Far away elsewhere, to the distant west, out on the azure waters of a wild, great river that flowed into the ocean like a royal artery full of blood.
The river dock smelt of fish guts and tar and the rich mud of the waterway. Sunset painted everything orange and gold, reflecting off water that moved with a lazy current. Rigging creaked in the evening breeze. Sailors laughed and swore while loading cargo onto three ships that formed a small but, regionally, formidable fleet.
The captain ‘stood’ at her flagship's bow, the tip of her serpentine tail propped on the railing, drinking straight from a bottle of wine she'd liberated from a merchant vessel last week. Her half-serpentine body showed the results of years at sea: muscled arms from hauling rope, a strong lower core from maintaining balance on rolling decks, and a toned frame that her tattered open vest did nothing to hide. Sun-darkened skin stretched over athletic curves, with scars crossing her shoulders and back from various fights and adventures. Elsewhere, from her midriff to the tip of her end, emerald scales glistened contrastingly in the sunlight, reflecting the day off of their wet, slick surfaces.
As a naga, or as some call them, 'lamias', and as a pirate, she wore her fitness without shame and moved with confidence. By natural design alone, the half-snake woman was a powerful killer. And by her upbringing and lifestyle, she was a monster.
"Captain." Her first mate climbed up from below decks, his expression worried. "We're seriously sailing eastward?"
"We are." She took another drink, grinning around the bottle's neck.
"To find a dragon."
"To find a dragon," she confirmed.
"That's suicide."
"That's adventure, Swain," She lowered the bottle and gestured broadly at the river, spitting out a mouthful of wine into the water as a superstitious offering of sorts before taking another sip for herself. "We've raided every merchant boat between here and the coast. Twice. Some of them three times. I know which ones carry silk, which ones carry grain, and which captains will surrender without a fight. I'm bored." Already towered over the human man, the serpentine woman looked down at him with a side eye. “If I have to listen to that old dog Barley beg us not to take his cargo one more time, I’ll go mad.” She shakes her head. “You can only rob a man so many times before it becomes weird, you know? I know his daughter's birthday now. How can you expect me to rob him in good conscience anymore?”
"So we're risking our lives because you're bored, captain?"
The naga woman grabbed him, lifting him up easily with one hand as she held her bottle with the other. "We're risking our lives, Swain, because a dragon means treasure." Her body was backlit by the setting sun. "Real treasure. Not some merchant's cargo. Ancient hoards. Magic items. The kind of wealth that would make us legends instead of just river pirates."
The first mate opened his mouth to argue.
"Also," she continued, "How many people can say they pilfered a dragon’s den?"
"Presumably, only dead people," the first mate said flatly.
She laughed and set him down and then clapped him on the shoulder hard enough to make him stagger. "Then we'll be the first living ones. Get the crew ready. We sail at dawn. And Swain -"
"Captain?"
"Tell them that the first one to bring me a scale from the beast gets his own ship."
He groaned but moved to follow orders. Her crew was used to her reckless decisions by now. They'd followed her this far. "Aye, Captain."
She took another drink and looked south toward mountains that she couldn't yet see from here. The snake-girl pirate raised her bottle in salute to the distant mountain peaks far beyond the horizon.
The dungeon smelt of wet stone and the smoke that carried through the tunnels from deeper chambers where goblins worked at forges and cookfires. Barjuchne opened her eyes to the familiar weight of slumbering princesses draped across various parts of her coiled body. The temperature had risen overnight, the air warmer than yesterday. She'd grown accustomed to waking surrounded by her horde of people.
Although at this point, the dragon Barjuchne wasn’t even sure why she bothered making personal chambers for them all, because they insisted on sleeping with her on the treasure hoard. Most of them were entirely unused.
Separate from the rest, EI, the ant princess, stood at the far end of the chamber, all four hands pressed against the wall. She tapped and scratched at the stone, muttering in a high, chittering voice that echoed oddly. She dragged one rounded finger down a seam in the rock.
Barjuchne carefully extracted herself from the pile of sleeping princesses. Rou-ya stirred but didn't wake. Veliah simply rolled onto her side, muttering once. The dragon padded closer to where the ant princess continued her inspection, each of her four hands moving independently to probe different sections of wall.
