“Okay, let’s just try something different! I’ll ask you about something, and if the answer is yes, you nod. If the answer is no, you shake your heads, and if you don’t know or don’t understand my question, just wiggle your antennae or something, got it?”

The three red ants in front of Gaia nodded meekly. Gaia had tried to sound as friendly as possible, but apparently her intenions hadn’t come accross the way she wanted. She sighed mentally, trying to stay focused and started asking away.

“Okay, let’s start with a simple one for now. You guys are ants, right? The kind of insects that live underground with a queen and stuff? The ones that sneak into your house and steal your sugar when you aren’t looking?”

All three ants gave an uncertain nod. Gaia nodded back with one of her leaves in approval.

“Good, glad we got that straight. Now, I would like to know where I am. Are there any plants or trees nearby, like in a forest? Are we in a forest right now?”

The ants nodded again, with a little more certitude this time. Yes, they were inside a forest. Something felt strange though, the place she was standing didn’t remind her of a forest at all. She frowned mentally as she voiced her findings to the ants.

“But if this was a forest, there would be more shadows, right? So is this an open spot or something, or a hill perhaps?”

The ants nodded again, and Gaia was interested about the forest she was in. Imagine if all the other plants were sentient as well, the forest would be filled with millions of voices. Gaia somehow enjoyed the idea of travellers passing through the woods, covering their ears with every tree around screaming loudly at them.

“Do the trees around here talk as well? Are they like me?” She asked, surpressing a chuckle.

The ants all shook their heads so fiercely that Gaia actually stopped laughing. She hadn’t expected them to nod, but she hadn’t expected the insects to be almost indignant about her question either, as if it were obvious that she was a special case. She had to admit she found it a little endearing, three large insects shaking their heads like toddlers. She must’ve really been going crazy at this point.

“So I’m not normal, I get it, but why though? And why are you following my orders?”

The ants looked uncertain and wiggled their antennae, indicating they didn’t know or couldn’t answer. Gaia wasn’t all that dissapointed though, they had been a great help so far. She was curious about something else too, something she had been waiting to ask for a while now.

“Have you seen any humans around this part of the forest perchance?” She asked with excitement and hope in her voice. “Large, pink people walking on two feet? Two eyes? Five fingers? Anything like that at all?”

The ants looked uncertain and wobbled their little antennae nervously, after which Gaia sighed. The chance of humans existing on this planet at all was pretty slim to begin with, so she wasn’t suprised the ants hadn’t seen them either. Still, she missed the company humans provided. Now she had a few insects to talk to at least, but it was still miles away from having a real conversation.

“Alright, that’s all for now. You can stay here if you want, or do whatever it is that you guys do all day. I don’t mind you keeping me company though,” she told the ants.

The insects looked a little surprised that their interrogation was over already, and they seemed a little cautious as well. They hestitantly resumed their sunbathing session, or at least that was what Gaia thought they were doing. Gaia watched her followers as they comfortably layed on the floor, their deep red carapaces reflecting the yellow sunlight in all directions.

Her followers. The idea sounded crazy to her, but it was true. The insects followed her orders. Gaia didn’t know if she should feel like a fairy princess or an evil overlord, not that she cared that much. Both seemed pretty badass to her, although she probably didn’t have the stomach for being the ruler of darkness, she figured.

She still had some questions that weren’t answered yet, like how on Earth she managed to get stuck on this planet in the first place, but asking the ants about that sort of stuff probably wouldn’t result in a proper answer. Maybe one day, she would find someone with the answers she needed, but for now she was pleased with her situation.

‘I finally have some company now,’ she thought and smiled mentally. She wasn’t alone anymore.

---

After an hour or so, the ants were on their way back home. Following the phermone trails they had made earlier, the three scuttled through the grass towards their anthill. Although all of them were excited to report their findings, they were being troubled by other emotions as well.

As much as their discovery was useful, it was also potentially dangerous. The loyalty of the ants had always been with their queen of course. She was the head of the anthill after all, and the mother of every ant in the colony. They would all blindly follow her orders and gladly die for her sake, should the time arise.

But there was something strange about the tree they had stumbled across, giving the ants shudders when they thought about it: She was a Mother as well. The ants had no other way to explain it better. Mother Tree was their leader as well.

But a colony couldn’t have two leaders, right? Some ants did in fact have multiple queens, but they were enemies and were to be extermined on sight. But why couldn’t the ants resist Mother Tree’s orders then?

meanwhile, the three ants arrived at their nest. The anthill was simple and small, big enough for only thirty workers at most, which was also roughly the amount of ants in the colony at the moment. The colony was still young, and the rough enviroment had prevented their numbers from increasing at all. Another reason to deliver the news as fast as possible.

The three ants crawled through the narrow tunnels, greeting the few sibling they encountered by slapping their heads them with their antennae, the usual ant greeting. They passed a few chambers where wounded workers were resting, as well as the brood chamber, were six small grubs were being stuffed with the little food the colony had.

Reaching the end of the tunnel, they entered the largest chamber of them all, which housed the queen of the colony. Like the rest of the anthill, this chamber was completely dark, but the ants with their splendid eyes had little trouble spotting the large form of the queen in a corner of the room.

This ant was at least three times larger than the workers, and her her massive carapace was being protected and cleaned nonstop by two workers. She was magnificent, as the three workers thought, filled with awe by her outstanding presence.

She slowly turned her head towards them and spoke. Well, she didn’t really speak, but she released phermones having the same function as words, which the ants could recieve through the air and translate in their own language.

“Children. What are you doing here, there is work to be done. The colony can’t afford to spare three workers, and you’ve been gone all day. What have you been doing all this time?”

Her “tone” was hard, but the ants answered with confidence. Their phermones weren’t as advanced as the queen’s, so they had to be a little creative with their words.

“Mother, hello.”

“Us have found something interesting.”

“Important.”

All three ants nodded at the same time, which suprised the queen a little, but she didn’t ask them about it. She was more interested in the what they had found and deemed important enough to slack off for an entire day.

“Explain further,” she demanded. The ants nodded again, and the queen wondered where they had learned the unknown gesture.

“Workers found tree,” one of them explained.

“And?” The queen asked.

One of the workers shifted and tried to find the word he was looking for.

“Strong tree,” the worker eventually said.

The queen tried to let the words sink in, but she had no idea what the worker had meant. The three ants in front of her shifted uncomfortably, uncertain if the news had been delivered. They looked up hopefully when the queen walked over from her corner.

Slap!

The ant closest to her was struck on the head by one of the queens antennae. The others cowered back in fear, but their punishment never came. When they looked up, they saw the queen inspecting her antennae in suprise.

The queen closely observerd the substance her sensitive antennae had picked up after slapping the worker. She recognised it, even though she had never seen it before.

Potent mana.

“Call the workers, all of them,” she suddenly ordered the three ants. “We’re going to the surface.”