Antelligent Design

95. Insect + Simian

After discussing a few other things with the members of the council in the forward HQ, I head out, collecting my pets, and make my way to where the delegation from the village is purported to be waiting.

I’m not entirely clear on how the humans attempted to communicate with the members of the colony, or why they would attempt such a dangerous thing. The colony is a lot more lenient toward the villagers than they had been before, but they are still very distrustful of anything other than our own kind. I suppose desperate times call for desperate measures. Perhaps I should have seen this coming.

A kilometre away, I find a small collection of tents situated around a campfire, sentries at watch around the perimeter. When I take the whole camp in, it looks as if the village has sent twenty or thereabouts people on this forward adventure. A mixture of men and women, and hopefully Morrelia somewhere in the camp. The rest of the villagers would be… interesting to deal with.

And by interesting, I mean awkward as hell.

O my gawd, is Beyn here? The last thing I need is to fight a damned war with that one-armed lunatic priest chasing me around!

With Tiny lumbering along behind me, we don’t exactly make for the stealthiest group of monsters, so they knew we were coming long before we walk into the camp. I’m a little disconcerted to see that Morrelia has not made an appearance. Instead, I recognise the man I saw leading the weapons training in the village before we left, and he’s also the guy we saw in the port city when we liberated it.

Now I recognise him! Didn’t he also try to flex on Morrelia? Perhaps that’s why he was picked to lead this group. He’s clearly suicidal.

As I approach, the tough-looking guard stops leaning on his spear and stands tall before entering into what I can only describe as an interpretive dance.

Just… just what is happening?

As he drew wide, all-embracing circles in the air with his hands, his face a mask of pure concentration, my eyes slide to the villagers lined up beside him. They are staring at me with a fierce energy and a fervent light in their eyes. These people look so intense! That guy literally has sweat dripping down his nose, he’s so focused!

As the leader continues his slow, graceful gestures, I begin weaving a Mind Mana Transformation Construct and extend the Mind Bridge out toward the man. It takes a little longer to weave the spell than it normally would. I’m quite distracted by the bizarre yet fascinating movements being performed in front of me.

[What the hell are you doing?] I ask.

The man stumbles, curses under his breath, and looks about wildly, trying to locate the source of the voice.

[It’s me, over here.] I wave my antennae at him. [Nobody told you I could make Mind Bridges? Did you speak to Enid or anyone before you came out here?]

The man looks at my slowly waving antennae, then reaches one hand up to touch his head. His eyes seem to not believe what it is they’re looking at.

[Yes. Mind bridge. I, the ant, am talking to you. Please speak back with your mind.]

[Well, this is some plops right here,] the man thinks at me.

…Plops?

[I’m not going to disagree with that,] I tell him.

[You heard that?]

[Sure did.]

[So, you’re the ant monster… leader?]

[I suppose you can think of me like that. How exactly were you expecting to communicate with the colony without getting me to come over and talk to you? I’m the only one capable of Mind Magic at this point in time.]

He scratches his cheek, looking a bit embarrassed. [Well, Morrelia had me practise the greetin’ dance o’ cooperation and—]

[I’m sorry, what?] I break in incredulously.

[The uh… greetin’ dance of cooperation?] When I make no move to answer, his face falls a little. [There’s no such thing, is there?]

[Uhh…]

The man growls and curses. The villagers next to him look alarmed at what is coming out of his mouth and stare at me nervously, suddenly anxious at my response.

Chill out people, I have no idea what he’s saying, or at least, I can act that way. I’m guessing it’s not directed at me, in any case.

[I have to say, I’m impressed,] I tell him.

He looks at me, confused. [How so?]

[Morrelia fed you that garbage and taught you that dance with a straight face the whole time? Can’t have been easy.]

He nods ruefully. [She’s somethin’ alright.]

I don’t think he and I are quite on the same page with our attitudes toward Morrelia, but at least I appreciate the joke she’d sent my way.

[Okay, so you’re here. I assume Morrelia has continued to delve with other villagers?]

[She sure has. We were wantin’ to send her out for this, seein’ as how you an’ her have worked together before an’ she seems comfortable with it. But she said that someone else should go an’ help build relationships with the colony.]

And I’m willing to bet she recommended this guy, practically insisted that he go, in fact. Which manages to neatly put him somewhere that she won’t have to deal with him when she comes back to town. Cunning, very cunning. Not a move I would have expected from Morrelia the berserker, but here we are.

[Ok, so you approached the colony and they managed to work out that you were offering assistance, and now I’m here to work with you. What’s your name by the way?]

[Isaac Bird.]

Isaac has a look on his face as he gave his name that I have come to interpret as the ‘I can’t believe I’m having polite conversation with, and offering my name to, a monster of the Dungeon. What a world’ kind of look.

[Hey, Isaac. I’m Anthony.]

He hesitates. [Anthony?]

[Yes. Yes it has ‘ant’ in it. We all get it.]

[Right…]

[Let’s sit down and work out how this is going to go then, shall we?]

[Right you are, Anthony.]

So, we get to talking.