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Nothing is Impossible Ch. 7-10

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When Ann began to wake up, she couldn't figure out what she was lying on, it definitely wasn't her pillow. It felt like something hard with something softer over it, maybe a thick piece of leather.
She couldn't remember where she had fallen asleep the night before, but she felt safe and wasn't really awake enough to care, she didn't want to wake up enough to open her eyes to see where she was. So she decided to lie there until she woke up more or figured out where she had fallen asleep.

Then she noticed a faint heart beat and whatever it was, was moving like someone breathing.

Ann's eyes flew open and her heart started pounding as she remembered everything that had happened the night before. It took everything in her to keep from trying to pull away, not that she would have gotten very far with her one arm pinned under Zoc's back.

She remembered what Zoc had said about her freaking out and she didn't want him to think he had been right. Okay, so he had been right, she was freaking out, but she didn't want him to know that or think it was just because he was an ant. Honestly if she had woken up like this with a human man she probably would have freaked out a lot worse.

Ann slowly lifted her head and relaxed a bit when she realized he was still asleep. As she looked at his face she wondered if his face was like his chest and just had a layer of thick skin or if there was muscle between his skin and skeleton. She assumed there had to be, but she wanted to know for sure. She had wondered how the ants could show so much emotion and move their faces as much as they did if they had normal exoskeletons. Her curiosity finally got the better of her, she slowly and carefully reached her hand towards his face while hoping he wouldn't wake up. She gently ran her fingers over the ridges above his eyes, they felt like muscle which explained why he could move them so much. She then slowly moved her hand farther down his face and felt air on the palm of her hand, she thought it was coming from his mouth until she realized his mouth was shut and the air seemed to be coming from his face where, if he had been human, a nose would have been. She carefully moved her fingers down and could feel two areas that felt like the skin was thinner and there where openings behind it that he was breathing through.

Zoc moved slightly and Ann pulled her hand back and waited several minutes to make sure he wouldn't wake up. She knew she should stop and would die of embarrassment if he woke up and caught her, but again her curiosity got the better of her and when she was sure he was still asleep she carefully reached up and ran her fingers over his mandibles, they felt like solid bone and the inside edge was sharp. She hesitated a moment then gently ran a finger over his lips, they felt like a humans except for the thicker skin and she wondered what it would feel like if he kissed her.

Ann was shocked at what she had been thinking and quickly pulled her hand back.

"Afraid I was going to bite you?" Zoc asked, opening his eyes.

Shocked that he was awake and embarrassed that he had obviously been awake long enough to know what she had been doing, she pulled back and tried to sit up, as she did her hand that was still under his back caught on something sharp, but she was moving to fast to stop. Then as she started to come up so she would be sitting on her knees, the blankets that where over her caught under Zoc's back and forced her at an angle off the other side of the bed. Luckily, Zoc grabbed her arm before she could fall off.

"Are you alright? I didn't mean to scare you." Zoc said.

"No, I'm not alright. What on earth was under you?" She asked, lifting her hand up to see how badly she was hurt, the side of her hand was scraped and bleeding from her thumb to her wrist.

"Craznocks! I knew I should have made you move your arm when you wrapped it around my back, I just didn't want to wake you. It wasn't anything under me, it was one of the spikes on my back that your hand caught on." Zoc told her as he tore a strip off of the sheets and gently started to wrap it around Ann's hand.

"They're that sharp?" Ann asked.

"Almost as sharp as my mandibles."

Ann groaned and asked, "How long have you been awake?"

"Assuming that when your breathing changed is when you woke up, I woke up about fifteen minutes before you did." Zoc replied.

Ann blushed and asked, "You were awake the whole time, just waiting to see how badly you could scare me?"

"I just didn't want to wake you and then when you woke up and didn't freak out. I wanted to see what you would do, so let you think I was still asleep. When you pulled away so quickly I thought you had realized that I was awake. I never meant to scare you."

He took Ann's hand in his, gently wrapping his long fingers around it and said, "I would never do anything to hurt you. Now let's get you in to the nest. I want to get a healing potion on your hand as soon as possible."

