Story Notes:
Sorry about the massive submission. Meant to get this done five days earlier, but I failed.Ok, so I'm nervous. I have no damn clue if what I wrote serves as an okay writing style. I've been fighting this pressure for a very long time but I don't get any feedback about my work to know if I'm doing well or not. Is this enough detail, too little, too much? Should there be more complex descriptions, more big vocabulary words to make me sound ridiculously extravagantly smart, or is that not even required for a good story? Or how about less dialogue or should there be more? Those are just a few things I ask myself every second I type. Lately writing has been very stressful because whenever I read a good story I think â��If I need people to appreciate my hard work then I should write like that.â�a33; I shouldn't think like that but since I'm left in the dark I can't help it. Am I good enough, or do I suck at some areas? What makes a good story? You tell me readers, please. Help me, I really need it.
Chapter 3
A brilliant tangerine hue spanned across the skies and reflected the life within the serene landscape. Near the orchard and other farmland is a forest that some would call an infested woodland in a toxic jungle where others would call it a diverse ecosystem of teeming life. Here the trees took on a completely new look from the norm that surrounded the forest by growing into green luscious giants adorned with hanging vines, dark pliable branches of small greenery, and a concentrated network of cavities for critters to live in. Here is where many of the bug types, patrat, and pidove forms originate from.
It was what Serperior thought of as a beautiful getaway, the place where she hatched, and what better place to show her date other than a paradise, her hometown. Earlier she decided to listen to Drake and take it upon herself to get the black serpent and lead him up the hills and into the forest of cotton green. As they slithered together, Seviper carelessly looked around without putting much effort into conversing with his feminine counterpart; may not be the complete counterpart like an arbok but at least he's still with a ten foot long serpent. Serperior slowly and steadily grew aggravated at that fact. "Does he not know that I'm right beside him? What does he expect out of me?" were a few thoughts that crossed her mind as long moments passed along with several stale exchanges. Seviper's status fed him firm pride though, so this evening of Serperior investing her energy to win the male over was just amusing and entertaining.
"Hm, sssso how do you like Pinwheel Foresssst?" Serperior began with a sighing hiss merely just to fit in with Seviper.
Seviper grinned as he turned his upper section side to side to observe the multiple small bug pokémon skitter across the enormous tree trunks as he scrunched alongside the meandering serperior. "This place is building up an appetite for me," he slithered.
"...Luckily I already knew a few nests around." As she turned towards a new route she couldn't help the following thoughts cross her mind: is he being a bigger prick than his own tail on purpose, does he not care for her presence, or does he not care for females at all; that's always a possibility?
"What about that juicy purple thing over there?" Seviper suggested with a grin.
Serperior didn't bother looking since his negligence towards the very piece of wild she vowed to protect was provoking her. "I like to leave the bug pokémon alone. I like to feel like I look after them all. I have a better target for you."
"A bit too much hassle... but that's very interesting."
"That's a first," she muttered.
By now the skies over the unique forest showcased hundreds of glimmering gems overhead the diverging couple. The two ate by a peak that towered over the grounds of the forest with other silhouettes of steep protruding bluffs in the distance. It was Serperior's favorite spot, the highest point of all the buttes and yet her anger soared, much to her dislike. Serperior continued to aggressively glare at the clear image of her objective consuming his dinner with careless etiquette. "What a loser! Look at how he quickly swallows his food...then again he's a serpent and doesn't have teeth so that's normal. Maybe I just hate him. Of course, how in the right mind does he have such a big skull? This guy is so full of himself. He may as well just swallow himself full and die off the face of this earth! He's not oblivious, he's not reclusive, but I mean there's no male on earth that can be this stupid then right?" she thought to herself.
The dark serpent looked up with grey feathers still clinging to his maw and fangs. "These tranquill..." he paused to crane his neck straight, "They really aren't so tranquil when being chased I observed."
"Oh, good Mew, why don't you finish off that comment with a loud belch so I can have a formal reason to ditch you? I hope you choke on that giant lump in your throat you big headed loser!" She thought and deeply desired to scream out to his face as she continued to glare which unfazed Seviper, but Serperior turned and began slithering off. "Come on," she nearly demanded without question.
"Hehehe," Serperior heard Seviper chuckle with a hiss as he joined her side leaving a large gap between the two. He saw the burden he was creating, he was well aware.
