Chapter 1
Rillia could feel her parents warning as she paddled against the raging water with her four arms. The downpour on her brownish-red plated skin caused the droplets to cascade off her into the lotus boat she floated in. The vessel was quickly filling with water, making the battle against the river’s current outside the boat even more difficult. Rillia began regretting leaving her family’s warning as it rang in her ears.
“That is too far to go!” her mother yelled at her. “You will never survive leaving the Red Mountain territory!”
Rillia stood outside their ant colony’s hill of Red Mountain along with her mother and father. As her older and taller parents with skin that had grown darker with age chastised her for telling them her decision. They stood against the crimson hill that ant people marched in and out of, the large mound of dirt under the shade of a flower tree whose white blossoms formed a thick canopy to keep the ant hill protected from rain. The Red Mountain had been the only home Rillia had ever known.
The ant people were equipped with six segmented limbs that ran down their thin body, the lower pair of which could be used as legs but the middle pair were most often used as arms. They had antenna atop their head while their body was covered in shiny reddish-brown plating with a tail-like appendage attached to their rears that was a bulbous stinger. Each ant had a unique and distinct face, her mother’s which was smooth and youthful like Rillia’s while her father’s face was sharp edged and mean-looking. While most of the ants in her colony saw the hill that they scurried in and out of as a place of safety, she had come to see it as a place of restraint.
The Red Mountain colony was prosperous as they were the strongest colony in the land of Wassergras. Their immense wealth allowed them a collection of archives and books no other people in the region had. It was from those books that Rillia read about the strange and mysterious land called the Primeval World. It was said to be a region that had been untampered with, a place whose vegetation and terrain had not been colonized or terraformed so it was as wild as could be.
The Primeval World encompassed most of the world as it completely surrounded their home country of Wassergrass. From her reading, Rillia had discovered that the Primeval World was everything that wasn’t their home country and that the Red Mountain ants had practically never explored the world beyond Wassergras. She’d read accounts of explorers who had come back with all sorts of fascinating discoveries and stories but most had died upon entering the Primeval World. After reading about these accounts since she was nine and now that she had turned eighteen, Rillia was legally old enough to leave her colony.
“Most of those people you’ve read about died trying to explore the world past the border of Wassergras and the Primeval World?!” her father yelled. “You want to be like them?!”
“I don’t care,” Rillia said with a shrug.
Her parents looked absolutely stupefied at her response.
“Wha-what but how did we raise a child with so little regard for her own life?” her mother asked.
“Because what’s the point in living if all you do is try to survive?” Rillia asked. “I’d hate the idea of just staying in one place for the rest of my life to never know what’s beyond my immediate surroundings. Doesn’t the idea of fun and endless adventure of what waits outside not thrill you?”
“Not anymore than the idea of suicide does!” her father said. “We ants are not meant to be reckless travelers but coexist in a group! That’s the only way we survive...as social creatures!”
“Exactly,” Rillia said. “To survive we do that. If I don’t live out my dreams of being an explorer then I’m better off dead.”
“Do you even know how you’re going to get to the Primeval World?” her mother asked. “It’s too far away!”
“Not if you take the Blue River downstream!” she replied. “I have the lotus boat waiting for me at the edge of the river! The Blue River’s the fastest way to travel in the entire region!”
“But what if a sudden rain comes and washes you away?!” her mother said. “You’ll drown before you can even get there!”
Rillia had to admit that her mother’s concern in that regard was a reasonable one to make. Torrential downpours so strong they created flash floods occurred on a weekly basis that not only filled the Blue River but also created havoc for the people of Wassergras. This happened year round and, while the rain was not this heavy or oppressive in the Primeval World, it did create large bodies of water that made travelling by water the most optimal transportation. However, that was precisely the reason Rillia had decided to leave today.
“From the weather patterns these last few days it’s unlikely it will rain,” she said. “I’ve studied meteorology and picked up all the other skills one needs to travel the world. If I go now, I can be pretty confident I won’t run into rapids for weeks.”
