"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.]
had indeed been amazing. Six mage ants had surrounded the base of the huge metal construction, lined with bricks, reinforced stone and enchanted on the inside to resist the insane temperatures.
molten slurry of impurities that had bonded to the limestone, and out the other had poured the liquid iron
here, time to go meet a
the huge furnace area, picking my way between the many rows of smelters, furnaces
ring of hammers and the tang of metal vibrate through my antennae as we enter, the tunnels around us alive with 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 done, fine wires of various metals intertwined and experimented on to see how well they handle delicate enchantments, as well as more massive projects, like gates for
every ant at work and see what they might be up to, asking questions and
then, we need to move a
bit of needling I manage to drag the little one away 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
doing,
massive frame looming over her workstation
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
waves of 'meh' energy from Tiny once I explain what she wants. Just
for him," I tell her,
kept you alive. As in, you know, not dead?! Would you rather
for a moment. Then another
this long, moron!] I screech at him. [Just how low did you take your intelligence on this evolution? You
a thumbs up, a wide, confident grin
stare at
high is
He raises two fingers.
lower than I left you with… but still kept it
back to
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