Chapter 1

The sounds of his screams were petifiying. This was the first time either Flik or Atta had ever heard the tyrannical dictator that was Hopper lash out in such horror. But, as it turned out, Atta's theory was right: "Even Hopper's afraid of birds." Flik and Atta cowered behind their rock as the grasshopper's screams pierced the night. Then came the sound of a horryfying crunch and then... silence. Both ants breathed a sigh of relief, the cause of terror in their lives finally brought to an end. For a solid three minutes, the two just sat behind the rock, unable to move or say anything, the feeling of relief slowly crawling over their panicked minds.

Finally, it was Atta who broke the silence. "We... we should, probably head back to the anthill now."

Flik did not respond. He didn't know what to say. Everyone in the colony, Atta included, had previously exiled him after they had discovered his lie about the so-called warrior bugs actually being circus bugs. It took Atta's younger sister, Dot, catching up to Flik and the circus to convince them to come back, and he only did so due to the fact that he heard Hopper had invaded the island and intended to kill the Queen. He had returned against their wishes, once again defying both Atta's and the council's orders. Of course, while under the pressure of Hopper, it was understandable why the ants would take any saving grace they could; luckily for them, the saving grace they had grasped on actually worked out and Hopper and his gang were now gone for good. But now that this was the case, what was Flik supposed to do now? He was clearly very injured, having taken a horrible beating from the deranged grasshopper Thumper, so simply getting up and leaving-especially in the remains of this horrible rainstorm-was simply out of the question. At the same time, however, now that his usefulness had officially expired, could Flik simply just return to the anthill and face the dreaded faces of every ant who he'd made a mockery out of? Would Atta simply ignore him while he slowly recovered and then banish him once again? All of these thoughts swam through the poor ant's mind, rendering him unable to do anything except remain seated behind the rock and close his eyes, breathing out a heavy sigh.

Glancing over to Flik, Atta noticed his hesistation. "Flik? Are you ok?"

Flik put his head in his hands and sighed again. "I don't know," he responded dejectedly. "Am I?"

Atta was taken aback at his dispirited response. She had expected him to be enthusiatic about Hopper being dead and the whole situation finally being over, not downhearted and glum. "What are you talking about, Flik?" she asked, concerned.

Head still in his hands, the male ant simply shook his head.

Atta's eyes widened. "Flik, you are in no place to stay out here like this. We are going back to the anthill and Dr. Flora is going to fix you up."

"And then what, Princess?" Flik retorted, more rudely than he had anticipated. "Once I'm back to normal, do I leave and not come back? Become the newest act of that circus of warrior bugs I found?" Pausing, he looked up at her, tears in his eyes.

"I messed up!" he cried. "Again! I don't belong here; I'm nothing but a screw up. I only came back because..." His voice trailed off, the emotions of the situation being hard for him to bare.

Atta continued to look at him, concern glazing her eyes. When he didn't continue right away, she raised out her hand in an expectant gesture, eyebrows raised. "Because?" she asked.

Flik sniffled. "Be... Because I was afraid what would happen to you guys if I didn't. Dot came and found me and told me Hopper was gonna kill the Queen and I... I just couldn't let that happen."

"Flik..." Atta began, but Flik interrupted her.

"But what does that matter now? Hopper is dead, the grasshoppers are gone, and now everything is back to normal. You guys don't need me anymore. All I do is get in the way of everything." Another thought passed his head. He slightly cringed at saying it aloud, but he felt he should tell the truth. "And I'll be honest: I'm surprised you, Princess, of all the ants decided to interfere and save me from Hopper. Why risk yourself and save me from him when he was already leaving and was taking away your biggest problem? You guys could have just continued on without any worries at all, as Hopper had the person he was looking for." Tears welled up in his eyes as he buried his head in his hands again. "There was no reason, Princess, that you had to come after us at all. I would've been better off..." His voice trails off again, being unable to finish the sentence. Dejectidely, he turns away from Atta, tears streaming down his face.

"Oh, Flik!" Atta cried, her voice breaking. Surprised, Flik glanced up and looked over to her, caught entirely off guard by her change of voice. When he caught eye contact with her, she looked even more miserable than he did! Then, surprising him even more, she lept up into the air, began hovering with her wings, and flew towards him, throwing her arms around him. Flik wasn't sure what to do as the princess pulled him into a very tight embrace, sniffling heavily as she rested her head on his right shoulder. He kept his arms at his side as she spoke between tears.