“But getting to Primeval World will probably be even more dangerous!” her father said. “You will never fulfill the vow you made to Distir!”
But that was the last Rillia heard from her father. She waved with four of her limbs as her parents stared in disbelief as she turned and ran before he could further remind him of Distir. Despite her enthusiasm, she had a strong sense of apprehension rising in her as she headed to the edge of the Blue River. She and Distir played here all the time when they were children.
Rillia’s fears were definitely strong, but the possibility of a wide, open world that was not only alien to her own but fantastic in every way gave her chills. While most ants her age were deciding what careers they were going to have or who they were going to marry, she only saw a vast, open horizon of possibilities in her mind. In her mind, she didn’t need to face the cares of her peers who she viewed as gutless and complacent cowards willing to settle for mediocrity.
Upon leaving the sight of the colony her family had always lived in, she found herself standing in front of the large mounds of dried pine straw that had collected by the rain washing it downstream. The water in front flowed fairly fast as the last rain had increased both the volume and speed of the Blue River. Rillia looked at the gigantic lilypad in front of her which curved at the brim to wall one in as well as the white lotus flower that stood atop a sturdy stem before gazing at the horizon of the setting sun beyond her.
It’s calling me. She thought. The world of endless adventure...it’s inviting me. Who wants to live here forever when there’s so much beyond what you can see?
Now she wasn’t thinking so romantically now that she was about to drown. No matter how many times Rillia looked up at the sky it wasn’t the clear skies she saw in her evening meteorological surveys. It was black with dark clouds that blasted rain from above, the precipitation now causing her lotus vessel to sink. Rillia knew that no amount of paddling could get her to safety now. The sudden rain that seemed so improbable now seemed like a curse that she’d been stricken with.
No. She thought. Was I meant to never go beyond the place where I was born? To just stay there my whole life, collecting dust until I drop dead? Have I defied fate?
The rain had finally forced the lotus vessel to completely fill with water and she could feel herself sinking along with it. Rillia tried to fight against the current as she beat against it with all her might, only to be swept beneath the rapids in a moment. She could feel her throat filling with water as the downpour only reduced the visibility in the nighttime sky. After her energy began to be sapped from straining and failing to stay afloat, Rillia began to sink.
No. Rillia thought as she began to drown. I wanted to die after accomplishing my dream. I just wanted to see the Primeval World before I die...but I guess ants aren’t meant to live that way…was our dream wrong, Distir? Were you right after all?
“And this is where it ends!” Distir said.
The nine-year-old ant wrote an “x” over the piece of parchment with the red ink they had both taken from their home in Red Mountain. Maps were spread out over the straw laden ground near the edge of the river. They had both been cataloging and recording the various maps and records of famous explorers and more recent maps to recreate one of their own making.
It was hand drawn and rather crude but it was one they had made together during the last few months. Together they drew a map that was a detailed path from their home of Red Mountain to the Primeval World. Everything that they’d learned during their time together was on the piece of parchment.
“This “x” marks where one crosses over from the border of Wassergras to Primeval,” he said. “It’s just at the edge of the Large Path carved by the Giants. If we travel through the Blue River’s main stream we should arrive there in possibly six to seven days. The rain can actually get us there faster but if we’re not careful it could send us drifting off course.”
“That’s great!” Rillia said. “You sure are smart!”
“Oh no,” Distir said. “You can’t thank me. I was only piggybacking off of the work of previous men and women’s work. Besides, you did about as much work as I did creating it.”
“Yeah,” she said. “I want to go there so badly. I wonder...if it’s so easy to navigate the Blue River and head to the Primeval World why does no one else do it?”
“Because they’re afraid!” Distir answered. “Afraid and complacent. All lazy cowards so accepting of their fate to live in that mound of red dirt forever that they’ve lost something vital to living. I don’t want to live so afraid of life that I’m willing to stay cooped up in my own house, sheltered from reality.”
