A/N I don't own A Bug's Life or its characters; they are owned by Disney and Pixar. What I DO own are my OC, Kimberly, and any other characters that weren't in the movie.
The Queen of Water: I'm not sure what that means. But if you were asking if Thumper was Kimberly's brother, then yes, he is; read the last A/N in the last chapter.
Snow hadn't fallen yet, but the days were still chilly, despite winter not coming quite yet. All of the grasshopper preferred to stay inside. Kimberly, however, was starting to get cabin fever. She often wandered around the hollow, not having a concrete purpose. But she made sure not to wander into any sleeping tunnels, save for her own.
When she had awoken one morning, she found Thumper curled up next to her bed, antennae twitching in a dream. Kimberly didn't know what to make of it, and so left him alone. Later, when he woke up, she asked him if he snuck into her room the previous night. He grinned sheepishly, which was quite uncharacteristic of him, and nodded. She also learned he had done so a few times in the past, especially after they first arrived at the Grasshopper Grove, but he had woken up and left before Kimberly woke up.
Kimberly didn't mind. She knew Thumper wouldn't hurt her, and humorously wondered if he was protecting her from perverted grasshoppers, ie Carlo, while she slept. She giggled at the image of her sleeping, and Thumper crouched down in front of her, snarling at the entrance to her sleeping tunnel.
One unusually warm late afternoon, as Kimberly sat down at the table, nibbling on a berry, a younger grasshopper, Pasquale, asked her, "Why do you keep walking around aimlessly?"
"I'm bored." She shrugged, sucking the juice out of her berry and tossing the rest in her mouth.
Pasquale scowled slightly at her. He was one of the few grasshoppers who disliked Kimberly. Ever since she joined the gang to protect the ants—why, he would never know—she had been drawing Hopper's attention to her, without even trying or wanting to. Pasquale worshipped Hopper; after all, he was bigger than any other male grasshopper, survived nearly being eaten by a bird with just a scar and blind eye to prove it, and could keep a whole colony of ants under his thumb. The last quality, however, had been ruined by a rebel ant. But no matter, they could always kill him and get the ants under control again. They could even kill the queen, as the original plan had been.
But no! That female grasshopper with the weird eyes just had to butt in and make that deal to Hopper! How dare she convince him to leave the ants alone! And to make matters worse, she even joined the gang!
Pasquale knew Hopper was happy. Ever since they visited the ants that summer, and she yelled, smacked, and spit on him, the one-eyed grasshopper had been smitten with her. He may not show it, but why else would he have told the other grasshoppers to leave her alone? To not talk to, touch, or look at her? Why else would he have agreed to leave the ants and Ant Island alone for the sake of her joining the gang?
They had been happy doing what they were doing annually, but one female grasshopper steps in, with her strange eyes and strange friendship with the ants, and boom! She ruins everything!
Pasquale hated Kimberly. Every time he saw her, he hated her more. He wished she would leave the gang. He wished the other grasshoppers didn't like her. He wished Thumper had killed her. He wished she would get into trouble.
A sly smile grew on the grasshopper's face. It was a slow start, but why not send her snooping? Especially where she was definitely not allowed to go? Glancing at his claws nonchalantly, he asked, "You ever wonder what's in that tunnel?"
Kimberly cocked an eyebrow, curiously. "What tunnel?"
"That one." He pointed to a larger tunnel, covered by a greenish-orange leaf.
Kimberly scowled, "What do you think I am, stupid? That's Hopper's sleeping tunnel! Why the hell would I want to go in there, or even wonder what's in there?"
"Well, you just seem like a curious female." Pasquale shrugged. "Hopper's sleeping tunnel's much bigger than the others."
"Like his ego?" She rolled her eyes.
"He's the boss, after all. And there's rumor that he's hiding something mighty…interesting." He winked.
"What do you mean, 'interesting'?"
"I mean 'interesting'. What, you don't know what that means?"
"I know what 'interesting' means." She said, starting to lose her patience with the obnoxious grasshopper. "I'm not gonna go snooping where I'm not supposed to go."
