A Bug's Life: The Ant Queen
Chapter 3
Something's Coming
It had been a week since Flik had left the colony and the circus bugs had recently bid their farewell to the colony, as they had to leave, after being reminded by theit greedy quick-tempered ringmaster of a flea that they had paying customers to entertain back at the circus tent, especially with their new act, Flaming Death, which proved to be a giant, unexpected success with the masses.
Since then, the colony had started looking through rough sketches of inventions that they had found in Flik's personal chamber, including sketches of the harvester, a contraption that Flik had put together a while ago, when they were still picking food for the grasshoppers; the harvester was specifically designed to cut down entire stalks of grain, thus saving time on picking individual kernels. According to Flik's design of the machine, it had glass blade straps, and were meant to be worn over the shoulders like a backpack. It also had two stick arms: one had a claw that's supposed to grab the stalk tightly, while the other had a spiky bur that acted as a spinning saw, where its function was to cut down the stalk, and it had to be powered by a flywheel, which was a flat stone. However, in order to get the flywheel spinning, one had to wrap their knees in grass blade straps that were connected to the flywheel, and move them to get it working. After cutting down the stalk, it had to be placed on top of a large dry leaf and hauled across to get all the grains to fall into an attached leaf basket below. Once that was done, the stalk had to be catapulted, using a stick lever located at one's side. It was the middle of autumn and the rainy season had come to its end, and the colony knew that they had to quickly start collecting food for themselves, as winter was on the horizon and they didn't want to face starvation and freeze to death. So, they started constructing the harvester machines, while using the rough sketch of the original design for reference, to speed up the food-collecting process.
However, since there was very little food on the island, all there was was a couple of grains or boysenberries left; therefore, only a few of them were made and used. Regardless, they still got the job done and soon, they would have enough food that would last throughout the winter.
The idea of using those machines to get the harvesting done much more swiftly, before the approaching winter, was ironically suggested by Thorny, a short ant who was part of the council, as he wasn't very fond of them or any of the other contraptions that Flik had made in the past; he even volunteered to be the one to test the first one out before they could make any more.
Dot was sitting on top of a clover leaf, looking down at the ground with downcast eyes, crestfallen and alone. What she was holding against her chest was a telescope, made out of a glass blade and a bead of dew; it was the same telescope that Flik had made right on the spot when he was trying to impress her elder sister, and was told to keep, when she had tried to return it back to him, after it was snatched out of his hand and thrown to the ground by an irritated Thorny.
She sighed to herself gloomily, as she had given up hope for Flik ever coming back and she had no one to blame but Atta. Even though she still had her fellow Blueberries, a scout group of young female ants who participated in various fun activities, as her friends, Flik was the only one who she truly saw as her best friend, even as someone that she looked up to.
He did what no other ant had ever dared to do: standing up to Hopper and the grasshoppers, and giving the colony the courage to finally drive off the grasshoppers as one, by letting them know that they were a lot stronger than what was forced upon them by Hopper. As far as she was concerned, that was an act of a hero. Unfortunately, that same hero had left the colony, all because he was lied to first by her sister, who never believed in him and only sent him on that phony mission for warriors just so that he wouldn't get in the way of collecting food to make their double quota by the end of the summer, before the last leaf fell.
Dot then caught something in the corner of her eye. Out of curiosity, she turned to see what it was; although she couldn't make out what they were, as they were far away, she knew flying bugs when she saw them. They seemed to be flying towards Ant Island, so she quickly got out her telescope and looked through it to see what they were up close. After some inspection, her eyes widened with horror and soon started hopping from one clover leaf to another. Once she got herself to the ground with the help of her little wings, she hurriedly rushed towards the Anthill to warn her mother about she had just saw.
Atta was in her royal chamber, wallowing in her own sorrow on her dandelion bed, as she stared up at the ceiling with her reddened, tired eyes; she was in shambles and couldn't sleep properly, as she couldn't stop reflecting on everything that had happened after Flik's departure.
My faults, all my faults, What I thought would help my folks, Had only left one I'd call friend, Estranged.
The entire week she had to deal with her disappointed mother, her little sister ignoring her out of spite every time she came across her, and even getting some sullen looks from any ant she passed right by, as they were working. Her head felt heavy with thoughts that were lingering deep inside: thoughts of regret and loss.
