A Bug's Life 2: Out from Ant Island

Chapter 2

●•●

Sinny was asked to wait in her room for a while; it didn't seem like a good sign if there was extensive pre-talk going on.

Her room had once been Aunt Dot's when she was younger, and Sinny still had Dot's pebble collection on one wall and a few figurines, but otherwise it was reminiscent of her father's workshop. One corner had stacks of jars containing a variety of liquids, including mud, nectars, and the occasional pickled specimen; mallets, gears, and spare parts took up another corner; her desk was covered with leaf parchments and quills, all in specific stacks that wouldn't be apparent to anyone else.

Someone had placed a tray of honey-grain clusters on one of the lower, more stable stacks on her desk – worker ants were always making something or other that was vaguely 'for the royal family,' and it got handed out accordingly. However, after taking a bite of one Sinny found she wasn't hungry. The honey was a bit of a delicacy in the colony; they'd only recently opened trade with the closest beehive, after word got around that their colony now had an abundance of agriculture and was willing to exchange.

In the spirit of such exchange, Sinny made a mental note to pass the honey clusters to someone else, and reclined on her bed, trying to remember when she'd eaten last. The grain porridge at breakfast? Was that it? She'd gone to the green house during her school lunch break, after she couldn't stop thinking about some samples she'd forgotten to take the night before, and then she skipped the lines in the cafeteria cell to head to the workshop instead. And now she had a headache, not to mention a sore throat she hadn't exactly been nursing.

She didn't remember dozing off, but Flik shaking her shoulder suddenly woke her. He smiled at her sympathetically and led her to the sitting room, where Atta and Lily were already waiting.

The sitting room was a general cell for the royal family to use, and occasionally for entertaining visitors. Some of the older, retired worker ants had taken to flower and plant arranging, and pieces were brought in to decorate the room every few days. Considering the time of year, most of the pieces incorporated dandelion tuffs, curling vines, reddish-orange leaves, and (relatively) small yellow flowers.

Atta was sitting on a woven leaf and bark chair opposite the couch Lily was occupying. Sinny sat on the edge of the couch farthest from Lily; she couldn't remember the last time she had actually sat next to her sister on purpose. She wondered if all three of them had been in discussion before she was brought in, but Lily looked nervous, despite her flippantly casual body language.

"Your father and I have been discussing the situation," Atta began as Flik took his own seat, "and we think, Sinny, that you should take a break from your work for a while."

Sinny almost stood up in outrage, but instead said, "Wha-but-wha-but-"

"Sorry, kiddo, but it's only for a little while," said Flik. "Besides, you have plenty of other ways to spend your time."

"And, we also think Lily should spend more time sharing her royal duties with Sinny," Atta continued. Now it was Lily's turn to be outraged, and she did actually stand up and exclaim about it.

"But, mom, Sinny obviously doesn't want to and she'll only get in the way-"

"Lily doesn't want to have anything to do with me-" Sinny protested over her sister. They both argued incoherently until Atta stood up and waved her hands in the air.

"Both of you calm down!" Atta shouted, and her daughters froze mid-statement. Flik tried to shrink farther back into his chair until Atta gave him a look that caused him to jump to his feet.

"Girls, we're only trying to ease the tension around here," said Flik. "And, uh-uh, well, we're not being very successful are we?" He chuckled hesitantly, which Atta didn't seem to appreciate. Flik cleared his throat. "So, uh, maybe we should have some one-on-one discussions."

"Because Sinny's so good at those," said Lily, crossing her legs as she sat back down, giving her sister a sideways look. Sinny bared her teeth.

"Alright, Lily, you can wait outside first," Atta said, pointing to the door. Lily huffed and got up, giving the door-leaves a hard shove as she passed through them. She left behind a very awkward silence.

"So, uh, Sinny," said Flik. "Dot told us you were upset…"

"And, we know you're at a point in your life that's very stressful for a young ant," Atta continued. "Especially a young queen ant-"

"I'm not a queen ant," Sinny muttered. Atta and Flik looked at each other.

"No, but, that's okay," said Atta. She and Flik sat down on the couch, one on either side of their daughter.

