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 Moresby.

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

Moresby 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 Moresby and…..

 

 

The Lion’s Den.

(Sometimes, Moresby spends time in an ant colony, before continuing his journey. This is one of those times.)

Moresby stood at the top of the ant nest. The air smelled clean, with the scent of pollen, the warmth of the sun, and of insects collecting nectar, of grass juices, of decaying leaves.

A soft thud behind him announced the arrival of Kim Long. ‘A rolling stone gathers no moss my friend.’

‘You are right Kim. It is time to move on.’

A group of trainee soldiers and their lieutenant suddenly appeared from within the colony.

‘Ants of the future!’ shouted the lieutenant. ‘This is your first mission, your first assignment so you must stay alert. Your life, my life, the whole colony depends on your ability to follow orders.’

Some of the young soldiers tightened their jaws. Others seemed to grow a little.

The ants marched away and Moresby felt uneasy. Most trainee missions went by uneventfully but sometimes there were problems. After all, most of these ants were only a few weeks old and their training couldn’t prepare them for the thousands of enemies they had.

Moresby waited until the ants were out of sight. ‘Kim! I’m going to shadow this trainee group, and then we’ll go.’

Kim Long looked in the distance to where a grasshopper was being pulled apart by some worker ants. ‘I’ll wait near that clump of grass over there, away from the nest. Your friends unsettle me.’

Moresby smiled, and lifted his antennae. ‘I won’t be long Kim.’

The trainees were stopping each few centimetres, sniffing the air for scents and moisture. One or two dashed forwards and then returned to the group, reporting back as they had been taught.

By the time Moresby reached them, the trainees were keeping low, and edging forwards. Ants are often stalked from behind, but these trainees were searching forwards, so Moresby was able to sneak up to within a centimetre of one of them.

The trainees then formed into five small groups of three ants, to rotate through positions of leader, follower and rear guard. They kept advancing but fanned out. Moresby had to take greater care not to be seen here, because the rear ant would be looking backwards.

But Moresby also knew that this was the most vulnerable time for the young ants. They would be so focussed on doing their jobs correctly they wouldn’t do them, as they’d been taught. They’d be watching the time, in order to rotate. They’d be trying to look the part, rather than be the part. They’d be excited rather than watchful.

The lieutenant had positioned the three teams, he felt most confident with, to the outside, and those he felt needed watching, in the middle.   In that way he’d follow the middle two groups but still be close to the others.

Moresby veered far right, staying close to the group furthest from the lieutenant.

It was an hour later, ten metres from the colony, when trouble struck.

Moresby, who was lying under a small leaf, heard the sudden cries for help, and reacted quickly. He ran forwards, calling out to the small group he’d been trailing, to get back to the nest. He reached two of the middle groups.   They had joined together and made a defensive battle circle. Moresby dashed past, yelling for them to stay where they were. At first they thought they were being attacked, but when they realised it was Moresby, they gripped their weapons and drew their circle tighter, following his orders.

The cries grew louder.

Moresby’s sword was raised, and his shield was still strapped to his back. He jumped a twig, ran around some grass, and leaped a pile of leaf litter. There was an open area of sand, but to one side stood four trainees. Three were facing downwards, looking into a hole and the other was vomiting his last meal. Moresby guessed immediately that the hole was an ant lion lair. The ants looked up with fear in their eyes.

An ant lion is bigger than a bull-ant and with huge sickle-like jaws. From the side of these jaws are deadly needles that shoot poison into ants, to eat away at their bodies from the inside. The attacked ant lies beneath the burning sand with poison seeping its way through its veins, knowing it is being eaten.

The ant lion attacks from under the sand in a pit which is smooth-edged and conical.

When an ant steps into the pit it slides down to the centre. The ant lion flicks sand from underneath it while reaching out with its pincers. The sand that is flicked out falls back onto the struggling ant, and keeps it from climbing out. The ant lion eventually grabs the exhausted ant and pulls it under the sand where it is eaten.

Moresby reached the side of the pit. The lieutenant and two trainees were fighting for their lives. The exhausted lieutenant  took the brunt of the assault. He stood in the middle of the pit as blasts of sand blinded him, and sent him sprawling. After each blast he jumped or rolled from the deadly pincers. But instead of climbing out he awaited the next assault so that the trainees could escape. Despite their efforts to climb out of the pit, the sandy sides kept them tumbling back down.

‘Make a chain,’ shouted Moresby, stabbing his sword into the ground and anchoring himself. ‘Grab my hand.’

