Nayomi had been in her room for days now. No one, not even her sister had seen her leave. Her bin was over flowing with scraps of screwed up paper. At her desk Nayomi had several sheets of lined architect paper in front of her.
She’d been drawing up plans for something large, she also had several photos and detailed notes she kept referring back too.
Stoke after stroke with a pencil held in her magic Nayomi drew plans for rough corridors and round rooms of varying size often taking notes of what rooms were for.
Hours went into the design of each individual level as she carefully planned out every meter of this enormous structure.
Eventually she stopped at five levels with a little smile. After inspecting each one a moment she folded the paper sliding them into a saddle bag. She flung a match at the trash bin in an attempt to burn away the evidence of her plans. She threw the remainder of the sketch paper into the fire to further hide her plan.
She didn't like keeping things from her sister but sometimes it’s a necessity of sorts. Her sister would likely want her to follow through with her plans but she had to be sure first, she had to know if she could survive on her own again after so long.
The last 3 years were spent helping her sister and in that time her own changelings had grown large in number.1 She’d taught each one everything she could about her own skills and their innate abilities. Watching her two elites create variants and adaptations of her moves was entertaining to her.
She’d also biologically designed her personal guards with the help of her sister, the dragoon were powerhouses in terms of speed and lethality.
So far her two elites, Deception and Alpex had found the perfect location to set up a new hive and scouted out the nearest villages to see where her base of operations should go. A large village controlled by a small gang seemed to be the prime as it was just across a road from the forest that lead to the cave system the hive would be built in.
Nayomi grabbed the saddle bag she slipped the plans into and her two pistols slipping the bag and the holsters over her back and locking them in place. The young changeling stepped closer to a wall cast in darkness and walked through it, coming back out in Zebrica. Specifically in the forest outside of the intended location for her hive.
“You’re late mother” a voice said from above. An adult changeling dropped down, her light grey mane and red eyes clearly reminiscent of her mother’s would solidify their relationship to anyone who saw them together.
Nayomi smirked “I never specified a time That I would show up Deception. In fact I’m earlier than I thought I would be” she said walking up to her much shorter daughter, lowering her head so she could looking into Deception’s eyes.
Deception shy’d away from her taking a few steps back “of course... My mistake” she said as she looked at her hooves to avoid Nayomi’s gaze.
Nayomi stood up to her full height again “Very good. Report” the Queen said looking down at her daughter less like a mother and more like a CO (commanding officer).
Deception shot up placing her right foreleg over her breast“yes ma’am!” she said looking back up at her mother with an even expression “There is a cave system in the mountain but it’s very small however there is a set of mines that runs both up and down the mountain but they appear to be abandoned due to a cave in that myself and Alpex bypassed. To make a full sized hive some serious digging will need to be done” Deception said in a calm even tone as she explained all the dangers that lay inside the mines.
Nayomi rubbed under her chin as she looked up at the mountain as she thought. She narrowed her eyes as she looked back at Deception “What were they mining?” she asked. The answer to this question could determine if this will be her new home or not.
Deception gave a slight smirk “they were mining Diamond ma’am” she said happily.
Nayomi looked back up at the mountain “This will be our new home” she said opening her saddle bag pulling her plan out “I’m going to bring a team here, they’ll be in charge of digging out the mines. I need you to gather some weapons common to this region and some simple armour, then store it here so you can go back to the hive and gather another team to defend this place, disguise as a zebra, make sure your team looks like its a gang” Nayomi said with a little smirk.
Handing the plans to Deception with her magic Nayomi continued “Give these to Alpex, she’ll be in charge of the dig and building team” Nayomi said looking up at the mountain again “This is it Deception. This is where everything changes”