A Bug's Life: The Ant Queen
Chapter 8
The Narrow Escape (Part II)
"Are you really suggesting on ridding the swarm of our hard workers? Don't you think you've going too far?" argued Nettle, baffled by her mother's plan regarding the starving workers, once the drones were ready to invade Ant Island after the banquet and have it claimed as the swarm's own, once and for all renaming it: Hornet Island. "Nonsense, Nettle!" snapped Thistle, having none of her daughter's insolence and her questioning of her plans, "Those "hard workers" have been nothing but a bunch of sluggish, revolting vermin! Put on this earth to mooch off their beloved queen!"
Just hearing the acrimony and disregard her mother had towards the workers appalled Nettle, since she was their queen, supposed to compliment and nurture her own subjects, "Mother! You're talking about leaving hundreds to starve! Even the children!" Diverting her face away from Nettle, Thistle's great wings began twitching slightly with rage; in spite of this, Nettle went on further, "This swarm is nothing without its workers! Think of our ancestors!"
"SILENCE!" Thistle's ferocious bellow made Nettle's heart drop to her stomach, seeing in her mother's eyes how blackened they were with pupils glowing bright green, that the worst of her revealed itself; because of the last time she'd witnessed the feral beast her mother transformed into before her, Nettle instinctively brought her hand to the cheek bearing the claw marks in an attempt to shield herself from Thistle's impending wrath.
After a while of huffing and puffing, Thistle soon regained some composure, with her eyes reverting back to their fiery orange colour with green irises, "Once we have that island, those lazy moochers would already be off our backs, and this stinking swarm would be thriving once more! With the help of the drones, and yours..." "My help? But why?" wondered Nettle, perplexed by what her mother had suggested. As Thistle slowly approached her in a persuasive yet foreboding manner, she explained, "Because Nettle... I want you to join me. As together, we can rule Hornet Island! Mother, and daughter!"
Nettle merely stood there, reflecting upon her mother's words with a look of uncertainty on her fallen face, as she gazed into one of Thistle's hands reaching out for hers; just the sheer thought of ruling alongside her, while being subjugated to watch as her swarm crumbled down till it was nothing left but a pile of rubble, made Nettle's stomach hurl with feeling sick, wanting no part in the swarm's internal destruction, all because the only family she'd known since she was a larva considered the very things that kept the swarm blooming disgusting.
"What you want for the swarm will be its downfall. I'm sorry mother, but I just can't bring myself to partake in something so... Nefarious," the desirous grin had been wiped off of Thistle and replaced with a look of disappointment, as she brought her extended hand back to her side. As the two hornets stood there, staring into each other's eyes, a memory had come crawling back into Thistle's mind, which filled her up with nostalgic delightfulness, "Funny you should say that, because my other daughter said similar, and look where that got her."
"What..? You mean... Y-y-you..?" a wide-eyed Nettle felt her body trembling a little, after being struck with a frightening revelation of the fate of Thistle's previous child, when she saw how she vigorously licked her lips in an eerily suggestive way, after muffling a burp with an enclosed fist; this was as well her first time learning of once there being another hornet princess, long before Nettle hatched out of the egg Thistle would lay later in life.
"Well, let's just say I was... Hangry that day," remarked Thistle, hinting how her other daughter had fallen victim to her touchy appetite, when she tried to challenge her on her plans, as Nettle did, whom she considered her replacement of an heir until now.
When she snapped her fingers, her two guards seemingly appeared behind Nettle out of nowhere, jumping her with a scare. "Mother? What's going on?" Nettle asked hastily, as she glanced at the two guards behind her. "I told you too much, unfortunately. And quite frankly, I can't have you tattletaling on me, can I?" Thistle reminded her in a mocking manner, before uttering two words which would make Nettle cold with fear: "seize her."
Nettle soon found herself being lifted off the floor, clutched against the guard's chest, as Thistle turned towards her other guard and ordered, "And now get... The nutcracker."
Nettle's eyes shrunk with horror, as she knew what was to come; she was in utter disbelief that her mother would even suggest such a thing, just to prevent her from spilling everything she was told to the workers, as Thistle feared there would be an uprising against her, since they outnumbered her a hundred to one.
Once the other guard returned with the nutcracker, Nettle started thrashing to break away from the guard's firm grasp, but their hulking strength proved to be too immense for her, rendering her attempt to escape her grim fate fruitless.
The two ants who were eavesdropping the quarrel the whole time were simply left astonished; just the mere mention of the nutcracker had that traumatising memory of witnessing that worker ant getting his head crushed like a boysenberry come rushing back to Dot's mind, making her whisper to Flik sharply, "Flik! We have to help her!"
Flik nodded in agreement, as he grabbed his chin with his fingers deep into thought; after spotting a bunch of forked sticks lying around in a corner, each with a stone wedged in between, a spark of an idea was ignited within his head.
Watching her daughter desperately trying to free herself from the guard's clutches, as she was shouting and begging for her mother to spare her life from the nutcracker, had brought Thistle a sense of satisfaction, feeling if Nettle hadn't slapped her offer out of her hand, none of this would've been happening to her.
Although there was a hint of disappointment on her face, as Nettle would be the second daughter she would've had to have silenced, just so there wouldn't anyone who'd dare question her leadership or ruin her plans for that matter.
However, just as the guard was inches away from placing the nutcracker on Nettle's head, the other guard restraining Nettle had suddenly felt a hard bonk on the back of their head, which, despite it being protected by their chestnut shell helmet, pushed them forward, causing them to drop their captive onto the floor.
