[AotA] Royal Jelly (3/4)

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Karina's wagon hit another pothole. Drawing out another sigh from her. It had been three days since they arrive in the port of their destination country. But to her dismay, they didn't remain there long. The local lord had been good and ready for them. Stuffing them into prepared cart and carriages and waving them off. Their goal was a rather unsettled province.

In one way it was good. Plenty of space for the new race to spread out. But Karina currently only saw the drawback. Half tamed wilds made for poor entertainment. To top it off there was little new things to eat and less of the ones she wanted to. By now her supply of royal jelly had run dry. She had gone from blowing two dozen guys to barely one a day. Yesterday it had been a stablehand at the inn they stopped at and the day before a farmer. In response, her production of royal jelly plummeted to next to nothing. Which proved difficult to explain to her sisters without revealing the secret to its production.

She shifted again in her seat and looked to the wayside. More often than not she would walk alongside the cart as it wasn't build to seat someone with a big pod jutting out from her butt. Minja had followed Mari's example a day before and shifted back to neutral. Ditching her pod. Which turned out to be amazingly fast and painless. They just found the pod detached next to them as they woke up this morning.

But Karina couldn't imagine doing the same. She loved being a gatherer. Always nibbling on some vegetation while walking alongside the cart. She only had to stop when her breasts start to bulge out too much. Which took a long time now that the second stomach and storage in her pod were functional. Of course, this led to prolonged milking seasons. The only time she forgot how boring the track through the half-tamed wilds was.

It was a shame that her Jelly was going to waste. Kiira had decided to sell most of their Jellies. For one, their new race needed the money. On the other hand, the carts didn't have enough space to house all their pots. Every excess landed now wayside.

Shouts pulled Karina out of her dreary musings and boredom. Now alarmed she looked to Mari and Minja. "What is going?"

"I think we are here!" Minja exclaimed. Her voice was tinged with excitement and Karina could feel it creeping into her too. However, looking along the path didn't reveal anything of note. One by one the carts stopped near a big patch of tall grass. Not unlike the one that they learned about their new dietary needs.

Her two companions jumped out of the cart and Karina did the same. Meanwhile trying to hide the fact that she was secretly disappointed. She chose to become a new race to find excitement in her life. Another field was hardly it. As soon as she hit the ground her waist was snatched and hugged by Minja and Mari. Both led her towards Kiira who stood in the middle of a slowly assembling half circle.

"Welcome to our new home," their matron started. "I know it doesn't look like much. It will be up to us to change it. Tomorrow I will introduce two roles that will help with the change. To be ready we now need to induce the change so it will be ready in the morning. Half of you, please look at yourself and think of the color brown. The other half do the same with the color violet. I plan for you to remain in your new role for two days and then both groups switch."

Karina looked around as her sisters followed the instruction. Yet she hesitated. She liked being a gatherer. Liked even the heft of her pod shifting over her butt. Despite it being inconvenient from time to time. She knew she could still gather and produce jelly. But could she still produce royal jelly? Not that it mattered as no man was around for miles. With a sigh, she looked at her arm.

"What color should I choose?"

"I took violet," Mari volunteered.

"Damn," Minja exclaimed. "I chose brown. We should have coordinated us before. Can we shift into a new role while already shifting into a new one?"

Karina shrugged. If not then it was a decision with whom she wanted to spend more time in the next few days. At once she knew that she didn't have a favorite. Liking both, Minja and Mari, equally. "I guess I'll toss a coin? Heads for brown and tails for violet?"

Both of her companions nodded. Now it proved to be a good thing that Kiira chose to sell their excess jelly. She had split the received coins equally among them all. Karina withdrew on of said coins from her backpack - which rested half on her shoulders and back and a half on her pod - and tossed it.

"I guess I join team brown," Karina said after examining the coin.

Mari gave an exaggerated sigh of disappointment. "I will miss you guys."

"Don't worry," Minja assured her. "We will always be available if you need a hug."

"How about we find a good spot for the night," Karina suggested. "We can do some hugging there. And more."

