Colony's POV
At once, the diggers worked and worked trying to pin point the exact spot where the hallow noises were coming from. Rocks were falling behind the walls and they changed their aim every single moment when they heard a noise. During the emergency, the royals, including the new born were transported into the lower regions of the tunnels. It was order of the Captain that got to their Queen that it was essential to find an opening into the aquifer that has been their goal to find since the very start of the season. It usually made no sense of going this deep for the fear of cave-ins and lo and behold, it was true.

All it took was one strong kick and the wall came down crumbling in, so fast in fact, that one of the workers nearly tumbled down to their death. Gladly, the worker was spared the awful fall but the terror stayed within their eyes when they dared to look down into this vast, dark space.

As it did seem dark, the sound of the rocks echoed through this strange chamber, smacking into what sounded like… water. Hopper was right… They finally reached what they had been searching for. One of the workers excitedly cried!

"We found it… We found it!" he panted before he began to run back to get into earshot of the others higher up in the tunnel. "We found the Aquifer! Pass it on!"

Word began to pass on to each team that dug in different spots, changing their entire colony map within the hill, all the way to the point that it reached to Flik's gathering group who were building their own bows, as they were instructed. The Queen was being transported, along with her daughter Atta and her newborn with a slew of fellow workers sticking near to protect them. As this was going on, there was chaos going on across the river, right by that bird's grave.

Hopper's Narrative
I had succeeded in scattering these idiots with just one punch into his hideous excuse for a face. I saved up so much anger to put into that hit and now I felt ready for anything. I had to keep my faith in the Ants that they knew what they were doing. I hoped that I would find something that could help the matter. What I had was my wit and if Emerald's harsh training had done anything, I knew these bastards would chase me, first and foremost. It was clear to me now that they wanted me good and dead. I had one by a string and my claw was glued to it, so I dragged him along as fast as I could, trying to find a good strong weed to thrust him at. My cargo continued to get heavier and heavier until I struck the web line directly against some sort of plant. I was starting to wing it at this point, since I couldn't see a damn thing. All I had was my good eye and the moonlight to guide me.

Soon, this weight was too much and I had to ram this sticky string against some kind of sharp stem. The force caused to stop and grasp this stem as my partner swung and hit a thorny leaf and got his wings plastered on it. I gave a victorious laugh before I climbed up and tied the loser up even more against that leaf. Making sure that he couldn't move and lead the rest this way, I made my point across by tightly gripping both antennae.

"And you're calling me the stupid one? Thinking you can all pin me down that easy. Let me let you in on a little secret. I always get what I want and I am going to make sure that you're going to tell me where your damn nest is." I hissed with rage pouring through my whispers. "You've done enough damage in this meadow."

This hornet cackled. "You have a lot of brawn for a such delicious morsel."

"Figured that out for yourself, huh?" I growled with a clenched jaw before pulling on the antennae. "Where. Is it?"

I knew that he knew for certain that was not going to go easy with him. Just as I suspected, he decided to get violent. I struck the stem with both feet and leaped aside, grasping the leaf across. I could hear the rest of them buzz around aimless, trying to seek the two of us out.

"Keep it up. There's no chance you're getting out." I told him outright.

"Pulling the same old tricks… There are thousands of us."

I looked up to see a grand group of them tore away farther into the meadow. Deep within that spirit of mine, it gave a clue that I should follow them. Just then, someone bolted at me right out of the blue with his stinger armed. Blade nearly had me once more but I ducked and zoomed right down into the grass. I felt pain in my leg when he lunged me and at first I was really frightened for a moment if I finally touched his stinger. Even with that terror rushing through me, I tore and I groped until I found a single spot beneath some bent blades and leaves. This was a great start, so far… mind as well leap into a web while I'm at it. I had to stop for a moment, just to breathe… as I heard them zoom off, gladly the opposite direction. I finally got a break and I realized that I've been hit again, so I wasn't so sure if it was a sting or a scratch, but it was right there on my right leg. That rush left me dizzy and so tuckered that my wings couldn't stay under their flaps, so I just stopped, took deep breaths and thought. I may have ruffled their attempt at the Island for a bit but my mission remained the same.

I needed to find that hive, and I knew that the hornets themselves wouldn't lead me to it. I shook out of it and continued climbing through the grass, right up until dirt started falling along my back. That did it… Swift, even though I was in pain, I leaped beneath a stone. From above, much to my surprise, there was a slew of ants coming out of some burrow. It left me confused as they seemed to be from my Island. They were workers… Could it be that they survived from the snatching? There was only one way to find out.

At the one whispering orders to the others, who was stouter than the rest, I lunged a claw out at him and tapped his leg. Of course he goosed, as them all, as I pulled myself out from under the stone.

"Not again!" cried one of the females.

The one I tapped jumped a mile and proceeded to hit me. I hardly felt it, but I could feel the passion behind it all. I merely shoved him back, as I stood taller.

"Back. Off." I warned the stout one, who was so shocked that he fell backwards.

"A grasshopper!"

"That eye… " the stout one pointed at me. "Are you the one they were talking about…"

That wasn't really anything surprising to me… "Oh, so I'm popular now." I groaned. "What are you all doing here?" I asked them, despite feeling a sharp pang in my leg.

"You're hurt…" one of the females spoke and she had the courage to come close.

"I can kick it. I'd appreciate it if you answer my question."

"We just dug through for hours, trying to get home." the stout one replied, confused.

"Home…? Does Ant Island ring any bells then?"

This group exchanged glances, as if this was all news to them. "How do you know that?"

I knew right away that these ants escaped, if that were even possible.

"I may or may not be your Queen's elected official, per se."

