'Mother, I'm not sure about this . . .'

'Oh, come now, you've made speeches before, dear.'

'Yes, but it doesn't stop me feeling nervous!'

'Why don't you use that megaphone Flik gave you? That's sure to make it easier for you!' she suggested.

'Oh, yeah, I'd forgotten about that!' I felt better knowing I would have the megaphone while making my speech telling the rest of the colony about the Bird later that day.

I told Flik about having to make a speech and how anxious I was about doing it.

'Don't be,' he told me, 'I'm sure you'll do brilliantly.' I felt a gush of pleasure.

'Really?'

'Yes of course! You just need a little confidence in yourself!' I smiled. He really thought I could do it? And not only do it but do it well? I felt so much more confident knowing he believed in me.

'We are going to build a Bird,' I began, 'One that will be life size, one which will be realistic, one which will scare the grasshoppers away forever. It will be built to be operated from the inside; it's going to take everyone's involvement to make this plan a reality. I know it's not our tradition to do things differently, but if our ancestors were able to build this anthill, we can certainly rally together to build this bird!' Everyone cheered and I felt immensely relieved to have finished. We would need to start work straight away. Now, how were we going to do this? Fall had arrived, therefore the leaves would look like birds' feathers, twigs could be the main construction, and for the beak? An acorn! That would be convincing too . . .

'Flik?'

'Yeah?'

'For the Bird . . .' He suddenly had wrapped attention. 'We're using twigs for the main construction, but how will we hold them together?' He thought for a moment,

'Hum, dew wouldn't work . . . Hey! I know! Spider webs!'

'Brilliant! You're a genius!'

'Oh . . . well . . . I wouldn't say genius . . . but . . .'

'You're too modest, Flik!' He looked half embarrassed, half amused by my comment. It was true though, every impossible problem I had asked him about, he had been able to find an answer to. I couldn't help admiring him.

Although it hadn't been that long ago we had started to work on the Bird, we had made much progress. It had also been Flik's idea to get the preying mantis and gypsy moth to fly up with an outline of the Bird towards the sun and cast a shadow so we could see the shape of it. And it had also been his idea to add a shell to the inside so that convincing bird sounds could be made to be heard.

The whole colony was keen to work on the Bird and some were even finding it fun. Well, almost everyone. Martha remained stubborn and agitated. She thought that 'that stupid bird' was one of the worst things that had ever happened. The rest of us ignored her and told her to just get on with working. Ivy, on the other hand, was amused by Martha's attitude and kept doing impressions of her which made everybody laugh.

Ants were climbing up the tree to get to the leaves. They would jump onto them, causing them to be become removed from their branches. Some ants, like Flik and Ivy, were quite excited at the prospect but others were terrified. Martha, on the over hand had, um, a very unique opinion.

'I know exactly what's going on here!' Martha was shouting at smiling Ivy who was finding it hard not to laugh. Everybody else stopped what they were doing to listen in on the conversation. I flew up to find out what was going on. 'This is all some kinda plot to get rid of me! I'm not stupid!' I was finding it difficult not to laugh too.

'It's perfectly safe, Martha!' I said, smiling.

'Whatever!' Ivy pushed Martha onto the nearest leaf which snapped off its branch and started to fall. Martha started cursing Ivy loudly. Ivy jumped onto a leaf with a shout of 'wahoo!' Everyone else had started to move again.

'Hey, Atta! You don't know what you're missing!' cried Ivy. Flik had jumped and was using his leaf to surf wildly round in the air. I laughed. It looked like he was really enjoying himself. I flew to the ground, avoiding several ants on leaves as I did so.

'Everybody, once you've reached the ground, get in line with your leaf and add it to the pile of leaves accumulating next to the Bird!' I commanded. I started to organize the line of workers and males. Flik gave me a smile and a wave. I waved and smiled back. 'Okay, once you've put your leaf down on the pile,' I continued, 'help to put the leaves onto the Bird.'

'You're doing really well, Atta.' Flik whispered to me as he passed. I felt immense joy.

Everything was going perfectly and the Bird was almost complete. The last of the leaves had been attached and Cornelius was securing the binding as I watched. He gave me a nod. I nodded back.

'Okay!' I shouted. Everyone pulled and the Bird began to rise. I flew down to help. When it was high enough, the dung beetle pushed it into a gap in the tree. Carlos and Cotton secured a beam to keep it in place with the help of Ivy holding it steady while 4 other ants secured a rock which would be launched to release the Bird. It was complete. We all cheered. We had done it. We had successfully built this magnificent structure. It had taken a lot of work and effort but we had done it.

