I have heard many stories about the disaster, but none from my mother ‘The Queen’. ‘You are safe with me,’ is all she ever tells me. — Princess Dusk shadow, the black ant colony.
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Billy needed to get me back to the tower by sunset on Lime’s orders, so I had to leave behind the group of enthusiastic soldiers at his urge, and travel back the way we had come. The soldiers walked us to the first check post, after which we parted ways. They returned and we trudged forward on the wide branched path toward leading to the tower. The same guards at the second checkpoint, who had scowled at us before, now enthusiastically waved their antennas as we left the farm.
The night quickly took the space in its grasp and brought everything under its shade. The shade, as I called the world of ants, grew to encompass everything around us, hiding the prey and the predators alike from one another.
The tale of me defeating the corpse piler had already surpassed all boundaries and had grown to become the talk of the farm. Everyone who could speak in any form and sense seemed to be talking about the same thing: be it the carriers traveling toward the tower or the guards following behind them. Some depicted me as a massive giant whose every step rocked the farm, and others addressed me as a missionary of the divine, sent to rid them of their recent troubles. The one tale of me being a member of the ancient colony long lost truly grasped my attention, but I lost the few ants taking about that subject in the mass of ants traveling. Everyone seemed to be rushing back to the tower as if it was a taboo to stay outside at night. This rule didn’t seem to apply to the soldiers though, for they stayed posted at their positions without any change.
The tower got my attention when I tried to take my mind off the matter. Partly lit by the rising moon, it no longer looked like a marvel of ant architecture, but a beast frozen in time and space with its mouth open and legs all jumbled together to form the network of branches we traveled upon. The marvelous glowing creatures flying in the air above the tower did add a hint of otherworldly charm to the structure, but even they couldn’t shake my newly found feeling, about it hiding some deep secret related to the ancient lore I had heard bits and pieces of.
Lime stood to wait for us at the foot of the tower. Billy hid behind me at her stare, and I knew we were in trouble.
“I told you to get back at the first sight of the firefly in the sky.” She said, looking past the cover of leaves and at the moon glowing in the cloudless sky. “Seems to me like you are running late,” she solemnly said.
Either she hadn’t heard of my recently heroic tale, or she was pretending. I knew she was pretending because the tale was on everyone mouths. There was no way she hadn’t heard of it by now. She was likely a very good actor. Well, being an actor comes with being a leader. Leaders can’t be truthful saints. They know too much about the importance of lies. But Lime was too good. She didn’t even bat an eye to the passersby spinning a tale of me jumping ahead of everyone to engaging in a life and death duel with the corpse piler, which had suddenly turned into a monstrous spider whose single glance had the bystanders at the site of the incident in a daze.
To my luck, Pyro, my deranged senior, emerged from nowhere. Our eyes meet and he jumped between me and Lime, blocking her stare and freeing Billy.
“I heard what you did, kid. Everyone did. I didn’t think we would have any luck. Then bam! A scout scurried into the meeting and told an unbelievable tale of bravery and strength. You are a star now. I have been saying it since the first day! Nobody believed me.”
“You weren’t so keen on believing me either.”
“Oh, please. I was the first one to come to talk to you! Don’t you remember?” Pyso said with such seriousness that even Lime stopped trying to say her piece. I whispered to her an apology while Pyro grumbled about this and that which had happened in the meeting before he was back to talking with me.
“Now thanks to you we might have a chance.” He said it all without breathing and took a deep breath afterward to even the loss.
“Wait, what happe—”
“No time for that. Come, everyone is waiting for you.”
He said, and kind of lifted me from the waist, and first tried to carry me away, but upon failure simply dragged me into the tower.
“Wait!” I heard Billy call from behind, then his shriek. He was similarly held from the waist by Lime and taken away. I prayed for his wellbeing as the dark chamber swallowed us.
Pyro took me up the tunnel Billy had told me led to the elder chambers. At the end of the tunnel started a large but empty chamber, on the other side of which stood five strong-looking ants guarding the entrance to yet another tunnel. Pyro seemed to be acquainted with them because they stood aside upon seeing him, but not without scowling first. The guards either couldn’t talk or they thought it beneath them to entertain Pyro, who lit a small fire behind them as a prank.
“Stop wasting my time. I have to introduce a hero to the committee.” He sputtered upon seeing the youngest among the guards stepping forward to stop him and rushed past them, dragging me along. We scaled the tunnel leading us further up the tower which opened up into a circular chamber which seemed natural at first glance rather than dug out by ants.
Fifteen sets of hardened eyes inquired our reason for disrupting the meeting, a few of which softened upon seeing the familiar face of Pyro, while a similar number of glances changed to questioning glares, while the rest either became impatient or fiery. For the first time, I saw Pyro being silenced without a word. The scrutinizing gazes of the commanders and captains present had such an effect on him. These fifteen or so ants were the strongest beings of their respective colonies or at least held some amount of influence in their areas. An invisible pressure had the chamber in its clutches and it tried to tighten its hold about us, but it wasn’t of any nuisance to me. I guess my resistances must have deterred the pressure because Pyro straightened his back and lifted his head soon after.
