May 27
Some silly sketches of my silly ant girl... 🐜🐜🐜
seen from South Africa
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from Azerbaijan
seen from Malaysia
seen from Sri Lanka
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from France
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from Russia
seen from Russia
seen from China
seen from Canada
seen from Malaysia
Some silly sketches of my silly ant girl... 🐜🐜🐜
Little remake of an old sketch I made of these two characters. They be communicating... 🐜🦗
𝐎𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐬 𝐄𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐞 - 𝐌𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐚 ; ♡
✎ ....
General Overview:
( 🌿 ) ; Name — Relva
( 🌿 ) ; Species — Leafcutter Ant
( 🌿 ) ; Binomen — Acromyrmex subterraneus
( 🌿 ) ; Gender — Female
( 🌿 ) ; Age — Young Adult
( 🌿 ) ; Affiliation — Queendom of Aurora
( 🌿 ) ; Position — Harvesters / Gardener Worker
Relationships:
( 🌿 ) ; Mom — Queen Aurora
( 🌿 ) ; Sisters — Queendom of Aurora Ants
( 🌿 ) ; Son — (no name)
( 🌿 ) ; Friends — Cisco, Silte and Zig
( 🌿 ) ; Enemies — Nasuti Empire Termites
✎ ....
Description:
Relva is the protagonist of the story and also one of the newest ants to emerge in the Queendom of Aurora. As a harvester, her job is to use her sharp jaws to cut leaves and carry the pieces back to the colony. However, her way of thinking and act often gets her into trouble with the veterans, which leads to her getting grounded inside the anthill.
Although she tries to follow the rules, this restless and very curious ant has the terrible habit of solving things her own way and is not easily satisfied with superficial answers. If there is a rule, she wants to know why it was created; and if a weird noise comes from the bushes, she wants to know what is making it.
✎ ﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏
Informações Básicas:
( 🌿 ) ; Nome — Relva
( 🌿 ) ; Espécie — Quenquém-caiapó
( 🌿 ) ; Binômio — Acromyrmex subterraneus
( 🌿 ) ; Gênero — Feminino
( 🌿 ) ; Idade — Jovem Adulta
( 🌿 ) ; Afiliação — Reino de Aurora
( 🌿 ) ; Cargo — Operária Coletora / Jardineira
Relacionamentos:
( 🌿 ) ; Mãe — Rainha Aurora
( 🌿 ) ; Irmãs — Formigas do Reino de Aurora
( 🌿 ) ; Filho — (sem nome)
( 🌿 ) ; Amigos — Cisco, Silte e Zig
( 🌿 ) ; Inimigos — Cupins do Império Nasuti
✎ ....
Descrição:
Relva é a protagonista da história e também uma das formigas mais novas a surgir no Reino de Aurora. Como coletora, sua função é utilizar suas mandíbulas afiadas para cortar folhas e levar os pedaços de volta para a colônia. No entanto, sua maneira de pensar e agir muitas vezes a coloca em apuros com as formigas mais velhas, o que faz com que ela acabe ficando de castigo dentro do formigueiro.
Embora tente seguir as regras, essa formiga inquieta e muito curiosa tem o péssimo hábito de resolver as coisas à sua maneira e não se satisfaz facilmente com respostas superficiais. Se existe uma regra, ela quer saber por que foi criada; e se um barulho estranho vem dos arbustos, ela quer saber o que o está causando.
✎ ....
Fun ideas to do with your OCs! ✨🐜
Send them to T H E W A R
Oasis Escape
Genres: Drama / Adventure / Xenofiction
Warning: This novel features scenes and themes that may be deemed sensitive or disturbing to some readers. Nature is beautiful, but can also be cruel. Please be aware of this before proceeding. I hope you enjoy the story, have a good read!
PTBR: https://tapas.io/series/Fuga-do-Oasis
ENG: https://tapas.io/series/Oasis-Escape-
Chapter 04: With Savages You don't Talk
Something leaps from the petals, flying over Relva like a winged beast. The ant braces herself, covering her eyes with her antennae and preparing for the worst. But nothing happens. She peeks from under one of the appendages. All six of her precious limbs are still intact.
