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"It's just up here," she said. "You've never seen a worm hive so large!"

Beneto smiled at her. His eyes were half closed, but he walked without a single misstep, without tangling himself in the undergrowth. "You're absolutely right, little sister—the trees have told me the hive will hatch within an hour."

She ran ahead, and though Beneto didn't seem to increase his pace, he kept up with her, not even breaking into a sweat.

From the best viewing spot, Estarra looked up to stare at the papery structure. Beneto leaned against a worldtree so he could watch through his own eyes as well as the senses of the forest. Small butterfly-things twirled in the air. Estarra waved her hands to brush them away, but none of them bothered Beneto.

Suspended on the worldtree trunk, the grayish white hive pulsed like the disembodied heart of a huge organism. The pupating worms had finished their hibernation and were ready to emerge to the next phase of their lives.

She heard a clicking, chewing sound and knew the giant worms were stirring through the tangled passages of the nest, questing for an exit after digesting the body of their now-useless queen. "Beneto, do the trees hate these worms because they're parasites that cause damage?"

With a calm smile, her brother rested a palm against a scaled trunk. He sent the question into the intricate mind of the forest, though he already knew the answer. "The trees say no, little sister. Hive worms are part of the natural order of things. These parasites are no more malicious than most—and they are useful in their own way."

"You mean by leaving their empty hives for us to live in?" The papery wall bulged outward as the shadowy tubular forms of worms prepared to break out.

"More than that. You will see in a moment." Beneto ran his fingers along the tree bark, continuing his telink. "Ah, here. It is time."

The hive wall split open, and a mouth ringed with teeth probed into the air. More heads broke free, writhing like snakes in a disturbed nest. The hive worms spilled outward, their segmented bodies plated with a thick purple armor. Dropping to the ground like eels in flight, they plunged headfirst into the soil, chewing into the forest loam like carrion eaters burrowing into rotten flesh.

Estarra was amazed at the frenzy of activity. Beneto put out a green-skinned hand to hold her back. "Not too close. At this stage, they are ravenous, and anything that gets in their way is considered food."

Estarra did not need to be warned twice, but she marveled at the infestation. "So what happens to the worms after they go into the ground?"

Beneto smiled. "The trees keep watch, just as they watch everything. It is part of the cycle. Now they will tunnel deep under the ground and aerate the soil. They will establish underground colonies until mature worms emerge again, slither up the trunks of the trees, and build new hives."

Soon, all the worms were gone, leaving the abandoned hive like a tattered haunted house up on the tree. The papery walls had been broken open, but the tunnels inside remained intact. "Now the hard work begins," Estarra said, but she didn't look at all disappointed.

The chambers would need to be cleaned, some structural walls shored up, new windows cut and doorways placed in more convenient locations. But the worm hive was the ready-made framework for a new Theron village, into which the crowded fungus-reef settlement could expand. Estarra would be celebrated for her prowess in finding this new conglomerate dwelling.

Beneto received a message from the nearest tree and smiled at his little sister. "Now we must hurry back to see Mother and Father. We will want to be there when the shuttle lands."

"What shuttle?" Estarra said.

Beneto beamed at her. "Reynald has just returned."

Estarra pressed forward with her family members to greet her older brother as soon as he emerged from the craft in the clearing. During the months he'd been gone on his peregrination, Reynald had changed.