The rest of the colony followed me as I ran towards the wreckage. Were they alright? Were they hurt? The children jumped out of the bird coughing and spluttering. The girls ran to me. Petal clung to me.

'Where's Flik? Have any of you seen him?' I asked them urgently. Petal was about to answer but then . . .

'Whose idea was this? Ha!' roared Hopper. Silence. It had been Flik's idea but I wasn't going to give him away after all had done for me, for all of us! 'Was it yours, Princess!' He started to advance on me. Oh, I was really for it this time! I was already in a huge amount of trouble! What could I possibly do to save myself? The girls shuddered uncontrollably.

'Just get behind me, girls. It'll be okay.' I told them trying to sound calm but I found it impossible to keep a note of panic out of my voice.

'Don't leave us, Atta!' pleaded Petal quivering and clinging as tightly as she possibly could to me. It struck me that there were two meanings to what she had just said. Hopper was so close to me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ivy turn away. I braced myself but then we heard a shout.

'Leave her alone, Hopper!' he turned and, I looked round, greatly impressed. Flik jumped out of the Bird. 'The Bird was my idea! I'm the one you want!' I was finding it hard to believe. Did he realize what he had just done? How incredibly courageous he was! But what was Hopper going to do to him? Hopper was obviously not in a very good mood. He clicked his fingers. Thumper jumped out of nowhere and went for Flik. Flik couldn't do anything to defend himself.

It was absolutely horrid to watch as Flik got kicked and beaten in every possible way. Thumper had no mercy for him. Gee . . . and to think that would have been me if it wasn't for Flik's admittance. Oh, it must hurt so much! How I wished I could help him in some way. I couldn't keep my eyes off the hell – like scene. Hopper called Thumper off. Flik could barely move.

'Where did you get the goal to do this to me?' Hopper asked Flik, his voice full of fury. Flik winced a lot before finally answering,

'You were going to squish the Queen.' The rest of the colony let out horrified gasps.

'I hate it when someone gives away the ending.' Said Hopper, giving a signal to Thumper who kicked Flik again. 'You piece of dirt! No, I'm wrong, you're lower than dirt you're an ant!' Flik lay still on the ground, motionless in pain. 'Let this be a lesson to all you ants,' bellowed Hopper, 'ideas are very dangerous things. You are mindless, soil shoving losers, put on this earth to serve us!'

'You're wrong, Hopper.' Came Flik's weak, croaky voice. We all looked over to where he was. What did he mean exactly? He somehow managed to master the energy to stand. He wasn't going to defy everything Hopper had said? No one could possibly be brave enough to do that! But after all he had done . . . no, I'm letting my imagination run away with me, surely? 'Ants aren't meant to serve grasshoppers!' his voice loud and clear. He was! Wow! Hopper slowly advanced towards him. Would he recant what he had just said or was there more to come? Something inside me told me that Flik wasn't going to take back anything.

'I've seen these ants do great things and year after year they somehow manage to pick food for themselves and you!' I was completely blown away. Most ants would not ever go as far as admitting something like the bird had been their idea and after a beating like that would've never said anything like what Flik was saying but consider themselves lucky to be alive. But not Flik, what he was doing was true heroism.

'So, who's the weaker species! Ants don't serve grasshoppers! It's you that need us!' The rest of the colony murmured in agreement. He was completely right! It was incredible to hear him say these things. But how would Hopper retaliate to his notions? 'We're a lot stronger than you say we are!' Hopper was right in front of him by this time looking mad, very mad but that didn't stop Flik. 'And you know it, don't you?' Hopper knocked him to the ground and raised his food above Flik's head. No! Hopper was going to squish him! After all Flik had done for all of us! And after all his courage! I just couldn't let him die! I raced in front of him, trying to protect him. If Hopper wanted Flik, he'd have to go through me first!

'Well, Princess?' said Hopper, trying to mock my actions.

'Um, Hopper, I hate to interrupt, but . . .' It was the same grasshopper who had told us about Hopper's bird incident. I looked round to see the rest of the colony looking very defiant and ready to fight.

'You ants stay back!' hollered Hopper. Everyone linked arms.

'You see, Hopper,' I said smoothly, 'nature has a certain order: the ants pick the food, the ants keep the food, and the grasshoppers leave!' Everyone charged towards the grasshoppers. Most of them started to run and fly away! 'I'm so proud of you, Flik!' I shouted over the noise of passionate revolution. I could hear Petal whopping. She ran towards me grinning,

'That was too cool, Atta!' We turned. Thumper was in front of us. He screamed. Me and Petal looked at each other and grinned. We looked back at Thumper,

'Charge!' We cried, heading straight for him. Thumper was taken completely by surprise and had no time to react to our rebellious behavior. We jumped on top of him, shouting 'Charge!' once again. I kicked him as hard as I could,

'That's for beating up Flik!' I said fiercely. Petal whooped again. I bared my teeth at him. Thumper took flight after the other grasshoppers.

'Hurray!' shouted Petal, jumping up and down.