Three trainees jolted into action. One took hold and braced himself at the edge of the pit. Two others edged into the pit, extending the chain and holding firm to each other. The last trainee didn’t move.

‘Get into the pit,’ yelled Moresby.

The trainee shook. ‘I can’t!’ He fell to his knees and cried.

Moresby felt anger and pity. ‘If you don’t, they will die!’

‘I can’t!’

Moresby looked around frantically. ‘Get me that leaf,’ he called. ‘Hurry!’

The trainee leaped to his feet and passed the leaf to Moresby who passed it down the chain.

Moments later the two trainees were climbing free.

The lieutenant was exhausted. He had stayed in the middle of the pit, keeping the ant lion’s attention from the escaping ants. Two or three times a second, the ant lion flicked sand up at him. He staggered left and right, pounded by the sand that zapped his energy. The ant lion felt the trainees escaping and stepped up his attack on the lieutenant.

Moresby could see the lieutenant was almost spent. ‘Hurry,’ he called as the chain of ants pulled themselves out and over him. As soon as they were free he grabbed his sword, and dived into the pit. At the same moment a blast of sand sent the lieutenant sprawling backwards. His feet moved uselessly in the air, for just a second, before he rolled onto his side. The ant lion’s pincers reached up and clamped around a leg and pulled him under the loose sand.

‘No,’ cried the trainees as one.

As Moresby hit the sand he saw the lieutenant’s leg had not been pierced by the deadly poisonous pincers but the lieutenant was being dragged underground. Moresby dived onto him, and at the same time, reached forwards with his swords, which were grabbed and pulled by the ant-lion. Moresby held on and was soon dragged completely underground, into the sand which was hot and leathery, filled with the smell and touch of dead ants.

In the darkness, Moresby felt the lieutenant kick past. The ant lion must have released the lieutenant, so it could intensify its attack on him.

Moresby jolted his swords backwards and thrust them down again, hoping to catch the ant lion off guard, but the powerful ant lion pincers were waiting and grabbed at the hilt of the swords, and wrenched them from him. Moresby was shocked. He hadn’t realised the power of the ant lion. Both his swords were gone now. He was in complete darkness at the bottom of the ant lion pit.

He felt the sand to his left shift and knew the ant lion was below him, going to attack so he twisted upside down and unstrapped his shield. He waited in the darkness, and pulled out a small dagger, and he held his shield firm. The ant lion would attack with his sickle-like jaws so Moresby would have to move quickly to avoid the poisonous injection! From where would the attack come? When would it come?

He lay perfectly still, trying to feel the slightest of movements.

The ant lion was also trying to detect where Moresby was, but ants usually struggled, and Moresby was not. It surged forward with open jaws.

At the top of the ant lion trap the trainees watched as their dazed lieutenant resurfaced from the sand. They reformed their chain and let him climb over them to safety and then hoisted themselves back up.

At the bottom of the pit the sand shifted and turned as a struggle went on beneath. What chance did Moresby have against the ant lion which was five or six times his size, in its lair? No ant could survive such an attack.

The little group stared in fear and hope into the pit.

The lieutenant turned aside. ‘The ant lion has taken Moresby?’

The sand stopped shifting.

‘We must return to the colony. There is nothing we can do here.’

The claws, and then head and pincers of the ant lion appeared. It arched its back out of the sand and swung its head in, what they all thought was, a show of strength. It is rare to see an ant lion because they normally stay underground. Its mighty pincers swung left and right. The creature even had Moresby’s shield in its mouth.

Then it let out a sigh of pain. It looked confused. It was trying to shake off Moresby’s shield, which had been stuck into its jaws so they couldn’t close. Its mouth was full of sand.

Behind the ant lion, dragging himself from the sand came Moresby. He staggered in the sunlight and grabbed his swords, which had somehow resurfaced. After a few unsteady steps he faced the ant lion, which lay in the sand. Placing a sword beneath its neck Moresby reached into its mouth and wrestled out his shield. Moresby kept his eyes locked on the ant lion and stepped backwards to the sloping wall of the pit where the lieutenant and trainees hauled him to safety.

The ant lion shuddered. With its head down, it crawled back under the sand.          ‘Field report!’ Moresby ordered.

‘All accounted for!’ the lieutenant answered. ‘Thanks to you!’

‘Form ranks. We’ll return to the nest. You’ve seen your first day of battle trainees. Lieutenant! Take point of guard. I’ll take rear!’

That afternoon, Moresby and Kim Long turned homewards.

And the legend grew of Moresby, who had dived into the lair of a hungry lion and shown it mercy.