Back to index:                                         Arthur Ant and the Army Ants
                                                                                by Uncle Butch
                                                                       Chapter one:  Captured

   As he stretched and yawned, Arthur thought "I'd better grab a piece of that bread and get my tail back to the colony, it'll be getting dark soon." Already the sun was slipping into the tree tops on the other side of the field. He had spent another day laying in the sun while his fellow ants had been working hard to feed the colony. He didn't feel guilty, he knew he was better then the other workers. After all, all they talked about was how and where to find food, or on occasion, they would tell stories. Like the time they had found the picnic lunch while the people were swimming and how much food they had been able to gather before they had returned. Exciting, Ha!

   When Arthur reached the place where he and his fellow ants had found the piece of bread earlier in the day, he realized that the other ants had already finished cutting it up and had carried almost all of it back to the colony. They were finished, he was alone. He thought "I'd better hurry." and looking around found a small crumb.
   As he picked up the crumb and stood up to carry it home, he realized, with a start, that he was surrounded by army ants.

   There were at least two dozen large mean looking ants standing in a circle around Arthur. He looked for a way to escape but soon realized that there wasn't one. He was captured, a prisoner of war. "Great Ant" he thought "I'm a prisoner of war and I didn't even know that there was a war."

   "Ha!, Ha!" laughed a large ant. "What have we here? a little snack." "No!" said a very large ant, who was clearly in command. "A prisoner, we'll take him back to the camp."
   The first ants' eyes seemed to glow. "Why? I found him. Why can't I eat him? If we take him back the commander will only eat him." "Because I said so." The very large ant yelled. "I'm in charge here, and I want him taken back to camp. If you keep up with your mouth, I'll have you for a snack. Now form up in two columns with that runt in the middle. Move!"
   As the army, which Arthur had found out was a scouting party, marched him back to their main encampment, one thought kept running through his mind. "If only I hadn't taken that nap, if only I'd done my share, I'd be safe." He had, he hadn't, and he wasn't.
   The march back to their camp was long and strenuous. The army ants being larger and therefore having longer legs, took no pity on Arthur. He had to almost run to keep up with them, and on the two occasions when he stumbled, he was quickly and severely punished.
   When they finally reached the camp it was already dark and Arthur was to tired to even think about escape. He fell to the ground and lay wondering what would happen to him. Why had they taken him prisoner; why hadn't they just killed him, as the one called Goburg had suggested.
   The moon was full now and by it's light Arthur could see a small group of the largest ants he had ever seen gathering in a section of the camp not far from where he lay. One he recognized right away as the leader of the scouts, who had captured him. He realized, with a shudder, that his fate depended on that meeting.
   "Garbov." demanded a giant of an ant, who was clearly in charge. "Why did you bother to bring that runt back here? Why didn't you just eat him where you found him?" The ant turned his hungry eyes to Arthur. "I think I'll just eat him right now and bring an end to this conversation." "No disrespect sir." said Garbov. "but with the right prodding we may be able to get him to lead us to his colony. Besides, if he doesn't help us we can always eat him later."
   Arthur didn't hear the rest of the conversation. As hard as he tried to stay awake, he was just to tired, if they were going to eat him there was nothing he could do to stop them anyway, he fell into a deep and restless sleep.
                                                                            Chapter 2