Ari was having a dream of the past.The sky was heavy that day—gray and dull, like someone had wrung all the color out of the world. A slow wind brushed through the empty park, swaying the rusty chains of the old swingset with soft, rhythmic creaks.
Ari sat on the farthest swing, small hands loosely wrapped around the cold metal links. His feet hung above the dirt, unmoving. He wasn't swinging. Just sitting. Watching the ground. Listening to the silence.
His father and stepmother were in a meeting at the community center nearby. Said it wouldn't take long. Said he'd be fine waiting here.
But he wasn't fine.
It had been a year since his mom died. One stupid bite. A spider. Something no bigger than a coin. She got sick fast. Couldn't breathe. By the time anyone figured out how serious it was, it was too late.
And Ari had to learn how to live in a world where her voice was gone.
He sat there, shoulders curled inward, face empty. The kind of quiet that seeps into your bones, where even crying feels like too much effort. He didn't want anyone to look at him. To ask about her. To pretend like they understood.
Then he heard footsteps—soft ones, crunching over the gravel path.
He didn't look up.
A shadow stopped beside him. Someone small.
"Are you stuck?" a girl's voice asked.
Ari flinched. His fingers tensed around the chains. He didn't respond.
"You look stuck."
He finally raised his head a little. A girl around his age stood in front of him, hands behind her back, swaying on her heels. Her black hair was tied in messy pigtails, and her socks didn't match—one had tiny stars, the other, bright red stripes. She wore a purple hoodie zipped all the way up despite the warmth, and her nose was slightly pink from the breeze.
Ari stared at her. "What do you want?"
"Nothing." She looked at the swing beside him. "Just saw you sitting here all weird and quiet. Thought maybe you needed a push."
Ari glanced away. "I don't."
"Okay," she said simply. Then she sat on the swing next to his.
He expected her to start swinging, to make noise, to talk too much like other kids did. But she didn't. She sat the same way he did—feet still, hands loose on the chains, letting the wind do all the work.
"…What's your name?" she asked after a long pause.
He hesitated. "Ari."
"I'm Keiko."
"Okay."
Another stretch of silence. Then:
"You don't talk much, huh?"
Ari shrugged.
"That's alright," Keiko said, nudging the dirt with the toe of her shoe. "I talk enough for two people anyway."
She looked up at the clouds, squinting. "My teacher says I should try not to bother people. But I don't think sitting next to someone counts as bothering. Does it?"
Ari blinked. "No."
She grinned. "Good."
Something about her was… different. She wasn't trying to cheer him up. She wasn't being loud or fake. Just sitting there, like it was the most normal thing in the world to sit next to a sad kid on a swing.
"My mom used to take me to this park," he said suddenly.
Keiko turned to him, quiet now.
"She'd bring a little blanket and sit under that tree." He nodded toward a bare-looking maple. "She always had snacks in her bag. She called them secret snacks, like it was some big mission."
He gave a small, tired smile.
Keiko smiled too, but gently.
"She died last year," he added, barely above a whisper. "Spider bite."
Keiko blinked. "Wow… That's scary. I didn't know spiders could kill people."
"Me neither."
She looked down at her lap, thinking. "That's really messed up."
"…Yeah."
"I don't think I'd talk much either if my mom died."
He glanced at her. She wasn't saying it to be kind—just honest.
For the first time in a long while, Ari didn't feel like curling into himself.
Keiko stood up and walked a few steps forward. Then she turned, pointing to the slide across the grass. "Wanna race down it? Loser has to eat a leaf."
Ari blinked. "What?"
"I'm serious. It's a sacred playground law."
He gave her a weird look, then laughed softly under his breath. "You're weird."
"Takes one to know one."
She started walking toward the slide, not checking to see if he followed. But he did—slowly at first, then faster, until he was right behind her.
And even though the sky was still gray, something in his chest felt just a little lighter.
That was the day Ari met Keiko.
And without even realizing it, that was the day he stopped feeling so alone.
Suddenly, a loud banging noise disturbed Ari's sleep.
"Ahhh! My ears, what the hell was that?" Ari said, holding his antennae.
All the prisoners were released from their cells and led into a large area within the colony, where a proud ant stood above the crowd.
"Rise and shine, everyone. I'm sure many of you already know who I am, but for the new prisoners, I'll introduce myself.
"My name is Seth, commander of the army that serves Queen Celeste. You will all refer to me as 'sir' and obey my every order. There will be severe punishments for those who don't. Understood?" said Seth.
"Yes, sir!" all the imprisoned ants responded.
"Good. Now let me explain how this works. You work an eight-hour shift, and you'll be paid for it with your one and only meal of the day. If you fail to comply, even by a second, you won't be given any food until the following day," said Seth.
"Eight hours? That's just cruel. And if you don't work, you don't eat? That's messed up," Ari muttered to himself.
"Now that everyone is up to date on what exactly needs to be done, get moving. These tunnels aren't going to dig themselves, and the debris won't clear itself."
One by one, the prisoners picked up pickaxes to start digging the tunnels. The area was heavily guarded by warden ants to prevent escape attempts or punish those who slacked off. As Ari reached the front of the line, he picked up a pickaxe and examined it.
"This was crafted with sticks and stone, conjoined using some sort of gooey material to ensure efficiency. Who would've thought ants could be this intelligent in another world?" Ari said to himself as he made his way to the mines.
After reaching the mines, he started digging alongside the other prisoners when suddenly, an ant stopped working, too fatigued from the previous day.
