A Bug's Life 2: Out from Ant Island
Chapter 3
●•●
It was Mr. Soil who eventually helped Sinny complete her plans for the welcome ceremony. Admittedly, Sinny enjoyed his sense of drama and flair, even if he did insist on directing a performance to illustrate how friendship would flourish under the proposed alliance between the two colonies.
The ceremony started at nightfall, as torches were lit around the queen's dais and the seats of honor on either side – they were decorated in twisting vines and purple, trumpet-shaped flowers. The entire colony feasted on grain purees in shallow kernel dishes, whole grain seasoned with herbs, and honey drinks in curly vine cups. Atta and Dot gave speeches outlining the new alliance, asking for any input or objections. There were none, of course.
Sinny sat on the far right, away from the speech-making, sipping her honey and looking down into the empty cup when it was gone. She found she was extra shy at a ceremony of her own devising. When she mingled, she was congratulated by ants she rarely spoke to, shaking hands and nodding and smiling – her teachers and the senior ants looked wistful, proud, as though they hadn't been sure she had it in her, but were glad she did.
When Atta acknowledged her, Sinny stood from her seat to accept the praise, but declined any speeches of her own. The only speech she'd ever made in front of the colony was during her and Lily's coming-of-age ceremony, when they were expected to give thanks to the colony, and state how glad they were to accept leadership roles. Sinny hadn't liked it much – the speeches or the implications.
The air was smoky from the torches, stinging Sinny's eyes, and it was thoroughly dark when Lily and Leaf were called forward to give their performance.
For reasons incomprehensible to Sinny, they'd volunteered for Mr. Soil's bold interpretation – a two-ant mime, with Lily representing her colony, and Leaf his. Sinny had the feeling there was more going on here; Mr. Soil seemed to expect, after some comic mishaps, for a great love affair to occur, rather than simple friendship. Perhaps he was just taking some artistic liberties, considering Sinny didn't think two entire colonies could fall in love simultaneously.
After the performance had concluded, and Lily and Leaf were swept from the acting space in a woven-stalk chariot, drowning in the applause of the always-appreciative colony, the ceremony was officially concluded. Sinny had fallen asleep sometime during the second act, face down on her empty dish, and after Dot shook her several times to no response, she was simply picked up like a child and taken to bed.
●•●
Sinny woke in the early hours of the morning, sitting up to find herself in her room, her bedcovers tucked around her. There was still an energy in the colony, one that didn't seem right. Other insects might call this "hive-mind," the idea that social insects acted as one. What Sinny felt was more of a buzz in her antennae, transmitting a certain emotion, one she couldn't decipher, yet. It was a detriment of being young, not being able to understand the colony completely.
She rubbed sleep from her eyes and stumbled to the door, looking out. Voices echoed in the halls, murmurs, and she could feel the vibrations of a still active colony. Instinctively, she made her way to the royal sitting room, expecting the adults to still be chatting and winding down from the party. What she found instead was her parents and aunt looking tired and worried – her mother paced, her voice shrill, and she paused mid-step when she noticed Sinny at the door. She rushed forward to embrace her daughter, and Sinny stiffened.
"Mom, what's going on?" she asked.
"Did your sister say anything to you?" Atta asked, holding Sinny out at arms' length.
"About..?" Sinny ventured, looking pleadingly at her father and aunt.
"She's gone," Flik said. He was still hunched over, pinching the ridge between his eyes. "Your sister vanished after the ceremony."
"And so did that foreign ant," said Dot, her features frozen in disbelief. Sinny felt a chill travel down her body, through her extremities, and the understated tension in the room threatened to suffocate her. If only they were mad, or yelling, or crying; instead they sat and stared at ghosts or shadows, their faces trapped in shock.
"What? Are you - are you serious?" Sinny wanted to chuckle nervously, but couldn't. She looked around the room again, and her mind began to burn with anger. "Is anyone looking for her? Why're we just sitting here?"
"It's too dark to send out a search team," said Atta, who resumed her pacing. "Who knows how far Lily's gotten by now? She could be anywhere, even carrying a passenger."
"But-" Sinny began.
"We already checked the entire island," said Dot. "And there are so many predators out, we'd be risking too many lives if we left the island now." Her wings twitched at the idea, as though she had already volunteered to fly out into the night and been dissuaded. Sinny thought of the Nightly Predators class she had last season, where her teacher had taken the class up into the tree after dark, and they'd watched through the leaves as bats and larger insects swooped through the moonlight, snatching tiny, unlucky specks out of the air or off the ground. Outside of the island, they were unlucky specks.
"So, but…" Sinny began again. "But…" She looked at her mother, thinking of Lily soaring through the night. They were right; she could be anywhere, even in just a few hours. Where would she be by morning? "Maybe she went with Leaf back to his colony. Isn't it somewhere to the north?"