Behind her, she hears a dry thud against the grass and immediately turns around to avoid a surprise attack. But again, nothing happens. The other insect remains motionless, perched on the edge of a single blade.
Its body is long and rounded, covered by an exoskeleton as dark as night itself. Its delicate, thin antennae quiver and bend, picking up the scents emitted by the harvester. Below them, two large compound eyes stare at her, reflecting Bitú's dim light like white quartz at the bottom of a murky lake.
Relva stares back, carefully scrutinizing the unfamiliar creature for any signs of hostile intent. It lacks the robust mandibles of an ant, hiding them beneath chitinous facial plates. Its long hind legs, perhaps as long as the animal itself, are coiled against the abdomen. Both are taking a defensive stance, ready to spring at the slightest sudden movement, but neither seems willing to be the first one to act.
The anticipation is overwhelming, as if the thick fog that looms over the trees had engulfed them.
“Don’t even think about getting any closer! If you take any more steps, I’ll tear you to pieces!”, Relva violently grits her jaws, breaking the silence once and for all.
The stranger, however, just keeps watching her, going neither back nor forward.
“You’re not a soldier, are ya?”, his voice is soft and melodic, like the whispering breeze blowing through the old jabuticaba branches. A mix of mild confusion and hesitation. “Just a worker.”
“Just a worker that can still hurt you real bad, okay!?”
“Do you want to hurt me?”
“I dunno!”, Relva answers, her jaws still wide open. “If you don’t want to, then I don’t want to.”
“Deal!”, he hops down from the foliage to the ground, his dark eyes exploring the surroundings, on the lookout for anyone who might be watching them from the shadows. “Are you alone?”
“Not your business.”
“Did you see anyone who looks like me around here?”
“Also not.”
The insect’s eyes shift away from the bushes and back to Relva.
“Also, didn't see anyone, or also not my business?”
“Both!”
“You ants sure are a thick-headed bunch…”, he remarks somewhat impatiently.
And despite being overcome by fear, Relva finds herself unable to hide her outrage:
“What?!”
“I just asked some basic questions, no need to treat me like I tried to eat all the eggs from your colony,” he jumps over the worker once again. This time, she is quicker to react and rushes behind the nearest rock.
“I don’t trust you!”, Relva hisses from her hiding place, panting as if she is about to have a heart attack. Good thing ants lack this organ in a conventional sense.
“I don’t need you to trust me,” he counters, munching on a few petals like there is nothing left to discuss.
The harvester squeezes her tiny body against the rocky surface. Time goes by, maybe minutes or even an hour, before she finally decides to interrogate that annoying little creature.
“What are you?”
The other insect looks up and swallows what he has in his mouth, surprised that the ant is still around.
“What do you mean?”
“What kind of bug are you?”
“Well, take a guess,” he chuckles, a soft chirp slipping out from between his wings.
“You’re the cricket,” she says without stepping out or looking at his face.
“I am a cricket, yes.”
“So it was you making all that noise!”
“Hahaha! Ya know, some might call that singing, but I like your definition much more.”
“Was it you or not?”
“Nope.”
“Someone you know?”
“Yep.”
“And…?”, Relva presses, finally feeling comfortable enough to expose part of her body to watch the cricket’s reaction.
“And what? Don’t they teach in the anthill that it’s rude to talk to someone who’s trying to eat?”, he burrows under the fallen petals, putting an end to the matter. Relva’s antennae twitch with annoyance, but she cannot blame him, since her own earlier behavior certainly has not contributed to a civilized conversation.
“They do,” she moves closer with caution. “They also teach us that the tree is our territory, that the leaves cannot be eaten by unwanted insects… And that we must always warn the soldiers if that happens.”
“Isn’t the organization of colonial insects just lovely? Hmph!”, scoffs the cricket, his voice still mellow even when infused with sarcasm. “I bet they’ve also got something to say about workers who sneak out alone during the night.”
“Yes, it’s forbidden.”
“Then what are ya doing here?”
