Member
Day 1, Week 1, Cycle 1
Springtime, 24 °C, Sunny
Almost in the shadow of the island's highest peak, where two rivers whose sources run that peak's range nearly touch, one hundred strange insectoids stood in three columns at the edge of where a forest and grassland met, arranged in a three-pointed star. Four insectoids stood out from the rest, three of them standing in front of their respective columns, staring towards the center of the group. These three were Queens of the Mordukai, and behind them, each column was organized into six columns with sixteen rows of depth. In total, there were 24 Soldiers and 72 Workers. In the very center was a single Drone, standing motionless.
And in an instant, the columns began falling apart as the Mordukai began to bob their heads around, their compound eyes taking in their surroundings. Their brains racked themselves, aggressively trying to figure out what was going on, who they were, where they were, and so on.
Slowly, the insectoids began to move around, looking at grasses, trees, and shrubs, but the Queens were more thoughtful. All Mordukai felt the Bond with their Queen, and their Queens felt their Bond with their children. Gazing at each other, the Queens felt a mixture of hostility, defensiveness, and curiousity. Deciding to be the first one to speak, one of the Queens walked towards the other two, ignoring the Drone in the middle that was examining the local foliage.
She lifted her four arms to the other Queens, welcoming them as she spoke in the Mordukai language of skitters and hisses, "Sisters, where are we?"
A few moments passed as the other two Queens considered the situation before one of them cautiously approached closer, "I know not. I know not... almost anything."
This second Queen's approach fueled the third's, "Agreed. It is like... emptiness."
The first Queen's suspicions rose rapidly as she wondered aloud, "Yes," she bent down to pick up some dirt and then stood, "Nothing is... familiar. Something is very... wrong." Frustration led her to toss the dirt away, "Nothing can be done. We may be stuck here a long time, wherever 'here' is. Where else to go, I don't remember..."
Scratching her head, the second Queen mentioned, "We need food and water. We have none I see."
"Let us focus our efforts separately. My Hive will gather berries and food from the forest," declared the third Queen.
The first decided not to be left behind, "Mine shall work on hunting."
Finally, the second decided, "I will learn what grows here and build homes."
Once all were decided, the first lifted her arms once more, each fellow Queen receiving two hands each, "Then we work together." The other two Queens joined the circle of arms, nodding, "Together."
They set outward then, going to their respective Hives, issuing commands to their loyal children.
The third Hive quickly set about gathering berries and vegetables from the forest and grasslands, the Workers nibbling a little on different material to learn if it was edible and potentially toxic, preferring to sacrifice some of their health to warn the others. Watching over them were the Soldiers, who also helped gather at times. The food was brought back to where they all awoke.
Where they awoke, the second Hive worked on gathering sticks, wood, and leaves, doing their best to establish simple shelters while the Queen and a few of her Soldiers surveyed the area, determining what could be bent into a domestic crop. Some of the Workers were instructed to prepare fields for planting, and worked hard to clear what land they could for the seeds and plants their mother discovered. This second Queen spent quite some time considering the layout of the fields as she analyzed local flora, slowly beginning to realize the issue of how to water the future crops.
The first Queen split her Hive into four hunting groups consisting of two Soldiers and four Workers each, retaining eight Workers to help construct shelters and gather food. These Workers were also held back in order to give the first Queen some semblance of protection just in case the other two Queens became aggressive towards her. Each group was sent in a different direction in relation to the Sun, both to hunt and to report back what they found.
It was these hunting groups that brought back knowledge of the Sunrise and Sunset Rivers, knowledge of strange creatures, as well as the carcasses of a number of Lepus and even a captured live specimen. When the three Hives reconvened that night in what flimsy huts were available, the Three Queens sat in the main hut, discussing the day. There seemed to be relatively plentiful food and game in the area as well a number of water sources. With the knowledge of the Sunset and Sunrise rivers, the Mordukai resolved to build their homes here, mostly because the fields would go alongside those rivers, beginning with the Sunrise River. The beginnings of the Mordukai Civilization had been laid.
