The news travelled swiftly through the tunnels of the ant world. A scouthad returned with a remarkable discovery – a beautiful sparkling crystal. Whenthe scout presented the crystal to the ant queen she took a small bite, andthen quickly ate the entire thing.
She deemed it the most delicious food she had ever tasted. Nothing couldmake her happier than to have more, much more. The ants understood. They wereeager to gather more crystals because the queen was the mother of them all. Herhappiness made the whole ant nest a happy place.
It was late in the day when they departed. Long shadows stretched overthe entrance to the ant kingdom. One by one the insects climbed out, followingthe scout, who had made it clear – there were many crystals where the first hadbeen found, but the journey was long and dangerous.
They marched into the woods that surrounded their underground home. Duskturned to twilight, twilight to night. The path they followed twisted andturned, every bend leading them deeper into the dark forest.
More than once the line of ants stopped and anxiously listened for thesounds of hungry spiders. But all they heard was the call of the cricketsechoing through the woods like distant thunder.
Dew formed on the leaves above. Without warning, huge cold drops fell onthe marching ants. A firefly passed overhead that for an instant, lit up thewoods with a blinding flash of blue-green light.
At the edge of the forest stood a mountain.The ants looked up and could not see its peak. It seemed to reach right to theheavens. But they did not stop. Up the side they climbed, higher and higher.
The wind whistled through the cracks of themountain’s face. The ants could feel its force bending their delicate antennae.Their legs grew weak as they struggled upward. At last they reached a ledge andcrawled through a narrow tunnel.
When the ants came out of the tunnel theyfound themselves in a strange world. Smells they had known all their lives,smells of dirt and grass and rotting plants, had vanished. There was no morewind and, most puzzling of all, it seemed that the sky was gone.
They crossed smooth shiny surfaces, thenfollowed the scout up a glassy curved wall. They had reached their goal. Fromthe top of the wall they looked below to a sea of crystals. One by one the antsclimbed down into the sparkling treasure.
Quickly they each chose a crystal, thenturned to start the journey home. There was something about this unnaturalplace that made the ants nervous. In fact they left in such a hurry that noneof them noticed the two small ants who stayed behind.
“Why go back?”one asked the other. “This place may not feel like home, but look at all thesecrystals.” “You’re right,” said the other,” we can stay here and eat this tastytreasure every day, forever.” So the two ants ate crystal after crystal untilthey were too full to move, and fell asleep.
Daylight came. The sleeping ants wereunaware of changes taking place in their new found home. A giant silver scoophovered above them, then plunged deep into the crystals. It shoveled up bothants and crystals and carried them high into the air.
The ants were wide awake when the scoopturned, dropping them from a frightening height. They tumbled through space ina shower of crystals and fell into a boiling brown lake…..
They found a huge round disk with holesthat could neatly hide them. But as soon as they had climbed inside, theirhiding place was lifted, tilted, and lowered into a dark space. When the antsclimbed out of the holes they were surrounded by a strange red glow. It seemedto them that every second the temperature was rising. It soon became sounbearably hot they thought they would soon be cooked.
When the ants climbed out of the holes theywere surrounded by a strange red glow. It seemed to them that every second thetemperature was rising. It soon became so unbearably hot that they thought theywould soon be cooked.