“Well, your little friend’s alleged singing woke me up, a few soldiers also noticed, by the wa—”
“He’s not my friend!”, the black-colored insect interrupts with a piercing screech, his head emerging from the rotting vegetation now with its chitinous facial plates lifted, revealing a terrifying pair of serrated mandibles.
Relva instinctively tries to step back, losing her balance from the sudden fright and stumbling against the dry soil. She wheezes, her bulging eyes locked onto the other animal, who could easily rip her head off at that very moment.
“He’s not my friend…,” he repeats faintly, laboring for breath as if his own reaction had terrified him just as much. Slowly, he retracts his mandibles, hiding them under the natural mask once more, as he turns his back on Relva with antennae hanging low. For a second, he looked as withered as those old white petals. “Sorry, I just… Change the subject or go away if you don’t have anything better to say. Don’t want to talk about this.”
“Okay, okay…”, Relva takes a deep breath to recompose herself, standing on her six legs and wondering if she should back away from that insect that was clearly more impulsive than the ones she is used to. “Well, I… I also wanted an excuse to have a look around, you know? See the outside world for the first time.”
“See the outside world for the first time? Were you born yesterday or something?”
“Kinda? Not really, I just left my pupa.”
“And the first thing you do is walk out alone?”, the cricket’s disbelief forces him to face the worker head-on, who simply replies with a nod of her antennae. “Damn! That’s the opposite of having survival instincts. You’re not a very smart ant.”
“Oh, come on!”
“It’s true tho!”
“Don’t you take risks?”, Relva asks impatiently, strolling around the larger insect with a defiant stance. “Don’t you have a single drop of curiosity beneath those wings?”
“Sometimes, sure,” he agrees, grumbling, lifting his long antennae so the ant would not touch them. “And then I remember that I don’t like the idea of being dead.”
Relva keeps walking, distancing herself from the cricket and stopping near a thin twig, where she cleans her front legs with her mandibles, licking them gently to remove the dust.
“So you’re a coward,” she concludes with disdain.
“Coward?!”, he lunges toward Relva, digging his tiny claws into the dry bark of the twig, shaking it with the impact. “You don’t know me, you shouldn’t assume I’m a coward!”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t assume I’m stupid.”
“Kinda hard when you look like a dumbass.”
“Kinda hard when you look like a wimp.”
“All right, that’s enough!”, the cricket buzzes and kicks the air with one of his long hind legs before jumping off the twig and landing on the ground. The two insects have tested each other's patience enough for tonight. But still, no real hostility is in the air, and that, for some reason, bothers him. “Shouldn't ya be using those weird pheromone thingies to snitch me out to your big sisters or something? I'm not supposed to be here, right?”
“No, you’re not,” answers the ant in a serious tone, before wiggling her antennae and closing her mandibles playfully. “But you don’t seem dangerous, all things considered, so I don’t see a reason for that.”
“I don’t trust you.”
“I don’t need you to trust me.”
The cricket tilts one of his antennae, taken aback by his own words. Even in the midst of the darkness, Relva can see his bewildered gaze gradually soften. By contrast, she feels the tiny hairs along her legs prickle. Even if she really wanted to get the soldiers' attention, her efforts would most likely come to nothing.
“Besides, I… Actually, I don’t know where they are,” she adds, remembering her inability to locate them when she emerged from the tunnel. “That’s what I was going to tell you before… you know. There should be at least two more ants here, but I can’t sense them.”
In no time, the other insect’s sense of security gives way to the usual mistrust upon hearing the harvester’s words. He climbs up the twig with quick, clumsy steps, pointing his antennae to every direction allowed by his anatomy. And then he stops, frozen in place. Relva’s apprehension increases as he remains like this for several long seconds, flinching when she hears him utter in fear:
“I can’t hear him either…”
But she can hear something. A muffled rustling in the distance, beyond the edge of the jabuticaba tree, where the tall grass grows. Her antennae tremble, primal instincts screaming about something terrible in the air. And a distress call. A sour, acrid smell floods her senses. There is no need to see the soldiers to know they are in danger.
