Chrysalis

I can already hear the fighting. The sounds of clashing steel and snapping mandibles tug at my claws and I have to force myself to resist charging blindly into the fray like a shinier, much smarter Leeroy. Keeping myself so still has never been so hard before. Then again, the only member of my family that I know was exposed to danger in my previous life was myself. In Pangera, I have thousands of siblings exposed to terrible danger almost every day. It's enough to drive a person nuts.

The Vestibule makes my situation even worse, but if I focus then I can filter out their whispers.

We have a plan and I'm going to stick to it. When the fighting gets hot here at the gate, I'm going to be right in the thick of it, which is where I want to be. At the front gate, the lead force of a few thousand is busy putting the Legion through their paces using all of the same tricks and tactics that we spent on them the first time around. River of acid, magic barrage, the works. They'll have to fight their way through all of it a second time before they even get through the first gate. By the time they reach me here, I'm hoping that they'll be all tuckered out and want to quit and go home.

More likely they'll be mad as hell and wanting to carve me into itty bitty pieces but at the very least they'll have worked to get here. The ants and humans on this side of the picture need every edge we can get.

"How confident are you, Eldest?" Advant asks.

The powerful soldier stands next to me in the dark, her antennae twitching in a rarely seen sign of nerves.

"We're going to win," I tell her with certainty, "we're ants. What can they possibly do against us?"

"They've managed to bottle us up in our nest and destroy the outer gate."

"Bah. Just a flesh wound."

"You nearly got cut in half."

said, just a flesh

in half is just a

perfectly fine now

A beat.

you're saying the Colony might get cut in half but we'll

I'm saying

…

"I think so too."

the Colony stir. It's not like we can keep our scent conversation private from them, not that I felt any need. I truly believe that we will win. My family has been incredible from the

BOOM!

gap that rapidly widens as more of my siblings push it open as they retreat. It looks like the line has buckled at the first gate, a bit

to work their magic. The air is tense now as we watch and wait for the enemy to show their faces. It takes longer than

in particularly bad shape. That mad man managed to cut through the damn

into a fight other than the one we've prepared

are you holding up

crazy, one-armed human I reach out to him with my mind and initiate a conversation. Inwardly, I brace myself for what may come of it. If he doesn't shout at me, I'll take it as

eagerly await the coming contest. We hope that in a few hours, the Colony will be freed from this threat and able to once more pursue its

mean. He sounds calm, but the words are

of destiny you have

sort of curious to learn what he thinks this rapidly swelling pile of monster ants