Chrysalis

The return of the Eldest after their brief time apart from the Colony was a momentous event. Throughout the history of our kind, it was always the Eldest who acted as the catalyst of change, the arbour of progress. As we grew in strength, wisdom and capability, there was danger of complacency, of waste and inefficiency as we followed a thousand different trails of knowledge to their fruitless conclusions. Instead, at the critical moment, the Eldest brought us firm paths on which we were only just becoming ready to tread, new ideas to throw our burgeoning industry forward and expand our imaginations.

Most importantly of all, they brought us enemies against which we could test ourselves, obstacles that we had to strive to overcome. This contention is not universally accepted amongst my siblings, but it is my belief that every action they undertook was deliberate and calculated, that they forged the Colony like a smith-ant forges metal, alternating the guidance of their hammer with the intense heat of the forge. In this conflict, we would be forced to purify our conceptual understanding of what we were and how we were to function. To become something even greater, stronger and more ambitious than before. All the while, the Eldest was there, watching over us, guiding us in the right direction. The Eldest saw the beginning and the end of our journey all at once. Only they saw what it was that we would become.

Excerpt from 'Development of the Colony: The first age' by Historiant

SHASHIFRASS!

I'm up! Boy, I really needed a bit of torpor, more than I thought I did. I feel refreshed! I stretch out my antennae and flick my legs in a few different directions, finishing off with a few short hops to get the joints lubricated. Nice. Maybe I should implement this as a sort of morning exercise for the colony? A healthy body and a healthy mind leads to a healthy society! Perhaps they could set up some of those pheromone speakers for this purpose?

The image of millions of monstrous ants, lined up in row upon row, performing morning jazzer-cise blooms in my mind and I almost fall over laughing.

[Is everything alright, Master?]

[Gah! Crinis?! I actually forgot you were there for a second…]

a

become your second skin? I told you I'd never part with

natural? In fact, in what way is any part of Crinis natural? She looks like a nightmare born when another nightmare went to sleep. In order to keep her happy, I'll

than peak, optimum condition can be accepted. Before

stupid ghost ant signals creep up on me all the time is really getting on my nerves! I'm determined to work out exactly what is giving this strange feeling. I feel like someone is trying to pull one over on

out core, I'll need to try and source the rest of the cores I need either out in the Dungeon,

the thousands of ants congregating throughout the nest. I'm going to find you, you damn flickers! They must be ants who are causing it, some sort of sneaky

AHA!

disturbance in the tunnel ahead of

DASH!

my way. Oho! The flicker

that I'm getting closer! Any second now and you will receive

Eldest, I didn't

behind a bend up ahead, Advant steps smartly forward, cutting off my path. I hop slightly and land with all six legs dug into the ground to slow my advance as my momentum causes me to dig deep furrows in the ground. I manage

heck did you come from?" I