Joshua
*Krissax found herself bored ong her throne room. Which was a vast cavern underneath earth. The throne was created with amber fluids dried to look like god and then sculpted to design. Everything was circular from the arm rests to the throne to the wide arch above. The doors the obviously imprints in the walls. It was a golden throneroom that could blind anybody.

Behind the wasp queen was a very big chamber with colorful see through amber glass windows piled on top of one amother. This was the birthing chamber where countless eggs had been born to the swarm here.

Krissax stood and stared at the chamber. It was empty lest for the various blanlets and pillows that were use to warm the eggs while the nurses waited on hatchings. Larvae would then be moved to another chamber for feeding and health checks and sorting. It was there where her wretched life began.*

"You know it's almost nostaligc seeing such a place time and time again." Krissax hel a smoking pipe in her fingers and brought it to her mandibles and inhaled. Soon stream of smoke flew through that same opening filling up the air in wisps of smoke that then vanish.

Around the throne there were creatures. Not as beautiful of vibrant as Krissax but rotting molting old looking bugs that shuddered and trembled as if they would fall apart any second. The workers were wingless with greyed eyes looking like a shambling shedding of chitin.

 The guards, ie drones, were large beetles who spprted a large horn on their heads. The bulking monstrocities didn't ahudder like the rest. Their limbs were convered in throny like spikes.

Each creature watched their self proclaimed queen with mindless abandon. Krissax looked upon her subjects and sighed.* "I could have you fight for me again in the colsieum, but such repetitive drivel bores me even more." *She held a hand to her head and gave a dramtic flare. Another puff and another stream of smoke.

This is, was, the Xesstics Swarm.
Mathew
There wern't many worse places one could find themselves obliviously fossicking about in looking for a bunch of crap hoping to find the rare diamond in the rough to trade to some enchanter or merchant in the towns and cities beyond. Trizzit had made sure to be careful, he was always, always careful. Mark your tracks, keep your pheremones intact and make each entry and exit well. Guard yourself for predators and beasts that lurk below. He'd been digging, fossicking and scraping about through dirt, rock and ore for so many years that he'd become confident. Perhaps too confident.

But the small Qua's carelessness also came about from the fact that he'd overheard lora talking about a great find somewhere here. Rich treasure & jewles, a trove of great gems and ingots one could sell for even prettier shinies. Trizzit hated money and coins, hated having to use them. Barter economics was more his style, but it was a necessary evil in the world of buying and selling. He never always took a Lora's tale at face value, more for a grain of dirt, because they carreid the gift of exaggeration. But even if there was some metallic pretty or gem shiny of some sort he could smooth down and kee for his own, the better.

Dig deep and strong, yes, that was the way. Strong limbs propelled himself deeper and deeper, carving rock and dirt aside in great strides. His thorax twiched and heaved with every crumbling shovel of dirt, his layers of chitin scales thrumming with anticipation abon the long abdomen. His antennae twitched for a moment, and he froze.

*What was that?*

His limbs protruded forward, antennae sweeipnig the air for scents and pheremones, feeling the tremors and vibrations of possible movement.

*Voices. Did he hear... A voice?*

There was a chittering of movement from the small mandibles that protruded in the gap betwixt his great mandibles and he froze stiff in motion, a statued carcituature as he sensed the air. Nothing. There was nothing.

"Hearing things. Trizzit hears nothing. Going silly, all this digging. Dig, dig, find nothing. Nothing there, psh. Scared, scared! Scared of what? Rocks."

He burrowed onward, digging through a mound of rock, finding something... Loose. The earth was looser here, and moist. This didn't seem right. Water! If it'd found deep water, or a fissure...

"No, no, no. Shinies! Must be here. Dig."

He trilled a triping with a great *Thrumm* Of his rear limbs, like a night insect might call out to a prosp

Callout to a prospective mate, only there was none here but hiself. Unpertubed, onwards he dug.
George
If Trizzit carried on he'd find that he would fall through the roof of the undergroud caverns. It was an endless maze of tunnels. Each one spanning kilometers apart in varying sizes and angles. The dead insects roamed about mindless doing the task that were so routine to them in their life before.

Workers filled up buckets of water and dragged them to anothe pool for drinking. Mot that the people here meeded to drink as they were completely devoid of the need for sustenance.

