Chrysalis

When the noise finally died down, Isaac pulled his hands from over his ears and slowly, very slowly, opened his eyes.

The first thing he felt… was relief that the roof hadn’t collapsed on top of him. A good start. Next came the relief that his legs hadn’t fallen off or been crushed, they were simply numb from the incessant shaking of the floor.

Wins all around. Isaac was beginning to hold out hope that his moustache hadn’t fallen straight off his face from the stress, but he deliberately didn’t reach up to check. He wasn’t ready to find out his suspicions were correct after all.

Soundly convinced that he was (sans moustache) in one, sound piece, he began to turn his attention to everyone else.

“Hello! Ant cavalry, sound off!”

He got a few muffled calls, some groans and a few swear words for his efforts. The air was thick with dust and he could barely see ten metres in front of himself.

There must have been a collapse somewhere in the chamber to kick up all this mess; he could only hope nobody not covered in a second skin of minerals had been caught underneath. Confident he wouldn’t get much more out of his human squad mates, he turned to pheromones and called out again.

“Ant cavalry? Who can smell this?”

“How are you, Captain Isaac?”

“Doing well over here!”

“That was something interesting, wasn’t it?”

“Finished napping, then? Ready to get to work?”

“Anyone else want some biscuits and tea when we get back to the ship?”

“Stop slacking, Captain!”

made his way toward them and found the ants had already collected their less active riders and deposited them in a line of sorry-looking sods. Covered in

They were rattled by what had just happened. And why wouldn’t they be? The mountain had been rattled, so

hands. Most were able to acknowledge him, some were able to get

we get a mage to clear this dust?” he asked one of the ants. “It’s as thick as me mam’s porridge, even

has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any

Most of them are clearing out the rock, but I’m sure

ant scuttled off while Isaac wondered just what she’d meant when she said they were ‘clearing out the rock’.

Luckily, the area occupied by the trade mission was undamaged. The brathian merchants were there, along with Eran and her family. The ants were also safe, though most of them had relocated to where

the room which led to the exit. Ants were crawling all over the rubble now, doing their best to clear a pathway. Isaac saw immediately what the problem was. With so few

Isaac headed over to see what he could

met his offer with

shift some rock… I suppose?”

move rock with those? They

rock,” he snapped, reaching down

it. However, he couldn’t put it down now, so he

out. “Don’t underestimate the

holding up one of her front legs and snipping

that, but it wasn’t really something he kept in the forefront of his mind.

know what happened?” he

Eldest,” a chorus of them

long enough to know that, but he’d hoped for

to have a little more knowledge about why