Mendant and Francis didn’t know when the healers had gotten a reputation for being curmudgeons, but they both strongly felt it wasn’t deserved. They weren’t grumpy! They were providing vital, life-giving services to their siblings! If anything, the accusation they were ill tempered just made them feel like the others were being ungrateful.

“Mendant! Lovely to see you again, how are things down in the tunnels?”

“Francis! Wonderful to see you too. Things are going well, so far. The tunnels are holding steady, despite the number of monsters rising just about every hour. There aren’t enough healers to go around, but then again, there never are.”

“Very true. Come over here and have a cup of tea.”

“Oh? You have tea! How did you manage to get your mandibles on that? I thought we’d run out.”

“New shipment came in this morning and I managed to snag a box for myself.”

“You sneaky thing! I’m in awe of your talents, as always.”

The two sisters settled in around the table and sighed in pleasure as they lowered their heads and began to sip their brew.

“Just the right amount of sugar,” Francis sighed, “you really know how to make a good cup.”

“If only I had some biscuits, but alas, I couldn’t secure any.”

“No need to lament, sister of mine. I’ll be back in a moment.”

Francis rose from her chair and disappeared from the chamber, only to return a moment later with a small platter of biscuits gripped in her mandibles.

“Ah, wonderful!” Mendant exclaimed, her eyes shining in delight. “Just perfect. Thank you, Francis.”

“The pleasure is mine, of course.”

Once again, the two sisters settled down to enjoy their snacks, only to be rudely interrupted as a messenger scout burst into the room.

“We need healers in the tunnels, immediately!”

“What?!” the two council members snapped.

“What have you done now?” Francis groaned.

“What have you done to the healers stationed down there?” Mendant demanded, glaring at the scout. “Overwhelmed and overworked again?”

The scout was sufficiently braced, having known that this would happen. She employed the expert tactic passed down throughout the messenger corps, ‘divert the blame!’

“Sloan ordered me to send for the two of you,” the scout snapped out a crisp salute, “she requests your presence in the staging chamber immediately.”

Then she turned and dashed for it.

When the two council members arrived beneath the fortress, it was as if they were followed by individual thunderclouds. Other ants had avoided them the whole time they were making their way down, and now that they’d arrived, even the largest soldiers stepped lightly as they stormed toward the generals in the middle of the chamber.

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“What’s going on, Sloan?” Francis demanded as the two pushed their way into the circle.

“This had better be good…” Mendant grumbled.

Sloan jumped as the two made themselves known and turned.

“Oh! Right. Thanks for coming, you two, I know that you just finished shifts, so I’m really gratef–”

“Just get on with it,” Mendant cut her off.

“You’re wasting time,” Francis said pointedly.

“Right. Sorry. There’s been a surge of injuries in three of the tunnels and the frontline healers are overwhelmed. The hospital over there is swamped as well.”

“What else is new?”

“Ah. Yes.”

“Any plans to bring through more healers with the next group of reinforcements? Like we’ve been asking? For weeks?”

“Of course we’ve asked for more healers!”

“How many?”

“Two thousand.”

“Out of how many ants?”

“... forty thousand.”

Both healers slumped at the news, but only momentarily. Their internal grumpiness only fuelled them… to be more grumpy!

“You’re going to be reattaching your own legs with sugar syrup if this goes on much longer,” Mendant warned the general. “And it won’t be me who tears them off. If the healers get stretched any thinner, we’d be see-through.”

“We need more soldiers for the front lines—”

“They don’t do any good if they’re in a hospital bed!”

“Come on, Mendant,” Francis said, “they aren’t listening. Let’s get to work.”

“Good thing some of us are working,” Mendant grumbled, causing Sloan to twitch in anger.

Wisely, the general kept her pheromone gland shut.

The two healers stuck together and hit the first tunnel, rushing into the forward medical post.

“What have we got?” Francis asked.

The healer in charge didn’t look up from where she was busy closing an ugly wound in a mage’s carapace.

“I’ve got three hundred and forty two broken legs, six hundred and eleven severed legs and almost a thousand severe carapace trauma.”

“Dammit. Quick, Francis, let’s scrub up.”

The two ants dashed to a side area, glowing with enchantments and waved their antennae through the light. Properly cleansed, they moved into the hospital proper and began working.

“Three severed legs? That’s rough, soldier. I’ll kick start the healing process, but it’ll take a week for them to grow back. Make sure you eat Biomass, three times a day.”

“Thank you, healer.”

“What are you doing out there? I swear you’re trying to get injured. Look at your carapace! That’s a direct hit! I’ll do my best to close it over, but you’ll be moved to the main hospital for an extended stay. You’re lucky to be alive.”

“Th-thanks, healer.”

The two tore through the hospital in an hour, using their energy as efficiently as they could before they departed, calling for more healers to come off their breaks and get back into the medical chambers before they rushed to the next one.

Everywhere they went was a disaster, the healers pushed to capacity, running out of mana and healing fluid.

By the time they finished with the three tunnels, they were exhausted and slumped their way back to the central chamber to find Sloan had been replaced with Victor.

“Glad you’re here,” Victor said, “we’ve got emergencies in two tunnels. The healers are overwhelmed.”

“I’ll bet,” Francis said sarcastically.

Mendant was about to leap forward and tackle the general with her own mandibles when a runner sped up to them.

“Message from the Eldest, top priority!”

Victor turned around, startled.

“What? What do they want?”

“Message is as follows: ‘bring more healers down, what the heck is wrong with you?’. Message ends.”

Victor nodded, accepting defeat as Francis and Mendant high-fived with their antennae. Good to know someone was looking out for them.