CHAPTER XXV: YOU CAN'T STOP CHANGE

Francis rested on the sick bed, his crushed leg in a prop stick. We were in the infirmary of the anthill, receiving thanks for rescuing Dot. Heimlich, Slim, Rosie and I were on Francis' left (in that order) and Tuck, Roll, Gypsy and Manny were on Francis' right (also in that order).

Across from us stood a group of young female ant scouts, known as the Blueberries. They were all wearing bandannas, and Dot was among them. On their close left was Dr. Flora and Flik, and Atta was right next to them. While Heimlich snacked on a snack from a big plant next to him, the lead Blueberry Scout was speaking.

'Our Blueberry troupe salutes you bugs for rescuing out smallest member, Princess Dot,' she said. As Atta let her arms droop by her side, she continued. 'And as a tribute to Miss Francis –' all the other scouts turned around, showing off their bandannas '– we changed our bandannas.'

Indeed, there were polka dots there that exactly matched those of Francis' back. Dot whipped around again.

'We voted you out honorary Den Mother!' she exclaimed. Then, all the Blueberries, cheering like kindergartens, rushed over to Francis.

'What?' he said, as the Blueberries crowded around his sick bed. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he was less then warm to the whole idea. 'Great...' he remarked quietly, while Flik stepped closer, being right next to Francis now.

'Aww,' teased Tuck and Roll. 'Uw mushka...'

'All right girls, interrupted Dr. Flora, 'let's more your little keisters outta here now.' She ushered the Blueberries out, who were still a bit chaotic. 'The patient needs her rest, you know! Uh huh, uh huh...' She followed them out through the leaf door.

Atta, who had been hovering (not literally) in the same spot, then stepped forward, and spoke up.

'Uh, excuse me, Flik?' she began, raising her exoskeleton-coated bony arm. 'Can I talk to you, just for a second?'

'Huh?' said Flik, who had been fingering around Francis' leg. 'Oh sure!' He moved forward, accidentally knocking aside Francis' leg prop. His leg fell down with a THUNK.

'Ow!' he whined.

'Again, uh...' said Atta, as she and Flik approached the leaf door, and Flik held it open for them to pass through, 'thank you all very, very much!' We all remarked simultaneously at this.

'Oh, stop it!' commented Rosie.

'Any time, pip,' I added. That was the first time I had ever spoken to any of the ants. It felt really odd.

Flik and Atta went out of the room, and we were left alone. Gypsy and Manny did something with each other, and Tuck and Roll broke into hysterics again. Francis, Slim and Heimlich chatted about something relevant, and I was left to my thoughts.

It was weird – I felt as though I was nearing a new stage in my life, but I was totally clueless as to what it could be. I guess the only option was to wait, as I'm sure a reasonable solution would present itself. And then...

'Dim?' said a voice right next to me. It was Rosie. I turned to face her, curiosity etched all over the lines of my face.

'Yeah?' I whispered, so quietly that none of the others could hear. It didn't matter though. None of them were paying us any attention anyway.

'You really want to help Flik,' she said, smiling at me. I froze at this, somewhat afraid of what she could guess correctly.

'Don't you?'

I nodded slowly. Rosie took over again.

'Why?'

'Well...' I began, wondering how I was to go about putting it into words. Eventually, I reached a conclusion.

'In him, I see...'

'Yourself?' interrupted Rosie.

'Well...' I stammered. 'Yeah.'

'And you feel it's your duty to help him?' she asked again, her face full of suspicion and confirmation, along with a bit of Cora, and that fiery, sexy element of Rosie I adored.

'Yeah,' I said, staring right into her eyes. I just prayed this conversation didn't turn to my past.

'Because he's you – sorta?' said Rosie.

I nodded. This felt really weird, almost like Cora was back again.

Rosie slowly leaned into me, closing her eyes as she did so. I closed my eyes too. Out lips had almost met when –

'Hopper's afraid of birds!' said Flik, rushing back into the room through the leaf door. Rosie and I instantly moved apart again, hoping none of the others had noticed.