"Hopper never said you couldn't go in his sleeping tunnel." Pasquale pointed out, squirming at what he was saying. "You never know, he might want to show you his interesting thing someday. Why not take a look now?"
Scoffing, Kimberly stood up and walked away. Pasquale snickered in his hand. Truth be told, he had no idea if Hopper was hiding anything. He just wanted to pique Kimberly's curiosity so she would go into Hopper's room. If he was lucky, Hopper would catch her and be angry, as he didn't like people snooping in his room. Not even Ms. Kimberly.
There was an old saying: curiosity killed the caterpillar. Every bug and their grandparents were taught that when they were very young. Kimberly knew the saying very well. However, when something sparked her interest, she often couldn't leave it alone until it was investigated. She had gotten into trouble in the past because of her curiosity, and was determined to keep her nose clean today.
But Pasquale talking about something "interesting" in Hopper's sleeping tunnel definitely got her attention. The way he worded it made Kimberly wonder if it was something she wouldn't like, such as the corpse of some insect—namely, an ant. She shuddered, hoping it wasn't so. Only one way to find out. Besides, he's out of the tree. Just take one quick peek, and run out. He'll never notice!
Gulping nervously, Kimberly snuck to the tunnel. Looking to see she wasn't being watched, she pushed the leaf aside and crawled in, letting it fall behind her. She crawled through the tunnel into a large hollow, twice as big as the others, yet had two beds. She remembered Hopper said he share the room with Molt in the past.
Kimberly looked around, frowning slightly when she didn't see anything she would call interesting. As she was about to leave, she saw a curtain of lichen. Raising an eyebrow, she pushed it aside, and jumped back with a frightened scream.
Behind the curtain was the complete shed exoskeleton of a grasshopper. It looked like a female, older than Kimberly herself. Her eyes were wide, and her jaw was dropped, as though she had been scared by something when she shed, literally jumping out of her skin.
Getting over the scare, Kimberly slowly approached the exoskeleton, squinting her eyes in curiosity. The grasshopper it came from looked a lot like Hopper, though it was portly like Molt. Could the shed skin have come from a female relative of theirs?
Before she could ponder any further, a shadow fell over her. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Hopper looming over her, glowering darkly. Gasping in fright, Kimberly backed away as the one-eyed grasshopper stood in front of the shed exoskeleton in a protective stance. "What are you doing in here?" He growled.
Kimberly stared up at him, frightened. "I-I'm sorry-"
"Did I tell you you could snoop in here?"
"I'm sorr-"
"Do you realize what you could have done?!" He yelled, lunging for her.
She jumped aside, squealing in fright. "I didn't touch it!" She cried.
"Get out!"
"Hopper, I-"
"Get out!" He yelled, practically roaring. "Get out now!"
Gasping, Kimberly ran out as if a bird were after her. She mindlessly leapt out of the tunnel, ignoring the other grasshoppers asking her what was wrong and what she was doing, and ran out of the tree. Her mind kept flashing back to the eerie shed exoskeleton, and the pure red anger in Hopper's eyes. In all the time she knew him, and the many times she saw him upset, she had never seen him so angry.
He truly scared her.
Now on the ground and away from the Grasshopper Grove, Kimberly dove into a hole in the ground and sat down, panting heavily. She decided she wasn't going back to the tree until she was sure Hopper had calmed down. Maybe she could spend the night in the hole in the ground, just to make sure. It was better to be safe than sorry.
She froze at a sound behind her. Turning around, in the dim light of the setting sun, Kimberly saw a long, scaled body, and round, non-blinking eyes. A forked tongue poked out of its mouth.
Snake!
Kimberly couldn't move. She could only stare in fright at the creature as it slowly moved, disturbed from its slumber. Only when its forked tongue brushed against her did she bolt out with a scream. To her horror, the snake took off after her, lunging at her. As she lifted her hardened wings, fate was cruel to her, making the snake grab at her wings, knocking her to the ground.
