Scarab

"Of course I'm sure. […] I've got history books going back centuries. I've traced the family trees as far back as I can. Not a single HiveWing with mind-control powers, all the way back to Clearsight, as far as I could find. And it certainly didn't come from her SilkWing husbands."

— Scarab to Cricket, The Hive Queen

Scarab is an elderly female HiveWing royal who appeared in The Lost Continent and The Hive Queen. She harbors a much more positive attitude toward SilkWings than most of the HiveWings, and has what Luna called "super stink power," the ability to create a horrible stench at will, which bothers even fellow HiveWings. She seems to be able to control the intensity of this smell. Lady Scarab has a close, if critical, relationship with Cricket, and is Queen Wasp's aunt and the mother of Jewel, as well as the sister of Ex-Queen Cochineal.

Appearance

Scarab has lemon-yellow scales, black stripes on her wings, and ruby scales freckling her nose and tail. She has black eyes with flickers of dark red in their depths and wears a pair of spectacles.

Personality

Unlike most HiveWings, she is not haughty and cruel towards SilkWings. Instead, she demonstrates great respect for all dragons and is said to be "fiercely not awful." She also appears to be knowledgeable, having a firm grasp on history. Scarab is rather snappy and snarks about Cricket's theories and questions. She seems to take an interest in painting.

Biography

The Lost Continent Prophecy

The Lost Continent

She first appeared when Blue and Luna entered a candy store called The Sugar Dream and was unable to make up her mind as to what to purchase. When Weevil entered the store and began bullying the two SilkWings, Lady Scarab ended it, requesting that Weevil help her with a box of nectar vials. When the storekeeper continued to be rude to Blue and Luna, she insisted that he help them. When Chafer challenged her, she started using her special HiveWing power, referred to as "super stink powers" by Luna, and the storekeeper quickly placed their order and shuffled them out. On the way out, Lady Scarab advised Blue and Luna to "choose an establishment friendlier to SilkWings next time." Later, Cricket mentioned that Lady Scarab had the only telescope in Cicada Hive, and wouldn't lend it to anybody. Blue asked Cricket if she knew Lady Scarab, and Cricket asked him the same question skeptically. Blue explained the scene in Sugar Dream to her and Cricket agreed with him that that sounded like her: "fiercely not awful." Blue wondered if Cricket had a special connection with Lady Scarab, although he did not inquire further.

The Hive Queen

Lady Scarab first appeared in a hood when Cricket spotted her and Katydid sneaking into Cadelle's house. Katydid went inside and Lady Scarab kept watch outside. After Katydid and Cricket had a conversation, Katydid left and was scolded by Scarab, who was irritated about the fact Katydid took so long. Lady Scarab's next appearance was when Queen Wasp, controlling a HiveWing soldier at the time, demanded to enter the mansion to get Katydid, believing her to be "the traitor [she's] looking for" (Cricket). Lady Scarab refused to open her door. Wasp attempted to threaten her, but Lady Scarab threw the door open, furious, then angrily told Wasp that Katydid was innocent and that she should have left her alone, and said that Katydid had not done Wasp any harm. Cricket realized that Queen Wasp is unable to control Lady Scarab. Lady Scarab continued to resist until Katydid appeared at the door to hand herself over to Queen Wasp, but Wasp said that she was "familiar, but not the dragon [she is] looking for", and guessed that Katydid was in some way related to her "missing friend". Wasp took over Katydid as well and left as Lady Scarab retreated furiously back into her mansion. Cricket knocked on a side door of the mansion, and Lady Scarab eventually let the younger HiveWing into her home. Lady Scarab demanded to know if Cricket had the Book, to which Cricket replied that her friend has it and asked Lady Scarab what she knew about the Book. Lady Scarab admitted she didn't know much about it and had wanted to get ahold of it for years, and asked Cricket if Wasp's slow and horrible death was in there. Cricket said no; that the power of the Book was a lie and there were no more predictions in it. Lady Scarab mused that there wasn't a HiveWing queen succession line in the Book either. She asked Cricket why she wasn't hiding "in some distant corner of the continent." Cricket didn't answer this and instead told Lady Scarab that she had questions, and asked why Queen Wasp couldn't control either of the two, but Lady Scarab said she didn't know. Cricket asked how she doesn't know, but Lady Scarab said that "nobody knows why Wasp can do what she does" and that "no other dragon has ever done it before." Cricket doubted that there was no other dragon in history with the ability and asked Lady Scarab if she was sure, and Lady Scarab replied by saying "Of course I'm sure," adding that she had history books about centuries ago and that while she has traced back the family trees as far out as she could, she did not find a HiveWing that was able to control others' minds. She stated that it certainly did not come from Clearsight's multiple husbands and revealed that HiveWings are related to SilkWings due to the generations following Clearsight's dragonets marrying dragons from an extinct tribe long ago; they were officially split into two tribes merely about 500 years ago. Cricket asked if any of Clearsight's children inherited the power to see the future, but Lady Scarab said there were none, according to the historical records. Cricket asked again why the mind control didn't work on her and on Lady Scarab and asked if there was anything the two of them had in common and if there was anyone else free of it. Lady Scarab replied by saying that Wasp's sisters and Jewel were free of it, though Wasp had threatened the latter with the mind-control a few times. Cricket then asked if she knew anything about a home for old dragons in Tsetse Hive and if they were kept there because Wasp was unable to control them. Lady Scarab said she didn't know anything about that and mentioned that all of her friends "went funny" before dying like the dragon Cricket saw being surrounded by HiveWings when she was two years old. Cricket suggested that Wasp's power was still getting stronger, but Scarab brushed it off, saying that HiveWing powers "don't wander in fifty years later." Cricket asked why it didn't work on the two yet again and suggested that maybe she was half SilkWing. Lady Scarab denied it and said that Cricket is a pure HiveWing and that her true mother is Katydid. Cricket then asked how Katydid kept this a secret, and Lady Scarab replied by saying that Katydid eventually crept her egg into the Cicada Hive Nest and Cadelle reluctantly agreed to pretend that the egg was hers, hinting that she had helped with the compromise and the official records. Cricket asked if Scarab knew her father, to which she replied that Wasp forbade his marriage to Katydid and took him away before he knew Cricket existed, and currently works for Queen Wasp. Cricket realized that the reason why Lady Scarab had no servants was so no one she cared about could get hurt by the queen. Lady Scarab next appeared with Lady Jewel in the cells. Jewel attempted to talk to Cricket, with Scarab scolding Cricket for losing her best paintbrush and Jewel chiming in angrily every other sentence. Scarab was annoyed when Cricket agreed to sneak into the Jewel Hive Nest to spy on the queen.