'Go home, Thumper!' I called after him, laughing.

'Nice one!' I turned. I felt slightly surprised, 'You didn't think I was going to miss out on all the action, did you?' Flik teased. I smiled.

'Nope.' I answered. He smiled back at me and clasped my hand,

'Come on, Atta; let's kick Hopper off Ant Island for good!'

'Hey! Wait for me!' said Petal indignantly. We laughed, before hurrying towards where Hopper was.

'Where are you going?' Hopper was yelling after his retreating gang, 'They're just ants!' We all charged towards him, knocking him down. We all lifted him up,

'To the canon!' yelled Flik,

'To the canon!' the rest of us shouted back in unison. We ran with Hopper towards the canon and shoved him into it. We all cheered.

'Happy landings, Hopper!' said Flik grinning broadly. Within a few seconds, Hopper would be gone forever! And we would all be entirely free from all the oppression we had suffered throughout our whole lives.

Suddenly, everything stopped. We could hear a strange sound not far off. We looked around. Couldn't see anything. Flik looked round the corner,

'Rain!' he cried but in less than a second after he had said this, rain drops poured out of the sky, hitting us. Everyone made a run towards the Anthill but were knocked down by the rain. I ran towards Flik, he had been hit hard and in his weak state was finding it impossible to get up.

'Flik! Are you okay? Is there anyway I can help you? Can't you get up?' I asked feeling very worried. His expression of hopelessness and weakness turned to one of pure terror. Before I knew what was happening, Hopper had grabbed Flik by the leg and was flying off! 'Flik!' I cried in despair. Hopper would surely kill him! The circus bugs flew after them. I thought for a moment.

I got up and took flight after them. The circus bugs had taken a straight flight after them, if I took a longer route and doubled back I would have a better chance of success, coming up in front of Hopper where he least expected it. And, if I was lucky, I would be on one side of Hopper while the circus bugs on the other. The rain was getting heavier and it was getting harder to see. Flik must be so scared! Or what if he was already dead? I couldn't bear to think of it. I needed to go faster. Images of Flik's death filled my head, torturing me. It had been I who had sent Flik on that ridiculous mission to look for warrior bugs. I had just done it to get rid of him. What had I done? If he died now, it would be I who was to blame. I would never be able to forgive myself for that. I knew that as long as I lived I would live with the guilt that I had in affect killed him. I turned and desperately hoped that I was not too late to save him.

I could see Hopper and Flik not too far ahead. He was still alive! I dodged out of sight; I couldn't have Hopper spotting me! Come on! Come on! I told myself. I was quite close, now. Hopper had turned his head backwards. This was my perfect opportunity! I just needed the courage. It was now or never. I dived underneath Hopper and grabbed Flik round the waste, flying harder than I had ever flown before. Flik looked up at me.

'Go that way!' He told me. What? That wouldn't be the right way!

'But the Anthill's over . . .' I answered confused. Had he lost his sense of direction?

'I've got an idea!' He said. I dived in the direction he said. Oh, please say his plan is going to work! I could hear Hopper roaring exceptionally close behind us! I screamed. I was getting extremely difficult to avoid the increasing amount of rain and Hopper at the same time and there was a layer of water below us.

'Flik!' I screamed.

'Come on, Atta!' He encouraged me. Hopper was ever closer. If he caught us, he would surely kill us! Flik seemed to be having the same thoughts because his body became tenser. Hopper almost grabbed us but, incredibly luckily, was knocked by a raindrop.

'Where are we going?' I asked Flik.

'Just a little further!' Flik told me. 'There!' Flik pointed towards a patch of ground. Suddenly, a raindrop hit us trapping us in it, landing on a leaf as it fell. Were we going to drown? Flik motioned me to get the water to go off the leaf to the ground. We pushed. It slid off sending us crashing to the ground.

'Quick,' said Flik pulling me to my feet, 'you've gotta hide!' He pulled me towards a large rock, 'No matter what happens, stay down!' He ran off the way we had come,

'No, Flik!' I whispered anxiously, 'What are you doing?' He was surely going to get himself killed! Hopper would arrive any second, unless this was all part of Flik's plan . . . Hopper landed right in front of Flik. My body became tense and shaky.

'H-Hopper!' gasped Flik.

'You think it's over!' hollered Hopper walking threateningly towards him.

'No! No!' cried Flik, half running, half walking backwards, 'I can explain!' What was he up to? I couldn't see where this was all going.

'All your little stunt did was buy them time!'

'No! Please! Please, Hopper!' begged Flik, leaning away from him on a pile of twigs. Hopper grabbed his throat and started to strangle him.

'I'll get more grasshoppers and be back next year, but you won't!' A terrifying thought suddenly occurred to me; what if this wasn't meant to happen? What if something had gone terribly wrong? What if Flik died right now and I hadn't done anything to try to save him? Oh, Flik, I hope you know what you're doing!

Suddenly we all heard a chirping noise. The bird! The same bird that had almost eaten us in the late summer! Flik hadn't just been leaning on twigs; he'd been leaning on a bird's nest!

