Chrysalis

I have to wonder what the minders are doing whilst Sarah and I engage in a mental conversation. I mean, are they listening in? I suppose it's possible. I can't sense them at all, but I suppose that isn't any sort of guarantee, considering their higher Skill levels. Perhaps this is all just part of their research, learning about people like me and our monstrous transformations. I can't afford to care too much about it, since this is such a rare opportunity.

Perhaps I've been away from the colony for too long. It's nice to have a conversation with someone who is able to reciprocate my human culture. I've still spent longer as a human than as an ant after all, and the humans I've met here on Pangera have been … a bit odd, let's put it that way. Sarah on the other hand, seems quite normal, all things considered. Despite freely acknowledging being a bit unbalanced, she comes across as well spoken and measured.

[I wasn't always this steady,] she confides, [in the first few years it was rough, as I'm sure you know. After my … death … on Earth, and being reborn here… It's hard at the start. You know what I mean.]

[You're referring to the terror and existential dread of having to fight for survival in a strange world of death?]

[Exactly that.]

[Yes, I recall. I mean, I was a tiny little ant monster. Just about every monster I saw was able to rip me apart. You started out as a bear! It can't have been that bad.]

It's odd to think of a bear giving you the stink eye, especially a giant, elephant sized bear with a distended maw that housed teeth as long as a human forearm, but here we are.

[Look, Anthony, I didn't start this size. I didn't even start as a fully grown bear. I was a cub! A little harmless bear cub!]

I'm immediately suspicious.

[Just a cub eh? A harmless little fuzzy ball of fluff, with the claws, and the fangs. How large were you exactly? Somehow I don't think you were just an average, Earth sized cub…]

[I … might have been a touch larger than normal.]

[Just a touch, huh?]

not like you were a normal sized

a regular sized ant?! Not to mention, I was born outside of my colony! Without it's colony, a regular ant will die in

that so? I wonder

never turn down the chance to educate

they work together. One ant is not capable of surviving, it needs its

[So… ants are weak?]

creatures who are mutually dependent on each

an ant on its own can't

[Not the point!]

Anthony,] Sarah laughed

in my non-existent shoulders. It helps a lot that Sarah is such

such weird pets. No

He's not another insect

will brook no competition for

I don't want to ruin the surprise. They'll probably bring him out to meet you next time. They

my antennae into the air a

I've been informed that I'll be fighting to the death against other monsters that they've nurtured. It doesn't seem like they're being all that

huffs with irritation, sending a cloud of

to the second strata. I was lonely, blood crazed and starving. The isolation and constant fighting starts to chip away

I was curious

At the time I was so on edge and ready to fight, the first time they made contact through a mind bridge and tried to talk with me I went completely mental. I thrashed around, trying to find them but they just backed off and waited until I calmed down before they tried again. It took them three days before I was able to talk back to them,

blender now? Seems like there has been a clear

just won't talk to me,] Sarah huffs, clearly frustrated, [I've been told that I won't be part of the 'selection' but that they still consider me