Chapter 3

Atta awoke first to the loud rain outside. It had stopped thundering, but the rain was relentless. She carefully crawled out of Flik's embrace, and then turned to look at the ant. He was sitting upright but asleep. Some of the smaller cuts had started to heal, but he was still as pale as ever. She slowly lowered him until he was lying down and pulled the blanket back to check on his wound. The dandelion strip was stiff with dry blood. Calmly, she started to remove it. Underneath, all she could see was dry blood. She located the blanket she had made and ripped a piece off. She soaked it in the remains of the dew drop from yesterday and went to cleaning the wound. She had learned a bit about medical care from her mother who believed it was only proper for a queen ant to know how a wound should be treated. She never thought she'd have to use that knowledge. She was quite careful as to not irritate the wound. Once she had finished cleaning she found another strip of dandelion stalk and wrapped the cleaned wound. Done with her work she covered Flik up and wrapped herself in her own blanket. It had gotten quite cold in the cave. She needed to get back to the colony soon, they were probably wondering where she and Flik were. She looked at Flik who had started shaking again, Atta knelt over him and noticed he had broken into a cold sweat. She felt his forehead, he was burning with fever. His illness was worsening, she would have to leave with him soon if he were to ever heal. She looked outside at the rain, darkness was starting to retreat and morning was slowly getting its grip. Atta got up and moved closer to the mouth of the cave, the rain would have to stop before they went anywhere. She sat down and waited for the rain to stop.

He heard the soft voice of the princess calling his name and slowly opened his eyes. As the light poured in his eyes stung with pain and his head continued to throb. He felt exhausted, and everything seemed to be clouded. Flik couldn't see Atta clearly as she was kneeling directly over him. Even though she was speaking plainly he could barely make anything out. She was telling him they had to leave, while the rain had stopped. She said something else that he couldn't understand, and then asked if he was able to stand. Flik, slowly coming to his senses, tried to say something, but ended up nodding.

Atta carefully put Flik's arm over her shoulder and attempted to hoist him into a standing position. Halfway up Flik winced with pain, but determinedly kept going until he was standing leaning against Atta. She carefully shifted her weight so Flik was supporting himself. He was swaying but he managed to stay upright.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes…"

Flik answered in a hoarse whisper as he slowly opened his eyes. He had to concentrate on keeping the mass amounts of pain at bay so he could balance, if only he wasn't so tired. Slowly things came into focus, Atta was tying up the blankets and fastening them to her back. Flik finally realized that she was planning to leave now. He was happy they would at last return to the anthill. Atta belonged in her royal chambers, not in some damp cave tending to some mediocre ant, she should be helping to run the colony. Bright sunshine shined in from the mouth of the cave, perfect flying weather. Standing was taking a huge effort, and Flik decided he should conserve his energy for the flight home. He put a hand on the wall and used It for balance as he sat down. Touching the wall he noticed how very damp it was. The thought hit him like a brick wall. He looked around and realized with shock how dangerous the situation was. Flik knew what happened to structures once the soil in their walls became too moist, to his fear he saw large cracks forming in several locations. On closer inspection some of the cracks appeared to be growing, on instinct he yelled out.

"Atta, get out of the cave now!"

Atta, who had just completed her make shift backpack, jumped at the loudness of Flik's voice, but sensing the urgency immediately followed the orders. She reached the mouth of the cave quickly and only then did she start to wonder why it was necessary to leave the cave so suddenly. Safely outside she turned around to see what had caused Flik to panic, what she saw caused her to freeze to the spot in astonishment.

Knowing with certainty that he was in danger, Flik stood up as quickly as he could. But the moment he had gotten to his feet the walls began to tremble, small sections of the roof were falling off. Flik attempted to run to the exit but was struck by a wave of dizziness and a large rock. The combined effort of the two sent him to the ground, he had to muster all of his remaining energy just to keep awake. He felt new blood oozing from his shoulder due to the rock that had hit him, but the large rush of adrenalin kept the pain to a minimum. He began to crawl towards the entrance however to his utter despair everything went black. Not because of all the blood he had lost due to the opening of his wound, not because of the shower of rocks that had pelted him causing new bruises and gashes which bled, nor was the large rock that crushed his foot to blame for visibility becoming zero so quickly, the reason everything was dark was that the entrance to the cave had been blocked off completely by a pile a of rubble.

Watching the scene from outside Atta was in total shock. To her horror she saw Flik fall to the ground. She couldn't move to help him due to fear and the lasting effect of shock.She just gaped wide eyed and baffled as a mound of rock crashed down blocking the mouth of the cave. The sound brought her out of her befuddled state. Once the entrance had sealed, the cave seemed to settle, for the moment. She instinctively began clawing at the entrance but found that only the smaller stones would move for her, the majority of the rubble wouldn't budge. She felt a panic begin to rise in her.

"Flik…"

She whispered his name at first still trying to figure out what had just happened.

"Flik."

Her volume was rising as she began to grasp what horror had occurred.

"Flik!!"

Atta shouted his name, she desperately attempted at moving the rocks again as tears began to well up in her eyes. It was no use, why hadn't she helped him? Why did she just get out as quickly as possible without even thinking about him? She gave up on the rubble and started crying. She felt sick to her stomach as the guilt swept over her. It was impossible to think of how much she owed Flik, not just for saving the colony, but for everything. The one ant who risked his life for the well being of the entire colony, but also the only ant who actually listened to her, the ant who would never give up on her even after she had given up on herself, and now he was trapped, all because of her. The selfish princess who never thought once of repaying him. All she worried about was her well being, and in his most desperate hour, when he needed her most, she had left him to…to…

"Flik!? "

It wasn't that she had to repay him, not anymore. She just wanted to see him safe. She didn't care if that meant she had to look like a moron in front of the entire colony. As long as Flik was okay. She couldn't believe how long it had taken her to realize this.

"FLIK!! PLEASE ANSWER ME!!"

(Thanks soooo much to the few who have reviewed! The reviews were the reason I continued with this. Positive reviews are great and always welcome, but criticism is much needed due to the fact that this is my first time writing anything, I'm sure I have lots of room for improvement. So if you want me to keep adding chapters please review, I'll wait until I have at least six before I add the next one. Hope you enjoyed! Oh, and thanks racingwolf for those grammar tips! I think I fixed all of them. I'll be sure to review my chapters more thoroughly before posting them, but please continue posting any mistakes you find. -Leretta)