Ann agreed and Zoc left to get his staff from the other room. When Ann got off of the bed she noticed two slits that went through the blankets, the top one had even cut into the mattress. As Zoc walked back into the room Ann said, "You get to help me flip the mattress over after you take care of my hand."

"Why dose it need to be flipped?"

"Because, Doreen sometimes helps me make the bed after I wash the sheets and I don't want to have to try to explain why there's a hole in the mattress."

Zoc's staff lit up for a second, he smiled and asked, "What hole?"

Ann turned around and saw that the holes were gone and the sheet that Zoc had torn the strip off of to wrap her hand with had been fixed. Ann turned back to face Zoc, smiled and said, "I suppose that will do."

"Good, now let's go take care of your hand."

"So how long will it take for my hand to stop hurting after you get the healing potion on it?" Ann asked as they headed to the nest.

"About half an hour until it heals enough to stop hurting and a few hours for it to heal completely."

After Zoc had put the healing potion on Ann's hand and rebandaged it, he asked, "Do you want some breakfast before I take you home?"

"Are you going to try to get me to eat more honeydew?"

"It really isn't that bad."

"Yeah, it tastes great until you realize it came out of a caterpillars butt."

"Okay, fine, it is disgusting if you think about where it comes from, you just have to learn not to think about it." Zoc told her.

"I think I'll stick with eating human food. Let's go back to the house and I'll make us some breakfast. Have you ever had pancakes?"

"Are you sure going back to the house to eat is a good idea? Didn't you say Lucas's family would be home today?"

"They won't be home until this evening." Ann told him.

"Okay. So what are pancakes?"

"They're… a bunch of different foods mixed together, then cooked. It might be easier to explain while I make them and you can watch."

"Okay."

When they got back to the house Zoc watched Ann make the pancakes and asked her about each unfamiliar food as she mixed them. Most of the food was easy enough to explain, the syrup from tree sap and the flour from grain where foods the ants ate quite often and they occasionally found eggs that had fallen out of bird's nests and ate those. Then she got out the milk, that led to a long discussion about mammals, humans and where milk came from.

Just when she thought he had finally run out of questions he asked, "So that's what the growths on your chest are for?"

Ann blushed, "Yes. Now that's enough questions for now, the food is done." She said as she set his food in front of him.

After tasting it Zoc said, "This is really good."

"I thought you would like it."

After they had finished eating Ann said, "I should get some more of my family's stuff sorted."

"Would you mind if I stayed? I know I won't be much help, but I don't think you should be alone while you go through that stuff."

Ann smiled and said; "Actually, having you here to keep me from thinking about my family to much would help a lot."

Ann and Zoc spent the next several hours going through her family's stuff and telling each other about their families. Ann had been doing pretty well going through the stuff, Zoc seemed to be able to tell when the memories where becoming too much for her to handle and would start telling her about his family or things he had done or seen.

Then she opened a box of photo albums, the pictures of her family, all the memories they brought back and knowing they would never be able to do those things again broke her heart and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't hold back her tears. Zoc took the photo album and set it back in the box, then reached up and gently brushed the tears off of her cheek and said, "I think it's time to take a break." Smiling he added, "And I know just what to do to take your mind off of all this."




Chapter 8 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Zoc shrunk them and took Ann through a tunnel that led up into Doreen's cactus garden.

"What are we doing here?" Ann asked.

"You'll see. You aren't afraid of heights, are you?" Zoc asked.

"No." She answered, then heard a loud buzzing sound, she looked up and saw a huge wasp coming towards them and took a couple of steps back as it landed in front of them.

"It's alright, he's a friend, we've been friends with his colony since they helped us stop the cloud breather." Zoc told her.

"What are you doing here?" The wasp asked.

"She needs something to take her mind off of her family and I thought you might be able to help." Zoc replied pulling Ann forward.

"So you want me to give her something else to think about for a while."

The way he said it Ann was sure he would have been grinning if he had been able to.

Zoc grinned and answered, "Exactly." then looked at Ann and said. "Take your shoes off."

"Why do I need to take them off?"

"Your feet will be less likely to slip if you have them off."

