"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaait!"
I won't. I'm running for it. With a great leap, I fly into the air, over the heads of the ant-robed people and crash back down to the ground. My legs creak under the strain, but I care not, forcing myself to sprint as soon as I can.
"WAIT FOR ME, GREAT OOOOONNNEEE!!!"
It's not happening, you mad priest. I barely talk to you and now people are wearing strange robes and following me around like secret service. A few more conversations and you'll have newborn babies dressed up as larvae, and people will start trying to carry me around on a palanquin or something… Actually the baby thing sounds cute…
No! I'll be strong! DASH!
I kick up a huge cloud of dust and just like that, I leave the humans and Beyn floundering in my wake as I run for the hill. The sweet mana, it calls to me! As do the more reasonable behaviours of my family members. I'd rather talk to Leeroy than exchange words with that nutty priest. My time in the town was certainly interesting, and it's nice to know that the Colony still has a strong ally in Enid, even if some of the more recent arrivals don't look quite as favourably on us. I can't help but feel a little disgruntled about that. Who saved all their lives, bore the brunt of the horde attack, and is even helping them build their town to this very day? Sheesh.
sweet blue light of mana infuses my body and I breathe a sigh of relief as the drain from my core slows significantly. With constant application of external mana manipulation, it's possible for me to slowly replenish my reserves in the first strata, a thought which unwinds the unconscious knot of tension in the back
but it's always there, the sense of impending death prodding away at your mind. I'm not a fan. Which is
I make my way through the nest, trying to make space for the many hatchlings and others that I share these more cramped tunnels with. Those tricky
to the brood chambers, where hundreds of pupae line dozens of chambers, each lovingly cared for by their brood tenders.
them. "Hope things are going well. I've seen the designs for the new nests
They cry in
to pick
can feel Crinis shift on my carapace as I speak, but she chooses to remain silent.
say, "but we heard you had arrived
leave this sort of thing
in the floor and down into what used to be the space reserved for myself, Tiny and Crinis. Just as the nest below ground has expanded,
Crinis glooped on me, I fill the space in a way I never did before. Which brings me uncomfortably close to the
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