'And I don't blame him!' said Francis, as we looked up from Francis to Flik.

'Oh, oh this is perfect!' said Flik hurriedly, pacing back and forth in front of Francis through Manny (for we were still in the same order). 'We can get rid of Hopper, and no one had to know that I messed up.

'You just keep pretending you're warriors!' he said to us worriedly.

'Whoa, Flik honey' responded Rosie, resting of her hands on her chest, and gesturing with the other. 'We are NOT about to fight grasshoppers – OK?'

'You'll be gone before the grasshoppers ever arrive,' continued Flik without interruption, gesturing almost randomly. 'It'll be easy! Here's what we do –'

'Ah, ah!' interjected Manny, stepping forwards from Gypsy, 'not another word! I don't know what you're concocting in that little ant brain of yours –' he poked the top of Flik's head, making a sound of someone rapping a football against a wall '– but we'll have no part of it!' He had only just visually dismissed Flik, who was about to speak up again, when –

'Excuse me?' said a voice. We looked around. Two kid ants, the same two kid ants who had met Francis, Slim and Heimlich when we had first arrived, were poking their heads around the leaf door.

'Could we get the warriors' autographs?' said the shorter, light-purple one.

'Autographs?' responded Heimlich. He dropped the raspberry he had been holding, and plucked an ink quill from the plant next to him. 'Yah!'

'Oh, wow!' remarked the two male ant kids, coming in past the leaf doors. They both carried small leafs, undoubtedly for us to sign on.

'So,' said Francis, taking the blue-freckled kid's leaf, and signing his name on it, 'you fellas catch the action today?'

'Oh,' said the blue-freckled kid, 'the bird went "meeewww" –' he mocked the bird's action '– and it just missed you!'

'Oh, aren't you sweet,' smiled Gypsy, taking the leaf from Francis to sign her own name.

'And the way you pretended to be stuck in that huge crack!' said the shorter kid to Heimlich, just as he signed his name on the other leaf and passed it and a plant quill to Rosie.

'Wel,' smiled Heimlich to the kid, as Rosie signed her name and then handed out the leaf, while I watched, smiling, 'dat was all part of ze plan!'

'Yeah, yeah,' remarked the kid enthusiastically, taking his leaf and quill from Rosie, and running around in a circle. 'And then you dive-bombed into the bush! Meeeewww!' Once he wasn't looking, Heimlich shrugged at Rosie with a very confused expression. We all knew why, of course.

The kid went next to his buddy, who was just receiving his signed leaf back from Manny.

'There you go, my boy,' said Manny.

'Thanks,' said the blue-freckled kid ant. His buddy then tried to read something on the leaf.

'Ma... Maj... Majur...' he struggled.

'That's Major Manny, young cadet!' said Manny, adopting a military pose. He leaned in to whisper the next part. 'I outrank everyone here; remember that.'

'Yes sir!' said both of the kids, raising an arm each in a salute.

'Dismissed!' responded Manny, saluting them out of the room. They went out of the room, chatting to each other.

'Wow,' said one of them, 'when I grow up, I want to be a praying mantis!'

'I want to be a stick bug!' said his buddy.

'Oh, they're all so cool,' said the other, as their voices faded away, 'I can't pick!' We all smirked at ourselves, feeling very smug that we had fans again – and we had signed autographs for them! To me, those particular kids were much like... two energetic kids of my own... when they were still alive.

'Woo, hoo hoo,' commented Manny, 'delightful lads!' He then reverted his attention to Flik, who had watched the whole scene with a smug expression. 'Uh,' he stalled, 'you were saying, Flik?'

'Alright,' began Flik, clearly ready, 'we are going to build a bird – a bird that can be operated from the inside! Which would then be –'

'– Which would then be highly hoisted,' said Manny, 'above the anthill, and hidden high in the tree.'