Giggling the others agreed.

*****

Karina woke up refreshed, but also uncomfortably light. As she stood up she nearly fell over again. Something was off with her balance. As she caught sight of her detached pod she knew what was wrong. Her hands shot involuntary to her back and she felt the small circular grove again she started out with.

"Strange how fast you can get used to something, right?" Minja asked. "Don't worry. I bet you can change back in a few days."

In the morning light, Karina saw Minja standing in new colors. A warm rich brown tone stood against the usual black. A quick glance at herself revealed the same color combination on herself. Mari, however, stood there showing off a delicate violet that stood out stronger against the black.

"I guess we all are ready?" Karina asked. She got two nods. "Then let's grab breakfast."

*****

Karina's new race had gathered near a small hill that fell off steeply to one side. Kiira stood ready and waited patiently for the last few to arrive that needed a little 'extra breakfast aftercare'. Some easily overeat jelly. Especially those that used to be gatherers and ditched their pods last. Among them Karina.

"Let's get started. Now that we are all here." The murmurs stopped and everyone looked to Kiira. "I will explain both roles in general and then explain the finer details once the groups split." She stepped close to a little overhang of the hill and demonstrative held up her arm. "As I explained, all our exoskeleton covered parts have new organs within them. In our arms and hands are similar organs to those in our legs and feet. Useful for climbing. But they have other uses. The following uses are available to all roles, but some are greatly enhanced or modified by the roles you currently switched into."

She moved her arm close to the wall of earth. When she withdrew it, a cantaloupe-sized chunk of the earth followed. Hovering just a handspan away from her fingers. "Builders, those of you that display the color brown, have two remarkable enhancements. They can cut and hold material. Be it earth or stone. Builders can excavate them with ease. More importantly, the quantity they can extract should be vastly bigger than what I hold. To support this they can enhance their physical prowess through magic. Everyone in another role can do it too, but to a lesser degree and it is more exhausting."

Kiira let the chunk of earth fall and held up a finger to make them wait. "The same organs are in our feet." With those words, she lifted her right foot and with it a big chunk of earth. While she displayed this ability she tethered on her left foot. No doubt anchoring herself to the ground. A moment later she willed herself to let the earth fall.

"Now some of you might be a tad disappointed." With those words from Kiira Karina looked around. Indeed she could spot a few with a slight frown upon their face. But the matron continued on. "After all, who wants to live in a house made of loose dirt?"

Again, she withdrew a chunk of dirt with the magic of her hands. However, this time she held it between her hands. There was a crunching noise and slowly the ball of earth started to shrink. As it did the color changed. From the rich brown soil to something more grayish. When Kiira was done a hunk of stone half the original size was held up by her.

"We can compact material and in turn shift them into new forms or even elements." The matron gave same a mischievous grin. "I let you in on a secret. The ability to dense up earth to stone was my inspiration, but here is the thing. When creating the ability I couldn't narrow it down to just earth. So, it might work on different materials too."

Before Karina could really speculate what those materials were her matron continued. "At last - for the builders - we have melting of the material. No, not literal melting. Instead, you will be able to sort of melt materials of similar type and density together." With that, Kiira took another chunk of earth, compacted it to stone and then pressed it against her first one. The contact point seemed to shift for a moment and a moment later both stones appeared as one. "In other words, we don't need mortar to build our homes. Now then. Builders - those with brown on your arms and legs - why don't you give it a try? Meanwhile, I will sort out the crafters."

With a shrug, Katina stepped to the same overhang Kiira had used for her demonstration. Truth be told she was reluctant to even start. Playing in the dirt seemed awfully boring compared to gathering new flavors for her jelly.

It took her a few tries until she got that digging out part correctly. It wasn't just anchoring the dirt with her inane magic. She also had to use her magic to cut around the anchored ball of earth. After a few tries, she was impressed. The largest chunk she managed had a diameter of her own torso's length. It was quite heavy and too much for her to lift until she remembered that Kiira said they could amplify their own strength through magic. How to do that, Karina figured out fast. However, using all three applications of magic at once was a little trickier.