The rustling grows louder. Even the cricket notices it and crouches down, as if trying to hide from a possible threat. Relva wonders if he too can sense the warning signals being sent out.
“He… Whoever he is… Can he hurt our soldiers?”, the ant asks to no avail. The other insect is not even bothered to turn his antennae towards her when she speaks, keeping them and his eyes locked on the undergrowth.
The two tiny creatures squirm like cornered prey when a large figure flies from the bushes and disappears into the mist. In the dark, Relva fails to recognize what it might be, but it surely was bigger than an ant and bigger than the cricket beside her.
On impulse, she rushes forward to search for her sisters, but halts before venturing into the dense vegetation. She peers back, hoping that perhaps her potential new friend would follow her, only to find out that he is already gone.
Alone again and with no good options, nor a plan in case she has to fight for the colony, Relva keeps running. Not even the deepest fear can stop an ant from helping another in need. Neither the realization that, once this is all over, she will owe her superiors some serious explanations.
<< Previous | Master Post | Next (soon!) >>
Finally, we have the introduction of a character who isn't an ant! But who is this cricket? Could he be a potential new friend? It's hard to say, their first encounter was quite intense.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐬 𝐕𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐛𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐲 ; ♡
🇺🇸 — Bugs don't see the world the same way humans do. So, it's not hard to believe that the Oasis residents have their own way to refer to the natural elements and objects that surround them. Here's a list of some commonly used terms, if you want to know what they mean while reading:
(This list may go through changes over time)
Oasis Escape Master Post
Oasis: The place where the story takes place. Nourished by a lake right in the center of the territory. This allows a large area of vegetation to flourish in the surrounding area, leading to the current biodiversity of small animals.
Green Sea: A huge soybean plantation. As delicious as the leaves look, eating them is strictly forbidden. A single bite is enough to kill insects.
Attini Tribe: An alliance between the leafcutter ant colonies of the Oasis.
Queendom of Aurora: A Quenquém anthill and birthplace of Relva and her sisters.
Queendom of Alamanda: A Saúva anthill.
Nasuti Empire: A huge colony of arboreal termites.
Ysá: Solar deity in the culture of leafcutter ants. Also called “Day Mother.” According to current beliefs, she is the queen who oversees the other queens, being both a guardian and a judge of their actions.
Golden Egg: How the other insects from the Oasis refer to the Sun.
Bitú: Lunar deity in the culture of leafcutter ants. Also called “ Night Father ”. According to current beliefs, Bitú is actually several males who try to mate with Ysá. However, they all end up dying before they can reach her, and their short lifespan is represented by the lunar phases.
Silver Egg: How the other insects from the Oasis refer to the Moon.
Fireflies: The way the insects of the Oasis call the stars. In the belief of the leafcutter ants, the queens who please Ysá turn into fireflies when they die, joining her and Bitú in the sky. Other insects tend to believe that fireflies lived alongside them in the past, but flew beyond the clouds when the world became too hostile for their kind.
Ferals: Name given to predatory arthropods such as spiders, centipedes and scorpions.
Beasts: Name given to any animal that is not an arthropod, usually combined with adjectives that define one or more physical characteristics (e.g., Winged Beast, Water Beast, Hairy Beast, etc.).
Savages: Name given to any insect that is not an ant or a termite. However, ants and termites often label each other as savages, as they do not respect the lifestyle of their rival species.
✎ ﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏
🇧🇷 — Os insetos não veem o mundo da mesma forma que os humanos. Portanto, não é difícil acreditar que os residentes do Oasis tenham sua própria maneira de se referir aos elementos naturais e aos objetos que os cercam. Aqui está uma lista de alguns termos comumente utilizados, caso você queira saber o que eles significam enquanto lê:
(Esta lista pode sofrer alterações com o tempo)
Oasis Escape Master Post
Oásis: Local onde se passa a história. É alimentado por uma lagoa bem no centro de seu território. Isso permite que uma grande área de vegetação floresça nos arredores, levando à sua atual biodiversidade de pequenos animais.