"What are you doing?" Barjuchne asked.
The ant princess glanced back, her compound eyes glittering in the dim light. "Assessment. This dungeon was carved by something that knew nothing of proper tunnelling,” she insinuated with a rather high-nosed tone. “The angles are all wrong. The support structures are missing. The whole thing could collapse if you expand much further without reinforcement."
"I was following my instincts," Barjuchne replied, not offended, but the dragon side of her still felt a little wronged at what felt like an accusation. "It looks fine to me."
"Dragon instincts," the ant princess replied. She scuttled sideways along the wall, examining another section. “You wouldn’t trust a tunnel made by a bird, would you?” she asked sarcastically.
Barjuchne watched the strange four-armed creature move. Ei’s body had the proportions of something like Veliah’s, slender and graceful, but her movements were distinctly insectoid. The jitters of her motions were quick, precise, and oddly angular. The chitinous plating across her shoulders and forearms caught the light when she shifted.
"What do you suggest?" Barjuchne asked.
Far be it from her to think she knows more about making tunnels than an ant does.
"I suggest that I will fix and improve these imperfections," the ant princess replied. She tapped the wall again, harder this time. "...I'll need to dig deeper first. Extend the lower chambers. Establish a few proper support tunnels. Then we can expand upward and outward without risk of collapse." She turned her head to look at Barjuchne. “Not for your sake, mind you. But for my own,” she said, feeling a need to make that clear, apparently. “I have high standards and since you don’t seem intent on keeping this place up to them, as you content yourself to living in barbarity, I’ll have to do it myself.” She chittered. "Before I became an attendant to my former queen, I spent years as a burrower," the ant princess said, speaking of the ant queen of her former hive that Barjuchne had stolen her from. Her voice carried a matter-of-fact certainty that bordered on pride. "Excavation was part of my duties."
Barjuchne crossed her arms. “...I never did apologise for kidnapping you,” said the dragon, fighting her instincts as well as her thoughts regarding the absurdity of the situation.
Not that it wasn’t absurd to begin with.
After all, she’s speaking of the matter of her taking a literal ant from an anthill. Surely nobody could have known it would have turned out this way in the end.
Ei looked back at her, then past her toward the others, still sleeping, as if to double-check. “I was frightened at first to be your bride. But I am content now with my station,” she replied. “Ei would rather be the princess of a mountain kingdom than the princess of a dirt mound empire.” Barjuchne didn’t quite know how to react as the ant scuttled over and pressed the brunt of her face against her cheek, mimicking a kiss, before returning to the wall. So the dragon just stood there, confused.
The ant princess didn't wait for further permission. She pressed all four hands against the stone and her fingers sank into it easily. The rock itself seemed to soften under her touch, becoming pliable and yielding. She pulled chunks away with ease, stacking them neatly to one side. Her movements were rhythmic and efficient. She hummed while she worked, a low buzzing sound that vibrated through the air.
Barjuchne settled back on her haunches to watch.
The tunnel extended downward at a gentle slope. The ant princess cleared debris with her lower set of hands while her upper hands carved new sections. She moved deeper into the rock, disappearing into the growing passage. Her humming echoed back up the tunnel, mixing with the scrape of stone on stone. As she worked, the dungeon’s passive magic continually realigned bits and pieces of the tunnels, straightening them out and making adjustments for the various compositions of the stone. It seemed very in tune with the ant princess in a way that surprised Barjuchne. Yes, it adapted and changed things as the goblins worked too, but somehow the processes of transformation appeared to flow smoother and easier with Ei. Perhaps there really was something to her technique.
Barjuchne followed at a distance. The new tunnel was wide enough for her larger dragon form to navigate comfortably. The walls were smooth, the floor even. The ant princess clearly knew what she was doing.
The temperature increased the deeper they went. Barjuchne felt warmth radiating from below, pleasant against her scales. The ant princess paused ahead, all four hands pressed against a section of the wall. She tilted her head, listening.
"...There's something on the other side of this," she noted. "There is heat. More water, perhaps?”
"Be careful," Barjuchne said.
The ant princess nodded and resumed digging. She worked more slowly now, testing each handful of stone before removing it. The wall grew thinner. The heat intensified. A faint orange glow began to seep through hairline cracks in the rock.