The two serpents neared the crater that hollowed and led to Seviper's den. Back near her hive and her crush's orchard she watched Seviper slither up to his den. "For the record, never hunt a bug around this forest, understand? After what I told you about myself today you should know why, unless if you were too preoccupied with yourself to care," Serperior ordered beginning to display a demeanor that she likes to keep encased away from most individuals.
Seviper chuckled at her fuming remark. "Alright fine, but before you exact your authority over me let me just ask something. I've been dying to get back into the leagues. Do you know any humans around?"
"I don't know a single person that would like you--"
"Other than these hicks," he smiled flailing his tongue habitually towards her.
Serperior snarled fiercely but then winded back with hurt from her own negative action. That display of her anger flaring up would've paralyzed her fellow friends at the hive and that would leave a deep wound on her conscience, especially if Drake saw her dark side. "There's a city that's a three days slither directly east of here," she quickly replied, "Just go."
"Oh, don't think about me too much now, wouldn't want you getting lonely," he seduced sarcastically before chuckling in the end.
"I got my vines," she hissed in the line of anger but that only caused the male serpent to impressively whistle a hot tune with a roll of his flicking tongue, "You probably wouldn't even know where to begin with any female, jackass."
"Trying to tease me back, eh. I'm into the civilized types, little girl."
"Little? Girl!" she nearly snapped but managed to refrain from lashing out with verbal profanity and instead kept her sharpened glare along with her glistening spears exposed in a gritted snarl to reply with, "For your future safety, don't you dare step past the boundary of my hive! As a matter of fact just slip off this ground right now without disturbing anything you come across and get back to your high and mighty civilization!" she growled before finally rearing around to slither away from the clearing.
As she slithered away she heard Seviper laugh in a humorous way, but the volume died as she pushed through the shrubbery that bordered the orchard near her. Still frustrated over the thought of getting rejected without even any intention of being with the male the insecure thoughts about her new image buzzed within the crevices of her mental state once again but now stronger than ever. They continued to bother her without control to the point that her squinted eyes tensed painfully ready to have her sadness stream down from the pessimistic views of herself. Even though she knew these were just derivatives from Seviper's behavior and words it still felt like they were centered on her.
Unfortunately, as her mind chose to be pained from uncertainty, her sharp ears caught the squelching noises of smacking and smooches coming from a few bushes near her vicinity. She shook her head with a small chuckle since anyone could pick up those sounds as being a kissing couple, and the lips continued to smack away in passion. Several seconds into passing the very bush the noises ceased before being replaced by brief murmurs. A ledian wearily hovered up from the source and flew well over Serperior. Serperior looked at the happy groaning companion of Seviper's before she glared at the other emerging suspect behind her.
"You move really fast," Serperior told Leavanny as she slithered away being fueled by envy and other emotions that formed from unfulfilled desires that close others have.
"Serperior, it's the bug's life, so living to the fullest everyday is how we go," the nurturing pokémon tried to console, "You should tell Drake about your feelings if this is all really bothering you. I know I told you to not set goals, but in my personal view, I think you two have had enough fun to express each other's feelings." Serperior loudly huffed at the raw idea before slithering further down her path.
The following morning, Drake decided to keep going with his word.
"Good morning-oh, what are you doing here?" Leavanny sang.
Beyond the hedge brush and within the border that separated his owner's orchard from the hive was Drake and behind him was the same red, shiny pull wagon from yesterday which brimmed with a new supply of fresh fruit and berries. "Boy am I lucky to find you. I, uh, have a special delivery for a Ms. Asparagus, Sarah Asparagus."
"Oh, another name huh? Did you just come up with that one on the spot because I am very impressed," Leavanny smiled with a sarcastic undertone.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good morning, so where should I bring this?"
"Oh you can just..." Leavanny trailed off as she looked at the supply, then at Drake, and then towards the direction of her hive. A sudden thought struck her which drew a smile across her golden face. "Just follow me in. Oh, and you should be a lot nicer to Serperior, oh I mean Sarah. She's never bothered you before so slow down with the names will you?"
Drake was hesitant about following her to an area where he keeps hearing about a hive, but he just shrugged his shoulders to further justify he wasn't that worried. "Sure she hasn't, sure..." Drake smiled as he tugged the wagon across twigs and grass while Leavanny guided him through the tight space of branches. Drake wanted to see the hive for himself anyways to see if it was a huge threat.