"Flik, you have no idea how relieved I am that you're safe! The last thing I would ever want is something to happen to you, I wouldn't ever be able to live with myself! How could you ever think you'd be better off with the ants, or worse, dead? You being here with us is so much more important, espcially if I have any say in the matter!"

Flik couldn't believe what he was hearing. Not only had her hug completly thrown him for a loop, now here she was stating she wanted him around, that it was important he was around. He simply couldn't make sense of it all. "Pr-Pr-Princess..." he stammered, but Atta beat him to the punch.

Pulling back from her embrace but keeping her hands on his shoulders, she looked dead into his eyes and said, "Flik, look at me. Don't say a single word. You are not going anywhere. I am taking you back to Dr. Flora, she is going to treat your injuries, and we will deal with whatever we need to deal with later. Ok?"

Flik continued to look in her eyes, amazed she would be so insistant on saving him and bringing him back, but also simply being unable to look away. He couldn't help taking in every last little detail of her beautiful purple iries as they stared so longingly back as his own. He had never been granted the opportunity to be this close to the princess before, let alone have the princess take so much pity on him. He had always been under the assumption it should be his own job to to take the brunt force of everything for her, not the other way around. It was why he had stepped up and claimed the fake bird was his idea. It was why he had guaranteed her safety first before he went out to confront Hopper and trick him into getting eaten by the bird. And it was why he now wanted to be left behind so that Atta wouldn't have to be put through the danger of having to bring him back, nor have to deal with the burden of dealing with his mess once he was back. Not only that, but he couldn't help admitting to himself that he had always had a big crush on Atta for the longest time. She was the most pristine looking ant in the entire colony, as well as the one he would have the smallest chance with, which only made him want her even more. Making her have to suffer because of him was the last thing he ever wanted to do, and now here she was, not only stuck out in a rainstorm far away from the anthill because of him, but now in danger of attacting the attention a large bird and meeting the same fate as the evil grasshopper not moments before. Flik could simply stare back at her, part mesmerized, part dumbfounded, being unable to say anything.

"FLIK!" Atta yelled at him, snapping him out of his trance. "Do you understand what I am saying?"

"Why are you doing this for me, princess?" Flik groaned, slowly beginning to feel the tiredness catch up to him but forcing himself to stay awake. "Why am I worth the trouble?"

"Why are you worth the trouble?" Atta repeated. She stared at him as if he had just told her she had been exiled from the ant colony. "Flik, are you serious? Because you are a part of the colony, and it is my job to look after every single ant within my colony, you included! I can't just let Hopper take away someone, especially the one person who had put in more effort to save rhis colony than every other ant combined!"

Flik gasped, tears beginning to form in his eyes once more. "Do you really mean that?"

Atta's face softened into a sad smile before pulling him into a small embrace again. "Yes, Flik, I do," she said softly. Pulling back once more, she opened her mouth her to say more, but hesistated. Her expression becoming unreadable, she glanced off to the side, suddenly entranced by the pattern of the rock. After several moments of just sitting there silently, she finally looked back up at Flik, a more compassionate look in her eyes. "And, also, Flik, I... I..."

Before she could continue, however, a large shadow suddenly loomed over them. Looking up, the two saw the bird perched on top of the rock! Tweeting excitedly, it bent down, beak first, towards Atta. "Princess!" Acting on instinct, Flik got up and pushed Atta out of harms way, causing the bird's beak to crash down only a few mere inches where Atta had just been. Unfortunalty, the brutal impact of the bird's beak on the ground sent up several large chunks of dirt spattering in many directions. One these chunks made direct contact with Flik's head, rendering him unconscious.

"Flik!" Atta screamed as she lunged towards him. The bird recovered from its hard contact with the ground, and realizing it hadn't gotten either ant, tweeted angrily, and made a pass with its beak at Flik. Breathing heavily, Atta hovered with her wings, and flew quickly over to Flik, scooping him up in her arms. She screamed again as she saw the bird's beak coming right for her! Moving quickly, she evaded the beak and sailed around the rock and back out into the rain. The storm had died down since they'd been behind the rock, but the large droplets of water still presented a challenge to fly through. Atta knew she couldn't make it back to the anthill with a large bird on her tail. Risking a glance behind her, she noticed the bird had not yet noticed that she and Flik were gone. Breathing a sigh of relief, she began to fly foward once more, until...

