DATE: July 24 - 25 2003 CAST: Holly and Walter Ant Island - Hole in the Tree Over the years this hole in the tree has grown to be a gaping cavern, large enough to hold many ants. The grayed bark is slightly rough, patterned with threadlike cracks. The back of this hollow is most always lined with leaves swept in by the wind, with the occasional twig and acorn mixed in. In the warm months, particularly during harvests and outdoor banquets, there is usually at least one ant posted here to keep watch over the Island through a grass blade telescope. Some small potted mushrooms are kept here, plain and lackluster during the day; they are only truly useful at night when their blue-white glow is revealed.    A fairly deep groove skirts the inside bottom edge of the entrance, a natural condition helped along by time and rain. Wedged in the furrow is a large rounded stone that the colonists either can't or won't remove. The latter is more likely, since someone went to the trouble to paint a bright red bird on it. With a fairly good sized acorn held firmly in both hands, the female ant named Holly walks toward the edge of the opening of the 'bird hole'; a knothole that the Ant Island colonists used to create the 'fake bird' to scare off grasshoppers, or something like that. At least that's the word she's been able to get consistent. "I don't know why you guys don't just build him a shrine and get it over with," mutters the female ant with sarcasm. She then tosses the acorn over the edge, and down to the ground. After stealing a view of the surrounding area, one that even Holly has to admit is quite pretty, goes back to grab a yellow tinted, wayward leaf. Further down the tree, an ant of a muddy-lavender color wearing a leaf backpack climbs his way up towards the same hole with methodical care. It's after he's covered half the distance that he's startled by a falling acorn flying past his head. "Watch it," he exclaims, though he's likely too far down to be heard as yet. Gritting his teeth, he resumes his climb. Holly bends over, and picks up a few leaves. But instead of walking back over to the edge of the knothole, she attempts to let a few float out of the hole. While four of the leaves manage to exit the hole in a rather splendid little twist, and then disappear out of sight, two stop shy of the edge. The blue female ant's eyes roll, and after a moment of grumbling, she picks the others up and shoves them over the edge. "Why does nothing work the way you want it to," she inquires morosely. Another acorn is then located. Leaves now, that's a little better than nearly being bludgeoned by an acorn, but it still doesn't make getting up the tree any easier. Walter, as the climbing ant is known, flinches as a leaf or two flutters dangerously close and tightens his grip on the tree's rough surface. Grimacing, he begins to climb over the lip of the hole, only to get slapped in the face with a sizable leaf. "Mph." Oh, and about that other acorn? Well... it's a bit heavier than it looks. Quite a bit, really. Holly bends over, and after letting out a grunt and an "Oh boy!", she manages a few steps but loses grip, and it quickly drops to the floor of the knothole... and her right foot. "OW," she screams out with pain then with malice in her countenance, bends down and shoves the acorn over the side. "There, you stupid thing!" Holly then hobbles back and grabs a couple more leaves, but this time she just shoves them over the side. Almost there, almost-- wham. Walter slides down a considerable distance, but it's amazing he doesn't completely lose his grip and fall the rest of the way, all things considered. He's going to be feeling that acorn for awhile. Dancing specks of light blur his vision and the ringing sound in his head blots out most all sensation of the leaves flying past. Once he's sufficiently recovered, he slowly and painfully climbs into the hole and collapses into a heap. "Do you... realize... you can kill someone that way...?" A few more leaves are taken in hand and lifted, but before she can even turn around a voice suddenly speaks to her, causing her to drop the leaves. "Oh my... uh!" She then runs over... okay, limps over quickly to the collapsed ant. "Oh... I'm so sorry. I had... uhg." She looks down at the poor ant and winces. "I /really/ had no idea you were out there!" She then stands in a rather helpless position to the male ant's right, bending over in case he needs help. "It was an accident! Really!" While by and large Holly is concerned with the ant's condition, she's worried it might reflect on her, and be punished as she was all those months ago. Some colonies are so unforgiving... At first Walter really doesn't seem to be aware of Holly drawing close, if his dazed look is any indication. When it finally does register he flinches away in alarm, but becomes much more subdued when he gets a better look at her. "Yeah... yeah." He presses on hand to the welt on his head and waves her off with the other. "Didn't they tell you there'd be another look-out?" Holly feels a little relieved as this ant seems to be okay. She then places a hand to her chin to consider this 'other outlook'. "I wonder if that was what that note I got I never had the chance to look at was about?" She drops her hand to her side, then goes over and picks up the fallen leaves. "I'm surprised they decided to send another person up here, especially after that situation with that clumsy ant at the puddle..." Her voice trails off as if lost in thought, but mostly desires to forget the whole incident. After a few more steps, she tosses the leaves over the edge. "Um... no one /else/ was coming up here too, were they?" Just her luck to clobber another ant on his or her way