Anne looked at me with antennae canted forward. "Please, enlighten me: what abilities do you have as a drake that you lacked as a smaller dragon?"

I glanced at my character sheet.

Class: Drake Level: 10 Exp progress toward next level: 2% HP: 29/40 SP: 10/30 Unspent skill points: 0 Claws: level 2 Scales: level 5 Mouth: level 11 Wings: level 1 Traits: Carnivore, Kin sensitive, Carrion feeder Learned abilities: Sprinting, Noxious Breath, Poison Breath, Paralyzing Breath, Harden Scales, Roar, Speech Active Quests: 'Locate an embercore' / 'A plea for help' / 'Emergency excavation request'

I flapped my wings. "I don't really have any new abilities, per se. And I haven't gained any new points to learn new abilities. But I do have a new set of wings."

Anne chittered impatiently. "Do you have any insights to offer that I couldn't have gleaned by simply looking at you?"

"Well," I said. "My maximum health and stamina have increased. Part of the perks of having a bigger body, I'm sure. And if you think about it, physical size and weight is a property all its own."

"What exactly do you mean by that?" said Anne.

"Oh," I said. "Well, for one thing, I'm not above throwing my weight around. It isn't as relevant when I'm fighting ants, but there are definitely times when I've encountered larger predator mammals like hyenas."

At that, Octavia suddenly turned away from her web work and looked at me with a expression of concern. I made eye contact with her, looking confused for a moment, until I remembered: earlier that day, Octavia had given me two 'code words' in case we needed to communicate covertly around Anne. "Rabbit" was our code word for "flee," and "hyena" was our code word for "get ready to fight."

I cleared my throat. "I, uh, found hyenas to be a formidable animal." Animal, if I recalled correctly, was the word to signal to Octavia that I was in fact actually talking about hyenas, and not trying to communicate through some kind of secret code.

I broke eye contact with Octavia and redirected my attention to Anne. "Animals like hyenas can get quite aggressive, and sometimes, the best way for dealing with one is a good body slam. Now that I've gained a bit of mass, my body carries more momentum when I run. Bigger body, more kinetic energy."

"It also requires that you expend a greater amount of energy to move," said Anne.

"True," I said. "Good thing I filled up on ants back at the crater where we found the dragon scale. I wonder if my metabolism has changed. I am still growing, after all."

Anne chuckled. "Don't I know it."

"What exactly does that mean?" I asked.

Anne cocked her head. "My ants are this size for a reason. In fact, if I could make them smaller while imbuing them with the same functions, I would happily do so."

"What exactly do they eat?" I asked. "I mean, I've seen the armored ants picking flesh off the bones of slain hyen–slain animals before, but I can't recall ever seeing the fire ants eat. They have to have some food source to sustain them, don't they?"

"Indeed." Anne sighed. "They are not limited in the types of food they consume. They are truly omnivorous. I suppose a useful failsafe for my next autonomous ant design would be to make them only capable of digesting a food source which I controlled. Control the food, control the swarm."

"You can do that?" I asked.

"I can certainly try," said Anne. "It is another thing for me to test when the opportunity presents itself. There must be some way for me to engineer an autonomous ant swarm that I can effectively control."

Octavia bristled for a moment, then resumed spinning her web. She had heard what I had heard. This wasn't the first time Anne had announced her intention to continue the same types of experiments that had led to the creation of the rogue fire ants.

I did my best to keep my tone neutral and non-judgmental. "I think we should wait until your latest failed experiment has been dealt with before we begin pushing the frontiers of ant bioengineering. One rogue swarm is enough to deal with."

"Our drake is wise," said Anne. "Now, what can you do besides dispense wisdom? I believe we were discussing your newfound abilities as a drake. Or lack thereof, as the case seems to be."

"Yes," I said. "But I still haven't given my wings a proper test."

"You seem to lack the power of flight," said Anne.

"How did you know that?"

"I watched you before," she said. "It appeared as though you were attempting to jump into the sky while flapping your wings."

"Guilty as charged." I gave Anne a sheepish grin. "What else was I supposed to do?"

Anne raised a leg to her chin in contemplation. "I am not sure. I have never had wings before. I presumed that the ability to use a limb was simply a natural part of possessing it."

"Babies need to learn how to walk," I said.

"What?" said Anne. "Are dragons born not possessing the most basic means of mobility?"

"Well, no," I said. "I was born knowing how to walk. Same as most animals, now that I think about it. I guess humans are unique in that regard."

"Humans?" said Anne.

"Yeah," I said. "Remember?"

"Remember what?" said Anne. "Have we had an encounter with humans before? Which creatures do you describe as humans? What do these 'human' creatures look like?"

