We Will Hunt You Down

Sal's POV

"You move, and we will swarm you!"

Sal and Rosa turned their heads to each other. They twisted their heads back to look at the speaker.

"We never make empty threats, we mean it. And when we mean it, it will be done!"

---------------

An hour ago…

Sal and Rosa met up again in the night for their routine meets.

"You still can't hold a grudge, right?" Sal snickered as he saw Rosa side-eye him.

"No, I do not hold a grudge," Rosa replied, "The Rony-incident is in the past. I am not so petty as to remember."

"Yeah-yeah," Sal remarked, smiling mischievously.

Rosa gave a gentle smile.

As Sal raced to think of a new topic to think about, Rosa suddenly jumped.

"Wait, what are you doing Rosa?"

"Sssh, I think there's something approaching us."

Rosa's eyes flashed in the dark, her blood-red eyes shone in the dark, a jumpscare for anyone, like a pair of eyes from a tortured ghost praying for victims. She focused her gaze afar intensely, a sign of warning to others.

With a croak, Rosa warned, "I would appreciate a welcome. If you are not here for one, I suggest you leave."

As she declared into the darkness, Sal tried to squint his eyes in the darkness, hoping to see something, anything. But..he didn't see a single creature.

"What is it, a harpy eagle?" Sal asked in a hushed voice, his claws clutched the tree. A harpy eagle would be his worst nightmare.

"No, I can not believe it," Rosa gasped, "I can't believe it is them."

"Them? There's more than one?"

"At least hundreds."

With Rosa's comment, Sal finally saw…something.

-Is, the tree moving?-

-Why is the trunks…rippling like water?-

Then, Sal's jaw dropped.

There came marching on the tree hundreds of squirming little black dotted figures, like black beads. They were organized into groups with larger sized figures surrounding the smaller figures in a protective fashion, the big protecting dozens at a time. Yet their speed never stopped, they came crawling despite the sheer amount of them.

It was…

"Ants!?" Sal exclaimed.

"Halt!" With a screech, the largest ant out of all of them, looking like the size of a spider, stopped, the rest of the ants obeying.

"Name!" The spider-like ant shouted sternly.

"Hello, I'm Rosa, this is Sal."

"Oh, yeah! Hello, I'm Sal the Sloth."

"Now," Rosa said, "I would appreciate an introduction from you at least."

"I'm in no obligation to do so!"

"Wait, why won't you?" Sal asked in shock.

-Rude!-

"We, the most powerful species in the world, don't need to listen to the orders of weaker animals. We, the Army Ants, the best forage group, the Raid, take orders from the Army Ant community only!"

"I thought you obeyed your queen?" Rosa questioned.

"The queen ant? No, we Army Ants work the better of the community. Whatever makes us stronger is what we must do! So, we advise you not to fight us."

"We weren't going to fight you…" Sal replied puzzlingly.

"Good, we Army Ants will surround you and bite you with our razor sharp mandibles if you were to attack us," the spoke-ant declared, "We will make you feel like you were being eaten alive, tearing you up into perfect bite-sized pieces."

A cold sweat made Sal gulp nervous.

"Stop bluffing Army Ants. Sure, you are ferocious warriors, but Sal's too large of an animal for you guys to hunt," Rosa said, her words washed sweat away and drove the fear out of Sal, "Besides, I would like to warn you."

Rosa raised her head, her eyes were glowing, like a bloody red gem, sending tingles up one's spine, not even blinking once.

"We may not be the strongest animals in the rainforest, but we certainly are not pushovers."

"So threaten someone else your own size."

"You may actually have a chance at winning in that case."

"YOU!" The Army Ants murmured to each other as their spoke-ant furiously shouted, the larger ants started to chomp loudly with their mandibles viciously towards Rosa and Sal.

"Rosa!" Sal whispered to her urgently, "We're going to get hurt if this goes down!"

Perhaps Sal's mouth opening and closing made the ants go into a frenzy.

"You move, and we will swarm you!"

Sal and Rosa turned their heads to each other. They twisted their heads back to look at the speaker.

"We never make empty threats, we mean it. And when we mean it, it will be done!"

"Hm, is that so?" Rosa harrumphed, languidly speaking each syllable slowly yet confidently.

"YOU!" With a barrage of screeches, the ants furiously crawled towards them, their razor-like mandibles extended, rushing towards Rosa and Sal.