Chrysalis

Brendant dashed into the depths of the nest, the emergency pheromone trails screaming against her antennae with every step. The brood was in danger! The Queens were under assault! Every nerve in her body was on fire with desperate rage. There wasn't a single ant in the Colony who wouldn't put their life down to protect the brood, including the Eldest, and now they flooded from every inch of the nest toward the breach.

She burst into the egg-laying chamber to find a scene of utter chaos. Without any plan or strategy, the ants were racing forward to throw themselves upon the enemy any way they could. Brood Tenders raced up the walls and dropped down on the golgari from above, biting and tearing with their feeble jaws until they were dispatched by the stone people in short order. That didn't stop others from repeating the action and already the piles of dead and dying ants being dragged out by exhausted medics were growing into hills.

A member of the Council and graduate of the Eldest's own training program, Brendant knew she needed to be calm, needed to take control of the situation and establish some order, only then would the chances of a successful defense be maximized. She knew that. But when she saw the Queen, covered in wounds, thrashing and biting in the midst of the battle, she lost it. Her reasoning fled, replaced by her instinct and the next thing she knew she was face to face with the golgari, her mandibles cracked as she bit again and again.

What had happened?! Where was the Queen!?

She pulled back a moment and lifted her head, desperately seeking her mother amidst the heaving bodies still locked in battle. There! She was there! Somehow, someone had managed to get her to retreat. In glimpses caught through the legs and segments of ants that crawled over the top of each other to grapple with the invaders, she saw the Queen being tended to by healers as she stood, wounded heavily and dripping ichor on the floor.

"Hey-hey! You awake now Brendy?" A scent managed to cut through the chaos long enough for Brendant to catch the meaning.

Vibrant?

"You gotta do better than that Brendy!" her sister chided, "can't go losing your temper just because Mother had to fight. Not like she didn't want to anyway."

her side, the massive and absurdly quick soldier who talked just as fast as she

You look a little beat up,

of her thorax and before she knew

let me go! I

meaningless, musical scent as she continued to haul her wayward sibling out of the fight before dumping her in front of a small team of medics and generals. "Got her out of there finally!" Vibrant cheered, "Get her fixed up alright? She couldn't bite a cheese wheel with her mandibles like that! What have

could barely process the rapid fire words coming out of Vibrant as the healers stepped forward, applying magic and regeneration fluid to her many injuries. Her carapace began to tickle as

finally muttered, "when

so we ran-ran super fast, I don't think I've ever run like that before.

brood?" Brendant was desperate, "What

before hatching, and then above those were the myriad rooms reserved for the larvae. For a brief moment, even the

"Tell me," she said.

a scent rarely detected in her

softly, "several groups of golgari were able to invade the