Colonies in my mind (Quills!)

[Anonymous]

"When you have as many free spirited daughters as I did, you have to learn how to command." She tried to pass it off as nothing, as if it were just some thing she did. She didn't want Hasea to think she was bragging, so if she didn't see it as a big deal, Hasea shouldn't either...right? She sometimes forgot how these things worked, but no one could blame her. She wasn't human after all!

"It certainly is...good that it isn't attacking us at least." It was kind of adorable in her opinion. Some massive colossus just sitting there like a dog or something...kind of like Daze. She felt more kin to it because it was an insect, but...she was also a lot like Hasea so...she just wasn't sure really. "If we had...some sort of saddle it might be easier but...then again who knows if it would listen. We should probably not...try that." As fun as it would be of course, and no doubt it would be a lot faster...plus if they needed shelter it could just stand over them and cast a shadow. It would be incredibly useful but...

It would probably try to eat them.

"That...is probably the best idea...but I still wonder what...what it was doing here." Idly she began to walk toward her, her eyes focused on the large creature before her, mind stretching out to touch it once more. "Why are you here?" She thought to it, wondering if it would even understand. It probably didn't have a concept of language, but pictures would have to do...either that or...feelings. Some insects didn't have the proper concept of keeping memories, at least, not regular memories. They kept the most basic memories...favourite foods, favourite spots to go, what to avoid, and were able to convey that in basic instinctual feelings. She hoped that this one at least could use pictures.

[Anonymous]

"Wow... My mother... Wasn't that forceful... Well... I don't think she was... She'd be... She'd be... Like me... Wouldn't she?" mused Hasea, never sure what was a real memory and what was an imaginary scenario she'd made up to replace what was lost. She remembered her mother as warm, and softly-spoken, and smelling slightly of fresh soil... But anything else was a mystery, and she was sure at least some of that had managed to get mixed up with Sesselav anyway, which complicated things. Lost in thought, she pondered this a little longer, keeping half an eye on her friend to make sure everything continued to be all right.

As if guided, the creature thought of her eggs, nestled safely in the square corner of a large cave under the sand. It wasn't perfect, being far too smooth for her liking, and not nearly round or cosy enough, but it was dug out ready and was always there when she needed it.

She bristled for a moment, ready to protect her brood from these interlopers, then relaxed again. They wouldn't hurt them, she felt, not sure just how she came to that conclusion. But they were safe enough and friendly, and that idea meant they were all right to have around, however strange the idea itself seemed. Plus, the smaller insect was in charge. If she thought about it too long it was really weird that she was letting herself be bossed about by something so tiny, but it just felt like the most natural thing in the world to do what she was told. So she'd keep doing it.

[Anonymous]

"Well, you're very relaxed and easy going Hasea, so she probably didn't need to be very forceful." The queen told her friend with a smile. It made sense to her of course, Hasea had probably been very well behaved after all. At least, she could hope that was how her friend had been before these insects in her mind. She couldn't really...handle the idea of her having been completely different and now she was...completely changed.

Sesselav could only smile slightly as the creature thought of why it was here. It was guarding eggs! It was a mother then, and it wanted to just protect its young. That made her hearts swell just a little bit at the thought. She understood why the creature had been both hungry and defensive.

"She, as I have discovered, is guarding her eggs. She's just a mother protecting her young. It has probably been here for a very long time protecting them." Sesselav said as she turned to talk to Hasea, smiling a little bit. He still wondered just what was under the sands here. If this spider had found something...what else might be here? "Under the sands. Show me under the sands." Sesselav thought, sending the thought out to the large creature. She wished it had a name, and that it was much more intelligent but...this would do for now really! They could name it later after all.

[Anonymous]

Hasea nodded half-heartedly at Sesselav's assertion. That... Was probably right, wasn't it? She had the faintest of suspicions that she hadn't been the perfect daughter, but then such a person probably didn't exist. So it was all right to not be her... She hoped, anyway.

A joyous grin lit up her face when her friend told her what the creature was doing here. Guarding eggs! How wonderful! That meant there'd be lots and lots of little giant monsters running around the desert someday, which if she thought a tiny bit harder about it probably wouldn't be such a good thing... Or so little... But right now it sounded absolutely lovely that such a terrifying thing could be so motherly. Those baby spiders were so lucky.