Octavia glanced over from the spot where she was laying down web and shot me a meaningful glance. Now that was interesting.

"Humans are–"

Octavia immediately interrupted me. "I was telling Drew about humans earlier. Our young dragon friend has never encountered humans directly in this valley, being so young, but humans are creatures that stand upright on two legs, which is probably why learning to walk is more challenging."

"A creature that stands on two legs," mused Anne. "I see. Like a bird, then."

"Yes, humans are a bit bird-like. Their young are helpless." Octavia declined to elaborate further.

I understood Octavia's meaning. Mum's the word for now. If Anne had never encountered 'humans' before, then perhaps we were not truly of a kind.

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I wondered what Octavia thought about the the philosophical and ethical implications of this. Octavia and I, despite our present form, had a pretty tangible claim to personhood, being that we were both former humans reincarnated into spider or dragon form. If Anne had never known life apart from being an ant, did that fundamentally change her claim to personhood?

Probably not, I figured: Anne had the ability to reason, and by all accounts, Anne was just as sapient as Octavia and I were. Still, the fact that she'd never encountered a human before did strike me as odd – and the fact that her first reference point for "a creature with two legs" was a bird suggested that she'd also never encountered humanoid creatures like elves or the like.

Anne's comment also spoke to a lack of shared experience between us. Did Anne have any experience of living in community with other people, or was her life really just one of controlling mindless ants completely? Did she ever have sapient ant friends? It was a possibility I had considered before, but if the idea of 'community' was really alien to her, a lack of shared values might make it hard to find common ground with Anne. For now, we shared the long-term goal of eliminating the fire ants, and the short-term goal of gaining control of the dragon scale, but…

Octavia interrupted my train of thought. "Humans aren't exactly like birds. They're wingless. They're mammals. Like hyenas."

Hyenas. That word again. Octavia's code for get ready to fight. Was she really preparing for a showdown, here and now?

I looked at Octavia, who was staring daggers into me. It seemed almost as if she was attempting to talk with me using her eyes. What was she considering? I glanced past Anne and watched as Octavia gestured to the ants that were currently above the surface. Octavia pointed to each ant in turn. One. Two. Three. ….Eight. Nine. Ten. Plus the dozens that were currently underground, excavating dirt.

Octavia, again gesturing behind Anne, raised her web. Before adding it to her growing web perimeter, she stretched it. Then she pointed to the hole in the ground.

Octavia's web was the same size as the hole.

I suddenly realized the implication: Octavia could plug the hole with her web, trapping the overwhelming majority of Anne's ants underground. This would be the perfect moment for an ant queen assassination, if Octavia and I had the inclination. Anne was effectively defenseless.

I shook my head. "I just want to say that we're grateful for all your help, Anne." I glanced at Octavia, hoping she understood my meaning. "We couldn't do this without you."

Anne frowned. " I am grateful for the compliment, but it seems apropos of nothing. To what exactly are you referring?"

"The whole…dealing with the fire ants thing," I said. "Octavia and I couldn't beat them without your help. It's just unfortunate that they managed to…gain independence from you."

"Indeed," said Anne. "Defective by design, you might say."

"You mentioned they were omnivores," I said. "That explains why they haven't starved to death. Still, we keep eliminating them by the dozens every time we square off. Just how many of these fire ants did you create?"

"Oh," said Anne. "The group that escaped my control numbered only a hundred at the time. Unfortunately, their self-replication did not cease after they escaped containment."

I blinked. "I'm sorry, did you say that the fire ants can self-replicate?"

"Yes," said Anne. "The first fire ant I designed was a complex bespoke design. Creating even one of them was labor intensive, requiring many specific material components, and the actual construction required more than a full day of my intense focus and labor. I couldn't very well create a hundred bespoke ants with such intense detail, especially when I really just needed an endless supply of a single perfected design. So, I created what I believed to be the perfect ant agent, and gave it the ability to create more copies of itself. It was easy to grow my fire ant swarm to a hundred once I ensured they could double their ranks every few days if needed."

My eyes widened. "You created self-replicating agents that you couldn't directly control?" I refrained from adding the words 'you fool' to the end of my question.

"I capped their self-replication ability," Anne said. "At any rate, they are only supposed to do what they are designed to do. Remember, I built the quest-style reward function into them. Much like I can disperse any of my other ants on quests with specific instructions, the original fire ant – and all its replicants – is imbued with the same quests that guide their behavior. One of those was to stop creating copies of itself any time there are more than a dozen fire ants nearby."

"Seems they didn't get the memo," I said. "I'm pretty sure we fought more than a hundred fire ants just now."

