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When Basil Harvestwatcher was around the age of eighteen, he mostly stayed in or around the colony. Some of it was that he had taken on the apprentice job of tunnel inspection, required preliminary to working in the tunnels. The other reason no one really knew, but mostly figured it was due to the time when he got himself lost for the day.
Basil had spent a fair amount of time working in the harvesting areas but he didn’t care too mufh for it, but by and large that job simply didn’t appeal to him like working in the tunnels. And that was true, to a degree.
For one thing the weather outside was very unpredictable, while inside it was always a comfortable temperature, rain and even the occasional snow in Winter was something an ant just didn’t have to deal with. Okay, so it was very uncommon for it to snow while harvesting was going on, but that one day when he was stuck out on the top of that grain shivering like crazy trying to get his work done was essentially the catalyst that drove him to find a job working inside the colony.
After having spent a fair amount of time inside by his own choice, plus the extra hours of looking at cracks, trying to learn which ones were of a threat to the tunnel and which one’s weren’t, he’d finally had enough of that for one day and after requesting a couple days off from work (He seldom had requested personal or sick time) he decided to get outside the colony for the better part of the day.
His day began by checking out the river known as West River which at this time of the year still had a fair amount of water running through the typically dry bed. He’d packed himself a lunch and after munching on a few smaller grains and having some water he decided to do a little exploring.
About two hours later, Basil realized he was wandering into unfamiliar areas and quickly became aware that he was lost and wasn’t sure where West River Colony , his home, was.
“Oh, this is great, Basil,” he stated to himself sarcastically with anxiety slowly building. “You finally get outside to get away from the colony and you get yourself lost.”
The beige ant stopped to rest his feet. “This is just great. Well, I guess it’s what happens when I don’t spend enough time outside the colony, I don’t learn where things are and I wind up lost.”
Basil didn’t typically ‘talk to himself’ but there were times that he did find it easier to think things through or deal with stress. Clearly both were plaguing the teen ants mind so he naturally was finding this a very easy thing to do. After having a little rest and rubbing his feet he got up and walked a little bit more to see if he could find anything familiar. No such luck.
Plus it didn’t help that lunch was at least a couple hours ago and that the subtle feelings of hunger were starting to settle in. “Plus you didn’t carry any food with you...” complained the ant to himself.
Off in the distance he saw something that gave him a little encouragement; a very tall sunflower.
Basil quickly headed over to the towering plant and quickly took to climbing to the top. Clearly a vantage point that might help him to see if he could find any familiar land marks. After reaching the top with just a little trouble, (He was always a very good climber which was how he wound up with the job of climbing grain stalks in the first place...) he began to get a good look of the surrounding area. The sun was still high above and shown brightly, so he lifted his right hand and used it as a visor to screen out the sun and the glare. Nothing looked familiar at first, but then he began to hear the voices of other bugs.
“Momma! Momma! I think I found something!” called out a young girl’s voice.
“Whatcha find, Katie?”
“Just a rock,” the young girl’s voice stated in a dejected tone.
“Terrific! Someone down there might know where West River is,’ Basil excitedly told himself and quickly headed to the edge of the sunflower and looked over, but he didn’t see anyone.
“But...” called out the little girl with suppressed excitement, ‘I found an ant!’
Basil noticed that the voice of the little girl was very close to him and he smiled to himself that the little girl was paying him a visit. As he looked up and turned his head too meet her, to his absolute horror he found that the voice didn’t belong to a little girl bug but a humongous creature who was in fact standing next to the sunflower with her head down looking right at him. Basil very quickly rolled up into a very tight ball in horror. ‘What is this thing! She’s... enormous!’ screamed out the beige ant in his mind in a mind boggling whirl.
“Aw, he’s so cute!”
“Katie, the world is full of ants, besides, we’re out here to find a butterfly.”
The second voice was much more deeper and older in tone. Clearly an adult male...whatever it was. Basil wasn’t particularly interested in knowing what these creatures were, but that they’d just not hurt him. ‘Please... just don’t touch me. Leave me alone!’ cried the ant in his mind in terror.
“I have to agree with your dad, sweetie, we can find ants outside our home, but we’ve come out to get a butterfly for show and tell at school.”
