“Wh-who could have done this?” Symon whimpered.

Aniso thickly swallowed before rapidly scanning the area, his eyes eventually landing on something in the corner. “I may have an idea.”

In the corner of the room, tucked high on the wall under the ladder leading to the open attic, was a distinct wad of mud and paper that was all too familiar of a wasp's nest. Aniso's face once again scrunched into that uncharacteristically angry expression. Without another word, he flew up towards it, leaving Symon behind on the floor.

“Ah! Aniso! Wait for me!” Symon yelled as he chased Aniso on foot, but it did little to keep up with Aniso's impressive flying speed, as Aniso was up near the nest in seconds. 

The nest was shoddy work. A round mass of uneven mud and wood pulp that hung precariously from sticky supports that clung to the walls and ceiling. A dark opening in the center revealed the hollowed out entrance of the next. Despite its animalistic construction, the inside hosted signs of humanoid life. It was absolutely packed with supplies and treasures from the house. Any food that had survived after two years was meticulously scavenged and brought back to the hole. It was mostly an assortment of grains, rice, nuts; but there was also evidence that the occupant was skilled enough to get into the canned goods, judging by the chunks of peas and carrots that smelled heavily of soup stock and preservatives. 

A bed roll made from tissue was half folded in the back corner, with a cotton ball as a pillow. A tea light candle was the centerpiece of the room, its middle hollowed out from repeated use as a fire for cooking and cold nights. Scraps of wire laid atop a solid iron paper weight draped with a scouring pad to create a makeshift smithing table. 

“What do you see up there, Aniso!” Symon called from the floor.

“A miinu has definitely been living here. But it all seemed a little shabby to be a yellow jacket wasp camp.” Aniso replied as he snooped. “Wait a minute…”

As Aniso scanned the junk, he spotted a familiar object that he pulled from the pile. A small hand-carved wooden cane.

“This is Dr. Leif’s cane! This wasp definitely encountered him.” Aniso said, waving the cane about.

“Then you don't suppose he was-” Symon started, but his voice caught when his antenna picked up something moving in the air behind him, tingling like some sixth sense telling him to move. He instinctively ducked down, just in time for a dark shadow to swoop, accompanied with the sound of a gyroplane rudder fluttering. Before he could even look up to see what had knocked him to the ground, he heard the clang of metal against wood.

Symon glanced up above him to see someone new. A female miinu with dark grey skin and an abdomen whose vivid black and yellow coloration was a natural warning for the stinger that quivered in anticipation to go in for the kill.

The wasp had Aniso pinned against the wall in the air, a dark, iron rapier being held mere centimeters from striking the damselflies throat. The sword upon closer inspection was made from a nail, the head curved into the shape of a round guard, and the body hammered flat and filed into sharp edges. It was only being blocked by the cane still in Aniso’s hand.

“You have five seconds to explain why you are rooting through my things, thief.” The wasp hissed through chittering mandibles, her black eyes looking him up and down like a predator to prey.

“I’m the thief? This stuff doesn't even belong to you!” Aniso retorted. He swung the cane to knock her back.

“Haven't you ever heard of finders keepers?” She retracted her nail only to swing down again. “It's the most basic rule of our people!”

Aniso swiftly dodged the blade, now flying in midair once again. “This stuff already had owners, this cane belongs to someone from the Grotto.” 

“I thought I told you Grotto folks to leave me alone!” The wasp slashed at Aniso again, but he was just too fast for her wild and unruly strikes. Symon shielded his eyes from the tense fight but couldn't help but peek when he noticed the strange glow in Aniso’s eyes every time he'd dodge. It was almost as if rather than just reacting to the attacks, he was predicting them.

Even the wasp picked up on this, but only a little too late as Aniso swiftly snared her by the neck with his hook.

“Using magic huh? You ant dicksuckers are all full of cheap tricks!” She hissed, before delivering a kick into Aniso's stomach. Aniso gagged and doubled over, leaving him open for her to get a strike on his arm. Aniso yelled out as he clutched his arm now dripping mustard blood.

Symon felt helpless watching from the ground, he couldn't fly, he couldn’t intervene, and now people were getting hurt. He felt anxious tingling in his gut boil up and out into his limbs needing to be released.

“Will the both of you knock it off?!” His normally timid voice boomed, accompanied by the harsh sound of cicada screeching that sent a shockwave across the immediate area, knocking both of them out of the air and hitting the floor with a thud. It was only when Symon noticed his markings glowing a familiar red that faded just as quickly, that he realized what he’d done.

“Oh my goodness- I'm so sorry I- I don't know how that happened!” Symon nervously apologized.

Aniso sat up with a groan, and rubbed his sore ears. Still, he gave Symon an understanding smile.  “Huh? Oh no, I’m sorry, Symon. I got a little caught up in that fight.”

“Fuck..” The wasp hissed as she pulled herself off the ground. “Good going bozo, now you're gonna attract the bird.”

“I beg your pardon?” Symon asked, but as if to answer his own question he heard a strange sound inside the fireplace. 

