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Warnings for verbal threats being made by a tiny ant-like creature, and a bit of campy fun. As well as a tiny bit out of character too. The word count is 964 words. I hope you all enjoy When Ants Attack.
No one knows when the first ant became sentient or how. Perhaps it was a potion or spell gone wrong. Or maybe they'd always been sentient and no one knew about it. Either way, it was a big surprise when a terrified Dudley had run into the house yelling about ants attacking him that spring afternoon.
"The ants!" Dudley shouted, panting as he dropped into a chair at the nearby table. He may have gotten into shape but he still felt drained when he had to run a long distance, which he had had to do. He had been buying takeaway from his and Cho's favorite restaurant when the first ant decided to attack.
"We just told Charlotte she can have them," Cho said, wondering what had gotten into her husband. "Don't tell me you're changing your mind now?"
"Of course, I'm changing my bloody mind, love," he said, racing over to the window, peering outside, and watching as a sea of ants overtook old Mrs. Figg taking off to God knows where. "The bloody ants just swept off with old Mrs. Figg from across the street."
"No," Cho said as though she was comforting a child after a terrible nightmare. "They aren't taking anyone anywhere. They're upstairs in Charlotte and Lily's room with the girls."
"You let them in," Dudley said, taking off up the stairs. "You let them in the house with our girls!"
"You better not let your mother and father hear you talking like this. You know how unpleased they were you mar—"
A crash sounded from upstairs and that only made Dudley speed up the stairs quicker than before. He'd be damned if he was going to let some crushable bugs hurt his daughters.
When he finally crashed through the closed door of his young daughters's room he saw that the crash had been a lamp being knocked over. His youngest looked sheepishly up at him from the spot on the floor where she'd landed.
"Sorry, Daddy," the five-year-old said, moving to sweep up the shards of the broken lamp.
His eldest was still engrossed in the invading pests in the little ant farm. It was as though she was listening to something.
"Charlotte!" he cried and raced over tearing the ant farm away from the girl.
"What's wrong, Daddy?" asked the eight-year-old blond girl, staring up at her father as though he'd grown a second head right in front of her. "You said that I could have the ants."
"I was wrong to say that, dear," he said, shaking the ant farm as hard as he could. Perhaps he could get rid of them in their dazed and confused state.
"They don't like that, Daddy," Lily, his youngest, told him, listening as though she could hear someone talking. Her face looked troubled and then terrified. "What's an oberlord, Daddy?"
"An ob—" he thought for a second. "Do you mean an overlord, dear?"
Lily nodded and looked up blinkingly at her father waiting for an explanation.
"Where did you hear that word from, Lily?"
"Margot said it," Lily answered, looking to Charlotte for help and confirmation.
"I will just have to have a word with Margot parents then," Dudley said, shaking his head. The things some people feel appropriate to teach their child were astounding to him.
"That's alright," Charlotte said, holding something out in her small hand. "They wanted to have a word with you too."
Dudley leaned close to his daughter's outstretched hand and squintingly blinked until the small ant queen came into focus. This was getting ridiculous. He must be dreaming this. He pinched himself to make sure he truly was asleep. But no. He was wide awake and this was no dream. He saw the ant standing defiantly on his daughter's hand.
"You will deliver a message for me to your people," the queen ant said, sounding as if she were talking to a child.
"And if I don't want to?" Dudley asked, folding his arms over his chest and feeling really rather stupid to be sitting there having a conversation with an ant of all things. "What then?"
"You will deliver the message or your family pay the forfeit," the queen told him sternly. "Are you listening?"
Dudley nodded, seeing a swarm of ants coming through a crack in the window sill. The never of these tiny creatures to think themselves along the lines of people. But he wouldn't say that out loud. He knew now that anything he said could cause harm to those that he loved.
"To long have I, Margot Queen of the Ant kingdom, sat idly by while my children were attacked and murdered by human hands. Today my kingdom rises up and subjugates those who would subjugate us. The time of the humans is over. The time of the ants is here." She looked up at Dudley unblinkingly. "Do you have that human or shall I have it written out for you?"
"I have it!" Dudley said, backing towards the door.
"Good," Margot said, smiling or so it seemed. That is if ants could actually smile. Dudley didn't know anymore what or what not ants were capable of. "The children and their mother will remain my "guests" until I am sure that my message has been delivered to the world at large. And I will know if it isn't."
"But what's an oberlord?" Lily asked, being young enough that she still didn't understand what was going on right in front of her.
"I am," Margot told her.
Dudley raced to the phone of the first floor of the house knowing he had to move quickly. He picked up the phone as news stories from all over the globe heralded the news of the ants's takeover of the entire world.
I hope you all enjoyed When Ants Attack as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please let me know if you would like me to continue this story.