Treasure Hunt

“You, uh… you sure that’s a good idea?” Cillian asked when Vera offered to distract the ant so he could go look into whatever she’d stumbled across in the dirt. The woman didn’t exactly seem like the type that would have any kind of magic or combat skills to speak of, but he’d been surprised in the past before. Either way it seemed Vera had made up her mind so he figured the best he could do was just shrug and go with it. The sooner he looked into what she found, the sooner he could give her a hand if she needed it.

The problem was, he had no idea where she had spotted this curious shiny item. Digging up massive clods of dirt sounded really tedious and exhausting, so he figured it was time for a little help. Reaching into a pocket, he pulled out a golden key that bore a symbol of one of the Zodiacs. “Open, gate of the maiden: Virgo!” There was a bright flash of light and before him appeared a woman of small frame wearing a traditional maid’s costume. She had pink hair and vivid blue eyes, and there were a pair of broken shackles attached to either wrist that each held a short length of chain dangling from them.

She bowed formally to him. “Hello, master. How may I be of service today?”

“Hey, we’re looking for a--”

“Did the world get bigger?” Virgo interrupted up to look up at their surroundings where flowers and grass towered far above their heads. “Also, should we help that girl?”

The two of them looked over at Vera, watching her for a moment together as she dealt with the ant that was currently much bigger than they were. He probably should ask Virgo to help Vera, rather than go on a treasure hunt… Turning back to Virgo, he told her, “I’m sure she’ll be fine. What we need is for you to help find this ring we’re looking for. We’ve been shrunk down to search for it in this old hag’s garden. It’s gold and probably going to be about this big around.” He held out his arms and curved them into a large circle in front of him. “My friend there said she saw something shiny in all the dirt, but I don’t know where she was looking so I was hoping you’d give me a hand.”

“Can do, master!” Twisting her body, she spun like a top and dropped into the ground out of sight.

While Virgo did that, Cillian took another glance at Vera and sighed. He probably shouldn’t let the women do all the work, even if that would be more progressive of him. Gauging his timing to be just right, he tore into a sprint and body checked the ant as hard as he could, hoping to knock it on its ass and send it flying while it was distracted chasing Vera around.

Instead, his shoulder smacked into the hard exoskeleton with a hard thud! The ant barely took a step or two in a stumble before it had regained its balance, turning to look at him now with big beady black eyes. He giggle a little nervously. “Heeeey there, buddy. Wow, you’re a tough little bugger, aren’t you? I was just, uh… just trying to test your… reflexes. Yeah. You’re doing just fine.” He reached up and patted the ant on its side.

It hissed at him with a screech.

“...Oh.” He stood there like a dummy as the ant reared up and swept one of his legs across his chest, knocking him back several feet where he landed in the dirt for the second time today. “Okay, yeah, I probably deserved that,” the necromancer moaned.

“Master, was this what you were looking for?” He looked up to see Virgo standing over him with a piece of jewelry in her hand. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a ring. At least, not one for a finger. It was an earring with a diamond stud.

He got to his feet. “Nope, that’s not it. Though honestly it’s probably more valuable than what that old woman is looking for. She lost a finger ring, but it probably not where we are at the moment. Mind search out a bit further?”

Virgo nodded and dropped the earring back on the dirt. “Absolutely!” She disappeared again and Cillian turned to try to find Vera. Or the ant. Whoever was closer or more likely to try and hit him.    

“I suppose if no one comes from the future to stop you,” Vera replied dippily, despite her sagacity and her justifiable distress, “then how bad of a decision can it really be?”

Vera saluted Cillian with one last appropriately incredulous glance, advancing slowly to meet the insect, with a useless twig held hellaciously in her hand like a highly strung bullfighter taunting the foe. She appraised with cautious attentiveness and sporadic gasps, the sardonic picture on which an ant was starting to, in sooth, become a threat, and quietly acknowledged that had they been their de jure size, then this would have incontestably turned into a matter to laugh about.

The beast charged, and less than bravely Walden ran the opposite direction screaming, for it was starting to concede them as a thing likely to cause danger; as if the two foreign creatures had nothing better to do than to terrorize the ant and steal its dear spherically shaped shiny. The ant predicted the two ugly-looking, stupidly pink hairy bugs were fated to die brutally or at least lose most of their impractical limbs.