“I know!” Rillia replied. “I mean, the Primeval World is so close and we just ignore it?! I’m so afraid of the possibilities we miss out on by just staying here that I think our race has lost something in its lack of exploration!”
“I know,” Distir said. “I want to go now and see the stuff only the explorers of old did...but I know we’ll have to prepare before we do so. I’m trying to think about what all we’ll need if we want a chance of making it there.”
“Don’t worry,” Rillia said. “I’ve thought of a few things. One, an advanced knowledge of meteorology, cartography, the culture and language of every known race in Wassergras and beyond as well as a durable boat. I’ve already begun trying to ace all my classes that teach those skills.”
“Yeah,” Distir said. “I need to do that too...but I think we’ll also need to learn fighting skills. Ants that are supposed to be in the warrior class learn the Venom Drench martial art so we’ll have to pick it up as well.”
“Yeah,” Rillia said as she nodded her head. “The Venom Drench will be our means of survival. But in order to survive we’ll have to not only learn all these skills but master them.”
“What do you want to see first?” Distir asked. “When we get to the Primeval World?”
“Probably the White Magnolia,” Rillia said. “I want to see the legendary tree that was said to have created everything. The explorers who saw it wrote that it’s petals are beautiful to gaze upon. They even drew a picture of it and ever since I saw it...I just knew I had to look upon its beauty just once in my life…”
“Do you believe in the legend of the White Magnolia?” Distir asked.
“I don’t know if it created everything,” Rillia said. “But I know I want to see it for sure, even if it’s supernatural properties are just a legend. And even if they are...who knows what all is out there. What do you want to see more than anything?”
“Quite possibly the Guardian of the Rivers,” he said. “The bronze snake Nalan. He is said to have lived for centuries and be able to cure poison. I know snakes are gigantic but even so...I can’t go the rest of my life without knowing if it’s true that he can cure all diseases or not. I mean, wouldn’t it be worth the trip of a lifetime to just talk to someone so full of wisdom?”
“Yeah!” Rillia said. “It really would. But we’re going to have to amass a great amount of skills if we want to get there alive.”
“Then I promise I’ll master each and every one,” Distir said. “I promise.”
Rillia entered the tunnel that she and Distir shared class in, happily excited as she held the map in hand they’d drawn six years earlier. She scaled through the tunnel of padded red dirt before entering the spacious chamber with shelves that had been built into the walls of red soil around them. Scattered on the wide wooden shelves were stuff like parchment and ink quills that her classmates had left behind. Rillia found that, just as usual, Distir was standing around talking to their professor and had their other classmate, Nurela, at his side.
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I can’t wait to tell Distir all about how I learned to more accurately predict the weather. She thought. With this information we’ll be able to more safely navigate the Blue River and avoid the heavy rain Wassergras is known for.
When she neared Distir and waved he turned to look a bit sheepish. Rillia thought that was expected as she hadn’t talked to him much the last few months. He’d been hard at studying for his classes as well as she had, not to mention the Venom Drench courses she’d been instructed in. Rillia unrolled the map and revealed it to him.
“Hey!” she said. “I added some to the map today! I figured out which parts of the Blue River are more susceptible to flooding!”
“Oh…” he said. “Sounds interesting.”
“And there’s a subtle way from the way the clouds form before it rains,” Rillia stated. “My meteorology study made me aware of a ninety percent certainty of precipitation detection.”
“Oh,” Nurela said. “That sounds interesting. What’s it for? Are you going to join the construction class and build dams to keep water at bay.”
“No,” Rillia said. “Distir and I are way beyond that! Aren't we?”
Instead of looking excited like he usually did, Distir looked mildly disturbed. He turned away from her, almost as though he was embarrassed at her. Their professor held a blank look on his face. Sensing the awkwardness, Nurela turned to Rillia with a worried expression.
“Is something wrong?” Nurela asked.
“No…” Rillia said. “I don’t think so. It’s just that Distir should have told you about our plans to go to the Primeval World.”
