Kiara whistled as she pushed a wheelbarrow of dirt through the tunnels. All around her ants dug new passages, expanded old chambers, fit new supports, and decorated the walls with carvings, mushrooms or paintings. She'd arrived to Ant Island in her pajamas, so the ants had given her new clothes to work in. She wore a skirt fashioned from a blade of grass, and her shirt was made of flower petals.
She reached the other end of the digging projects, where they were refilling abandoned tunnels and rooms, and dumped her wheelbarrow. With a small grunt she pivoted, and proceeded back where she started.
It had only been a couple days, but Kiara had already settled into a routine. There were communal sleeping spaces, communal cafeterias, communal everything. In addition to learning the intricacies of tunnel digging, Kiara had learned where she fit into all those shared spaces, and had learned the warning signals. The ants had established a regular guard around the island again, and in addition to light signals had made hand signals and horn signals.
Kiara rejoined the line of ants waiting for their wheelbarrows to be refilled when horn blasts sounded. Everyone froze. Kiara ran through the different signals in her mind. Two short blasts, plus one long one, meant…
"Visitors!" the ant next to her announced. Stopping what they were doing, the ants abandoned their work and hurried to see the newcomers. Kiara was caught up in the swell, panting alongside everyone up the tunnels back to the surface. She flinched, eyes shut against the sun. They continued to rush around her as she paused and rubbed under her glasses.
When she lowered her hands again, she smiled wide.
In the open space before the hill, a pair of trailers made out of colorful cardboard boxes pulled by two millipedes parked before the gathered ants. From the back of the rear trailer exited two pillbugs, a stickbug, a ladybug, a black widow, a mantis, a gypsy moth, a rhino beetle, a molting grasshopper, a team of ants, and one very fat butterfly. A flea jumped around, loudly attempting to do most of the talking.
The team of acrobat ants embraced old friends, a group of school girls including Princess Dot clustered around the ladybug. The ants were practically climbing over each other, yet the visitors took it in stride and greeted everybody in turn regardless.
Kiara's feet skid in the dirt as she ran down the anthill, hurrying to meet the circus bugs.