Mar Verde: Uma imensa plantação de soja. Por mais deliciosas que as folhas pareçam, comê-las é estritamente proibido. Uma única mordida é suficiente para matar insetos.
Tribo Attini: Nome dado à aliança entre as colônias de formigas-cortadeiras do Oásis.
Reino de Aurora: Nome dado ao formigueiro de quenquéns do Oásis e local de nascimento de Relva e suas irmãs.
Reino de Alamanda: Nome dado ao formigueiro de saúvas do Oásis.
Império Nasuti: Nome dado à uma enorme colônia de cupins arborícolas.
Ysá: Divindade solar na cultura das formigas-cortadeiras. Também chamada de “Mãe do Dia”. De acordo com as crenças atuais, ela é a rainha que supervisiona as outras rainhas, sendo tanto uma guardiã quanto uma juíza de suas ações.
Ovo Dourado: Maneira como os outros insetos do Oásis denominam o Sol.
Bitú: Divindade lunar na cultura das formigas-cortadeiras. Também chamado de “Pai da Noite”. Segundo as crenças atuais, Bitú é, na verdade, vários machos que tentam acasalar com Ysá. Entretanto, todos eles acabam morrendo antes de alcançá-la, e seu curto ciclo de vida é representado pelas fases da lua.
Ovo Prateado: Maneira como os outros insetos do Oásis denominam a Lua.
Vaga-lumes: Maneira como os insetos do Oásis denominam as estrelas. Na crença das formigas-cortadeiras, as rainhas que agradam Ysá se transformam em vaga-lumes quando morrem, juntando-se a ela e a Bitú no céu. Já outros insetos costumam acreditar que os vaga-lumes conviviam com eles no passado, mas voaram para além das nuvens quando o mundo se tornou hostil demais para sua espécie.
Feras: Nome dado a artrópodes predadores, como aranhas, centopeias e escorpiões.
Bestas: Nome dado a qualquer animal que não seja um artrópode, geralmente combinado com adjetivos que definem uma ou mais características físicas (ex.: Besta Alada, Besta Aquática, Besta Peluda, etc.).
Selvagens: Nome dado a qualquer inseto que não seja uma formiga ou cupim. Porém, formigas e cupins costumam rotular uns aos outros como “selvagens”, uma vez que não respeitam o modo de vida da espécie rival.
𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬... ; ♡
✎ ....
🇧🇷 — Parte da ilustração que será usada na capa do livro de xenoficção em que estou trabalhando. Mais novidades sobre este projeto muito em breve... 👀
🇺🇸 — Part of the illustration that will be featured on the cover of the xenofiction book I'm working on. More news about this project coming very soon... 👀
✎ ....
★ • 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 • ★
Oasis Escape
Genres: Drama / Adventure / Xenofiction
Warning: This novel features scenes and themes that may be deemed sensitive or disturbing to some readers. Nature is beautiful, but can also be cruel. Please be aware of this before proceeding. I hope you enjoy the story, have a good read!
PTBR: https://tapas.io/series/Fuga-do-Oasis
ENG: https://tapas.io/series/Oasis-Escape-
Chapter 03: Just a Little Peek
Rrr… Rrr…
Relva wakes up in the middle of the night, not knowing how long she has been asleep. Her antennae tap the ground, detecting strange vibrations, different from the usual click of jaws and stridulation of abdomens. Something coming from outside the nursery.
She tries to ignore it. She will be deployed to her first foraging patrol as soon as Ysá spreads her wings, and will not perform well if she is drowsy. But the noise remains, low and steady. Relva covers her antennae with her front legs. She turns her little body to one side and then the other. What is that damn noise? She gets up.
Rrr… Rrr… Rrr…
Bodies, legs and antennae are scattered around her, completely still. It is not one of her sisters. And none of them seem to be as bothered as her. The harvester contemplates shaking one of them awake to ask about it, but soon gives up the idea. If only she is alert, then only she can hear, waking another ant up is pointless.