That was a somewhat reassuring thought, though still having this giant creature staring down at him was enormously unsettling. For several seconds there was nothing but silence except for the creatures breathing, but suddenly out of no where he was pushed from one side by a strange object and forced into another, larger strange object. He found himself uncontrollably rolling inside of what he could not tell at first because of the rapid action, but after striking what felt like a wall of some type, he came to a stop. What he was inside was tilted somewhat and he heard strange sounds of rather high pitched scraping above him.
For several seconds Basil was out of sorts, to say the least, but as things became quiet again, he slowly opened his eyes to find that he was no longer on the dandelion, but inside of some sort of... he didn’t know what it was or how to describe it, but he also found he was on top of a very large hand with the same massive creature looking into the object at him. “Shhhh. We’re not gonna tell them what I’ve done, okay?” and continued to look at him. Basil slowly got to his feet and looked at the individual who had just spoken to him.
She was a rather peculiar looking creature. She had a face a lot like an ant, but it was different. For one thing, she had no antennae, but all of this... well, it was hard for him to tell. The closest he could tell was like really thin root fibers that hung down from her head, but they were really long and not the color of roots, but of a really light yellow tint.
“Katie! We need to be going soon. If you can’t find a butterfly, we’ll have to look elsewhere tomorrow!”
“Okay mom... I’m coming!”
The thing that Basil found himself in suddenly made a major drop causing his stomach to do the most peculiar thing and felt the most unpleasant sensation. However when he came to a stop, he struck one side of this object and his head smacked fairly hard against it. “OW!” called out the poor captured ant in pain. “Easy, will ya! I’m not indestructible!”
Katie was hiding the jar behind her back so her parents wouldn’t notice. She had to do it quickly so they’d not catch what she had done.
“No luck sweetie?”
“No butterflies, dad.”
“Okay... let’s go ahead and go.”
“Go? Go where?” asked the beige ant with a sudden increase in concern. Panic very quickly set in. “WAIT!!! STOP!” He shouted out as loud as he could. “I DON’T WANT TO GO WITH YOU! I HAVE TO GET HOME TO MY FAMILY!!!!!” but the shouting didn’t seem to do any good.
Suddenly the outer surroundings changed dramatically, and at first Basil thought that clouds had suddenly come over the sky, but upon looking above and then around him, he realized he was inside of some sort of... well, he had no idea what it could be. Nothing looked in any way familiar. He heard three rather deep thuds and in a few seconds the sound of some roaring then a hum.
Basil was still in a terrified feeling as the creature he figured out was named Katie looked at him again for several seconds. “Katie! Please let me go! I need to get home!” but while she was looking right at him she didn’t seem to hear him. “HELLO!” he shouted as loud as he could, but still no answer. “Great. She can’t hear me. I can hear her, but she can’t hear me.”
Katie smiled deeply at Basil, which was a slight touch of comfort, figuring that she wasn’t going to hurt him, but his heart was still pounding heartily. Suddenly he lost balance as some force caused him to shift his weight and he tumbled backwards onto his abdomen, but the impact didn’t hurt. He then looked up at Katie as she placed her hand over the top of whatever it was he was in and began to twist until the top came off in her hand. It was at this point he noticed that the top had several holes in it, but he wasn’t sure what for.
Katie peered inside at Basil and he glanced up at her. “It’s okay... you’ll be fine, little ant.”
“Katie? Do you have something in the jar?”
“Um....” was the little girl’s troubled reply.”
“I’ll take that as a yes,” said a male voice that Basil had pretty much figured out was her dad. “Katie, why did you capture an ant? You were supposed to capture a butterfly.”
“Sorry, daddy, but... but he’s such a cute ant!”
Basil blinked a couple of times. “Cute? Yeah.... well, I guess. My mom says I’m still cute...”
“Limmie have the jar”’ requested Katie’s dad, but as she was about to hand the jar over, there was a sudden jolt as the car hit a large pot hold and Katie lost grasp of the container which plummeted to the ground, sending Basil flying out and onto what he could only guess was moss.
“Aww! I dropped the ant!”
“Great,” said Katie’s father. “We have an ant loose in the car.”
“Don’t panic, everyone,” called out Katie’s mom, “We’ll find him. Katie, climb down and look under the seats, he’s bound to be down there somewhere, but be careful not to step on him.
“Okay.”
