Chrysalis

Stepping off the ship and onto the shore is such a relief, I can barely put it into words. The Will of the Colony thrums through me once again, and I have to say, it feels right. The family is buzzing with industrious energy. Thousands of individuals are filled with the desire to work and improve the outlook for the next generation.

It’s positively motivating to get that sort of can-do attitude pumped directly into your Nave. All my negativity and self-doubt is blown away in an instant. The Colony knows no doubt! The Colony does not wallow in self-pity! We’re a collective, we move forward together!

Front foot forward! Then the other front foot. Follow that up with one of the middle legs, then the other. Usually, but not necessarily, the back leg goes after that. Either one, once you get the hang of it.

After all of the ants and the rest of their tools have disembarked, we farewell the fleet and watch as the brathians submerge their ships beneath the waves once more. I’m sure we’ll be catching up with them again at some point, but for now they’ve gone to count their coin and do… aquatic things, I suppose. I don’t know what they do down there. When they aren’t swimming.

Ah, to be amongst the ants once more. It isn’t right to be in a city that isn’t designed for people who can walk on walls. I don’t care how shiny their silver is. Once I step inside the gates, pointedly ignoring the carved likeness of myself adorning the surface, I am immediately embraced by the throng. There are thousands of ants rushing hither and thither, seeing to the millions of tasks that keep the fortress and the broader family at large prospering.

And how happy they are to see me! Listen to their cries of welcome!

“No more rest, Eldest! You’ve been slacking for weeks!”

“Out of the way, Eldest! You take up half of the road!”

“Back for a few minutes and you still haven’t found some work to do? Laziness!”

“You can’t possibly be serious! I’ve been working hard out there, dammit!”

“Are you working right now?”

“Well, no, but I just got back!”

“Slacking!”

real changes in here. What had been a great fortress underway before I left has really had the rough edges smoothed out. Things are positively commodious in here now. I think they’ve even installed some form of heating in the floors. My claws feel positively toasty! Or maybe the smelters are one

authorization; if you see it on Amazon,

siblings, there are a few things I need to do before I leap into my next task, namely catching up with the

all has gone well, the passages leading down to the fifth should have been secured by now. Preparations

to the crafters who’ve shared the journey with me, I take my leave and begin to make my way down through the fortress. In the grand chamber from which we had

[Master!] Crinis cries.

[Where

can sense her, but I sure can’t see

[Look down!]

with a little twisting. The moment I lay eyes on my own shadow, a forest of tentacles emerge, wrapping themselves around me until I’m wrapped up tighter than

mean… I literally

there, Crinis… I would like to be

so worried about you, Master! Are

are covering my entire carapace right

fiddle that does yoga. Seriously! Calm down a

sure you don’t want to visit my secret

so

eventually she lets me go. Well, lets me go enough