Chapter 45: Chapter 45

Kai stepped outside of the hive and wrinkled her nose at the smell of decay that permeated the area. It was pretty disgusting and she just hoped the next rain would wash away the rotting bits that were too small to be found. 

She could only sigh to herself, frustrated that despite all her hive’s effort they had been unable to prevent this from happening and it wasn’t even their fault. The moths just kept coming every night and held the weird stalemate between them and Kai and her daughters. 

The result was blood being shed every night, moth blood that is and by now that blood suffused the upper soil around the hive that wasn’t covered by silk. Of course it would start smelling this way, not that they could do much about it.

With the current arrangements Kai and her daughters were relatively save, but they couldn’t do much against the moths and the stupid things came back evertime they had healed, which they did annoyingly fast. The only solace they had was that they couldn’t do much yet and that the moths collected more and more scars that were more vulnerable than their normal hide.

Kai shook her annoyance away and walked over to where Gaia was playing with her advanced swarm drone. Gaia was her first traveler and her drone was nearly as tall as her already.

Kai waved to Gaia with a smile. “Hello Gaia.”

Her daughter looked up and inclined her head respectfully. “Hello mum, what can I do for you?”

Kai glanced at the drone that was rubbing itself against Gaia’s back, nearly pushing the girl over. “I just wanted to check in and see how things are going.”

The advanced drones were the solution that would help them push back against the moths. The only problem was that they were around as large as the normal drones when they hatched and needed some care and attention during their growth. They had a somewhat deeper connection to their mother, which was the reason that Gaia currently spent a lot of time with the drone and it was always energetic around the girl.

Kai’s daughter idly scratched the drone between its antenna. “I think things are progressing smoothly. My little girl should be all grown up in a week or so, but we should be able to start with the plan in around 2 days. Clippy will be strong enough by then for carrying duty.”

Kai nodded in appreciation. “Thanks Gaia. You have my blessing to proceed when Clippy is ready and don’t forget to ask around if there is anybody interested in helping out with the outpost.”

Gaia placed her flat hand above her heart or where a human would have a heart, Kai had no idea how her race looked from the inside and would like to keep it that way for a while. “Will do, mum.”

The plan was to get her travelers and their drones to transport wood from their outpost to the hive and have some kind of working rotation in the outpost so that nobody would be away from the hive for too long. That way they would get a constant supply of material and could slowly reposition the outpost to the river as a side project. 

Sure, Kai could keep the advanced swarm drones as a weapon to fight the moths, but she did not think doing so was the right choice. In a confrontation inside of the hive the moths would win because of their unreasonably sharp mandibles and outside of the hive they would be able to attack from the air, again having the drones at a disadvantage. Then there was also the problem that advanced drones took long to grow in comparison to the normal drones and every dead drone would be a serious loss for the hive. 

Using them to get more wood would help her hive more on the other hand. They would be able to finally craft all the small tools they needed for various crafts or other things, Kai would really prefer to have wooden mugs rather than bark and bone mugs. She would also give a lot for a brush, there were so many small things that would make their life easier. Not to mention the improvements to their defense they could make. A wooden palisade and thicker wooden spikes would help a lot to keep the moths at bay. 

In truth it was just choosing between a short term advantage or long term improvement and she would still be able to use the drones that were in the hive for defenses so it wasn’t like she was giving them away.

Kai said her goodbyes to her daughter and continued her round around the hive. In the last few days they had been able to push the first floor ceiling all the way to the point where the roots of the tree vanished into the ground. This left only one row of rooms without cover and gave her daughters a lot more space during the nights.

Sadly, they had to abandon building anything on the second floor for now and concentrated on the other first floor hive sections instead. For some reason the rooms built on the second floor were a lot less durable than everything on the first floor and the dwellings her daughters constructed up there were always destroyed by the end of the night.

There were too many things Kai just didn’t know about her own people and the things they could do, the silk was just one of the mysteries. They had tried to find out what was going on, but even her daughters weren’t able to discover anything and their mana sense was a lot better than Kai’s due to the help of the system.

Kai watched Tiffany coordinate her groups of builders for a while before she went back into the hive. When she arrived at the dimly lit tavern of Lena, she was slightly exhausted and the aching of her body was a lot more pronounced, especially the bumps under her two arms. 

Her body hadn’t stopped growing and by now she was a good 20cm taller than her daughters. It was a bit weird at first, but the height difference made her stand out like an adult amongst children and since she was the mother of them all she came to really like the new arrangement. 

The only disappointing thing was that laying eggs didn’t feel as good anymore. Her tail grew with her body and there was now a lot more space that could be occupied. It wasn’t quite large enough to hold two eggs at once, but she wasn’t too far off from that and could practically feel that that was the sole reason for her growth.

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Then there was also the thing with the bumps underneath her arms. Two days ago or so her chitin cover in that place had suddenly fallen off, revealing her bare pale blue skin. Now her body was growing outwards there, forming the stump of a new appendage and Kai caught herself anxiously touching them every now and then. 

In truth, after all that happened to her, growing a second pair of arms left her relatively calm. She knew she wasn’t human anymore and had accepted that fact pretty much from the beginning of her new journey. So what if she was a sapient insect and grew the required amount of limbs now?

Excited shouting from outside the room pulled Kai out of her thoughts and a moment later Ember came running inside. The girl was carrying a mound of silk clothes and there was a glint in her eyes that made Kai wary of the situation.

Ember took a quick look around, trying to take a breath and her eyes visibly lit up when she spotted Kai. “Mom! I have something for you!”

Kai looked at the mass of clothes and then at Ember. She could only hope they weren’t all for her and smiled weakly. “Hey Ember. What is it?”

Her daughter put the clothes on an empty table. “Wait a second!”

Then she rummaged through the pile, mumbling to herself until she found what she had searched for. “There it is!”

And with that she took out what Kai could only describe as a white battle dress. It was short sleeved and long flowing, but not long enough to touch the ground should Kai wear it. Ember had somehow managed to work in some animal hide into the piece that would cover her shoulders, front and back. Kai could also spot a few seams that hid material that Ember could use to adjust the dress to her growing body. 

She had to admit that the dress was pretty impressive and that she had no idea how Ember had done it.

A hand suddenly held Kai’s shoulder and she turned to look into the eyes of a grinning Anna. “Uhm…”

Anna smirked. “Mother, don’t you want to try that dress on?”

Her lips tugged up slightly more. “Or do you not like it?”

Kai cursed in her mind, that little rascal was messing around again and now she had to stand up fast or Ember might get sad.

She took one last look at Anna, promising that one day she would turn the tables around before she got up and smiled brightly at Ember. “Dear, that dress looks awesome! Can I try it on?”

Ember nodded eagerly and helped Kai into her new attire. The thing fit pretty well, the only problem being her new arm stumps. Ember noticed them immediately, quietly mumbling to herself about possible solutions and adjustments all the while.

Kai moved her arms randomly, to make sure the dress didn’t hemper her movement and spun around before she put her hands on her hips. “How do I look?”

Anna clapped her hands together, “Magnificent!”, only to earn an eyeroll in response.

Ember looked her up and down a few times before she nodded to herself. “It fits pretty well, but it is a bit plain. I will have to get some paint for the next one and maybe make the sleeves long enough to reach the fur on the arm?”

She was more talking to herself and Kai could see the new ideas flying by on her daughter's face. Was Kai now some kind of glorified clothing puppet?

Ember nodded once more in a serious fashion before she brightened up. She turned to the door and ran off again, shouting the rest she wanted to say. “I have things to do mom, the other stuff is for everyone else!”

Kai could only shake her head in amusement at her little cloth addict.

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