I wrote this short story earlier in the month, I just edited it today. I hope you enjoy it.
This Document Copyright ©2013 By
Laura Morrigan All Rights Reserved
I was down in the yard one day,
trimming the roses, when I saw it. An ant, trapped in a drop of honey
that had fallen from a bees nest. He struggled fearfully, only
getting himself further stuck. Perhaps most people would have killed
him, but I was a tender young woman, as my pa always said. So it was
that I hurriedly brought some water, and carefully, very carefully
tipped the tiniest drops of it onto the honey, melting it, so that
the ant could clean the honey off himself and be free. It was hard
not to drop too much and drown him, but I was patient and slow.
Slowly, oh so slowly, the ant worked
his way free. Then the strangest thing happened. He seemed to stand
up on the back two of his six little legs and it seemed as if he was
bowing to me. Very carefully, I got down on the ground to see him
better. It was then that I heard his quiet little voice.
'Brave miss, I am eternally grateful to
you for rescuing me from the trap my enemies set for me. You are
beautiful as well as brave, and although you are not of our race, I
would like to invite you back to my kingdom to meet my people.'
'Of course,' I whispered as gently as I
could, although my breath nearly blew him down.
'Take my hand', he piped. I reached out
my finger, and the tiniest little ant leg touched it. Then I seemed
to be falling through space and when I opened my eyes, I stood in the
strangest place.
We stood on the top of a hill,
overlooking a city, the ant prince and I. Now that he was in his
world, he was a person, just like me. He would explain that to me
later, although I cannot remember now. It has been years, and
sometimes the details grow quite fuzzy. His skin was dark, blacker
than ebony, and his teeth were very white when he smiled at me. He
was quite the most handsome man I ever saw. He wore a finely tailored
grey wool suit with tails and a tall stovepipe hat. I barely noticed
the extra set of sleeves that enclosed his second pair of arms. It
all seemed so normal. We stood on the hill looking down.
'Behold my city,' he said, and we
looked down at a bustling metropolis, strange dark buildings, lumpy
sky scraping buildings whose like I had never seen. They were made of
a rough, brown material and rather odd looking, not like the ordered
brick buildings of my world, but they were so tall and magnificent,
with spires and turrets, quite like fairytale castles.
'May I see more?' I begged.
He took my hand, and led me down into
the city. What a novelty it was to be the size of an ant! Why my
mother could never find me when she wanted me to do chores or nag me
about being a spinster! It was market day, and the streets bustled
with his people, women in their finest dresses walking to market,
carrying a basket on one of their arms, wrangling restless children
with the other three. His people were strong, and I saw many of them,
in fancy red jackets, pulling rickshaws, on which other ant people
sat, laughing. At market stalls, crumbs of bread were sold just like
loaves in our world, and small pieces of preserved fruit. At the
butcher's stall, an aproned ant sliced pieces from the body of a dead
grub, smiling and joking with his customers. I had to turn away from
the sight of the squishy white flesh. I let him lead me away, show me
the huge cathedral that stood in the town square, with fragments of
golden glass in the windows that he told me were pieces of amber.
'I have never seen such tall
buildings!' I exclaimed. He smiled graciously. 'My people are
wonderful architects. Do you know we built this city using dirt? No
bricks and mortar for us!'
'Dirt?' I exclaimed, 'how droll! And
yet, it is the most magnificent city I have ever seen!'
'Oh, there is another,' he said darkly,
but turned away, and I did not press him to explain.
'And all this is yours?' I asked, awed.
'It is indeed, I am the prince of this
land. The only one who can open a portal to go from here into the
mortal realm. There, I am nothing, a tiny ant, here, as you see, I
have everything.'
'Then why do you come across?'
'To see how our city looks to human
eyes. It keeps us humble, knowing that in your realm, our city is
nothing more than a pile of dirt, and our people barely specks. And
there is another reason, too, we are looking for a champion.'
'A champion?'