The thought of following the sound comes to mind. Along with a bitter memory. Before going to her quarters, Flora clearly stated that the workers were not allowed to leave until further notice. If the simple act of getting distracted in her presence already led to shoving and insults, Relva does not want to imagine what would happen if she dared to go against her word.
Without a doubt, it would be a disaster. And as much as this unsettles her, it also, ironically, helps her relax and snuggle against the sandy soil. Not worth the risk, right?
Rrr… Rrr… Rrr…
But what if it was worth it?
After all, there is no need for Flora to find out. And of course, Relva has no intention of leaving for too long. Just a little peek. To discover whatever is making the noise and hopefully try to stop it.
Just a little peek. And before she realizes, she is on her feet again, crawling as quietly as possible towards the nursery exit. The earthen pillars supporting the tunnel entrance rise before her. Relva stops for a moment, as if the structures, so big and yet so tiny, were judging her crossing. She is not deserving, yet she proceeds, disappearing into the darkness.
The ground ahead is barely visible. But when you have antennae to lead the way and detect dangerous signs, like scouts in an army, and nimble feet covered in sensitive hair to orchestrate each step with accuracy, the sense of sight becomes a sheer commodity.
Everything is impregnated with her older sisters' pheromones, a complex mix of both old and new smells and textures, telling so many tales of what goes on inside and outside the colony that Relva can barely focus on just one. And she hardly needs to, because for the first time in a long while, an ant is not going through that tunnel to follow a scent, but a sound.
Crr… Crr… Crr… Crr…
Relva goes left, right, up, and down, never stopping until she feels something unusual in her exoskeleton. The air around her seems to have become thinner, fresher. Dancing over her hard skin, caressing it with a tenderness she has never felt before. A current of air. She remembers the stories the caretakers told about the construction of the anthill. Narrow but extremely functional tunnels that allow air from the surface to enter, cooling and purifying the underground complex.
There are also the smells of soil, wood, leaves, flowers, fruits, and many others. From them, Relva can picture the outside world vividly in her imagination.
The outside world… Oh, no!
She was so focused on following the sound that she did not realize where she was going. And if this tunnel leads directly to the surface, the source of the sound is there, whatever it may be. If she wants to find it, she will inevitably need to leave the anthill. And then what? She does not even know anything about the surface; all she knows are a few smells and the descriptions made by the caretakers in their tales.
Go forward or give up and retreat? Either way, Relva has no time to ponder this choice. She feels intense vibrations coming towards her from the depths of the earth.
Soldiers! At least four of them.
Quick like a glimmer of light, the harvester climbs the tunnel walls and slips through a crack in the ceiling, praying to Ysá and Bitú that she has not been spotted.
“Did you hear that too?”, asks one of the soldiers, stopping just below the crack where Relva is hiding. She is about the same age as Flora. Her most striking feature is the missing leg on her right side, a gruesome injury, but one that does not seem to restrict her mobility.
“I did,” replies another, her voice drowsier and impatient. “A damn cricket, near the tree trunk.”
“Either he’s here for the leaves or the flowers. Regardless, he can’t take anything from our territory, understood?”
“Understood!”, the other three reply almost simultaneously.
“Casca, you come with me! Pena and Brisa, wait here. Right now, this isn't a job for all four of us, so stay close to the exit, and we'll call if we need backup.”
With that, the two older soldiers rush out of the anthill, while the others remain exactly where they are. How wonderful… Now only Ysá knows how long Relva will have to stay in that crack. She starts looking for an escape route while the ants below her chat quietly. Thanks to the mixture of smells coming and going from the tunnel, none of them seem to have sensed her presence.
“It's because of stuff like this that I'd rather work day shifts,” Brisa grumbles.
“You complain too much,” Pena replies. “You should be glad our job is just guarding the anthill and not going out on patrols.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Haven't you heard? They're sending them farther and farther away. Just today, Luz, Pólen, and Raiz reported that they left at dawn and only came back near nightfall. Flora ordered them to follow the tracks of what turned out to be termites.”
“Was she with them?”
“No, I think she was welcoming the new workers or something. You know, terrorizing the newbies.”
Talk about terrorizing, thinks Relva.
