Barjuchne transformed mid-flight, her massive wyvern form shrinking down into the demi-human shape as she hurtled back towards the dungeon. She crashed through the destroyed corridors with complete disregard for further damage, her claws scrabbling against stone.
The treasure chamber. Barjuchne burst through the entrance and froze.
Everyone was there. Veliah stood near the chamber's centre, her violet eyes wide. Rou-ya crouched in a defensive posture, her golden gaze fixed on something Barjuchne could not yet see. Gathered goblins lined the walls, their weapons lowered, their expressions showing pure confusion.
They all stared at the same thing.
Where the ant princess's terrarium had sat near the back of the treasure chamber, carefully maintained and protected, there now stood a humanoid figure, still glowing with the aftereffects of residual magic.
She, the familiar stranger, was perhaps the height of a small human. Her ‘skin’, which it clearly wasn’t, was sun-bronzed and smooth where it showed but covered in most places by chitinous plating of a darker burnished red that formed natural armour over her shoulders, forearms, shins, and portions of her torso. The plates gleamed with an iridescent sheen that shifted colours in the firelight, reflecting many hues with each slight movement. Her reflective eyes were large and compound, multifaceted like gems, shimmering with colours moving too quickly to name as she scanned the firelight. They held an alien beauty that should have been unsettling but somehow was not. Two delicate antennae rose from her forehead, twitching with constant excited movement as they tracked scents and sounds.
She had four arms. Each was slender and graceful, ending in delicate clawed hands with three fingers and an opposable thumb. Currently, all four hands were examining each other with obvious fascination, turning over and flexing whilst excited chittering sounds emerged from her throat. Gossamer wings sprouted from her back, insectoid and translucent, catching the light as it passed through them. They buzzed occasionally with nervous energy, lifting her slightly off the ground before she settled back down.
A window appeared before Barjuchne's eyes.
[PRINCESS EVOLUTION]Ant PrincessThrough a combined wellspring of fae magic and residual dungeon energy, your [Ant Princess] has been transformed.Finding herself, she stood with her upper arms crossed over her chest and her lower arms planted on her hips. Her compound eyes fixed on the chamber entrance with an expression that somehow managed to convey aristocratic disdain despite their unusual structure.
The moment Barjuchne entered the space, the transformed insectoid princess's antennae snapped upright.
Those compound eyes locked onto the dragon with instant recognition, like a lighthouse-perched widow seeing a distant ship come over the horizon, followed by an immediately contrasting fury.
"You."
The ant princess crossed the chamber in short, precise strides. Her wings buzzed once, sharp and angry. She stopped directly in front of Barjuchne with her chin raised and her shoulders squared.
Then she slapped the dragon across the face with her upper right hand.
The sound cracked through the treasure chamber.
Barjuchne's head snapped to the side. She blinked once, stunned. The great dragon, having just chased off an entire enemy host and some of the most powerful souls in the kingdom, stood there, as if pierced by a true hero’s blade.
"That," said the ant princess, her voice carrying the clipped precision of someone who had practised this speech, "was for stealing me from my colony without so much as asking my permission. Not that you would have received it. Beast."
Barjuchne opened her mouth.
The ant princess slapped her again with her upper left hand before she could speak.
"That was for then immediately replacing me with an elven harlot —" She gestured sharply toward Veliah with one lower hand. "- without even attempting to win my affections first."
Veliah pointed to herself with both hands, her expression deeply confused. "Wait. Me? Why is everyone always coming after me?" she asked. Rou-ya held her hand, rubbing it consolingly. “I’m literally just standing here. I didn’t do anything.”
“They’re just jealous,” consoled the goblin princess, looking at the ant and the fairy next to her in the centre of the commotion. “You’re great.” Veliah smiled, the two of them holding each other.
The third slap came from the lower right hand.
"That was for failing to protect me properly when your dungeon was under siege, forcing me into the humiliating position of having to rely on my rival for sanctuary," she buzzed, mortified, glancing at F.P., who was sitting on a glassed stone nearby that her binding metal chain had melted and fused into.
