Anna had her arms on her hips and looked at Kai sternly. Kai knew that what she had done wasn't more than a minor inconvenience for her daughters, but she could also tell that this wouldn't be about her destroying something.
Her daughter clicked her mandibles together. "You do know a queen should know some restraint, my lady."
There it was, something about being queen and boring things like manners. Kai might be the queen of the Antanoid, but she wasn't a real queen. She had none of the knowhow about ruling that was taught to royalty and how they should act in public or around others of their standing.
Kai also didn't care too much about that, she could understand that Anna was trying to teach her those things however. As the monarch of the Antanoid she would have to negotiate with other kingdoms in the future and she would represent her people. Being an embarrassment wouldn't help there.
Kai sighed. "I'm sorry Anna. I just wanted to see what would happen if I used my full power."
Anna nodded in agreement. "Knowing one's limit is very important, but normally you start small when you try something new out and then slowly increase whatever you are experimenting on." Kai knew that, but she hadn't been able to hold herself back.
Her daughter walked over to the dummy to repair the damage done. "You could start your mana training while I am occupied here, my lady and don't forget to also train your mana sense." Training her mana sense was arguably more important than her mana manipulation, but she hadn't done so for some time now.
Anna was a lot like Kai's mom and not the other way around. No, there was an even better way to call her. Kai rolled her eyes good naturedly. "I will do that my dear head maid."
Her daughter perked up when she heard that and turned towards Kai. A bright smile adored her face, telling the queen exactly what her daughter thought of the idea. "I like that title, a lot."
Anna turned thoughtful and continued with her work while mumbling to herself. "I will have to make sure the other maids are going to be up to the standards as the head. That will be fun."
Kai already pitied the poor souls that would come under her first daughter's wing. Their work definitely wouldn't be easy.
She went over to the place she usually trained her mana skills and sat down. The next hour she worked on her skills before she continued training combat with Anna for the rest of the day. After that they went to a small stream to the north to wash off the grime that had accumulated over the day.
While their fur dried Kai checked her map. The squad of drones had long since reached the unknown land around the hive and had started their scouting. They weren't Ravelins in a straight line and turned rather randomly at times so their process was relatively slow. Their overall direction was still westwards though.
She minimized the map again. It might take some time for the drones to discover something like this, but the chance of them having walked past something dangerous that the hive should be aware of was a lot smaller this way and Kai preferred to be safe rather than sorry.
She walked back to the hive together with her daughter once they were both dry. Kai had never been outside as much as in the past month when she had been on earth still. She didn't mind it too much though, even as a city girl. That a lot of the luxury goods they had had in the cities wasn't accessible here, at least not for now, was annoying for sure, but on the upside the air quality was supreme and seeing a wild animal wasn't a rare occasion. Well, the latter might have not been the best argument to choose here, because of certain giant insects and lizards.
It took them nearly an hour to get back and when the pair finally reached their home Kai had to raise her eyebrows, impressed by the progress. While she should technically be aware of what was going on in the hive, Kai let most of the information she received through the mana tether fade into the background.
The stream of information was more of a passive background noise that way and she didn’t notice everything, so she could still get impressed when she was occupied with other things during the day.
Right now she really had to give it to Tiffany and the other girls, that they were fast workers. They had transformed one of the big roots into a new large street that went to the second hive floor. On the other side of the root were two new rooms as well as the foundation for another two. The second floor now covered the first two rows of hive rooms and the first two rooms were finished up there too. It seemed like filling out the space between the rooms on the first floor had taken the most amount of time for the work floor.
Kai entered her home together with Anna. The space underneath the second floor was surprisingly not dark, but illuminated by the gentle glow of the silk. It wasn't bright by any means and wouldn't hinder you from falling asleep, but it still provided them with a source of light that didn't take any ressources of them to maintain, at least not any they knew about. The Antanoid silk was one of the greater mysteries for Kai in this new life of hers.
When they reached the center of the room the queen was surprised a second time. The walls between her room and the room next to it had been removed, connecting the two rooms and increasing the amount of space she had by a lot. She didn't know what to do with this space for now as there wasn't much around you could decorate with, but it was still nice.
The same that had been done to her room had also been done to the rooms Tiffany and Anna had lived in. A drone was loitering around there and the smell of freshly roasted meat wafted out of the area.
Kai swallowed the saliva that was gathering in her mouth. "Let's go and get ourselves something to eat!"
Anna inclined her head and followed her. The girl could really be a bit more relaxed at times.
The inside of the room was decorated much like an actual tavern. There was a bar made of silk in the back, blocking the view to a small campfire that was partly inside of the wall. The smoke of the campfire was led out of the room by some kind of ventilation tunnel or at least Kai guessed so, because it wasn't entering the rest of the room.