Their professor and Nurela gasped in surprise, visibly shocked as they jumped a little. Distir stared straight at the floor beneath him as he was too ashamed to look at anyone. Rillia shook her head, unable to comprehend the scene in front of her.
“What-?” she asked. “Yeah...we’re going to the Primeval World...aren’t we?”
“That’s too dangerous for anyone to do!” Nurela said. “Not even the strongest of the fungus men go there!”
“How could someone be so rash in thinking such?!” their professor said.
“But Distir’s going with me!” Rillia said. “We’ve been planning to go ever since we were kids! This map is one we made when we were nine!”
She turned to see his expression was downcast, almost dark.
“We’ve been planning this for years now!” she exclaimed. “All the classes we’ve taken have just been to prepare us for the trip to the Primeval World!”
“That’s what you were taking my class for?” the professor asked. “That’s idiotic!”
Their professor turned to Distir.
“This isn’t true, is it?” he asked. “This is like a joke or something of a children’s game, isn’t it?”
Distir shook his head before reluctantly looking back up to Rillia.
“Rillia,” he said. “Look…”
Her eyes began to tear up, her vision blurred with tears.
“No,” she said. “They-they got you.”
“It was kid’s talk!” he said. “It was a fantasy we played when we wanted to escape the boredom of mundane life! All kids do that! You gotta grow up someday!”
“We were going to prepare for it!” Rillia screamed. “We were going to make it! We just had to become strong enough! Wise enough-!”
“We’re not the only ones to try to go there!” Distir said. “There have been dozens, no, hundreds, who’ve tried to go there before! And you know what happened to most of them? They died.”
“Not all of them!” Rillia said. “We’re proof of that! We studied their writings for years and-and-”
She shook her head.
“I can’t believe you,” she said. “You were always right there with me, wishing to see what was in the great beyond. What happened?”
“Nothing instant,” Distir said. “I was excited, like you are, until I hit twelve. I guess that’s the age it hit me how unrealistic it all was. I fought against it for years but the more I learned about the odds and the more…”
He looked to Nurella.
“The more attached I got to others,” he said. “The more I couldn’t stand the thought of risking my life that had just barely begun on something so...so reckless.”
He gestured to her, only for Rillia to step away in protest.
“No, no, no,” she said. “You’ve...you’ve lost it! You’ve lost what we were talking about the day we made that promise! You’ve lost the essence of life that makes it all worth living!”
“I then thought about the stuff I’d miss out if I died so young,” Distir stated.
“You’re a complacent coward!” she said. “Isn’t that what you said all the way back then?! Or was it me?”
“Look,” he said. “When you’re a kid and the world looks so big you think it’s just some grand adventure. And yet you haven’t become attached to anything so you don’t mind risking it all on some wild, crazy adventure. I’ve thought about getting a job as a professor or maybe even a field researcher to help better dig tunnels for the Red Mountain ant colony. And, to be honest, I’m quite smitten with Nurela-”
“Stop it!” Rillia shouted.
She looked angry enough to kill everyone in sight. Her tears stung her eyes until it hurt. She felt like her insides were collapsing as bad as Rillia’s heart had been broken. She didn’t know how to react except to feel as if something that had always been with her had suddenly split apart from her.
“We were supposed to go together,” she said. “We were supposed to...travel and have fun forever.”
“We need to instead think about bettering not only our own futures,” Distir said calmly. “But that of the colony’s. You need to think about helping them to-”
“To what?!” Rillia demanded. “To get wealthier and fatter?! So they can sit up and lay around, never to leave the comfort of their own homes?! You want to build a generation so lazy and spoiled that their very food is hand delivered by buss boys?! You don't want anyone to ever go and do anything out of the ordinary or wild?!”
“I’ve grown up,” Distir said tersely. “I’m getting a job, I’ve been talking to the professor about doing some field research and Nurella and I want to get married around-”
“So you’re using your pathetic attachments as an excuse?!” she yelled, wishing to attack him. “What about the age of explorers who traversed the Primeval World?”