"Mr. Linseed mentioned you haven't been doing well in class lately," said Flik. "That's not like you. Is something going on?"

Sinny looked down at her hands, not sure what to say.

"I know you've been upset since your father and I separated," said Atta. "Lily has been, too – I just wish the two of you would support each other." Sinny opened her mouth to reply, although she had no clue what she was going to say, when a tall, tannish ant who was part of the queen's guard pushed aside the door.

"Excuse me, your Highness," he said, sounding out of breath. "We have a situation – a foreign ant was caught trying to infiltrate the anthill."

"What?" Atta stood up. "Where are they now?"

"We've apprehended him outside the anthill," the guard replied, and looked behind him briefly as though someone was speaking to him beyond the door before turning back to Atta. "How would you like to proceed?"

"Tell the guards to wait – I'll meet them outside." Atta turned back to Flik. "Watch the girls," she said before rushing out the door.

A moment later, Lily was shoved unceremoniously back into the room.

"Now what's going on?" Lily asked, looking put out. "Where's mom going?"

"There's an emergency outside the anthill," Flik explained. "Why don't you two go back to your rooms? I'm going to make sure the royal quarters are secure."

Lily and Sinny looked at each other after their father fled the room, and then they both moved to make for the door, running into one another in the process. They scuffled for a moment before making it out the other side. Silently, they walked down the tunnel towards their chambers, and Sinny waited for Lily to go into her room before turning around to take off back the way they came.

"Where are you going?" Lily asked, popping out of her room in time to grab Sinny by the arm.

"No where!" Sinny said, trying to pull away.

"Sinny, don't you dare," Lily warned. Sinny pulled harder and broke free of her sister's grasp, taking off down the tunnel. "You're going to get us in trouble!" Lily called after her and followed in pursuit.

Sinny ducked through a secondary tunnel, dodging the guards at the main entrance of the royal chambers. The narrow secondary tunnel was meant to be an emergency escape, and went up nearly 90 degrees before it straightened to a plateau; Sinny had to crawl on her hands and knees until the escape dumped her out at the main tunnel again. She'd heard Lily crawling behind her, and made sure to keep fleeing as fast as she could.

She nearly stopped in her tracks, however, when another group of guards blocked her access to the main root. She looked around for a moment, found a discarded helmet, put it on, and made her way through the guards; if they didn't look too closely, she blended in pretty well. Sinny was up the root and out of the anthill just as Lily was stopped by the blockade.

Outside, the area around the anthill was grey in the moonlight, and Sinny trotted down the slope tentatively, not quite sure what was happening at the cluster of guards. As she got closer, Sinny could see that her mother was speaking to the captain of the guard, not far from an ant who was on his knees, his arms tied behind his back. Although it was hard to tell in the night's muted colors, Sinny knew this had to be the dark blue ant she'd seen across the canyon. One of the guards was inspecting the foreign ant's walking stick by twirling it around. Sinny fell in line behind the closest guards, who were standing at attention.

"And what if there's more of them?" Sinny heard the captain of the guard say.

"Then we'll post guards at every entrance, just to be sure," Atta replied before turning to the prisoner in front of her. The prisoner kept his head down, but he peeked up now and then at his captors, looking contrite but not especially defeated. "Are there anymore of you?" Atta asked.

"No," he replied. Atta paused to consider this, pacing briefly. The prisoner looked up as she did, scanning the faces of the guards in front of him; he seemed to stop and stare at Sinny when their eyes met, and Sinny pulled the helmet down over her face self-consciously.

"Bring him to the council chamber," Atta decided at length. "I'll call a meeting and try him tonight." The guards scooped up the prisoner and carried him to the anthill in an orderly brigade. Sinny was about to fall in behind them, when Atta suddenly stepped in front of her. "Go back to your room," her mother said, quiet but firmly. Sinny swallowed hard and nodded.

●•●

As an extra incentive, Atta had one of the guards escort Sinny back to the royal chambers and into her father's care; luckily, he was more amused than upset.

"Aren't you a little short for a guard?" Flik asked, taking the helmet off of Sinny's head.