Once mastered Karina noticed her next problem. She had started digging into the same overhang that Kiira used for her demonstration. However, Karina had made more progress than her matron. But at six feet in the tunnel started to collapse.

For a while, Karina was clueless on how to proceed. Then she remembered the other abilities of the builder role. She picked up some of her discarded dirt and started to compact it. The crunching sound could be heard and soon Karina held something up that resembled densely packed dirt. Not satisfied, Karina continued. The chunk shrunk further and further. Slowly shifting from a brown tone to something more brownish gray.

Her previous chunk of a diameter the length of her torso had now the size of her own head. Karina let it fall and it impacted on the ground with a big thud. It looked like stone and touching it confirmed that indeed it was. While certainly something, Karina doubted it would solve her problems. What good would one head-sized chunk of stone do for her? Unless-

Karina crouched down to her stone chunk and laid her hands on it. Kiira said that they couldn't just dig and slice into the dirt, but stone too. Karina tried it and it worked. Splitting the rock in two. The cut itself was a little curved. It took a while of practice until she managed a straight cut every time.

The next piece of the puzzle was the melting of materials into each other. By now the rock was nothing but pebbles. Karina grabbed two and started to melt them into each other. Once done, she grabbed another pebble and repeated the process. More and more until Karina held a brick-sized rock in her hand. However, it was uneven and Karina started to carve away with her magic until it was smooth perfection.

"Building a house like that might take forever," she mused aloud.

Flipping the brick a few times over, Karina wondered why she should be satisfied with normal dimensions of a brick. After all, they would be melted into each other when a house was built. Karina had a new resolve. Finding out how long she could make her brick. Once again she grabbed for the pebbles.

She stopped when the brick, resting on the ground, reached to her shoulder. It was quite something and very sturdy. Making Karina oddly proud of creating it. She rested the brick, which now resembled more a beam, against the wall of her makeshift tunnel.

Her eyes grew wide. "Of course!" She could use beams like that to brace the tunnel. Then she frowned. There wasn't enough excavated dirt before her tunnel to clad every surface of her tunnel with stone. For some time Karina stood before the tunnel's entrance and mused what to do. Then it came to her. She could space her stone beam like rips. This way she might have enough stone to add some extra braces vertically to support more of the ceiling.

With renewed vigor, Karina attacked her pile of dirt. Compacting it until it all was turned to stone. Then the time-consuming part of slicing and melting it to the form of stone beams.

Her idea of rips to brace the tunnel worked. The stone she had produced lasted long enough for three pairs of braces. Each pair connected with each other by a top beam and between those four beams to brace the ceiling. It just lasted deep enough into the tunnel that Karina could start digging into the dirt again.

* * * * *

"Karina? What are you building?"

She turned around and spotted Minja close to the tunnel entrance. Karina grinned and leaned against the half-finished sixth brace pair of her tunnel. "A tunnel?"

"Why?"

Karina shrugged her shoulders. "Why not?"

"Well, if that is supposed to be your future house then you might want to try widening it a bit."

"I know it is narrow," Karina agreed. "I just tried to go deeper for now. I figured I could work on the width of the tunnel in the afternoon."

"Afternoon?" Minja laughed. "I think you should come out of your hiding hole and look around a bit."

Frowning, Karina followed Minja outside. There her eyes grew wide. The sun wasn't yet touching the horizon but wasn't very far from it either.

"It is already evening?" Karina shook her head. How could she lose track of time like that? Especially when playing around with dirt? The thought brought a blush on her cheeks.

Minja sighed. "At least you accomplished something."

Karina had to agree. Three dozens of craters dotted the landscape. Signs of where aspiring builders experimented. Thankfully the field was big enough. Even with the impending spread of holes when crafters and builders switched roles.

"What did you make?"

Minja sighed. "A bunch of nonsense. Come. Take a look."

