The next day, Choco woke up from an unusual feeling, something has been meddling around with his injured arm. As he opened his eyes, he found Antabitha wrapping his arm with bandages.
Shocked by the sight of an ant near him, he screams, "AAAHHH!!" He pulls away from her and crawled away to the far corner of the bed. "I'd very much appreciate if you don't surprise me like that." He said, glaring at her.
"Sorry to wake you in your sleep, I needed to put new herbs on your wound and change the bandages." Antabitha smiled, "Also, I hope you don't mind if I borrow your friend for a while. I'm going out to forage with Marsh."
"Go ahead, take him! While you're at it, might as well eat him too." Waking up in a bad way got Choco in a grumpy mood, and Antabitha didn't take his statement very well either. She groaned and crossed an arm at him, "We've been over this yesterday, I'm not going to eat ANY of you. Not all ants are the same, at the very least not me."
Choco pinched the bridge of his nose while sighing, then waved his hand for her to head out of the room. "...just go ahead already."
Antabitha shakes her head disapproving of this behavior and quietly left Choco alone. Marsh who was waiting at the couch was already prepared to head out in the cold with Antabitha, he gave a hesitant smile and asked, "So, how'd it go?"
He hopes that Antabitha's approach to Choco will at least make him see her in a new light, but he frowned when she shrugged, "He looks like he still need some time getting used to me around... or never."
"Don't worry about it, Tabby. It'll take a while for him to open up, but I'm sure he'll get there... eventually... I hope so." He said as his shoulders droop.
Antabitha chuckled and gave him a pat on the back, "'Tis alright, Marsh. If there's one thing I've learned in this lifetime; not everyone can be conceding, and they don't have to be."
"I see... you're right. Some people are hard to change."
Antabitha found it cute how Marsh thought of her words seriously, and so she gently pinched him on the cheeks, "Oh you little marshmallow, you should never force people to change. Let change occur to them naturally, that's the best way to go, kiddo."
Marsh rubbed his cheeks and snickered, "You sure know a lot, Tabby."
"Of course, and there's more I can share! It'll be more fun if we take this outside while we search for food."
"Alright! Let's go."
Then as they gone out, Choco finally left the room. He went to the kitchen and ate the left-over cocoa from last night, and then he started snooping around in the living room.
"I swear, if I find anything suspicious..." he muttered, searching for anything he can use against Antabitha and convince Marsh to leave this place for good.
Choco examined every antique displayed on the shelves, most of it were junk like broken clocks, outdated calendars, and nibbled fountain pens. Nothing among these stuff seemed useful for his plan.
"Ohh, what's that?" Something on the couch caught his attention; it was a purple shiny orb, Choco grabbed this thing and it glowed brightly in his hands.
"Neat." He grinned, amused by the glowing orb.
It didn't look suspicious nor useful, but it was sure pretty. Choco put it in his pocket out of self-interest and kept looking, and somehow, he had this sudden urge to check under the bed.
Choco went back inside the room and flipped the matress, and there he found more stuff hidden underneath. "Bingo!"
It was a bunch of bags in weird shapes and different sizes, he quickly checked the largest bag. Both his eyes and mouth opened wide as he saw the things inside, "I knew it! That ant is up to no good, I have to save Marsh!"
He ran after them immediately, following the trail they made on the ground filled with blueberry flavored shaved ice.
Meanwhile, Antabitha and Marsh were at a distance, picking frostberries that grows from the icicles that formed on the candy cane trees. It seems like they're having a good haul since the bag that Marsh was carrying was already half full, "I think we've taken enough berries for today." Antabitha declared.
"Huh? But the bag isn't even full yet."
"We're not the only creatures in this land that needs to eat you know, so just take what you need and leave some for the others — boop." She said, booping Marsh's nose. "Anyway, I'm getting curious what brought you and your friend to Peppermint Hills?"
"Oh, I was trying to figure out when you'd ask that—" Marsh snickered, "—though I would prefer if you didn't, I don't really like dwelling on my past... Choco on the other hand, I'm not exactly sure..." he sat down and leaned on the candy cane tree, and Antabitha sat next to him.
"Yeah? What about him?"
"He told me he's a runaway heir of the Fudge Dukedom. That guy actually had it all, a life filled with wealth and power, and he chose to run away from it all! Can't you believe it!?—I mean, is he stupid to abandon that kind of life waiting for him!?"