Leavanny occasionally sheared her way through for Drake to pull the wagon along as she continued to smile at her own idea. Being Serperior's closest pokémon for such a long time she already sensed the green serpent's lack of confidence towards her very interest that's walking just behind her. This could probably stem up from the fact that Drake just despises all bugs and anything that falls into the pest category automatically deeming them as bad, but if she shows him a different perspective...
After a minute of trudging through the forest Leavanny pushed herself through the last hedge before turning around to lift up a bundle of branches for Drake to squeeze through. Leavanny saw Drake poke his tail through the leaves before his whole butt emerged from the vegetation. She somehow managed to roll her beaded red eyes as she heard him struggle and strain to pull the wagon through, but after a few seconds he managed to yank the metal bucket through the opening without a mess.
"Okay..." Drake panted, "Now where in this little hive do...you..."
Drake turned and fell silent as a magnificent structure in the middle of a moderate clearing came to view. Above the spanned circular clearing were thin, curved branches blocking off a fraction of the sun with thousands of little leaves to produce bars of green light that poured on the scene in front of him. Around his position all of the vegetation took on a different appearance, a different texture, even a different smell. The dragon's eyes excelled in size as he felt like he just stepped into a tropical forest through a portal, and something told him it had something to do with the giant superstructure he initially spotted. It was a tree with a thick base of interlocking trunks that formed several intertwining arches that appeared like giant brown vines through the soil but were actually roots thicker than a human vehicle. Above the trunk was where the hundreds of thin, bendable vines and branches spanned out to mesh together in one soft looking mass, and at the very peak of the canopy were where the thin branches arched out and descended to interlock with the lower branches from the distant surrounding trees that created the green, transparent blanket above. If it wasn't for the large evergreen trees shielding this world from outside then he probably would've seen this from the ranch.
What really stunned him to the point his pupils shrunk was when he looked within the circular field and saw countless yellow, green, and purple dots and figures walking around the tree before him. Even on the tree were multiple cut-away holes where he saw more of the dwellers resting or doing some kind of task. In the tree he noticed clusters of green arthropods wearing giant notched leaves with a pale orange coloration on their heads and identified them as sewaddle, and they were all busy spitting out some kind of thread and appeared to knit the leaves together with their six spherical legs. Dozens of other leavanny similar to Leavanny were in the field or in the tree assisting the young sewaddle and swadloon. However, in a different direction he saw trains of venipede scurrying towards various destinations with many of them carrying large leaves in their mouths or even food. The same magenta predator bugs even assisted the young sewaddle by bringing them food and leaves. Drake couldn't look away from the vast network.
"Oh, dude, what's up big guy!" Drake darted his sight over and saw a venipede pass nearby him seeing the bug nudge his head up to greet him.
"Aw, how's it goin' my new pally!" the other venipede from the previous day greeted behind his friend causing Drake to slowly and awkwardly wave his arm while remaining speechless at the spectacle in front of him.
Leavanny giggled and began walking forward towards one side of the tree slowly followed by Drake with the wagon behind him as he kept gazing at the giant tree before him in the short distance. "So, Sarah is the tyrant of this whole hive huh?"
"Who? Oh, you mean Serperior! Yep, yes she is, and I'm proud to that just like the rest of her," she smirked as she continued leading past several crowds and trains of bugs, "You know you have like ten different names for her. First you threatened her by calling her "Banana", then you officially name her "Sarah", just earlier you call her an "asparagus"; what's the deal?"Leavanny giggled as she looked back at the stunned fraxure who kept staring at the bugs around him, but he didn't show any threatening signs to the others. "You seem to be enjoying yourself. Matter of fact, let me show you around a bit."
"Uh..." Drake mumbled as the pair walked beside the gargantuan, record-breaking tree.
"Oh don't worry. I don't bite, and neither do any of my friends. Trust me Drake. If you think we all take from your orchard then all of your crops would've been devastated long ago."
"Right...Right," he spoke obliviously. As they walked the alpha of the hive partially emerged from her quarters within the path of the two. Drake quickly caught her yawning with a flick of her tongue as her head peeked out. "Hey, hey Sarah!" he called but the serperior just lazily scanned throughout her hive, "Sarah, yo Sarah?" he howled. Serperior's ears whipped towards the call followed by her head where she sees Drake running towards her spot with Leavanny following. "So how's dictating been. You've been--"
"Gah!" she lightly whipped with a vine catching Drake on the chest with her bulbous tip.