“Hum, of course… They must just be harvesting. Lots of dead wood out there.”
“Even so, the veterans don't like how close they're getting,” she mutters. “Not even the queen.”
“That's paranoia to me. If they already see the task of getting rid of a cricket that's just chirping around like a war campaign.”
“Not long ago, you seemed quite excited to get rid of him…”
“Because he didn’t let me sleep! As far as I know, the termites didn’t do anything to me.”
“Ugh, okay. I hope you’re right and that it’s really just paranoia,” the soldier sighs. “But we better keep an eye out for any suspicious activity outside the anthill.”
“If that helps you sleep at night.”
“We don't sleep at night.”
“You got me!”
“Actually, now that I think of it, you shouldn't be sleeping when…”
“You. Got. Me!”
Cricket? Termites? They must be other insects. Relva had heard some things about them before, wild and deceitful creatures that live differently from ants. Some of them are not even capable of building nests or caring for their young, spending their days alone from birth to death. The harvester fails to understand how anyone could survive like that. At least now she knows where the sound comes from.
Crr… Crr… Crr…
Her curiosity makes her want to see him up close, but what if she gets into trouble? If she finds him before the soldiers, he might kill her before she can call for help, and if she finds him after the soldiers, things could get pretty bad too.
The mental image of having her legs ripped off by an unknown creature is nauseating, but picturing what Flora could do to her is not appealing either. And how can she get back to the nursery if the only way out is through Pena and Brisa?
Relva stares at the earthen walls of the crack. There is no choice. If another way out does not exist, she must create one, and the only possible path is upwards. She begins to dig.
Her jaws and legs work quickly, removing and relocating every little pebble along the way with great care. The tunnel does not need to be perfect, let alone pretty, but it still needs to be good enough so it can be crossed without collapsing. And the further she goes, the more the sandy soil becomes dry and brittle, hindering her task. She must be somewhere inside the outer structure of the anthill, close to the surface.
With one last push, the wall crumbles and Relva's antennae emerge from the ground. She stands still in front of the newly created opening for what seems like an eternity, analyzing and trying to process all the new information flooding her senses.
The cool, gentle breeze blows against her face and through her spiracles. Bitú's dim light bathes her exoskeleton in a silvery veil, while her eyes get used to the new environment, much brighter than the hole she came from.
No more barriers or ceilings restricting the view. The trees, infinitely larger than the underground support pillars, rise toward the sky like shadowy giants. Each branch a twisted arm covered in leaves that, like claws, scratch at the mist that wraps them in a pale embrace.
Relva senses the grass, the pollen, the pheromone trails left by harvesters coming and going from foraging patrols, the delicious fragrance emanating from the jabuticaba tree flowers and the fruits maturing above her head.
And the silence.
Except for an occasional creaking of branches against the wind, nothing can be heard. The sound she had been following until that moment completely vanished. Perhaps the cricket got caught by the soldiers and chased back into the woods, but other than a few footprints, there is no other sign of them either.
Slowly, the harvester walks down the earth mound, staying close to the base of the jabuticaba tree. The ground beneath her feet is still warm thanks to Ysá's light.
The grass just below the branches is covered with partially decayed leaves and petals. She stands near one of them, her curious antennae delicately scanning the surface, rugged like a sick larva deprived of food.
Hard to believe the fungus is cultivated with such frail-looking plants. That seems implausible. Her sisters are certainly not collecting the fallen leaves. Relva looks at the ones still attached to the branches. These also seem a little dehydrated, but should be healthier.
Relva's thoughts are interrupted by a rustling sound nearby. Dangerously nearby. She freezes. Her antennae quickly raise towards it, her jaws instinctively opening. She is not as alone as she thought she was.
The rustling continues, coming from a pile of white petals. Something is moving beneath them. Although she knows little about the world outside the anthill, Relva knows how to recognize another ant when one is around.
This is not an ant.
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And we’re back from the hiatus, everyone! This chapter ended up being a little longer than I planned, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a problem. This whole “bite size stories” thing that Tapas talks so much has never really been my style.