The creature shifted uncomfortably at the continuing psychic effect, not used to having to do so much thinking all at once. An image of going through the sand was in her head but not in front of her eyes and that was weird, and now the image was down past the sand to... What? Blackness? Well, yes, blackness and – her mind filled in the missing gap, a large square space underneath the desert, her eggs piled in a corner against the wall. Branching off from the main cave were lots of smaller square spaces, maybe passages to other caves? She didn't know for sure, since she was too big to fit into them and the cave walls were aggravatingly hard, too hard to dig through. But she'd never seen or smelt or felt food down there, so it wasn't like she was missing anything.

[Anonymous]

She really did hope that her friend had been very relaxed and very...much like herself now. Just with a better memory. That was the only thing she really wanted to change about Hasea. Oh and the swarm being gone but that was really just a given wasn't it? Still, she was sure that Hasea was just like this in her former life before the swarm...she had to be.

She was very glad to see her friend's face light up. It made her very happy when she saw that her friend was happy, which happened a lot considering this was Hasea.

Sesselav carefully listened to the large creature as she told her about the underground. There was...something more down there? It was...there was something big down there. This seemed like something that they probably shouldn't ignore. Just because it was an adventure and all that. She liked the idea of going down there and seeing what was there. "There's...there's a big cave system under the sands it...it looks made by people." The ant woman said as she turned to look at her friend. "Should we try to go down and explore it?" If Hasea didn't want to, then that was alright, but she couldn't imagine the woman didn't want to.

"There could be something neat down there...we'll just have to avoid the eggs." If there was one thing that she knew, it was not to mess with a creature's eggs. If she herself was any indication, then no matter how much mind control and pheromones could protect them.

[Anonymous]

"Oh?..." Hasea replied, her mind working through what Sesselav told her. A cave under the sand? Made by people? So that meant there had been people there, and those symbols probably were some kind of writing... So what might be down there? If she was alone, she probably wouldn't go down in case bad things happened or it was scary, but with her friend there to look after her it was all right to indulge her curiosity. "That sounds... Sounds... Like it could be fun..."

She nodded furiously at the mention of avoiding the eggs. Yes, she'd have to stay far away from them! They were probably all fragile, and if she tripped and fell on them she'd hate to think what would happen to the poor little things. Plus, she didn't think their mother would be very happy about it and that would be dangerous for everyone. It was definitely for the best not to go anywhere near them.

Looking around, she couldn't see any kind of obvious entrance but then she couldn't see a whole lot of anything in the dark. Maybe they could find a way in around where the big spider came out of the sand but, well, it was sitting on it at the moment. While it was still docile, she wasn't sure how safe it would be for her to go near it and she shuffled her feet nervously. "So... How do we... Where do we get in?"

[Anonymous]

"I think so too. In the very least it would...offer us some protection during the day..." She was sure that they could spare the night and day to stay down there. It would be cool to some degree, and it would protect them all from anything bad. She wasn't sure if it was a good idea, but they could spend a few hours traversing the underground. The only thing would be light. They'd need light wouldn't they? Well, they could deal with that when they got to it.

Sesselav wasn't sure what would be a good thing to do, but she was curious...so very curious. While she didn't know how bad the swarm was going to get for Hasea, she had lived a long time with them...while she felt bad about doing this to poor Hasea, the woman seemed like she wanted to explore it too. Hopefully the mother was going to let them...she just had to make it clear that they weren't going to hurt her eggs.

"I don't...know...I will ask." Sesselav once more looked up to the large spidery creature before them. Alright now...how exactly to go about this? "How do we get down? We want to see the other caves, the ones away from the eggs." That was something she wanted to make sure it understood...that they wanted to explore away from the eggs.

[Anonymous]

Hasea nodded again, content to stand back and let Sesselav deal with things for now. It was so impressive how the ant woman could talk to the monster, and even apparently have a proper conversation! She'd love to know what it was like to speak to something like that... Although if she was doing it, she'd probably be too shy to say anything. Even if it was a person, her friend would have to be the one handling the talking.