After taking the time to recover herself after being forcefully restrained, Nettle turned to see Flik standing steadfast with a stone club in both hands, showing no signs of fear on the brave face he put on; while Nettle was only surprised to see it was him who'd saved her life, Thistle's flabbergasted expression quickly shifted into that of fury, as she roared, "YOU!? BUT HOW!?" "I have my ideas," smirked Flik, before focusing his attention onto Nettle, offering her his hand, "Come on! Let's get out of here!"
With hardly any hesitation, Nettle took Flik's hand, and the two made a break for it, making Thistle growl fiercely, as she barked at her two guards, "You dingleberries! Seize them! SEIZE THEM AT ONCE!"
Nettle and Flik ran in the direction where the latter had supposedly left Dot at, after he'd told her to stay put, only to see she was anywhere but there; this troubled him, as he whispered harshly, "Dot? Dot? Where are you?" "Flik, we have to leave now!" chided Nettle, to which Flik rebutted, "No! I'm not leaving without-" His sentence was cut off, after he heard nasty snarling from Thistle's guards and saw them in close distance.
With no time to waste, Nettle quickly grabbed Flik by his waist, despite his protests and soon zipped off with her buzzing wings, stirring up the Hornet's Nest with an ensued chase. As Nettle with Flik in her hands dodged through and swerved around the pillars, the seething hornet guards pursued not far behind, followed one by many drones that happened to be within reach. Using her dodging reflexes and quick thinking, Nettle had sent some of the brisky screeching drones crashing hard into the columns, each with a blasting impact.
Nettle with Flik eventually shot out of the nest's tubed entrance, escaping it with the assistance of luck, but the pursuit continued, as the swarming cloud of angry hornets was still hot on their trail, deafening the darkening sky with their defiling squalls and hundreds of wings beating all at once. After meandering around and zipping through the gnarled branches of several burned bushes, the two bugs had managed to evade the hornets, much to their relief.
When Nettle settled herself and Flik down onto the scorched earth below, the downcast ant slumped himself onto a lying charred stick, as he simply murmured, "I left her..." "What?" Flik paid no heed to Nettle, as he continued mumbling to himself, "I... Left her! I promised to never leave her side again, and I broke it!" He then faced up towards Nettle, as he spoke to her rather angrily, "And you! I told you I wasn't going to leave without Dot!"
"Flik, even if you tried to find her, my mother's guards and the drones would've caught us both before we ever found her!" explained Nettle, to which Flik looked he was about to retort, but instead let out a sigh of defeat, figuring a good point might've been raised; the hornets would've probably gotten to them first, before they'd ever had the chance to find Dot.
Nettle offered him a sympathetic look, as she sat down beside him, gently placing a hand on his shoulder in comfort, "Look. All that matters is that we made it out, and we will come back for her, and the rest of your colony; the only problem is there's only two of us. If only we had help."
"Help?" mumbled Flik, as his mind wondered about that one word; a picture of the circus bugs was then painted by the word "help", which made Flik snap his fingers with, "That's it!" "What? What's it?" inquired Nettle, confused by his sudden change in attitude. "The circus bugs, of course! They can help us!" Flik suggested with ecstasy, "We just need to get to the city; we can find them there! They must've left Ant Island after the colony was finally rid of Hopper and his gang!"
Having already heard of how the circus bugs aided Flik in his mission to free his colony of their dreaded debt to Hopper and his grasshoppers through her mother's scouts, hearing this idea brightened up Nettle's face, placing her trust in it being a great one, "So, I'm guessing it's off to the city then?" "Yep! Uh, you wouldn't mind flying us there, would you?" Flik's question made Nettle chuckle a little, as she held onto Flik's waist, "Already ahead of you. Oh, before we take off... Thank you. For saving me."
Flik gave her a warming smile and a small nod, as if to say: "you're welcome." Soon, the two bugs were off to make their journey towards Bug City in search for Flik's friends: the circus bugs.
Meanwhile at the Hornet's Nest, Thistle was pacing back and forth with all her four fists clenched, as she grumbled to herself, "Why that ungrateful maggot! I gave him everything he wanted, and this was how he repaid me? Ooh, he better not come crawling back here, otherwise I'll-"
What interrupted her in the middle of her grumbling was a shrill voice bleating out, "Put me down!" Whirling around to see who it was, she was met with one of the drones standing there with a scared Dot dangling from their hand, which plastered a slimy smile on Thistle's face, as she slowly strode towards her, "Well, well, well. What do we have here? My dinner trying to escape me?"
Dot could feel her tiny heart beating faster with each purposeful step Thistle took, as she tried to keep on the brave face to conceal her fear of her. Taking Dot by the head into her own hand, Thistle gave the terrified young ant an eerie reminder, "Oh, I don't think you'll be going anywhere, sweetie; the only place you're going is my rumbling belly!" "No I won't! Because I know Flik will come back for me and the ants. And when he does, you'll be sorry!" Dot back talked the monstrous hornet queen, to which Thistle replied back with such slime, as she brought her close to her face, "Ooh really? I'll be counting on it then, if he so dares!"
Thistle's sinister chuckling soon exploded into crazy cackling, which could be heard throughout the entire nest. Hopefully with Nettle as his new companion, Flik could get to Bug City in time to find the circus bugs and concoct a plan to save Dot and what remained of his colony, before the hornets' banquet was to commence...
To be continued...
Quick Author's Note:
Hey guys, FireAntKing2311 here. After dealing with life and encountering a bit of a writer's block, the second part to chapter 8 is here at last. Hope you guys enjoy the conclusion to this chapter, as in the next few chapters, we're going to come back to Atta and Charlie, and see how they're going to escape the bullfrog's stomach. Also, we're going to see the circus bugs, and Atta and Flik reuniting after the next chapter.
Now that chapter 8 is done, there's only four chapters left to complete this story, since two-thirds of it are done. So yeah, we're getting close to the end of the story, so stay tuned.
That's pretty much all I have for now.
FireAntKing2311, out.