"Ow, what the hell?" he retracted with a small laugh rubbing the area she smacked.
"I'm never going to get used to that new name, and what are you doing here?" she genuinely questioned with the normal high, clear tone she's heard with.
"Is that the thanks I get for going out of my way to take food from my storage and bring it all the way to you and all of your friends that you've been hiding from me this entire time, Sarah?" he chuckled with a gesture to the bright red wagon behind him.
She playfully laughed in response while still remaining hidden in her brush. "I'm still surprised that you're keeping up with the deal, little fraxure, but I have to go take care of some errands. Oh, Seviper, I'm not sure if he disappeared off yet but I attempted to kick him out last night. Anyways, treat him well Leavanny with...whatever reason you brought him here for."
"It's a tour, he likes it here. Heck, I'll make him love this place so much he'll learn to spit up thread just like me," Leavanny grinned.
"Hahaha...no, but I'm still pretty impressed either way. Never knew you, of all pests, you would be able to pull this off," he joked.
Serperior smiled at the joke before whipping him again on his other pect with a smile. Leavanny pushed Drake forward as he winced from the whip, and in the process Leavanny winked at Serperior to show her intentions. Serperior's expression dropped in return showing she didn't get the message but Leavanny continued on knowing she'll get it in the end. "See ya later, 'Sarah'."
"Meet my friends and helpful assistants: Leavanny, Leavanny, Leavanny, Leavanny, Leavanny, Leavanny, Leavanny, and Leavanny. Leavanny, Drake."
Drake's jaw hung open fully exposing his tusks to the new eight leavanny in front of him. The group of pokémon stood next to the magnificent tree where Leavanny felt the want to introduce her friends. He slowly turned towards Leavanny, the leavanny he knew, who finished gesturing towards him for the others.
"Nice to meet you, Drake."
"Good, to meet you."
"Aren't you the one our superior keeps on mentioning?"
As all of the leavanny waved he barely stifled a small laugh. "Oh jeez...You're all named with the same name. Whyyyy?" he slumped, his expression still in shock causing Leavanny next to him to giggle, "Okay, so you're 'Leavanny'," he pointed to one just to test his keen hearing.
"No, I am," one from the circle replied.
"See, I'm 'Leavanny'," the one Drake pointed to originally said to him with a smile.
"Okay...you're 'Leavanny' then?" he pointed.
"No, she is," one pointed to the leavanny who was waving innocently.
"Alright," Drake sighed as he kneaded his tusks with a smile from the sheer silly situation he was in, "You're 'Leavanny'."
"Wrong, that would be me, Drake," the Leavanny next to him that he's known longest replied.
"Okay, I was born in a human home, give me a break! I know in the wild everyone receives their species name and the only difference is in pitch and the accent you say it in, but the difference is so small I can't even tell! This is just ridiculous; my head hurts," Drake whined.
"Ah Drake, Sarah is right. You are fun to mess with!" Leavanny giggled.
"Oh, Arceus, this is such a mind...fuuuuhhh..."Drake panted as he fell on his behind.
"Watch your language! There are younglings around!" Leavanny in the group scolded.
Later after being introduced to the tunnel network in the tree that even he could fit through, Leavanny guided him to other hot spots. She wanted him to meet a few more interesting heads before she was done with him for the day.
"Alright Drake," she began as they approached two gray segmented, wheel-like creatures, "Meet Whirlipede and Whirlipede. Don't worry, there's a difference this time; one's a female and the other is male. Guys meet Drake."
"Uh...hi," Drake greeted with a wave as he looked over the unmoving pokémon seeing only their triangular pupils in their yellow scopes move about and blink. The pokémon were segmented in a wheel shape with each segment having a pair of small spikes and two pairs of antennae on opposite segments. On each segment was a magenta colored circle in their exoskeleton. "You know even though one is a female I still can't tell a difference between the two!"
"Here," Leavanny spoke walking over to the wagon he pulled along and taking out an apple, "Hand this to Whirlipede."
"I'm just gonna assume that you want me to give this to him." Drake took the apple in hand and slowly walked over to the bugs his size. As he approached though they still didn't move, which began to startle him. "Uh...so..." he began to the one he approached confused with how he was supposed to feed them.
Surprising Drake, in a gruff and muffled tone the whirlipede responded, "Just put it down there," before pointing with his pupil towards a spot directly next to him.