"What're they going to do to him?" Sinny asked.

"Him who?" said Flik. "The foreign ant? Imprison him, probably." He gave one of Sinny's antennae a little tweak back into place. "You don't need to worry about it."

"But why?" Sinny asked. "Why do we trade with every other insect without imprisoning them?"

"Sinny, rival ant colonies aren't all that nice. They're more likely to take over our territory than make friends." Flik sighed when Sinny gave him a sad frowny face. "I know it doesn't seem fair, but we have the rule for good reason. Stop looking at me like that."

"I need to go to the council chambers," Sinny insisted. "Please?"

"Don't you think you've gotten into enough trouble for one night, missy?" said Flik.

"No. Please let me go."

"Your mother's going to kill me…" Flik sighed again. "Alright, but you better hurry."

Half the colony was milling outside of the council chamber when Sinny got there – the average worker wasn't usually allowed in the chamber during hearings, but the intruding ant was news enough that everyone wanted a glimpse. Sinny had to shove her way through the throng and crawl under a few guards until she found herself in the center, approaching the council seats under the blue glow of the mushrooms. She could tell when the ants outside noticed her break from the crowd – the tone of their chatter changed, and she caught her name here and there, more as a question than a remark.

Her mother, Dot, Thorny, and Dr. Flora were the only ants currently at the bench, and they were discussing the situation openly with each other, albeit it in semi-hushed tones. The foreign ant stood before them, hands still tied behind his back, not reacting to the situation much at all.

Sinny approached cautiously, deciding she wasn't as confident about this idea as she had been a few minutes ago. Slowly, some of the ants at the bench noticed her and stared, saucer-eyed, before really recognizing her. Atta was still in conversation with Dot, and Dr. Flora tapped the queen's arm rapidly for a moment. Atta turned, mouthing, 'What?' before noticing her daughter.

"Sinny!" said Atta, "What're you-"

"Why is this happening?" Sinny began, trying to muster as much strength into her voice as she could. Disconcertedly, the crowd began to hush when she spoke up. "What has he done?"

"He's an intruder," said Atta. "He could lead other ants here. Now, Sinny, please, you don't have permission to be here-"

"I'm on the council, too," said Sinny, changing it to a statement at the last second.

"She has a point, you know," said Dr. Flora.

"But, she's, she's not…" Atta sighed in exasperation. "Sinny, I'm not going to ask you again."

Sinny felt her hands shaking, and tried hard to contain them. What had she been thinking? She turned to look at the foreign ant, and he looked back at her, questioningly.

"Have you even asked him why he's here?" Sinny continued, addressing the council again.

"With all due respect, Princess, you have no clue what you're talking about," said Thorny, looking more annoyed at her than usual. "Foreign ants infiltrate other anthills to bring information back to their home colonies - and then they return with soldier ants, to take over the new territory."

"But, I thought that hasn't happened here since before…" began Dot.

"Since before Hopper," said Thorny. The mention of the grasshopper's name had an obtuse effect on the ants outside the chamber – they were startled, in a somber, muted sort of way. "Now that he's gone, other ants think our island's prime territory again."

"Your concern is touching, dear, really," Dr. Flora told Sinny. "But, you better let us handle this."

Sinny opened her mouth a couple of times, but nothing came out – the council stared down at her, disapprovingly, the crowd of ants behind her chattering to themselves, and Sinny suddenly felt very small and alone. She nodded and walked out of the chamber, and the crowd parted around her as she exited. Atleast they didn't seem to hate her attempt – no one shoved her or gave her dirty looks, they just looked, and they all seemed as downtrodden as Sinny felt.

When she got back to her chamber, Lily was waiting for her, and bickered at her about any number of things, but she stopped and left Sinny alone when she got no reaction. Sinny lay in her bed all night staring at the ceiling, wondering why she didn't have the guts to demand a voice in the trial. She wasn't fit at all to even have a say. She wondered if she ever would be.

