanted to move to Mantis Hive for a higher education. He'll be fine, Click told himself, but worry still shook him to the bone.
Mantis' eyes shone with a love for the dragonet like a mother, even if she never had her own children. As if she knew what they were worried of, she whispered, "I promise. I will protect him."
Hearing the determination and ferocity in the dragoness' voice sent shudders down Click's spine. As Click nodded, he realized that any dragon who dared to even lay a claw on Locust's scales, they'd be in for a world of hurt.
Jewel nodded. "Okay, Mantis. I trust you." The lithe dragon nudged her son forward, who hooked his long, curved claws around Mantis' snout, yipping playfully. Her voice was full of tears as she said, "Take him. I need to go back to the hatchery to watch the eggs."
Mantis nodded, and whispered to Locust, "Go say goodbye to your mommy and daddy."
Locust looked at his mother and father with wide, pleading green eyes. This has to be such a hard choice for him, Click realized, his heart feeling heavy for his son. He wants to go to Mantis Hive, but he wants to stay here too.
"Can't Mommy and Daddy come?" he pleaded to Mantis, his tail thumping unhappily. 
Mantis sighed, and shook her head. "No, I'm sorry. They have their own Hive to rule; you'll understand when you're older." When Locust's jaw trembled as if he wanted to cry she added, "Don't worry. We can visit them, and they can visit us."
"Locust, we'd never leave you," Click spoke up, winding over to his son. "We'll always visit you; nothing will change that. But you belong at Mantis Hive... You're so, so smart."
The dragonet wrapped his tail around his black claws, and stared into his father's orange eyes for a hard moment. After a while, the young sire leaped onto Click, wrapping his little arms around Click's neck. As Click wrapped his arms around the thin body of his son, he bit back tears. He'll be so happy there, Click told himself. That's all the matters.
==Chapter 1==
4 years later... Locust slowly rose out of bed, stretching out his thin, segmented wings. He slipped on his cobalt blue clawless gloves and craned his neck over the ancient shelf made of wood. Breathing in the scent of pine, he couldn't help but feel envy for his ancestors: they got to fly amongst beautiful trees, but Queen Wasp had burned them all to the ground long before he was born. Pulling out the first drawer, he grabbed a pale grey, fuzzy scarf and wrapped it around his neck. 
The scent of cooking meat and melting chocolate sent him running out of his room. He swerved over the endless piles of trash and scrolls and papers as he made his way to the door. Swinging it open, he flew down the long, winding staircase made of porcelain. In the living area, a huge, dark orange dragon lay by the fireplace. She was reading a book about the ways trees function.
She could get in big trouble for reading that... Locust thought to himself, and the she-dragon's head shot up. She quickly marked her page by folding the corner and shut the book.
"What are you doing up?" she asked, pushing her glasses up her snout. 
"It's 9:00, Mantis," Locust said. "Why wouldn't I be up? Did you lose track of time again?"
Mantis chuckled a little and nodded. "I suppose I did," she stood up, folding the fluffy white blanket she had wrapped around her. She placed it on the couch, and a SilkWing servant fluttered down, picking it up and taking it away to be stored. Locust had always envied how beautiful SilkWings' wings were; there were shaped like beautiful butterflies, but he, and all other HiveWings, had four, thin, segmented wings similar to that of a bug. 
The Lady arched her back in a stretch and spread her wings out. She parted her long jaws in a huge yawn. "Perhaps you should get some sleep," Locust advised.
Mantis shook her head. "No, no. I can't. Today is the Gathering." Locust sighed; why must it be today? The Gathering was a time when all the Hive rulers went to Wasp Hive, the capital of the Hives and the home of Queen Wasp, ruler of the HiveWings and SilkWings. It was supposed to be a time where they talked about the latest affairs in each Hive so the queen had everything organized, and ensured her sisters didn't gain too much power. 
"Well, can you tell my mom I said hi?" he asked. His mother was Lady Jewel, ruler of Jewel Hive, and the only Hive ruler that was not a sister of Wasp. Instead, she was Wasp's cousin.
Category:Fanfictions 
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete) 
Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon) 
Category:Genre (Adventure) 
Category:Genre (Romance) 
Category:Mature Content