While Ann took her shoes off Zoc strapped his staff to his back and climbed on to the Wasp's back then reached down to help Ann up.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Ann asked as she took his hand and he easily lifted her up onto the wasps back in front of him.

"Don't worry, I've been doing this for three years and have never fallen off."

"Zoc, I'm a human, I can't hold on with my feet like you can."

"I won't let you fall." Zoc said wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her back against his chest. He grabbed the wasp's antennas with his other hand.

The wasp's wings started to beat and they lifted off the ground. Ann grabbed a hold of Zoc's arm as they took off across the yard getting higher, and higher, until they where flying over the houses and then out into the country and over huge fields of wild flowers.

At first, Ann was scared that she would fall, but after a few minutes she relaxed and started to enjoy it. She loved the feel of the wind as it blew through her hair and rippled her skirt around her ankles.

After about an hour, they flew over a river that ran through a field of wild flowers and the wasp landed inside of a rose on a rose bush that was growing next to the stream.

"Why did we land?" Ann asked.

"It's getting to hot for flying. We'll rest here for an hour or two until the sun isn't directly overhead and it starts to cool off a bit." Zoc said as he jumped off of the wasp and helped Ann down.

The wasp flew off and Ann asked. "Where is he going?"

Zoc led her out to the edge of the rose, pointed out a forested area and said, "He's going hunting in there where it's cooler, they no longer try to steal the caterpillars from the colony so they have had to find other places to hunt. It was on one of the occasions that we where out flying that he found out that there was a good supply of food to be caught in there, so now when ever I ask to go flying we end up out here and he'll spend a couple hours hunting, if he finds enough, he'll find a safe place to store it and have a few of the others come back with him to get it later."

Zoc walked back into the rose and came back with two drops of liquid and handed one to Ann.

"What's this?" Ann asked.

"It's nectar." Zoc replied.

They sat at the edge of the rose as they ate, where they could see out over the river.

A few minutes later Zoc pointed to the other side of the river and said, "Look over there."

Ann looked to where he had pointed, just in time to see a river otter slide into the water, a few seconds later another, smaller one slowly started to come out of a burrow on the bank, then was pushed into the water as three more came out and tried to push past it to get to the water.

"Oh, Zoc, they're adorable. Did you already know about them?" Ann asked.

"Yes, I've been watching them for a few weeks now. I thought you would like to see them."

They watched the otters play almost an hour before they suddenly disappeared back into their burrow as if something had scared them.

A few seconds later they noticed a mule deer with two fawns that had come out of the forest and walked to the river, getting a drink and then the doe started to graze while the fawns raced around playing. After a while they headed back to the forest.

Ann and Zoc spent a while talking and watching for anything else that might come out.

The only thing that came out was a rabbit that sat a few feet from the rose bush munching on some leaves.

All of a sudden Zoc's antennas started to twitch and he got a weird look on his face.

"Are you alright?" Ann asked.

"Get away from the edge." Zoc commanded as he grabbed his staff and started to get up.

"Why, what's wrong?" Ann asked as she stood up.

Before he could answer, a hard breeze hit the rose bush and they both fell out of the rose, as they started to fall Zoc grab Ann's arm and managed to catch his staff between the bases of two leaves and quickly pulled them both up onto the leaf.

As soon as she was safely on the leaf Ann collapsed onto her knees, her heart was pounding harder than it ever had before, she couldn't catch her breath and she was shaking.

Zoc knelt down, rested a hand on her shoulder and asked. "Other than being scared half to death, are you alright?"

Taking a couple of deep breaths Ann said. "I think so. What caused that breeze?"

Zoc pointed behind her and said. "That did."

Ann turned to see a golden eagle eating the rabbit. It was huge and with the size she was it made it look even bigger.

"We need to get back inside of the rose before it takes off, we could fall from here." Zoc told her.

"Didn't we just fall out of the rose?"

"If we had, had time to get farther in, we wouldn't have and the only other safe place would be on the ground and it would take longer to get down there."

"Okay and how am I supposed to get up there? I doubt I can just climb up there like you can."

"I'll carry you up." Zoc said as he picked Ann up.

"Will you be able to hold on well enough if you're carrying me?" Ann asked.

