Halloween Special, A Short Novel By Arabella:fire:
ABOUT AUTHOR
Pioneer female writer of TheAnts Novel Team in Sweden.
She demonstrated her outstanding writing talent in the Night at the Anthill (NA) series, in which she uses a very anthropomorphic approach to show us the beautiful life of Ant, After a few months, she brought us a new work, based on the Lost Island gameplay named The Unexpected Friendship. Today is Halloween, it is the first Halloween for Ballas Ants, what kind of celebration will that be? What is happening in the forest? Who will get scared? Let’s make a long story short, and hope you could enjoy her beautiful words, and have a Happy Halloween!
Chapter 1: Crazy Ideas
Bella’s tower was quiet this morning. Bella sat outside with her favourite tea, thinking how nice it was to relax. The weather was perfect, with sunshine and light wind. The trees were beautiful with autumn colours. But, of course, it would not last. Leaders for her ant troops came towards her with quick, determined steps. Bella sighed and waited to hear what crazy ideas her ants would come up with now.
- We want Halloween!
Bella looked with surprise. - Well, Halloween will come in one week. It will come regardless of what we do.
- But we want to celebrate it. We never did before. We even asked Google for information about how to celebrate.
- Ok then. What traditions do you want to do?
- We want to make lanterns from pumpkins, make spooky costumes, trick or treat, make a haunted house and tell scary stories.
- Wow. And you want to prepare all this in one week? It will take time.
- Yes, we will! Ants in Black said they have extra resources.
- Uhm, Ants in Black are going to help with this? Are you sure you want their help? - Bella said with trepidation
- Yes!
- Ok then. Operation Halloween is on.
Chapter 2: A Dream
Knives. It was a sea of knives. Everywhere Bella looked, she could see ants with knives carving the pumpkins. She would never admit it out loud, but she was scared. The last time her ants used knives, they sang: “Ants are killing leaders”. Looking at the pumpkins, she could not see the usual Halloween carvings. Instead, the carvings were scary and looked like nothing Bella had seen before.
- You are very good at this! But what are those carvings supposed to be? - she asked one of the ants
- Those are aliens.
- Uhm, aliens?
She could see her ants looking at each other and then back at her. - We saw them in a movie - one said
- Yes, it was a movie - another pronounced
Bella was not entirely convinced it was true, but she let it be. At night she had a strange dream: she was in a dark forest and could hear a hissing sound from the ground. It was too dark to see anything, but she could swear she felt someone touching her hand. Then she woke up, but she could still hear that hissing sound. She forgot about it.
Chapter 3: A Dream Came True
In the coming days, everyone in Bellas anthill worked on making costumes and building the haunted house. Walking around her anthill, Bella felt as if someone was watching her. She could not see anyone, but her ants were acting suspicious
too. They stopped talking when she was near and looked at each other as if they knew a secret Bella did not know. It was frustrating. Bella was their leader; they were not supposed to have secrets from her. So she started thinking about ways to
punish her ants. She would send them for gathering every day; she would eat all watermelons so that her ants would not get any; she would make them clean the forest with a toothbrush. With every hour, she got more and more ideas of different ways to punish them. But the only thing she wanted was to know the secret.
She saw a group of ants holding baskets filled with food going into the forest. Silently following them, she thought that now, finally, she would see what they were doing there. Using trees as protection, she walked thru the forest, always with her ants in sight. The ants were talking and laughing while walking deeper and deeper into the woods. The forest was very dense and dark. Bella wished she had a flashlight or jack-o-lantern, it was easy to trip, and several times a tree branch hit her in the face because of the darkness. She could feel the blood running down her face from several minor cuts on her forehead. She might have to turn back, but curiosity drew her forward.
Chapter 4: Power of Curiosity
Suddenly she heard a sound. She stopped and listened: the same hissing sound she had heard in the dream last night. The dense trees and darkness made it impossible to see anything. Her heart was beating very hard now, and her heart rate rose quickly. She felt with her hand to see if there was a branch she could use as a weapon, but there was none. So, with careful steps, she continued walking in the same direction as the ants were walking. She could still hear the faint sounds of their
voices. One step, two steps, three steps. Bella tried not to think about what could be inside the forest. The forest used to be welcoming and pleasant but now felt dangerous and unsafe.
When her foot caught on something on the ground, she froze
and did not dare to continue. It felt as if her heart would jump out of her chest. Carefully she bent down and, with her hand, felt what was lying on the ground. It was something big, with a smooth surface. It reminded her of something, and she was sure she had felt this before. And suddenly she realized what it was - a snake! She couldn’t tell if the snake was poisonous, so with careful steps, she backed up and went a little to the side, hoping to avoid the snake.
Chapter 5: The End
The time with the snake prevented Bella from following the ants. She looked around and listened but could neither see nor hear the group. The darkness was starting to feel heavy, and the forest felt more dangerous than before. Bella tried to think
positively: she was the leader, this was her anthill, her ants didn’t want to hurt her. She continued walking in the direction she last saw the ants. After a while, she began to see a small light in front of her. With quickened steps, Bella almost ran up
to the light. She heard voices when she was almost there, so she stopped to listen.
- Do you think Bella got scared?
- Lol! I hope so! It took time to make the snake.
- I’m afraid she’ll get angry.
- Why would she get angry? It’s Halloween; you should be scared.
- Yes, but it’s called “Trick or Treat”. What if she wanted to give us candy instead of being scared?
- Do you mean that one gets to choose?
- Well, I think Google said so.
- I hope she doesn’t find the bottle of bug spray again.
- Bella is kind. She knows it’s our first time celebrating Halloween. So she will understand that things can go wrong sometimes.
- What if she got lost? It’s dark outside; maybe we should go out and look for her.
Bella hid behind a tree and watched as the ants walked out of their cabin. Then, she snuck behind them as the group walked towards where Bella met the snake. When the ants stopped to look for the snake, she crept up to them, and when she was close, she screamed:
- Boo!
The ants screamed and ran away. Bella laughed out loud and went after the ants.
“We have to celebrate Halloween next year, too,” - she thought.
And next year, it will be her that will plan a prank to play against her ants.