The front part of the tavern was filled with sitting pillows and silk tables that looked like perfectly cut stones. To be able to eat comfortably here you would have to kneel down.
Lena was currently tending to the fire and turned towards the pair when they entered. Her antenna made a short waving movement of surprise before she did a small bow. "Good evening your majesty."
Kai sighed mentally and greeted her daughter back. Then the girl came over from behind the counter and arranged a place for Kai to sit. Her tail was too large for the normal sitting arrangements and the situation was rather embarrassing for her.
When Kai was finally seated Lena bowed a second time. "Please don't be embarrassed because of your body, my queen. It is not an inconvenience for us and rather an honor. I will get you something of the best I am able to make."
Kai wasn't sure if that helped her in any way. This was likely one more thing she would have to get used to, even though she would rather not or she might not be able to relate to the life of her daughters in the future.
Lena bowed to Anna too. "For you too of course, dear sister."
Then she went back behind the counter and began to prepare the dinner. A few minutes later she came back with a large piece of bark in her hand that she used as a plate. The top side of the bark was covered in silk, preventing the food from touching the bark and Kai from having dreams about all the germs she had just eaten.
The bark wasn’t from the titan trees, but seemed to be glued together bark pieces from different bushes. The bark from the titan trees was weirdly soft and they hadn’t been able to remove any of it from the tree.
On the bark plate was an arrangement of different fruits and meat that had been dunked into a different mashed fruit of some kind. Compared to what Kai had eaten until now this looked really good and she eagerly took a piece of meat.
It tasted pretty good, even though it wasn't able to compete with the things she had eaten on earth or the way meat tasted when she was having a food rush. Kai could still tell that a lot of trying had gone into the dish and enjoyed every bite of the fruity meat.
When she was done she turned to Lena and smiled kindly at the girl. "It tastes really good, you did an amazing job."
Anna nodded. "I have to agree."
She pointed at two of the fruits. "You shouldn't put these two fruits together or at least tell your customers not to eat them after each other however. The aftertaste of that is quite awful."
Lena smiled brightly at the praise, not letting be pushed down by the critic of Anna. She bowed deeply to Kai and her first daughter. "Thank you for praising me, your majesty and thank you for the advice you gave me, sister. I will remember it." Kai was sure she would, that had to be a new core memory of her daughter.
She left the first Antanoid tavern together with Anna and walked over to her own rooms to prepare herself for some sleep.
Anna had her arms on her hips and looked at Kai sternly. Kai knew that what she had done wasn't more than a minor inconvenience for her daughters, but she could also tell that this wouldn't be about her destroying something.
Her daughter clicked her mandibles together. "You do know a queen should know some restraint, my lady."
There it was, something about being queen and boring things like manners. Kai might be the queen of the Antanoid, but she wasn't a real queen. She had none of the knowhow about ruling that was taught to royalty and how they should act in public or around others of their standing.
Kai also didn't care too much about that, she could understand that Anna was trying to teach her those things however. As the monarch of the Antanoid she would have to negotiate with other kingdoms in the future and she would represent her people. Being an embarrassment wouldn't help there.
Kai sighed. "I'm sorry Anna. I just wanted to see what would happen if I used my full power."
Anna nodded in agreement. "Knowing one's limit is very important, but normally you start small when you try something new out and then slowly increase whatever you are experimenting on." Kai knew that, but she hadn't been able to hold herself back.
Her daughter walked over to the dummy to repair the damage done. "You could start your mana training while I am occupied here, my lady and don't forget to also train your mana sense." Training her mana sense was arguably more important than her mana manipulation, but she hadn't done so for some time now.
Anna was a lot like Kai's mom and not the other way around. No, there was an even better way to call her. Kai rolled her eyes good naturedly. "I will do that my dear head maid."
Her daughter perked up when she heard that and turned towards Kai. A bright smile adored her face, telling the queen exactly what her daughter thought of the idea. "I like that title, a lot."
Anna turned thoughtful and continued with her work while mumbling to herself. "I will have to make sure the other maids are going to be up to the standards as the head. That will be fun."
Kai already pitied the poor souls that would come under her first daughter's wing. Their work definitely wouldn't be easy.
She went over to the place she usually trained her mana skills and sat down. The next hour she worked on her skills before she continued training combat with Anna for the rest of the day. After that they went to a small stream to the north to wash off the grime that had accumulated over the day.
While their fur dried Kai checked her map. The squad of drones had long since reached the unknown land around the hive and had started their scouting. They weren't Ravelins in a straight line and turned rather randomly at times so their process was relatively slow. Their overall direction was still westwards though.
She minimized the map again. It might take some time for the drones to discover something like this, but the chance of them having walked past something dangerous that the hive should be aware of was a lot smaller this way and Kai preferred to be safe rather than sorry.
