Chrysalis

“Hah! I like the way you think. What do you reckon, Sloan? Fancy adding a floating fortress to our arsenal?”

The general looks a little sour, but can’t quite manage to conceal the excitement quivering through her antennae.

“It would allow us to do a lot. A mobile defensive platform. We could use it to fend off other islands that attack the mountain, or launch attacks against our enemies. I can’t deny it would be extremely useful to have, Eldest.”

“It sure would. Shame we can’t get one for the moment.”

Both Solant and Sloan droop at my words, their antennae slumping to the ground.

“Be a little realistic, you two,” I scold them. “That dragon has a stronger core than I do, and in case you don’t remember, it flies. I can get up there, but I’m not exactly graceful. There’s no guarantee that I’d be able to win and seize the island for us. Besides all of that, don’t we have enough on our plates right now without having to take and operate our own flying castle?”

“The carvers would kill us if we asked them to fortify an entire island right now,” Sloan sighs. “They still haven’t completed work on this mountain to anything like their own satisfaction. There’s whole sections which haven’t been touched since the termite occupation.”

“Right. It’s a great idea, Solant, but we need to put things in order. Finish work on the mountain, fend off the wave, then we can look toward getting into the skies.”

The little general nods as if agreeing with me, but I can tell her little brain is still ticking over. Good. She’s meant to be an independent thinker. Doing whatever the ‘Eldest’ tells them is a weakness the rest of the Colony has fallen into a little too readily for my taste.

dealt with, we may as well repeat our previous exercise a couple times. We’ll rotate around the mountain, doing a different segment with each run. Just like before, I’ll flatten

Eldest,” Solant agrees, a little absent-mindedly, and I’m tempted to administer a thwack, but

next few hours, giving me a break in between to recharge my mana and Vestibule,

like a little sponge, constantly twitching this way and that as thoughts spark in her mind. She seems

Know thy enemy, eh?

the

“... You’re very strong.”

knew that, right? Nono, surely you

have a few ideas, Eldest, but I want to think on them a little more,

don’t have time for

Aren’t we

done when there’s a wave on! Besides, did you think this was the

up the mountainside are only a portion of those the Colony is fighting off, the rest are swarming below ground, filling up the tunnels and

somewhere. Eventually, we’re going to see an assault by the toxic murder creatures from below. In fact, it may

is where the real battle is! As it should be!

we arrive at a grand, central chamber in the bowels of the mountain. From here, Victor has been

scouts rush between my legs. “What can I do to

way! Go!” The beleaguered general points with one antenna and I turn to see a flood of