Chrysalis

So... I mean.. It’s a little odd...

I was a human before after all. I may not have lived what people would call a ... normal life ... but hey, I went to school, a bit, I saw people, I ate human food.

Now I have a giant ant Queen staring down at me and insisting that she and my many siblings are my family now.

...

For some reason I’m surprisingly ok with that.

I had a pet ant colony as a human, I kept them contained and fed them, watched the colony grow and cleaned out their spaces for them. In some ways they were the most constant members of my household, I certainly saw them every day, which wasn’t really true of anyone else.

Perhaps that is why I don’t really mind being an ant.

If I’m going to be a member of this family then I have to do my best to save them!

I start thinking out loud.

"Ok then, Queen, I don’t think we are uh, strong enough to survive the wave. If our nest is invaded from the outside as well as the inside, we could be completely wiped out!"

The Queen looks concerned and taps me with her antennae, urging me to continue.

"I think we need to move the colony! We have to get somewhere ... else. Somewhere safer".

"Do you know where we should go child?"

Err.... No?

We live in the Dungeon, and from what I’m told the entire place is going to become a death zone for up to a week!

I don’t even know that the surface will be safe from the impending danger!

...

... it may be safer

but with my Tunnel Map I can clearly see where the entrance I first encountered the humans is. If we can find

...

the colony to relocate to the surface there’s definitely a chance that we all get killed by those powerful human soldiers, burnt to death, cut to pieces and slaughtered without

will the outcome be

think we have to

waited patiently as my thoughts run circles inside my head. My resolution firms as

dig a new tunnel to

bombshell,

Then she responds.

the ’surface’?" she

...

course, how could she possibly

the existing Dungeon passages and if we can dig

is simple enough that she can understand what I’m

intelligence mulling over this suggestion. I wait nervously for her to puzzle out

surprise she

you suggest child.

works

go and check it out and if they agree with the first ants opinion, they will join in, eventually when enough workers have agreed on a

workers. If anything, she is probably closer to

it’s clear that they can understand my pheromone language to some extent, perhaps

shake these thoughts out of my head and address the Queen once

the Biomass is too valuable to the colony for us to abandon it. Once that is done I’ll start digging the tunnel, if you can help get the rest of the ... family ... digging, then we can make faster progress. Hopefully we can dig our way clear of the

is continuing to recede, just as the Sophos had predicted. The forest is going to grow even dimmer, perhaps

on the head with her antennae before retreating back to the security of the nest, leaving the workers to

spoils of war. As more times goes by the number of ants showing visible signs of mutation is increasing, here and there a worker with longer antennae, or stronger looking legs,

is excellent news! If the workforce becomes stronger then we will have

family now and every one of these ants is my sibling. I didn’t have any brothers or sisters that I knew of in