Never

Chapter 11: The Begin of the Change

The sound of Hornet's footsteps echoed loud and clear in that dark and sinister den. Those were the dungeons, a hidden and very difficult area where Deepnest's worst criminals were kept waiting for their sentences. Actually most of the cells were empty, there were not many ruffians that ended up in that place, most died before. But occasionally some were captured or for some reason they were kept alive, and in those cases the dungeons were used.

Now the spider queen was about to meet the criminal who had attacked her precious eggs. Before having him in front, Hornet took time to breathe deeply and calm down, the rage she felt against that individual could lead her to kill him and she did not want that, she needed to interrogate him, to know if there were more people plotted to eliminate her offspring.

When she felt ready enough, with a signal she told the guard to guide her to the prisoner, and when she had him in front, every murderous eagerness she had had dissipated.

The bug in question was a spider, one that looked extremely hurt, he had three of his eight legs bandaged, there were numerous scratches on his body, but the most impressive was his face. His jaw was broken, or at least it looked like that. Swollen and with terrible wounds.

"Uuuug! Nhhnggg nhhnnnggg!" The spider shouted crawling towards the queen until he hit the bars of his cell.

"For Wyrm! This guy looks awful.." Said Hornet disgusted. "You didn't need to left him like that. It was me who was responsible for deciding his punishment!"

"Believe it or not, we have done nothing but heal his wounds. That's how we captured him, that maid of you was the one who left him like that."

"Ania? She did all this!?"

Hornet was admired, she never expected her personal servant to be capable of such a thing, because at first glance she looked like a typical house spider, more accustomed to housework than fighting powerful opponents. But she assumed that in extreme cases, even the weakest of the creatures are able to draw all their power in order to defend their life, or that of their loved ones.

In truth she was very grateful for having her defending her eggs with such fierceness, but her excess of enthusiasm had proved a problem, because now the prisoner with his broken jaw was unable to articulate any word, he could only emit incomprehensible babble. They could not get no useful information from him in an interrogation.

"Is there no way he can talk again?" Hornet asked the guard.

"Well... The truth is that his prognosis is not very promising. Even taking proper care of his wounds may never speak again, and if he does, doctors say he will take a long time to achieve it. For now, his great challenge is to survive, he cannot chew his food, we have to feed him with ground meat.

A chill ran down the back of the crossbreed. Thanks to Ania this guy was already receiving exemplary punishment, she doubted he wanted to damage defenseless eggs again. But beyond his penance, what mattered to her was to have information from the others involved who wanted to see her offspring desd.

"Can he write?" Asked the monarch. "If at least he can communicate something is enough for me."

"The truth he has some difficulties to take utensils and other things. With his wounded legs as he has not even been able to weave, much less will he be able to take a pencil. But... His limbs have a better prognosis, in a couple of weeks he will recover all his mobility and in that sense, he can have a normal life."

"I see..."

"Nnghghg! GGgnnnngngn!" The prisoner waved his bandaged legs by pulling them out through the grid trying to get Hornet's attention, but she only looked at him with contempt and moved away from the cell.