Dot and Atta looked at each other. "He told us east."
Sinny's stomach dropped. How could she be so stupid? Maybe this is what he'd been planning all along. She found she'd started her own pacing.
"Okay, but if Leaf managed to walk here on his own, it can't be too far, can it? We'll check every colony in the area. Someone has to know where they went."
"We'll see in the morning," Atta said.
Finding she no longer had any desire to argue, Sinny sat next to Flik and hugged him, but he didn't look up.
●•●
Sinny spent the rest of the night pacing in her room until she passed out on her bed in exhaustion. When she woke, she ran out into the corridors, checking the royal chambers and finding them empty. There was a muted chaos in the colony, with workers milling about and wringing their hands, arguing with one another. Sinny felt their attention collectively shift to her as she ran past them, and the conversations changed to reflect her presence; she caught "Princess" and "sister" used frequently, but she ignored them, literally pushing past some to exit the anthill.
Her mother was still pacing, this time in front of a line up of guards. They looked ready for travel, wearing packs and carrying some rudimentary spears. A gaggle of on-lookers had paused at a distance to watch. Sinny stopped to watch with them, as two groups of five marched down towards the beach to enter the canyon.
The morning light was still thin and hazy, and the guards' shadows were long, bobbing behind them on the dirt. Sinny was tempted to approach her mother and tell her the guards would be too slow, they'd never cover enough ground, but she decided against it. She could still sense everyone looking at her – never had so much of the colony paid her this much attention on an average workday. She felt herself wilt under the stares. What were they thinking? Were their looks of pity, or accusation? Was this her fault? She hadn't dared to ask herself that, yet. A non-winged ant couldn't possibly kidnap Lily, could they?
"Dot, you're not going after her." Sinny stood behind her aunt, looking up at her as Dot turned around, away from the worker ants she had been trying to coerce into collecting some grain. "Why not? You could cover more ground than those guards can."
"Sinny." Dot sighed. "Atta and I discussed it."
"And?"
"And… I'm needed here." She gestured to the colony at large. The worker ants stared at her, looking startled to be included in Dot's arm sweep. Sinny squinted one eye at her aunt. She didn't understand, and said as much. "If I left and something happened to me," said Dot, "Ant Island would only have one queen ant."
"You're not going after Lily because there needs to be at least one heir." The implication that Sinny wasn't actually in line to inherit her mother's throne sat heavily between them, its weight so real Sinny was tempted to kick it away.
"The colony comes first." Dot turned to face the worker ants again. "I hate that I can't go after Lily, but this is the way it has to be."
Dot had been Sinny's go-to relative for most of her life – her chill, fun-loving aunt who got her, more than her parents ever would. But, she'd always been gravely serious about the colony's safety. Knowing what she did about Dot's childhood on Ant Island, Sinny thought she understood, to some degree. She was still very unhappy about Dot's decision and, by proxy, her mother's decision. The queen ants couldn't leave – Sinny, however, wasn't a queen ant.
●•●
She found Flik in his workshop, milling around, looking at the tools in his hands as though he wasn't quite sure how they'd gotten there. Sinny watched him for a while before crossing behind him to the tarps covering her project. She hadn't looked at it for several days – lifting one corner of the tarp, she peeked inside, and then uncovered it completely in one motion.
The frame was just how she'd left it: twigs molded and tied together into two outstretched wings, and a place for her to grab hold in the middle. She'd tested it exactly once, an experiment that left her glider in several pieces and her in the med cell. It had only been a minor concussion. She looked up at her father.
"Dad?" she ventured. He looked over at her in surprise, like he didn't know what to make of her. "Is my helmet here somewhere?" Flik reached a hand under his workbench and fished out a nutshell with straps. Sinny stepped towards him, and he put the helmet on her head without asking. "You okay, dad?"
"Your mother and I…" he began, but stopped. For all his inventive talents, looking utterly dejected was what her father was best at. Sinny hugged him instead of asking more questions, and he returned it for a long while, resting his chin on the top of her helmet. They didn't really need words right now.
Sinny suddenly felt very sorry for what she was about to do.
●•●
Under dark, once the colony had settled into their chambers for the night, Sinny crept out of her room, wearing a backpack with basic provisions. She checked the guard rotation, hiding in the shadows as they passed through corridors, and arrived at the workshop without incident. She wasn't sure if the glider would fit through the emergency exit, but she carried it there anyway, and found it just fit at a certain angle.
A full moon was out, bright enough to cast shadows and light Sinny's way up into the tree. It was a lot more awkward than she'd thought it'd be, and she nearly dropped the glider twice – but she was an ant, she told herself, and she should be able to carry heavy loads up trees.
