Days passed.
As an ant pupa, Nolan could have a greater taste of freedom.
His body was slowly developing as legs could be seen on from his previous immature wriggly form.
Among the batch of grubs that hatched, Nolan's progress was the fastest.
Nolan highly attributes it to the high routine of 3 rolls and 1 bounce while stuffing himself.
Perhaps he would be the strongest ant known to men.
--
A passing worker ant looked at the grub-turned-pupae inched its way everywhere. The larva kept rolling and doing wriggly motions to crawl its way out of the nursery.
Not this one again. Every single time, this little one just keeps moving around. Now that he is starting to grow legs he tries to crawl everywhere. If he grew wings he would probably be annoying to no end. Well, it is not my problem by then.
The ant sighed and grabbed the pupae by its tail and slowly dragged it back into the nursery.
--
Nolan has always attempted a jailbreak. However, the security was too strong. The managing ants were vigilant, they also were not tolerant towards his antics.
One time, one of the ants was so pissed off, it threw him into a hole called a 'naughty corner'.
Norlan basically could not roll out of the hole.
He was only released after hours of good behavior.
Norlan has kept a mental note of which ants he could piss off and which he couldn't.
For some reason, he could recognize different ants despite their similar appearances.
It probably had something to do with facial recognition or something.
Moving around the area again, Norlan searched for something to quell his boredom.
Hours later—
Norlan realized still could not do anything in his pupae form. His shell was still soft, his limbs were weak. The other adults would not tolerate any risks.
He could only bear with it and eat a few jellies before falling into a deep slumber.
--
As a pupa, Norlan realized that he was developing rapidly. It was very different compared to a grub. It was akin to a human child undergoing puberty. He had developed antennas that he could use to detect other ants' words. His limbs and exoskeleton were getting harder by the day. He could see that his body was turning brownish, similar to the other adult ants.
His mandibles had more strength now and he could chew things like leaves and flesh and his digestive system was starting to function better allowing him to eat more and digest it sooner.
Through the development of the antennae, Nolan also realized that he could communicate with other ants.
The first ants he tried were his brothers and sisters from the same generation.
"Hey everybody!"
Some of the grubs and pupae turned around to face him.
They looked for a short moment before returning to their task.
"Hey, I said!"
All of his siblings were totally ignoring him.
It seems that it is useless to talk to them. They probably have not even developed vocal cords. Let's try one of the adults.
He slowly wriggled up to one of the ants who was taking care of another grub.
"Hello there."
The ant stopped nursing the grub and gave a look at its side. It was a small orange-brownish pupa that has crawled from god knows where.
It is this guy again huh.
The ant placed the grub down as it dragged the pupa by the tail.
"No, not that place! Please! I beg you! I won't bother you anymore! Come on!"
The ant ignored all his pleas as it inched step by step.
Nolan can see himself being dragged into a familiar corner.
Over there lay a slight depression.
"NOOOO not the naughty corner again!"
Toss.
The pupa was thrown into the hole for a second time.
All is fine for the almighty plot