Blue was lost. so terribly lost.

Blue had never lived a single moment without arwen. even in the short moments one or the other was alone, they were never truly apart, especially after the ceremony. but now..? Blue was alone, with no hope of ever getting her back. there was that tug of magic still left, but they dismissed it as grief a long time ago. they couldn't afford to hope anymore.

they had thought after they had fled the court, with what little belongings they could bear, long and hard about things they didn't get to do. they couldn't think of much more. they didn't know there would be a future without arwen. they were searching for answers in the past. as unhealthy as that was, luckily they'd found one. questionable, but they found it.

Ever since Matt had brought up the idea of it, Blue had always wanted to ask Arwen about children. it was on their mind alot, and they thought of how happy they would be to raise a family with the love of their life. obviously, that... didn't work. they never had the chance to ask. too nervous.

but.. well, it didn't mean they couldn't have them now. and that was as good idea as any when it came on what to do with their life now. they were meant to be a guardian, and if not to arwen, well. next best thing.

though, they really didn't want to do that with anyone else. so, the best next thing was finding a lesser stone and hoping for the best. and can you blame them for thinking of bumblebugs when their mind is so stuck on bees???

it was easy in their head. find a hive, destroy it somehow, maybe by just burning it, and then pick through the ashes for gems.

it was just a matter of finding one....

luckily, that wouldn't take long.

with how much vegetation lied in Eridanus, the cave practically being made of it, it was prime breeding grounds for lessers of all kinds, including a bumblebug nest that huge off a tree close to the ground.

they moved slowly as to not disturb them, planning their next move.

The hive was just hanging there. undisturbed, atleast for now.

now to just find a way to set that bitch on fire!

Blue isn't... entirely sure why this was their first course of action? they remembered hearing something about smoke and bees and... you get the point.

if only they remembered how to do this...

picking up two sticks off the ground, they tentatively began trying to start a fire, though how well that worked out depended on how much information they retained when they were told... or shown.

while on the upside it DID spark a flame, it backfired by sparking up and nearly burning the shit out of their hand, blue holding backed a pained hiss. "stupid things...."

they'd have to try again, but they are now angrier at the sticks, for however much that means.

Blue attempted this again, hands higher on the top stick. if this doesn't work they will start throwing random shit at the hive hoping to break it. probably not actually but you get the idea.

after a minute of tireless stick-rubbing and probably giving their hands stick-burn, the thing finally caught fire, atleast by a little bit. nothing a bit of fanning the flame couldn't fix.

waiting for the flame to rise to an acceptable amount, they lit the other stick on fire aswell, so they'd have 2 whole burning sticks.

now all they had to do was find a way to get them in without getting stung.

they looked, thinking, not too long that the fire burned down to their stupid burnt hands and burnt them more though.

they figured, well, theyre just bees. if they could walk up to them slowly enough not to disturb them, they could probably just swat away the few that made it out given they shoved the sticks into the entrance.

all they had to do was get close enough without alerting the bees to danger....

they walked quietly, atleast as quietly as they could, making it fairly close before a bee barely noticed their presence. they could practically feel the bee giving them a cautious glare before going back inside the hive.

Blue breathed in relief. once again, why was this their first course of action?? who knows!!!! but they were commited. maybe it was some weird poetic thing where they wanted to get a sense of what kids with arwen might've been like, keeping a little bit of bee in there. probably. their methods were questionable, but atleast it was probably working.

Close enough now, they shoved the 2 burning sticks into the entrance of the hive, blocking off the escape save for some wiggle room. the hive didn't burn very quickly but that didn't mean the bees wouldn't, they'd just bee here a while before they would be able to shift through the ashes. get to warm up a bit, who knows.

a few bees wiggled out of the hell, dazed, but enough that blue could swat them away with relatively low effort. they were annoying, sure, and one stung their hand, but it was nothing. their hive was burning and so were they, so it was just a matter of time before they could try and put this plan into action.

they sat, swatting the occasional bee, sighing as they watched it burn.


it was oddly quiet.

they sat there, waiting..... for about 6-8 minutes.

the hive didn't go down easy, and a few bees still came out every now and then, but once it had finished blue had spread the ashes quickly with their fingers, hissing at how hot the ashes still were.

now it was just time to try and find any stones left..

their initial search failed, unable to find a stone before their hands began to burn again. they gave it a second to cool down, huffing, before reaching in again.

another look through once it cooled down, and blue finally hit something.

it was a small stone, blue admiring it in their hand delicately. they set it aside.

they huffed. how many were they looking for? they didnt know, but they guessed it was time to look for more. however many worked, they supposed.

they looked at the ashes again, humming again.

another little one came free of the ashes under their hands, bigger than the last one but still... still small.

they weren't complaining about it, they were just... in awe at how little some things could be. another fresh wave of sorrow at remembering when arwen was small enough to carry. small enough to protect. protect from people like isra who took her away from people who loved her.

sniffling, they set the other stone aside aswell. time to find another one.

they thought about if this would be the last one they looked for, leaving whatever might be left for someone else. maybe they would take them for a future occasion. but suddenly, an idea, and all blue wanted was to find the Queen's stone.

that'd be oddly poetic, wouldn't it?

only thing left to do was look for the big stone that screamed royalty.

as redwood moved to reach inside the ashes again, they pressed a little too hard, crushing 2 tiny stones beneath their claws. upon further inspection neither of them could have been the queen, luckily, but still, such a waste. not to mention they now had shards of broken crystal in their hand, the cuts bleeding gently.

picking the shards out, they huffed. try again.

this time, they simply didnt find anything. other than broken shards, of course.


they huffed, leaning back in frustration. they just wanted the queen, dammit.

they breathed, calming themselves. they would not take their anger out on (any more, atleast) innocent stones.

a deep breath, and they leaned back up.