up. Walter reels a little as he climbs to his feet, and ends up bracing himself against a curved wall. "No," he mutters. "Two only. Unless I'm quite mistaken." After rubbing his head another moment, he lets his backpack slide off; it lands on the ground with a dull thud. Holly isn't taking any chances, and makes a studied look over the edge of the knothole for several seconds to see if anyone else is out there. Once satisfied, she grabs the last of the fallen leaves, to toss them away. "Dang! Whatcha got in the pack," she inquires as the thud hits the ground. "You didn't bring rocks or something?" A joke? From Holly? Wow. "Just kidding." The leaves are then thrown down. "No." Walter kneels down next to the discarded backpack--safer to be closer to the 'ground' right now anyway--and lifts the flap. He pulls out some leaf-packets and two small flowers. The smell of crushed grain and mushrooms rises from the former, while the latter glisten with water. These are closely followed by a spare glowing mushroom, a knife, and a chunk of wood about the size of a fist. Everything is meticulously arranged. The blue, female ant looks down at the supplies with interest that quickly grows to alarm. "Um... how long are we supposed to /be/ up here, anyway?" It would seem that perhaps another detail was missed in that letter Holly never got the chance to look at. "I'm probably going to have to head back down at some point for food and water if it's /that/ long." Her eyes then shift from the location that Walter is kneeling, to the knothole entrance and back again. "Good thing you're here, so one of us can still keep watch." "Possibly till moonset," Walter says, not looking up as he sets the food and water off to one side. "Or until they send up another team to take over for us. Should be enough, whatever it may be." After scanning the area further, he locates a blade of grass folded up into a funnel shape, one end clutching a bead of dew. He bends over to retrieve it, grimacingly pressing his hand to his bruise again. Holly ohs. "Okay then." She looks for a semi comfortable location and sits down to massage her injured foot. "Lousy acorn..." she mutters to herself, then stops shy. "Why couldn't they have just told me about all this when they assigned me to be a look out? Why a note? It's not that my memory is /that/ bad, and besides, what if someone's aphid got loose and ate it before I had a chance to read it... providing I had?" She watches the other ant with interest. "Pfft! I don't even know your name, for Pete's sake." She then mutters something about poorly organized colonies under her breath. Walter rises cautiously, making certain the dizziness has gone. He grasps a dry leaf by its stem and drags it over to the edge; it rasps across the ground the entire way until he flings it away. After absently listening to Holly he heaves a sigh and glances upward, as if silently entreating the heavens to tell him why he must endure all this. He moves for another leaf to dispose of. "Walter Forager," he says, in response to the remark of not knowing his name. A nod is given in response to the name. "Walter." Holly then sighs softly. "And naturally you know who I am, so there is no reason to go into detail about that..." Her eyes dart toward the entrance of the knothole, in hopes that no comment is made about that. Surely everyone knows by now, and has gotten used to it. Haven't they? Without waiting for a response, she walks over to and picks up a small acorn, a little hobble in her step, but is showing improvement. Walter raises an eyeridge. "No. As a matter of fact I don't." Another leaf is sent flourishing in the breeze, closely followed by another. A long stare is given to Walter. "You... you're serious? Wow." She's a bit hesitant as to how to proceed. She's actually met someone here that doesn't know about her? But now his interest is piqued, and he'll probably want to know. 'Swell.' she thinks to herself. 'Well, at least for once I can tell the story, getting things a little more straight than usual... That is if telling is necessary.' "I'm Holly. Holly Rosethorn." Walter looks at Holly for a moment, but his gaze soon shifts to focus beyond her, his expression settling somewhere between vague recognition and puzzlement. After a time he shakes his head. "I think I've heard your name before, but the how and why isn't coming to me. I don't usually trouble myself with keeping track of gossip. Acorn probably dashed it out of my head, anyway," he concludes dryly. He picks up another leaf and hauls it towards the entrance. Speaking of acorns... Holly takes the one in her hands and tosses it out the opening. "Hmm. Well... I won't bore you with the details. Let's just say I served my time, and the past is in the past, okay?" 'Hopefully that'll do it,' she muses to herself. 'Stupid me for assuming he knew me. He's obviously not a native, with that coloring of his...' Suddenly an idea comes to mind. "You're not from around here, are you?" "Served your time. I see." Walter passes a sideglance to Holly, but his expression reveals little, and his voice conveys no emotion on the matter. After casting another leaf to the wind, he picks up the telescope and gazes through it, checking on the surrounding landscape. For awhile it seems as if he has no intention of answering Holly's question. But after some time passes, "No. I haven't been here that long." Holly grabs and tosses a leaf out the opening, she assumes a position near Walter, looking out into the distance. Not at anything in particular, but to the general view. "I...see." She looks back at Walter as he gazes through the telescope. Even though relief is felt in being able to shift the attention from her, it seems these two