The Dark Forest Ants

"The ants? Cute li'l fuckers. Couldn't hurt a fly. Sure do like stealin' though. Not sure where they put it all... Oh! They build shit too. Big shit, out o' bits o' dead animals and trees and shit. Wha'? No not real shit ya idjit, stuff all over... You know! Forest shit. Kinda fun watchin' them. Sometimes they'll gather 'round you and start dancin'. Even had a bunch of 'em give me a bottle o' rum once. Real helpful, completely harmless. Real cute... Can't enter the Campgrounds though cuz o' the firelight. Shame that..."
The ants are a surprisingly friendly collective creature in the Dark Forest.

Basic Information

Anatomy

The Dark Forest Ants look exactly like normal carpenter ants, all the way down to the types of nest they make and variants they have.

Dietary Needs and Habits

While most creatures in the Dark Forest don't need to eat, these insects are the only ones that actively choose not to. This is due to their strange fondness towards sentient creatures, specifically humans and the Salamander. In many cases, they have helped humans to reach the Campgrounds, even going so far as to sacrifice a large number of them to stop other creatures. But why would they put their lives in danger for the humans?
There are many possibilities for this, but most believe it's because they have somehow overcome the Forest's third law: "Kill all humans before they reach the Campgrounds." Either they were never imprinted with it, or they overcame the strong compulsion it inflicts. Whatever the cause, the ants clearly aren't effected by it like they are by the first two laws.
Amusingly, the ants have developed a few other interesting traits that are rare among the Dark Forest creatures: Kleptomania and ritual dancing. The ants will steal almost anything and everything that's not nailed down, and due to their small size, their reach is very substantial. They also seem to have a basic understanding of construction, which they use to steal things that ARE nailed down. Where they put all of these stolen items is a mystery, as they haven't been found in and around their nests. The list of things the ants have been known to steal are as follows:

• Swords and other weapons
• Gold coins
• Bodies of dead humans (though they don't seem to eat them)
• Armor of various kinds
• Any unknown advanced technology brought into the forest from after the year 1800
• Saplings and seeds, carefully dug up and removed
• A bench from when the Campground's fire burned too low one day
• Claws and bones of dead Forest creatures
• Rope
• Yarn
• A still burning lantern
• Guns (which they also seem to understand how use)
• Several excessively large trees, which they later replanted near one of their nests

The ants are also able to perform various ritual dances. No one knows where or how the ants learned these dances, but they seem to be universal. They always occur with a sentient being at the center, or in several cases the current location of the Campgrounds. Currently, there are five known ritual dances the ants will perform. What prompts them to perform these dances is unknown.

Origin/Ancestry

The Salamander, native to the Dark Forest