"Explain to me please, why you would ever think that sticking your head into a blast furnace would be a good idea?" I demanded of the hatchling, still dangling from one of Crinis' tentacles.
"I wanted to see what it looked like inside!" she protests.
"Inside? Inside is nothing but fire, superheated gas and liquid metal!"
"REALLY?!" she goggles at me. "Sounds awesome!"
"Yes," I nod sagely, "it IS awesome. It will also melt your face off and you will be dead."
"And that's…. Bad?" she asks.
My mandibles clack together slowly.
"Do you need more time out?"
"… I do not."
"Then tell me that it would be bad if you died."
"It would be bad if I died."
"Good."
 
[Put her down Crinis.]
 bricks, reinforced stone and enchanted on the inside to resist the insane temperatures. When it came time to heat
 and out the other had poured the liquid iron which would be carted away to mould into ingots. It was then that I caught the hatchling trying to
 here, time to go meet a particular carver and say
 out of the huge furnace area, picking my way between the many rows of smelters, furnaces and tracks for bins laden with ore as we walk into
 the reverberations of steel on steel. Nestled throughout these tunnels are the many workshops of the Colony, producing the various goods required by the ants and our allies. There's delicate work being
 see what they might be up to, asking questions and generally being a pest. I tolerate it for a little while, but we have a schedule to keep and there's
 on then, we need to move a little
 in order to find the workshop of a particular carver who I'd promised I'd come and meet at some point after I'd evolved. I find the insane ant hard at work at her forge, heating metal with
 How are you doing, you
 turns to see my massive frame looming over her workstation and clacks
 your visit for a long time! And Tiny! Welcome back, my most successful customer! How did you like that armour I made for you, eh? I heard it worked out perfectly! Are you looking to get it reforged now that you've evolved into a
 I'm getting massive waves of 'meh' energy from Tiny once I explain what she
 it for him," I tell her,
 not dead?! Would you rather be dead,
 a moment. Then another moment.
 moron!] I screech at him. [Just how low did you take your intelligence on this
 nods and gives me a thumbs up, a wide, confident grin splitting his
 stare at him
 how high
He raises two fingers.
 you with… but still kept it above the minimum I
 turn back
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