"Okay." Drake cautiously walked next to the bug and placed the apple on the desired spot. Drake watched the bug slowly tip to one side to plop his eye on top of the apple. "So, you got it?"
"Yeah, I got it," Whirlipede replies with his ton being more clogged than before.
"Alright cool, cool," Drake smiled as he stuck a "thumbs up" for Whirlipede to see.
"Haha, yeah cool, thumbs up," he replied sarcastically as he ate.
"Don't worry. These two have wanted badly to evolve into their next forms so forgive them if they both act cranky. They really don't mean it," Leavanny explained.
"That's just...odd how they eat. What do they do, chew with their eye lids?"
Drake saw the other whirlipede actually move by rolling over towards the male. She however slowly kept rolling until she deliberately collided into him before exerting more torque to quickly roll on top of Whirlipede. "Mmmm...Mmfff...My eye, get off!" the bug attempted to scream but it was barely audible with Whirlipede on top of him.
Leavanny swatted another apple towards the female whirlipede. She rolled off the male where Drake chuckled from hearing Whirlipede wheeze comically now that her weight was off of him. She then rolled next to the apple and tipped on top of it. "Thanks, Sister!" came a husky but defiantly feminine acknowledgment from the female.
"These guys are pretty interesting. They're typical rivals trying to see who will evolve first and become the hive's first scolipede," Leavanny smiled.
"And everyone knows I will, I do most of the hunting around here!" the male called out.
"Hah, I evolved into a whirlipede before you did so fat chance!"
Leavanny and Drake turned away from the two bugs who continued to feud. Leavanny waved goodbye towards the two before she guided Drake back to the hedge he had originally came from so he could go home. "Yeah, those two are pretty mysterious. They were always quiet and are the first of their kind in our hive, so they're really reclusive and it's a little creepy. Heh, I keep imagining how they'll be when they become the ultimate predators of the hive," she laughed, "And there's gonna more of them on the way very soon."
"Well, usually the quiet ones always have some kind of cool secret. It could be a talent, but they're pretty interesting," he chuckled in response before adding, "I'm going to have to admit. For pests, you guys are pretty friendly. Sarah really runs an amazing civilization here I never knew this was back here before! How are you guys still around without me noticing before is a good question though."
"You don't have to worry about us ever. We have a tough defense and an amazing support staff. Even me; check this out!" Drake got stunned when Leavanny twisted around, planted a leaf arm on his tusk, and then swiped the sharp edge of her bladed leaf across the surface of his tusk producing a loud crash similar to shearing bladed metal.
Drake staggered back from the force of her quick swipe. "Holy crap, that was amazing! I never even imagined you had any weapons built on you. Seeing how frail you are, no offense."
"None taken," she playfully giggled which completely deterred the action she just pulled off, "I know we're a well built hive. I naturally, along with all Leavanny here, have maternal instincts so I have to be backed by a defense to protect all young here."
"So...then how can you guys survive if my orchard is now poisoned?"
"Like I said earlier, you don't ever have to worry about us. We can manage without a migration," she winked.
The two arrived at the wall of bushes that hid the orchard away from the hive, or vice-versa. Drake was about to climb through before he quickly remembered something and spun around. "In case I encounter you again later on you get the honor of being named too."
"Oh really..." Leavanny rejected, "I don't really want a name, thank you."
"Yeah, I know I'm not creative. You're new name is 'Pineapple'!"
"Get out," she blankly told.
"Okay, I was just kidding about pineapple," Drake laughed from Leavanny's sudden rejection. "No, okay seriously though, I think...I think Leilani suits you greatly. Like peanut and butter," he concluded with a smile.
"Like peanut and butter, the heck kinda- well hang on... Actually...Leavanny to Leilani," she muttered at first. "Wow that actually has a really good ring to it! It sure sounds better than what you gave Serperior though, oops, I mean Sarah."
"I'm glad you like it. Guess I'll see you later, Leilani." With that Drake pushed through the shrubbery so he could hurry home to report to his owner.
Leilani on the other hand was very happy with the new accomplishment she had made as she walked towards the tree in the center of the hive. With Drake having a better view on bugs in the hive he would have a better opinion about Sarah and to Leavanny there's nothing better than helping out those you care about the most. Now it's up to Serperior to step up and seek Drake to assist her dire needs. "Hey, everyone, I have an announcement to make regarding a new name bestowed upon me! It's amaaazing!"
To Be Continued