“The age of explorers has come and gone,” he said. “If you wanted to throw your life away on some worthless excursion then you should have been born then. I was hoping you’d come to your senses and realize this was all just foolish kid’s talk. I was hoping that over the last few months, by the time you were fifteen...you’d forget about it and move on. But...apparently not…”
Rillia was to her breaking point, stoically sobbing as she tried not to show any emotion any more than possible as tears streamed down her face.
“Come on,” Distir said. “You can still get a good job. I’ll put in a good word for you with-”
Rillia willed the venom that naturally ran through her body to ooze through the plating of her arm. The greenish-yellow liquid seeped through the spaces of her outer shell to leak downward. Just before it reached the ground, she willed the stream of liquid to circulate and spiral around her right arm. The venom on Rillia’s right arm then solidified into a brownish-red substance that stopped flowing before forming a claw that was poised at Distir’s neck. Everyone in the room held their collective breath at the sight.
“So this is what you choose to be?” Rillia asked. “To go to their side? I can’t accept that. In all honesty, I should kill you here and now. You’d do better to die than live your life as a complacent coward. I want more than anything for you to die, living in my memories as a hero who died than as another spineless sap.”
The professor and Nurella shook in fear, afraid to even scream. Distir’s eyes were fixed on the claw at his throat, terrified of the prospect of it moving even a little bit close. His breath was held in tight.
“But I won’t kill you,” she said.
Rillia willed the venom she’d released to turn back to liquid before absorbing it back into her arm. Nurella and the professor stepped back in surprise and shook their heads. Distir let out a sigh of relief, panting hard.
“Not because I respect you,” she said. “But because I don’t want to have a bounty on my head for killing someone who has long since lost any worth in themselves. I still have a few things I need to pick up from this place of retreating morons before I pack up and leave, never looking back.”
She turned away, her tears dripping to the floor as she shook her head.
“Wait, Rillia-!” he said.
I will continue on my own path. She thought. I must face forward with determination that cannot be daunted. Because no one else will help me to do so.
So this is the end. She thought as she was drowning. I will die, not even reaching the Primeval World. Distir was right...I am...am just...
Some dark shape swam past her as she began fading out of consciousness. Rillia thought it looked somewhat similar to the shape of ant people before feeling it grasp her. She wanted to get a closer look before falling completely asleep out of exhaustion.
When she woke up the bright morning sun shined down on her. She sat up to find that her lotus boat was on the dry shore across from her, now drained of all the water it had collected. It was laying on its side, presumably to aid that. Her waterproof bag of books she collected was inside the lotus boat as it rested against the curved interior. She was in the grasslands that surrounded the Blue River and encompassed most of Wassergras.
Rillia didn’t enter the grasslands without accompaniment but she recognized it immediately. The grass towered over her as it was almost twice as tall as she was as she laid in between the stalks and the pine strewn ground. Even higher above the grass were the towering pine trees whose needle foliage they discarded form a bed of reddish brown in between the grass. But most strangely of all was what, or who more specifically, stood in front of her.
He had an arm on each side of his upper torso as well as two legs like an ant. Like an ant, he also had distinct facial features, his own face looking youthful and vibrant. But those are where the similarities ended. He had peachy flesh rather than plating like an insect and had thick black hair atop his head. He wore clothes, something which only royal ants had, in the form of green pants and green shirt. He’d apparently caught a grass frog that was now roasting over an open fire.
“Hiya!” he shouted. “You took an awful dive yesterday! Good thing I was in the river when you sunk in!”
“What-what…?” Rillia asked. “What were you doing in the Blue River during a storm like that?”
“Why swimming of course!” he shouted.
“Swimming?” she asked. “In heavy rain at night?”
“Yeah!” the young man said. “I wanted to test my strength out!”