Worried that her wings were damaged beyond flying, Kimberly scaled a small tree, whimpering in fright. Tears of pure terror were falling down her face. At this point, she actually wished she was being yelled at by Hopper now; anything but a snake!
The snake climbed after her, hissing and licking its lips for a meal of juicy grasshopper. It snapped at her, missing and falling on the branch they were on, making it shake. Kimberly fell onto the ground, injuring her left leg and lower left arm. She clutched her aching limbs, hissing in pain. Luckily, they weren't broken, but before she could get up, the snake was already advancing towards her. She backed away, barely noticing her back hit a rock, as she stared at the snake in frozen terror as it reared its head, tongue flicking out of its mouth.
Suddenly, there was the sound of buzzing. Three grasshoppers quickly flew in circles around the snake's head, with one traveling in the opposite direction of the other two. The snake jerked around, snapping at the flying insects, all the while moving away from Kimberly, who was still frozen in fear. She barely noticed someone grabbing her up in their arms, or a sharp whistle, causing the flying grasshoppers to fly straight up, confusing the snake as it kept slithering away. Then, all four grasshoppers flew into higher tree branches just in time to see a large bird swoop down, grab the snake, and fly away, cawing.
"Damn, that's the first time I've ever been glad to see a bird!" One grasshopper, whom Kimberly recognized as Axel, remarked.
"Is Ms. Kimberly okay?" Another grasshopper, Loco, asked.
Kimberly barely noticed her shallow breaths, or heard Thumper panting, "Kimby?" or even felt herself shaking. She did, however, feel someone patting her cheek. "Kimberly? Can you hear me? C'mon, darling, wake up!"
'Darling'? What? She finally blinked and took in the face of a familiar one-eyed grasshopper. To her surprise, he looked concerned, as well as a bit scared, both of which were very uncharacteristic, especially given the mood she left him in. "Are you okay?" He whispered.
Kimberly blinked again, mind flashing back to the snake that nearly ate her. Before she realized what she was doing, she grabbed Hopper tightly, pressing her face against his plated chest, and began crying. Instead of pushing her away, Hopper held her close to him, glancing with a warning scowl at the other three grasshoppers, two of which raised their hands innocently. Then, still holding Kimberly, who was also still crying, Hopper took off for the Grasshopper Grove, with Axel, Loco, and Thumper right behind.
A/N I seem to notice a pattern with my fanfics lately: they all take place near/during/after autumn. And it's spring at the moment...
With the grasshoppers in the gang—save for Hopper, Molt, Thumper, Axel, and Loco—all I'm doing is choosing a grasshopper or two who are in a specific scene, and giving them names :3 Even ones in minor scenes; Pasquale, for example, is the grasshopper Hopper pushed(?)aside before slamming Molt into the wall when we first meet the grasshoppers. So far, I've been able to name ten grasshoppers this way (Carlo and Edoardo don't really count, since the scene they were introduced in was one I made on my own)
I decided to have Pasquale dislike Kimberly (not everyone's gonna like her) and want to get her in trouble. I had to figure out a way for him to dislike her, as it wouldn't make much sense to just hate her to...hate her XD So, I decided he worshiped Hopper, and felt Kimberly was getting too much attention from him. Not to mention she ruined their annual routine.
I'll admit, Kimberly going into Hopper's room, getting chased out, running into a snake, and being saved by the grasshoppers was inspired by Disney's Beauty and the Beast (I'm not gonna directly copy it though) It just seemed like a brilliant idea. Also, the shed exoskeleton (think like Molt's when he literally jumped out of his skin when the ants rebelled against the grasshoppers) has significance later. You can take a guess to who she is, if you'd like.
I always wanted Kimberly to run into a snake eventually. But I ran into a bit of a snag: it's autumn. It's getting cold, and the snakes are most likely hibernating, if not extremely sluggish. So, I moved around that, and "made" a warm day (we've been having crazy weather for the past several months, so it's not illegal) Also, Kimberly's gonna soon explain why she's so afraid of snakes.