She settled the glider into a crook between the trunk and a branch, where dirt had gathered and was playing host to a few weeds. The night was clear, although it was a little misty in the canyon – it was still early fall, however, and any fog should burn away quickly. It was warm enough, even in these early hours, but Sinny's hands shook with trepidation as she waited for the first haze of light to show itself on the eastern horizon.
A chorus of crickets still filled the night beyond the canyon, as did the occasional cry of a predator. It was a friendly reminder of how many creatures were out there, waiting to eat her.
Sinny took a deep breath and let it out, trying to force her fears out with it. She strapped her helmet on under her chin, and held onto the glider's middle grip. The morning's growing heat would carry her, or at least she thought it would – she'd seen birds use the air to carry themselves high above her, without flapping their wings. She'd watched them from this very branch, taking notes and drawing diagrams. If these giant creatures could do it, she thought, so could she. If her colony could build a bird (albeit, one that didn't actually fly on its own), she could build her own wings.
She was pretty sure they would work this time.
●•●
And they did work, at least for a while.
With just enough light to make her way, she could feel the air change, clashing with the cooler night air, forcing itself up into a draft. She took the opportunity to stop thinking about what she was doing and simply do it – she ran down the branch and jumped off, coasting for a while until the glider pitched face-first towards the ground. Clenching her teeth, tears streaming out of her eyes (that's what she forgot – goggles), Sinny coaxed the glider back up until it leveled enough to catch the air again.
The canyon floor was gone, and the grass forest was below her; she forced herself to stop looking down, and concentrated on keeping herself going in the right direction. It proved difficult, as the drafts were unpredictable, and sometimes forced her up or dropped her down at their will. A few flying bugs passed by now and then, including a butterfly with large orange wings who paused and fluttered around her, flapping frantically in his effort to remain in the same spot, before he laughed and continued on his way.
There was a lot to see – hills, trees, and strange, large structures on the horizon. She was told that the farther you got from Ant Island, the bigger the world became. There were trees bigger than their own, bigger birds, bigger creatures. Much bigger than she could ever imagine, the elders told her, or the occasional traveling insect willing to answer her questions. Sinny wanted to see all of it, observe it, draw it or write it down. Surely these giants would never notice her – on the other hand, some peddler bugs had horror stories, of nests or colonies being destroyed by giants, entire massacres in one go. Sometimes they took prisoners, and put you in a box for the rest of your life.
It seemed too strange and horrible to be true.
The initial purpose of the flight was to survey the area, to see just how far other colonies might be. She saw none, and thought maybe she could reach the city to ask around. There was too much glare from the morning light, however, to see very well, and something swooped out of the sky, ripping the edge of one of the leaves from its framing, leaving a large gap in her glider.
She kept it steady as best she could, trying to control its descent. She'd caught the attention of a bird, she realized, but she couldn't spot it until it swooped again, large talons snatching part of her glider out of the air. The part Sinny was holding onto had no means of staying airborne, and the forest came up to meet her before she had time to realize what was happening.
Grass stalks broke her fall, and Sinny bounced off of several green, fibrous surfaces before landing face-first in the dirt. The remains of her glider followed, most of it getting stuck in the stalks above her.
She wallowed in shock and vertigo for a while, and then she raised herself, coughing up a mouthful of earth. The fall wasn't too bad – she'd withstood worse, considering a childhood on Ant Island often meant falling out of the tree more than once – she was more annoyed, mixed with elation. Her glider worked! It probably would have continued working, if that stupid bird hadn't spotted her. Something to work on.
Sinny stood, wiping the dirt away, and found she still had her backpack on, and her helmet wasn't the worse for wear. She removed it, stowed it in her pack, and took stock of her surroundings. After a thorough survey, she came to the conclusion she was lost utterly. It wasn't surprising – she didn't really know how to get anywhere except the city. But, she'd stayed mostly true towards the sunrise, which meant west would take her back to the colony. Maybe.
The sun had risen completely by now, and the sky through the stalks above her was only a bit orange-tinted, quickly becoming a clear blue. Sinny scrambled to the top of the nearest stalk, making sure the bird wasn't still around before peeking over the forest canopy. She couldn't quite see Ant Island from here – maybe she'd traveled farther than she thought. There was only forest and hills.
A fat, slow moving fly passed over her – she yelled and waved to get his attention, but he grunted and kept going.
"Well, excuse you," Sinny muttered. She watched the fly's progress, hoping his destination would be some help by proxy, but he only flew on until he was too far to see. Sinny took note of the direction anyway, and slid back down the stalk to travel towards the hypothetical destination. She'd come this far, she might as well find out all she could.
●•●
Sinny found herself still traveling when nightfall came, and she chose a hollow stalk to curl up in for the night. The forest after dark was strange and nerve-wracking – large insects passed by, and sometimes even much larger creatures, crunching along and felling stalks in their wake. Sinny was exhausted when morning came, and she considered digging a tunnel for herself for the next night. But, then again, who knew what might be lurking underground?
