Prologue

Not so long ago a young boy was lying on his stomach, reading about knights and soldiers, when he noticed a tiny white egg on one of the pages.

From this egg an ant emerged, and the boy trained it to walk on two feet, use swords and carry a shield. The ant’s name was Paladin.

But tragedy struck! A fierce storm swept across the land. It picked up Paladin from his shelter and carried him far away.

Paladin is still trying to get home today and everywhere he travels his legend grows.

It is the legend of an ant who defends the rights of lesser insects, who vanquishes evil.

This is the tale of Paladin and…..

Three Hundred Enemies

Sometimes Paladin travels the road with his good friend, a Chinese cricket by the name of Kim Long.

Paladin enjoyed the company of Kim Long because of his honesty. They had been traveling all day and were deep in conversation.

‘It is my brains as well as my swords that have kept me alive!’ Paladin said.

‘True Paladin, but not only the brains, what guides them – the character, the heart, good qualities, progressive ideas.’

‘You are too generous Kim.’ Paladin bent to avoid an overhanging stick. He stopped for a moment to study the shady ground in front of them, searching for enemies that might be camouflaged and waiting to attack.

Kim Long jumped, hoping to go over the stick but he was suddenly stuck in a spider web. ‘Paladin! Help me,’ he shrieked, beginning to twist.

‘Don’t move,’ called Paladin. ‘Don’t move!’

But Kim Long was already past reasoning. A year earlier he had been stuck in a web, and it was just good luck that a wasp had killed the spider before it could eat him. Kim Long kicked, and tried to flip himself out of the web, but he became more and more tangled.

Paladin saw one of the web anchor threads attached to a grass leaf not too far away and raced towards it. He had to climb quickly onto the web and cut Kim Long free before the spider came. But before that he found a white sap bush and rubbed the sap onto his feet to stop them sticking to the web.

Paladin leaped onto the thread and looked over to where an exhausted Kim Long lay. At least he wasn’t vibrating the web now!

Paladin took small steps along the thread, and then felt a great shudder to his right.   A shadow fell over him and shuffled passed. It belonged to a grey spider – hairy and fast moving. The spider was not interested in Paladin because it had felt a far bigger animal through the threads – Kim Long.  

But Paladin was interested in it. He waved his swords around and stamped his feet onto the web, calling the spider back.

The spider ignored him, and instead stepped closer to Kim Long, who wasn’t moving at all. Paladin hoped the spider would not feel Kim Long’s presence on the web and would simply sit there until it turned its attention back to him.

The spider was so close to Kim Long that some of the hairs on his legs were touching him.

Paladin yelled. ‘Hey! Ugly, hairy thing! I am here with my swords. Fight me!’

The spider turned its eyes to Paladin, and perhaps a smile played upon its lips. Then it pounced at Kim Long and stabbed a paralysing agent into his side.

‘No!’ cried Paladin, balancing on the fine thread, and trying to get to the spider. He had taken only two steps when he became aware of movement all around.

Thinking a second spider had crept up from behind, Paladin swung around, and with great savagery slashed his swords. But there was not one spider – there were a hundred.

The mother spider had gone for Kim Long and had left her hideous children to dispose of him.

If he and Kim Long had come along a week or so later, the mother may have eaten some of her children, and there wouldn’t have been so many for Paladin to deal with.

They came at him from all directions, these mindless killing things, trying to inject their poison on the intruder.

Paladin raised his sword, and as the first small spider drew near, he simply cut off the tip of a claw. There was no scream, no pain even for the tiny creature, but it was shocked, and quickly withdrew. Another advanced, and once again Paladin sliced off the tip of one claw with a stroke almost identical to the first. He swung around. Just centimetres away were two more. He stepped towards them and slashed so skilfully at them that they crawled backwards.

Instinctively he ducked. Another had swung down. At the point in its descent, when it should have found Paladin, it found a quick jab from the point of his sword.   Paladin turned back and saw another two approaching. Rather than fight any more Paladin leaped sideways and dropped to the ground.

Looking back, he saw many small spiders swarming at the place where he had been. One small spider, that reached the location before the others, was mistaken as the intruder and attacked by its siblings. Some others were also attacked, until eventually the little spiders crawled away, among the web.

Paladin looked past them to the furthest part of the nest. It appeared as a dense area of white web, scattered with small black objects. Kim Long had been carried up there and was hidden from view.

Paladin walked away from the web to see it from a distance so he could try to plan how to free Kim Long. There were about three hundred baby spiders and one huge female spider, forty times bigger than him. There was an intricate network of web, through which the female knew what was happening around her. There was also a dense section of web where Kim Long probably lay. And he had been injected with paralysing fluid and bound.

