I’m not overly eager to beco further acquainted with these pests trying to capture my siblings, but an emphatic ssage needs to be sent, and I am just the ant to send it.
Besides, I can’t go down to the fifth and deliver sweet, sweet vengeance to the Krath until I’ve finished matters up here. As much fun as I’ve had squashing delvers into the ground and laughing at them, they aren’t exactly the biggest fish my family is dealing with right now. That title is reserved for the slug tribes of the fifth stratum.
And so, the ti has arrived to sally forth and put an end to this sorry affair once and for all. At least… it would be.
[Why in the na of heck would I bring you lot with ?]
[You don’t have a choice, unless you want to breach the agreent made by your sibling, Solant,] Chyron tells .
Ugghhhh. Lousy Solant. Making her lousy agreents.
[W-what do you even hope to achieve out there? Stop my plan? Tip off Green Mountain and get killed? I have to warn you, trying sothing like that will make a whole lot of people go down with .]
Chyron gives her characteristic scowl while Morrelia and whatshisna look on from behind her. Once they heard I was looking to head back out, they tracked down depressingly quickly.
[We are to observe you,] Chyron stated.
With her full legion armour on, she’s an intimidating individual, or at least, she would be if I didn’t tower over her to a comical degree. I shoot a secretive glance toward Morrelia, but she only gives a hint of a shrug.
[We will be travelling with literal battalions of ants and Colony loyalists,] she says, speaking in her official capacity as a Legion officer. [It’s unlikely we will be able to do anything to you at all. Even if we wanted to.]
That’s true enough. However, I can’t shake the feeling they’re after sothing else entirely.
[Isn’t it a massive waste of ti to have a Legion commander and her two highest ranking officers follow around? I thought we were in the middle of a global crisis or sothing.]
Chyron folds her arms, looking even more grouchy than usual.
[Part of that erging global crisis is the existence of your family, and the existence of a giant ant monster who is experiencing the Call. Keeping an eye on the situation is the least we should do.]
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[Us? We’ve been nothing but helpful,] I scoff.
I will conveniently not think of so occasions where the Colony, or I, have been sowhat less than helpful. Judging by her face, the commander is equally as aware of those occasions as I am. Even so, she’s hardly being fair. The Colony has done a heck of a lot of helpful stuff! Not for the Legion, though.
[Fine, you can tag along, just try not to be too annoying or sche to bring about my death. Alright?]
[No promises,] Chyron says, then turns her back to coordinate with her officers.
Sheesh. There’s no helping so people. Well, at least that’s the only group I need to worry about following around. Ti to get out of here.
“Uh, Eldest? Is this a good mont?”
Wha? Who the heck?! I swing my antennae about, wondering who on Pangera is talking to . A mont later I recognise the scent and realise my antennae are completely useless in this instance.
“Protectant? Where the heck have you been?”
Not going to lie, I haven’t missed my protection detail. Usually I end up just worrying about them since they are much weaker than I am. What are they supposed to do to help against the things that I find dangerous? Making sure they aren’t in harm's way has just beco another chore for , but I suppose it helps keep the rest of the Colony happy knowing that there’s soone out there watching .
“Just like you, we had to evolve in order to survive our exposure to the toxin of Theorazzn. It was a long process to evolve, and it’s taken us so ti to adjust to our new forms.”
Ah, right. They did actually save my life by taking on so of the toxin. Maybe I shouldn’t look down on them as much anymore.
“So you guys are tier seven now? Good stuff. What sort of evolution did you end up going with? Wait, did you get purified like I did?”
Hopefully they didn’t get stuck with so gross, slimy, toxic evolution. I’d feel terrible if that happened because of .
“We were cleansed shortly after you were,” Protectant assures . “Of course, the contamination still had an effect on our evolution, as I’m sure it did to yours.”
“Turned out to be pretty helpful, to tell you the truth. Well, why don’t you pop out so I can have a look at you?”
There’s a mont of hesitation.
“I would… rather not. I’ve only made contact so that you are aware we are back and ready to fulfil our purpose again.”
“That doesn’t an I can’t take a look at you, does it? Unless… wait. You took one of those super weird evolutions, didn’t you?”
“We took an evolution that suits our purpose,” Protectant replies defensively. “We are very happy with it.”
Holy moly. Have they beco a formless entity, or so sort of weird… collective brain thing? I’ve been offered so really odd evolutions in my ti, goodness knows what they ended up with.
“I’m guessing it helps keep you hidden?”
“... Sort of.”
These answers are too cryptic for my liking. I’m starting to think I don’t even want to see what they’ve beco.
“Alright, I’ll leave you be for now. Welco back to you and the gang.”
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