She pulled away the final layer of stone and a draught of heat radiated past them with enough force to blow even Barjuichne’s heavy hair. Magma welled up from below, thick and viscous and glowing brilliant orange-red. It poured into the tunnel with a heavy sound. The ant princess scrambled backward, all four hands raised defensively as she shielded herself from the sudden scorching. She yelped, hiding behind the dragon.
A bright, vivid orange filled Barjuchne's widening eyes as some reptilian instinct lit up in her heart.
"World blood!" the ant princess said in surprise. “...I have heard about this before,” she said. “But I always thought it was simply a story.”
Barjuchne stared at the flowing magma. That’s an interesting thought. For the perspective of an ant, something like magma might well be a subject of great mythology. They were unlikely to ever burrow so deep on their own, after all.
But her own draconic instincts stirred, feeling deeply approving. The overpowering heat felt beyond good. The glow was beautiful.
It was like a new treasure.
The magma didn't flood toward them. It pooled in the carved depression the ant princess had created, filling the space but not overflowing. The stone around it darkened but held firm. The heat radiated outward in waves that made the air shimmer.
[DUNGEON UPGRADE]Pyroclastic ChambersYou have discovered natural magma-rich chambers below your dungeon, filled with ore and obsidian stone.Barjuchne leaned down, her reptile mind overpowering her human thoughts as she thoughtlessly touched the magma with a claw. It rolled and pooled off of her scaled hand without as much as a mark. It was harmless to her. Actually, it even felt really good to touch. It was like the water of the hot springs, but even better. There was something about the incredible heat that caused an almost feline purring in the dragon’s chest.
“You’re rumbling,” said the ant princess, having stepped even further back to get away from the radiating heat that was now moving into the tunnel. “Are you hungry, my queen?” she asked, four hands running along Barjuchne’s back. “Should I bring you sugar?”
The dragon stood upright, clearing her throat and grounding herself. She fought down the instinct in her guts and made her body go silent.
“I’m fine,” she replied.
She had never purred before. Barjuchne had no idea that was even a thing.
"Wait," the ant princess said. She crept closer again, studying the magma flow with her compound eyes from a safe distance. "This could be a great boon, actually. If we channelled it properly. We can use it well," suggested Ei. "It could provide heat for the upper chambers in winter." The ant princess clicked her mandibles. “Which I meant to speak to you about before as well. Your stockpiles of honeydew and seeds are very low, my queen,” she said. “I suggest we collect many aphids to keep as cattle before the season ends." She crossed her four arms. "In fact, do you even have a single aphid?” asked the princess incredulously, her tone making it clear she was being defiant.
The dragon stared at her quietly for a time, not really sure how to explain to her the difficulty of those particular logistics. Instead, she silently looked back at the magma.
"That's a good idea," Barjuchne simply replied, speaking of the concept of integrating the magma into the dungeon.
The ant princess's mandibles clicked together in what might have been a smile. "Exactly. We'll dig a few channels out from here. I suggest we create several tunnels with vertical shafts to let the heat rise upward toward the entrance. Plus, if we create a few lower outlets toward the outside of the mountain behind a series of gates, we can allow the flow to leave on demand. Any invaders trying to reach the core will have to navigate past the world blood."
"I like it," Barjuchne said. "Make it happen."
"Yes, my queen."
Back in the treasure chamber.
A new heat radiated from the new lower tunnel in waves that made the air shimmer, creating a perplexing illusion on the piles of shimmering gold.
Veliah sat with her back against the cool cave wall, her violet eyes fixed on the distant ceiling. Sweat soaked through her practical clothes, making the fabric cling uncomfortably. She looked like she had fallen into the wellspring. She kept her breathing steady and her expression calm, refusing to acknowledge the discomfort.
The air was hot.
Rou-ya perched on a flat stone nearby, her luminescent green skin glistening with moisture. She'd stripped down to minimal clothing, which was normal for goblins in their warrens, but her posture remained upright and controlled. Her golden eyes tracked the others without appearing to look directly at them.
The air was so hot. It was worse than any summer she had ever felt before.