She walked back to the hive together with her daughter once they were both dry. Kai had never been outside as much as in the past month when she had been on earth still. She didn't mind it too much though, even as a city girl. That a lot of the luxury goods they had had in the cities wasn't accessible here, at least not for now, was annoying for sure, but on the upside the air quality was supreme and seeing a wild animal wasn't a rare occasion. Well, the latter might have not been the best argument to choose here, because of certain giant insects and lizards.
It took them nearly an hour to get back and when the pair finally reached their home Kai had to raise her eyebrows, impressed by the progress. While she should technically be aware of what was going on in the hive, Kai let most of the information she received through the mana tether fade into the background.
The stream of information was more of a passive background noise that way and she didn’t notice everything, so she could still get impressed when she was occupied with other things during the day.
Right now she really had to give it to Tiffany and the other girls, that they were fast workers. They had transformed one of the big roots into a new large street that went to the second hive floor. On the other side of the root were two new rooms as well as the foundation for another two. The second floor now covered the first two rows of hive rooms and the first two rooms were finished up there too. It seemed like filling out the space between the rooms on the first floor had taken the most amount of time for the work floor.
Kai entered her home together with Anna. The space underneath the second floor was surprisingly not dark, but illuminated by the gentle glow of the silk. It wasn't bright by any means and wouldn't hinder you from falling asleep, but it still provided them with a source of light that didn't take any ressources of them to maintain, at least not any they knew about. The Antanoid silk was one of the greater mysteries for Kai in this new life of hers.
When they reached the center of the room the queen was surprised a second time. The walls between her room and the room next to it had been removed, connecting the two rooms and increasing the amount of space she had by a lot. She didn't know what to do with this space for now as there wasn't much around you could decorate with, but it was still nice.
The same that had been done to her room had also been done to the rooms Tiffany and Anna had lived in. A drone was loitering around there and the smell of freshly roasted meat wafted out of the area.
Kai swallowed the saliva that was gathering in her mouth. "Let's go and get ourselves something to eat!"
Anna inclined her head and followed her. The girl could really be a bit more relaxed at times.
The inside of the room was decorated much like an actual tavern. There was a bar made of silk in the back, blocking the view to a small campfire that was partly inside of the wall. The smoke of the campfire was led out of the room by some kind of ventilation tunnel or at least Kai guessed so, because it wasn't entering the rest of the room.
The front part of the tavern was filled with sitting pillows and silk tables that looked like perfectly cut stones. To be able to eat comfortably here you would have to kneel down.
Lena was currently tending to the fire and turned towards the pair when they entered. Her antenna made a short waving movement of surprise before she did a small bow. "Good evening your majesty."
Kai sighed mentally and greeted her daughter back. Then the girl came over from behind the counter and arranged a place for Kai to sit. Her tail was too large for the normal sitting arrangements and the situation was rather embarrassing for her.
When Kai was finally seated Lena bowed a second time. "Please don't be embarrassed because of your body, my queen. It is not an inconvenience for us and rather an honor. I will get you something of the best I am able to make."
Kai wasn't sure if that helped her in any way. This was likely one more thing she would have to get used to, even though she would rather not or she might not be able to relate to the life of her daughters in the future.
Lena bowed to Anna too. "For you too of course, dear sister."
Then she went back behind the counter and began to prepare the dinner. A few minutes later she came back with a large piece of bark in her hand that she used as a plate. The top side of the bark was covered in silk, preventing the food from touching the bark and Kai from having dreams about all the germs she had just eaten.
The bark wasn’t from the titan trees, but seemed to be glued together bark pieces from different bushes. The bark from the titan trees was weirdly soft and they hadn’t been able to remove any of it from the tree.
On the bark plate was an arrangement of different fruits and meat that had been dunked into a different mashed fruit of some kind. Compared to what Kai had eaten until now this looked really good and she eagerly took a piece of meat.
It tasted pretty good, even though it wasn't able to compete with the things she had eaten on earth or the way meat tasted when she was having a food rush. Kai could still tell that a lot of trying had gone into the dish and enjoyed every bite of the fruity meat.
When she was done she turned to Lena and smiled kindly at the girl. "It tastes really good, you did an amazing job."
Anna nodded. "I have to agree."
She pointed at two of the fruits. "You shouldn't put these two fruits together or at least tell your customers not to eat them after each other however. The aftertaste of that is quite awful."
Lena smiled brightly at the praise, not letting be pushed down by the critic of Anna. She bowed deeply to Kai and her first daughter. "Thank you for praising me, your majesty and thank you for the advice you gave me, sister. I will remember it." Kai was sure she would, that had to be a new core memory of her daughter.
She left the first Antanoid tavern together with Anna and walked over to her own rooms to prepare herself for some sleep.