'Brilliant work, everyone! Very well done!' I called over everyone's cheering. Flik rushed over to me,

'We did it!' he cried. I hugged him. I felt so happy there in his arms with the prospect of the grasshoppers' defeat. They would arrive that night and we would be ready for them. Nothing could possibly go wrong now. The plan would go smoothly and with Flik by my side all the way, it would be impossible to fail.

The evening had fallen and we were having a party in honor of the Bird. Everyone was enjoying themselves more than they had in any time I could remember. Many ants had joined the conga line or were hanging around chatting. Ivy and Carlos were dancing together and laughing at the same time. Even Martha was having trouble covering up the fact that she was enjoying herself!

'Hey, Princess!' I looked over to see that it was a male ant slightly older than myself with wings and slightly gray skin tone who had called over to me, 'Wanna try the limbo!' I hesitated, not sure what to say to this male ant, that I only recognized by sight. The rest of the colony started to cheer me on.

'Uh . . . okay.' I answered. He gave a small smile. I limbowed under the stick insect. When I had finished, everybody clapped. I laughed a little.

'I'm Myrmica,' said the male, smiling, 'maybe I'll see you around sometime.'

'Right.' I answered trying to return his smile before walking away. There was something about him which made me feel ever so slightly awkward. I caught site of Flik talking to the Warrior Bugs.' I wandered over. 'Would you look at this colony?' I said to them, 'Would you just look at this colony? I don't even recognize them!' By this time, Ivy and Carlos had decided to do the can-can, Petal was dancing wildly round in circles with a male friend of hers she appeared to have dragged along,

'Petal! I'm getting dizzy!' he informed her, 'Is it almost time to change direction?' Everybody laughed.

'And I have you bugs to thank for it, so, thank you.' I told them. I turned to Flik, 'And thank you for finding 'em, Flik.' I put my finger tips on his shoulder, giving me a slight feeling of something like static and pleasure.

'Me?' He turned rapidly, causing our antennae to get twisted together.

'Opps!' I said giggling.

'I'll get it,' he said, sounding somewhere between amused and pleased, 'I mean, if you don't mind, I'll just . . .'

'It's all tangled up . . .' I unnecessarily added. Flik started to try to untangle our antennae. I could feel a strange sensation going through mine as he did so. I couldn't help wishing slightly that our antennae were even more twisted. I could still feel it even once Flik had untangled them. We gazed at each other feeling a little embarrassed. I hesitated, not sure if I should ask or not. However, Flik spoke first:

'Um, wanna dance?' I could tell he was rather worried about asking.

'Sure!' I answered, my heart filling with joy. I had wanted to ask him the same thing! I took his had and we wondered over to where everyone else was dancing. Ivy turned her head towards us. Petal stopped causing her friend to fall over. Me and Flik grinned at each other. Carlos had turned towards us. Many others had stopped what they were doing and were looking at us. Some were smiling, others looking utterly amazed, some of the workers were giggling, Martha was scowling.

Flik took my other hand and we started to dance. It felt wonderful, like all trouble was obliterated from the world, like a dream, no, it was better than a dream; it was better than anything I had ever felt before, I could have stayed like it forever except . . .

'They're back!' someone cried. The sirens were going off! The grasshoppers! They had returned! I raced into the air and into action.

'Battle Stations everyone! This is not a drill! Come on everyone you know your jobs! Let's go! Go! Go! Go!' Suddenly, behind me, out of no where, a wagon came flying towards me. I screamed and dived out the way. Ants ran out the way as it landed. Everyone gathered around it. On top of the wagon was a flea. I wandered over, 'Mother, what's going on?' I asked her.

'Apparently he's looking for a bunch of circus performers.' Circus performers? I had suspected the warrior bugs were circus bugs, what if . . ? No, if Flik says they're warrior bugs, they're warrior bugs. The flea disappeared. We all went behind the wagon. He was talking to the warrior bugs, perhaps he was asking them if they'd seen his circus performers, as we approached,

' . . . and then we do it all over again,' he was saying, 'we'll be the top circus act in the business!' What? No! This wasn't possible!

'You mean,' I asked, hoping against hope there was some sort of mistake, 'you're not warriors?'

'Are you kidding?' said the flea, 'These are the lousiest circus bugs you'll ever see! And they're gonna make me rich!'

'You mean to tell me,' said Thorny, 'that our entire defensive strategy was concocted by clowns!'

'Hey, we really thought Flik's plan was gonna work.' Answered the ladybug. Flik? Flik! No! It just couldn't be! It just couldn't!