Paladin skirted around the web and began to climb the tree it was attached to. The bark was easy to climb, but Paladin had to be watchful of other predators too.

Half way up the tree he came upon the scent of some forager ants. He climbed higher, past the spider web, and looked down at it. The huge mother spider lay in the entrance to a web tunnel, her pincers just visible. Paladin took a deep breath and examined the web. There was a small chance he could get Kim Long out, but he needed help.

He retraced his steps and searched out the forager ants whose scent he had smelled earlier. He approached the nearest ants with extended feelers, as a sign of friendship. The ants he approached returned the signal, and they waited until other ants surrounded them, and they also exchanged feeler signals. Paladin hid his impatience, but all the time he was thinking of Kim Long.

Eventually, he was led to a group of soldier ants, and was given an audience before them.

‘At the moment,’ said Paladin, ‘there are three hundred small spiders in the web over there.’ Paladin pointed behind him. ‘They are all growing quickly.’

The soldier ants appeared uninterested.

‘They will soon leave that nest and make new nests all over this tree, so your colony will be surrounded. It is just a matter of time before your colony is attacked daily.’

Paladin knew the ants were simple minded and struggling to understand what he was saying. He had to explain his plan carefully.

‘The spiders are a little problem to you now, but within a week or two, your colony will be destroyed because they will leave their nest and build webs all around here. However, I have a solution. If you help me I will get rid of the whole web.’

An old soldier ant stepped forward. ‘How many lives will we lose with your plan?’

‘Not a single ant will die,’ Paladin beamed. His faced lowered as he added, ‘Except maybe me!’

The old ant kept his eyes locked on Paladin. ‘And what do you get out of this deal?’

‘I have a friend who is paralysed inside the web and soon to be eaten. You are my only hope to save him.’

The old soldier ant nodded and asked for some of his ‘high ranking’ soldiers to join them, while Paladin explained his plan. After explaining it three times, the soldier ants understood their duties and even become enthusiastic.

Afterwards, there was a sense of activity in the air as hundreds of worker and soldier ants prepared for their tasks. Then they dashed away from the colony to take up positions around the spider web. When ants are mobilised, they work quickly and efficiently. Paladin hoped it was quick enough to save Kim Long.  

Paladin and the old ant climbed above the spider web. From that vantage they were able to see the whole web spread out beneath him, and the ants, in their various positions, could see them. Also visible was the grey spider, half hidden in her dense tunnel.

Paladin raised his arms and clanged his swords together.

At that signal, four hundred ants all grabbed the web, while others used their pincers to cut it – but they did not let it go.

The web was now completely suspended by ants.

When this happened the mother spider dashed into the very centre of her web, so she could feel what was happening. The smaller spiders felt the large disruption too, but their tiny minds didn’t know what to do, so they didn’t move.

Meanwhile, Paladin had rubbed oil over his feet, so he wouldn’t stick to the web, and he had stepped onto it.

‘Good luck,’ said the old soldier.

Paladin nodded and waited.

The old soldier pointed his feelers to a group of ants at one side. On that signal, those ants began to tug the strand they were holding. Immediately, the large female spider skittered towards them. The old ant waited until she was getting close, and then signalled for them to be still, and for some other ants to begin tugging at the web.

The spider stopped and twisted her shadow-like body around. She dashed towards the new source of vibration. As she drew near, the old ant once again signalled for absolute stillness from that group of ants, and for shaking from another group.

As the spider dashed back and forth, Paladin ran towards the sticky, dense web, where two web tunnels lead to the spider’s lair.

He stepped lightly inside and saw a large egg sac, filled with small squirming spiders, just about to hatch. Paladin shuddered and then saw Kim Long, trussed off to one side. He ran forward and began to cut off the web surrounding him.

Meanwhile, the female spider realised that there were too many pulls on her web from too many directions. The only way she could deal with it was to send groups of her children to the places where the web was tugged. So from then on, after the web was shaken, a dozen or more small poisonous spiders marched to where the shaking was happening. As the smaller spiders advanced, the ants had to let go of the web. This caused the web to shrink. Each time one of the ties broke, the web got smaller, pushing the spiders closer and closer to their mother’s lair.

Paladin had finally undone the threads that bound Kim Long. He leaned over him and grabbed his feelers. ‘Kim! Can you hear me?’

Kim Long twitched his legs.

Paladin felt a thin tremble running through his fingers.

‘My head hurts. Where am I?’ Kim Long opened his eyes and saw the white surroundings.

‘Am I in the winter palace, in China?’ He smiled, in a state of joy.

‘A spider’s lair actually!’

Kim Long was instantly alert, his eyes filled with fear. ‘I can’t move,’ he groaned.