have something in common. "Where are you originally from?" Walter lowers the telescope slightly, offering the most fleeting of glances to Holly. "Now really," he says, voice straying from deadpan and approaching facetious, "you don't want me to bore you with the details." Holly chuckles humorously. "Bore me with the details. And do I look entertained out here?" A slight glance is passed to the other ant. "Unless it's a difficult subject for you... I was just curious." She then finds it necessary to shift her weight off of her injured foot. "Well then. Have you heard the story about a giant dragonfly dropping in from the clear blue sky, carrying some baggage?" Walter does not wait for the answer before he continues: "I was the baggage. Or so I've been told. When you've been out cold, there's some things you have to take people's word for." His eyes become shaded for a moment. "Long before that, I came from a colony near a lake that let into the riverbed. At least I assume it's part of the riverbed surrounding the Island." The eyes of Holly go a little wider as Walter tells of his arrival, and his other home. "Wow. That's... Yeah, now that you mention it, I do seem to remember hearing about that." For a long moment, she dwells upon this incident. There is something troubling her, but she can't put her finger upon it. She then contemplates the similarities in her situation. "It must be hard, being in a colony by yourself, with no one else you know here." She is speaking more for herself than Walter, but doesn't let on about that. Walter makes a study of the telescope itself. "Yes. Well. That's not such a problem," he says. "My stepsister was here already, and she wouldn't let me alone for awhile." More and more this situation gives Holly a bit of unexplained edginess. "So... your sister who was from your old colony was here before you got here? That's, that's interesting. I..." Suddenly, all the disconected pieces of Holly's memory come together, but before she makes any assumptions this time, she decide to make sure of her information. "Who here is your sister-- I mean, step sister?" If Walter notices any hint of Holly's edginess, he makes no sign of it. He takes another look at the distant lands through the telescope, and answers, "Willow Northtunnels. Girl with the notebook. Can't miss her." Holly tightens and relaxes her fists a few times, then looks out the opening. 'Wonderful! Even that, that meddling child has family here and I don't. There is no justice in this world.' She manages to let her face relax from the nasty glare she passes to the sky. "So... she wouldn't leave you alone? I guess family members can be that way." Walter looks at Holly again, just barely catching her tense stance before she forcibly relaxes. He gives her a peculiar look, one eyeridge slightly lowered, but does not remark on it. "Yes. But frankly she needs more minding than I do. Always had a way of falling into situations she has no business getting mixed up in." 'Well... it looks like perhaps I'm not the only one who feels the way I do about that brat,' thinks Holly about this interesting idea. "Oh... you don't say? Poking her antenna into places they don't belong huh?" A slightly wry smile shows on her face. "Like what? If you don't mind me asking?" Walter's expression tightens slightly. His gaze slides away to focus on nothing in particular. "Recently she went with some kid who claimed to be an 'experienced scout' to look at something he found in the riverbed." Annoyance gives an edge to his tone. "She hurt herself falling down a crack. Couldn't climb out, of course. We had to pull her up." Holly hmms as Walter tells her of this situation. "A real pain in the abdomen. It's too bad someone here can't keep a tighter reign on reckless, bothersome kids like her." She's beginning to feel a temptation to tell Walter about what happened, in case he very well might be on her side over the situation. 'But why not?' Her punishment is over, and she has no desire to leave the colony, what with slavers out there who would do horrible things to her if found. "To be honest, she's been a problem to me too." Walter glances at Holly sharply. He promptly looks away again, the expression fading as suddenly as it appeared. He folds his arms as he gazes out into the distance. "In what way?" he asks, lowly. "Look... before I tell you what happened, I don't expect anyone to understand. Until they've had to deal with what I had to deal with it." She folds her arms and looks sideways at Walter. "I had to do what I had to do, and that meddling brat sister of yours is the reason I had to be punished. I didn't want to be sold into slavery, so I had to send that ant Basil instead. But your sister had to interfere and so that snooty Mr. Soil and later on the rest of the colony found out, and so I'm permanently stuck here because of her." She then awaits the response. Walter slowly closes his eyes. His hands have become noticeably tense, rigid. As has his entire form-- all the way up to his antennae. He seems to be concentrating all his strength in keeping some emotion bottled up, delaying a breaking point. "For starters," he begins in a very quiet, tight voice, "Stop insulting my sister. You may think my... annoyance... at her actions in the past allows you to say such things, but it doesn't. I don't want to hear it. Secondly... I knew Basil, and he did not deserve to be sold into slavery. Thirdly... being permanently stuck in a small peaceful colony is far better than the alternative. I assure you." Holly is quite taken back at the response from Walter. Clearly this wasn't the response she expected. But what is done, is done. "Look... I never said that anyone /deserved/ to be sold into