Pell woke and immediately reached back to feel his wings. They felt the same as yesterday. Thin, warm and smooth. The caretakers called everyone to awake and he crept outside the sleeping chamber. He tried buzzing his wings slightly as the other young ants crawled out of their beds. Abber, one of his caretakers, came and patted him on the head.
“Be patient,” she said. “You’ll fly soon enough!”
He nodded and went to the morning line. Other ants his age stood taller than Pell. He heard some of the others talking behind him. He turned and saw Terp, Gritt, and Sada looking at him, whispering.
Pell’s antennae twitched. Abber squeezed his shoulder as she passed. “Just do your best,” she whispered. Then she signaled ready to the leads and the line set off through the tunnels.
Pell looked back at the royal guards following them as they made their way to the flight chamber. He wondered when he would be strong enough to hold such a heavy spear.
Their instructor, Vesp, stood at the center of the chamber. He gestured to the dome above him. “This week, you will learn to fly. At the end of the week, you will prove yourself on the test course. Now,” he paused here, bowing and crouching down, then shot a glance at his newest class. “Follow me!”
Vesp leaped into the air and his wings burst into motion. The resulting gust of air blew everyone back by a step. When the dust cleared, Vesp hovered above them in the center of the large chamber.
Pell didn’t wait. He leaped out and buzzed his wings as hard as he could. Others took off around him. They all veered off course and bumped into each other or into walls. Some cried out. Some laughed, but after some time, they all hovered around Vesp near the flight chamber ceiling.
Except for Pell.
Pell still worked his wings as hard as he could as Vesp flew down and landed next to him, regarding him.
“Wait here,” said Vesp. “We’ll try again tomorrow.” Then he took off again, leaving Pell alone on the ground.
All the others stared down at him from above.
“His wings are so small,” Terp said to the group, pointing at Pell.
“They don’t even do anything,” said Gritt.
“They’re tiny leaves on a tiny tree,” said Sada.
Pell sank. He watched the entire lesson from the floor.
That night, Pell sat and cried to himself in his bed chamber.
Abber brought him a drop of honey. “Not everyone’s wings work on the first day,” she said, sitting beside him. “They might feel like they belong to someone else. It takes time to make them your own.”
Pell nibbled at the honey. It was warm and sweet and helped him drift to sleep.
Pell woke the next morning and flexed his wings. They felt stronger! Today would be different.
They gathered and set off in a line down the maze of tunnels, veering around workers carrying plates of beetle meat, carts of clothing, and tools for digging. Pell nodded to one of the royal guards as he entered the flight chamber. He would be one of them soon.
The guard stared ahead.
Again, Vesp stood in the center of the flight chamber. Again, he shot up toward the ceiling, this time making incredible loops and dives before finally hovering to rest at the center, high in the air.
Again, Pell was the first to leap up to where he was. The others were quicker now, and met Vesp where he hovered much faster.
But there was Pell, still buzzing his wings on the floor.
He panted hard as he worked his wings, jumping to try to get in the air.
Vesp reached out and held his shoulder until he stopped.
“Go,” said Vesp. “Help with the work. You will contribute to the colony in a different way.”
Pell slumped as the weight of the words rested on him.
Vesp flew up to the rest of the class. The class all looked down at Pell.
“Did you see him trying?” said Terp.
“It’s pathetic,” said Gritt.
“He should just go to the fungus farms,” said Sada.
Guards came to guide him to his work duty assignment. Pell watched as they began their lesson until he left the chamber.
Workers gave him a knife, a hatchet, and a machete for cutting leaves. They felt heavy on the toolbelt harness strapped around his thorax and back.
He followed the lines out of the colony and over to the cutting grounds. He shielded his eyes from the sun. He hadn’t gone outside very many times. Everything felt so big.
He waved to guards as he passed. They didn’t wave back.
At the cutting grounds, the worker ants dispersed to work different areas. Some helped each other cut up larger leaves. Others carved out portions of leaves on their own. They dragged them to a pile where other workers hauled them back to the colony.
Pell watched. He didn’t quite know what to do, so he wandered to find his own leaf to cut.
He walked and walked, climbing over huge roots and passing under fallen twigs.
He was thinking it was about time to turn back when he heard a faint cry.
He followed the cry, louder and louder until he spotted a small green beetle caught up in some rope. The herd of beetles Pell knew were large and lumbering, but this one was small and wiry.
“Help me!” the beetle said when it saw Pell. “I’m stuck!”
Pell looked back toward the colony, then at the struggling beetle. He took out his hatchet and hacked at the rope, but it was thick, and sticky. Pell had to pull hard to not let the hatchet get stuck with each swing. The rope shivered as he worked.
