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!

...

be safer than the

course that doesn’t mean running headlong into the humans, that would be suicide, but with my Tunnel Map I can clearly see where the entrance I first encountered the humans

...

the surface there’s definitely a chance that we all get killed by those

we stay down here, will the

think we have to take

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

have to dig a new tunnel to the surface!" I

slowly digests this bombshell, taking time to

Then she responds.

is the ’surface’?"

...

course, how could she possibly

the existing Dungeon passages and if we can dig far enough upwards, we’ll

simple enough that she can

Queen pauses for another moment, her monster intelligence mulling over this suggestion. I wait nervously for her to puzzle out exactly what

surprise she calmly

will do as you suggest child. Where should

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 of the ants, in fact, she is basically dragged around by the

start moving the brood. If other ants find the trail, they will 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 course of action, it will happen. It isn’t always so smooth of course, sometimes the workers don’t agree with each other and you’ll have two competing sets of

far from a helpless creature at the mercy of the workers. If anything, she is probably closer

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

my head and address the Queen

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

in the time since I spoke to Formo, I’ve already noticed the brightness of the forest has diminished. The mana is continuing to recede, just as the Sophos had predicted. The forest is going to grow even dimmer, perhaps even fading to black, before

on the head with her antennae before retreating back to the security of the nest, leaving the workers to do what they do best and complete the work required to secure the Biomass the colony

goes by the number of ants showing visible signs of mutation

workforce becomes stronger

sibling. I didn’t have any brothers or sisters that