It was a fluttering sound accompanied by the scraping of talons on stone sliding chaotically down the chimney. With a massive thud, an animal hits the bottom of the fireplace, kicking up years old ash and dust at the bottom. Symon coughed as the cloud of ash washed over the group and coated his lungs. The yellow jacket was quick to fly off into the safety of her little nest, leaving Symon to face the creature as the ash cleared. Its sleek, rotund form was the first thing he could make out, followed by its bold fiery orange and black plumage. Standing mere feet of them now was a jungle fowl rooster, a wild chicken. Smaller and sleeker than its fat cousins, it pecked hungrily at the poor Miinu corpses, mutilating them further. But eventually, the rooster would spot the living morsels.

Symon stood frozen as he made eye contact with the animal, whose form from this scale felt less of a docile farm animal, and more that of a hungry Tyrannosaur, eying its meals with not the dullard eyes of the pigeon he’d met before, but a predator. A long warble drew from its throat as it came closer, its talons scraping on the wood.

Just before it was able to strike down, Aniso swooped in to lift him in the air, just as the rooster slammed its beak into the floor. As soon as it realized it'd missed, it began flapping and squawking, snapping its beak in the air at the little bugs.

Aniso managed to land on the kitchen counter.

“What were you thinking just standing there?” He chastised.

Symon had come to his senses and processed the situation, “I don't know, shock I guess. I wasn't expecting a bird to be so intimidatingly large.”

Aniso looked over the edge of the counter to see the rooster still coming after them.

“Do you think it can reach up here?” He asked

The rooster jumped up, feathers flying as it ferociously flapped its wings to gain some extra height, grabbing onto the edge of the counter with its feet.

“Yep, it can! Aniso!” He scrambled back over to the damselfly, clambering on top of him. “Take us higher, take us higher!!”

“Gah! Symon, you're stepping on my arms!” He growled as he clumsily lifted Symon even higher. Unable to find higher ground, he settled for perching on the edge of the wasp’s nest. 

The yellow jacket stuck her head out with a glare. “Hey! What are you doing?”

Aniso pressed one hand against the wall while another hung precariously On the edge of the nest’s opening, meanwhile carrying a squirming Symon in his lower pair. He eyed the chicken below, “Mind if we hide out here and moment? Yeah thanks!” He blurted out.

“What? Get your own hidey hole, ya moocher!” She poked at Aniso’s side with her sword, but the boy refused to let go.

The rooster puffed up its feathers and fluttered its wings in frustration as it did a few test hops to try to nip at the nest.

“AY! Get off, you're attracting it to me!” The wasp shouted again.

The nest shook after one nearly successful attempt to hit the nest, and then a perfect strike with the rooster’s beak ripped it from its structural hold on the wall, and sent it tumbling down to the floor. The mud and paper nest shattered on impact, taking the bugs with it. All of the pieces of the wasp's home and her collection of borrowed trinkets scattered across the floor as if a bomb had gone off.

The wasp looked around horrified at the state of her once meticulously crafted nest. “Ugh! You idiot! Look what you've done.”

“Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry I-”

“Do you have any idea how long that took to build? Or how long it took me to collect all those rations that are now on the dirty-ass floor?!” She seethed.

“I'm sorry alright! It wasn't my intention- LOOK OUT!” Aniso grabbed the wasp by the arm and yanked her out of harm's way as the rooster's beak came down towards them. 

Thankfully for the little bugs the rooster seemed momentarily distracted by the scattered pieces of nest and was curiously pecking at them. That’s when they were able to hear a distant voice.

“Spsst! Hey! Over here!”

The group turned towards the voice and saw at the far end of the wall, by a corner, a small mouse hole dug into the drywall, and inside was an ant soldier flagging them down with wild, waving hands.

“In here!” The tiny woman called out for them. “Hurry!”

Aniso quickly tried to grab both Symon and the wasp to take them to safety, but was met with resistance.

“Huh?” He turned to see that she was retracting her hand.

“Don't fucking touch me!” She spat.

“Do you want to die out here?” Aniso argued.

“That wouldn't be a problem if you didn't break my HOUSE!” she snapped back.

“I understand your anger,” Symon added. “But could we perhaps discuss this when we are not in imminent danger?!”

Seeing the rooster losing interest in the scraps, Aniso let out a frustrated growl, “Ugh, we don't have time for this!”

He grabbed the wasp by the back of her shirt and dragged her towards the mouse hole, with her thrashing and shouting the whole way.

Unfortunately, this also caught the rooster's attention, which took chase after its prey at speeds faster than the little damselfly could fly carrying two other miinu. He could hear the rooster's feet getting closer, so when the moment was right, he practically threw Aymon and the wasp into the hole. Exhausted, his wings gave out and collapsed to the ground. Symon grabbed Aniso's arm and with the help of the ant, pulled him inside.

Just past the threshold, the bugs backed up inside the dark interior of the wall as the rooster repeatedly pecked its beak into the hole. Finally, it seemed to give up and returned to roaming the main room, leaving the bugs to catch their breaths, and Symon to process what just happened.