Arthur Ant and the army Ants                                          Back
                                                                   Chapter 2 the search begins
   Back at the colony things were frantic. Alicia Ant, Arthur's younger sister, had given the alarm. Arthur was missing. Oh! he was always late, but this time it was different, it was already dark. The ants scurried around the tunnels of the colony checking to see if any ant had seen him, no ant had. They even checked the nursery as Arthur sometimes liked to help with the baby ants, but the nurses hadn't seen him either. No one had seen Arthur since early in the day.

    In the guards quarters a heated argument was taking place. "Listen," said the commander. "if it was only a case of a lost worker I wouldn't say a thing. We could just forget about it, but this is a different story. From all reports, Arthur might have been a loafer, but he has never gotten lost and he's reported to be pretty good at avoiding trouble." "Commander," said William. "do you think he could have gotten caught in a spider's web?" "Not likely, William." Replied the Commander. "He was to smart for that. A bird maybe or maybe a spider caught him sleeping, and if that's the case, to bad for Arthur, but what if he was caught by army ants, and there have been signs of increased army ant activity in the area. That's a chance we just can't take. What if he was taken alive. If, and I emphasize IF, that's the case the colony is in grave danger. Since we can't take a chance on being surprised, we'll have to form scouting parties and see if we can find him, or at least what happened to him. We'll have a full moon soon. Now who's going to volunteer?" He didn't wait for an answer. "William, you'll lead a party and back track to where the workers found that bread this morning." "Yes, Sir." Said William, as he started to pick out ten of the best soldiers for his command. "William." William turned to the commander. "I said scouting not raiding party, you'll only need three soldiers plus yourself and William if you run into any army ants, under no circumstance are you to confront them. Just find their location and strength and report back here. Now get going and be careful." "Yes Sir." replied William as he saluted and turned to lead his ants out into the moonlit night.

  As soon as the scouts were dispatched, Eddie looked up Alicia. "Alicia," Eddie said "I'm sorry about Arthur. I've dispatched ten scouting parties to find him, he's going to be alright, you have believe that." "Oh! Eddie," Alicia replied, turning to the commander. "I know you'll do whatever you can for Arthur, and I love you for that, but I have this awful feeling that it's already to late." Silence fell between the two of them. What could Eddie say, he felt the same way.

   After Eddie left her, Alicia lay in the corner of her room with tears in her eyes, and thought of  herself and Arthur as children playing hide and seek in the tunnels of the colony, wrestling, or just laying in the sun outside of their tunnel. Arthur had been a good brother. She thought to herself. "I have to stop thinking of him in the past tense, he's still alive, I've got believe, he's still alive." She finally fell into a deep and troubled sleep, not knowing that at the same time Arthur was falling asleep in the camp of a horrible enemy.

                                                                              Chapter 3