Chương 175: In the Colony

The group approached the exit cautiously, letting Na'ikiri take the lead. Liora wondered if perhaps it would be better to proceed in her magpie form, but Renir said it's best to remain in her large form. He said the antkin valued strength, and Caspian confirmed this fact. Was it okay that their translator was literally the weakest merman ever? When Liora and others first appeared into view, the guards clutched at their spears and clicked the mandibles threateningly.

Even without knowing their language, Liora was sure that they were saying something along the lines, "Get lost, or we'll kill you". But when Na'ikiri rushed forward, clicking her mandibles and gesticulating something, the guards relaxed a little. Although they still clutched their spears tightly.

"Translate what they are saying," Liora nudged Caspian, who was currently in his human form.

"Uh… It's a bit difficult to follow, but I think Na'ikiri is retelling everything that happened to her. Her caravan is being destroyed by the mother shark, us saving her. She's also explaining who we are. I think she called you a gem-obsessed bird." Liora hummed with approval. Caspian had said it as if it were an insult, but it was most definitely a compliment in Liora's book. Every self-respecting magpie was obsessed with treasure. It didn't matter that Liora wasn't strictly speaking a magpie anymore.

She still felt like one.

"What did she say about me?" Cee asked.

"She called you a scary magic spider," Caspian whispered.

"Hey! I am not scary! As far as spiders go, I am cute," she protested. Caspian gave Cee an appraising look, then nodded.

"Yeah, you do have the cute spider vibe rather than the scary spider vibe."

"Very true," Liora agreed, then narrowed her eyes at Caspian.

"How many spiders have you seen in your life?"

"No comment," the merman cleared his throat.

"Oh, she's telling about our journey through the dungeon. She says we're crazy but helpful. Hey, I'm not crazy."

"You're part of this group now. There's something crazy about each of us," Cee said with a sigh.

"I'm not crazy!" Renir protested.

"You definitely are! Nobody else is obsessed with magic as much as you are," Liora pointed out. Suddenly, the antkin stopped talking, and the two guards, along with Na'ikiri, came closer to their group. Everyone straightened. One of the guards began speaking in a deliberately slow manner. Caspian translated.

"We thank you, strange travelers, for helping one of our young ones get safely back to the colony. Without you, she surely would have perished in the dungeon. You are welcome to stay and rest with the colony, and we would love to hear about the route you took on your way here. We would like to resume the trade with the merfolk kingdom, but it appears the dungeon has once again undergone a change."

"Free passage into the antkin land! That's exactly what we wanted. Ask if they have some ancient ritual book," Liora nudged Caspian.

"Liora, no! You can't outright demand the thing that you want. We will have to approach the matter very carefully," Renir objected.

"Tell them that we'll gratefully accept their offer to rest and that we'll tell them everything we know about the current layout of the dungeon." Caspian relayed the message to the guards, who nodded and pointed towards the exit of the dungeon. Na'ikiri waved at them excitedly, so they followed the little antkin out of the dungeon. Liora wasn't sure what she had expected to see when they got outside.

Apparently, the antkin country was located somewhere in a desert far from the sand, so it wasn't far-fetched to think that the scenery wouldn't change much. She hoped it would be a little cooler. It was indeed cooler, but what she saw was far from what she had expected. They emerged underground into some sort of large cavern. Six tunnels connected to the cavern, some leading down, some leading up, some leading straight, and occasionally she would see an antkin scurry out of one of the tunnels and into the next.

"Wait a moment… Are we inside a giant anthill?" Liora asked in horror. Caspian relayed the question to the antkin guard, who nodded in agreement and went on a long rant explaining something. The merman translated the best he could.

"Yes, so basically, he's saying that their whole queendom is a giant anthill dug underneath the desert. It protects them from the heat and monsters. Uh… I think he's just bragging at this point about the intricate design of the anthill. That some chambers can be compared to houses, others are workrooms, oh, and he's talking about the broodchambers and the queen a lot. I frankly don't understand half of it."

The ant guard continued for a while longer, with occasional approving nod from his companion and Na'ikiri, until he finally stopped, and silence filled the chamber.

"So… Where do we stay?" Liora asked, desperately hoping that they would lead them out to the surface. She didn't care that it was hot. Liora hated cramped spaces like this. She couldn't fly here. Smokey didn't seem too pleased either. Cee looked giddy. As a spider, she loved these kinds of dark underground spaces. Caspian relayed Liora's questions. The guards and Na'ikiri spoke for a moment, and finally seemed to come to an agreement.

"Na'ikiri will lead us to their council, so we can tell them exactly what happened. They will decide what to do next," Caspian translated.

"I don't like this. I don't like this one bit…" Renir muttered nervously. Liora didn't say anything, merely followed Na'ikiri into one of the tunnels leading down. Why did they have to go deeper underground? Liora didn't like this either. She didn't like it one bit. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Everything was narrow and dark, and there wasn't a single treasure in sight. They didn't even have any lights.

It wasn't a problem for Liora since she could see in the dark as well as in light. But others were struggling.

"I need a light," Caspian complained, nearly walking into the wrong tunnel.

"I don't know any light spells. Liora?" Cee looked at her expectantly.

"Holy Light is an attack. It would illuminate the place for just a moment. What if I accidentally hit one of the ants?" Liora said.

"Allow me. I think I can manage a simple light spell," Renir said, and a moment later, his body began to glow.

"I always wanted to try this." Liora gawked at him in disbelief.

"Oh. My. God. You light up! That is so pretty!"

"You're like Liora's personal night lamp," Cee chuckled. Smokey peered curiously, swatting at Renir with his paw.

