Stardust

A Legend by Toni Alvarez

Long ago, the color of the ants is only white and they live in a big kingdom not far away from the city and the woods. They live a harmonious life helping the colony gather foods. This is where Kiko and Pipo live. They are the two mischievous, young ants who do nothing but play all day and night with their other ant friends.

One day, Kiko and Pipo, with the rest of their friends, decided to play.

“Hey, why don’t we play hide and seek in the woods, that sure sounds exciting.” Said Kiko excitedly.

“Oh! No, no, no,” exclaimed the little ant with big spectacles. “We are not allowed to go there remember?” he said in a squeaky, tiny voice.

All the ants agreed in unison remembering how the elders always warn them to steer clear from the woods for fear of forest fire or the kaingin that has become prevalent in the woods.

Pipo, the biggest ant in the group, moved to the center and said “Then let’s head to the city instead” in a bossy way.

“Wow! That would be cool” cried the geeky ant jumping up and down. “I have always heard from the elders how beautiful the city is especially those big and tall things they call the buildings and…”

“Stop it!” cut one of the girls in the group. “The city is far more dangerous than the forest. Don’t you hear what the elders used to say? The city is an unsafe place for us ants.”

“Oh stop being a killjoy!” Pipo blurted out. “If the elders were able to get there, then why can’t we? In fact, they wouldn’t even know, they’d just think we’re just somewhere around here playing.”

“But that would be disobeying them and…” The ant girl tried to reason out but was immediately cut by Kiko. “If you don’t want to join, no one is forcing you, right guys?” Kiko looked at the other young ants anticipating for an answer of approval. Everyone was silent as if waiting for the others to answer first. Then the fattest ant in the group smiled, raised his hand to agree which was then followed by the others.

All the ants followed Pipo who’s heading to the city when Kiko blocked their way.

“Wait, I thought we’ll go to the woods?” Kiko asked confused. “I said a while ago that we’ll head to the city,” Pipo said folding his arms as if telling Kiko to get out of their way. All the young ants’ just looked at the two ants who were already arguing. After a few minutes, Kiko and Pipo finally compromised.

Both decided to separate the colony into two. All ants that are brave enough to go to the city and mingle with humans shall go with Pipo, while those who move swiftly enough to run away in case there might be a forest fire shall go with Kiko. The young ants, which were at first giddy at the idea, now seemed to have an aversion to dividing the colony in two groups. But after a few deliberation and persuasion from Kiko and Pipo, all the ants finally concede to the two ant’s suggestion.

Both groups showed off how their group is better than the other, picking one another until they annoy each other. “Your group is coward, all you want to do is wander in the woods. Nothing’s new. Boring!” jeered Pipo. “We may be boring but we’re not cowards. At least we know that whenever there’s an upcoming danger, we can easily save ourselves, I don’t know with your group” defended Kiko.

After tons of dissing, the two groups finally head off to their respective destinations and reached them after few hours.

“Wow! So this is the city?” said the smallest ant in the group with eyes amused and wandering with anticipation. Pipo felt pride in breaking the rules. He can already visualize how Kiko and his groups would be green with envy after they tell them all about their trip to the city. They strolled along the town recalling one by one what the elderly ants told them about their trip to the metropolis.

On the other hand, Kiko’s group reached the deepest part of the woods. They were amazed how tall the trees are and how many fruit bearing trees and even bushes can be found. Kiko knew that Pipo and his groups are now regretting why they did not join their group.

Few hours have passed and the two groups seemed to be enjoying. Pipo and his troop went to the park and saw some kids playing.

“What’s that thing that keeps on going up and down, and what do you call that huge object where they keep on climbing up that ladder, slides down just to climb up again?” asked inquisitively by one of the ants. To be able to take a closer look, the ants decided to go near the kids who are busy playing despite the reluctance of the others for fear that going near the humans are very dangerous like what the elders told them.

Meanwhile, in the woods, Kiko and his group are busy wandering when they smell something strange. More like a smell of burnt woods. To their astonishment, they saw that a big portion of the forest was burnt by fire. Dead and burned trees are everywhere and all that’s left are the awful smell and black woods. All the ants were in a state of shock when Kiko suddenly continued walking towards the fire’s residue.

“Hey, where are you going?” called the other ant to Kiko who is already on his way to check out the ashes that the fire has left. “This is our chance to show Pipo and his groups that we’re not cowards. We have to take some ashes and pieces of woods here as a proof that we have seen the place the elders have warned us not to go into,” Kiko said with eyes beaming. So despite of objections from some of the ants, they went on and traversed the forest blazed by fire.

In the city, the ants were able to get close to the humans and see how they actually looked like. Some ants, in curiosity to see what humans are made of and felt like, crawled in the leg of a girl who is sitting in one corner while eating an ice cream. The girl, petrified in seeing ants creeping her legs, screamed and shove the ants from her legs. Some of the kids who were playing gathered around the ants then tried to squash them. Pipo knew that they can’t run away from the mischievous kids as they are not that fast enough to save their selves. So as the leader of the group, he immediately ordered everyone to bite the kids. So all of them crawled into the legs of the kids and bit them as hard as they could.

In the forest, everyone was busy gathering burnt woods and ashes to show off to Pipo’s group when all of a sudden, they heard a strange sound and get a whiff of a smell very familiar to them. The sound was getting closer and louder and the smell is getting stronger. Then in just a blink of an eye, there they saw a huge blazing fire eating up the forest, creating a vast cloud of dark smoke. Kiko’s group, being fast runners, wasted no time to run for their safety, passing heavy dark smokes and falling branches from the trees.

At that moment, the kids in the park ran away crying while Pipo and his troops are cheering with joy. The sun is nearing to setting so the group decided to go back to their kingdom when all of a sudden one of the ants in the group shrieked.

“Ahhh!!! What’s happening to you, why are you turning red?!”  The girl ant cried and pointed to the fat ant. Everyone turned to the fattest ant and was all shocked. But they were more horrified when they saw that all of them are slowly turning into red.

“What’s happening to us?” asked the other ant crying. Pipo, horror-struck as the other ants, tried to recall all the things they did and all the places they’ve been when he reckoned that the last place they have been to was at the park where they bit the kids too hard. That might have been the reason why they are now all turning into bloody red.

In the forest, Kiko and his group were able to escape from the fire when all of them burst out into laughter upon seeing one another all jet black due to the dark smoke they’ve come across. They decided to wash their selves at the nearby river but they’re giggles suddenly turned into nervous laughter when they realized that no amount of washing and rinsing could take the black color off them.

In the ant kingdom, the elders kept on waiting for their sons and daughters. The sun has set and risen. Days and weeks have passed but still no trace of the young ants.

One day, a strange colored looking group of ants can be seen marching their way in the parks, homes and everywhere in the city. They would bite humans whenever they get a close encounter with them, fearing for their safety. On the other hand, pitch black looking ants can be seen roaming in the woods moving swiftly from grasses to the barks and branches of every tree. They move so fast that they appear to be always running away from something.

Purposedly made for an animation company