The fourth slap, delivered by the lower left hand, was somehow the most indignant.
"And THAT," said the ant princess, her voice rising with genuine outrage, "was for only giving me one sugar cube per day like a war prisoner when a royal of my station is meant to be pampered and fed with a continuous river flowing with nectars and protein."
Silence fell across the treasure chamber.
The ant princess stood there with all four arms crossed over her chest in two separate layers. Her wings buzzed with agitation. Her antennae were bent forward in what could only be described as a challenging glare.
Barjuchne stared at her. Heat had built in her chest. Her pupils contracted. For a moment, the air between them grew heavy with the pressure of what felt like a fight about to break out, and the ant princess's antennae flattened against her skull as she prepared herself for it.
Then Barjuchne moved.
The dragon girl pulled the ant princess into her arms, all four of the smaller woman's hands suddenly pinned between them as the dragon wrapped herself around her transformed princess.
"I'm so glad you're safe," Barjuchne said quietly, sighing in relief.
The ant princess went rigid. Her wings buzzed frantically against Barjuchne's chest. Her antennae shot upright, then pressed flat, then rose again in visible confusion. "I- what are you- this is highly improper for a-"
Barjuchne's arms tightened just slightly, possively. “You're right. I won’t let anything happen to you again.”
The ant princess's chitinous plates clicked softly as her shoulders rose and fell with rapid breathing. Her upper hands remained pressed against Barjuchne's chest, not quite pushing away. Her lower hands had gone still.
"Well," said the ant princess. Her voice came out smaller than before. "Obviously. You should have- I mean, it was your responsibility to-" Her words faltered. Her antennae drooped slightly. "...You were worried?"
"Yes."
One word. It was flat and honest and, plainly, simple.
The ant princess made a sound that was half chitter, half something else. Her rigid posture softened by degrees. Her upper hands stopped pushing and simply rested against Barjuchne's scales instead. Her lower hands found their way to the dragon's waist with hesitant, careful movements.
"I suppose," she said quietly, "that's... acceptable." Her wings buzzed once, soft and uncertain. "But only because you're admitting fault. Not because I- I'm not-" She pressed her face against Barjuchne's shoulder, and her voice dropped to something barely audible.
Barjuchne said nothing. She just held the changed princess in a way she never could do before.
The ant princess squirmed slightly in the embrace, her compound eyes closing. "This doesn't mean you're forgiven," she muttered against the dragon's scales. "I still expect an increased tribute of sugar cubes. At minimum."
"Two," agreed the dragon, not able to help herself from trying to preserve something in her stockpiles, even as insignificant as this. It was just her nature.
"Five, you horrible miser," protested the princess. “Or I shall perhaps think that my betrothed doesn’t value my presence more than she does that of her gold.”
Barjuchne's hand moved to rest against the back of the ant princess's head, careful of the antennae. "Done."
The ant princess's wings buzzed once more, soft and pleased, and for several heartbeats she simply stayed there, all four hands gripping Barjuchne's sides with surprising gentleness.
"Proportionate to my new size", clarified the ant princess, seeing the dragon’s eyes shifting in the scheme brewing behind them already.
Barjuchne froze, her heart feeling the stab at the thought of what that would cost. Refined sugar was a rare commodity in this world to begin with. The villages only had very little of it. Most of what she had came from the wares she took from Veliah’s father and those would burn through quickly with a princess this size.
“I’ll have to organise that,” agreed the dragon, pondering the first steps to begin what may be the greatest logistical feat of her new kingdom. All for sugar.
The ant princess studied her for a moment and then nodded. “Then I, Ei, eldest princess of the ant kingdom of Big Rock, proclaim that the concord of our union is agreed upon and sealed,” she said, leaning in for a kiss. The ant princess melted into her, the dragon’s hold on her tightening.