"Get back to work!" shouted a warden ant.
"Please, just give me some time to rest, sir. I haven't recovered from yesterday," the ant said, struggling to stay conscious.
"Get back to work!" the warden repeated, whipping the prisoner with a thorny vine. The ant squealed in pain.
"If I'm not careful, I might end up like that unfortunate ant over there. That looks really painful," Ari thought, continuing to dig.
"This barrel is full. Help me move it outside," said another ant.
Both Ari and the ant pushed the heavy barrel together.
"If I were human, doing all this would kill me in half an hour. But since I'm an ant, I can work for long periods without getting tired."
To remove the debris from digging the tunnels, they placed it in cylindrical structures and rolled it outside the colony. The problem was that the barrels were extremely heavy, and the exit was inclined, making it even harder to push them out.
"They only allow two ants to carry all this weight to prevent escape attempts," Ari thought.
As Ari made his way back into the colony, he noticed an old, fragile ant collapse from fatigue.
"Get back to work, you old fool!" a warden ordered.
The old ant tried to stand but immediately fell again, completely exhausted.
"You can't say I didn't warn you," the warden said as he began beating the old ant with thorny vines.
"Grandpa, no! Stop hitting him! Please, have mercy!" a young female ant cried as she rushed in front of her grandfather to protect him.
"He's old and unable to work today, so please spare him just this once! I beg of you!" she pleaded.
"Move out of my way, or do you want to get whipped as well?" asked the warden.
"No! I won't move! I can't just stand here and watch you hurt him! He's the only family I have left!" the female ant cried, tears streaming down her face.
"It's your funeral. Don't blame me for what happens next," the warden growled as he swung the thorny vine at her.
Ari caught the whip with his bare hand.
"What? How dare you try to stop me?" the warden barked in anger.
"Listen, the old ant is worn out. Even if you beat him, he won't magically get more energy to continue. You'll only end up killing him," Ari said.
"Here's the deal—I'll take on his work today so he can rest and be more productive tomorrow. Just leave him alone this once."
The warden sighed and agreed with Ari's logical argument.
"Bring him with you. He's spending the rest of the day in his cell," the warden ordered.
"Grandpa, can you stand?" the female ant asked gently.
"It's alright. Just lean on my shoulder. I'll take you to your cell," she said, helping him up.
"Thank you so much for helping me and my grandpa," the female ant said as she walked away with him.
"What's wrong with me?" Ari wondered.
"I thought I really despised ants. So why did I help them just now? Shouldn't it bring me joy to see them in pain?"
"In this world and in mine, I view ants from two different perspectives. I didn't know they had feelings like this. It almost makes me feel guilty for what I've done to them."
After ten hours of exhausting work, Ari finally finished both his own tasks and the old ant's. He approached the warden overseeing him, who then led him to storage and gave him three pieces of meat for protein, some water, and a berry.
Ari sat down and began eating when suddenly, an ant tapped him on the shoulder.
"Um, who are you?" Ari asked.
"I'm the ant you helped out earlier. Thank you for saving my grandpa. I really appreciate it. Here, take this," she said, handing him a piece of meat.
"I don't need that. If anything, you should give it to your grandfather since he didn't get anything to eat today," Ari replied.
"Here, take this as well and give it to him," he added, handing her some water and a piece of meat.
"Thank you. You're very kind. Do you have a name?"
"You can just call me Ari."
"Ari? That's a very strange name," she said with a chuckle.
"Oh, I almost forgot to introduce myself!" she added, straightening her posture with a bright smile. "I'm Evelyn."
"Evelyn? That's a nice name," Ari replied, giving her a faint smile.
"Thank you. I guess it's not as strange as yours, though," she teased lightly.
Evelyn then noticed his hand was bleeding. Without hesitation, she wrapped it with a leaf to stem the bleeding and applied pressure to the wound.
"Thank you," Ari said, appreciating her quick assistance.
"It's nothing, really. You got that wound protecting my grandpa, so it's the least I can do," said Evelyn with a smile.
"So, Evelyn, how did you and your grandfather end up in a situation like this? If you don't mind sharing, of course," Ari asked.
"Well, we didn't commit any crimes or steal from this colony, that's for sure.
"My grandpa and I came from a flourishing colony. We had a lot of food and a well-built infrastructure. Life was peaceful… until he came—a grasshopper named Hopper.
"He came to our colony demanding half of our food supply for the winter. My father and his soldiers refused and tried to resist Hopper, but they were all killed. Our colony was destroyed.
"My grandpa and I barely escaped with our lives. We wandered around, just trying to survive, but one day, ants from this colony captured us and forced us into labor," Evelyn explained.
"So far, the only living creatures I've seen in this world are ants. I didn't imagine grasshoppers existed too," Ari thought to himself.
"You and your grandpa have been through a lot," he said.
"Go ahead and give him the food. He must be really starving right now," Ari added.
"Yes, you're right. I'll be sure to tell him about this. Thank you again," Evelyn said.
She ran off, gripping the food tightly in her hand as if afraid it might vanish if she loosened her grip. Her footsteps echoed lightly through the tunnels, leaving Ari alone once more.
"Why did I even help them? Why did I go out of my way to ease their suffering?"
"Was it guilt? Pity? Or maybe... something else?"
"Even though I still think ants are pests, I can't deny they have their own lives, families, and emotions in this world. They aren't like the ones I knew back on Earth."
"What am I even doing anymore?"