●•●

No one bothered her in the morning and, not knowing what the status quo was, she and Lily trudged up to school without exchanging so much as a glance the entire way. Sinny actually had a dozen questions – if Lily had heard anything about the prisoner, where mom and dad were, what was going to happen now – but Sinny kept her mouth shut tight, not willing to start a conversation with her sister, who seemed so unwilling to start one herself.

Sinny kept her head down for most of the lessons, mindlessly thumbing through her notes. Mr. Linseed called on her a few times, during points in the lessons where everyone else was silent, points where Sinny would normally be the only one raising her hand, but she only shrugged, not even recalling what the question had been. So, she wasn't surprised when she was called to Mr. Linseed's desk at the noonday break.

"You feeling alright, Sinny?" Mr. Linseed asked, sorting papers, giving her genuinely concerned glances as he did. She shrugged and nodded at the same time.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"You don't look fine." He put the parchments down and gave her a harder, longer look, before fishing a slip out from one of his drawers. He quickly signed it and handed it to her. "Why don't you take this to the med cell, let them have a look at you?"

Surprised, Sinny took the slip and stared at it a moment. He'd simply made a check next to 'ill' and initialed it; Sinny wasn't sure what she'd expected it to say. She was about to refuse and give it back, but then she pictured herself sitting at her desk for the rest of the day, miserable and tired, and couldn't stand the idea. She was feeling chilled and shaky, she admitted to herself. So, she agreed, trying not to sound too eager, and grabbed her bag from her desk before heading out of the classroom. Lily was still seated at her desk in the second to last row, on the aisle, and she tapped Sinny's elbow as she passed.

"Hey – Sinny, what's up?" Lily whispered. Sinny waved her slip.

"I've been excused."

"Oh," Lily mouthed, looking between the slip and her sister. Appearing genuinely concerned for a moment, Lily seemed to be contemplating what to say next, but then she shook her head. "Alright, I'll see you later."

Sinny frowned, disappointed at the chilly tone her sister's voice had taken on again.

Finding herself outside the med cell's tunnel, Sinny paused for a moment, wondering if she really wanted to go in or not. It was fairly quiet, with only a lone nurse passing by now and then, carrying supplies. She was about to take a step forward, still watching the tunnel entrance, and nearly ran into Mr. Soil. Sinny squeaked in surprise and almost dropped her bag.

"Princess Sinnia!" said Mr. Soil, looking pleased. "And where are you headed at this hour?"

"Uh…" Sinny thought for a moment, wide-eyed, clutching her bag to her chest. Then she pointed to the med tunnel with the hand still holding her dismissal slip.

"Ah, I see. I didn't mean to suggest you were playing hooky, of course. Oh, no. Did the queen tell you the news, yet, by the way?"

"The… news?" said Sinny.

"It was your idea, I hear – freeing that foreign ant? He seems an amiable enough fellow." Mr. Soil clapped his hands together. "We might even open up a trade with this other colony."

"What? Just like that?"

"I'd thought you'd be pleased," said Mr. Soil, and Sinny realized how horrified she'd sounded.

"It's just so… sudden," said Sinny, shrugging. "Since when does the council make quick decisions like this?" Mr. Soil seemed to take this as a good-natured jab.

"Not often, Princess," he said with a chuckle. "In fact, we're still in deliberations about it-"

"Right now?" said Sinny, and almost headed off right then. "Oh, uh, can I go just take a little peek maybe?"

"I don't see why not," Mr. Soil replied. "But, what about your appointment at the med cell?"

"Uh…" Sinny looked down at her slip, up at the tunnel, and down at her slip again. "I'll have to reschedule. Thanks, Mr. Soil!" She was already heading to the council chamber before he could reply.

Sinny ran all the way, and was huffing and puffing by the time she got there – she paused by the council chamber's entrance, leaning on the wall to catch her breath. It was so quiet inside she thought no one was actually here, but then she caught some light chatter and peeked in. Her mother and Dot were in the chamber, in conversation with the foreign ant. Sinny felt a sudden chill of apprehension, but then realized it was silly – she'd forced her way into the chamber during a trial while being stared at by most of the colony. And she was scared of walking in on three ants? She took a deep breath, steeling her nerve, and quietly padded into the room.

