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!”

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!

been taken without authorization; if you see it

there are a few things I need to do before I

three pets have been living and fighting down below the main fortress, helping the ants conquer the tunnels beneath. If all has gone well, the passages leading down to the fifth should have been secured by now. Preparations for the grand

my way down through the fortress. In the grand chamber from which we had planned and coordinated our defence against the wave, I am finally reunited with

[Master!] Crinis cries.

[Where the

can hear her, I can sense her, but I sure can’t

[Look down!]

little awkward for me to look down, but I manage it with a little twisting. The moment I lay eyes on my own shadow,

I literally can’t

Crinis… I would like to

was so worried about you, Master! Are you

carapace right now. Surely you can

a fiddle that does

you don’t want to visit

so I can say hello

me go