“Hurry!” said the beetle.
“I’m trying,” said Pell. “What is this stuff?”
“It’s a spider web! And the spider’s going to eat me!”
Pell nearly dropped his hatchet. Then with one final swing, he cut the beetle free. It fell to the ground and the strands of web snapped away. Then, all the other webs started to shudder.
“We have to leave!” cried the beetle. “Get this stuff off of me!” Webbing was still tied around the beetle itself. It couldn’t fly.
But then Pell heard the hissing. He looked up and saw a huge, hairy tempest of eight legs scurrying toward them.
Pell snatched up the beetle and ran.
The beetle yelled over the pounding of the chase. “You have wings! Why don’t you fly??”
“They don’t work!” Called Pell, leaping over a rock. He could feel the spider gaining.
“Oh great!” The beetle said, and wriggled in his arms, trying to get the rest of the webbing off his body.
Pell reached down while he ran and pulled. The webbing came off. The spider lashed out. Pell ducked. Two panels on the beetle’s wings flipped up, and two, long, wide, magnificent wings sprang out of the beetle’s back.
“Hold on!” the beetle chirped, and grabbed Pell’s tool belt harness with its long legs. The ground rushed away with a terrifying, wonderful burst of speed.
The spider hissed and clawed at them from below.
They landed far from the web, near where Pell started to wander.
“That was close,” said the beetle. “Thanks for saving me. My name is Klik.”
“I’m Pell,” said Pell. Then he hesitated. ““I… I’ve never flown before. That was the best thing ever!”
“Want to do it again?” said Klik.
“Yes,” said Pell, eagerly. Then he heard the horn. “But I have to go.”
“How about tomorrow?” said Klik.
“Yes!” said Pell.
The next morning, Abber brought Pell some fresh fungus cheese. She found him hurrying to strap on his tool belt harness.
“You fell asleep quickly last night,” Abber said. “I know you must be disappointed, but we all have a place in the colony. You’ll find yours.”
“Okay, bye!” said Pell as he snatched the cheese and scurried off to the worker lines. “And thanks!” waving to Abber.
He didn’t hear Terp say, “What a weirdo.”
Nor Gritt say, “A mess.”
Nor Sada say, “He might as well be a worm.”
As the worker lines made their way out of the colony, a group of guards dragged the huge shell of a pincer bug back in. Pell nodded at two of them, but they didn’t see him. They clapped claws and said, “Nothing gets past us.”
Pell hurried to find Klik. He found the beetle sleeping under a leaf. He didn’t look comfortable.
“I’ll make you a place to stay,” said Pell, and he began to dig.
“Why don’t your wings work?” Klik asked as Pell worked.
“I don’t know. They didn’t grow enough I guess.” Pell threw out the last pebbles of the small shelter. “Done!”
“This is great!” said Klik, he crawled in and turned round and round. Then crawled out again. “Ready to fly?”
They shot through the air. The toolbelt harness made it easy for Klik to hold on to Pell, but this time was different than yesterday. Klik would go one way, and Pell would lean and try to go another way. They rolled and bounced off of a tree trunk. They looked just like everyone else in flight school on the first day.
“Stop it!” Klik chirped. “We have to go the same way.”
Pell relaxed. Now that the ant wasn’t fighting him, Klik took them on a wild course through thick bushes and underbrush. Pell whooped and hollered the whole way. Klik was already better at flying than all his classmates. Maybe even his instructor, Vesp.
“We have to be careful,” said Klik. “Don’t want to get caught in a spider web again.”
Pell thought about the moves he saw Vesp do on the second day. He called up to Pell, but he didn’t know what the moves were called. “Can you do,” then he motioned with one of his claws.
“Oh, a corkscrew? Sure!”
They twirled through the air. It was exhilarating.
Pell showed Klik more moves. Klik flew them all, then showed Pell new ones.
“I’ve been flying since I was born!” said Klik.
Every day for the next few days, Pell went to find Klik, and he and Klik flew together. They looped and dove and rolled all through the trees and bushes.
One night, Abber said one of the coordinators found out Pell wasn’t bringing back any leaf cuttings. If he didn’t improve soon he would be assigned somewhere else.
The next day, he and Klik flew to find the easiest leaves for cutting. They learned to fly and cut at the same time, Klik hovering while Pell worked. Pell could use all four of his arms to work. Pell dragged back the biggest pile of leaf trimmings that day.
The next day, their practice was delayed because many other workers followed him to his spot, thinking of finding better leaves to cut, but they left when they found nothing special. Pell wandered around acting lost and keeping Klik hidden. Even though they started later than usual, Pell and Klik still cut down enough leaves, and found time to practice flying together.