‘You must,’ urged Paladin. ‘She will be returning soon.’

As he said this the entrance to one of the tunnels was filled with the grey, hairy form of the spider. Because she wasn’t expecting an attack from inside, she had both her front legs on the ground.

Paladin ran at her, slashing and cutting. The spider screeched in pain and lowered her body backwards. She could now defend itself but was unable to attack because the tunnel was too small. Her eyes burned hatred at Paladin and although the waving grey legs reached out, trying to knock Paladin over, she already knew he had won.

Paladin continued to attack her legs forcing her to retreat from the tunnel.

‘If she gets in here we are dead,’ panted Paladin.

‘What’s happening?’ whispered Kim Long.

Paladin cocked his head. ‘She is calling her children. She’ll let them attack us.’ ‘So much for ‘Vicious Tigress Won’t Hurt Cubs,’ said Kim Long.

Paladin ran to the nearest tunnel. ‘I wanted to keep two openings and use one for an escape, but now the spider knows we’re here, I’ll have to block this one.’

He slashed at the web tunnel and pulled it down so it was stuck closed. As he was doing this he kept diving to the other tunnel entrance, in case the mother spider came back.

With one of the tunnels closed, Paladin ran to the other and arrived just as a small spider appeared. Paladin swung his sword, cutting off one of its fangs. Another appeared behind it, and Paladin cut off one of its front claws. Then there was another spider coming through the other entrance, which it had forced open. Paladin swung around and stabbed at it, pushing it back out.

He had a moment’s relief; a chance to collect his thoughts.

‘Behind you!’ called Kim Long.

Paladin swung around to see the tiniest spider nippers appearing from inside one of the large eggs.   It was about to hatch. The mother spider was outside with hundreds of her children, probably crawling over the web towards them. And now there were  hundreds of tiny spiders that would soon be attacking them from behind.

‘All is lost,’ groaned Kim Long.

‘It might be what we need,’ said Paladin.

‘How can you expect to find ivory in a dog’s mouth?’

Paladin glanced at the entrances to ensure that no spider was about to come through. Then he leaped to the egg sac, and cut around it, so it fell onto his shoulders. Then he spun it around so the small nippers were facing one of the entrances. He heaved the egg into the entrance. Now, the smaller spiders would crawl out of the sac and be attacked by their older brothers and sisters.

Mummy spider was not happy! Paladin could hear her through the thin layer of web, gnashing at her older children, trying to keep them away from the baby spiders that were hatching and crawling towards them.

‘Can you move Kim?’

‘A little!’ he answered, kicking with one of his legs.

The gnashing noise from the mother spider grew louder. She was crawling through the entrance that Paladin hadn’t been able to close.

Paladin ran to the tunnel and planted his feet firmly. The grey spider attacked with such fury, spitting and hissing. Paladin slashed at her front legs, but she whipped them savagely, hardly feeling his blows. She pushed forward, and Paladin fell backwards. He was on his back, swinging his shield and swords, trying to avoid the spider’s fangs.

Meanwhile, Kim Long kicked repeatedly, trying to get the feeling back into his limbs.

Paladin’s shield was suddenly grabbed between the spider’s pincers and wrestled from his grip. The only chance Paladin had was to stab into the soft underbelly of the spider. He pulled back both swords and thrust them forwards. She was waiting, and with a strength that came from her anger she knocked both swords away.

Paladin was lying on his back. The spider raised herself up, ready to cut him in two. She was going to get such satisfaction from killing him. She would not share this ant with her young. The back hairs quivered on her body.

The whole web shuddered. It swung. Paladin’s shield skittered over the web, into his hand.

The spider was off balance for a moment.

And then the forager ants dropped the web.

It fell.

Still, the spider’s anger kept her from turning from Paladin. Even as they were falling she slashed at him. She would kill him regardless.

As the web hit the ground the spider could not brace herself against the impact. She jolted forwards, her head slamming onto Paladin’s shield which he had held firmly.

She was unconscious.

Paladin rolled out from beneath her heavy body. Kim Long was laughing, and Paladin did also.   They were both in the web cocoon, which protected them from the small spiders outside.

‘I think I’m back to myself,’ said Kim Long. ‘A fall makes you wiser!’

‘Perfect timing,’ laughed Paladin. ‘Let us stay here a while until the small spiders disperse.’

‘Let’s go now heh?’ said Kim Long, looking first at the huge grey spider, and then at an egg casing. ‘Look behind you.’

A small set of nippers was showing through the second egg sac.

Paladin pushed open the remaining entrance and they raced past the little spiders, to safety.

A loud cheer followed them from in the tree, and the legend grew of Paladin, who defeated three hundred enemies to save a friend.