Chapter 1

Ten-year-old Flicka sighed. Air. Fresh air, free from the chores of being princess. Her mother, Queen Atta, was wonderful, but Flicka just didn't like being smooshed down under the lectures that came too often, and she had finally gotten some alone time.

Flicka flew up to a nice green leaf, and started up at the big fluffy clouds. Her eyes started to get just a little heavy, and she begin to let them close.

Snap!

Flicka's eyes popped open, and she carefully peaked out from behind the leaf. She hoped it was her dad, Flick. Her mother would have been very upset if she had found her not doing homework.

But she didn't see anybug, and she flew down to the ground near the base of the planet she was near.

Then she heard footsteps, and she ducked behind the plant. It got closer, and closer, and-

THUNK!

The footsteps stopped for a second, and she looked out from behind the plant.

It was...a GRASSHOPPER!

Her eyes wided in terror, then she suddenly frowned. It was a really small grasshopper, maybe even smaller than her. He only walked on his two jumping legs, and under three of his arms he carried at least two books in each, and under his fourth he carried what looked like a large rocket. His eyes looked just a bit to big for his head, and he was frowning at the ground. Flicka followed his gaze. He was starring at a smaller book that was on the ground, and he tried to get it, but his attempts to pick it up with his already full arms was rather humorous. He obviously didn't want to put all of his stuff down, so he tried to get it with his foot.

Flicka stared at his face again. "You're a kid!" She suddenly cried.

The small insect jumped a full inch in the air, all of his things flying everywhere as he let out a tremendous yelp.

"AAAAAAAHHHH!"

He looked up and starred in surprise, and a bit of fear. "You...you're an ant!"

Flicka blinked. "What's wrong with that?" She asked, not in a rude way.

"Well," he said. "I've just...never seen an actual ant before."

Flicka reached down and picked up some of the books, and handed them back to the grasshopper, but the small bug hesitated before taking them.

"I've heard a lot of stories about ants," he said, staring at her. "You're not gonna feed me to any...any birds, are you?"

Flicka gave him a funny look. "Of course not! I'm not a heartless bug. And I wouldn't feed any little bugs to a-"

"I'm not little!" The grasshopper suddenly cried out, and he stood up a little straighter.

Flicka walked right up to him. He was just a grassblade smaller then her, but he was smaller, and he shrunk back down.

"I...I bet I'm older than you!" he tried.

"Are you nine?"

He grinned and straightened up again. "Eleven. And you?"

Now it was Flicka's turn to frown. "Ten. But I'm still taller than you."

"And I'm still older than you," he said with a grin. He picked up the rest of his things, and somehow managed to tuck it all under both left arms. He hesitated, then held out his top right hand. "You're a nice ant. I'm Harvey."

Flicka fermly shook his hand. "You're nice for grasshopper. I'm Flicka."