"Don't worry, when it comes to climbing I actually have a better grip with my feet than hands."

They got back up to the rose just as the eagle was finishing the rabbit. They got far enough back into the rose that Zoc said they shouldn't fall out again as long as they where careful, but where they could still see the eagle. Zoc drove his staff into the rose petals and then they laid down with the staff on one side of Ann and Zoc on the other side of her with his arm over her back and holding onto the staff.

The eagle spread its wings, with its seven-foot wingspan it was impossible to see all of its wings from inside of the rose but with what she could see and the size she was Ann thought it looked bigger than any airplane she had ever seen. As it started to flap its wings and the rose started to sway from the breeze, Ann grabbed a hold of the staff and Zoc tightened his grip.

When the rose finally stopped moving they walked out to the edge and could see the eagle circle the area a few times before it flew out of sight.

Ann leaned back against the side of the rose and slid down until she was sitting down and said. "The eagle was amazing, but I think that's enough excitement for one day."

Zoc smiled and said. "I couldn't agree with you more."

A few minutes later the wasp came back and they headed home. As they landed they heard the Nickle's pull in and rushed into the basement where Zoc returned Ann to her normal size just as Doreen called down to see if she was there.

Ann helped the Nickle's carry their stuff in and was about to head back down to the basement when Lucas asked her if she could put the stuff out of the cooler away for him because there was something else he really needed to do. Ann agreed, a moment later she heard the basement door quietly close. She quickly finished putting the food away and then headed to the basement, but the door was locked, luckily she had the key Doreen had given her and quietly unlocked the door then relocked it.

When she got down there, Lucas was kneeling at the far end of the couch where the entrance to the tunnel was that led to the nest.

"What are you doing down here?" Ann asked trying to sound serious and not smile.

Lucas shot up and looked like he had been caught doing something he shouldn't have. "I - before we left my baseball rolled down the steps and I forgot to get it, I was just looking for it.

"Ok, and why would you be looking in here? The office is right at the bottom of the stairs and I never shut that door so why would you be looking in here for it. How would it have gotten around the corner and not only into this room, but at the far end of it? And why did you have the door locked?" Ann asked.

"Well …um…I-" Lucas stuttered, not sure what to say.

All of a sudden Zoc appeared standing behind Lucas.

"I suppose you think he took your baseball." Ann said trying not to smile as she pointed at Zoc.

Lucas turned around, let out a yell of surprise, took a step back and fell over the arm of the couch.

Ann and Zoc both started laughing.

Lucas managed to get into a sitting position and stared at Zoc for a moment then finally asked. "Since when have you been able to make your self bigger? And how did she find out about you?"

"Since Ann suggested it. As for how she found out about me that may take a while to explain, so she'll have to explain that to you since I shouldn't really be here when your family might come down and see me."

"Actually, the door is locked so no one else can get down here. You can stay as long as you want, unless Doreen would need me." Ann said.

Zoc and Ann told Lucas about what had happened over the two weeks he had been gone. They had just told him about the eagle knocking them out of the rose when Doreen knocked on the door and called down to tell them dinner was done.

"Come on, Lucas, we need to go eat." Ann said trying not to smile.

"What?! No you have to tell me what happened! How far did you fall? Did you get hurt? You can't stop now, mom can wait a minute." Lucas said sounding desperate to know what had happened.

They quickly finished telling him then Zoc left and Ann and Lucas headed upstairs for dinner.



Chapter 9 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------



The next day, Ann had started working at the antique shop. It was a small shop in a building that had once been a general store in the eighteen hundreds and many of the items that where for sale could have originally come from the general store. The old woman, Elnora who ran the shop even had a display case that had several items in it that had the store's name on them.

Ann had always loved antiques and enjoyed being able to look at the stuff and had started taking her laptop with her to work and would put together family trees for the people who's names she found written in the covers of books or on some of the old photographs. But after a few weeks she was starting to get bored with it. She had done extensive family trees for every name she had found on stuff, nothing new had been brought in and only about a dozen people came in each week. When Ann had asked Elnora why she kept the place open when so few people came Elnora had told her that she and her husband had worked together in the shop since a few years after they had been married and she just couldn't bear the thought of leaving. Not having customers wasn't a problem because she didn't need the money from the shop, her parents had been very well off and she had been an only child so she got everything when they died and she was sure the money she still had would last her the rest of her life.