Relationships

Jewel

While Scarab is Jewel's mother, Jewel tends to find her annoying and unpredictable. Scarab often makes remarks about Jewel's attitude, how she runs her hive, and the care of her dragonets. In a mere conversation between them and Cricket, Scarab's biting comments about her daughter and Cricket irritated Jewel to the point of losing her composure several times. However, Scarab seems to truly care about Jewel and gives her advice no matter what.

Cricket

Lady Scarab first comes up in a conversation between Blue and Cricket. She turns out to be deeply woven into Cricket's history. In The Hive Queen, we learn that Lady Scarab helped cover for Cricket's egg. Lady Scarab often scolds Cricket, but it is unlikely that she actually hates her. In The Hive Queen, she tells Cricket a lot of useful information, discussing the HiveWing bloodline and reasons why they both were immune to Queen Wasp's mind control.

Wasp

Queen Wasp and Lady Scarab have an intense mutual dislike for each other. Queen Wasp threatened to kill Lady Scarab in The Hive Queen.

Cochineal

Scarab said that Cochineal was a much better liar than she was, which was likely why she was chosen by their mother. According to Scarab, Cochineal's daughters and Lady Jewel could not be mind-controlled by Wasp as they were hatched around the same time as Wasp.

Family Tree

Cicada

Unknown

Several Generations

Unknown

Cochineal

Scarab

Unknown

Bloodworm

Cicada

Hornet

Mantis

Jewel

Unknown

Tsetse

Vinegaroon

Wasp

Yellowjacket

Unnamed Dragons

Quotes

"Choose an establishment friendlier to SilkWings next time."

― To Luna and Blue about the Sugar Dream

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"Maybe they weren't called SilkWings back then. ShimmerWings or Flibbertigibbets or something in the old language. I don't know. But Clearsight married one, and then another one when the first one died, and had an alarming number of dragonets with each one, and then their dragonets and their dragonets' dragonets kept going, marrying Ye Olde SilkWings or what have you, until there was enough of them to be considered their own tribe. HiveWings. Stupid menacing name, if you ask me. It was only about five hundred years ago that we officially split into two separate tribes, you know. My charming great-great-grandmother was the queen who ordered no more mingling of the bloodlines. She was a nightmare."

― To Cricket about Clearsight and (unknowingly) BeetleWings

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"Not according to the records. But then, if I were Clearsight, I'd tell my kids to keep that information to themselves. If you know the future, but no one else knows you know the future, you've got an advantage, see? HA! Maybe I am related to my family after all."

― To both herself and Cricket

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"She parades him past me whenever she can, always with those hateful white eyes. I don't know if he ever gets to be himself. I haven't seen him with his own eyes since the day she took him over and summoned him to Wasp Hive."

― To Cricket about Malachite being controlled

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"Someone needs to give my niece a good thumping."

― To Cricket about Wasp

Trivia

• Lady Scarab is the second of four known dragons to wear glasses of some kind, the others being Malachite, Cricket, and Thoughtful.

Gallery

• Reference by Platypus the SeaWing
  Reference by Platypus the SeaWing

References

ru:Скарабей fr:Dame Scarabée