[Territory Expanded]Bound by a royal pact, the ant kingdom of Big Rock is now fully under your domain.Wild [Ant]s will now defend your dungeon with their lives.But then, just as quickly, she pulled back sharply, her expression hardening as she smoothed down her chitinous plates with exaggerated dignity. Her strength was remarkable when it needed to be. The ant princess easily pushed the dragon away. "Well. Good. I'm glad we've established the proper order of things." She lifted her chin, but her antennae were still tilted at a softer angle than before. "Now that I'm transformed, I expect better treatment befitting my station as your FIRST and MOST IMPORTANT bride," she said with some volume, speaking to the whole room at once as she was trying to make a point.
And with that, she turned and strode toward the collapsed wall with all four arms swinging in perfect synchronisation, but there was something different in her movements now. Something less rigid.
Behind her back, Barjuchne's expression softened.
The ant princess grabbed a massive boulder with complete ease and hoisted it into the air with two arms. "Unlike certain OTHER princesses—" She shot a pointed look back at the group. "-I, Ei, have ALWAYS been devoted to my queen's hoard and territory." She tossed the boulder aside with impressive strength. "Now that I'm properly sized, the rest of you are clearly redundant. You may leave the mountain. I shall handle all of your tasks alone from here. Thank you for your services."
Rou-ya and Veliah exchanged glances.
Ei began tunnelling into the damaged wall with devastating efficiency, her four arms working in perfect coordination. Despite her transformation, her instincts remained unchanged. She moved with the intensity of someone who had spent her entire existence building and expanding the underground. Within moments, she had cleared more rubble than the goblin teams around them had managed all together.
Barjuchne watched her work with something that might have been pride. "...Can anyone explain how this happened?" she asked, still watching the ant princess burrow.
It’s quiet for a time. Nobody said anything.
“I’ll go survey the damages and see what needs to be fixed,” said Veliah, suddenly keen on getting to work even as the smoke and smouldering of the assault have yet to subside.
Rou-ya quickly went to work, waving a troop of goblins after her. “I’ll look for any stragglers still in the dungeon,” said the goblin, quickly marching off with a tribe of hunters going after her.
“I’ll eat something!” said the slime princess, just sounding happy to be there.
Confused at them all wanting to run straight back to it, Barjuchne watched them all quickly begin to make a show of their productivity. After a moment of that, the dragon looked toward the fairy princess, who remained seated with crossed legs on the melted rock. It looked like she was sitting there, complacent and indifferent. But in reality, she simply couldn't move away from the spot because of her melted chain, so she seemed to have opted to play it off by acting casual.
“What?” asked the fairy, seeing the dragon’s gaze. She swiped her hand through the long bang of hair that obscured half of her face. “I surely won’t lower myself to thinking that I need to compete with a slime or an ant,” she said, clearly. “But if you want a token contribution from me, I’ll let you in on a secret,” offered the fairy, switching the crossing of her legs over. The dragon studied her curiously as the fairy swiped an idle finger through the air. A small series of crackles followed the digit as magical sparks ignited in the wake of her movements.
“And what is that?” asked Barjuchne. “It’ll have to be pretty good if you want to impress me more than she does,” she made clear, pointing with her thumb over her shoulder at the ant girl who had already cleared away the day’s work of a goblin team of excavators by herself in a matter of minutes.
The ground around her shimmered with movement. Hundreds, if not thousands, of little ants came from the underground and began working too. The tiny insects carried away motes and pebbles but contributed nonetheless in their own way, as they, following their princess, had submitted fully to the banner of the dragon.
“I love ants!” proclaimed an excited voice, the slime princess crashing toward the swarm of ants with a drooling mouth. “Spicy!”
The ant princess let out a sharp chitter, intercepting her. “Do not eat my people!”
Barjuchne watched for a moment as the two of them struggled against each other and then turned back toward the fairy.
“This place is special. It’s always been that way, even before your kind started coming here.” She leant in, her leg dangling from the side of the lantern. “In fact, it wasn’t the reincarnating dragons that made this cave special. It was the mountain that made the dragons special,” explained the fairy. “There’s a reason this is the only place left in the world where your kind can come to exist and that’s because there’s an old power here, deep below the rock.” Her one visible eye studied Barjuchne curiously, as if waiting for something. “And it’s still working and changing the world around it to this day.”
