Symon had never thought about what it would be like to be inside of a wall before, but from his new, thumb-sized perspective, it was like he was in a tall, dark, narrow cave full of dust and cobwebs and lined with the rough texture of insulation.

Symon peered outside of the mouse hole out into the living room. The rooster had occupied itself, digging through the kitchen and pecking at the doors of the cabinet. It must’ve been hiding out in here trying to find food, but instead got a buffet of unfortunate miinu it had been dining on before. To be safe, he ducked back into the cover of darkness and checked on Aniso, who was still on the ground.

By now, the cut on his arm from earlier had caused the majority of his forearm to be painted with streaks of mustard yellow blood.

“Are you okay?” Symon asked. “That cut is looking pretty bad.”

“What happened kid,” the ant asked. Her gaze turned to the wasp, and she narrowed her eyes. “It wasn't the yellow jacket, was it?”

The wasp scoffed. “Hey how bout you mind your own fucking business!”

Symon returned the gesture. “It's a valid question considering you-” He paused as Aniso raised one of his hands towards him.

“It's okay.” Aniso assured. “It was the rooster... It must've got me while we were running away from it.” 

The wasps gaze softened at the damselfly's lie, yet she still kept quiet, her gaze focused away from the others. 

The ant clicked her tongue. “Well, you certainly wouldn't be the first. Come on, I'll take you somewhere you can get patched up.”

The ant pulled out a match head and struck it against the wall, lighting up the area like a torch. Symon helped Aniso to his feet and the group followed the ant down the long hallway inside the wall. Eventually, after climbing over nails and wooden boards, they found a second mouse hole on the opposite side of the wall. Light from another room poured in and the ant put out her match and crawled through. Aniso and Symon followed, where they found themselves in what appeared to be the bedroom, judging by the massive bed that took up the center of the room. 

Like the rest of the house, the room was dusty and only illuminated through sun bleached curtains. It was difficult to tell from this far down, but the room looked like it'd been completely untouched since the last time someone used it. The bed was made, glasses and false teeth sat alongside an old mug on the side table, clothes still on their hangers hung on the back of a chair, makeup left open like the owner was going to come back to put it away any minute now. 

Once again, Symon was reminded of entering estate sales. The part of the job that was rather sad when you thought too much about it. Beyond the antique trinkets and valuables, where pieces of someone’s life, pieces that would inevitably never get used by them again after their passing. He’d seen a number of homes like this one, where it’d seemed one second, a living breathing person was living in the space, and the next, they were gone.

The group followed the ant until they were ducking under a dresser, where inside there were other miinu. It was mostly a dozen or so carpenter ant soldiers, many of whom sported serious injuries and were laying down on small bedrolls. The others were huddled together around a small, lit candle, acting as a source of light and warmth, though its wax was heavily melted and its wick almost used up. It was being used to cook a wild lady beetle that was speared on a toothpick. The ant holding it cocked an eyebrow at the group.

“Did you manage to get any food, or just more mouths to feed?” She asked. 

“Just the latter, sorry.” The other ant sighed. “All I found out there was these guys about to get eaten.”

“Wait, is that the mailman with you?”

“Hi.” Aniso waved his hand awkwardly.

“Aniso?” Another voice spoke up. Dr. Leif emerged from the darkness, limping, but otherwise in good health. 

“Dr. Leif! You’re okay!” He fluttered over to him.

“Good heaven’s boy, why on Earth did you come out here?! And you’re hurt!” Dr. Leif fretted over Aniso’s injury, just before noticing Symon. “And you brought the newwing? Do you even know if he’s fit to be doing this kind of strenuous activity?”

“Do ease up on the boy,” Symon spoke. “I only came along because I didn’t want to see him hurt. I assure you I am in adequate condition.” He was not going to mention the throbbing coming from his back after all of the running and dodging. 

“I was worried about you and the ants. If anything happened to you, we’d be down our only doctor.” Aniso explained before remembering the cane. He pulled the cane out from under the belt strings of his hook, and handed it to Dr. Leif.

“My cane! I thought I lost it when running from that bird.” He gave Aniso a momentary appreciative smile, “Thank you. But now sit down, sit down. I need to treat that cut of yours.” 

Now with his cane, he hobbled over to a thimble on the ground and dragged it over. “This isn’t an ideal solution, we’ve had to collect water from a dripping pipe in the bathroom and boil it.” He pulled out a wet cloth from the water and rung it out, before dabbing it on Aniso’s arm to clean it.

