Heart of Oak

Mother

Down on the ground floor of the cave, Simadger saw the intricacies of colonial life: the individuals who kept their entire system going. It was a unique and fascinating experience for her. She saw piles of eggs and larvae being carried around by hundreds of worker ants. For a moment, she glimpsed a handful of repletes with bloated gasters resting or barfing food back out to hungry ants.

Following Kesi to the queen of the dune ant colony, Simadger saw the advanced construction techniques of the colony. The ants strategically placed massive pillars scattered across the entire cave to support the cave's hollow structure. Smaller structures carved out from the sandstone housed clutches of eggs or served as resting places for exhausted ants.

Unlike the above-ground towns and cities, there were no doors, windows, or fences to mark property lines. There were no blacksmiths, general goods stores, or butcher to sell products, just a stockpile of goods stowed away in several sandstone buildings and the grouping of repletes to feed the entire colony.

Kesi led Simadger to the far end of the cave. Carved into the wall was an open-air room with a dozen smaller pillars of a more decorative than functional purpose lining the exterior. Inside the chamber was a dusty yellow ant whose body was four times the size of Simadger. A line of workers formed behind her bloated gaster, catching eggs as they popped out of the queen.

The queen seemed almost bored and unbothered by her pregnant state. Her antennae flicked, smelling the pheromones in the air. Her head raised off the cushioned pillow and looked towards Kesi. "Kesi, my daughter, what brings you back to my chamber?"

Kesi bowed her head and kept her antennae stiff. "Mother, I brought a guest. Another dune ant from a different colony."

The queen's demeanor ruffled as she sniffed the air around Simadger. "I smell the surface but see another ant. Outsider, why are you here?"

Simadger wanted to avoid causing issues, especially if being an outsider was already bad. "I'm looking for the colony I came from."

Mother inched forward with strained effort and grunted in defeat. "Come closer so that I may know your scent better."

Simadger obliged and approached the queen. The queen's antennae felt up Simadger's armor and face for a very long and uncomfortable minute.

"Not my colony," Mother huffed. "However, you smell of a queen yourself, outsider."

The remark surprised Simadger. "A queen? I can't be though, I have no wings."

Mother shook her head. "Queens can lose their wings without ever mating. You are long overdue to found a colony of your own. What you seek, your home colony, doesn't exist anymore. I do not smell it. I do smell the odors of those surface folk you live with."

Simadger slowed her breathing. If her home colony was indeed gone, that meant that Oakengrove and the others were the only family she truly had. "I serve Oakengrove and my companions are the others you smell."

Suddenly, there was an audible hiss that escaped from the queen. "The father of the forest? How repulsive. A queen of so much potential bowing down to a tree." Mother's tone only exaggerated her disdain for him. "My darling cousin, you are much more capable than that treant will allow you to believe."

Simadger leaned on her back foot, further made uneasy by Mother's words. "I'm not sure I understand."

The skepticism in Simadger's voice seemed to offend the queen dune ant, but she didn't act upon it. "Kesi, go fetch the drones. We have a successor queen before us."

Kesi nodded her head and dashed out of the chamber.

Simadger slowly turned to face the queen. "I'm not sure I agree with what you're offering, Mother."