One day, Minami was in the backyard when she caught sight of a flock of colorful butterflies in one corner. She found herself drawn toward them, curious about what could have attracted them to that spot. It was a little patch of edible plants—parsley, honewort, celery, that kind of thing.
“Huh? How did this get here? I don’t remember Mom or Dad planting any of this.”
It wasn’t just regular plants, either. Looking closely, Minami could see some Worry Leaves in there, too. But hadn’t the one she’d grown withered and died a long time ago?
“Maybe it grew some new seeds back when the flowers bloomed? And they somehow found their way all the way over here?”
Minami tilted her head in confusion.
Suddenly, the butterflies all scattered and flew away at once. And then a caterpillar came crawling out from the patch of plants. It had colorful stripes and spots that really drew the eye. She had a feeling she’d seen ones like this before…
“Hmm?”
She looked down and noticed that a huge number of ants had assembled in the space between her and the caterpillar. Before she knew what was happening, something even stranger happened. The ants began to line up and arrange themselves into letters.
Greetings, human! I am a swallowtail caterpillar that lives in this garden.
Minami looked at the words blankly, like her mind couldn’t keep up with what she was seeing. This was unbelievable!
Wh-what the…? What in the world is happening in this garden?
Fighting through the confusion, she tried figuring things out. The ants were the ones forming the words, but from the content, it was clearly the caterpillar that was “writing” the message. A swallowtail caterpillar…
Come to think of it, didn’t a ton of caterpillars like this start feeding on the parsley Mom and Dad grew a couple of years ago?
Yes, she remembered now. They were so pretty, it had seemed like such a shame to exterminate them. She’d saved several specimens and raised them until they grew into butterflies, feeding them on parsley, honewort, and celery leaves.
Minami gave a gasp of realization.
Could it be…this caterpillar ate some of those Worry Leaves?
Those frilly, feather-like leaves did look a lot like the parsley these bugs lived on. What if the rest of the Worry Leaves hadn’t withered after all? What if they’d been eaten by caterpillars like this one?
As if to answer that thought, the ants began moving again, rearranging themselves into a new message.
I’m here representing my family, who evolved after eating some strange leaves. We live in this patch now and tend the plants. We have many friends and allies here.
Minami’s disbelief was starting to fade.
Evolution—that was how Minami had described her own experience with the leaves, too. She hadn’t merely grown; she’d evolved. But in the caterpillar’s case, that was more than just a figure of speech. It had literally become something greater, gaining abilities and intelligence beyond what it would normally have been capable of.
“Let me get this straight… This patch of parsley and honewort and celery and…Worry Leaves—this is something you swallowtails made? So you’d have a place to get food?”
That’s right! We got the other bugs to help, too. We all carried seeds and soil and water here and cultivated our own little field. Now we’ll never have to worry about getting enough food.
The evolved caterpillar seemed to understand Minami perfectly. The ants moved around to reply to her when she spoke. They were actually having a conversation.
“You got the other bugs to help? You can do that? Oh, like these ants! They’re helping you out by forming these words so you can talk to me!”
Exactly!
Minami let out a sigh. It was all making sense now.
I’d never have expected the other bugs to agree to help the caterpillars just like that. But I guess that’s because of the leaves, too.
It wasn’t that different from what had happened to her, even if it was on a different scale. Whenever she ate a leaf and gained a new worry, the problem would go away soon afterward. Things would just so happen to work out in the best possible way for her. Other people would suddenly have a change of heart or change the way they did things.
We plan to keep growing these strange plants, so our children and our children’s children can evolve as well!
Minami read the new message and nodded. “It’s such an amazing transformation; I guess you would want to pass it on. But…wait a minute.”
Something didn’t feel right. The caterpillars had evolved and gotten the other bugs to help them build this little plot of land. All that tracked just fine. But that wasn’t the only ability they’d gained, was it?
“Mr. Caterpillar, you’re using the ants to speak to me right now. Personally, I think that’s even more impressive than the farming thing.”
Such a drastic evolution could only have been achieved with the help of the Worry Leaves. And whenever those leaves did anything, it was to help find a solution to a problem.
“Does the fact that you can talk to humans now also have something to do with solving one of your problems?”
Ah yes. About that…
Suddenly, more and more ants began swarming out from the grass and from under the ground, forming more and more words.
We realized something. At this rate, our kind are going to have lots and lots more children. Soon enough, there will be so many of us that we’ll eat all the leaves in this plot of land. We were worried we wouldn’t have enough food to go around.
Minami could hear the skittering of tiny footsteps and the fluttering of tiny wings. On their own, they were small, but there were so many of them that they were getting louder. And they were coming closer.
And so, we decided to ask you for something, Miss Human. We want you to give this entire garden to us! Oh, it would be nice if we could get your house as well. Then we won’t have to worry about birds eating us. Human homes are so much safer than the outside world. And they’re cool in summer and warm in winter… Talk about comfort!
The cacophony of wings and legs was even closer now, surrounding Minami on all sides.
What do you say, Miss Human?
She raised her head and slowly looked around.
It wasn’t just the patch of earth the other bugs had helped out with.
People shared their space with all kinds of bugs. It wasn’t just ants and butterflies. Lurking beneath the soil were things that stung. Things with poison. Things that ate away at the foundations of houses. The kinds of bugs you saw on bug spray, labeled vermin for their potential to cause people harm. If a large swarm of creepy-crawlies like that ever attacked a human all at once…
You’re not going to say no…are you?
A bead of cold sweat trickled down Minami’s back.
Of course… Mild seeds give you worries that are easy to solve.
She’d known that, but there was something she hadn’t thought of until now. The solution to one person’s worry could mean the start of a new worry for someone else. She should have noticed that sooner. She should have made sure nobody else ever ate those Mild Worry Leaves. Especially if they weren’t human.
“What am I going to do now…?”
Minami didn’t have any answers. She could only heave a sigh.
This was definitely going to grow into a new worry. A massive worry that would take a lot of work to fix.