At nightfall, Shinji and Asuka started pushing their own boat into the dark waters of the pond.
It was nothing spectacular, just a big leaf from an acorn tree... but it was big enough to carry both of them. When it was floating on the calm water's surface, Asuka lowered the back half of her body into the water and began paddling. Like an outboard engine, she propelled the leaf boat forward.
A dark shape fluttered over their heads and made them flinch, but it was just a harmless moth.
It was quiet for some time, the only thing Shinji could hear were Asuka's rhythmic breathing and the splashing of her feet in the water.
After some time, they approached a dark shape floating in front of them. It was the sugar melon.
"Watch out," Shinji called. "Let's keep some distance... we don't know if there are already some ants up there."
Asuka nodded and steered the boat a little further away.
And indeed, as they were circling the melon, they could see the pod boats of the ants, attached to the melon with some strings.
When Asuka saw that, she stopped and thought about it. "Shinji, I got an idea: What do you say we head for the pod boats of the ants, untie the strings so the boats would drift off. Then they would be stuck up there."
"Come on, that's silly," Shinji protested. "By the way, they could easily be saved by other ants."
But Asuka didn't listen. With a big grin on her face, she steered their leaf towards the boats of the ants.
Just before they reached them, a sharp whistle came from the top of the melon. Had they been detected?
"Turn around, Asuka! Turn around!"
Asuka seemed to realize the danger and steered away from the melon. But some of the NERV soldiers were already jumping into the pea pods and went after them. Shinji could hear angry hisses and curses coming from the ants.
Luckily, Asuka and Shinji seemed to be faster than the ants. Slowly, the distance between them increased more and more.
Shinji let out a sigh of relief as he looked back at the ant boats, who were falling back. "I think we're faster," he said. "I don't think they will catch up..."
Then, it happened!
A dark shape was zooming through the water, hitting the pod boats of the ants with full force and knocked them away, sending the ants flying in all directions. Then it was gone.
Shinji and Asuka stared. "What was that?" Asuka gasped.
"A water beetle..." Shinji whispered. "They got attacked by one of the water beetles..."
They waited for some time, in case the beetle would return. But the surface of the pond once again was smooth and calm.
Shinji saw something moving a short distance from their position and gestured towards it. Asuka nodded and moved their boat closer to the struggling figure.
It was one of the ant soldiers. She - Shinji could clearly see that is was a female - was struggling wildly, swimming for her life. But she would never make it in time...
Shinji exchanged a quick look with Asuka, then he reached for the flailing ant and pulled her aboard.
The red ant cowered in one corner of the boat, looking at her saviors in fear.
"Who are you?" Shinji asked. "What's your name?"
The ant responded with various hissing sounds coming from in-between her big jaws. Neither Asuka and Shinji could understand her... no insect they knew had ever tried learning the difficult language of the ants. And normally, it wouldn't be much of use, as ants weren't known as especially talkative insects.
The female seemed to be glad that she had been saved, but she also was afraid... While ants were very dangerous when they come in large numbers (which they usually do), a single ant is not a very big threat, as they are small compared to other insects.
Asuka and Shinji could clearly see that the ant wasn't acting in a hostile way, but they still couldn't understand what she said.
"Well, what do we do with her?" Asuka asked.
Shinji thought about it. Letting her go back to her people was risky... but he somehow was reluctant to throw her back into the water. "I guess we take her along... we'll decide later what we do with her." He looked into the ant's eyes. "Do you understand me?"
The ant nodded, while hissing in a sad voice. So, she understood them, but obviously couldn't speak their language. Perhaps it was because of her large jaws...
Shinji thought about it. "Well, we can't just call you 'ant' all the time... So I guess we just have to give you a name for now, huh?"
"I know," Asuka said. "Why don't we call her 'Misato'?"
The ant seemed to like the name, as she stood up, nodded multiple times, pointed at her chest and said: "Missssssaatssssooo."
Asuka laughed. "Well, she's certainly not like any ant I've met so far."
"Okay, Misato," Shinji smiled. "We are heading for the other side of the pond, where a friend of ours is living. You're coming with us, okay?"
Misato nodded again. She seemed very happy that those two insects had saved her from drowning in the pond, and when Asuka began paddling anew, she wanted to help her by putting her short legs into the water and paddled as well. Asuka laughed when seeing that.
Shinji shook his head with a grin. Now that ant seemed to be real grateful... This seemed to be the beginning of a strange alliance... and perhaps she could even be helpful when they were trying to get the red-striped egg out of the anthill.
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(Posted Mon, 16 Oct 2006 11:35)
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