We were explaining Flik's idea – except we were presenting it as our own – to the ant council (which, as I suspected, consisted of Atta and Mr. Soil, Thorny, Dr. Flora and Cornelius). Manny was doing the talking, while Rosie hoisted a bird prop by a string of web, supported by Slim's arm, as he talked. Gypsy, Heimlich, Tuck & Roll and I watched. Francis wasn't present, as his leg was still a bit injured.

'Then,' continued Manny, 'right when Hopper and his gang are below, we launch the bird and scare off the grasshoppers!' He jumped forwards at these last few words, springing his wing shell, and making the council ants and Atta flinch (she too, albeit accidentally, flexed her wing muscles).

'Now,' continued Manny, 'it's going to take –'

'– Now it's going to take everyone's involvement to make this plan a reality,' said Atta, using Flik's megaphone.

We were all standing on huge fluorescent mushrooms around the spiral tree root inside the anthill. Atta was explaining the plan to the whole colony, as the bird was going into immediate construction. The other circus bugs and I were all around Atta (except Francis, who wasn't here for the same reason as before). The whole colony was on other fluorescent mushrooms, on tree branches, anywhere they could be.

'I know it's not our tradition to do things differently,' Atta assured the colony, waving her free hand, 'but if out ancestors were able to build this anthill, we can certainly rally together, to build this bird!'

The colony, along with us, all cheered and clapped at soon as Atta's speech was finished. One could definitely feel the determination and passion radiating from the 475 or so insects that were present.

As I stopped cheering, I glanced at Rosie. She noticed me looking at her and she nodded back. We both understood each other. Soon...

It was a bright, sunny day in the colony. The construction of the bird was beginning. Numerous ants were ready with sticks of the layout, but first...

Next to Atta, who waited with Flik's megaphone, Thorny used a thorn to cut a hole in a green leaf. The hole was the shape of a bird.

Manny and Gypsy instantly flew it up to the sun, and held it still. The shadow was only partly obstructed due to the hole, so a bird-shaped light effect was cast on the ground.

'Perfect!' yelled Thorny through a huge blow-horn next to him.

'OK!' yelled Atta through her megaphone. 'Make your mark!'

All the ants carrying small sticks instantly rushed forward, and they laid them down in the path that the light and shadow effect was casting on the ground. Manny and Gypsy then flew down, bringing the leaf down with them.

I now walked forward to the construction, hoisting a really big stick on my back. The two male ant kids who had got autographs were on the stick. As I approached, they got off, chuckling. I opened my shell like a catapult, flinging the stick into the to-be bird frame.

Over on the big tree, several ants pushed an acorn off a tree branch. It hit a pointy rock below, and split into three: the circular top, and two halves of the main body.

Several ants, including Flik, along with Tuck and Roll, rushed over to support one of them up. It was to be used as the bird's "beak."

As they hoisted it up, Flik noticed Atta helping on the other side. She chuckled nervously when she saw him. Something must have happened when she had chatted with him earlier, I thought, as I watched.

'Hi, Flik...' she said, catching his attention. He looked over at her, and also looked surprised.

'Oh...' he said, before Tuck, still on top of Roll, moved over to Flik, raising his eyebrows.

'Oh, ho-ho-ho-ho-!' he chuckled, before Flik shoved him aside with his hip. Chuckling nervously, they started to move the bird beak over to its place.

Later that day, as the sun was setting, I lowered a blow horn into the bird's frame, which had almost been completed. I was hoisting it by some web that Rosie had spun up. Thorny was on it, as he gave me directions to lower it in, while I buzzed above. Numerous ants were about at the same time, most doing little at the moment.

'OK,' said Thorny, waving his hand as I slowly lowered the blow horn in, 'lower, lower...' As it got lower, I chuckled my characteristic chuckle. Seconds later, the blow horn settled in.