Another image of the space beneath the sand flashed through the creature's mind, and she made a quiet rattling noise as she tried to work out why. Though there wasn't any danger around, that much was clear, she had a sudden urge to go down and check on her eggs. They were probably fine... But maybe they could have started hatching already. Yes, that might be it!

Rising to her feet, she shook each leg carefully in a precise dance to get rid of the uncomfortable sensation from being in such a strange position for so long, then began to dig. Sand pulled out from under her piled up behind, pushed into heaps by her back legs, and it wasn't long before she was half-buried. The swarm rose from the ground as she did so, not wanted to be squashed or trapped, and once more the air was filled with the black buzzing cloud. Wanting to move closer but unsure if she should, Hasea gave Sesselav a quizzical look. "What... What does that mean? Should we... Should we follow?"

[Anonymous]

If only Hasea realized how difficult it was to talk to the giant spider. Well. It wasn't really that difficult, the mind was open, but it wasn't capable of actual speech. Just images, which were a little hard to figure out at first but...once you got the hang of the fact that the creature had multiple eyes well...things started to work out okay.

Sesselav gave a small smile as the creature began to make a strange rattling noise. It wasn't that quiet, considering that the creature was incredibly large, but it was still kind of cute. From what she could understand...it was less like asking questions and more like...mind control tricking. She wasn't sure if she was okay with that, but it wasn't like they were hurting the creature. Besides, a mother did need to check on her eggs regularly.

She remembered countless hours of having drones run back and forth to the spawning nest to tell her how her eggs were doing. Granted she could have just lived in there, but the drones were so much better at taking care of eggs than she was. They could keep the temperatures perfect without needing to touch them, while she would have been picking them up a lot and stroking them and being very...disruptive.

She watched the creature as it began to dig, rather impressed with the ability. Then again, it was a very large creature so it could move a lot of sand and dirt quickly. "I...believe we should yes..." Sesselav started heading toward the creature, looking at beast as it started to dig further into the ground. She saw an open spot under the beast, where there was enough room for them to go under. She took Hasea's hand and smiled at her. "I know where we should go...don't be scared, we'll be safe." More than likely. With that she started off with her friend, heading under the giant spider as it began to dig. The creature would keep the sand off their head, so long as it didn't...suddenly lay back down on them.

[Anonymous]

"M... Mmm," nodded Hasea, following her friend to crouch under the creature's body, crawling along with it as it dug out more space ahead. It was nice to be holding Sesselav's hand. It made her feel even safer, and just having the ant woman there made her feel safe enough! Even though they'd squashed themselves between the sand and a huge monster that had tried to eat them just a few minutes earlier, she was absolutely certain that nothing bad could possibly happen. There was no way!

The hole closed up behind them as the creature dug and for now the swarm couldn't be bothered to follow. They doubted there was much in the way of food or water under the sand, and they could easily teleport home if and when they needed. Only a few scouts followed the women, to keep an eye on them. If they tried anything untoward, the full swarm would be summoned to stop them. For now, however, Hasea was allowed a few moments of relative peace.

The true entrance to the underground space wasn't very far below the surface, and it didn't take long for the creature to burrow through. Though she couldn't see anything in the darkness, the feel and sound of the air ahead told her that this place was big. Really big. Of course it was, though – where else would something like this want to lay her eggs? Reaching upwards to make sure the creature above them had moved on, she stood unsteadily. "What... What can you see? Is it... Is it wonderful?"

[Anonymous]

It was a very odd turn of events, there was no denying that really. Just a little while ago she had been flying above this creature trying to fight it, and now they were crawling under it as it thought to go check on the eggs it had buried. No one really could have expected this incredibly strange turn of events. It wasn't as if this was a bad turn of events, it was actually quite nice in some regards. Of course, they just had to make into the chamber without being squished and they'd be fine right?

Sesselav led onward as the creature dug, taking the two women deeper and deeper into the ground. This was really quite fascinating, and it made Sesselav homesick as she thought about it. It wasn't exactly like her underground home but...just being underground again was nice. Reminded her of Daze's den a while back...