'What's this?' asked Hopper, sounding somewhat amused, 'Another one of your bird tricks?' Ha-ha! Hopper thought it was another fake! How brilliant Flik was! 'Are there little girls in this one too? Hello girls!' The bird screeched. Hopper tried to run but the bird grabbed him in its beak. Flik ran back to me and we crouched behind the rock. We could hear Hopper's screaming. We turned away not wanting to see his end. All of a sudden the noise stopped. There was silence. We looked back up. The bird was sitting on its nest. Hopper was gone. It was over.

'Come on,' Flik whispered to me, 'that bird won't stay there forever, we have to move!' I nodded and he took my hand and we crept away unnoticed by the bird, who seemed to be settling down too go to sleep.

'What should we do?' I whispered urgently to Flik. 'We'll never be able to make it back to the anthill in this weather! And my wings are completely bushed, I would be lucky to fly half an inch! I felt hopeless. He looked back at me.

'I'm – I'm afraid there's only one thing we can do.' I waited, 'We'll have to climb the cliff.' I stared at him. Climb the cliff! Was it possible for us to make it up there? But what choice did we have? I knew that if we stayed where we were, the bird was very likely to find us. I nodded gravely. He seemed to read my thoughts. 'Don't worry, Atta. We'll make it.' I gave a vague smile.

The climb was tretorous. It was incredibly hard to climb the cliff and it was very slippery. The rain was still pounding down. Three-quarters of the way, Flik's injuries started to play up severally. He almost fell but I grabbed his hand just in time.

'Hold on!' I hollered over the roar of the wind and rain. I clung to his hand. I didn't know what to do; if I let go of the cliff with the hand remaining on it we would both fall to our deaths, but I didn't have enough strength to lift Flik up far enough that he would be able to grab the cliff, and what if he fell again? There was only one thing I could think of to do, but I would be taking a huge risk.

I put my wings into action and, hoping against hope that they would work despite my exhausted state. Gritting my teeth, I let go of the cliff. I flapped my wings as hard as I could. We started to descend. No! I flapped harder, we couldn't die! Not now! We slowly began to rise into the air. We were going to make it. The top of the cliff was almost in reach, just a little more energy . . . I grabbed the top of the cliff and tried to pull myself up with my left hand. It took four tries before I finally managed it. I pulled Flik up. We had made it, but we were utterly exhausted. We needed somewhere safe to rest.

'Over there!' said Flik, pointing to an overturned leaf which was reasonably dry, shaded and out of the wind, his voice hoarse. We slowly went over to it. It would conceal us if the bird came up and protect us from the rain. I nodded.

'Perfect,' I said 'after you,' I jested towards the leaf and he crawled under. I followed. The ground under was also reasonably dry at least compared to outside. I sat down next to Flik. At last we could rest. It felt quite pleasant sitting under a brown ceiling with Flik next to me. I still found it hard to believe that Hopper was actually gone forever and we were free at last.

'That idea of yours, with the bird,' I began, 'the real bird, I mean. It was absolutely brilliant!' He smiled and looked a little embarrassed.

'Well, I . . . I'

'Don't talk, it'll hurt you.' I warned him, 'Lie down, you need to rest!' I told him. I had to help him; it hurt to try to move into the position. 'You're gonna be okay.' I assured him. He looked so weak and fragile. He had been so courageous: he had come back with me to save the colony, he had saved my Mother, he had stood up to Hopper, he had saved me . . . And now, because of him the colony was liberated of Hopper forever. I hated to see him in this state and I had been so mad at him earlier . . .

'Y-You should l-lie d-down too.' Whispered Flik croakily to me, having trouble to get the words out. I lied down. He slowly reached out his had towards mine. I moved my hand towards his and held it as we both fell asleep.

I woke to a gusty wind blowing on me. The leaf had blown off us while we had slept. But was it that that had woke me? I could hear wings not far away. My first thought was grasshoppers, but no! I looked upwards to see the circus bugs!

'Down here! Down here!' I shouted. I ran over to where Flik lay asleep. 'Flik! Flik!' I said shaking him lightly. I didn't want to accidentally make him feel pain. 'The circus bugs! They're here!' I ran back to where I had been. The circus bugs were descending. I looked back towards Flik. He was slowly standing up. I rushed back to him and helped him up. The circus bugs had landed. They looked quite relieved to see us.

'We suspected that you had been . . .' began Gypsy, 'I mean, we thought that you would go after him, Princess, and then we saw that bird again and knowing Hopper . . .' she stopped. I could see what she meant. The chances of finding us alive had been very few. I looked at Flik.

'Hopper's the only one who got eaten by a bird. It was Flik's plan.' I told them. They all looked at each other in amazement.

'Well, the important thing is that you're both safe.' Said Manny.

'Safe! Safe! You safe!' went the pill bugs.

'We'd better get back to the anthill. They'll be worried sick about you two.' Said Slim. Flik climbed aboard Dim.

'Come on, Atta.' Said Flik, holding out his hand to me, 'let's go home.'