Ann still spent most of her evenings helping in the nursery and visiting with Hope and Zoc. It was one of the things she looked forward to being able to do once she got home from work. But it was the weekends that she looked forward to the most, every weekend Zoc would take her out flying and they would spend the afternoon talking and watching the otters and other wildlife.

Unfortunately, this Saturday, it was over a hundred degrees out and to hot for the wasps to travel far, especially if they had someone on their back. So Ann was reading in the basement, which even with air conditioning seemed too hot.

Lucas came down and asked, "Ann could you do me a favor?"

"That depends, what do you want me to do?"

"Well, mom and dad are taking Tiffany to look at cars and they said I have to go with them because Mommo's taking a nap and they don't want me to bother you. I really don't want to go, it's to hot and would be so boring. So, could you tell them you where going swimming and you'll take me with you? Please? Anyways, doesn't going swimming sound really nice with this heat?"

"Yeah, and everyone else probably thinks the same thing and the pool will be so crowded you wont be able to swim and I hate crowded pools." Ann replied.

"Well we wouldn't be going to the swimming pool. I know a place that we can swim and it shouldn't be crowded at all. You just have to tell my parents you're taking me swimming but not where."

"Oh, alright." Ann relented.

After Lucas's parents and Tiffany had left Ann asked, "Okay, so where are we going swimming?"

"Go ahead and get your swimsuit on, there won't be anywhere to change when we get there, then I'll show you." Lucas replied.

"Why can't you just tell me now?"

"Because, I like making you wonder where were going. Just like you used too do to me when you used to baby sit me and tell me to get ready to go somewhere, but wouldn't tell me where we were going and then you would take me fun places like the zoo or the swimming pool or the fair and about every other trip we would end up at the museum and you would try to bore me to death with all that history."

"It wasn't every other trip, but it did work nicely to keep you from refusing to go when you didn't know where we would end up." Ann said smiling at him.

"Well now it's payback time so get ready to go."

Ann sighed and said. "Oh fine."

Ann changed, grabbed her beach towel and went to her living room where Lucas was waiting for her.

"So when are you going to tell me where were going?"

"You'll see when we get there. Come over here." Lucas told her.

Ann walked over by the end of the couch where Lucas was standing and a second later they had both been shrunk.

Ann walked over to Zoc and said. "So do you know where he's taking me?"

Zoc smiled and said. "Yes, but I was told not to tell you, he said something about revenge and driving you crazy."

"Not crazy, crazier, she's already crazy." Lucas reminded him, and then ran ahead of them into the tunnel.

They headed through a tunnel along side the stream that flowed into the nest. After walking quite a while they came to the end of the tunnel where there was a straw sticking out of the ceiling that the water was coming through.

"How do you keep the dirt around the straw from eroding and flooding the nest and where dose the water come from?" Ann asked.

"It's all held in place by magic. My father was the one who came up with the idea. Although my mother helped encourage him to find a way to get water into the nest, she was a forager and kept complaining about how much time was spent gathering water when the colony needed food. One of her friends was a scout and had gone into a human's home, came back and told her how humans had water that came into their homes so they didn't have to carry it from anywhere. As for where the water comes from, you'll see in a few minutes." Zoc told her.

They headed up a smaller tunnel that led up into the yard. After walking for a few minutes they came out by the small pond at the side of the house.

"What are we doing here? Didn't you tell me this is where you two got eaten by a frog?" Ann asked.

"Do you remember the one time you where watching me and I was out here catching the frogs. When you asked what I was doing I told you I hated frogs and I was catching them all and taking them to the pond in the park." Lucas asked.

"Yes and I told you they would get rid of the bugs that kept eating your mother's plants. You looked at me like I was the worst person on earth and got upset and told me they would eat the good bugs to. At least now I understand why you where so upset.

Are you sure no new ones have shown up since you took them out?" Ann asked.

"I check at least once a week to make sure there aren't any." Lucas answered.

