The alligator was making short work of the unprotected sacs. It tore through them with a vengeance unbecoming of such a patient hunter until only one remained. But even a great spiteful lizard was no match for the fury of two determined wasps. They descended, driving the alligator back into to the swamp water. It was beyond their understanding as to why they had intervened; they only knew that the compulsion had been there, to protect one of their own, and they would do so again even at the cost of their own lives. So they settled to the ground, and they waited. They were the first thing she heard as she rolled from the remains of her sac: the high-pitched buzz of wings and the crunch of leaves as shuffled forward to inspect the creature they had claimed as their own. She felt the brush of air against her cheek and instinctively she struggled towards them. Family. Her mind told her. New eyes opened, blinked, and found two sets of great fathomless orbs watching her. In them she saw herself and she smiled. Brother. Sister.
oooo
She grew quickly. The foal had no choice. Her protectors were as patient as any wasp could be, but they did not like to stop for long. When she fell behind they were there, urging her on insistently. They pushed her through the deepest, darkest places in the swamp in an effort to avoid what they considered potential enemies. No creature could threaten their charge when they were near… except for adults of her own kind. Rather than let her be taken, they patrolled. If necessary they forced her to deeper into swamp depths, and when they had no choice, they fought.
They protected her fiercely, denying her contact with any kin. They watched as her legs grew and her tottered steps grew surer. Puddles she once stumbled through, she began to leap. She knew that she was different from her guardians, but they were still family. They were her swarm. One mind: one body. What did it matter that hers was a bit different?
oooo
She was even bigger now, a filly that held herself in complete stillness. Her eyes did not blink as she stared across the clearing at the beast that was like herself. It stared back at her, surprised by the alien gaze of the young Kimeti. She studied it, deciding after a long moment that this one was male. Her own kind. Not a wasp. Just like her. There was the briefest flare of curiosity. What would it be like to run with him?
She blinked.
Then she turned and left.
Brother and Sister greeted her and she knew they were pleased.
oooo
Brother was missing.
They waited.
When he did not return, they searched.
But they found nothing.
oooo
She learnt to kill. Her attacks were swift and vicious. There was no room for mercy when your belly growled with hunger.
oooo
The cold times came.
She helped hide Sister away in a rock crevice, plastering mud until it formed a protective nest for hibernation. Then she stared mournfully, knowing she would have to survive the winter on her own. This was her first taste of loneliness.
oooo
For the first time she sought out her own kind. At first she only observed. She stalked them through the day, watched them sleeping in the night. They were odd, she concluded. They looked like her, but their mannerisms were different. They were expressive, where she was not. They also lied. That alone was stranger than anything else she witnessed. It seemed a pointless endeavour to not tell the truth. What was there to hide? Why laugh with someone one moment and then speak of them in scorn to another? It frustrated her.
Eventually one discovered her presence; a female, younger than herself.
“What is your name?”
She had never formed words before, but the answer rested on the tip of her tongue.
“It’s cold. Do you want to come join us?”
She truly considered it, but in the end, she walked away. She returned to where she had left Sister and she curled up to wait for winter to end.
oooo
Sister emerged….
.. and in the middle of spring, Brother returned.
She wished she could ask him where he had been, but even she could not understand that much of what a wasp had to say.
oooo
Together again they journeyed south and she grew until there was no more to grow. Tall and strong she stood upon the shore and stared out to the ocean. Water pulled at her hooves and whispered of lands far away.
“Swarm.” At last she spoke; rasping out her name.
Behind her Brother and Sister hovered, refusing to touch the sand. They were mistrustful of the ocean and her proximity to it annoyed them.
She left the water and walked to, between and past them. Perhaps now it would be time to try meeting her kindred again. The wasp inside her was calm. She knew one part of herself, now she would discover the other.
Brother and Sister followed, no longer dictating where she went. She no longer needed their protection, only their companionship. The doe called Swarm led her family back towards the swamp to discover her future.