Large dead wasps hovered above the roofs. They were the heavy lifters passive beasts that the Xesstics here used to haul food and cargo. But now they aimlessly wandered looking for a purpose. Even the people down below could not fathom what to do with the large bumbling behemoths.
Mathew
There were always gaps in the elegant construction of vast catacombs and tunnels. Gaps that got filled over the ages from time, erosion and lack of care. Who know how Trizzit had gone from a cave entrance a few days before before burrowing himself into the last place in the entire realm he'd ever wish to find himself, but one often does not get what one wants.

Trizzit only had a few rules. If can't fight, run, and if you can't run, hide, and if you can't hide, then fight until you could run again. Crude, but it kept him alive. Always know the terrain before you dig. That was his first mistake. Risk often came with reward, but this risk was something Trizzit would have avoided at all costs had he been given hinds sight. His biggest rule of al was to never, ever, EVER dig into a wasp's nest. He could put up with ants more than wasps.

But there he was, digging about until the earth suddenly gave way, as if one moment he was in a great tunnel, the next he was simply in freefall, great clumps of dirt falling with him.

"No, no, no no!" Limbs scrambled through air to find nothing, until he found himself falling into the great junction of corridors that lead toward the royal and birthing chambers themselves. "Stupid, stupid. Should have turned, back, turned back!"

Limbs extended flexbily until he was upright on his rears again, antenna flitting about with great apprehension. The scents and pheremones ovecame him in an instant. He knew this architecture, these designs. Knew them all too well, in the pit of his worst nightmares.

"VESPAE!" The word chirped in a great cry of alarm as his limbs ran with great speed, slipping to almst gouge out rock before he found himself propelling foward in fear, trying to look for an exit. Unfortatnely, he is heading straight for the birthing chamber itself.
George
The suddenly fall and tumble got the attention f several wprkers who stared and unable to recognize one of their own let ot an ungodly cry. The howl echoed through the chambers grabbing each wasp citizen's ears. In moments Trizzit would find dozens behind his back some shambling due go missing legs or torso but the scariest ones were of course the beetles that stomped the ground til it trembled.

Krissax was in her throne room smoking away out of boredom when she heard he faint echoing of a screeh til it hit her chambers loud and clear like a choir of screams that came from pure evil.

"An intruder? Who so ever would be dumb enough to travel into ths barren wasteland? Let alone my personal kingdom! Find the intruder so that we may..." Krissax was cut off as she saw an interesting sight of the intruder rifht before her eyes.

"Well. Seems the fun came our way." Krissax took a drag of her pipe and filled the air with even more noxious fumes. "Explain yourself before I become angry."
Mathew
The words she spoke were a jumble of mess as his mind chittered about in sheer panic. All he knew was that he wanted to be anywhre, anywhere at *All*, but here. He could hear the rubmlings of alarm, see the myriad of the kindom's inhabitants coming to the sound of alarm in a great many number. And the beetles, oh the giant terrible things. What were they, and what were they doing working for the waving, gold-backed ones who fed his babies to their children?! At least, that's what stories he heard from the rare number of other fossickers like himself.

Krissax was detected before she was seen, the antennae swishing about the place like reeds blowing about in a storm, one of them clearly shorter than the other. Her own pheremones wafted about the air, and atlhough he didn't know what royal jelly was, part of him just knew who Krissax was. Not just a wasp, but a wasp *Queen.*

He was dead. Dead,kdead,dead. His racing mind made out words such as 'angry' and saw the myriad of guards clustered about the place. Oh, yeah, he was as dead as a spider's husband. All he could do to answer the queen was chitter and chatter neervously, his body flexing this way and that, trying to look for a way out. But ther was amber, amber everywhere, and a great circled room with guards at every exit. The only way out he knew was either down or through a one of the walls.

He couldn't fight too well, but digging, he knew how to do that. Trizzit scarped foward, trying to make a beeline to avoid the guards as he scrambled for part of the chamber that looked excavatable. He ploughed forth, not making much headway at all, except to make a great mess of the many pillows about and making a fool of himself.

"No eating!" He only managed to blurt out, an odd statement, but if he were able to elaborate, he might say, 'I'd be most appreciative if you didn't capture me and feed me to your young.'
Joshua
"Then why in the great blue yonder are you digging in our birthing chamber?! Seize him and tear his limbs off ine by one!" *Krissax was screaming as Trizzit shamelessly burrowed right where the soil was right and easily shoftable which was of course... Where even she was born. If he had paid attention he would have moticed her beauty and signs of life over the others. Then again he was chittering in fear running all over.