'And that's it!' yelled Thorny – only his voice echoed through the blow horn, knocking over Cornelius, who had been standing nearby. His stick, which had been left behind, wobbled and then fell over.

A long time later, or maybe no time at all, a reasonable crowd of ants were pulling on the bird's outer frame, lowering the thick twigs into position so they could be secured together.

'Up-hup!' chanted Tuck and Roll, who were at the front of one of the lines. 'Up-hup, up-hup, up-hup-up-hup, uh-hup!' They all pulled them to close point.

'Rabbit-through-the-hole, chicken-in-the-barn, two-barn, there's-the-yarn,' said Rosie really quickly, as she scuttled over the twigs that were being held close together by the ants. She was spinning web strands to hold them together, while we waited.

'Done!' she said in triumph, as she finished, now on the ground in front of the bird.

'Ruben Kincaid!' said Tuck and Roll, also in triumph. All the ants jumped off onto the ground.

'Hey!' cheered the crowd of ants as they landed on the ground.

'Good job, guys,' said Rosie, clapping as she spirited them on, 'nice work!'

By the next morning, the frame of the wings had been done also. Heimlich was directing several ants on how to control the wings of the bird, including Flik. At least they had arms with which to do it. But after the rock-trap, Heimlich had first-hand experience on how to do this.

'Up, down!' he spat through mouthfuls of food that he was wolfing down, 'up, down, up, down!'

I buzzed my way up into the tree for the next part of construction – the realism of the bird. I went into the hole that contained numerous leaves. And then, like a fan, my huge hard wings buzzed them all out into the air, where they all slowly fell to the ground.

But we'd need more than that. Higher up in the tree, volunteer ants were jumping on leaves to free them, and then they sailed them to the ground.

Going down on one, Flik yelled in excitement as he rode the leaf around in a wind.

'Whoo! Yee-haw!' he shouted and then –

'Flik, watch out!' said a voice from above. Flik dodged out of the way, and Heimlich came down, flapping several leafs to try and fly.

'Luk,' he puffed, 'I'm a beautiful butterfly!' Flik laughed as Heimlich came closer to the ground.

We now had numerous leafs for the bird, and the last few were just being put in place. Ants were laying those to-be-used leafs in a spare pile next to the bird.

As I watched from a distance, Flik was helping to pull a leaf in place, but both he and I got distracted by a voice.

'Here you go, good job fellas. Keep up the good work!' It was Atta, commandeering the last few phases of building. Flik gazed at her as if he was in a dream, with half-closer eyelids.

Atta looked up, and noticed the little blue ant. Quick as a flash, Flik regained himself, and dragged a huge leaf right in front of him, clearly hoping he hadn't been noticed.

Atta looked down at the red leaf she was carrying again, but I saw her smile to herself briefly afterwards again. If this was Flik's plan, it was working well. At least for him...

I turned around – and I bumped straight into Rosie. She dropped the leafs she had been carrying in surprise.

'Sorry, Rosie,' I stammered in suspense.

'Its fine, honey,' she stammered back, laying a hand on me.

'Listen,' she whispered, leaning in, 'could I have a word?'

I was a little curious, but nonetheless, I followed her into the grass stalks, until we reached the same place where we had argued against Flik for bringing us here. There was no one else to hear us, as everyone was busy working on the bird. Rosie turned to face me, and I turned to face her also.

'I've been trying to talk to you privately ever since we got here,' began Rosie, surpassing a chuckle not unlike my own. 'But this island is so crowded!'

I chuckled too in agreement, but I let it die down almost immediately.

'Dim,' sighed Rosie, 'I'm not gonna beat around the bush.' She took a deep breath, and continued.

'You've been thinking about... them,' she said, 'ever since we got here. Haven't you?'

I froze, almost in horror. I had known this would come sooner or later, but I hadn't expected it now, not when everyone was so happy. I gave her a slow, metallic nod.

'And,' said Rosie, 'what have you thought?'