At first glance, the ants seemed to be sitting together, but it didn’t take me long to figure out their differences. David, Commander Yuvi, and another great looking ant with a set of wings on his back sat together with their backs to us. While the commander in chief of the farm, Glow, sat together with five other of wizened old ants on individual daises. They could have been the elders Billy had talked about, I’m not so sure. I never got to see them again.
The rest of the ants made four groups of various numbers, ranging from three to five, and sat to the sides of these two giants, forming a vague hexagonal shape. We, perhaps, had made our entrance at the wrong time, because unlike what pyro had told me, the situation seemed tensed.
The main problem seemed to be between the two giants sitting in front of each other; and by giants, I’m not including David into them because he appeared too meek in comparison to Commander Yuvi, who gave out a heartfelt laugh upon seeing us, and Glow bared his mandibles at me instead. David nodded, the ant sitting with them licked his antennas --yes he did that-- while the others either looked puzzled and whispered or outright ignored us upon figuring out our identity.
“Come here, kid. I heard what you did. I have to say . . . I am surprised.” Commander Yuvi said out loud, ignoring the whispering had which suddenly intensified.
“Ah, well—”
“Ah, don’t be shocked. Here,” Commander Yuvi said, “let me introduce you to one of the best men under me, Joanna ‘The Befuddled’. Joanna, he is the kid with David; the one who has been the talk of the day.”
Joanna screened me from front to back and clicked his mandibles. “Of course, he is.” He said out flirtatiously. “A Marvelous ant — such curves and lines, such strength and courage, accept my respect, oh beautiful one! Say, how about you meet me after the meeting, dear? We might find something fun to do together.” I couldn’t reply. Joanna, on the other hand, hid his mouth with his front legs and giggled softly. I guess I wasn’t the first who had been attacked in such a unique way. It was like a mixture of mental torture and soul damage done at the same time. Even my resistances didn’t work against him.
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“Ahem.” Commander Yuvi interrupted, thankfully. That thing was no normal ant. Joanna was unique in a very corrupted way, and I don’t want to talk about it. I didn’t like the way IT looked at me or brushed its antennas against my body. IT was… disgusting.
“Forgive me for forgetting about his . . . his . . .” Even commander Yuvi was at a loss of words about how to describe Its character. Moving on. Glow stood up as our team congregated and flashed a light into the chamber by radiating the bulbous ends of his antennas.
“Now, if everyone has wasted enough of our remaining light, then should we proceed with the discussion or does our friend from far,” he said peering at David, “has anything more to add to their proposal?”
I was trying to seriously listen when something bloomed from the shadows like a flower and took shape right behind me. “Hey.” Dark’s sudden appearance startled me, making me jump. I saw Joanna looking form the side and smirking, and that made me sweat.
“You know what’s going on?” Dark said.
“I don’t,” I said back in fluster. “Pyro did tell me something, but I don’t remember what he said.”
“That’s good,” Dark said. “Keep forgetting that idiot’s words and you’ll be alright.
“So, how are you feeling?” He asked without giving me time to react to his previous statement.
“Tired, I guess,” I whispered back, keeping the waves of our connection weak so that others wouldn’t be able to eavesdrop on us. “What about you. Where were you?”
“I have been here all the time, hiding in David’s shadow. He told me to brief you up. So I’m here.”
“Ok,” I seriously didn’t know he could do that. Hiding in someone’s shadows was like a higher form of stealth, something which was very enticing for the young me. What wouldn’t I have given to have his skill? Just think about the multiple ways it could be used to hide from danger or to assassinate someone! A must-have skill for anyone making deals in the shadows or living in the shade. The urge to appraise him convoluted my mind and I had to actively meditate to calm my senses, while Dark briefed me on the situation.
“David asked for help from all the commanders present. We asked for our supply to be doubled for the next one month and be returned the lent soldiers. We had set the terms high enough to be able to comfortably negotiate with a slight advantage, but these bloodsuckers outright disagreed. Glow even had the audacity to raise the question whether it was better to completely cut ties with us and abandon our diseased and infected colony or not. Those were his words.”
“What?”
“Moreover, three of the four commanders agreed to his suggestion. One even said that feeding our colony would only be a waste of food and they should mount an attack on us instead to divide our territory before someone else does.”
“That stinks of foul play.”
“Tell me about it. Captain was going to attack, but Commander Yuvi interjected in time. He gave us his full confidence that nothing of that sort would happen. ‘No one will attack you while I live.’ he told David and that calmed him somewhat.”
“And then? What happened next?”
“Next, a scout invaded the meeting, bringing the news of someone killing a corpse piler, all alone,” Dark said, stressing the last two words. “It didn’t take us long to figure out the Hero’s identity from the scout's description. Captain Lime was called in to prove the news and she did just that. I haven’t seen David laughing like such in a long while and Glow . . . well, he glowed brightly like a festering wound lit on fire. That fucker looked part pit hunter enveloped in a shade of bright red.” Then he looked deeply into my eyes and turned serious. I knew at a glance whatever he was about to say was the cream, the real reason David had sent him to brief me up. I noticed Pyro playing with his antennas and couldn’t help thinking had he been given the job he would have made me guess the dammed thing instead of coming out with it straight.
