Chapter 34

Jagger was overjoyed to meet back up with Stix and Stone.

Stix was amused that Jagger had managed to acquire two wives and befriend a nest of Green Ants. She did inspect both wives and agreed with Jagger that his two wives would have little trouble with their pregnancies. This made Fluff happy, as she had been worried about being able to carry the baby full term due to the accident that had damaged her internal organs.

For the team, they now had to make their way to Mt Ant. Having the trikes made this trip much easier now that the flickers were able to ride on them with the couple. The Green Ants were very surprised to find out that Stix was now an Ant-Shifter but she wasn’t of the Giant Ant’s race. The nest was even more surprised when their new Queen, Jade, agreed that Stix could see if she could change her to become an Ant-Shifter.

Jade was delighted that she was able to change form to human and her gender. Stix believed it was because she had not yet begun laying even though she had mated with her drones. Jade had been too busy getting the ants from the old nest to the new site. They had only been at the new site for a couple of days and were still digging the new nest when Stix and Stone caught up with them.

They had managed to find a small ridge of lightly forested hills to make their new home in. It was just west of the shield, had good water and the area was not populated by any other ants. They had a good variety of food sources, as several of the trees bore fruit and the grasses were of the high seed baring varieties that they favoured.

Stix was rather shocked when the new Queen asked if she could also mate with her. At this point, Stix was not aware that she could change to male even though Stone had told her she could because she was a Queen and not just an envoy as she had insisted. Stix agreed but only if Stone participated.

The new Queen was quite happy for both of them to mate with her in both human and ant form. After a rather energetic night, both Jade and Stix were able to swap sperm and a mixture of genes. The next day the two Queens ended up in a deep discussion on how to create a new race since they both now had the genes of three races of ants, and shifter and human genes to play with.

Stone just slept for half the day as the girls had made sure he was a very willing participant. He was not really surprised when they decided to repeat the exercise the second night to make sure they had a good supply of sperm to play with. They also felt he had more to teach them so once again he was put to good use.

Jade was delighted with meeting the two ants. She had not been able to fly and meet with other drones due to the sudden death of her mother. She had been worried that she only had her mother’s offspring to mate with. They were more closely related than she liked and she knew that inbreeding of several generations affected the health of a nest.

With the new material she had to work with, she knew she could produce new drones that would also provide diversity. She also planned to improve the quality of her matrons. She wanted them to become more like the princesses that were not meant to be Queen Ants but could produce small quantities of each class in a nest including drones.

Jade liked the idea of smaller integrated families where matrons and drones could get to pick a partner and fly when they were ready to form their own family. She also liked Stix’s ideas about educating her people better so they knew more of what went on in the world. Stix believed their human side would crave this desire for knowledge.

Stix had also promised her that if she did become the Queen of Mt Ant, she would find her some new drones to mate with her and her matrons. Stone had chuckled when Jade informed him that one of his brothers would be fine as she did find him very cute.

Jades soldiers did get observe that the Red Ants that has pursued them were not able to get through the shield and after a couple of days; they had headed back to their nest. Her people were safe from them, on the outside of the shield in their new home.

The team were sad to leave the Green Ants but their mission had to go on.

Queen Star was not that happy when the ants and flickers turned up on her doorstep.

She informed her son that he and Stix had managed to cause quite an uproar at the palace with their disappearing trick. Her mother had behaved quite irrationally and had sent soldiers to every province to search for them. The only reason her mother’s guards weren’t still in her town was the uprising of the princesses in the south.

Three of them had set upon Queen Dian III when she had sent soldiers to stop them from sending matrons through the shield to trade with the people in Clifton. One of the princesses was her daughter. Queen Dian IV had since replaced her mother and she and the other two princesses had defied Queen Lillian.

They were still trading with the humans because they were now able to cross the river through the shield to deal with them. They had even set up a trading post and built a wharf that ships could stop at. In only weeks, they had a thriving little town being built.

Queen Lillian had sent more soldiers to deal with them but so far, they had fought them off at great cost to the High Queen and themselves. Dian and the princesses had so far refused to obey Lillian and the reports were that she was in a right tantrum. She had even set out missives that each of the other queens had to supply troops to her.

Queen Star was not one of the queens that had gone out of her way to produce a large number of troops for the High Queen. She had produced her extra troops to protect their farms since she was not that far from the shield. The extra troops were a knee-jerk reaction to Stix coming through the shield.

She went so far as to apologise to Stix about her previous rant about taking over the island. It was only after Stix left and she settled down from her fright that she realised that Stix had been correct and they didn’t have the means to force the Tarans off the island.

News from the south had filtered back as to just how many Tarans now lived on the island and some of the advancements that had been made. She had even heard about the fact the other ants now had shifters like them. Any advantage they had was now gone.

She was really only interested in her farms and providing food to the capital and for trade. She did have her new soldiers patrolling a much larger region than she did before in case other predators were able to come through the shield.

She them that several very terse messages had since been exchanged with Lillian when she informed her of the state of her troops. Star was sure that if Lillian hadn’t been so engaged with fighting the princesses, she would be in more trouble than she was so far.

She had not sent Lillian any troops either. Her soldiers were now patrolling to make sure Lillian didn’t send troops to surprise her. The latest rumour was that that Lillian and three of her sister Queens planned to kill the princesses and their people and take over the southern provinces. Star informed the couple and the flickers that this might not be as easy as Lillian believed.

Queen Dian IV and her sister princesses had amassed a large army between them and they wouldn’t be so easily destroyed. Another rumour was that they were close to defeating Queen Hail. If they did, Lillian would be in trouble as Hail guarded the pass to Mt Ant from the south. The nation would effectively be cut into halves.

Stix asked Star if she believed the princesses would negotiate with her if she defeated Lillian. Queen Star was shocked at first. Stix was not surprised by the shrewd look that came over Star’s face when she thought about this development. Star being one of the youngest queens, was more progressive than many of the others.

Stone had already told Stix that his mother liked to try new initiatives and Stix had a feeling that Star just might support her and help her. She also suspected that Star was secretly in agreement with her southern cousins even if they were on the other side of the range that divided them.

Star did suggest that they didn’t ride the trikes to Mt Ant. Stone chuckled and offered them to his mother. He knew her people would be all over them to find out how they worked. He did have a couple of brothers and sisters that loved new gadgets and making the old ones work better.

Stix agreed, as they really didn’t need them anymore. She did put a condition on the exchange. She asked Star if she could get one of her drones to agree to become a mate for Jade. Star was intrigued by this development.

Jade’s new nest wasn’t that far from them and being on the other side of the shield, she could make a great trade partner for Star. After all, according to Stix, she was effectively already family. Cementing this with another drone from her nest, made sense to Star, so she agreed.

Stix and Stone stayed an extra day to teach some of the ants how to ride and maintain the trikes while Jagger had a meeting with his fellow flickers. She was not surprised that Jagger wished to go back to Jade and help her people now his part of this mission was over. He had babies on the way and needed to settle down.

Stix and Stone were sad to part with their friend but knew he wasn’t too far away to visit for mage.

Stix and Stone were surprised by how little effort it had taken to blink to the barn they had first made love in.

From the outside, the barn looked exactly as they had seen it nearly four months before. It did have less hay in it as most of it had been used as feed for the camla while they travelled to Avilla. The fields of grain near it were growing nicely in the warm late spring weather. Previously they had been bare.