Chapter 8: Ant (3)
The next day, when he woke up, Lukas once again felt something walking across his body.
A familiar tickling sensation. First on his stomach, then climbing up his chest, circling his left nipple, and heading toward his chin.
’No way...’
His eyes were still blurry with sleep, but he forced them open. Morning light streamed through the window, the same window where Aurora had released the ant the day before.
The room was quiet. Outside, he could hear birds singing and, in the distance, the rhythmic sound of metal striking metal. Clavor and Asmon were probably already training.
After a few seconds, the same ant. It had to be the same one, entering his field of vision, climbing from his stomach until it stopped right in the middle of his chest, where he could see it clearly.
’It’s the same one.’
Lukas confirmed internally with absolute certainty. He could not explain how, but he knew. There was something about the way it moved, a confidence, a familiarity, in the way it stopped to "look" at him, as if checking whether he was still there.
Its antennae twitched in exactly the same way as the day before.
’It came back.’
’It actually came back.’
A wave of joy, pure, childish, disproportionate joy, flooded his tiny chest.
He tried once again to touch it, stretching his right arm toward it. The movement was still clumsy, but it seemed slightly more controlled than the day before. His fingers opened and closed in the air, missing the target by a few inches.
He made a few sounds, "Ah... guh..." baby babbles that came out clearer than in previous days, as if his throat was beginning to understand what it was supposed to do.
The sounds caught Aurora’s attention, and she entered the room carrying a stack of freshly washed clothes. She placed the pile on the dresser and turned toward the crib, already smiling.
The smile froze.
"Again?" she sighed, her shoulders slumping in resignation.
"These ants are persistent..."
Once more, she approached, removed the insect with the same care as always, delicately grasping it by the antennae, and released it through the window.
Lukas watched the entire process with a mixture of disappointment at losing his companion and gratitude that it was still alive.
’Will it come back tomorrow?’
This time, he had no doubts.
And so it continued over the following days.
The ant returned almost every day.
There was no clear pattern to the timing. Sometimes it appeared in the morning, when the sunlight was still golden and gentle; other times in the afternoon, when the shadows stretched across the bedroom floor. But it returned. It always returned.
Sometimes it brought tiny pieces of fruit or minuscule grains, food, Lukas realized.
It ate calmly on top of his chest or stomach, its mandibles grinding the food into tiny pieces before swallowing it.
He observed every movement with the attention of a researcher, fascinated by details he had never had the time or patience to notice in his previous life.
Lukas quickly realized how strange the situation was.
Once was fine. Twice, a coincidence.
But every day? The same ant? Always returning to the same place and staying near him?
’It seems... obsessed with me.’
The word was strong but appropriate.
The ant did not merely return, it stayed.
It spent hours on him, exploring his skin, resting on his chest, and observing him with those compound eyes that seemed to see everything and nothing at the same time.
Even so, Lukas did not mind.
In fact, he eagerly awaited the daily visit.
When the ant failed to appear one day, and there were two or three such days, spaced apart, for reasons he could not determine, he found himself strangely worried, wondering whether something had happened to it.
A spider?
The careless foot of a servant?
A hungry bird?
The next day, when it returned, always alive, always unharmed, always walking across his body with that same quiet confidence, a feeling of relief and happiness washed over him, so intense that it was almost ridiculous.
’I’m becoming attached to an ant.’
’An ant.’
He could almost laugh at himself.
But the truth was that this ant was his only window into the animal world of this new place.
While he remained trapped indoors, motionless and powerless, it came to him.
It brought with it a piece of the outside world, the scent of leaves, the freshness of the air, and the promise that an entire world awaited beyond, ready to be explored.
It was his first friend in this world.
Even if it did not know it.
Aurora lost count of how many times she had to remove an ant from her son’s face.
At first, she found it strange.
Then she began to find it amusing.
Eventually, she simply accepted it as part of the routine.
"There must be a nest near the manor," she would comment from time to time, especially when Clavor asked why she was always opening the baby’s bedroom window.
"I’ll ask the servants to look for the nest and... do something about it."
But she never did.
Perhaps because, secretly, she found it adorable as well.
Perhaps because she saw the sparkle in her son’s eyes whenever the ant was nearby.
Perhaps because, deep down, she also understood that the tiny black creature brought Lukas a kind of joy that no cloth doll or lullaby could provide.
An entire month passed like that.
Thirty days of daily visits.
Thirty days of silent observation.
Thirty days of a friendship that needed no words.
Lukas continued learning new words in the local language, absorbing his family’s conversations like a sponge.
His mental vocabulary now included more than a hundred words, enough to begin understanding simple sentences, even though he still could not answer them.
He knew that "Dmond" was the family’s surname and that it carried some weight in the region.
He went outside twice more to watch the training sessions in the backyard courtyard.
Each time, he became even more fascinated by the light, the magic, which seemed to be an ability possessed by every member of the family to a greater or lesser degree.
Aurora had it, although she rarely used it, and hers was quite weak.
Even Judite, according to something he overheard Clavor say in a conversation, would begin training hers when she turned five years old.
’I should have that inner light too,’ Lukas thought.
’After all, I’m a Dmond as well. Even if only through reincarnation.’
But he felt nothing.
No glow.
No energy.
Only the awareness of his adult mind trapped inside a tiny body.
And throughout all those days, the ant kept coming back.