"It is very...interesting." The room was incredibly large, she was rather impressed by the size of it all honestly. She assumed that this was from...many...many years ago and had just been buried by generations of sand and wind. That's what it had to be. Unless it was a race like hers who had made something underground to suit their needs. Sesselav kept her friend's hand in hers, looking about. This wouldn't be very good for Hasea would it? All this...darkness. "We...I wonder how we can make it so you can see too." Sesselav hoped that they could find anything to help let Hasea find her way without being led around. The ant woman would feel terrible if she had to describe everything for her friend.

[Anonymous]

"I... I don't mind..." Hasea replied automatically, adding, "Unless... Unless you do..." Sesselav would be nice enough to lead her around if she had to, make sure she didn't fall down any drops or bump her head or step on spider eggs or any any of the thousand other things that could go wrong down here in the dark, but that didn't mean she'd necessarily want to if there was another way. After all, it wasn't the most fun they could have in ancient ruins! And honestly, she did kind of want to see them for herself.

Turning her head from side to side, she squinted and strained her eyes to try and make out any glimmer of light but it was pitch black all around, and she gave up after a few moments. That wasn't going to get her anywhere. If there was to be light here, they'd have to make it themselves. And with neither of them being light mages that she knew of, that meant fire.

She'd learnt to make fire three times now, not that she remembered the first two, and wasn't bad at it. All she needed were the tools which, unfortunately, wouldn't be easy for her to find in the dark. It was lucky for her that she had her ant friend, wasn't it? Oh, but maybe Sesselav wouldn't like fire, seeing how insects in general seemed to not like it and how scared she'd been of the water earlier... But she could at least ask! It'd be silly of her to make her friend guide her around if she didn't need to, after all. "Um..." she started. "Do you... Maybe... Do you see anything... I could... That we could burn?"

[Anonymous]

"Oh, it's quite okay, but it would be nice if you could see it all too!" She was glad that her friend didn't mind, but she really didn't just want to lead the woman around in the dark. It'd be very unfair to her. This adventure was for the both of them! If Sesselav got to see something that Hasea didn't, it'd feel less like a two person adventure. She just...had to hope that they found something to light on fire. And then some way to light the fire. Okay so it might be a little difficult but if these people lived underground here, they'd have to have that right?

So now it was time to go on a hunt.

"Not...yet...but there must be some things here." She told her friend as she led the now blind Hasea along with her. The passages out must have something! In a place this big, they'd have to put torches out front. It made sense to her at least! As she led Hasea along to a large wall with a passageway in it, she nearly let out a breath of relief. If she could. She couldn't technically but she made the noise anyway. There were torches in holders out front of the passageway!

"Here we go!" She took down one of the torches and inspected it carefully. It was still wrapped up in a large amount of cloth and what not. Dry maybe but...if it had been treated, it'd still work right? "I found something Hasea." She told her friend as she turned around to look at her, taking her friends hand and bringing it to the torch. "It's a torch, and it doesn't look like it had been burned yet...will this work?"

[Anonymous]

Stumbling along behind her friend in the dark, all of Hasea's concentration was used to make sure she didn't trip and fall. She trusted Sesselav to lead her safely around, but the ant woman couldn't account for every uneven patch of floor. It was all right though. It wasn't long until they came to a halt, with no mishaps on the way, and to make it even better her friend had found something they could use!

"I... I hope so..." she nodded, the torch heavy in her grip. There was only one way to tell, and that was to try and light it. Now all she needed was something she could use to do that. With a dazed crease of her brow she patted herself down, in case she'd secreted a flint somewhere on her person and forgotten about it. Apparently not though, as her cursory search didn't turn up anything vaguely rock-like. All she had with her was her faithful onion.

With a curious little noise, she crouched and began feeling around on the floor. The stonework was surprisingly smooth under her hand, as if nothing had disturbed it since it had been laid down however many years ago. That was probably right, actually. Still, it didn't help her much at the moment. "Can you... Can you see any... Rocks... Or something..."