My faults, all my faults, Just when I thought we're better off, That only brought upon us all, In danger.
If she could take back all the times she rejected Flik and his ideas that could've benefited the colony and help them with their offering to the grasshoppers, she would have. Flik may have made mistakes with his inventions in the past, but she was no different when it came to screwing things up, mainly due to her nervousness.
"It's funny," I tell myself, They say no one's perfect and all! And yet queens are expected to be, This all makes no sense to me!
Atta knew that being a queen was a huge responsibility, so she couldn't help but feel nervous, as she felt that she needed to think about even the smallest of details, which she couldn't bear overlooking. This unbearable anxiety was instilled into Atta by the feeling of being closely watched by her colony, waiting for her to screw up, as when she did, they would be pointing fingers at her, jeering as they let her know she'd never be queen.
Not that it would've done much good for anyone, Atta decided to get off the flower bed and take a little walk. She then found herself waddling through the tunnels at a snail's pace, with eyes half-open.
Am I overthinking this? Maybe, But it just can't stop hitting me! How can myself be queen? If all I can think of are my faults?
Once she came out of the tunnel's opening to the tree trunk, she hissed and shaded her face from the bright sun with her hand, after its light beams had hit her reddened eyes.
My faults, all my faults, "What has become of him?" I wonder, Ever since he left home?
My faults, all my faults, All I know is that he's gone, Leaving only me to blame.
Atta then walked up the spiralled pathway of the debarked tree trunk, passing by many primitive drawings that detailed the colony's history. There was one drawing, however, that made her stop in her tracks and turn to have a look at it. It was the depiction of the bloody battle between the grasshoppers and the hornets.
One question still lingers, What will become of us now? What will have I wrought about I did? Only with time can it be told, All thanks to my faults.
After a long moment of studying it, Atta got startled by a hand put on her shoulder. She turned to see who that hand belonged to, and then found her mother standing behind her, with a green little aphid in her arm. "Atta? Are you feeling alright?" asked the Queen, who looked genuinely concerned to see her daughter in the state she was in. "What do you think? Atta sighed, heavily.
"Well, judging from how tired you look, I don't think you're doing too well," the Queen replied sincerely, as she looked at Atta's red eyes with concern. Atta turned away from her mother with arms crossed and faced down at the ground, afraid to look her in the eye. "What do you want?" asked Atta sadly, "You still upset with me? After everything I had done?"
"Atta, what you did to him was wrong, but there's unfortunately nothing we can do about it. He had made his decision, a decision that I can fully understand," explained the Queen, "What we can do, however, is focus on the now, rather than dwell on what could've been."
"But how can I think about the now, if I can't stop thinking about what happened before, especially when I could've done something to change it?" argued Atta, baffled by her mother's suggestion. The Queen grabbed her chin and thought to herself for a moment, before smiling to herself and setting her pet aphid down. She then walked towards Atta and put her hands on her tired face, gently lifting it up to face her.
"Atta, what happens to a tree after it has been burned by fire?" asked the Queen. "It... It gets charred?" answered the puzzled Atta. "Yes, but it also grows back with all its leaves; it just needs some rainwater, sunshine and most importantly, time," explained the Queen. "Okay... What does that have got to do with me?" Atta was left confused by her mother talking about a burning tree out of nowhere. "You see, honey, just like how a tree can heal after being consumed by fire, so can you too heal from your mistakes. And remember, mistakes happen to even the best of us; it's how you choose to deal with them that really defines you," the Queen assured with a gentle smile.
Atta reflected on her mother's words for a long moment, before they finally clicked with her, as her eyes began to glimmer with hopeful tears. After receiving such wise words, Atta threw her arms around her mother in an embrace. "Thank you, mother," Atta cried softly. The Queen returned her daughter's hug graciously, knowing that she had given her the advice she had been starving to hear, especially after everything that had happened with Flik. "You're very welcome, daughter," the Queen said happily.
"MUM!" screamed Dot, startling the two ants from their embrace. The Queen and Atta scattered their eyes everywhere, before they saw Dot running towards them, terrified. "Dot?" exclaimed the Queen, as she kneeled down to Dot's level, wanting to know what was going on with her. Dot then started babbling incomprehensibly to her, clearly too scared to talk properly.
