The ground beneath the plants was soft and fragrant, and the towering leaves above cast dappled shadows.
“It’s even better than the stories,” Irra whispered in awe.
Frra was already analyzing the situation. “We should take a piece back to show everyone. It’s too far to bring the whole anthill here, but we can prove it’s real.”
Irra nodded and began climbing the nearest strawberry stem, her nimble legs moving quickly.
But as she reached the base of a berry, the ground below them trembled.
“Frra… did you feel that?”
The tremor grew stronger, and out from the shadows emerged a long-legged, spindly figure—a spider. Its many eyes glinted as it hissed, “Thieves in my field! You’ll pay with your lives!”
Frra instantly grabbed a fallen leaf and raised it like a shield. “Stay back!” he shouted, his voice shaking.
Irra scurried down the stem, her heart pounding. “What do we do?!”
Frra’s mind raced. The sap trail they’d left—it was their lifeline.
“We run! Follow the trail!”
And so, hand in hand, the siblings dashed through the field, the spider chasing close behind. Its legs moved like lightning, but Irra and Frra’s small size allowed them to weave through tight spaces and under roots where the predator couldn’t follow.
Finally, they reached the meadow, their legs aching and their tiny lungs burning.
Only when the anthill came into view did they allow themselves to stop and catch their breath.
That evening, as their parents returned home and the family gathered for dinner, Irra and Frra couldn’t stop grinning.
They didn’t tell the adults about their adventure—at least, not yet—but the siblings shared victorious glances, knowing they had broken the monotony of their routine.
And tucked away in a secret corner of the anthill, hidden inside a tiny hollowed-out seed, was a single ruby-red fragment of strawberry—a treasure from the Great Strawberry Field, proof of their courage and curiosity.
As they drifted off to sleep that night, Irra whispered to her brother, “What do you think we’ll explore next?”
Frra smiled in the darkness. “We’ll figure it out, Irra. Together.”
A dangerous encounter with a viper
Once upon a time, in a sprawling green forest, there lived a colony of ants under a vast anthill that peaked like a small mountain.
Among these small but spirited creatures were two red ants, siblings named Irra and Frra. They spent their days in the warm summer sun, free from the responsibilities of the hive, and the world around them was their playground.