Her miniature quarry wasn't that far off. Minja had experimented with stone too. Creating a structure that reminded Karina of a tent without the fabric or leather cover.

"You know, a little bracing in between and a structure like this might hold enough earth to create a big room underground."

Minja sighed. "Still going on about your tunnel? If this goes on you might never change back to being a gatherer."

"Don't be ridicules," Karina dismissed. "It was just something I wanted to try. You know what? Let's find Mari. Maybe she had more success today."

Minja gave her strange structure a last glance and shrugged. "I don't think that would be hard to accomplish."

Together, arm in arm, they walked over to the crafters. They didn't find Mari, but lots of glass vases, pots, and bottles that hadn't been there before. Karina chose to keep silent and not mention out loud that every piece looked misshapen or lopsided.

As they couldn't find Mari they asked a random sister.

"Mari? She is near the woods on her bed-roll. She took to crafting like it was vital to survival. Powered her out though. I think she wanted to take a nap."

Karina grinned and waited for Minja to properly thank their sister. Then both headed to the woods. It wasn't hard to find Mari's bed-roll as it was the biggest around. Yet, other details drew their eyes even more. Mari was surrounded by small light sources that glittered and reflected on a variety of glass objects.

Mari noticed them and waved them closer. "Karina. Minja. Come look."

Both walked the last few feet and plopped down beside their sister.

"You have been busy," Karina remarked.

"Oh yes," Mari agreed. Her face beaming in delight. "Crafting is amazing. I mean no one has completely figured it out yet, but there is so much potential. Look at this."

She picked up a small pebble-sized ball of glass. She deliberately rubbed with a finger along the surface and with it, a dim glow appeared within. A few more rubs and it was a bright as a candle.

"That is neat," Minja commented as she was handed the small glowing sphere. "Where did Kiira get all this glass? Colored ones no less."

Mari grinned even more. "It is not glass. All this? Hardened jelly. Which means we can produce as much as we want. But there is more. We can shift and change the properties of the jelly. Making it hard or soft. Check this out."

Karina barely caught a fist-sized ball of jelly. Thrown to her by Mari. It felt kind of squishy in her hands. Karina experimented a little. The ball was kind of solid, but pinching it made it deform. Giving it slack again made it pull back into its sphere form. "Neat. Not sure what to use it for thought."

"Me neither," Mari agreed. "I kind of ignored Kiira's suggestions and experimented the whole time."

"What did Kiira suggest?" Minja asked.

"Oh, you know. Pots. Lots of pots and matching lids. To store more jelly. And because forming a pot will teach us valuable skills and control over our crafting ability."

"What's that?" Karina asked while pointing at a pane of jelly-glass behind Mari.

"Oh! My latest invention." Again, Mari gave them a mischievous grin. "You know those windows in a lot of temples, right? The ones with different colored shards of glass? I tried to mimic it. I mean jelly can have different colors depending on what food was consumed. So, this was my first try. But, look at this."

Mari grabbed two of the corners and lifted it up. Instead of one rigid piece, it came up more like a piece of cloth. "You have to harden jelly in steps and this one is a few steps short of being solid. It's like fabric. And look." She started to pull on the square and it stretched along. Extending to more than double its original size.

"That might good if we have a silk shortage," Karina mused out loud. "It also gleams a little. Like our armor on arms, torso, and legs. Might fit our look nicely."

"Oh?" Minja asked. "Are you sure that is the reason? Because it looks flexible enough to contain your main assets if you once again overeat yourself."

"T-that doesn't happen that often," Karina said with a pout.

"Maybe I try making a top for Karina tomorrow." Mari yawned loudly. "But now I am beaten."

"Me too," Minja agreed.

All three scooted together. Cuddling until sleep found them.

* * * * *

Karina woke up when it was still dark. The moon was still up high and dawn a few hours off. For a while, Karina tried to go back to sleep, but it eluded her. With a sigh, she scooted away from Minja and Mari. She might as well do something productive.