"Helloo…" she said, half-heartedly. She almost walked out again when Dot and Atta stared at her, but she forced a smile on her face, like it was no big deal. "Mr. Soil mentioned the council had made a decision, and I just wanted to stop by and see what was going on."

Atta looked like she was making a mental note to give Mr. Soil a piece of her mind, and exchanged a glance with Dot.

"You remember my daughter: Sinny," Atta said to the foreign ant, who nodded and held out his hand. Sinny shook it, feeling herself blush at how sincere his smile was.

"I remember," he said. "She's the one who stormed in to speak on my behalf."

"Yeah…" said Sinny, dumbly, as she took her hand back and continued to smile at him.

"I just need to borrow her for one second," Atta butted in, taking her daughter by the arm and pulling her aside. Atta paused, looked at Dot and the foreign ant, and then pulled Sinny even further away until she was satisfied. "Sinny, why aren't you in school?"

"I'm on, uh, noon-break."

"Noon-break's been over for ten minutes." Atta crossed her arms in front of her chest. "You can't just cut class whenever you want because you're a princess."

"Wha-? No, mom, that's not…" Sinny sighed, looking up at the ceiling to think for a moment. "I was excused by Mr. Linseed, and then I ran into Mr. Soil so I stopped by here, and I know I shouldn't have, but I really wanted to know what was going on."

"You were excused?" Atta's voice turned cold. "What happened?"

"Nothing, I…" Sinny fished in her bag and pulled out the slip. "Here. I was supposed to go to the med cell." Atta took the slip, examined it, and immediately looked concerned – she felt Sinny's forehead and her own, comparing the temperatures.

"Honey, you're burning up, let me take you to the med cell."

"But, mom-"

"You're delirious and running around the colony with a fever. Now's not the time." Atta put a gentle hand on Sinny's back, leading her to Dot to explain where they were going, and if Dot could handle things from here.

"Mom, I'm not delirious," Sinny insisted as they walked back to the med tunnel. "Is everything really fine now? Are you really opening up trade with this other colony?"

"We are, actually," said Atta. "I didn't like the idea at first, but the council took stock in your argument. The colony has a strong bias against outsiders – but, we were also saved by outsiders, not so long ago." She hesitated. "It was brave of you, Sinny, to speak up like that. I know I was upset at the time, but I shouldn't scold you for being interested in colony issues."

"That's okay," said Sinny, although a tickle in her throat dissuaded her from saying more.

"You're just a lot like your father sometimes." Atta shrugged. "Stubborn, not afraid to say what the rest of us don't even dare to consider. It can be infuriating, but at least you have more common sense than he does." Sinny grew colder, feeling her mother's hand stiffen on her shoulder. "You can tell him I said that."

"Mom," Sinny admonished. "Tell him yourself."

Atta ignored her, pulling her into the med cell, which sent some of the nurses into a tizzy, and Dr. Flora was immediately procured, seemingly out of nowhere. Sinny was given the usual examination, proclaimed ill but not seriously, given some herbs to take with her, and sent to her chamber. She spent the rest of the day in bed, bored out of her mind but admittedly weary.

●•●

The next day, Sinny was given an informal audience with the council, and found herself persuaded into preparing a celebration to honor the foreign ant and the new trade relations. This gave her pause – it was the first time she'd been put in charge of something so public, not to mention an event the entire colony would be attending. She found herself pacing in her room for a long while, her mind predictably whirling through an endless check-list; she finally snapped out of her frenetic haze, and sent the foreign ant a message to meet her by the bird monument.

They weren't the original remains of her father's bird contraption still standing by the anthill, of course – those had decayed away many seasons ago, but there was an entire committee dedicated to restoring and replicating the twig framing, the acorn beak, and occasionally entire wings out of orange and red leaves, season permitting. A few children played inside the framing, swinging from rib to rib, and they paused to stare as Sinny approached. The foreign ant was already waiting, peering at the monument curiously.

"I don't believe I got your name last time," Sinny said as a greeting, trying her best to put on a leadership voice.