[Anonymous]

Sesselav didn't register it too much, but she did make sure to take her friend along a path that was easy for her current condition. There was a bit of rock here and there, no doubt from centuries ago, but most of the ground was in good condition, which was a pleasant surprise honestly. It meant the structure, whether it was buried over time or built underground was stable and sturdy. She wouldn't have to worry about the roof coming down on them.

Which was always a possibility with the giant spider over to one side.

She watched her friend as she patted herself down. What was she looking for? Oh! Probably something to create fire. She didn't have the magic for it after all, so she'd have to find something to strike against something. Oh she wished that she knew the exact thing to do, but they didn't need light in their tunnels.

If she was ever able to create a new colony she'd make sure her daughters were able to figure this out. The little noise made Sesselav tilt her head slightly, wondering if that had been her friend. It must have been. Now she was...on the floor rummaging around. Getting down as well she started to...well she wasn't sure what she was looking to until her friend spoke up. "I'll...see what I can find..." She started to search, which took her away a little bit from Hasea to a small mound of some kind. It looked like sand and dust and webbing of some kind. Perhaps from the spider? It had been here a long time though, so it could have been the itsy bitsy "Unable to swallow you whole" kind that one would usually find in a place like this.

As she got closer to it...she noticed it was a person. Or had been a person. A long time ago. Carefully she looked over her shoulder at Hasea, who was still busy on the floor it seemed. Carefully she inspected the dead person, noting a couple of old daggers in the belt. Carefully she pulled from the body before nodding. This would do.

She returned to Hasea rather quickly, not wanting the woman to go over near the body. "I found these Hasea! Metal daggers, laying on the floor." It wasn't a lie...they were just...laying in someone's belt on the person's body on the floor. No need for details. She clicked them together. "Will they help?"

[Anonymous]

"That's... That's great!" Hasea smiled, standing up and taking one of the daggers from Sesselav, careful not to grip the blade in the dark. She didn't wonder too much how they got down here – this was an old city or a tomb or a temple or something, and there were bound to be old artefacts lying about. Maybe they wouldn't have been left on the floor, but the spider could have disturbed them. Nothing strange about that at all. They were thankfully quite blunt although not too rusty, which made sense with how dry it was in the desert. There wasn't any real danger of her cutting herself with them, but hopefully they'd have enough of an edge left to make a spark.

For a moment she faltered, moving her hands around uncertainly. She already had the torch and one of the daggers, so how would she take the other one? And how would she both hold the torch and strike the blades together and aim the flare at the torch and and and... She whined quietly. She'd have to ask for help again. Handing the torch back to her friend, she asked, "Um... Could you... Could you hold this? Just... Just for a little while..."

Now that she could hold the other dagger too, she did so, fumbling slightly as she tried to find Sesselav's hand by touch. This was going to be maybe a little clumsy, since she'd have to try not to stab herself trying to bring the blades together. Slowly, cautiously, she moved her hands toward each other until metal touched metal, then quickly scraped one edge against the other. A tiny flash of white light illuminated the two women for a split second, and Hasea yelped in surprise. Giggling, she tried again, moving the daggers closer to the torch. "Nearly... Nearly got it..."

The third try was the charm, and the little spark caught the end of the torch. Holding both daggers in one hand now, she used the other to coax a soft breeze over the torch to feed the baby flame and soon a flickering orange glow bathed them both. Squinting slightly as her eyes adjusted to the light, she grinned excitedly at her friend. "I made... I made fire!"

[Anonymous]

Fire wasn't her friend, honestly speaking, but she didn't like the idea of her friend not being able to see really. She'd be able to brave it easily, after all...it was just fire. If she kept it at arm's length it couldn't hurt her! In reality, it couldn't hurt her too bad all things considered. Her exoskeleton was protective against such things...but just like water, if there was too much of it then it could stop her from being able to breathe.

The idea of suffocating was not a favourable one really.

Sesselav smiled lightly as she took the torch from her friend. "Of course Hasea, anything you need." She was happy to help, especially since she wasn't able to really help. She didn't know how to do this sort of thing, but she would eventually learn it wouldn't she? If she stayed around Hasea, she'd learn many more things no doubt.