"They are not designed to exceed a dozen at a time," said Anne. "Self-replication is costly for the fire ant, and once a fire ant has eleven companions nearby, it will no longer be rewarded for creating copies of itself. Past that point, a fire ant should focus on other tasks that it will be rewarded for. I do not know what compels them to create hundreds more."

"Seems like you must have gotten your wires crossed somehow."

"No," said Anne, more emphatically this time. "The quests I imbued the fire ants with determine their priorities. Fighting threats, feeding themselves, and creating copies are among their main priorities, but they aren't rewarded for self-replicating when a dozen or more fire ants already exist in near proximity.. To a fire ant, creating the one hundred and first copy – or two hundredth copy – should be considered useless. A non-goal. Given the other fire ants' other priorities, there's no reason for them to spend their resources doing something that will accomplish nothing."

"Maybe…" I paused. "What exactly is it that the fire ants are rewarded for, in terms of reproducing? You say they get the equivalent of a 'reward' every time they successfully reproduce, so they proactively seek that out."

"In a manner of speaking."

"Please elaborate on that," I said. "Like, is the act of creating another fire ant what's rewarded?"

"Not precisely," said Anne. "The fire ants are…rewarded with a sense of what you might describe as pleasure or euphoria. The more fire ants, the more they feel this reward. They're reward-seeking, driven to seek it out, and thus if being in a cluster of three fire ants gives a certain amount of pleasure, then being in a cluster of nine fire ants gives an amount of pleasure that is three times as great.

"Okay…" I said, not sure I liked where this was going.

"But this has a cap. After the twelfth fire ant, there are no additional levels of pleasure. So, they would instead pursue activities to survive the survival of the existing one hundred fire ants, such as seeking out food, or dealing with known adversaries in their quest for survival."

"I…" I paused. "They're rewarded for 'dealing with known adversaries?' Well, I suppose Octavia and I have first hand experience with that. But…never mind, put a cap on that for now. I think I understand what you failed to see about your design, Anne."

"Please," she said. "I am dying to know."

"The fire ants really want there to be at least a dozen of them," I said. "Not exactly a dozen of them, but at least a dozen of them. From the standpoint of this 'euphoric pleasure' they feel, they get the same reward from being in a group of twenty fire ants as a dozen fire ants, right?"

"Yes," said Anne. "That is why their wanton self-replication befuddles me."

I shook my head. "Isn't it obvious? I feel pleasure from eating food when I'm hungry. There is a limit to the amount of food I can consume in any given day. So in a sense, my food intake is 'capped.' But I know that tomorrow, I will be able to eat more. So, even if I am 'full,' I can anticipate future rewards for consuming more food. My quest to be fed on any given day means that I want to always be stockpiling food for the future. Animals do this, too. A squirrel can't eat hundreds of nuts, but it will still compulsively seek out massive massive numbers of nuts to create a stockpile."

"So you're saying that the fire ants are stockpiling more copies of themselves?"

"Yes," I said. "If they feel a state of ultimate euphoria for being in a world where there are a hundred or more fire ants, they're practically addicted to it by now. Think about it: if they're addicted to the pleasure of being in a group of a dozen fire ants, then it must be physically painful for them to have the experience of there being in a group of only eleven ants. If that's the case, they're not going to wait for that to happen. They'll take proactive steps to prevent it, just like I'll want to take steps to ensure I have food for tomorrow, even if I have a full belly today. And what better way to ensure that your numbers never drop below a dozen by creating hundreds of copies of yourself?"

Anne paused. "I understand your reasoning. This is a novel idea you have."

"Really?" I said. "It seemed pretty obvious to me. The surprising part to me is that you decided to grant the fire ants this level of autonomy."

Anne's tone grew sarcastic. "I suppose you're surprised I didn't also program them with instructions on how to walk. They know how to do simple things. They aren't like the human babies you described earlier. They can take whatever instrumental steps are necessary to achieve their goals."

"Anne, I don't mean to sound condescending, but this is a rookie mistake. Whatever ant design you come up with next, you need to allow me to review the details before you put it into action."

Her antennae twitched. "Was that a request, or an order?"

"We both want the same thing!" I said. "We both want to live in a world that isn't ravaged by your runaway experiments. So please, allow me to assist you in that goal. Before you embark on any more 'creative' projects, give me a chance to review."

"I will admit that your commentary thus far has been helpful," said Anne. "And I will take your comments under advisement. I–"

"Hyena!" yelled Octavia. That word again. "Drew, get ready to fight!"

Anne's comments had certainly given me pause, but we were far from an irreconcilable disagreement. "Octavia, I'm sure that we can resolve this–"

"Drew. Anne." Octavia pointed, and suddenly I saw the yellow eyes, peeking at us through the darkness. "There is an animal approaching," she hissed. "And if there's one thing I know about hyenas, it's that they travel in packs."