"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.]
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. When it came time to heat it,
poured the liquid iron which would be carted away to mould into ingots. It was then that I caught the hatchling trying to get
enough hanging around here, time to go meet a
rows of smelters, furnaces and tracks for bins laden
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
eyes, rushing this way and that to inspect every ant at work and 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
we need to move
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 insane
doing, you metal
looming
my most successful customer! How did you like that armour I made for you, eh? I heard it worked out perfectly! Are you looking
Tiny once I explain what she wants. Just looking at the bland expression
it for
you alive. As in, you know, not dead?! Would you rather
moment. Then another moment. Then
I screech at him. [Just how low did you take your intelligence on
and gives me a thumbs up, a wide,
at
how high
He raises two fingers.
you with… but still kept it above the minimum I set… If
back to
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