F.P. lay casually drooped over a stone carving. Her wild blue hair stuck to her neck and shoulders. Sweat ran down her ample figure, soaking into her loosely draping robes. She examined her nails with affected disinterest, pretending the temperature didn't exist despite the fact that she was drenched.
Even the slime princess had puddled into a shallow pool in the chamber's coolest corner. Her translucent form rippled occasionally, but even she seemed affected by the heat, moving more slowly than usual.
"This is fine," Veliah said. Her voice came out too casual, too carefully unconcerned.
"Perfectly comfortable," Rou-ya agreed immediately. She shifted positions, trying to find a cooler section of stone. The movement was subtle but betrayed her discomfort.
"I've experienced worse," F.P. declared.
"I like it when it’s hot," the slime princess offered from her puddle with honest contrast to the rest of them. "But this is too hot."
Silence fell. None of them moved toward the exit. None of them suggested leaving or finding cooler chambers. They sat in the sweltering heat, determined not to be the first to admit defeat. There was, despite everything, nonetheless a pseudo-rivalry of sorts between them all and for whatever reason, this was how they decided to live it out today.
Veliah wiped sweat from her forehead with as much dignity as possible. Rou-ya's breathing had grown slightly laboured. F.P.'s wings drooped despite her best efforts to keep them perked. The slime princess bubbled quietly in her corner.
"I'm going to melt," the slime princess observed. "Into the floor. Then I'll be floor. Please don’t step on me when I'm floor."
Veliah envied the slime's honesty. Her own pride wouldn't let her admit discomfort in front of her competition for Barjuchne's affection. But then she decided that was dumb and relented. The elf sighed and lay down flat, spreading her arms over the stone floor as she decided to give up the fight of appearances.
It was just too hot all of a sudden.
“I’ll be floor too,” said the elf, the slime princess bubbling next to her.
At least the deep mountain stone was still cold.
"Yaaay...~" bubbled the slime weakly.
The elf rolled her head, looking down the new tunnel. “What in the world is she doing down there?” she muttered, looking at the heat-radiating air coming from the depths of the new, deeper passage.
Barjuchne and the ant princess worked through the morning and into the afternoon. The ant princess directed the excavation while Barjuchne used her dungeon core abilities to shape and reinforce the stone in conjunction with the core's passive adaptations. The magma became the centrepiece of an entire new lower dungeon layer, flowing through carefully carved channels that lit the new chambers with flickering orange light.
Nine new dungeon rooms took shape.
[DUNGEON UPGRADE]New Chambers- Magma Diversion Passages
- Defensive Chamber
- Storage Rooms
- Sanctuary Quarters
- Large Communal Space
- Fire Elemental Spawning Chamber
- Lizardperson Warren
- Draconic Whelp Nest
- Pyroclastic Forge
Some were defensive, such as narrow passages where magma could be diverted into to trap invaders and chambers with collapsing ceilings that would drop burning stone on anyone foolish enough to enter. Others were practical. They were storage rooms for the growing hoard of supplies, sanctuary quarters for the princesses to retreat to in emergencies, and a large communal space where everyone could gather. Plus, as Ei had advised, there were several vertical shafts that integrated the passive geothermal heat into the dungeon's original upper layers.
The dragon clan goblins were already hard at work, adapting the primitive steam systems Barjuchne had once guided them to make to now integrate this new heat source.
[DUNGEON UPGRADE]MAGMATIC TRAPSYour dungeon's exterior has been fortified with traps designed to strategically release pyroclastic flows toward any forces ascending the mountain.The ant princess proved to be an invaluable guide. She understood structural integrity in ways Barjuchne's dragon instincts simply didn't. Where Barjuchne wanted to make everything bigger and more impressive, perhaps gaudily so, admittedly, the ant princess insisted on proper support beams and load distribution. Where Barjuchne wanted massive, impressive treasure chambers, as her dreams were bigger than her current horde’s actual size, the ant princess carved humble passages that, logistically, were easier to defend than the grand archway that the dragon's heart desired.
The final chamber took shape gradually, positioned at the lowest point of the new construction. The ant princess carved it with particular care, making the walls smooth and the ceiling high. She created small alcoves along the walls and indentations in the floor. The whole space felt deliberately designed, purpose-built for something specific. It was a round, nearly perfectly circular room with a flat floor that was ringed by a moat of magma. Only a single stone bridge led toward the central island.
