6 – Tan and Antina

Anthill Kingdom, 1 hour after Antonio and Nanthan’s departure:

The night was surprisingly more eventful than any other night has been in the Anthill Kingdom ever since the Gates have closed down… This was because this night the Gates, while only for a few seconds, have re-opened again, to let two brave ants go on a grand adventure, that may very well be the key to saving the falling Kingdom of Castanea…

And, while this was an event that brought hope and joy back into good ol’ Anthill, there was one ant that was very sad and upset…

The ant’s name was Tan, and his best friend, Antonio, was one of the two ants who left the Kingdom, in fact, it was Antonio’s idea to leave the Kingdom and search for the Great Knights in the first place!

And the reason for this idea coming to life was Tan… or… his attempts at making his friend open his eyes… Tan tried to show Antonio that the Knights were no more… nobody except Antonio believed that they were even around anymore…

Well… nobody except Antonio and the Queen, clearly, as she had approved that the Gates open for Antonio…

And this was what made Tan upset more than anything else… The fact that the Queen had the same childish hopes that only the immature Antonio possessed made Tan angry… it made him angry at his Queen, and he never thought he would feel this way towards her decisions…

But more than upset Tan felt… sad…

The words his friend told him before he rushed off to his adventure felt like the last words one would hear from a loved one who’s passing away…

‘I’m here to say my farewell… say ‘hi’ to Antina for me… that’s all…’

“Antonio… stupid fool…”, Tan mumbled to himself as he searched for Antina in order to do what his friend asked him to…

Antina was a gorgeous, young female worker ant. She knew Tan and Antonio from when they were all kids… She remembers hanging out with them a lot after school. They would often play ‘Knights’ with some other ants from the neighbourhood. The game was – as the name suggested – a game where five ants would pretend to be the Great Knights, while one ant – usually picked by voting – would play the role of Ozara, the Grand Menace.

There was only one simple rule: Ozara would always be defeated by the Great Knights…

This simple rule was enough to make nobody want to play the role of Ozara, as this would mean getting beaten up by the other ants. Of course, as this was still but a game, nobody actually got injured in the ‘fights’, they were more like ‘pretending to fight’ rather than actually fighting…

Since Antina was usually the only female ant that would play she would always play the role of Lucana, the sharp. Tan would often choose to play as Dan, the mighty or Diablo, the heavy, while Antonio was often the one being voted on to play the role of Ozara…

But Antonio never complained, even tho he never wanted to play as Ozara, if everybody else had fun, so did he.

This was one perk that Antina really liked about her childhood friend. He was always doing everything he could to make people around him happy. While this was sometimes annoying, most of the time it was quite heartwarming and sweet…

And the thing is, while Tan had changed and matured over the seasons, Antonio pretty much stayed the same…

While Tan turned from a clumsy, overconfident yet charming ant to a serious, helpful and quiet ant, Antonio was always the childish, loud, yet good-hearted and delightful ant he always has been…

So when Antonio, out of all the ants in the Kingdom, decided to go on such a grand, honourable and dangerous mission, to say that Antina was shocked would be an understatement.

This is what made her remember all the precious memories she had had of her childhood friends…

This is what made her feel sad…

She did not know why she felt this way, as she did not talk to Antonio in seasons… they were working in different parts of Anthill and never saw each other on the street neither…

She did see Tan a few times and greeted him. He always said the same thing to her: “Good luck at work… Antonio said ‘hi’…”

She never payed too much attention to it… still, it made her happy that an old friend of hers still remembered her, which was not the case with the other ants from her old neighbourhood…

Her thoughts and recalling of her old memories were interrupted by the sudden calling of her name: “ANTINA!!”, a familiar voice called.

She turned around to face Tan, her only other good childhood friend. She did not need to guess why he was there…

“… I guess you know…”, he said.

“Everyone in Anthill knows, Tan…”, she said.

“I… I know we haven’t really talked much over the seasons… but, you see… Antonio, he…”, Tan paused for a few moments.

“Why did he have to leave, Tan? I mean… I know why, but… why? I’ve read about the outside, Tan, and I’m sure you have, too… we both know he ain’t suited for the dangers that are out there…”, Antina’s eyes got wet as she spoke.

“I… I know… it’s my fault… I… All I did was try to make him see, Antina… Make him open his eyes… make him see how fucked up the whole Castanea is! How there’s no hope left!! How the Knights are long gone and how everybody knows that!! How he should stop pretending to not see!!”