Ann and Lucas set their towels down and Ann took off her t-shirt and skirt that she had put on over her swimsuit. Then noticed Lucas who had started to head for the water, but had stopped a few feet away from her and was smiling and looked like he was trying not to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Ann asked.

"Be careful and don't move to fast so he doesn't realize he's been caught, but Zoc is totally checking you out."

"Lucas that's ridiculous-" She stopped as she turned her head far enough to see that Zoc was staring at her from where he was standing next to a large rock where he had set his staff. "I'm sure that's not why he's staring." She said.

"Sure, believe what you want I think he likes you." Lucas said.

"We're two completely different species, there's no way, that's impossible." Ann said, although she felt more like she was trying to convince her self instead of Lucas.

"Well you know what he would say about it being impossible." Lucas said grinning.

When she couldn't come up with a good response she turned around so she was facing Zoc and asked. "What are you staring at?" Ann had to fight back a smile when she noticed Zoc's face turning red.

"I didn't mean to stare. I'm just not used to you having legs."

Ann laughed and said. "You know people always seem to be surprised that I have legs. Anytime I would wear pants to go hiking my brother or sister would always say look she has legs or if I had my swimsuit on it would be she has half legs because of the skirt on it."

Ann had started towards the water and Lucas ran to catch up with her and whispered. "You actually believed him?"

"Of course, considering he's never seen me wear anything but skirts, none of which were shorter than just above my ankles, it's much easier to believe him than your crazy idea."

"Well I still think he likes you. Why else would he spend so much time with you?"

"Because we're friends, just because he likes to spend time with me doesn't mean he likes me, not the way you think he dose." Ann said, although a  part of her wanted to believe he was right.

As soon as they got to the water Ann swam out towards the middle until she came to a rock that stuck up out of the water at an angle. She pulled her self up onto it, just far enough that she could lay on it with her head and arms out of the water while she caught her breath before swimming back.

She watched as Zoc and Lucas went to meet another group of ants that had come to the pond, it looked like it might be Kreela and several younger ants that looked like they where talking to Lucas and then they all ran to the water. A few seconds later they snuck up behind Zoc, each carrying drops of water and then started throwing them at him. Zoc ran to the edge of the water and started picking up handfuls of water and throwing them at the kids as they tried to get close enough to him to hit him with their own drops of water.

Ann sighed and laid her head on her arms and thought I really am going crazy; I'm falling in love with an ant. For the last couple of weeks she had been trying to convince herself that she wasn't falling in love with him. It was just too crazy, they where too different, but why else would she have been so disappointed when she had found out that she wouldn't get to spend the afternoon with him or when he had been able to give her a perfectly reasonable explanation about why he had been staring at her. Part of her had desperately hoped that he would have hesitated or done something to indicate that Lucas might have been right, but Zoc had told her himself that for half his life he had hated humans. How could he possibly ever fall in love with one. Ann started to doze off as she watched Zoc playing with the kids.

Ann woke up screaming as something ripped into her foot, she kicked her leg and it let go. As she struggled to get far enough up onto the rock that she would be out of the water she noticed that her back and arms hurt too. She was almost out of the water when something grabbed her again this time around her ankle, she screamed again and then took a breath as she realized it was pulling her under water and there was nothing she could do to stop it. As soon as she was under water she twisted around so she could see what had her, she was terrified when she realized it was a dragonfly larva. She had read that they sometimes caught and ate stuff as big as tadpoles and small fish and this one was definitely big enough that it could easily eat her. She struggled and tried to get to a position that she could hit its head but it still wouldn't let her go and she knew she couldn't hold her breath much longer. Just when she was sure she wasn't going to get out of this alive she saw Zoc swim up next to it and slice a deep cut into its side with one of his mandibles, it let go and Zoc grabbed Ann and headed back to shore.

As soon as the water was shallow enough he picked her up and carried her over to where she had set her stuff and set her down. Ann gasped and her stomach turned when she saw her foot, a deep cut ran around it just behind her toes from the first time she was bitten, but it was the one around her ankle that scared her, it was deep and looked like it had cut clear to the bone. Zoc tore Ann's towel into several wide strips and started to wrap her foot and ankle.