This revelation had Antabitha surprised, "Woah, never thought that guy was some big shot. No wonder he got that kind of personality." She thought, "But I don't think it's fair to assume that Choco left without a reason, did he ever told you why he ran away?"
"N-No, but—" Marsh was cut off when they heard someone screaming from afar, "AAAHHH!!"
"I know that voice, it's Choco!" Marsh exclaimed, he grabs onto Antabitha in a panic, "He's probably somewhere near. Tabby, we gotta search for that idiot!"
"On it!" And Antabitha quickly ran towards the direction where she heard Choco's scream, from there she found Choco hanging upside down as he was held captive by a group of Popsiclops.
"Oh no..." Antabitha ran toward them and reached for her sword inside her coat.
"AAAHHH!!" Choco continued to scream as one of the Popsiclops was trying to eat him. He waved his sword at 'em and hit one of the Popsiclop on eye. "Hah! Nobody can eat me unscathe."
"Grr, ROOOOAAAR!" The Popsiclop got upset and took Choco's sword away from him, snapping it like a twig.
"CARAMIA!!" It pained Choco to watch his precious sword destroyed in an instant, "YOU MONSTER! That was a gift from my sister!—H-Hey! Put me down! PUT ME DOWN!"
The Popsiclop proceeds to lift him and put him inside its mouth. "AAAHHH! HELP!!"
"Choco!" Antabitha hit the popsiclop on the head which freed Choco from its grasp, she quickly took Choco in her arms like a child and pointed at the other popsiclops surrounding them. "You guys! Don't you mess with little friend here, or I'll skewer you lot together!" She said, baring her sharp teeth at these popsiclops.
All of the popsiclops quickly ran away from Antabitha. When they were out of sight, she hid her sword and put Choco down to check on him, "Are you feeling alright? Did those popsiclop hurt you?" She tried to see if he had any other injury, but Choco pushed her away.
"Gah! Get away from me!"
Marsh arrived at the scene just on time, he smiled when he saw Antabitha with Choco and he seemed alright, "Dude! Thank goodness your fine." He said and tried to hug him but Choco stopped him.
"Marsh, I came here to tell you something!" Choco said, pulling him far away from Antabitha
"Dude, stop pulling me! Just tell me what you're trying to say!"
"It's about that ant! She's deceiving us with her kind act and—"
"Choco, not this again!" He pulled himself away from Choco, "And don't be rude, Tabby just saved your life! How more ungrateful can you be!?" Marsh pressed.
"You don't get it, Marsh. You haven't seen the things I've seen back at her house!"
Antabitha's eyes grew wide when she heard Choco uttered that, and he continued to expose her secret. "I've seen bags filled with skelegums! She already ate other people, and we're going to be next if we stay any longer!"
"Ridiculous! Tabby swore she'd never do that, you're making that up!" Then he turned to look at Antabitha, "Isn't that right, Tabby!?" Marsh tried to confirm, but he felt uneasy when he saw her slump and lowered her gaze.
"It's true... I had bags of skelegums hidden under my bed." She confessed. This got Marsh feeling terribly confused, he truly want to believe her to be a kind friendly ant, but it seemed that he should've listened to Choco all along.
"Tabby... I trusted you." Marsh muttered.
"Hah! See!? This is what I've been trying to tell you, Marsh. Never trust an ant!" Choco proved his point.
"But believe me! I never ate the person who own those skelegums!"
"There's no use in lying now, you Ant!" Choco yelled, he leaned over to Marsh and whispered, "It's best if we run now, Marsh. Things will get real messy for us if she tries to eat us."
Antabitha began to talk, "I won't blame you if you can't trust me anymore after learning about those skelegums. But can you at least hear me out, even if it's going to be the last time?..." she begged.
"Come on Marsh, we don't have time for the yapping." Choco insisted.
Marsh stepped back hesitantly, but he kept listening to Antabitha. "Fine, explain yourself!" He said.
Choco let goes of Marsh and rolled his eyes, "Ugh, you just won't listen to me..." then he realized all the times when he ignored other people talking to him, "Holy sugar, is this how other people felt when I never really listened to them? Geez..."
And so, Antabitha was glad to hear that Marsh gave him a chance, "Thank you, Marsh. You're a good friend..." she said, bowing her head before she begin telling her story...