'Yes, there was a prophecy long ago
about a fair maiden from the realm of the humans that would deliver
us all from our enemies. They besiege us on all sides and might soon
destroy us all, destroy our glorious civilisation if nothing is
done.'
'That cannot be me, I am naught by a
humble girl.'
'Maybe so, but may I show you?' he
asked. I nodded, wanting to see all I could of this amazing world
before I was sent home to my dull life. The ant prince drew me with
him, and we left the city to return to the hillside. We walked along
the edge of the hill. 'Be careful,' he told me, 'for the ground drops
off steeply here, and in this world, you are our size, such a fall
could kill you.'
I felt some trepidation then, to
realise how full of danger this little world really was. All those
thoughts soon flew from my mind, however, when we reached the top of
the hill, and I saw the vista that stretched out before me. Down in a
valley was the most amazing city I had ever seen. More amazing, even,
than the city of the ants. A glittering golden city. The prince
handed me a spyglass so that I might see it more clearly. Through the
spyglass, I could see the buildings. Each was made up of hexagons of
a glass like material that glimmered in the sunlight.
'Honeycomb', the prince said in my ear.
'This is the home of the Bee princess, and her people, our sworn
enemies.'
'Oh, but how can you be enemies?' I
asked, 'you have so much in common, your small size and your
brilliant cities!' I gazed through the spyglass at the city,
realising now that its glimmer came from the sticky honey that
dripped from the honeycomb buildings. I watched the bee people in
their yellow and black coats run up and down the honeycomb, as if
they were taking their morning constituional, nothing more.
'Ah, you are so naïve, it is sweet,'
the prince said, smiling sadly when I looked at him, 'do you really
think it is so simple? Alas, the bees see themselves as the rulers of
both cities, and will not stop until we bow down to them or are
destroyed. Look.'
I put my eye to the spyglass again, and
followed where his finger pointed. From a dark honeycombed building,
a crowd of the bee people rose, flying with delicate wings made of
bent bamboo frames and soft, gauzy filaments that looked like
nothing, but somehow held them in the air. They rose, a giant cloud,
and made towards the ant city.
'With their clockwork wings, they are
unbeatable,' the ant prince said to me, sighing. 'We are doomed.' I
stared on in delight and horror. I had never realised how much these
little people were like us, why even their wings were mechanical,
that I had always thought they were born with. There was so much
about this world that I did not understand. My ant prince told me
about the bees. How they all carried curved daggers tipped with
poison that could easily kill any ant they sliced with them. How they
had learned the wonders of clockwork, to carve the wooden cogs that
made these wings work.
'Do they really mean to kill you all?'
I asked. He nodded. 'Swear to me that if I help you, if I destroy
them I am doing the right thing.'
'You are,' whispered the prince, 'it is
a terrible thing, but it needs to be done. And we will be eternally
grateful.'
He touched my hand, then, and I was
back in the garden, back to my own size again. The ant prince, an ant
again, scurried into a hole, where he would be safe, while I advanced
on the beehive. Filling my watering can from the tap, I walked over
the the hive, ignoring the bees who milled around me, stinging at me.
I was too large for their stings to kill me, although it hurt. I
filled their hive with water, watched the bees that did not drown
struggle out, their wings too wet to fly. I crushed each one under my
foot, until they were all dead. I knocked their round little nest
from the bush and stamped it to pieces. My mother had said they were
pests anyway, and feared the danger they posed to my brother and I
should they take it into their minds to attack.
Once I was done, I went to where I had
seen the ant, my feet sticky with honey and death. He was waiting
there. I bent down and he took my hand again. Again I felt that dizzy
falling feeling, then I was back on the hillside, holding his hand.
It felt good in mine, the skin soft, not at all how you would imagine
a hard little ant's skin to feel. 'Our saviour', he whispered, going
down on one knee before me, and I blushed, noticing in again how
handsome he was.