"It's Leaf," he replied. He was a little funny-looking in the afternoon sun, his exoskeleton a mottled variety of blues, as though layers of color were peeling away. "Feeling better, Princess?"

"Oh, yeah, that." Sinny cleared her throat. "My mother gets a little over-protective sometimes – both my parents do, actually, whenever I get a cold, since I wasn't very healthy as a child. They say that's why I never grew any wings, in case you were wondering. I'm not just some random worker called Princess."

"Do you always give strangers your life story upfront?" Leaf asked, good-naturedly.

"Yeah, pretty much," Sinny said with a shrug. "My father says I'm 'forth-coming,' although my mother tends to call it 'over-bearing.' Or 'over-zealous.' She says other ants don't appreciate it when I talk my head off. Or their heads off. Either way. I'm boring you, aren't I?"

Leaf chuckled. "No, Princess – it's interesting to see how fast you can talk without pausing for breath."

"Speaking of which - I was going to show you around the colony, actually," said Sinny, suddenly remembering why she'd asked to meet him in the first place, and gestured for Leaf to follow her. She took him past the anthill, around the tree, and into the grass stalks. As she did, she gave him some of the colony's history, and inquired about Leaf's own colony, a subject he wasn't very forthcoming on, until they reached an area where several workers were busy cutting down stalks.

"What is this?" Leaf asked.

"Our harvesters," Sinny said, talking over the racket of the saws at work, and gesturing expansively to the scene at large. "We cut down the stalks instead of picking the grain one-by-one. It only takes a few dozen ants to do the work of hundreds. They're my father's creation, actually."

"Are they?" Leaf looked introspective for a moment, as though taking in the implication. As Sinny continued to explain the process, a nearby harvester stalled, and several pieces broke apart as the ant manning it tried to rev it up again. Incidentally, this caused the machine's so-far harvested grain to be launched in every direction - Sinny managed to pull Leaf down in time to avoid a kernel to the face.

"Well, that… happens," Sinny said, smiling at Leaf in a way that probably wasn't convincing. She began to gather stray kernels, just as Flik hustled over to the scene, decked out in a tool-belt and a backpack full of spare parts. A struggle ensued as the entire harvester seemed to take on a life of its own and had to be beaten into submission. Every ant in the vicinity paused to stare.

"And that's… my dad," Sinny said. Leaf continued to look dumb-founded as she pulled him over to Flik. Sinny called out to her father several times before he looked up from what was once a harvester.

"Hey, kiddo, I'm a little busy here," he said. "What's up?"

"This is Leaf, dad, he's our guest now. Leaf, this is my dad, Flik."

Flik looked up, giving Leaf more of his attention, and suddenly looked very serious - much more serious than Sinny was used to seeing him. "Sinny, are you out here by yourself with him? Where's your aunt?"

"Uh, I don't know," Sinny replied, glancing at Leaf, who shrugged. "I'm just showing Leaf around before I plan the welcome ceremony. What's the big deal?"

Flik continued to give Leaf a hard look.

"Where did you say you were from, again?" Flik asked him.

"The north – several days' travel from here," said Leaf, gesturing in the approximate direction. "We're a small colony; the rainy seasons haven't been kind to us."

"Is that so?" said Flik, not looking very convinced, and turned back to Sinny, handing her one of his tools. "Could you give me a hand with this?"

"But, Dad," Sinny said through her teeth.

"Just for a bit." He stood the broken harvester pieces up right and instructed her to reassemble the gears. Leaf was silent for a while, watching the scene, and then he was engaged in conversation. Sinny looked up from the mess of harvester parts to find Lily had snuck up to speak to Leaf. By the time the harvester was finished, Sinny no longer had an audience. She sighed in disgust and relief, tossing the tools back into her father's bag.

"And now they're gone," she said.

Flik patted her on the back. "Which means you can plan that ceremony without any distractions."

Sinny looked at the other harvesters – somebody called out as a stalk was felled, others revved their engines in response – and she felt her antennae droop slightly. Maybe it was the heat. Flik gave her shoulder a gentle shake.

"Go on, kiddo."

Sinny shrugged him off as she headed back to the anthill.