Lucas came over with Zoc's staff and handed it to him. "Is she going to be ok?" He asked, frightened.



Chapter 10 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------


"She should be fine as soon as I get a healing potion on her foot. Go with Kreela and play with your friends until I get her taken care of." Zoc said as he strapped his staff to his back.

Lucas said, "Okay" and went to join his friends.

Zoc picked Ann up, headed into the nest and asked. "Other than your ankle, are you ok?

"My arms, back and half of my face feel like they're on fire but other than that I'm fine.

So how long was I out there before the dragonfly attacked me?" Ann asked as she looked at one of her badly sunburned arms.

"It had been about an hour since we noticed you hadn't come back and found you out on that rock, so less than an hour and a half. Obviously long enough for you to get … what did Lucas call it, sunburned?"

"That's right." Ann said, laying her head on his shoulder as she started to feel tired from the amount of blood she had lost.

She woke up as Zoc laid her down on his bed and left the room then came back a minute latter with bandages, the healing potion and a second potion.

"What's the second potion?" she asked as she sat up.

"It's a more powerful healing potion, it will sting a little at first, but it'll heal your foot faster and the bleeding doesn't seem to have slowed down at all, so I want to get it healed as quickly as possible."

"Sounds good to me, it should stop hurting sooner that way too right?" Ann said, fighting back tears from the pain as Zoc started to remove the blood soaked towel from her ankle and foot.

"Yes, a little extra pain when I put it on, but it will stop hurting a lot sooner than it would have with the other potion."

As Zoc put the potion on her foot Ann gasped as pain shot through her foot and ankle. Zoc bandaged her foot; once he was done with it he got the other potion and gently started to put it on her face.

"You know I could do this my self." Ann said.

"I know, but I've been waiting three weeks for a chance like this." Zoc said smiling.

"I still can't believe you where awake the whole time." Ann said blushing.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about, there's nothing wrong with being curious as long as you don't do anything that could get you hurt, Hova had a habit of doing that. Although as long as you're blushing the other side of your face almost matches this side." Zoc said as he brushed her hair back from her sunburned ear.

When he was done with her face and arms he had her lay down while he put the potion on her back, by the time he was done she had fallen asleep.

--

"Ann, please Ann you need to wakeup." Zoc said, sounding worried.

She felt too weak to do anything, but she finally opened her eyes to see Zoc kneeling next to the bed and groggily asked. "What?"

"Your ankle hasn't stopped bleeding; I don't know enough about humans, I don't know how to get it to stop." Zoc said, sounding desperate.

Ann thought for a second and then realized what must have happened, "It could have ripped through veins or arteries, I …"

"Keep her awake." Zoc said, rushing out of the room before she could finish.

Ann turned her head to see Hope standing on the other side of the bed.

"I haven't seen him this worried in years, I think…" Hope was cut off as Zoc came back into the room with another potion.

"I usually know what I'm doing. I knew humans where backwards, but I thought something as important as veins and arteries would have been protected by bone not in the muscle where it could be so easily injured and you could bleed to death." Zoc said as he took the bandages off of Ann's foot. "This will probably hurt worse than the other potion, because I'll have to get it down inside the wound."

"Are you sure it will work if the other one didn't?" Ann asked.

"It should. It's made specifically for wounds that have gone through veins or arteries; it's solider, like a soft clay instead of liquid, so the bleeding won't force it out before it has time to work. Now brace your self this is going to hurt." Zoc warned her.

Hope took Ann's hand and said. "Don't worry about squeezing to hard I'm not as easily hurt as you are."

Ann smiled and said. "He's right humans are…" Ann gasped as Zoc gently started to pull the sides of the wound on her ankle apart to put the potion in. Ann squeezed Hopes hand until her knuckles turned white and buried her face in the pillow as tears started to run down her face. When he had finished with the back of her ankle and bottom of her foot he had her roll over so he could get the front of her foot and ankle.

"I think it would have been less painful if I had just bled to death." Ann said as she turned.

"Who would help Hope in the nursery and tell me about humans then? Lucas is just a child, he can't tell me as much as you can." Zoc said.