He took me down into that glorious dirt
city, and all who saw me cheered. I chose not to go and see the
smoking ruins of that honeycomb city. He asked me to stay in his
palace with him, and I agreed. Days in our world were years there,
small people have small days. Time flew by for me as well as him. I
lived there in that palace and fed upon dew drops and tiny crumbs,
and they were the most delicious things I ever tasted. Every day, the
prince and I would look at each other with more and more longing.
Even after all this time, the scent of
honey had not quite died from his skin. When we kissed, the sweet
taste lingered on his lips. He gathered me gently into his arms.
There was no need to say what we felt for each other, yet we said it
anyway, over and over again.
We were married in a grand chapel of
golden soil, built especially for our wedding. All of his subjects
watched and cheered us, as we were carried through the streets in a
carved palanquin. We were presented with the most wonderful presents,
including two pairs of clockwork wings stolen off the enemy, with
which we could soar through the sky and look down on his glorious
city. A city that was now mine too.
We were so happy the day I discovered I
was with child, and so were his people. An ant prince is a special
thing, for only he can open the portal between the worlds. And this
prince would be very special, the child of their prince, and their
strange but beautiful saviour, oddly attractive, even with her pale
skin and only two arms.
But our happiness was not to last. One
day there came a terrible earthquake. The buildings shook, the
citizens of the city were milling and screaming in fear. We saw the
huge feet coming towards our city. I, like the others, was terrified.
I was only a few feet high, how could I defend our city now?
I watched in horror as the feet came
down on a building, crushing all inside.
'Humans!' cried the prince in horror. I
felt fear grip my heart. I may have thought of myself as human once,
but now I was one of the ant people, and humans were the enemy.
'I can save you!' I cried, 'take me
back to my world, I will be big again, I can stop it!'
My prince nodded, he took my hand, the
world began to shake even harder.
I stood there, by the half ruined city,
and saw my brother wantonly stomp more of my people under his feet.
'Stop!' I cried, as the royal palace
crumbled under his foot. Had my husband been in there? My heart ached
at the thought.
I dragged my brother away from the ant
nest.
'What are you doing,' he demanded,
'these are pests, I am just dispensing with them, as you did with the
bees nest!'
'No,' I cried, 'they are people like
us, although tiny, they have their own lives, their own loves, their
own cities! Each life you destroy is a tragedy.'
He looked at me as if I was mad, but
shrugged.
'There's no need to get hysterical
about it, sister, I'll leave your precious ants alone if they meant
that much to you,' he wandered off, muttering that I was losing my
mind.
I nearly did lose my mind after that,
for, though I searched the garden, so careful not to step on any ant,
I could find my husband nowhere. Finally, I noticed that a string of
ants was following me. I got down to look at them. I would have
recognised my husband anywhere, but none of them was him. The ants
lined up in front of me, and slowly bowed. It was then that I knew
for sure my husband was dead. These were only common ant people.
Unlike my prince, they could not communicate with me in this world,
and they could not bring me back. I was trapped in this world until
another prince came along.
I locked myself in my room and cried
for days, until the day when I finally received my hope. I felt the
kicking inside my belly, and knew that my child was still in there.
My husband's child. I knew that he, too, would be an ant prince.
Some people, my brother and mother
included, think I am lying. But if I am lying, then where did this
child come from, this child I gave birth to just weeks after I
returned? This child with dark, dark skin and the scent of sticky
honey about him.
Every day, I go down to the garden, I
watch our subjects rebuild the city in readiness for us. It will be
years in our time, centuries in theirs. Centuries without a prince,
but I know they will keep the faith, and I will continue to visit, to
give them hope. They will pass the legend down over the generations,
they will be ready for us when we finally come.
I miss my lord every day. I know I
shall never marry again, never love again. But I am comforted by the
thought that one day our son will grow up, and he will be able to
open the portal between worlds, as only an ant prince can. He will
take us both back to that world, the place where we belong. Our
kingdom of dirt.
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