The workers complained.
On another day, Pell found Terp, Gritt, and Sada out at his spot on the cutting grounds.
“What are you doing out here?” said Terp.
“Finally accept you’re a disgrace?” said Gritt.
“Paper-wings.” said Sada.
Pell pulled out his tools and went to work, waiting for them to leave.
They shoved him. Pell stumbled. They shoved him again, harder. He fell, and they began to kick him.
Then Abber was there. “Enough!” she boomed, her voice harder than Pell had ever heard it. Terp, Gritt, and Sada scurried away.
“Tomorrow’s the test,” said Terp as he ran. “You’ll never be one of us.”
Abber helped Pell up, her touch gentle. “You’re one of the colony, Pell,” she said softly, brushing his wings.
“I don’t feel like it,” said Pell. “But I want to be.”
Abber left Pell to his work after making sure he was alright. Then Klik came.
“I hid,” said Klik. “They didn’t seem nice.”
“I’m glad,” said Pell. “They would’ve hurt you too. Badly.”
“No. They can’t hurt me. Nothing can after what the spider did to my family.”
Pell listened. Klik had never spoken of his family.
Klik continued. “What did that one say about a test?”
“It’s for flying. To find out who the best flyers are.”
“I saw them fly. We could beat them.”
“Yes. We could.”
On Test Day, Pell walked into the flight chamber with the other workers to watch. His limbs ached from Terp, Gritt, and Sada hitting him.
He saw them hovering in the air with Vesp and the rest of the class.
“Look, the crawler decided to show up,” Terp probably said.
“Right where he belongs,” maybe Gritt said.
“He’s as useless as a pill bug,” said Sada.
Vesp began the tests. Each student flew through the course one at a time. Many made some mistakes, especially Terp, Gritt, and Sada. But all of them passed. They would all become royal guards and soldiers. Everyone cheered.
Vesp raised his hands to conclude the ceremonies. But then Pell leapt up off his seat. “Wait!” he called and he crawled over the top of the audience and ran to the center of the flight chamber.
The chamber was silent. All stared down at him.
Vesp looked at him with pity. “There is no shame in other work.”
“I want my turn,” Pell said. Then he tore off the top of his tunic, revealing his toolbelt harness, and a small, green beetle hanging onto it from his back. A collective gasp went through the crowd.
Klik’s iridescent elytra sprang out, and his brilliant wings unfolded in a brilliant display. The wings rushed to life, creating a gust that blew through the crowd and Vesp and the students hovering above.
Pell said, “Go,” and he and Klik went right into the course, turning, weaving, dipping and dodging. They hit each marker and sliced through each target, their hours of practice together making them a unified, incredible unit.
With a magnificent final loop through the air, Pell and Klik came to rest at the center of the chamber, with nothing but silence awaiting them.
All continued to stare at Pell and Klik.
Vesp’s antennae twitched. He slowly closed the space between him and Pell, and he looked not at Pell, but at Klik.
“You brought this thing into our home?” he said.
“We won,” said Pell. “We did better than everybody-”
“It doesn’t matter,” Vesp said, waving a claw. “Take them away.”
The guards moved in. They all focused on Pell now. Pell knew what would happen next.
“Klik, go,” he said.
“Where?” Klik said, the guards reaching out to him.
“Out of here!” Pell said, whipping out his hatchet, machete, and knife.
Klik obeyed. But he didn’t leave Pell like Pell thought he would. Klik carried the ant with him.
They circled the chamber. The guards flew after them, grabbing and clawing, but Klik dodged out of the way. Pell called out spears being thrown at them so that Klik could veer, and Pell deflected thrusts from other guards below.
Terp, and Gritt saw Klik make for the chamber exit. They dove to block the way. Sada watched them all in awe. Pell saw they weren’t going to make it. He raised his tools, ready to cut their way through. But just before they hit Terp and Gritt, Abber dove and tackled the two graduates out of the way.
Pell didn’t see what happened next because Klik took the door at break-neck speed, flying and swerving through the tunnels. Pell called out directions for where to go as the beetle shot through the corridors.
The workers and guards that passed under them were too surprised to stop them. Pell looked back and didn’t see anyone pursuing them.
They exploded out of the main colony entrance and flew far into the distance, much farther than they had ever gone before.
“I hope Abber’s ok,” Pell whispered to Klik as they flew.
“She’s tough,” said Klik.
Then Pell said, “I’m sorry.”
“Why?”
“I thought showing them would make it not matter.”
“We fly together, Pell,” Klik said back. “Me and you. After that, it doesn’t matter.”
Pell looked at his friend, and nodded.