Grabbing a few of the glowing pebbles, Karina headed for her tunnel. Minja was right. The tunnel was too narrow to be useful. Just a little wider than Karina's own shoulders.

She was sure the stone would support a little more than that. She dug around the first brace and converted the dirt to stone. That, in turn, she used to widen the space between the two first braces by maybe two hand-spans.

Emboldened, Karina worked on the other braces. Growing bolder and wider with each completed brace. As she finished the fifths the brace was wide enough that two persons could stand side by side and still have a little air between them.

"There you are."

Karina turned around to find Minja in the entrance.

"I wanted to try something."

"So I see. Kind of works. But for a room, you still need to go wider."

Karina sighed. "Yeah. The problem is that I don't have enough stone. I mean I get enough stone out of compressing dirt, but I can't get the dirt out without a cave-in. I would need to add bracing first."

"I could give you mine." Minja shrugged. "It is not as if my attempt at a house is any better. Probably even worse than what you have."

"We could work on this together," Karina suggested.

Minja didn't hesitate one bit. "Deal."

"Okay, first we-"

"Nope." Minja held out a small pot. "First, you eat. You missed breakfast."

"Thanks."

"Take your time. I'll gather my stone in the meantime."

* * * * *

A few hours later, Minja and Karina had some progress done. They had settled on a room with a central column. Like spokes of a wheel bracings radiated outward. Wide enough that one of them could lay on the ground and stretch their arms without touching column or wall. Small beams of stones held the ceiling between the bracing spokes. Giving the ceiling a similar look to a spiders web.

"Well, you know," Minja started as they had finished half of the room. "This is coming along. Might even be fit to be a shelter or the start of an underground house. But we need to do something about the floor and the walls. I don't wanna sleep in the dirt."

"Hmmm." Karina took a moment to mull the problem over. "I have an idea. Be right back."

She stormed out of the tunnel. Only stopping for a moment to blink at the bright sun. Then, Karina started hunting for the crafter group and more specifically for Mari. She found her perched on her bed-roll that she had placed in the shadow of a big tree. A few misshapen pots stood around her resting place, as well as a few plates of the mosaic-like hardened jelly.

"Hey, Mari. What are you up to?"

Mari grinned as she saw Karina. "Not the things I am supposed to do. Doing pots over and over again is so boring. Here. Look at this."

Mari held up a small figurine made of hardened jelly. Karina examined it from all side and needed a moment to figure it out. "Is that a deer?"

"Yes! That's my second try. The first one was worse. Much worse."

"For a second try it doesn't look half bad," Karina mused out loud. "Given time I bet you can do some masterworks."

"That is nice of you to say," Mari replied. "But I bet you didn't come out of your hiding hole just to look at my experiments."

"What? My hiding hole?" Karina gave Mari her best mock-shocked face she could manage. "I'll have you know it is now Minja's and my hiding hole."

"Great. You infected her."

"And I'll infect you too! Come with me for a moment. Please?"

"Alright. Alright." Carefully placing her figurine and other crafting projects aside, Mari stood up. "You know, I am not a builder yet. Hmm. Trying to make me continue your hole of dirt when we switch roles?"

Karina blew her a raspberry. "Nope. But that might be a plus. Come."

Grabbing her by the hand Karina dragged the giggling Mari behind her.

"So, this is it?" Mari asked as they arrived outside of the tunnel. "It isn't as narrow as Minja made it out to be."

"I widened it just this morning. Come in."

Inside they found Minja who was in the middle of compacting dirt to stone. "Mari? Come to see our progress?"

"Apparently," Mari agreed. "It has something. A-" She took a moment to hunt for words. "A rustic charm."

Minja gave a sharp laugh. "Yeah, something like that."

"Don't worry. I have a solution to that," Karina promised.

"What is it?" Minja demanded to know.

Karina smirked and only uttered "Mari".

Mari quirked her eyebrow. "Me?"

"Well, aren't you tired of doing pots and vases?"

"You know I am."

