The next morning, when Shinji was again working on his tunnel, he could hear the footsteps of Asuka in his entrance cave.
"Hey Shinji, get your lazy butt over here. I found something... you gotta take a look at this!"
Shinji sighed. That Asuka! There wasn't one day when she didn't show up with a crazy idea or plans for an exciting adventure.
Shinji crawled out of the tunnel. "Forget it, Asuka! I'm not in the mood for your little adventures today. Remember how it ended yesterday? Think I wanna get caught by an ant... or worse, a raindrop?"
"But... but... you GOTTA come and see it." Asuka almost whined. "I need your help carrying it to my den." That didn't sound like her at all... Asuka wasn't one to whine. If she saw something, she would just take it. But to be that desperate... she must really need his help.
"Okay," he groaned. "I know I'm going to regret this, but... what's your problem?"
"I saw it after I got up early this morning. I was walking down to that place where the humans always drop their stuff... you know the place, right? I wanted to see if I could find something interesting. And then, I saw that big, hairy thing lying in front of me. It was round, and somewhat smaller than a sugar melon. There was a hole on one side, and it smelled really nice. I think it's eatable..."
"Asuka, think about it: If it's really as big as you just said, then how are you gonna carry it to your den?"
"But that's not what I wanted, Shinji-baka," the millipede growled. "If you would just let me finish... I want that OTHER thing. Ooooh, that looked so cute... You know, after looking at the hairy thing, I walked around it... and then I saw it: That cute yellow egg with the red stripes. It looked like someone lost it there... It was... just beautiful, I tell you! A shining yellow, and then those stripes... I have to get it to my home! Will you help me?"
It was no use, Shinji realized that. Whenever Asuka saw something she found 'cute' there was no reasoning with her. And now an egg... Shinji was afraid her maternal instinct was coming to the surface...
"Okay, and let's assume you take that egg down to your den... then what?"
"Of course I wanna try hatching it, dummy..." Asuka griped. "When the egg is already that cute, just imagine how cute the baby will be..."
"Okay, okay, I got it! All right, I'll help you! But we don't carry it into your den... that's too risky! If we find a way to take it away from there, we try to find a remote place where we can take care of it."
Asuka agreed to that, and then the two bugs left for the human's garbage place.
When they were passing the weed forest near the shore, they could hear the hissing voices of some ants. Carefully they looked over the edge of the slope...
A group of twelve red ants was busy breaking apart some pea pods. It looked like they were gonna use them as boats, to get over to the swimming sugar melon. Yes, ants really aren't that dumb as they look.
Carefully, so they wouldn't alert the NERV soldiers, Asuka and Shinji continued their way, until they finally reached their destination.
Shinji looked around the many things the humans had dropped here over the past weeks. "Now, where is it?"
"It's around here, behind that big box..." Asuka crawled around a big, empty milk carton and Shinji followed her. Then he could see the 'big, hairy thing'. It was a coconut.
Of course both of them didn't know what a coconut was at that time, but that didn't matter. Asuka crawled around the exotic fruit, then she let out a small gasp of surprise. "It's gone, Shinji! It's gone!"
"What? Where was it earlier?"
"Here, next to that hole. But now my beautiful egg has vanished. I tell you, the ants did this!"
Shinji quickly climbed on top of the coconut and took a look around. And far, far away, he could dimly see the figures of three red ants, who were just rolling the egg into their anthill.
He jumped down. "Asuka, you were right. The ants got it. Well, too bad... I think we can't do anything about it..."
Of course Asuka protested immediately, but Shinji managed to calm her down for now. As both were feeling a little tired after all this, they climbed into the coconut and tasted the unknown food.
As Asuka was munching, she lay down on her back and looked up at the arched ceiling of the coconut. Shinji knew the expression on her face... and he feared the worst.
"Shinji, I know what we'll do: We go and visit Ritsuko! I bet she knows some way to get the egg out of there."
"Asuka, think about it: Even if Ritsuko is willing to help us, do you really think we can break into an ant hill? They will have fed it to their queen when we arrive."
"We have to try," the red millipede insisted. "I would do anything to get it back..."
"Fine," Shinji sighed. "But let's wait until tomorrow until we leave for Ritsuko's cave, okay? We have to go all the way around the pond to reach it."
"We're going right now, of course!" Asuka growled. "Shinji, you're the lamest bug I've ever seen in my life. And of course we won't go by foot, we swim!"
"WHAT? Are you crazy? You'll never get me into the water!"
"Of course we have to find some sort of boat... Try to use your imagination a little bit, baka-Shinji! If those ants can do it, well, we can do it as well."
Shinji tried one last protest: "And what about all those animals living in the pond? Just thinking of them gives me the creeps..."
"If you mean the frogs and toads, they're not dangerous."
"And what about the water beetles? Are those your friends as well?"
"Well, we can always wait until it's dark. I bet the water beetles will be asleep by then."
That decided it. Shinji knew there was no way he could talk his multi-legged friend out of it, so he decided to come along with her, to make sure she wouldn't get into any trouble...
Of course, that would mean trouble for them both, but that's what you do for a friend...
"I have to be crazy..." Shinji muttered to himself as they were crawling out of the coconut.
See other episodes by Shritistrang
(Posted Mon, 16 Oct 2006 10:15)
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