Rillia stood up, shaking her head in disbelief. Realizing she was hungry, she walked toward the roasted grass frog before eating it. The young man didn’t know how to cook as the frog tasted rather bland but she didn’t mind as deprived of nourishment as she was. Rillia continued staring as the unknown creature in front of her began gobbling down meat as fast as possible.
“So,” she said. “What...what are you?”
“I’m a me!” he said. “My name’s um…”
He looked down at his left pant leg to find written on it in yellow embroidery were letters Rillia thought she’d never see. The language was one that only explorers that had left the region of Wassergras had seen. It was the language of the Giants, beings that made huge structures that were almost as tall as the creatures themselves. There had been very little recorded information of interaction between Giants and the people of Wassergras.
While the Giants were incredibly mysterious and little was known about them, famous explorers had written in their journals and archives about their culture and world. The collected the language and alphabet of the Giants was something Rillia had studied relentlessly and she could actually read what was written on his pant leg. Not only that but the young man looked like how the Giants had been described.
A Giant that’s the size of an ant? She thought. Could it possibly be related to the legend of the original two trees of the Earth? No, no, no...that’s merely a fable for infants.
“Jason Treborn,” they both said at the same time.
“Wow, so you can read too!” Jason said. “This is great! What’s your name?!”
“My name’s Rillia Ruar,” she answered. “I come from the Red Mountain ant colony. Say...are you a...Giant by any chance?”
“What’s that?” Jason asked.
“You know,” Rillia said. “The creatures that are big and build even bigger...things?”
“Nope!” he said.
She stared at him blankly as he finished his frog limbs. After stuffing his face full of meat, he shook his head before laughing. Jason reminded Rillia of a child more than someone who looked like he was nearing twenty years old, his apparent age.
“So, where ya headed to?” Jason asked.
“How did you know I was headed somewhere?” she asked.
“Well no one travels down the river in a boat unless they’re going somewhere,” he said. “And you seemed to want it pretty bad if you were willing to go at it in that kind of weather.”
“Well the weather snuck up on me,” Rillia said. “I predicted it wouldn’t rain for the next several days. And I was headed to the Primeval World, the place where no one goes because it’s too dangerous.”
“Sounds neat!” Jason said. “What’s there? Big monsters, huge forests! I hope there are big caterpillars! I love insects! Were you looking for anything in particular?”
“Well…” Rillia said. “I just wanted to go on an adventure. I don’t really know what exactly is there but I know I don’t want to go the rest of my life without seeing it. So...if you aren’t a giant, what are you? I’ve never seen something like you before?”
Jason shrugged.
“I don’t know,” he answered.
“You don’t know?!” Rillia gasped. “Everyone in Wassergras knows what they are! Like, I’m an ant, some are crawfish, others are acorn peoples and pinecone folk...but you don’t know what you are?”
“Uh-uh,” he shook his head. “I woke up a few days ago and can’t remember what I am. I don’t remember much of anything at all. However, I’ve been having so much fun in this world that I don’t really care. There’s too much adventure to be had for me to really care about that. But you said that there’s an even cooler place out there?”
Rillia smiled.
“Yeah,” she said. “It’s more dangerous though. If you can handle it, you can accompany me. We need to get my boat back to the Blue River. I don’t know how you dragged it all the way here onto dry land but you’ll have to assist me into getting it back out into water.”
“Alright!” Jason said. “Let’s go!”
The young man ran over to grab the lotus boat’s hull. Rillia initially tried to dissuade him from doing so but she let out a gasp when she found that the young man lifted it into the air. He held the boat above his head with one hand as he smiled back at her.
“You…” she said. “You’re amazing! How strong are you?!”
He shrugged once again, this time causing the boat to be lifted into the air before landing in his open hand.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Enough to take one of those frog things down in a single punch. And to carry you back to shore in one hand while the boat was in the other.”
Her shocked expression turned into one of relief.
Thanks mom and dad. Rillia thought. But I don’t think I’ll have any trouble surviving out there with this guy at my side.