"What is this room for?" Barjuchne asked as the tenth room of the dungeon's new lower floor took shape. It looked to be the final stop of the floor.
The ant princess stepped back to admire her work. "This is the Brooding Chamber, obviously."
The dragon blinked. "The what?"
"The Brooding Chamber," the ant princess repeated. She gestured with all four hands toward the dragon. "For the Queen to lay her eggs in. Every hive has one. See these alcoves?” she asked, pointing at the slots in the room’s walls. They're for storing the eggs in once they're laid. The indentations in the floor allow for temperature regulation. The high ceiling provides space for the milk-producing slave-attendants who will care for them. Which reminds me. About those aphids -" she began.
[DUNGEON UPGRADE]DUNGEON CORE, BROOD CHAMBERThe Brood Chamber is the dungeon’s deepest and most well-guarded space. Filled with overpowering heat from the magma surrounding the central island, it serves as the protective vault for dragon eggs. The inner walls are lined with currently empty alcoves.
Barjuchne stared at her. Heat crept into her face that had nothing to do with the nearby magma. "- I think there's been a miscommunication here," said the dragon slowly. "I'm not an ant, Ei."
The ant princess tilted her head. "Yes. You're a dragon. Obviously. My queen," she said in a dull, annoyed tone.
The dragon tapped her long claws on her side, her eyes moving in thought. "I don’t think that I… lay eggs," Barjuchne replied dryly. Her voice came out strangled.
The ant stared at her, confused. Her mandibles chittered. "All queens lay eggs," the ant princess said. She spoke with absolute certainty, the way someone might explain that water was wet or fire was hot. "That's what queens do. They establish territory, gather workers and soldiers, and then produce the next generation. You've already completed the first two steps. The Brooding Chamber is for step three."
"That's not- I-" Barjuchne started. She stopped. Her face felt hot enough to ignite something. "- Have you ever met a queen who wasn’t an ant?”
“No, why?” asked the ant princess.
The ant princess's compound eyes reflected the magma light. “Don’t you lay eggs? My old queen laid eggs.“ She looked genuinely confused. "Then how do dragons reproduce?"
“I’m not going to -” Barjuchne opened her mouth. Closed it. No more words came. Her mind had simply stopped producing coherent thoughts. Despite that, the ant princess stood there looking proud and helpful, completely oblivious to the mortification radiating from her dragon queen in waves.
"Are you unhappy? I can make adjustments to the chamber if needed," the ant princess offered. "If dragon eggs are different sizes than ant eggs, we'll need different storage solutions. How large are they typically?” she asked. The ant princess grabbed Barjuchne’s tail, trying to lift it. The dragon pulled it out of her hands. “And how many do you expect to lay in your first clutch?"
The dragon girl lifted a finger to say something and then stopped herself, dropping it again. Without another word, Barjuchne turned and walked away. Her tail dragged behind her, scraping against the smooth stone floor.
Behind her, she heard the ant princess's confused chittering.
"Wait! What about the aphids?" she called after her.
Back in the treasure chamber.
The princesses all lay there on the stone floor of the hoard room, staring up toward the distant ceiling.
In the end, they had all ultimately relented, dropping any feigned dignity as the overpowering heat was simply too much for even F.P.’s pride. Spread out with splayed legs and arms, they all lay there and absorbed the cool aura from the mountain stone.
To their surprise, a large silhouette came their way as Barjuchne arrived. Without a word, she lay down too in the midst of the four of them, staring up at the ceiling.
A few of them rolled their heads to look at her for a moment before turning their gazes back toward the ceiling.
“Is it a little warm in here today?” asked Barjuchne, breaking the silence.
She received a collection of murmurs in response.
“Wait. I got it!” came an excited voice from the side. Ei, clearly having run down the tunnel, popped her head out of the tunnel and looked at them. “They lay the eggs, right?” asked the ant princess, emerging from the new deep passage. Several heads quickly rolled to the side, looking her way.
“There aren’t going to be any eggs!” barked Barjuchne at Ei, the dragon’s face flustered as she lifted her head.
But the ant just didn’t seem to get it.
“...Does anyone else feel a little sick?” asked Veliah weakly from the side.