Karina grabbed Mari by the shoulder and waved at the dirt walls. "Well, look at those dirty walls. They can be your canvas. You, as a crafter, can cover the walls and floor in hardened jelly. Think about it. Instead of mosaic windows, we can have mosaics for walls and floor."

Mari critically examined the dirt walls and floor. "You know what? This might actually work. We have a few pots filled with shards of previous failed attempts. I bet I could use those."

"Please try," Karina begged.

"Fine," Mari said while throwing up her hands. "But you'll help me carrying the pots over."

At once, Karina agreed. "It's a deal."

Over the next hour, they dragged one pot after another to their artificial cave. As Karina had hoped, Mari was able to cover the walls and floor with jelly. She even could use the discarded shards of hardened jelly. Apparently, crafters like Mari could soften it up again and reuse it. The first finished wall and floor looked slick and smooth but was color-wise an absolute patchwork of mostly green, some brown, and here and there were hints of blue. Karina knew the green was from grass and leaves. Brown mostly likely from wood like bark and even twigs. The little blue was from water. A material they had plenty available to consume, but it wasn't very efficient to convert to jelly.

While Mari worked on walls and floors, Minja and Karina carved out the rest of their little room. It might even be big enough for all three of them to sleep side by side, Karina decided.

"Argh, out of my way."

Mari's cursing made Karina look towards the entrance. Apparently, their little group project had been discovered. Curious faces peeked in and blocked Mari from getting out. Soon, a steady stream of onlookers came by. Now and then asking questions.

"What do you think?" Minja asked Karina as they finished the room. "Try making this one bigger or expand with another room?"

Karina looked around and thought about it for a minute. "Depends. If this is more than a little experiment than I would say a new room. This could be the entrance. And a separate bedroom would make sense."

"Well, it is starting to look homey," Minja mused aloud. "With Mari covering the walls, it doesn't look ugly anymore."

Mari took a step back from her work and looked around. "I like it. We should give it a try."

Karina nodded. "Yeah. In that case, how we plan the layout for our future home? Oh, and we can finally sleep under a roof again."

That got excited agreement from both of them.

When evening arrived, Minja and Karina had carved out the first short corridor to a future room and Mari had managed to cover one wall and the ceiling.

"Let's see what the others are up to," Karina suggested.

Once out, the trio hooked to each other in tight hugs and started walking. But soon, they grew confused.

"Where is everyone?" Mari asked.

"I think I know where," Minja said while pointing at a few holes that dotted a nearby hill. "Guess Karina once again discovered something we all find useful."

"Oh, now it is useful?" Karina asked. "Yesterday you told me I was nuts."

"Well," Minja mused out loud. "You are still nuts, but maybe not as much."

"Thanks."

Soon, everyone gathered for the evening meal. There was a lot of talking and many questions were asked towards Karina. Most now agreed that building above ground might not be as feasible for now.

"Remember," Kiira, their matron, reminded them after dinner. "It is time to switch roles."

"Can you even stop, now that you are in the digging craze? Minja needled.

"Barely. Just barely," Karina replied. "But I am looking forward to what I can accomplish as a crafter. It also might be good for our home. Mari can work on expanding the digging head-start, while we two catch up on covering the walls and such."

"I like crafting," Mari admitted with a sigh. "But I guess I can play in the dirt for two days."

"Your sacrifices are deeply appreciated," Karina said while pulling Mari in a hug, who couldn't help but to giggle.

"Well, then." Minja stood up. "Time to move into our new home."

Together, they move all their stuff and spend a cozy evening in the shine of the few light pebbles Mari had created.

* * * * *

The next two days ran by fast. Mari worked on their future bedroom. Which was a challenge in itself, as it was meant to be bigger than the entry room. Together, Karina and Minja made good progress. In fact, as they caught up with Mari they had some time for vanity projects.

To the delight of Mari, Minja added shelves to the wall and placed Mari's first attempts at art on them. Karina's carved wooden figures - mementos from her late grandpa - was placed beside them. Meanwhile, Karina was busy with the ceiling. Once she had figured how to make glowing jelly, she had an idea.