Foraging seeds and berries to eat wasn't too difficult – what was difficult was avoiding insects who might see her as their next meal. She hid behind rocks or in the grass, observing her fellow travelers at a distance. She figured other bugs her size probably wouldn't bother eating her, and those were the ones she approached.
Most looked a little startled by her presence, as lone ants weren't too common, but a few paused long enough to inform her about the surrounding area. A mud spa was a half-day's travel from here (not too helpful, but at least there would be more locals to question), a few watering holes, a snake hole to avoid, and the city was still two days away.
Sinny pressed on, digging a small tunnel under a stalk as night fell, which made her feel marginally safer.
●•●
Her first mistake was leaving her pack in the tunnel the next morning when she went into the forest, looking for dewdrops to drink and bathe in.
It didn't carry much in the way of food, but it did keep her parchment and quills to help map her surroundings, as well as medicinal herbs. As she returned to her tunnel, the smell caught her by surprise, and she stopped, running her antennae along the ground and the nearest stalk. The scent petrified her, and she was up a stalk before she could think twice about it. Looking around the trunk at this vantage point, she could see the clearing where she'd found a hollow stalk and dug her shelter inside and under it. Someone very large and hairy had also found it, confirming the scent: an arachnid.
Some spiders were okay, and counted among her friends, and some were decidedly not okay, especially the ones who spun webs to trap the likes of her. This was perhaps the largest spider she'd ever seen, each of its eight legs larger than she was. It wasn't tall and spindly, but thick, squat, its bulbous abdomen close to the ground. It was also humming and bouncing along to a rhythm as it went through her stuff.
Sinny sighed mentally, not risking the small sound just yet, and stared at the scene for a while. There wasn't anything edible in her pack, if that's what it was looking for. Maybe it'd leave.
She was ready to wait it out, until the spider decided her pack was more than a little interesting – it flung it on its back, rotating itself 180 degrees with every intention of leaving with her possessions. When it finished its rotation, it found itself face-to-face with a small blue ant. She didn't look pleased.
"That's my stuff!" Sinny shouted, and the spider skittered back in surprise – she was much louder than something so tiny had any right to be. "Give it back you hairy, thieving, sneaky spider-thief!"
"Whoa, chill out, man," the spider said, sounding amused, although he took another step back. "I was just lookin', man, it was just sittin' here."
"You weren't just looking you have it right there!" Sinny pointed to the bag, laying eschew on the spider's midsection. "Give it back!"
"Whoa, whoa, alright little chica." He reached up with one appendage and held out the pack to Sinny. She hesitated, and then snatched it from him, riffling through it to make sure everything was inside. "I just thought it looked cool, ya know?" the spider continued. "I haven't seen a little leaf bag like that before, man. You make that?"
Sinny glared up at him, brows furrowed at his attempt at conversation. She swung the pack over her shoulder in a huff. "Yes, I did." She continued to glare. "Well? You going to leave me alone now?" Sinny headed around the spider, back to her stalk before he could answer. He rotated on his eight legs to face her as she did.
"You're a funny chica, ya know that? Most ants are outta here when they see me, but you just don't give a damn. Pretty crazy, man."
"Yeah, I guess." Sinny shrugged as she stepped into the stalk, and closed the leaf-flap behind her. She could still see the hulking silhouette of the spider through the fibrous material. His steps made the ground vibrate under her, but he didn't seem to be going anywhere.
"I'm not gonna eat you, man," he said.
"Why not?" Sinny called out.
"Ants aren't very tasty – besides, I'm not gonna eat a bug I've had a conversation with, that just sucks. And maybe you could help me out."
Sinny stuck her head out of the flap. "You snoop through my stuff then want my help?"
"I'm trying to get to a circus that's around here – ya know, to look for a job? Any idea where it is?"
"The circus?" Sinny's antennae twitched in surprise, and she jumped out of the stalk. "The circus! P.T.'s circus?"
"Sure, I guess." The spider shrugged with several of his legs.
"I have… no clue where it is! But, if we ask around, somebody has to know, right?" Sinny put her pack on and looked at the spider. After a moment, she held out her hand. "I'm Sinny."
"The name's Chili," he replied, holding out an appendage to return the handshake. "If you really wanna come with, chica, might as well hop on." Chili gestured to his back, and Sinny climbed up his leg to take a seat on his abdomen. She took a gentle hold of some of his spiny hairs to keep steady as the spider (tarantula, really) began traveling back into the forest.
●•●
Author's note: Chili is, in fact, based on Chili the Chilean tarantula (who's actually a Mexican redknee tarantula) from It's Tough to Be a Bug! It's one of my favorite 4D shows, for obvious reasons.