"Honey. Honey, shh. Calm down. Shh. Just calm down, and tell me what's the matter. Use your words," soothed the Queen. "I-I-I saw them! Th-th-they're coming!" stammered Dot, to which Atta fearfully asked, "Who? Who's coming?" But before Dot could respond, the sounds of loud, alarming blares, which could be heard from outside; they were blown from a huge snail shell perched up outside the gaping knothole of the great tree. This made the three ants gasp with fright, before they heard screams of panic from above.
"You two! Go to the safety chamber! I'll go tell the rest to get underground!" ordered the Queen. Without hesitation, her two daughters did as she told. She then picked up poor Aphie, who had no idea what was going on, and made her way up the spiralled pathway.
When she was outside the Anthill, her eyes bugged out with shock, as the ants were all over the place, scattering in terror. She then walked down there and gave out a loud whistle with her fingers, freezing the frightened ants in place. "Alright everyone!" she yelled, "Single file! Drop whatever you were doing and into the Anthill! Now let's go!" Every ant had done what they were told to do, as they dropped everything from their hands and started running towards the Anthill in a single file.
Soon, the entire colony was underground; they hid in the same chamber when the grasshoppers came to dig themselves into the food sitting on top of the offering stone, only to find that not only was the offering stone overturned, but all the food was gone, thanks to Flik's harvester.
However this time, there was no food to offer to the grasshoppers, as they were kicked out of Ant Island, never to be seen again. So, who could be invading them this time? The Queen found herself to be the last ant to enter the chamber, as she was outside, ensuring that every ant was not left behind. She then walked up to a large stone, with Atta and Dot standing on top of it. "Is that everybody?" Atta whispered nervously, to which the Queen responded with a reassuring nod.
Their antennas then picked up faint, droning sounds above ground, which made all the ants in the chamber look up at the ceiling, dreading of what was to come.
As the ground continued to rumble with what sounded like many wings buzzing at once, the more tense the ants got. The entire chamber was filled with ants trembling with fear, but they knew that they had to stay quiet; if any of them were to make even one small noise, it would've given away their hiding place to the oncoming invaders. Sitting on top of the small stone in the middle of the chamber, was Atta, Dot and their mother.
Atta felt as if there were butterflies flying in her stomach, as she eyed the gravelly ceiling, fearfully awaiting for something to break through the ceiling, like how the grasshoppers breached this very chamber.
Dot was quivering with fear, as she held her petrified face with her hands, whimpering. Despite her efforts in trying to keep her regal composure, to ensure that everyone else remained calm, the Queen could still feel and share the sense of foreboding that filled the chamber.
Once the ground had stopped rumbling with the incessant buzzing, everyone fell silent. The entire chamber was eerily quiet and everyone stiffened with fright, apprehensively waiting for the inevitable to happen.
To be continued...
Quick Author's Note
Hey guys, FireAntKing2311 here.
I just want to let you know that once I upload the fourth chapter, I am going to take a break from it for a little while, so that I don't fry my brain or get sick of it, because I have college work to do.
Another thing I want to address is the criticism towards it, particularly chapter 2 feeling like a rehash of DragonSkaterOfAwesomism's "Flik Atta: Reconcile".
DragonSkaterOfAwesomism, if you are reading this, I want to apologise if it seemed like I copied your story for the beginning chapters of my story. I was kind of expecting that you would point that out to me at some point. It's just that when I was planning out my fanfic, your fanfic came along and I liked it very much and it was similar to how I wanted it to go.
I tried to differentiate it from that story as much as I could, when it comes to the written dialogue, descriptions of certain parts and how things would go, by putting my own spin on it, but I do understand your criticism and I will acknowledge that I did take some parts from your story and put them into mine, although there was another fanfic that I took some parts from as well that was similar to yours.
I hope you're not too angry at me for doing it, and I would absolutely understand if you want me to change them a little bit, so that they wouldn't be too similar to your story. I promise that from chapter 3 onwards, the story will be different from yours and it won't seem like a rip-off, and I do hope you enjoy the rest of the story.
That's my update and I hope you all enjoy the rest of this story, because there will be lots more coming, but it'll take a while, because of my break.
FireAntKing2311, out.