She watched with a little worry as her friend started to do things slowly and carefully. She could understand her hesitance, not being able to see anything at the time. "Take your time Hasea...you don't want to hurt yourself." Though she had jumped at the sudden flash of light from the two weapons, she held the torch out a little bit toward her friend, trying not to get near that fire.

Again, the spark happened and she had to look away. Having eyelids would have helped right here. However she soon looked back to the torch and nodded her approval. "Yes, that's great! Now you'll be able to see as well." She told her friend with a large smile. "Do...do you think you could hold the torch instead of me? The fire is...a little...hot."

[Anonymous]

"Oh! Of... Of course..." Hasea nodded and took the torch from her friend. It didn't feel all that hot to her, but she didn't mention it. She was sure that Sesselav had her reasons for not wanting to hold it. Besides, the torch was only for her benefit anyway, and it meant that she could direct the light wherever she wanted without having to ask. Now they could both enjoy the ruins more, Hasea actually being able to see them and Sesselav not having to constantly look after her.

Holding the torch high, she turned to look around the room the were in for the first time. It really was big, so big that the flame couldn't illuminate it completely, and all the more impressive for the ornate carvings and murals covering the walls. There wasn't a single patch left bare that she could see. Someone put a lot of work into this, and she couldn't help but think that they must be glad it wasn't going unnoticed. As she took it all in, she glanced at the spider tending to her eggs and clicking softly, and Hasea smiled before looking back to Sesselav. "So... Where... Where should we look first?"

"This tunnel... This one's fine... It's just, do you... Do you smell anything? From the others?" From the looks of it they had a lot of tunnels to cover if they were going to explore the whole thing, and they might as well skip to the interesting bits first. Not that it wasn't all interesting, of course! That wasn't what she meant at all!

[Anonymous]

"Ah, thank you Hasea. I'm not...very fond of fire. At least, being so near it." When you didn't NEED fire because you were a giant ant who could see in the dark and could eat most things without trouble, and knew how to thermal regulate your body and your cave systems...fire wasn't exactly a big thing for you. However, her friend would need it, so she would be okay with having it around she supposed.

Though she supposed having the fire did make it easier to look at as well. She didn't notice the total details of the entire thing, all things considered. She really should have paid more attention to everything, or else she would have missed the beauty of the entire area. It had such brilliant markings and carvings all over the walls. The ant queen had to look around for a moment to observe the entire area, carefully taking in the different designs and patterns. Her caves and little underground areas had been nothing like this...well built sure, but her people didn't have a huge understanding of 'beauty' as it were.

Not like this anyway.

"Smell anything? Oh...that's...a good question." she didn't actually think about that. She smiled at her friend as she looked around for any scents that seemed different or unfamiliar to her. She looked about at the whirling cacophony of scents, the absolute myriad of different colours that she could see. "That one. It has stale air I think. Lots of old air so it must go down somewhere that can't be seen."

[Anonymous]

Hasea nodded and smiled, making doubly sure to hold the torch far enough from Sesselav for the ant woman's comfort. It was the very least she could do for her friend. Expectantly, she watched her sniff out the best way for them to go and followed her gaze with another smile. Nodding again, she started across the room towards the opening indicated. "Mm, that sounds... Sounds like a good choice..."

Sesselav was right, this hallway definitely went somewhere they couldn't see from the main room. The sloped passage was long, very long, and winding, and as they walked along it became narrow enough that if they stood side-by-side their shoulders would be scraping the walls. As for the walls, the already impressive decoration was filled with even more opulent designs and the soft light of the torch reflected back from inlaid patterns of gold leaf, some of which had began to peel gently away as the years went by. Clearly, whatever this led to had been very important for the people who built this place.

Finally the end of the tunnel came into sight, the opening into the room beyond standing out dimly against the shining walls. As they neared it, the light illuminated the edges of shapes inside – tall candlesticks long since burnt out, to one side of the room what looked like a chair with... something... still in it, and in the centre a large stone box which seemed to be covered in the same lavish decorations as the walls, set on a raised platform. The air was almost unnaturally still, which didn't help to make her feel at home. Hasea frowned slightly, and guessed, "Is this... A... Tomb?" She glanced nervously back at Sesselav. "Do you... Do you think we should...?"