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It was good these... othertermites? Otherisopterans? ...in the house were able to see, as the farther Leila followed them through the house, the denser every surface became with them. Their vision allowed them to move out of the way as she approached. This was done in an intelligent, orderly fashion, with the tiny creatures giving just enough space for each footfall before quickly closing the gap behind her as her leg raised up again. Upon allowing herself a closer look, she noticed that they were giving each other a decent amount of personal space as well... or perhaps, it was to enable them to keep as much vigil over each other as possible.

There were soldiers -- darker, larger, and with distinctively enlarged heads -- evenly spaced among the workers. Occasionally a worker approached to feed one of them. Otherwise they patrolled around at a meted pace, stopping and quite clearly watching Leila when got close enough.

The next few minutes continued in this fashion until she had followed a stream of the insects down into the basement, which a bare hanging lightbulb illuminated with a pull of a string. This must have shocked the colony, as she was greeted with countless immobile insects oriented in her direction, as well as a cluster of soldiers that drew closer to their charge as her eyes fell on them. An engorged abdomen, dotted with eyes like jewels, made it obvious they were huddled around a queen.

Had they made this house into their nest instead of building one from scratch? Extremely clever.

Well, they'd already encountered a talking (sort-of) deer. Discovering a talking insect should not have been as much of a shock, but it was -- and Leila jumped a little at the sudden cognizance of words from the queen, a reaction that probably wasn't going to do her many favors. There was that sense of being watched, but not like before when she had been led to the forest with the others; the 'voice' was new as well. No flavors, no compulsions, no odd poetic quality. Just a simple question.

"N-no," she answered. "Should I, um, leave your colony alone?"

"Help you...? How?"

Was the Other Ashdown simply inclined to lead people to stuff like this? She hadn't even intended to do anything here but leave! Even though a path was made, Leila didn't step forward quite yet.

Daughter... "A foundress?" That probably wasn't the right term. Leila only had a passing knowledge of termites: they were unique in that they could have multiple reproductive queens and kings, and eventually the colony would produced winged ones to start a new nest elsewhere.

"Yeah, I can do that while I'm here. Do I just tell her that's what I'm there to do, when I find her?"

"Right. I'll take her. She can just... climb on me somewhere, I guess?"

"O-oh," stammered Leila, a bit embarrassed. "Right." She'd totally forgotten the queen had all but directly invited her to approach a few minutes ago. With directed caution, she slowly stepped forward, kneeling down on the floor once she'd closed the gap between them.

...That was not an insect.

That was a human child.

And this was, officially, the weirdest s**t Leila had encountered in the Other Ashdown so far. She gave the girl a puzzled look, eyes darting from her to the queen and the soldiers and back, suddenly completely uncertain of what it is she had just been asked to do. If there were cellphone service in this layer of the world, she would have immediately phoned child protective services -- as it were, she simply sat there and stared, utterly stunned, for several moments.

"This is a human," she said, bluntly dumbfounded.

"I-I don't think you understand," replied Leila. "A human can't survive on the same food as you--" but then, how did she survive from infancy up to this point?

She gathered up the child and stood up again. "What does her being your Princess mean?"