Barjuchne thought about that for a moment.
“It’s in the air; can’t you feel it?” asked F.P. “The proof is all around you. Just look up,” she said, gazing at the glowing, organic matter that lined the dungeon ceilings. The moss, or the fungus, or whatever it was. “That fungus, my people called it Shimmer. It’s parasitic. It only grows in places with powerful, raw magic,” she explained. “It eats it,” she said with some strange, amused delight in her eyes as if she were telling a ghost story to a child she enjoyed frightening.
“I just thought it was moss,” replied the dragon girl, remembering now that she saw it growing in the fairy kingdom too. “And what am I supposed to do with this information?” she asked.
F.P. studied her for a time and then just shrugged, smiling and leaning back against the lantern’s chain as she crossed her legs back over the other way once again. “I don’t know, oh great Queen,” she said with sarcasm. “I’m just a simple, empty-minded little princess,” said the fairy with the mocking, sarcastic, pouting voice as she pursed her lips. She pushed the tips of her fingers together, falsely pretending to be shyly nervous. “But I suppose what I am trying to say is that whether you're a queen or you're a princess, there’s still at least one power of governance left that’s higher than you in rank by the inherent design of a monarchy.”
The dragon narrowed her eyes. “Not in my domain; there isn’t.”
F.P. didn’t respond, just shrugging. But the smile on her painted lips remained as it was. She said nothing more.
“But thank you for saving her,” said the dragon, holding down her open palm. She reached down with her other hand, pulling the chain that bound the fairy free from the melted stone and breaking its amalgamation apart. “You’ve not earned my trust, nor do I think you ever can. But you do have my gratitude." F.P. crossed over her legs again, looking for a time, and then stood up and stepped onto the dragon girl's open palm.
“Don't assume the worst. I was only saving myself. This… result was merely the product of an interesting cross-contamination of my own magic with that filth cast by the humans,” replied the fairy, quietly examining her nails as Barjuchne lifted her.
“How can I repay you?”
“The slaughter and forced servitude of millions should suffice,” replied the fairy disdainfully.
“No,” replied Barjuchne.
The fairy rolled her eyes and then, after standing quietly for a moment post-examining the area for witnesses, tilted her head and tapped her cheek. The dragon gave the fairy a gentle kiss there.
“Very well. I shall content myself with only a few thousand,” conceded the fairy princess. “There is a nearby hovel. They had once offended me and -”
“- No,” replied Barjuchne, cutting her off and turning to walk away. She lowered her hand to set the fairy back down, but instead of crawling off, F.P. crawled back up her arm and reached out, turning her face back her way.
“A few hundred then. You must give me something tangible in exchange here for my services,” demanded the fairy princess.
Barjuchne stared down at the fairy on her shoulder and then turned, looking around at the destruction. She reached down and picked up a small, glassed white lump. “Sugar cube?” asked the dragon girl.
“...Very cute,” muttered the fairy, narrowing her eyes.
A loud jealous screeching came from the shaking tunnels, rocks flying out by the tonne toward them. Watching from afar, the ant princess narrowed her eyes, slowly pulling back into the darkness, her mandibles chittering angrily as Barjuchne set the sugar lump back into the half-melted stone terrarium.
F.P. and Barjuchne stared each other down. It was quiet for a moment.
"Then have this," began the dragon. "Free from chains and locks, you may move about as you please within my domain from now on," said the dragon. "But only within it," she clarified. "And if you flee, or if you conspire against me, I will find you." Her eyes widened possessively. Barjuchne's palm closed, grasping tightly around the fairy as she held her in her fist. "Remember this -" She lifted F.P. and stared at her from up close with unblinking reptilian slit eyes as they held eye contact. There was such an intensity to the dragon's gaze that it even broke the confidence of the cold fairy and she averted her sight, her face unusually tinged. "- You are mine."
With a sideways glance, F.P. stared at Barjuchne and then, without a word, tilted her small head just a little bit further sideways, her long, straight, dark hair dangling downward. Quietly, the fairy tapped the side of her own cheek again as before, waiting expectantly.