Chrysalis

The tunnels are a complete mess. Huge cracks run through the stone and sections are collapsing all over the place. Before we even meet up with the main group, I know what's taken place. The moment I came under attack, the message was passed to enact the ambush on the Golgari in the other tunnel.

No point allowing the two groups of rock-people to reunite and fight together. Decisive action was called for. I objected to the Colony going to head to head against such a powerful enemy, but the other members of the council assured me that they had another strategy in mind. Which turned out to be collapsing the tunnel on top of the enemies' heads. Using earth mages and our natural predilection to tunnel digging, the council was able to arrange a fairly broad tunnel collapse in a matter of hours. After the stone came down, the ants moved in to fight whatever they could find, taking advantage of the less than ideal state of their opponents.

The fact that the armoured Golgari, the 'nobles', were in the center of the column would have played to our advantage. They should've taken the brunt of the fall, and been too far from the front to be in a position to fight the ants when they charged. Somehow, I doubt they died. With their Skills, armour and doubtlessly potent true skin, if anyone was going to survive a tunnel collapse it would be them. All the more reason to get ourselves out of here.

"Eldest! What a glorious injury you've received! I'm jealous…"

"Leeroy, you idiot. You're looking disappointingly healthy."

"I was unable to find an enemy during the battle. I wanted to start unearthing the Golgari but the others stopped me."

Her antennae droop sadly as she talks of saving the lives of our enemies, only so that she could end them in person.

"I'm tired, Leeroy. What did you want?"

"Right! The others were wondering if you wanted to discuss what was going to happen next? It's a little up in the air, from what I gather."

Up in the air? Why the heck would it be up in the air? Let's go home! Irritated, I drag my still regenerating backside around the tunnel until I find the other council members gathered in a huddle.

"What the heck is going on here?" I demand. "We need to get away from this place and go back to the nest! Why am I hearing about discussions regarding our 'plans'?"

The others make room for me as I barge forward, my larger frame taking up much of the room. Only the tier four soldiers can rival me for size but even they fall short of my bulk and I loom over the council. When I think about it, my eyes are probably at a similar height level to that of a tall human, my third body segment actually being the 'tallest' part of my body. It's in length that my true mass lies and I'm a fairly chunky ant at this point.

"Obviously the plan is to get back to the nest," Burke explains patiently, "but we need to do it in such a way that we don't get followed. At the very least we need to make tracking us as difficult as possible. The more time we can buy for the Colony to grow, the better."

Actually, that's a damn good point.

keep going without using pheromones?" I

My scouts rely on those trails to move around and ensure that they stay on safe paths! We don't have mind magic to communicate, and it's too risky to drag a mage that far away from the main group. Long range scouting is basically impossible without

starting to see the

order to ensure we don't

Burke agrees, "but we can't really afford to slow

us once we ceased using our pheromones. Without that knowledge, it's impossible

of the prisoners said anything?"

"They won't even

two new Golgari you brought back with

even

have my

bet. No, I'm not going to question them on anything that might be considered a betrayal of their own people. To be honest, I'm not even sure why they were sent with us. I'll have to work that out with them later. For now, let's put our antennae together and work

and move as quickly as possible. To that end, it's agreed that the main group

we slow ourselves down too much worrying about something we don't understand, we're only shooting ourselves in the

"Right you are, Eldest."

"Sounds good!"

I'm going to try and finish

I pull away from the group to go find my pets. Predictably they're hanging out with Corun and Torrina, both of whom seem a little stunned to be where they've ended up. As I painfully crawl over, I whip up a mind bridge and extend it to both of

you what he was going to do, did

and turns her head to find me amongst

he didn't. I kind of had a feeling

did?!] Corun cries. [You might have said something.

a

he would leave you behind?] I ask. [This is hardly a wonderful place to be for you guys.

thinks for a moment before she replies, the gleaming metal of her skin