"You don't believe the sky is falling until a chunk of it falls on you."
― Margaret Atwood, The Testaments
"Kill me, you overblown highschooler!"
Ven lay back under Cain's wrathful gaze. Time had long been forgotten, locked in this dreary world. He was finished, the rune he'd drawn was lost, impossible to recreate.
"Stop being dramatic," Cain rolled his eyes. "This little bit of time is nothing, it's barely been a few days back home."
"A few days..." Ven frowned. "You said every second there was a year in here!"
"Yup, we've only been in here for a couple hundred thousand years, that's a nap to cultivators of my level." Cain squinted at Ven's youthful body. "Weirdly, you look pretty much the same... whatever you are, you're long-lived!"
"Two hundred thousand years..."
"That's what I said, now get you..."
"We're going home!"
Ven lept up, black fire in his eyes. His life had become the construction of runes. Every structure burned into his mind, deeper than anything else. He needed a vacation, or he'd go as mad as his master.
"Really, well I'd like to see you try!"
Cain leaned back, his smugness a radiation that stank up the air.
"I'll just sit here until you either kill me, or take us home."
Ven settled into the sand, eyes closed against the ugly landscape. Enough was enough, he was on strike.
***************************************************
"Let's go, Speaker," Lyra called as she charged through the freshly dug tunnel. "We have to be the first ones to breach the surface in Hewl town!"
"I don't understand why..."
Speaker Ant charged after his humanoid friend, confused by her sensibilities. In the colony, each ant was satisfied that the work got done. They didn't occupy themselves with being the first at something.
"It's for the fun of it, the honor of being the first to travel the tunnel to its newest destination!"
"I still don't..."
"Don't bother," Fen yawned. "It's a Lyra thing, just let her be weird."
"Understood."
Speaker fell silent, antenna in a tumbled dance. The Queen had placed him in charge of relations between the Colony and the beastfolk nation. The task was fraught with difficulties. The mindset of the different species was vast.
"Look, we're here!"
Lyra bounded forward, toward a line of industrious ants. They shifted the soil with frightening efficiency, tons of rock and stone nothing before their strange, robotic armors.
"Come on Speaker, let's grab a shovel and get cracking!"
Under Speaker Ant's confused gaze, Lyra grabbed a complex jackhammer and started an attack against the wall. In seconds she was buried. The avalanche of soil and rock was all that marked her place.
"LYRA!"
Speaker Ant charged forward, followed by the rest of the workers. Together, they unearthed the crumpled wolf-kin, none the worse for wear.
"Thanks, Speaker, I must have hit the wrong spot..."
The rambunctious beastfolk squinted at the walls. Eyes set on her next target, she raised the power tool high.
"How about we just wait!" Speaker darted forward to halt her strike. "The workers will let us get the last swing."
"Alight... but it's more fun to help along the way."
Speaker sighed as he returned the jackhammer to a nearby worker. It strained his mind to keep up with this woman, yet her actions always endeared her to the members of the colony.
She's like a newborn. Eager to help, but empty of thought...
Speaker settled in to watch his brothers and sisters work, an unfamiliar experience. Normally, he'd be occupied at all times, but his new job left him with hours of freedom.
I must be the least efficient ant in the colony...
***************************************************
"Stupid Ven... stupid Royals..."
Rafe trudged through the sewers, knee-deep in waste. He'd been volunteered to walk the new waste lines, a punishment for his prank on the King's daughter.
"Just you wait..."
If they thought his last practical joke was too much, they were in for a surprise. He'd double, triple down if he had to. Ven was too cocky, a mindless idiot without useful experience.
The second he put together a plan, he'd teach that fool a lesson. His scars itched as he stewed, a constant reminder of Ven's casual assaults.
"He could have killed me, it's only fair that I get back at him."
He raised a long staff to probe at a small blockage. Cleared, he noted the position down for the ants and moved on his way.
Gross as this place was, Rafe could see a new future for the kingdom down here. The sophisticated, elegant design functioned almost perfectly. All without the use of magic.
"That rail, and the new communications devices.."
Rafe shook his head and trudged on. The world was about to become smaller. Beings without any cultivation would have access to other lands. The common people would rise to a new standard of living, something Master Ooulin had long worked for.
"If I hadn't messed with that worm, none of this would have been possible!"
Yet, here he was, out for a swim in the town's digested supper. Mara was so cruel, Ooulin would have simply forced him on several difficult missions without pay. This punishment was perverse.
"What have we here..."
Ahead, along the same path as the last blocked crossroads, a huge dam had been constructed. Fashioned of trash, it spanned the full tunnel. A small lake had formed, a vast pressure of putrid waste.
"What moron built that..."
Rafe edged closer, wary of the unsteady construction. One wrong move would bring a tide that no man should have to endure.
"Some of this is stone, torn from the walls..."
There was even a twisted rail, some cast off from the train project. He neared the dam's rim and a murky horror assaulted his nose. His hand touched the wall, a sticky ooze that caused regret in his heart.
"Time to go back, I'm not taking a swim to find the source."
The ants could deal with it. Rafe turned back, ready to head home for a long, hot shower. His plans were dashed as a tremble rippled through the walls.
"What..."
A long, rocky creature rose from the water-logged section. A familiar face, though a thousand times smaller. The baby void worm howled, intentions clear as it slammed toward Rafe's back.