“How long have you guys been in here?” Aniso asked.

“Me? Shortly after I treated Symon over here. For the ants, a little over a week.” He looked back behind him, at the injured ants. “They were attacked by that junglefowl and needed medical care, so I came back here. But as soon as I arrived, it smelled food and came out to attack me. We’ve all been hiding out in this back room where it can’t reach us since.”

“And you haven’t tried to escape?”

“It’s too difficult. We have a ton of injured, and we can’t move fast enough through the living room without attracting its attention.” He started wrapping tight cloth around Aniso’s arm. “Every time it sniffs us out like a hawk, and that’s how we end up with… so many corpses.” 

“We lost a lot of good women.” The ant cooking spoke. “And we’re going to lose more if we don’t get more supplies out here. We have to get to the cabinets and search for food.”

“Ah excuse me, um-” Symon tried to interrupt. “Ah I’m sorry can I get your names. You’re all so similar.”

“Call me General.” The ant cooking said. “The one who found you is Scout, and then we have Pinky, Butch, Shorty, Navy, Eagle-eye, Boots, Arrow, Sabertooth, Bigshot, Skipper, and Dirt.”

“Right, nicknames.” He wasn’t sure if he could remember everyone’s name, but he at least caught a few. “Uh, General, what is the plan here?”

“Isn’t it obvious? We hide out here until that feathered beast gets bored and leaves. Then we can make our escape.”

“Tch, and to think entire cities rely on you little pests.” Finally spoke the wasp, who was leaned up against the mouse hole, refusing to step foot any close to the gang of carpenter ants. “If you had just stayed clear of this place like I told you days ago, you wouldn’t have lost half of your platoon to a wild animal.”

“What was that you pointy-assed bitch?!” Scout growled and marched a step closer.

“Ooookay!” Symon stepped between them, with a strained smile to keep the peace. “Uh, ma’am, forgive me but, I never got your name either. If we’re going to be here together, we might as well introduce ourselves properly.” 

“You don’t know.” Scout added. “That’s a Yellow Jacket Queen!”

“And what of it?” The queen spat. 

Symon was a little confused by this. He certainly expected a queen of anything to be more… extravagant, elegant. Instead, this woman looked and acted more like an aggressive homeless person. Still, he thought it’d be fair to offer her some respect, nonetheless.

“Ah, well it’s nice to meet you you’re majest-”

“Don’t fucking call me that!” She snapped, causing Symon to flinch. “The name’s Ves. Call me anything else and I’ll slit your throat open, got it?”

“R-right.” Symon stammered. “I’m very sorry miss… Ves.” 

“I bet you this whole mess is her fault.” General said snidely. “No doubt her hive lured that thing in here.”

“Oh so you're blaming me for this?” Ves questioned, her wings buzzing agitation.

“Oh cut the act. Everyone knows your hive has been encroaching on Grotto territory for years, this house was just your last hold out.”

“The Yellow Jackets have better things to do than pull a stupid stunt like that!” 

“And yet here you are.”

Ves let clout a hiss from deep in her throat. “You looking for a fight, little girl?!” She gripped her nail tightly and swung it out in front of the small ant, nearly grazing her face and causing her to fall backwards in surprise.

All the ants gasped. General ripped the lady bug meat from the toothpick and held it out towards Ves. In response, any ant who could still stand drew their own spears. Even a few of those who were hurt got up to aid in the threatening aura of an army of angry ants.

“I've killed dozens of yellow jacket soldiers, you won't be an exception.” General retorted.

“Please! Let's be civil!” Symon begged.

“There's no being civil with a Yellow Jacket. They are territorial killing machines.” Scout replied.

“Yeah yeah just spout more of that garbage mommy dearest tells you.” Ves argued, tapping the tip of the sword against the floor. “We'll see how That works out for ya when I cut your tongue out!”

Symon met Aniso's eyes, clenching his teeth and gesturing to the group with his gaze, imploring him to say something.

Aniso shook his head. “That's enough guys! Ves didn't do anything wrong. It's my fault she's down here in this mess.” He explained. “This argument is stupid and it's not gonna help us get out here.”

He stood up, rubbing his patched up arm before flying up to Ves. His voice was quiet.

