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About three years into their marriage, the Rosethorns' lives were stuck by calamity and bad fortune. Clay first came down with a near fatal illness, and had to spend more than three months bed ridden. He did however recover, but this was the beginning of their family's collapse. Holly was naturally worried sick and beside herself about Clay, taking her attention away at times from events from around her. Then in a very unfortunate accident, her son, Slate wandered off during a family outing, a little nature excursion. As Holly was tending to one of Misty's needs, she discovers Slate missing, and upon finding him on top of a rock, attempted to coax the young ant down, and in the process, he sliped and fell, and was killed from the accident.
Holly is understandably hurt tremendously, but believes in a life here after, so she knows she'll see her son again. But without the help of her extremely ill husband, she turns to the support of another member of the colony, Chip. Chip is also married, and very devoted to his wife and family, but is also a very caring individual, and does what he can to give hope and emotional comfort to Holly.
However, various members of the colony feel that Holly and Chip's 'friendship' is inappropriate, as the are both married, and several of the members report their feelings to the Queen of the colony, who is also very young, and is neither married nor have children. The queen takes the words of the other colonists under advisement, and soon tells Holly and Clay they can no longer interact. Other members of the colony at this time also feel that Holly may be an unfit parent, particularly at this time, with so much emotional bereavement, and the terrible accident involving Slate.
The queen, in a sincere desire to help, decides that it would be in Holly's best interest that Misty is given to the care of another family for the time being. The separation of Mother and Daughter, now her only child, is more than Holly can bare. She makes a heartfelt petition to the queen, who stays with her original decision to have Misty kept under the care of the other family until Holly's stress and bereavement has passed.
Holly then turns fully to the only support she has left, her immediate family. They know Holly well, and then also begin to petition with the queen for Holly to have her child back. But the queen stands firm, fearing that with enough prodding, the colony can get it's way with her. A really bad mistake. Holly then internalizes all of the grief, and lack of support of her colony, including her closest friends, and in a fit of absolute resentment, decides to leave the colony. Part in fact that stress is placed on her family for supporting her. It became a near witch hunt, with many colonists making horrible accusations about Holly's parenting skills.
About a days distance from her home, Holly is discovered by slavers, and makes a heart felt plea to let her go, retelling of her incident. The bug that she tells her plight offers to help, if she is willing to tell the whereabouts of her colony. Holly, who in a fit of resentment does so, under the condition that her family be spared.
The deal was made.
A good portion of the ant slave trade organization converged on the colony, took the queen hostage, and sold off the entire colony as salves in short order. Holly was promised that she and her family would be relocated, but when she arrived at the next colony, she was informed that her family was already sold, and that if she wanted to preserve her own freedom, she would go along with the 'pied piper' program. She could do nothing for her family, and having grown a genuine hatred for her fellow ant, she had no problem in carrying out her orders. However, at the loss of her children, it would take some time to work on kids again. So she targeted young adult ants, who seemed more vulnerable.
The first colony she went in search for was Ant Island. She was still so bereaved that she had no trouble passing herself off as a victim of slavers, which was true, but her motives were based on falsehoods, and her claims on how her family were treated were falsified.
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