Chrysalis

Despite receiving the justice of my mother, I stoically endured her disapproving gaze for as long as I could manage in order to tickle grubs. Their joyful wiggles warmed my heart even as I quailed inside, anticipating another THWACK at any moment. In the end, I could only hold out for ten minutes before I slunk from the chamber, only to find myself in even more sacred territory, the egg laying room!

Victoriant and Antionette look up at me in surprise as I crawl down through a gap in the ceiling.

"Eldest! What are you doing here?"

"Oh, you know me. Just checking in on everyone and seeing how things are going."

"He's avoiding work," the Queen calls out as she enters the chamber after me.

The two younger Queens give each other a brief look.

"The Eldest? Avoiding work? Surely you jest Mother!"

"Such a thing is impossible!"

The two of them laugh together and I hasten to cut Mother off before she can destroy my reputation. What can I use to distract her?!

"Ah! Is that Aphy the aphid Queen I see? She's gotten big!"

It's true, in one corner of the egg laying chamber, a much larger than before aphid Queen is nibbling on some Biomass next to her own little pile of eggs, looking very pleased with herself.

"Yes, she evolved not that long ago," the Queen can't help but rush over to dote on her pet with pats and scritches. "I wasn't sure about bringing her down to this Strata, but in the end I felt a lot more comfortable when she's somewhere I can keep an eye on her. You do like to get up to mischief, don't you Aphy?"

"Chirrup!"

a noise of delight as it leans into the Queen's antenna

tenders take care of the aphid young

the hatchlings do, and each aphid will pay the colony back far more Biomass that we spend on Aphy to get

is going well in the

far more useful than that," the Queen tells me warmly, still radiating affection towards her pet, "they've been spread

FOUR!?

own that much

expansion happened pretty quickly," Antionette muses. "The Generals, Soldiers and Scouts were super excited about it. They were all fired up every time they found

A thousand?! But why?!

confirms, "I think

were getting carried

are there, right now?" I ask. "The number can't be that high, can

of reflective silence as the three gathered Queens ponder for

know, child, I'm not exactly sure," Mother answers me. "I haven't been keeping count…

I can get a rough sense of how many are in range of the Vestibule, but I

move around the nest, someone must be keeping

off any longer. I limber up my legs and make

asks, barely concealed amusement peppering her

work never ends, as well you

she muses before turning back to pat

teach them a few things. I need to catch

of me as well.

hard at work. It takes a few hours but I'm able to demonstrate the new techniques I've learned