"What are you doing up there?" Minja asked.

"Do you see all these small droplets of hardened jelly on the ceiling?" Once Minja nodded Karina continued. "I connected them all with the barest sliver of jelly. And it all connects down here."

Karina pointed to a droplet of hardened jelly on the wall near the entrance. "Now, if everything works as intended then-" Karina's finger strived the droplet and at once the small drops on the ceiling started to glow all at once.

"It's like a sea of stars at nighttime," Minja marveled out loud. "Mari! You have to see this."

"This is so cool," Mari gushed as she arrived. "We need something like that in the bedroom too."

"I planned to add something like this in every room," Karina assured her. "I mean who wants to live in darkness or gloom."

With renewed vigor, all three resumed their projects but soon hit a sudden hurdle amid the second day. But they weren't the only one.

"You've been busy," Kiira remarked as everyone had gathered around. "I thought we had enough jelly, but you used it all up. I guess we cut the lesson short. Not that many of you crafted pots anyway."

She overdid a rolling of her eyes before continuing. "Now, there are only two classes left. The guard, with the color yellow, for which I don't see a use right now. I don't think we will be attacked anytime soon. This class I only added as a precaution."

"The other is the matron role," Kiira continued. "I think it is better to wait until one of us feels the need to have offspring to explain this role. But let me tell you one thing about how our race can procreate. We are dependent on other races. I hope in time you will be proud of our race, but I have witnessed too many races who look down on others. I wanted to avoid this."

Kiira took a moment to let her words sink in. With a resolute nod, she explained more. "There are two ways for us to procreate. Both depend on other races that have a male gender. The first one is very normal. Get pregnant and have offspring. But there is a second way. We can convert any other race into our own, provided they aren't too big and it is their choice. If you spot a candidate who wants to join our merry band then please let me know."

Kiira looked at all the faces around her and finally nodded gravely. "This is all I have to teach for now. How our race will develop hinges on all of us. So please do your best. And don't forget. We still don't have an official name. Give it some thought and gather support if you have a suggestion."

Slowly, the gathering dispersed.

"I guess we are free to choose what role we now want," Minja remarked.

"Goodbye to digging in the dirt. Time to be a crafter again," Mari said while staring at her arm. Probably to trigger the role change.

"Well," Karina started with a grin. "You need jelly to craft with, right? I guess I should become a gatherer again."

"Fine," Minja exclaimed. "I guess I'll be a builder for now. Someone has to finish our new home."

They all shared a grin. As the changing of their role would take some time they decided to distract themselves on their bedroll. Time flew by for them.

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Comments

AotA Royal Jelly

I like how this is developing. I am a fan of your Gem stories and your Lokian stories and I am getting into these now. From the title it looks like you might have other artifacts in mind which would give a very wide playing field for the future. I am looking forward to the next developments.

Time is the longest distance to your destination.

A different focus.

Hey Siteseer,

thank you for your kind words.
I do have more stories planned in this universe.
But my focus is only on this one artifact which can create new races.
My goal for this universe is to let my creative energies flow through creating races.
Royal Jelly deals with a single-gender race.
I am currently developing one with three genders.
(And of course the plot to allow the main protagonist to experience all three.)
Of course, I may revisit previously created races later.

So, stay tuned.

Cassy.

Zzub, Zzub

Gr8tS4g3's picture

This is a fun story, with some intriguing world building concepts, I look forward to more.

The Nature of Monkey is Irrepressible!

This has been a very fun

Beoca's picture

This has been a very fun story to read. Coming off the Undesirable Classes, I imagine that it didn't take a huge leap to get to the idea of this Artifact. Excited to see what comes in this next and last part (!).

No need for a quarry

Jamie Lee's picture

They don't need to quarry the material for their homes when they can make the material as they work.

It can't be long before Karina becomes a matron because of her ideas. Is she does it will be necessary to find another who's able to think outside the box as Karina has done so far. Or another just as crazy.

Others have feelings too.