Find Your Wings

Well, Damn It...

Hopper's POV
At first sight, it looked like there was nothing until I heard the blare of some kind of alarm. At that same blare, a bunch of bluish dots started scattering about, coming from beneath the grass, the rocks, you name it. I stopped my flight and landed at the peak of this single boulder that seemed to take up almost a third of this island. Now that I was close, I was able to make out those dots. They were ants. It was quite obvious to me that there was some protocol being followed when I spotted the apparent anthill that was tucked beside the base of the tree. I was certainly glad to know what they thought of me at first glance.
I should thank these guys later on then.
Granted, I was much bigger than them but never did it occur to me that I was that big. It was quite a show, at least. They were acting as if I was a hungry bird. Back on subject, this behavior towards me gave me a clue. It could be because of the hornets I tracked here. I smirked before I looked down at the beach below me. I was able to see another blue spot peek up at me from under one of the blades. The moment he saw me, he fearfully hid again. I had to soften my approach and flew down from the high boulder, lightly landing there right behind the patch I saw them under. I heard a gasp before this little blue ant backtracked away from me, scooting backwards. I rose a brow at him as I simply took two steps towards him.

"Please! Please!"

I shook my head at this. Was he serious? Was I that scary to him? Has he not seen a grasshopper before? I've met a few ant colonies before, all of which were not as skittish as these guys. There had to be a sound reason for it. I respected ants, by how resourceful they were and that skittishness was understandable, I guessed. Then, I did know how much hurt they can bring in numbers.

"Whoa, whoa... easy." I finally spoke to him. "Geez..."

This ant watched me as I slowly lowered a little while keeping a distance, nearly sitting on one knee. I meant no harm to his kind, at least, so he didn't have anything to be worried about. I noticed that he was staring at my scar.

"You act like I squashed one of you."

"I'm - I'm sorry! I-i-it's that we-we-we're just not used to seeing grasshoppers around here, an-and..."

"I can see that." I scoffed at him, as he got back on his feet. "I'm just a grasshopper. Okay?" I began to explain in the softest voice I could manage, raising all four claws up in mock surrender. "I'm not a bird, or a snake or a mouse. Just a grasshopper with nothing to lose."

Deep down, I wanted to laugh. This ant looked ashamed and just not sure, but my words seemed to calm him down. That alarm blare died off before I had a sharp feeling of someone approaching.

I stood back up, listening. "Shut up a minute." I whispered before I spotted something in the distance.

The ant seemed to know and gasped. We both saw bright red and gold. I lunged at the ant with a claw and had him by the arm. I quickly threw him back under the grass.

"Don't move." I growled out an order with a hint of that anger laced in it. I glared the ant down for a second before I started my wings.

I took a strong leap to get a quick jump start to follow yet another hornet. To my observance, he did not even see me yet so I stuck low to the golden brown riverbed for a little bit to see where this jerk was going.

Atta's POV
This attack was not only for the foragers this time, but these two scouts swooped down at the very heart of the island. Most of the foragers got inside in time, but one hornet got to the entrance as it was being blocked. Another ant was too late, alike Flik, who was still lost outside somewhere. As others were picked off by several, yet again, Atta found herself in the same danger as the rest as she was ushering her future subjects. Face to face with a raging hornet. He looked hungrily at her and laughed at her plight. Atta flew off as fast as she could to get away, only to get snagged by the proud attacker. The Queen who was brought to lower and safer quarters inside the hill was having a serious panic attack, not knowing where her only daughter went.

"Atta! Where's my daughter!?" bellowed her strained voice, which did not go unheard.

There was nothing they could do only to protect the Queen. Atta usually oversaw the foragers and had them enter first due to her nervy protectiveness. It was she who was caught by an enemy hornet. Atta saw refuge in the grass and weeds to try and lose the scout.

Hopper's Narrative
What I heard and saw, I happened to be correct.

On that island, there happened to be a colony of ants and I was able to see these two dive bomb down, trying to pick them up as they scattered. It was the same exact thing I saw with the flock. I heard one scream that came louder than the rest. Among the blue spots in their grips, there was light purple one as she was caught by one of the scouts. Much to my relief, they were heading my way. I hid low against the gold rock I was on. That purple shade belonged to a tiny ant and she was putting up quite a fight to get out of the hornet's grip. She gave a kick and she was able to get her leg free. She fell hard onto the hot riverbed. This was when I had to interfere. When that hornet was about to kick down and land on her, I flew in and gave him one of my best kicks. Right into his torso, I sent him flying off he fell flat into the dirt. Not even looking at the abused ant, I snagged her around the waist despite her insults.

"No! Let go of me, you!" she cried, kicking before she realized that I was no hornet.

I kept my eyes ahead and her struggles and kicks didn't bother me. I brought her quickly to where that scared worker was. He looked just as baffled as she was.

"What!?" she gasped when she saw who was there, between two rocks and some grass. "Flik!"

"Stay down." I ordered them, pushing her down with my claw before I flew back again.

The hornet who took her was recovering from my kick, but I was far from done.

"Who ever did that will suffer!" he growled.

When he finished that proud sentence, I showed him my own earned pride and gave the loser a full on slash with my right claw right across his face. My honed wings and a jump did a great deal and I was able to make him slide off again. He was knocked senseless and tried to see what happened, but found that he was blinded. He looked up in shock to see me go on to kick him again. He slid and began to fly back into the air. I knew he was going in for the sting and I kept away from it. I whacked his abdomen aside and struck his mouth with the brunt of my claw. He flew back and wavered before I took him by the wing and threw him to the ground.

I didn't care if I had an audience at the moment. What I had to do was get that stinger. I used what I had, my legs, my barbs, my claws, everything to keep him dizzy and distracted. I elbowed him outright, tripped him over by swiping a leg under him. I did what I had to do to avoid being stung. The fight left the other scouts in a daze and began to leave with their captives when they saw how violent it was becoming. I took a rock and dodged again as he struck his stinger into the dirt, missing his target. Once it got stuck for just a second, I rammed that rock against the stinger before kicking him off again.

The two ants I rescued were now looking on, agape.
They watched my handiwork and the hornet rolled away from the force until he slid to a stop on one of the hot blocks of the riverbed. The ant she called Flik watched on in horror, seeing the swarm zoom away in uncertainty and felt the urge to guide the rescued Princess back, despite what he had been told.

I rose from my stance, keeping my eyes on that hornet as he slowly came to. Now that my attention was on them, they began to retreat up the hill. This blue eyed one and this Princess stared at me, frightened. I stood my ground even when I heard that hornet buzz and cough. He took one last look at me before he limped and wavered off with a bent stinger and busted wing.

Those two looked okay, but I was sure that they didn't know what to think. The important thing was that the swarm ceased their attack but then... they took more ants. I kept my distance, trying to catch my breath. My wrist grew sore from those strikes as I watched that swarm disappear in the distance.

Workers from higher up who were left out all gathered trying to see what happened. They were quite relieved to see the rescued two return.... I was still standing on the dry beach and dared to gaze up to see a group looking back at me. Another came and then another... That was when I began to hear whispers.

"Another? - He saved them - Who is he?"

"They rescued the Princess.... He rescued — Princess — Could it be?

Well ... damn it. Now they tell me.