PLOP!

A large raindrop fell out of nowhere and landed right on Atta, trapping her and Flik within its contents. Yelping as she fell, she attempted to brace the impact for Flik as they both landed on a blade of grass. The drop caught on the underside of the blade, precariously dangling over a large pit below. This was the pit that Flik had previously saved Dot in, and now it appeared to be full of water from the heavy rains. Glancing downward, she took note of the ink black water that swirled below the two of them and screamed again. Her heart beating out of her chest, she took note of Flik still in her arms and breathed a slight sigh of relief. He was completely unconscious and bruised very badly, but otherwise still alive.

Atta glanced back over the where the bird was, but it seemed to have lost interest as it was no longer near the rock. What do we do now? Atta wondered to herself as she carefully attempted to reposition herself with the drop. Doing so caused the blade to wiggle violently, shaking the entire drop. She froze, bracing herself for the worst. The drop remained in place, hanging off the edge of the blade. She breathed another sigh before, glancing back towards the other wide of the pit. They were on the edge of a large cliff, so if she could simply fly straight forward, they'd have a direct shot at reaching the edge without undershooting. Also, she had to be very careful not to get caught in any more droplets such as this one, else she might not get so lucky. Closing her eyes and gritting her teeth, she slowly began to move her wings. They were partially constrained by the thick outer layer of the drop, forcing her to stop. She glanced at them in frustration, knowing they were her only hope to get her and Flik back to the anthill alive. Huffing and puffing, she closed her eyes and began moving her wings faster. Suddenly, she felt the feeling of cold air hit her entire body. Opening her eyes, she noticed the blade of grass getting smaller and smaller away from her. Screaming, she quickly moved her wings again and darted forward, narrowly missing the surface of the dangerous waters. She glanced forward, carefully searching for a way to scale the cliffside without hitting another rain drop.

TWEET!

Atta's heart nearly stopped. Just when she felt like things could not get any worse, she felt a large gust of wind above her. She didn't need to be an expert to know that the bird was right above her! Panting heavily, she blindly darted forward, desperatly attempting to out fly the bird. She felt its large presence still above her as she closed the distance between herself and the top of the cliff. Only a little bit further, she thought. Then we can hide in one of the bushes and wait for the bird to leave. Glacing upward, she noticed a familiar looking bush. Grinning, she sped towards it, panting heavier and heavier the more she pushed her wings to keep flying. Only a little bit further...

Suddenly, she felt something pokey touch the back of her feet. "Oh, no, please!" she whispered to herself as she slowly risked another look back. The bird was literally right on her tail, not even an inch away from her feet! She screamed, tightly gripping Flik in her arms as she sped forward with all her might. Glancing back upwards, she screamed again. The bush was right there and she was about to crash into it! Reacting quickly, she darted to the left and squeezed her way through one of the tiny thorny openings in the branches. Her arm scraped the side of one of thorns, creating a large gash in her right forward. She gasped in pain as she continued to fly deeper into the bush, coming into contact with another thorn which grazed her left arm. She groaned in pain again before turning around carefully and looking back at the bird. It was hovering right outside the branches of the thorny bush, glancing at its prey with hungry eyes. Reaching forward with its talons, it attempted to grip one of the outward branches covered in thorns, only to pull back in pain. Giving one last final glance at the ants, the bird sped off in the other direction.

"Oh, thank heavens!" Atta breathed as she began to fly downwards towards several small branches below her. Stopping her fluttering wings, she lay Flik down on a large thick branch, carefully positioning him so he wouldn't slip off. Landing right next to him on the same branch, she exhaustedly collapsed next to his unconscious body. She breathed another sigh of relief as she glanced over at Flik and smiled, carefully sliding her arm under his body and securly gripping his left shoulder with her hand. "It's ok now," she breathed, barely able to keep herself awake. "We're safe here. Nothing's going to happen to us. Everything is..." Her voice trailed off, unable to form any more words on account of how tired she was. We will just rest her for a while. Then, I will take him back to the anthill, she thought. The last thing she remembers before drifting off into a deep sleep was the sound of several wings flying towards them, a few familiar sounding voices chattering amongst each other, and three black figures standing over her.