Regular Commute

The egg wiggled around in its pillow nest atop the bed. Bron shushed it gently as he continued getting ready for yet another meeting for the Grand Council. With War and Celebrations both sending their underlings in their place, it seems that more of the Council were getting tired of these endless meetings. Unfortunately, the rest insist and are too powerful to resist. Bron picked up the egg and its nest, gently showing it the brand new bug carrier.

“Don’t worry, eggling, your father will keep you safe. We just need to go to the meeting for a few hours, that’s all. We’ll make it home in time to make lunch with your mother. How does that sound?”

Hylfa gifted Bron the wood-and-mesh carrier to encourage him to keep going to the meetings. He’d nearly choked on his tea when she suggested he bring the eggling along, but she insisted.

“Bronnie sweet,” she’d said, “our child must learn the duties of his father first hand, so it can grow knowledgeable of the world.”

That was all it took to convince Bron. He had to be a wonderful father to his and Hylfa’s little eggling even before it hatched.

Bron woke up extra early to set up the carrier, his eggling’s comfort was more of a priority than sleep. He put a nice layer of dirt, grass, leaf litter, old workshop rags and other soft objects at the bottom before very gently placing the egg and its nest inside. Because of the changes to the vessel’s final form, his little egg is the largest egg he’d ever made, even larger than carpenter bees! And those were the largest they’d been able to get approved and used for insects in the human realm. The egg was now larger than non-insect eggs as well, in fact- Bron was surprised to see that it was larger than it was last night… Wait, his eggs don't usually grow-

“Bronnie? Did you get cold feet about bringing the eggling along? You should be up the mountain by now.” Hylfa yawned from behind him, scaring him out of his thoughts into nearly dropping the egg. Bron looked at the clock, seeing that he really was running late.

“Aw scarabs! I’ve got to go, see you tonight dear. Don’t worry, I’m taking the eggling with me!”

“Make sure to teach it who’s who on the council, my love.”

“I will!” Bron raced out the door, nearly flying to the edge of town where his usual transport into the city was waiting. He stood at the bus stop, waiting with all the other commuters heading into the Great Abode.

The home of Greater Beings was under intense security, and only a small number of vehicles were allowed to approach without a security search. This open air, triple-decker bus was the only one that came to the bus stop by his house so early in the morning. If Bron had missed it, he’d have to walk all the way down to the farmlands and wait for another hour to catch the next bus.

Once on the bus, Bron climbed all the way to the top level and placed the carrier in his lap to make sure his eggling was alright. He sighed in relief, resting his head on the back of the seat to take a breath as the bus raced across the land.

“These are the Earthen fields,” he told the eggling, lifting it up to see over the sides. Bron pointed towards a field of various flowers, shrubs, greenery and trees artfully painting the plains. "It’s a wonderful ground for trying out new bugs. I’ll take you there once you become a hatchling."

“Oh look, you can see the new capital city from here. Look there, it’s just beyond the fields with the large clock tower. They call it Brightside. It has many wonderful shops and arts and people, though Hylfa- your mother, that is- and I find it a little too much at times. We live in, ugh, Twilight Town, the name’s unbelievably silly, I’m aware. The old name was much better. It's north of here, and it’s known for being darker and quieter because of how the mountain cuts off much of the sunlight. Oh, oh, look there, those are the farmlands where my most recent project is being developed, before you, that is.”

Bron kept describing the scenery to his eggling, gathering both warm and judgmental stares from a few of the closer riders, the bus just as noisy as it always was, though, so it wasn’t like he was the odd one out. He went on and on, only quieting down with the rest of the crowd when they crossed the threshold into the Great Abode.

In the home of the Greater Beings, every being must pay utmost respect or be annihilated without exception. The territory was marked by a sudden shift in the very nature around them. The beauty of the Earthen fields was jarringly cut off by an invisible line where the carefully manicured lawns began.

The bus came to a stop, Bron placed his hand inside the carrier, silently reassuring the eggling that everything will be alright, and warming it a little more in the process. A solid chunk of the passengers got off here, just inside the city, queuing up in neat little rows to head to their destinations in clusters to serve the Greater Beings.

The bus doors closed, and it resumed its silent course. It drove the rest of the quiet commuters to their other destinations around the Great Abode. Most everyone else got off at the stop for the Resort and Colosseum. A number of big guards departed at the far end of the city where the training grounds were. By the end of the loop through the city, only Bron and the eggling were left.

Finally, the bus stopped at the foot of the mountain. Bron secured the eggling in its carrier before getting off, nodding his gratitude to the driver and receiving a tip of a hat in return. The bus sped away, and Bron was left standing in front of a massive staircase. The stairs weren’t the only way up the mountain. Before the Greater Beings, there were elevators and escalators to take passengers up and down each part of the mountain and to the ordinary government operations building. There were even zip-lines and slides between levels for fun methods of crowd control.

But the Greater Beings needed more room. They didn’t want ordinary citizens to come and go as they pleased. If they really wanted to make a visit, they had to prove it by taking the stairs.

Bron walked up those cursed stairs, wishing for the millionth time that he could take the elevators. “Eggling,” he grunted when he tumbled forward on the 4,654th stair. The same stair he would always get caught on because this specific stair was built just a little too low and would take him off guard every single time. “When you’re older, do you think you can convince them to let us take the elevator too?”

Before long, Bron had taken his seat in the Hall, not surprised to see that only he and the rest of the substitutes had arrived.

Bron never got along with them, in fact, he didn’t even know their names. He never even spoke to them outside of the meetings. War had sent in a Metallum in their place. The humanoid was a warrior, dressed in armor that would have been extremely heavy and impossible to move in if not for the fact that they were made of the same metal and it was welded on.

The other sub-in, Celebrations’s, was staring right at the carrier in his lap. The Florian- a tall, slim plant person with vines and tendrils sprouting ripe grapes sprouting from his very being- came to stand right beside him awkwardly. Bron turned to look at them, raising his head high to meet its eyes.

“You… pater?” It asked.

Bron stared, churning in the word in his head a couple of times. The Florian dangled a grapevine down above his eggling, the lowest of the berries scraping across the mesh. “Are you asking if I’m a father?”

The Florian slowly nodded. “Pater?”

Conflicting feelings swarmed Bron. He was a father, yes. Through and through. Normally, Bron would have expressed it as such without a doubt. However, the Florian wasn’t being normal, and these were not normal circumstances. Bron was in the Hall of Greater Beings, representing the Being Earth. He cannot flounder this moment. What would Hylfa say if he had?

“This is a sensitive project. I cannot divulge any further details on the matter.”

To solidify his point, Bron continued as though he always intended to keep the carrier on the floor under his feet for the entirety of the meeting. He sat back up, and ignored the piercing, unnaturally green eyes as he piled his report papers on the massive stone table.

Bron went through them front to back three times before the rest of the Greater Beings arrived and the Florian took his place. The meeting had begun, and it headed the exact same direction it had gone the last twenty four times.

Sometime in the midst of all the dark and cold, something warm reached out to Saif. It curled up tight inside him and exploded outward, urging him to stretch. He followed the urge, meeting resistance. He tried again, and again, balling his fists to try and break free.

One crack, then two, more and more cracks brought him light. Saif squinted, trying to slowly adjust to the brightness. He brought up a hand to rub his eyes, trying to ease the transition.

He touched his slimy… face? Saif pulled back his hand, a residue of mucus trailing from his limb to his face. Wait, why does his hand look like that?