Chrysalis

Sensation returned to the Queen in increments. A leg twitched, then one of her antenna crackled into life, overloading her fuzzed mind with sensory information she wasn’t ready to process.

As she drowsed, the feeling of change, of difference, rose within her. Even without being fully alert she knew that she was not the same as she had been when she’d gone to sleep. Her thoughts continued to swirl in languid circles as her body came to life piece by piece. It was always thus for her. She knew that the workers did not enter torpor as she did, her rest was longer, deeper and took longer to emerge from.

For this reason she tried to rest as little as possible. If something were to happen to her family as she rested, how could she forgive herself? An idle thought stirred vaguely in her mind, if her noisy child were to find out about her lack of rest, surely she would be pestered into sleeping more. If was of vital importance that she conceal her tiredness.

The sensation of change grew stronger as she continued to wake. It was difficult to say exactly what it was, whatever had occurred, had happened within her body, it wasn’t easy to feel the difference when the changes were applied to one’s own mind.

However, a picture was taking shape. The Queen was able to feel her own thoughts moving faster than before. Even half awake, she could sense the change. Her mind felt agile and quick as thoughts moved quicker and things that had seemed complex suddenly seemed simpler, more manageable.

When she had finally awoken, she shifted her body slightly to ensure her body was alright. Then she tried to find out what was happening in her chamber. Her loyal guards tended to her needs and protected her in this space from spawning monsters, it would be horrible if she were to move too quickly and crush them by mistake. The Queen was under no illusions just how much stronger than her children she was.

It was a good thing that she checked before shifting herself, her loyal guard were still here with her, except that they were all resting. All of them! Some of them were even deep in torpor on her back. It was hardly unusual for her children to climb on her back, ensuring that she was clean and defending her from threats spawning overhead, but for them to sink into torpor without first moving to another chamber was unheard of.

What exactly was going on?

Curious, she brought up her status and stared with surprise at the new species listed there. Formica Sapiens? What exactly had happened?

Her antennae twitched slightly with exasperation. This had to be the work of her meddling child. Always with grand ideas and strange plans that somehow worked out, the family would be in a far worse position if not for that one’s meddling. It’s a shame that the smartest of her children would also prove to the most frustrating.

What had they done this time?

"Good! The cores have been formed well and we’ve reinforced them. Don’t look at me like that, special cores are a rare resource for us, don’t be so ungrateful. A little discomfort/extreme pain now, but you’ll be thanking me when you evolve!" a voice echoed from below, followed by several weary groans.

Who do all of these voices belong to? The Queen didn’t recall hearing them before. Other than her meddlesome child of course.

"Let’s go back to the farms. We need to get back to level five as soon as possible. Before the day is done you’ll have completed your first evolution, that’s our schedule. Up and at ’em. Gogogogo!"

At the noisy urging of her meddlesome child a sorry looking cluster of young ants climbed into her chamber from below at what she guessed were the entrances to the ’farms’ that she had been told about.

She wasn’t sure she liked the idea of spawning so many monsters so close to the nest but she had to admit that the Biomass supplied had been more than expected. The repeated harvesting had given her enough Biomass to push for the second set of two hundred eggs as quickly as she had.

causing the young hatchlings to turn towards her

and rushed forward to stand

Mother?!" the meddlesome one yelled and rushed into the chamber, brushing aside the much smaller hatchlings

obvious concern being show by

*THWACK!*

"Ow!"

child? The workers, even myself, have been dragged into torpor. My species has also changed. Can

meddlesome child rubbed at their head with an

the plan to create smarter, more capable workers. The first twenty have hatched and I’ve started training them up. They’ve already formed their cores and are well on the way to their first

If what had been said was true then these twenty young workers

*THWACK!*

"Ouch!"

"And the sleeping?"

the torpor. Well, Mother, it turns out that when these hatchlings were born, the system decided that they were a new species. As the ’creator’ of the new species, I was given the option to

the species of the entire colony was the best option. Different species of ants went to war, this was something she

with her antenna, gently this time, she patted her

me a moment to speak

to be off the hook, her meddlesome child hopped to one side and began herding

Queen looked down on her new children carefully. The twenty hatchlings were clearly smaller than those born before the change, but there was something different about them. A glimmer of light in their eyes, the way they looked about the chamber taking in information and thinking. The Queen was slightly

are you children?"

hatchlings perked up at her words,

"We are well Mother!"

"Absolutely fine!"

"Never better!"

Queen smiled down at them, their bravado

that you are in pain

of her was genuinely concerned to see her children suffering, another part was testing their response. She wanted to understand

twenty spat in unison, sounding almost offended at