slavery. But what I did I did with the intent of saving my family, and I was lied to by those slavers, as they broke their word to me. If I hadn't sold Basil into slavery, they very well might have killed me outright." She too is becoming very tense. "So how I feel about your sister really makes no difference, does it? My life is more important than one ant's freedom." The tension suddenly leaves Walter's form, leaving him slumped and weary. He refuses to look at Holly now, in favor of gazing out into the sky through half-lidded eyes. "Slavery is a form of death in itself. It's worse than a death sentence." He turns completely away and withdraws further into the hole. "I'm sorry, I don't understand." Holly's shoulders shrug then drop again. "I fear death. Probably as much as the next ant. I even lost my young son to death. I'm not questioning anyone's point of view, but at least in slavery a person still lives, if not having their freedom." She then becomes a little lost in thought as she remembers more of what happened during this situation. "I just wish your sister hadn't gotten involved, but I guess being Basil's friend, she had to, didn't she?" Walter sighs quietly. "I hope you never understand," he murmurs; there's a slightly cloggy quality to his voice now. "And yes. She had to do what she felt was right." He partially turns back towards the other ant, and his eyes are unusually bright. "Nothing can justify what you did. But I understand self-preservation. And loss. I am sorry for you." Holly can hardly say anything in response to that. Not only is it the only form of sympathy she's been given, but that tone in Walter's voice just about knocks her back. "If you want me to leave, I will. I'll tell them I got sick or didn't realize I had a fear of heights or whatnot; make up some excuse." She then begins to head toward the entrance to the knothole. "The main reason I want to leave this tiny little island is so I can go where no one knows me, and I can make a new start. Maybe do something right for a change." Walter studies the ground for a long while, silently composing himself. He clears his throat. "If you've served out your time, and you've done nothing for this long, they have no reason to keep a close eye on you. They may even let you go. But you don't want to set out without knowing where you're going. There are slaver sites. Unfriendly anthills. You may run out of supplies before you find anything." Another long pause. "I have an idea, but... not now. We can discuss it later." Holly nods a couple times in a rather solemn manner. The idea of getting out of this colony would normally be the best news she'd heard in quite a long time, but the mood at the moment affects her feelings. She then walks to the edge of the knothole and sits with both legs hanging over the edge, becoming for the moment lost in thought. Then a bit of concern temporarily interrupts this period of silence for a moment or two. She looks back at Walter to express her personal thoughts. "I'm sorry, I... I didn't mean to say anything to offend you, but... um... This - - This doesn't need to get out to the other colonists, does it?" Walter moves to stand by the edge of the hole as well, but does not sit down. With arms folded he gazes down at the anthill clearing far below, where unsurprisingly a mess of leaves and acorns have gathered. "The discussion of your past actions; the idea of sending you on your way; why my head hurts like sun's fury; or D, all of the above?" Walter asks, the dry and level tone making a speedy return. "No. You don't have to worry. I need to gather some information, verify if the bits and pieces I've heard are true. But that's the extent of it. I'll reveal nothing." The female ant's eyes follow the actions of Walter, including the 'debris field' far below. She then peers back at him for a moment and nods. "Thank you for your discretion." She exhales a little. "It's not the colonists here I worry about. It's the council. I'm worried that if they caught wind of this, I could be put on probation again." Holly then picks up a small acorn cap and tosses it like a Frisbee past the nearest tree limb, which then takes a spiral trip to its eventual resting place below. "Okay, take all the time you need." Walter turns away from the gaping entrance and walks over to the stone instead. He eyes the bright red bird painted on its surface, and absently shakes his head. He says nothing for the time being. Holly looks from Walter back out to the opening and toward the horizon. She idly wonders what's out there, and if this muddy lavender ant can help her, where her next home will be. Perhaps a happier life, elsewhere. Walter abruptly reaches down and picks up his backpack. A wince shows, for his bruised head doesn't seem to be very forgiving of quick movements right now. He proceeds more slowly, pushing the knife and wood-piece to the bottom of the backpack before sliding it over his shoulders. The food and water-containing flowers are left untouched. "You should hear from me in a few days." With that, he makes his way back towards the edge of the hole. A simple nod is passed to Walter as he packs things up and begins to depart. "Thanks for the food, and your help," she offers sincerely. "I don't go out much, so I'll be in my chamber if you need and can't find me. I'm in the Second Western Residential Tunnel, six leaf doors down on the right." And a simple nod is all Walter gives in return. After checking the straps on his backpack and making the appropriate adjustments, he climbs over the edge and begins his descent down the side of the tree. [END LOG] Relating log: A New Start Return to: Ant Island logs.

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