"No, paws off! This is mine," Liora declared, glaring at the wyvern. He snorted out a plume of smoke, but backed away. With Renir light in tow, they proceeded deeper into the anthill. Sometimes, they would come across other ants. Some of them stopped for a while to speak with Na'ikiri, but would soon resume their way. They never lingered for long, and it seemed that every ant had something urgent to do. Liora was too occupied looking at Renir to truly study the ant tunnel.

It likely wouldn't have mattered even if she tried to commit the path to memory. It was so convoluted, with tunnels going in every which direction. She had no clue how the antkin could find anything in this place. Thankfully, when Liora brought up her map, she saw it slowly populating with information as they walked into the antkin. It was a bit disorienting, since this was a 3D map, but it was definitely better than trying to understand this place without one.

Before long, the group reached a large chamber where twenty antkin were huddled together around a table. These antkin were distinctly different from the ants that they met on the way here and also differed from each other. Four of the antkin were huge, clearly tank type fighters with a bulky body and thick exoskeletons. Another six were also large but not as bulky as the tanks. Their mandibles were huge and looked like they could snap anything in half. Even Smokey.

Another three ants were smaller than the fighters but also possessed large mandibles, although these were more flat and looked more suited for digging rather than fighting. Three were delicate, just like Na'ikiri, but had wings on their back. Another three were smaller even than Na'ikiri but had ridiculously large antennas. Liora couldn't guess what their purpose could be. The final ant was larger than them all and also possessed wings on her back.

But she was clearly no fighter, and there was also no doubt as to what her purpose was. She had a huge abdomen. The Queen. Wait… weren't all members of the ant colony female? Did this rule even apply to antkin? Liora decided that for the time being, she would think of them all as female, unless corrected.

"Welcome, strangers, to the colony!" One of the winged ants said. Her voice sounded a bit strange, but she definitely spoke in their language.

"My sisters and I heard that you have saved our young merchant, and we thank you for helping her and guiding her back to the colony."

"You can speak our language," Liora blurted out.

"We are the main management of the colony. We learned to speak the common language in order to establish good relationships with other races. Like the merfolk, for example. Although some races are less than cooperative," one of the warrior ants said.

"Let us introduce ourselves properly." All twenty ants then went to call out their names and their main purpose. As Liora had suspected, the larger ones were tanks and fighters. The ones with large, flat mandibles were the diggers. The winged ants were scouts, the ones with large antennae were mages, and the largest one turned out to be a juvenile queen, not yet able to produce eggs. Liora feared to imagine what the actual queen looked like. Their names, however…

Liora only remembered the name of the juvenile queen. El'akari. The rest went in one ear and out the other as soon as she heard them. It wasn't her fault that their names were so needlessly complex and alien-sounding.

"We have heard of your journey, stranger, but we cannot help but wonder as to why you have decided to come to our colony. We assume it is not purely out of the goodness of your heart that you delivered our little sister back. What is it that you seek?" Renir then proceeded to retell the grand tale that he had told to merfolk. That they all had escaped from a cruel human master who experimented on them. That Renir was trapped in the gem and sought a way to be free.

He didn't miss the part where he was supposed to be Liora's lover, which annoyed her. Caspian also added his tale of not feeling that he belonged alongside other mermen. He wanted to explore the surface and learn more about medicinal herbs and other nerdy things related to healing. The ants listened carefully, some of them clearly entranced by the stories. Some seemed to be more sympathetic towards Renir, but most actually resonated with Caspian.

"To think that your colony would reject you when you served them dutifully as a healer."

"We always treat our healers right."

"Every member contributing to the good of the colony should always feel included."

"Maybe we should reconsider our trade option with the merfolk since they do not respect the members of their own colony. If they cannot respect their own, how can they expect them to respect us?" The ants chatted energetically among themselves for a good while, discussing their stories. It appeared that they might have robbed the merfolk of their trading partner. Whoops. Liora didn't feel too bad for them, though. The way they treated Caspian was awful. You reap what you sow, as they said.

"So why do you believe that we could help you? As you know, we live in the desert, so we do not possess many medicinal herbs. Neither were they well-versed in magic. Only recently have we started to properly research the way of our ancestors," El'akari said.

"We have come across information that you might be in possession of a special ritual book that uses ancient and forgotten types of magic. We believe that this book has the knowledge necessary for me to take a step closer to regaining my true form," Renir said. The ants went silent for a moment, then began speaking animatedly among themselves in their own language.

"What are they saying?" Liora asked Caspian.

"I… I don't know. They're speaking too fast," the merman said. After several minutes of what looked like a heated discussion, the ants finally went silent. El'akari spoke first.

"We know the book you speak of, and we indeed have it in our possession; however, we will not be giving it away. It is an incredibly valuable resource, and we're trying to understand the magic described within…" Liora almost lost hope. Would she really have to steal it? From this anthill? No, if she couldn't fly, that would be impossible.

"None of us understands this magic. Our colony had been nearly wiped out a year ago, and we've only recently recovered our strength. None of the elders survived."

"I can help you learn magic if you read the book. We don't want to take it. Only study it," Renir said.

"Are you familiar with magic?"

"Familiar? I eat, sleep, and breathe magic. I know everything there is to know about it, and if there's anyone who can understand this ancient kind. Then it is me!" Renir boasted. The ants glanced at each other, then nodded.

"Very well. But you will be kept under watch while reading the book. We can discuss all the details tomorrow. For now, I'm sure you are tired. Let us lead you to your chambers." Renir and everyone else in the group were overjoyed. The ants were actually cooperative. But Liora had a strange feeling in her gut. This was too easy. They had agreed too easily. Was the ants' angle in all of this magic business?