The beetles waddled over and crashed into the stacked pane of clear amber and swung wildly trying to stop the intruder from further descreting their home.

If he had explained himself properly then Krissax would have allowed him a chance to leave and never return maybe even offer the forgotten jewels her people once cherished.But here he was ripping away at old artifacts.
Mathew
He wasn't making good progress, and his fear had only led him to desecrating the royal chamber with such abandon. He had only dug less than a foot into the earth beore the great crashing limbs of armoured beetle came stampdeding together with a great mess of anthropodic limbs and sharp, clattering mandibles. 

He scrambledf frantically at the pinning onslaught, hearing remarks about limbs being torn off, and whatnot. Trizzit really liked his limbs, they were very useful, and removing them he imagined would be a quite an agonising experience.

He found himself struggling with the advance of the queen's guardians, chittering and meeping pathetically like most small prey do when caught by their predators. 

"Not just dig, escape, escape!" He protested, behing hauled up while armoured claws took hold, ready to tug apart the small crikety-mantis looking creature, who was much smaller than they.

"Look for shinies! Sell rocks, make trinkets! Not to hurt young or babies. Vespa eat Trizzit, give to babies! No,no!"

In the tugging, pulling and struggle, his kit fell out onto the floor, further descrating her Royal Highness' chamber with a trowel, a few small picks, and a myrida of sparkling rocks that looked nice but were probably not worth much.
Joshua
"Halt!" *Just as three of the beetle guards took hold of each limb except for his left leg, Krissax ordered them to stop their advance.*

"I am the self proclaimed queen of the Xesstics Swarm and it's remaining survivor. I am Krissax and you will show respect, Worm!"* Krissax could feel her own antenna twitch about in stress. This was beyond stressful and she had half mund to murder the pathetic maggot right where he was writhing.*

"Let's make a deal! Shall we? In return for the treasures of this 'Lost kingdom' I ask that you act out a favor for me."

*Krissax waved a worker Qua over her way and the poor thing rushed over and placed itself on the floor for Krissax to sit on.*

"Bring me whatever jewels you can find for our fine friend here."
Mathew
It was perhaps evident given Trizzit's rather lack of eloquent speech that he was not paritcularly the brightest of Qua, nor the most cunning. It took a while for the cogs inside that exoskeletal brain to start working her words togather after he is uncreemouniously dumped upon the earth he'd spend a short time making a great mess of. Limbs find their puchase again, as his head rotates this way and that between the overwatching guards and Krissax herself. 

It was obvious he wasn't clearly observant enough to notice the crumbling, delapidated state of the place, nor the fact that she perhaps wasn't the greatest of queens as she she so boldly proclaimed. Trizzit spends most of his time in tunnels, so she could have proclaimed herself the Empress of Salvania and he would have believed her without question.

But her gestures and words made little sense. Wasps were killers, surely? They didn't offer shinies or gifts, nor did they keep 'friends'. His antenna twitched about, ever so nervously. 

"F-friend?" He looked at the great catastophre of dirty, mishapen pillows about the place. "But... Trizzit dig. Make big mess. Now... Jewlels? Shiny?"

He looked about hastily, but the guards had him wedged in, and he had little places to go. Ha. Trizzit knew how smart he was. Yes, he was smart, very smart!

"Catch. Always catch. Trizzit must do something. DIg pit of monster. Dig up chest where giants are, get stomped on. Pfah. Shinies. Nobody give shinies, always must give coin."

He looked about again, to the guards, then back to Krissax. He wanted to be rational, but the ever lustful need for the shiny was overwhelming him.

"What shinies... What jewels have Queen Xesstics? Likes shineies. Very much." He chittered his approval, his rear appendages thrumming with anticipation.
Joshua
*Moments later wokers came with large bowls filled with jewelry. Xesstic jewelcrafting had no value anymore and Krissax wasn't one to completely defile her home.

Besides these mere trinkets were useless to her and in the markets. Maybe the poor fool will get his days worth but that's it.* "Here. Take your fill." Krissax waved her servants forward and they treated Trizzit like royalty kneeling at his feet presenting riches untold.