Basil had no intention of letting anyone find him as he ran under what he would best describe as a really wide tunnel and looked around to see if he could find any way out, but after a few minutes of searching he found no way to escape. He was trapped. He sat down and his emotions broke like a rainstorm and he began to cry. He was separated from his family and seriously doubted he’d ever see them again.
“I can’t find him.”
“That’s okay... we’ll look when we get home.”
After a few minutes, Basil was able to collect his feelings and catch his breath. As he laid down on the strangely soft ground he began to feel the ground shifting with him being pulled along. With all of the strange motions and such he didn’t think much of it, but when he realized he was out of the ‘tunnel’ he had been under, he looked up and saw Katie with that same strange object coming quickly down on him and before he was able to move, he was captured again and found himself once again held by Katie.
“I got him! I got him!”
“Very good, Katie,” stated her dad with a sound of frustration and a little sarcasm. “Do you have the lid on tight?”
“Yup!”
“Then hand the jar to me, okay?”
Katie did so and as Katie’s dad took a hold of the jar, he reached over and pushed on the button on the arm rest that caused the car door window to begin to roll down.
Katie’s mom turned and glanced at her husband in horror. “What are you doing?!”
“Getting rid of the ant,” he answered non-chalantly.
Katie’s mom reached over to her arm rest and slapped a button down that caused the window from continuing to roll down. “You’re /not/ going to kill that innocent creature. We found it and we’re going to take it back.”
Katie’s dad sighed and handed the jar over to his wife. “Fine.”
“HIM!” Katie shouted out.
Katie’s mom pulled the car off to the side of the road and both parents looked at their daughter with a mixture of surprise and alarm.
“He’s a /him/ not an it,” Katie stated firmly. It’s not nice to call him an ‘it’.
Both parents glanced at each other and then back at their daughter. “Sorry, Katie, you’re right, that’s not polite,” her mom stated first then her dad added, ‘You’re right, sweetie.”
Katie’s mom lifted the jar up and took a glance at the occupant. “Hi little guy. So sorry if we took you from your home.”
Basil blinked several times at Katie’s mom. “Um... well, I’m sure you meant no harm...”
“And I’ll bet your hungry too...” she stated as she pulled out her purse and began to sift around in it a little.
“Um... yeah. I am,” answered Basil incredulously.
Soon Katie’s mom found in her purse a cookie and carefully removed the top of the jar. “Now please stay put. It’s for your own good...” she then broke off a piece of the cookie and carefully deposited it into the jar next to Basil. “It’s okay... it’s tasty.” She then put the lid of the jar back securely in place. The jar was then gently placed into one of the built in cup holders of the center console of the car near the arm rest with tissue placed between the sides of the jar and the sides of the cup holders to keep the jar safely in place.
Basil took a sniff at the cookie, then broke off a small piece and after a bit of hesitation he took a small bite. It was tasty as Katie’s mom said it would be. Very, in fact. Basil quickly munched on the cookie as his hunger had grown significantly. After eating most of the cookie, Basil glanced up at Katie’s mom and had to smile. “You really are a mom, aren’t you.”
Soon Katie and her parents have arrived back at the area where they had found the little ant in the first place. “Momma? I can’t remember where we found him.”
“Well, we’re in the same area so I think he’ll be okay. How did you find him?”
“On the top of a sunflower.”
“Then that’s the best place to put him. He’ll be safe.”
Katie took careful hold of the jar, removed the lid and gently tilted the jar so Basil could easily climb out. “Okay.... there ya go. I’m sorry if we scared you.” She then offered a sad smile and said to the released Basil, “Bye.”
Basil watched Katie run off to where her parents were and he finally got a good look at what he was in for a bit of time. “Amazing.” He watched them get into the odd object and it started to move away under it’s own power. “Really amazing!”
Basil took a glance around where he was and this time he recognized something off in the distance. “The path!”
He quickly climbed down the sunflower, ran over to the path and smiled as he reached it. “The main path. I made it. Thanks Katie! Thanks Katie’s mom!”
Basil quickly ran home.
Basil never did mention to his family or anyone else what happened to him, just that he was lost. His mom was naturally concerned when he did make the occasional venture away from the colony and felt relief that he never ventured far from the ant hill after that day, though every once in a while when they’d be out as a family together, she noticed that he’d occasionally glance upward.
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