'Don't!' I yelled out suddenly, causing some nearby grass stalks to stir. Rosie stepped back a pace, almost frightened.

'Don't go there...' I said, not looking at her. The pain was just too much. 'Not again...'

'Dim,' said Rosie, re-approaching me. She used a hand to turn me face to look at her again, but that only made it all the more painful.

'Dim,' she said, in her motherly voice, that I'm sure she had had to use numerous times, and not just with me, 'it's me. ROSIE. You can tell me ANYTHING. It'll be our little secret...' she chuckled.

I knew I'd have to talk about it. Best get this over with, I thought. I took a breath, and –

'I... I didn't want things to change,' I mumbled. 'Why did they have to change?' I cursed at myself, again not looking at Rosie. 'Why?...'

I felt Rosie feel my cheek with her soft, foam-like hand. She turned my face again to face her, leaned forward and –

Her lips met mine, and I embraced it, as we moved them around each other. Strangely, even though I was much bigger, it didn't hinder the practice. I kept doing it with her, not really knowing why, or for how long...

Eventually, we broke apart. Rosie's aura of magnetism was too much. This was almost an insult to Cora' memory...

'But you can't stop change,' said Rosie, still looking at me, 'any more then you can stop a moon getting brighter...'

This was a strange comment to make, I thought. But before I could think about it any further –

She pulled out two small, spherical objects. They glowed silver. She passed one of them to me. Clasping it between my front two feet, I saw that it was a pebble wrapped in spider web.

At exactly the same moment, I both remembered and understood. I looked up at her one.

She held it out in front of her, and I did the same. We both juggled them against each other, and then we chuckled.

'Come on,' said Rosie, leading me back to the main clearing, 'the bird's almost done.'

'Hey Rosie,' I said as we walked, just before we emerged from the grass stalks. She turned to face me, her face full of curiosity.

'Thanks,' I said, pecking my lips briefly on her cheek. She smiled at me.

It was the final part of construction. The bird was completely done. We just had to put it in the tree.

On the bird, Cornelius checked that the rope on top of it was secure. He waved his cane at Atta, who was buzzing in the air. She gave him a signal, and then looked up and me and Thorny, who were in the spacious hole at the top of the tree. Thorny gave her a hand signal also. She returned in and then buzzed down to land on the tree root around which the rope linked from the bird, for it went around a branch and back down.

'OK!' she yelled to the colony, waving their hands.

As one, they cooperatively began tugging on the ropes, using perfect hand-coordination.

Slowly, the bird began to rise off the ground. The sticks that had been supporting it also fell down. As it was raised higher, Gypsy, Manny, Slim, Heimlich and Rosie, put particular effort into the tugging. They had seen the rock-trap in action, but they hadn't help construct it.

Atta flew down and helped Flik where he was. I had a feeling that they smiled at each other.

The bird was being raised higher still. Within seconds, it was at our level. The colony stopped tugging it, but held it tight.

Thorny gave me a signal with a mushroom he was carrying, and I flew out, past the bird. Hovering in front of it, I balanced my horn on its beak and slowly started to push it in.

Thorny waved the mushrooms at me as I pushed in it slowly. Any second now...

He crossed them against each other, and I stopped, but I stayed put. Several ants used small sticks with pebbled ledged in them to wedge a big prop stick in place against the bird's neck. Up ahead, ants sealed two smaller prop sticks against a rock, which was to be used, later, for dislodging the bird. It was done!

'You're fired!' chanted Tuck and Roll, leaning out of the bird's beak, as I buzzed down and landed again. They laughed as Thorny waved his mushrooms to the crowd below, who had moved forward from the ropes. All the council ants, along with the Queen and Atta, as well as the other circus bugs, cheered pretty enthusiastically at the front of the crowd.

It was ready. All we needed to do now was wait for the grasshoppers...

Approximate Chapter Running Time: 43:27-47:45; 48:13-48:42; 48:52-50:40