"You're not the one we rescued." the stout one, Thorny, said, suspecting me of treachery.

"No, but that one happened to be my young brother. That's how it all started. Also, it's a job I take very seriously. I am your colony's defender as of this moment. Your Captain. So I suggest you wipe that smirk off your face."

The stout one grumbled and crossed his arms. The others ducked from the tone of my voice, but I decided to cut them some slack.

"It has been a very long day and even I need help. I see that you all were taken right about when I came… Tell me, how did you escape?"

"We managed to slide through the eaten wood of their tree… and then we just dug. It was all we could do. Sadly, some of us didn't make it."

Taking a moment I slowly had to stand up to be absolutely sure that no hornet was coming near. In the moonlight, I was able to see the damage done to my leg. It was not as nasty as my eye but it was another scratch.

"Oh! You are hurt!" cried that same female again. "Please, you must come with us…"

"I'm afraid I can't do that. You need to tell me where the hive is. I've been looking for it for weeks and because of my failure to do that they are setting up to attack your Island." I spoke, urgently. Even at their frightened gasps, I continued. "… they are digging as we speak, deeper down into the river. You need to do something big… You all need to dig again, under the river but one of you needs to go to the Queen."

"How can we trust you with this, grasshopper?"

"Name's Hopper. And include my name when you get there, I'm sure you'll know that you should. They need as many as they can get right now…. Listen, they are coming in right at dawn, so we're wasting time here just talking."

"Okay, okay, the hive isn't actually that far f-from here…" Thorny replied, still shaken. I nodded to him to keep going. "Just fly the same direction we came, there's a dead tree. Inside is their hive. It's like embedded into the heart of this tree!"

Glancing at the burrow they created, I then looked to the stars, trying to feel strong but that wasn't the case. I was in pain, but I had to keep going. "Get to the Island before dawn and tell your Queen everything you've heard and seen."

As Thorny reluctantly agreed, that same female worker reached to me.

"You're not going there, are you?"

"I have to. I have a plan. It might work, a little at best. If I kill their Queen, they will back off. Even it means I might not come back in one peace. Protect yourselves and take care. I'll do the rest. Also, if my brother is thinking of coming after me… Tie him up."

If Molt knew exactly what I was going to do, he would try and find me. I appreciated his forgiveness and love. Those were the two things I personally had left. Knowing that I was on the right track, I climbed high before flying, trusting these escapees to do their part. I could not do much to protect them from the swarm but it seemed like they had good tactics to avoid them. Once when I took to the air, I could still pick up scrambling to my far right of the blind hornets still searching through the grass. Those escaped ants all hid under a stone and started to dig again, reassured that there was a plan in the works. As they left, my wings distracted the blinded soldiers and they started to get farther away from the ants. I fought the pain and began to push as hard as I could before seeing useless webs in my peripheral. I stayed near them as they were starting to catch up!

Spotting a shape come at my right, I made a sharp turn into the thistles, struggling around and jumped as they shot from every other direction. I growled to motivate myself to keep up with the dodging, even to shoot down to the dirt before I even realized that thicker grass meant bad news. Blade caught up to me and I landed painfully, skidding to a stop when I struck rock. He shot his wings open and stared me down with cold, dead eyes.

"Enough of your games! You're mine!" he hissed, gladly fed up before stabbing into the dirt, missing me once again!

I wasn't so sure if I could keep up with this for long, but it seemed that our situation was not improving. As Blade's fellow soldiers neared, they soon started to scatter and flee when the ground below us began to growl and tremble. We both froze when we realized that we were at the foot of a snake's burrow. In the dark, two glints of light began to pierce through from the darkness with a blurry tongue flicking out at us. I found myself frozen at the might of another one of these things as Blade took his chance to hassle me. When he did that, it enraged the snake and it slithered out, towering over us like grass. I snapped out of it and jumped forward to dodge the snake's head shots. When I did it shot forward at the hornet, knocking rocks and dirt into the air. At this moment, its sole focus was on Blade as I made my way through the dark again… I did not expect someone else to come.

"Good job, leafsucker, you woke it up!" spat a raspy voice somewhere beside me. Someone bounced off of my abdomen.

"Excuse us for having a nightly dispute! Get off me!" I growled.

"Careful, I just might spit at you…" they spoke again.

"Where the hell are you? I am not in the mood for games!"

There was a stout creature in front of me, but I was blind just like the swarm. I was beginning to feel desperate, now that a snake was involved. We listened to the fight near us, but I stayed low, hurting. I breathed deep and hard, my head was still fuzzy from all this chaos. This other insect scuddled over to me, inspecting me over. I had a mind to whack them away.

"Easy, grasshopper, I'm not going to hassle you. What's with you?"

I opened my eyes and she looked fuzzy to me, but it looked like a little termite. I was out of it… I was beginning to believe that I've finally been stung. I had to stay still, just for a moment…

Spitz POV
She looked him over as he began to relax and didn't move again. He closed his eyes on her. She sighed when she saw his damaged eye and a gash on his leg. His wings were spread out in exhaustion, failing to stay under their flaps.

"Perfect timing…"

Her name was Spitz, a local in this field and she knew a thing or two since she was accustomed to the neighboring snake she had to deal with since the start of the spring. She had experience with helping bugs so much bigger than her, but now was not a good time to be passing out for this one. Using his own camouflage to combine with a dead leaf, she dragged it over him to confuse any approaching hornets, or a snake for that matter. Quiet, she dug a little to get beneath him so she could pick him up without injuring herself.

"You're gonna thank me later, leafsucker." she groaned, beginning to drag the grasshopper who was almost three times her size.