“You must be thinking about how that changes anything?” I nodded and he accepted. “Thing is, the main objective of this meeting wasn’t about sharing supplies like always, but the farm's protection. According to Glow, someone, a group of unusual creatures has been harassing this place for some days now. It started with small skirmishes on the outskirts of the farm, but recently about thirty of these creatures —termed watchers by the soldiers— invaded into the farm at night, killed some soldiers and kidnapped many more.”
So that’s what it is. I remember thinking. This was the link which connected everything, from lime’s warning to the soldier's dread. Now it was clear to me why everyone seemed so tense, so stiff and vigilant on the farm.
“The main thing is, Commander Glow had his scouts determine the attacker’s residence, and has asked us all,” he stressed glancing at the other groups sitting around us, “for help. According to him, the attackers are an unusual group consisting of flying watchers, regular crawlers, and hoppers. He says if nothing is done about them then it’s possible that the farm won’t survive another month.”
“That is where I come in,” I said and he agreed.
“Yes. You have already proved our say in the matter by taking out one of the toughest opponents this farm has to face, and alone. That is why they can’t abandon us now. They need us. They need our strength to see this through.” he said holding eye contact for a brief second longer than usual.
This was it.
Dark shifted in his place, making me think he was leaving, but rubbed my head with his antennae instead, and started talking again. This time he spoke not as David’s envoy, but a companion. “We are proud of you, Jack.” He said softly. “Don’t mind me saying this but, we weren’t — I wasn’t happy with David for adopting you. I thought you a braggart, a scoundrel who didn’t listen to his seniors, and thoughtless of our queen. You have proved me wrong. You really are the hero of our colony. Thanks to you, we now have a chance at bringing glory back to our colony.” He finished saying and passed me one of his rare nods of approval. It is Dark ‘the blasphemous’ I’m talking about: The corrupted one, the herald of terror. He doesn’t acknowledge just anyone! He eats his prey alive for dinner. I captured the image of him looking happy to show the others. They deserved to see this miracle.
“Will the supplies be enough if they agreed? I asked and Dark shook his antennas.
“It will be enough for a while, but we’ll have to work twice as hard to ready the next generation of scavengers and gatherers. We simply lost too many able rankers to the fucking plague.” Saying so he trailed off, looking at David. His silence further hinted at how bad our situation was. I thought I had saved the colony. However, I was slowly learning that the work was only half done. He finally came through and told me to get ready, slapping an antenna on my back. “Glow will call you to the center to question the credibility of your claim.”
“I am not claiming anything.”
“We know, but that sack of glowing balls doesn’t care. He’ll try to make you doubtful and prove you a liar. But worry not, we are with you. Another thing, David sent you a message. ‘Show them what you did.’”
“That’s it?” I asked, but this time he didn’t answer. He had finally disappeared, leaving me to my thoughts. I couldn’t help but tense up at his absence. Taking with him had allowed me to relax, but the same relaxation was now biting me instead. My abdomen churned as the pressure smoldered me slowly. It would have been better if Dark hadn’t burdened me with the information. I hadn’t felt such nervousness even while standing in the presence of our mother, back when I was still just a few levels old. I naturally understood that failure there was not an option, hence the nervousness.
I glanced in David’s direction and our eyes meet. He gestured to punch an uppercut with his club-shaped antennas and passed me a head shake, gesturing to loosen, before turning his head back to face the oppressive wave of comments being made by Glow. I watched his curved back and imagined being ladened with the weight of feeding a whole colony, and found myself lost and slumping. I wasn’t ready to take on such weight. I couldn’t even begin to imagine the thoughts which must have been passing through David’s mind, and he was still able to keep his back straight even though our chance looked so bleak. It was a kind of strength that I didn’t possess.
And then my name was called. The pressure froze me and deluded my mind. I couldn’t get up and take the steps. But then, I saw the pleading faces of my companions and knew it was now or never. The responsibility which I had only seen as something foreign and distant bared its fangs at me, and instead of cowering away from its weight, I grabbed its barbed chains with my own two hands and dragged it behind me.
{Your Willpower has risen to level 7}; {Your Willpower has risen to level 8}; {Your Willpower has risen to level 9}; {Your Willpower has risen to level 10.}
I looked at Commander Glow and knew from a glance he was up to no good. He had a way with words. But I also had my strengths. To play his game of wits, I activated my skills. Sensitive hearing and inspection to sense any attacks, lie detection and mind read to get a look into his thought process, and concentration and cereboost to get an edge against him. I knew this cocktail of skills wouldn’t last me long, but I needed them as much as my companions needed me. Brewing with a sense of responsibility, I stepped out of the mass and went to stand on the platform made of their taunting stares—alone, confident, and naked. Their eyes were on me, my eyes were on Glow; I was ready for the slugfest.