The next it did was drum its antennas all over Vera, and she screamed once more beside the great stem of an even greater flower and heard the furious chitter as she went rigid with fear, to the point of going completely mute and simply rolling her eyes to the side. She would check on the white-haired man to reevaluate the situation, to see just how much closer to death she was.

A short time elapsed after her remark before a comment from Cillian reached the ears of the human diversion; and the anger she should have experienced much earlier, burst forth and multiplied. “I - I’m sure she’ll be fine? What are you, a freaking sadist? I need you to get a move on or I’ll be premium ant chow!” the priss in her finally broke free from her lips, unsightly veins bulging from the neck up. She didn’t even sound like a woman anymore; her voice was like a thousand demons charging into the battlefield. She mindlessly threw the soft twig in the face of the enemy and hurtled toward the other side of the stem.

The embodiment of impatience, keeping her eyes set on the burrowing maiden with electrifying pink hair, went through her pockets for a special unit, cursorily with a certain resoluteness of bearing, distinctly unrelated from the wild befuddlement with which she sought for the mystery item, when patting still for it; then with a loud squeal of frustration, as if she yearned for super speed, she hurriedly pulled out what she hoped was their saving grace.

“Hot dog! It’s been such a long time, Fifi! You excited, old gal?” cried the hearty girl, her amazement cut short by a moment of weakness, as it slipped right through her fingers. Her keyring! She gasped as if a murder had been committed and snatched it up, quite hastily, while it fell and juggled it about when it refused to stay in her hand.

What she saw as she looked over her shoulder stunned her.  

Here Cillian socking his shoulder against the sturdy exoskeleton of the offender and explaining himself when it didn’t fall over from the impact as he might have intended, patted its side after; while Vera Jayne, with the keyring finally safe in the palm of her hand,  made a sharp turn in his direction and exclaimed, "You’re as mad as a hatter! No amount of Moody Hues is going to fix that. My freakin' hero.” The large jovial smile that played on her lips withered along with her ardor as he was sent tumbling.

“Oh, boy. Ok, you get a gold star for trying. Take two?” She winced.

Vera was distressed to find him back on the ground, running to his aid by standing firmly between the ant and the plucky goofball, who moaned something about deserving that.  The relieved woman, now taking matters into her own hands, poured forth the name of her weapon; and Fifi Babette was a simple keyring no more. In its place was a Herculean feather-duster of many generous plumes and colors.  Vera chose to receive the ant with a giddy smile,  waving the vibrant feather-duster to produce a near cosmic burst of rainbow particles. The show of hues, while pretty, served as a defensive barrier; it apparently also served to cause the ant grief when it failed to properly pierce her shield.

A quick flash of concern for the bug and the limited time she had utilizing such a defense —"Don’t you have a colony to get back to? Or are you a runaway looking to build your own empire of dirt? I get you, buddy. You’re tired of all the mean ants stepping all over you; misnaming you just because you look like...everyone else. But you know better, don’t you? You have your own identity and no one is ever going to take that away from you. Not even that guy!" but the final blow from the ant never came, as if the ant decided it was a fine time to throw in the towel, and the ring it strived so hard to protect lost its importance, permitted Vera to expel a great sigh of relief as the insect turned the other way. It was going home. Good riddance! What a bunch of weirdoes, it probably thought.

And she withdrew her weapon once she was sure the horse-sized insect was nowhere to be found, every little rainbow particle fading into the nothing as the feather-duster mystically reverted back to its original form. The little keyring accompanied whatever she had in the thick pockets her sweater, which Vera tucked in with a gracious smile and a strange bounce in her step as she rushed toward Cillian.

With very human worry, she was falling to her knees beside him which she had done much earlier as she found herself, not asking if he was ok, but laughing. The trim little dame fell back dramatically and laughed at the set of circumstances in which they found themselves, not caring for how the rich soil dirtied her hair, clothes, or sneaker shoes.


The source of her merriment rose to his feet, and Vera, being slower to rise than he, expressed her surprise of having discovered tears in her eyes by smacking the same shoulder he used to bump the poor ant with a playfully firm hand. “I’m sure you’re going to be just fine!” she wheezed, throwing his words back at him. It didn’t take long for anyone to deduce that when she was done being angry, she honestly wasn’t very hard to amuse or to make laugh. It was a little embarrassing, she was like night and day.

“Hey, lollipop triple dipped in crazy, should we follow her?” asked Vera, a little too happy to have giggled so hard, marching through uneven mounds of dirt.