"You could have had my collection of books. I'm sure you could have found answers to all your questions in them." Ann replied.

"I would much rather have you around to talk to, but I would love to see these books sometime if you wouldn't mind."

"Remind me next time you're at the house, I'll show you where they are and you can borrow any that you want to read. Now let's get this over with, I need more sleep."

When Zoc had finished with her leg he had Spindle stay with her incase she would need anything and he and Hope left her so she could get some sleep.

---

Ann woke up as Zoc gently picked her up.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Lucas's parents could be home any minute. He's going to tell them you aren't feeling well and went to bed early, but you need to be there incase Doreen would want to check on you."

"Okay." Ann said, wrapping her arms around Zoc's neck and laying her head on his shoulder as she fell back to sleep.

The next time Ann woke up she was in her own bed. She looked over at her nightstand and smiled when she saw Spindle sitting next to her clock. She was shock when she realized that it was already ten a.m. she had to have been sleeping for about eighteen hours.

"So if you're here does that mean Zoc is still here too?" she asked.

Spindle buzzed and nodded his head yes.

Ann gasped as she tried to get up and fell back to the bed when pain shot through her foot and ankle.

Spindle started to fly towards the door.

"Spindle its okay you don't have to get Zoc. I'm okay; I just didn't realize it would still hurt so much." Ann said, standing up again and trying to ignore the pain.

Spindle flew over to her and stayed right with her as she made her way to her dresser and closet to get clothes. After convincing Spindle he couldn't follow her in to the bathroom she quickly changed out of her swimsuit and into a comfortable skirt and t-shirt.

As she came out Spindle was still hovering right out side the door.

Ann smiled and said. "See I really am okay."

Spindle buzzed and stayed by her shoulder as she headed out of her room to see where Zoc was.

When she got to the doorway to the living room she stopped. Zoc was reclining on the couch reading one of her books; the look on his face seemed to be a combination of shock and horror. As she quietly limped closer to the couch she nearly started laughing when she saw what he was reading.

As she sat down on the end of the couch Zoc jumped, looked up at her and asked. "How long have you been awake?"

"Just long enough to change cloths and come out here." Ann said, then smiled and added. "Isn't that a fascinating book?"

"Also disturbing and horrifying, some of this would probably give every male in the colony nightmares. Is it really true that colonies of normal ants are all female and when there are males their entire purpose in life is to mate once and then die?" Zoc asked.

"Yes, everything in that book is true. Aren't you glad you're not a normal ant?" Ann asked trying not to laugh at the horrified look on Zoc's face.

Zoc shuddered and said. "Yes. Lucas told me we weren't like normal ants, but I never knew how different we where. Normal ants don't even have lungs; they breathe through holes in their abdomens and I don't know which is more disturbing the fact that the queens rip their own wings off and eat them or the ones the book says are honeypot ants. How can their abdomens be filled with that much food and not crush their internal organs?"

"That's a good question I don't remember ever reading anything that explained that. We can check the other books I have later, right now I'm starving." Ann said, she started to get up then gasped and squeezed her eyes shut for a second as pain shot through her ankle. When she opened her eyes Zoc was at her side.

"There's no way your ankle has healed enough for you to be standing on it. What are you doing?"

"I was just going to the kitchen to get something to eat." Ann replied.

"You shouldn't be walking that far."

"How else am I going to get there?"

"I'll carry you." Zoc said, picking her up

"Well you may be a lot different from normal ants, but you definitely still have the strength of one." Ann said, amazed at how easily he had picked her up.

Zoc carried her out to the kitchen and set her in one of the chairs at the table then had her tell him what she wanted to eat and how to make it.

Zoc stayed with her the rest of the day. Lucas came to check on her once, but other than that she and Zoc spent the day together talking and she taught him to play some of the games that she had found in her family's stuff. By the end of the day Ann was beginning to think that getting to spend the whole day with him was worth the pain she had been in.
Chapters 1 - 2: [link]
Chapters 3 - 6 [link]
© 2010 - 2024 Dragon-Star-Empress
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asthonman's avatar
Wait, why is it called honeydew? Does this mean that honey comes from bee butts?