Chrysalis

The Queen crunched her demon prey with satisfaction. A strange, bladed creature, the monster had put up quite a fight before she’d been able to overpower it. There was something so gratifying about hunting for her own Biomass. She doubted she would ever get tired of it.

“This area isn’t secure, Mother. We shouldn’t tarry for long.”

There was something else that she was definitely tired of, though.

“We are perfectly safe, my child,” she gently reminded the soldier charged with managing her security today. Her antennae waved to indicate the area around them. “We are secure within the borders of the Colony. There are cities held by our family in every direction. What harm can possibly come to us?”

Indeed, the Queen was suffering from the overprotective nature of her children even more than usual lately. She insisted on her daily hunts, but the restrictions they tried to put on her grew more onerous by the day. The area she’d been limited to held only meagre prey, and wasn’t large enough to replenish between hunts. What’s more, it was bordered on all sides by Colony strongholds. She was literally surrounded by armies of her children.

She’d even begun to suspect they were combing the hunting grounds to prune out any creatures that they thought might be too dangerous.

She was a patient creature, the Queen, filled with love and acceptance of her children’s quirks, but even she had limits.

“I think I’ll head somewhere different and continue my hunt,” she announced, “I am not yet satisfied with the Biomass I have collected.”

Indeed, it was difficult for her to gain sufficient food on these trips, since there were so few higher tier demons.

and looked at

return back to the nest right

time. You are not

of abandoning you!” She paused after her outburst to steady herself. “Uh. Where would

where she went, there were likely to be a thousand family members sweeping the place clean before she got there.

and sanitised areas of the third stratum. That is, every

think I’ll head down through the tunnels to the layer below. I hear there are strong

the Queen began walking toward the nearest tunnel entrance. There was a little lift in

Mother! You can’t go

than wide enough, I know that many have been working

home here. Constructing wide and safe pathways was always a priority for the

evolving, which may mean she was no longer the largest ant in the Colony. That was likely a good thing. If the children started to make roads even larger to accommodate that danger magnet,

mean!” her guard protested. “That area

even the first eggs were laid. I know how to take care of myself, or retreat

she could get there. She didn’t mind, she couldn’t race faster than them anyway. In the short time they had before she arrived, there

I mean, Mother! There has been word of great danger brewing in the layers below! Powerful