“You know how Antonio is! You know he would never lose hope, even if there was no hope left!!”

“I know! And that’s why I thought nothing of it… I didn’t think anything big would happen… but… the Queen clearly had the same childish hopes like Antonio… so she sent him out there to his demise…”

“Don’t say that!”, Antina’s eyes got more wet, “Don’t even- Don’t… he will not die… he can’t!”

“… I’m here to tell you something… something his immature self never had the guts to do so… You see, Antina… Antonio liked you… like… a lot… and he… he never had the guts to tell you that… well… until today… He wanted to finally find you… he wanted to ask you out… but… well… after I told him what I did… he ran to the Queen’s Chamber and… ya know…”

“W-What…”, Antina could never understand her own emotions… she often had random mood swings that she could not control… and she could never understand the weird feelings she had for Antonio and Tan… on one hand they were her only childhood friends she had at least some connection to… on the other hand she never really saw them anymore, and sometimes she wasn’t even sure if the two of them even remembered her anymore… but… every time she saw Tan, he greeted her, wished her good luck and greeted her from Antonio too… whenever this happened it made Antina feel warm and happy… happy that her childhood friends still remember her… happy that Antonio still thinks of her… she did not know if she liked Antonio as a friend, or as something more, but she was certain in one thing… if any of the two – Tan or Antonio – died, it would break her…

“Why are you telling me t-this?”, Antina said.

“Before Antonio left… he visited me, briefly… he did not stay long… all he said was ‘farewell’ and ‘say ‘hi’ to Antina for me’…”

When she heard this, Antina couldn’t hold it anymore. She started crying. “An...tonio…”

“… I’m… I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to make you upset…”, Tan tried to comfort Antina.

“Well… you sh-shouldn’t have told me anything! H-How can I not be upset when I know that one of the only people that ever cared about me is out there, facing death at any moment!! You sh-should’ve stopped him!! W-When he visited you! Y-You should’ve tried to stop him!!”

“I did! But he wouldn’t-”

“Stop! I don’t want to hear it… go! Leave me alone… p-please.”

Tan listened and left, feeling disappointed at himself for not being able to stop Antonio from leaving… for making Antina cry… for being a horrible friend…

“Yes… I am a horrible friend…”, he told himself, “But… I will fix it! I will bring Antonio back! ”

When Tan made it home he took a thin piece of wood on which he could write on – along with all of the Trao he had saved up over the seasons – over 70 – and headed straight to the Palace…

When he was near the Queen’s Chamber, he put the bag in which he held his Trao down, in order to make as little noise as possible. He knew that the Queen had two guards – Bobant and Nanthan – the latter of which had gone with Antonio on his journey. And everyone knew Bobant was an old, lazy guard who always slept on duty.

Tan snuck up on Bobant, who was once again fast asleep, and he carefully withdrew Bobant’s blade from the belt it was held in.

“Sorry, Bobant, but I need this…”, he whispered as he took his bag and left the Palace…

Tan went back to Antina’s house, took some mud from nearby and wrote something on the thin piece of wood he had. He put it in front of the doors of Antina’s house and left…

He made it to the now re-closed Gates and snuck up to one of the guards. The guard was surprised by Tan’s sudden appearance, but did not make much noise as he asked: “What the hell are you-”, but Tan put his top left leg on the guard’s mouth and said: “20 Trao for you to let me out.”

The guard and Tan stood still for a few moments. Tan took twenty Trao out of his bag and showed them to the guard, who seemed amazed by what he saw. The guard nodded his head, and Tan let go of the guard’s mouth.

The guard took the Trao and quietly opened the gates for juuuust enough for an ant to squeeze through. As soon as Tan passed, the Gates re-re-closed…

“No going back, now…”, he said to himself and started heading towards his first destination: BeetleField…

* * *

When she woke up the next day, Antina did not have the will to do anything, but she knew she had to go to work… it would at least take her mind off everything…

Or so she thought…

As for when she had exited her little house, she found a surprise waiting for her in front of her doors…

A simple wooden letter reading: “Sorry… will bring Antonio back… promise… Tan”

“N-Nooo…”, Antina’s tears formed in her eyes once again, and she went back inside her house…

“Not you too, Tan…”

* * *