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!

...

may be safer

monsters will be fighting and going crazy through these tunnels, going to the surface might actually be better. Of course that doesn’t mean running headlong into the humans, that would be suicide, but with my Tunnel Map I

...

definitely a chance that we all get killed by

here, will the outcome be any

have to take a

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

to dig a new tunnel to the surface!" I

bombshell, taking time to

Then she responds.

the ’surface’?" she

...

could she

will dig a new tunnel upwards, that bypasses the existing Dungeon passages and if we can dig far enough upwards,

simple enough that

monster intelligence mulling over this suggestion. I wait nervously for her to puzzle out exactly what this means to

surprise

suggest child. Where should

has agreed to 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 of the ants, in fact,

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

helpless creature at the mercy of the workers. If anything, she is probably closer to what most humans think an ant Queen is like on earth, in charge, making decisions and

clear that they can understand my

shake these thoughts out of my head

can help get the rest of the ... family ... digging, then we can make faster progress. Hopefully we can

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,

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

by the

stronger then we will have a greater chance to

the workers rushing about, this is my family now and every one of these ants is my sibling. I didn’t have any brothers or sisters that I knew