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 a way to the surface far enough away from a human settlement, we might be able to remain undetected and ride out this

...

a chance that we all get killed by those powerful human soldiers, burnt to death,

will the outcome be any

have to take

run circles inside my head. My resolution firms as I see her commitment

to dig a new tunnel to

this bombshell, taking time to think

Then she responds.

the

...

course, how could she possibly know

a new tunnel upwards, that bypasses the existing Dungeon passages and

that is simple enough that

intelligence mulling over this suggestion. I wait nervously for her

my surprise she

do as you suggest child. Where

my plan then I might have a chance of getting the workers to cooperate. I’m not exactly sure how the pecking order works in a monstrous ant colony. In a normal ant colony on earth, the Queen doesn’t actually ’rule’ over the rest

it out and if they agree with the first ants opinion, they will join in, eventually when enough workers have agreed on a course of action, it will happen. It isn’t always so smooth of course,

laying slave, and she is far from a helpless creature at the mercy of the workers. If anything, she is probably closer to what most

she can do to direct the workforce, it’s clear that they can understand my pheromone language to some extent, perhaps she can

these thoughts out of my head and address

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

brightness of the forest has diminished. The mana is continuing to recede, just as

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

doing just that, continued to comb over the battlefield and collect the spoils of war. As more times goes by the number of ants showing visible signs of mutation is increasing, here and there a

news! If the workforce becomes stronger then we

didn’t have any brothers or sisters that