Foreign and Domestic
a Bug's Life fanfic
by
C. "Sparky" Read

Chapter Three

Francis jumped up. "That's it, I'm going in there." He started forward, keeping a wary eye on Ciki, who had lost interest in the trio and had put all his concentration into polishing his sword. Slim jumped after him.

"Are you insane?" hissed the walkingstick. "I don't think your head would fare very well against that sword."

Francis grunted. "Old Beady-Eyes wouldn't try anything," he said, wishing he could feel as sure of himself as he sounded. "I'll get us in." He walked forward again. Slim and Heimlich glanced at oneanother and held back.

"Ahem," said Francis loudly, stopping at Ciki's elbow.

The clickbeetle looked down in surprise, then leaned over Francis, growling.

"Yes yes, the weather has been very nice," responded the ladybug, pretending that he had understood Ciki. "But I think it might rain later." He put a hand behind his back and beckoned at Slim and Heimlich, who reluctantly came forward.

"But enough meteorology," went on Francis, picking up three small pebbles. "It's showtime!" He started juggling enthusiastically.

"Ja!" said Heimlich quickly, attempting to play along. He grabbed a leaf off of the ground and hastily fashioned a representation of a flower from it. He handed it to Ciki who took it in confusion.

"Stop me if you've heard this one," said Slim. "What's got bad breath, no manners, and flies? Your circus!"

The three clowns snickered. Ciki blinked uncomprehendingly at them.

"Thank you, thank you, you've been a great audience," said Francis, and he threw the three stones into the air. They fell in succession on Ciki's head. The clickbeetle never had a chance to get over his confusion before being knocked unconcious.

"And that's how we get in," said Francis smugly. He led the way into the tent.

Once in, however, they were forced to stand still due to the darkness.

"Would it kill them to hire a firefly?" muttered Slim.

"Sh - Listen," hissed Heimlich.

They listened. Further into the darkness of the tent, they could hear an odd scuttling. Suddenly, someone cried out.

"Rosie!" cried Slim, lunging forward. He stumbled right over a coil of string and landed on his face. Francis tripped over the walkingstick and wound up in a similar position. Heimlich, who had wisely started forward a bit more slowly, inched around them.

"Come on, hurry!" the butterfly urged.

Slim and Francis groaned at him, but managed to get up.

The three clowns pressed on and reached a dimly-lit corner of the tent. They could make out Izo, the tarantula who had carried Tuck and Roll off earlier, standing on the top of a large spool holding a bootlace whip. Hovering in the air above him was Bozme, grinning madly.

"There's Rosie," announced Slim, pointing to the spider, who was crouched on the ground in front of Izo's spool. She was staring into the shadows.

"All right you," said Francis, storming up next to Rosie and glowering up at the tarantula. "What's going on here?"

"Francis look out," warned Rosie, but it was too late.

A shiny black scorpion charged out of the shadows, her carapace making the scuttling noise the clowns had heard earlier. She screamed like a cougar and snapped her claws at the ladybug.

Francis had never before been menaced by a scorpion, and frankly he didn't know quite how to react. So he stood there, horrified, while Rosie tried to yank him out of the way.

Above, Bozme started laughing fit to kill.

Rosie and Francis cowered against the spool. When the scorpion was within a hairs-breadth of clamping her claws around Rosie's thorax, Izo snapped his whip. The scorpion drew back with a hiss and seemed content enough to retreat.

"Vinka! Broot!" roared Bozme.

In compliance with the wasp's orders, Izo continued to snap his bootlace at the scorpion, who squealed in protest and backed up some more. Not finished with this game, Bozme darted down and claimed possession of the bootlace and began to whip the scorpion himself. The scorpion retreated, still squealing.

Rosie was infuriated. "Stop that," she told Bozme, her face flushing red with anger. "Leave her alone."

"That thing tried to kill us," Francis reminded the spider.

But Rosie didn't like seeing the scorpion whipped. "I said stop - "

"Listen to the lady. Enough."

Bozme froze, his whiphand high in the air, as Farkas stepped into view behind the scorpion. "Szara has had enough rehearsing for today," the cockroach went on. "Izo. Put her back in her cage."

Bozme had the whip snatched out of his hand by the tarantula, who drove the scorpion back into the shadows.

"Bozme. I believe it is time for you to rehearse your own act." Farkas waited patiently while the wasp - with an oily glance back at Rosie - flew off. "Now. Miss..?"

"R...Rosie."

"Miss Rosie. You have come to see your friends, have you not?"

Francis stepped forward. "You bet your sweet - " Slim elbowed him and he changed his tune. "Yeah," he ended up saying.

"Then come with me." Farkas strode off, into the darkness.

Rosie and the clowns looked at eachother in surprise. Why would Farkas be so eager to lead them to Tuck and Roll if his performers were not? But, lacking a choice, they followed the roach through the blackness between objects they could not begin to identify, and finally out the tent's back flap into the sunlight.

"They are there," said Farkas simply, pointing with his cane towards a pile of bark chips about a foot away. And without another word he spread his transluscent wings and flew off, over the tent.

They found Tuck and Roll chopping bark for firewood. The pillbugs were overjoyed to see them and ran up to them, jabbering excitedly.

"Well, they seem all right," remarked Slim, putting a hand on Roll's head in a friendly pat.

"Yeah. I was half expecting them to be...I dunno, chained to a wall," agreed Francis.

Heimlich shook his head. "They should be vith us," he insisted. "These people do not like them."

"But I'm not sure there's anything we can do," said Rosie, then paused. Tuck and Roll clearly knew their friends were sad, and had stopped their cheerful chatter to blink at them. The spider made a big show of smiling and looking happy, and that seemed to help. "I'm sure everything will be fine," she said, although she wasn't herself convinced. "You know what, I think we should go to that show tonight."

"Ja. Maybe it will be...fun."

Slim snorted. "Fun like trying to talk P.T. into a raise."

"Yeah, let's go," said Francis suddenly. "I want to see if this Farkas guy is really such a hot-shot. And maybe Tuck and Roll's act won't work out for him or something, and he'll let them go. Well, maybe!" he sputtered as the others looked at him.

Rosie nodded. "Okay. We'll see if P.T. will consider cancelling our show tonight so we can go."