Ants United

• Anay Gouws, Grade 4, Quinns Baptist College
• Short Story
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'Read Write Repeat 2015' competition

Once there lived a cheerful diminutive ant called Amy. Amy lived in a colossal ant nest. Because this ant nest was so big, the glamorous Queen was worried that they would not be able to gather enough food for the winter. As Amy watched the ants hustling about, she had an idea. “What if the Queen could hire me to gather food?” she exclaimed. Amy had always wanted to go to the outside world, but knew she was too young. Amy raced to the Queen as fast as her teeny legs would take her.
“Your majesty, I was wondering if, well..” said Amy, trying to find the right words. “Maybe you could hire me?” “Amy, is this about you wanting to go to the outside world?” the Queen replied in a commanding voice. “Maybe?” replied Amy. “Amy, how many times do I have to tell you, you cannot go outside the nest!” the Queen yelled clearly. Amy dashed home keeping her head down. At home, she sat on her comforting bed. Suddenly she sighted a
little crack in the wall and a splendid thought popped into her head. ‘What if it’s a way to the outside world?’ Her face turned from dark and gloomy to bright and colourful. Just before she went through the crack, Amy suddenly realised that the crack was not big enough. She grabbed a hammer and chisel and made the crack big enough for her to slip into the outside world.
Before very long, she finally managed to get through the crack, she turned around and...
“Wait, what,” she said in a confused voice. “I never knew that the outside world had park benches,” she said confused. Amy was about to turn back when she thought, ‘I didn’t do all this for nothing.’
Amy then went to explore and realised she was in another ant nest. As Amy was roaming around, she heard a rustle in the bushes. Her eyes darted around, then she suddenly felt a hand tap her on the shoulder. She turned around and looked at the beast in horror. It was blue and looked like her and is an ALIEN!! Amy was just about to open her mouth to scream for help when the voice said, “No! No! We are both ants and could be friends.” “My name is Lily.” As time went by, Amy got to know the blue ant called Lily, and they came up with a plan to help the black ants collecting food before winter. “We can persuade the Queen that the black and blue ants can work together and we can unite the two worlds.” Once the Queen heard of their brilliant plan, she was delighted that they came up with such a superior plan. This means that enough food will be gathered for the winter. From that day on, Amy and Lily were given permission to explore the outside world, as a reward for coming up with such a brilliant plan.