“Look I don't know what your story is, and I'm sorry I assumed the worst of you without even talking to you.” He said with arms politely behind his back. “But I promise I'll make it up to you if you can just work with us for a little bit.” 

“How so?” She raised a brow.

“I can help you get a new place in The Grotto if you want!”

She rolled her eyes. “I don't wanna live in a hole with the rest of you ant meat suckers.”

“It doesn't have to be The Grotto then!” Aniso waved his hands. “I'd just feel bad if I just left you hanging.”

“I don't need your pity help. I'll rebuild my nest far away from the rest of you.”

“Then why don't you?” Aniso crossed his arms.

Ves sneered. “Cause I'm not leaving here without my stuff, and thanks to you it's now all over the floor Being guarded by that bird!”

“Then how ‘bout this. I'll help you clean up and get all your things back. It's the least I can do. But until I can, we need everyone to calm down and work together. Can you do that?”

Ves grimaced, glancing over at the ants with a look of disdain and then back at Aniso's big hopeful eyes. 

“Fine… but don't consider this a truce.” She growled as she sheathed her sword.

She held out her upper set of arms in surrender, meanwhile the lower set in a matter of seconds, scrunched into nubs and retracted grotesquely into her body, leaving her with just two arms and two legs.

Symon let out a yelp at the sight of it, causing everyone in the room to stare at him with befuddled expressions. 

"Is no one else shocked by her arms disappearing?!" Symon gawked.

“You sure you didn't hurt your head out there friend?” Scout asked.

“Don't mind him,” Aniso chimed in. “He uh… kinda new to this. This is normal for us Symon. Watch.”

Aniso held out his arms and pulled his own lower pair of arms into his body, before popping them back out. 

“See?”

“I… Had no idea that was physically possible.” Symon said, clearing his throat to hide the clearly disgusted wavering of his voice.

That certainly explained why he'd encountered so many miinu with only two arms. Here he was beginning to wonder if they had all been coincidently in the same horrific accident. He looked down at his own second pair of arms. Limp, useless things that he didn't know what to do with or how to utilize them properly. They were bulky, extra weight on his shoulders, and he hated how foreign it felt to move them. If it truly were that easy to be rid of them, he wondered…

“Can I do that?” He asked. 

“Sure you can. It's so easy a grub can do it.” Aniso rolled his lower shoulder. “You just push the shoulder inwards until you hear a pop and it should fall right in.

Symon attempted to mimic the movement, slowly rolling his shoulder and pressing it against his body. He strained to move his arm into position and tried to push it in with his other hand. It took a couple embarrassing failed attempts of him contorting his shoulder awkwardly. He then felt the shoulder joint pop, and like a spring being released it swung inwards and sucked his upper arm into his body with such force he practically felt it hit the side of his lungs And knock the wind out of him. Slowly he was able to pull the rest of the arm in as it disappeared inside a small seam that formed a tight seal. He rubbed his free hand down the side of his body and it was smooth, as if the arm never existed. But he could still feel it inside of him, if he concentrated. It was arm and nestled in what felt like a shrink-wrapped cocoon of skin. It was too weird to think about too much, so he just focused on doing that to the other arm. This time thinking about how much it felt like pulling an arm out of the sleeve of a shirt, but it was his own flesh and bone. 

He had to admit one thing though, it was  far less unsettling and painful than having his bones rearrange themselves into the shape of an insect over several days, something he’d already experienced one too many times.

After much awkward maneuvering, he at long last had returned to just two arms, just he was born with. This slight return to normalcy was just the boost in morale he needed to think of a plan to get him and the miinu out of this room. Glancing around the faces of the others staring at him he cleared his throat.

“I’m going to assume you’ve already tried waiting for the rooster to go to sleep?” Symon asked. “Yes,” Dr. Leif sighed. “But it nest inside of the chimney, and it wakes to any noise. We can’t possibly transport the injured in time.” “I could fly them out.” Aniso suggested “You’d have to take them one at a time, and we can’t possibly put you at that much risk. “Dr. Leif argued. “Your father would kill me if anything happened to you.” “And Fours would kill us.” Scout added. “But I could do it, if I were able to keep that bird off my back.” Aniso replied. “I mean there’s a chance we could distract it.” Symon mused. “Clearly it’s in here because there’s something in the house it wants. Maybe if we find it we can use it as a distraction while we escape.” Symon turned his head to Ves, who gave him a weird look, before she realized that he was expecting her to chime in. “What?”