STORY FOUR

Waddle goes investigating in Two Tree Thicket, looking for... well...he doesn't really know, but he's looking for it anyhow.

" Bye Mother," called Waddle as he tumbled out of the nest, "I'm off to Two Tree Thicket to investigate life in the wild."

"Mind how you go then." Her reply followed him as he disappeared behind a clump of "taller-than-I-am" grass.

"This is all so exciting," he thought as he ambled on. He was in no hurry, not even feeling too hungry yet, feeling rather more adventurous than perhaps a small duck ought to feel. The sky shone down on him and he began, for the first time, noticing all sorts of new things. Twigs, that he had to hop over or walk around, leaves, blowing lightly in the breeze, a strange humming sound coming from bugs in the flowers on either side of his pathway, new smells he couldn't name. "Oh, wow! It's good to be out and around," he smiled to himself.

After what seemed a very long while for a small duck, he came upon a sign in the pathway. It said, "THIS WAY TO TWO TREE THICKET."

"Aha!" he peeped out loud, "I'm on the right pathway." So on he went.

However, by this time his little feet were beginning to feel a bit sore so, he thought he would rest a while, and sat down, right in the middle of the pathway. Then he nodded off to sleep!

Little did he know!

"Hup, two, three, four, Hup, two, three, four," chanted the four Soldier ants as they came marching up the pathway, heading straight for the spot where Waddle sat, fast asleep, his little beak resting on the ground, making funny little ducky snoring noises, dreamily unaware of what was coming his way!

Soldier ants are quite fierce little ants and they can give a small duck a right old nip in the tail feather if the duck should annoy them.

Would Waddle annoy them, that was the question? After all, he was sleeping right in the middle of where they wanted to march!

"HALT!" shouted Ant 1, as loudly as he could, hoping to wake the sleeping Waddle. The four ants, fully kitted out in route march gear, came to a grumbling, grinding, dusty halt.

"What now?" three of them chorused. No movement from Waddle.

Again Ant 1 shouted out "HALT!"

Again, no movement from Waddle.

"STRATEGY MEETING! TO THE UNDERGROWTH! RIIIIIIIIIIIGHT SHUFFLE!" bellowed Ant 1.

They all skedaddled off into the bushes alongside the pathway. "Thank goodness, a chance to rest," they mumbled as they slung their kit to the ground, gratefully reaching for their dew flasks. Their ant stingers were all neatly stacked, upright, where they could reach them quickly if needed.

"Right, listen up ants!" commanded Ant 1. "This silly little ball of feathers is blocking our route. We need to be in Two Tree Thicket by teatime. If this snoring duck does not get out of our pathway we'll be late and, for the long jump (everybody knows that ants do not get the high jump when they're in trouble) when we DO make it back to base nest! Anybody got a plan to shift it?" Silence reigned for a moment, then Ant Two gave a hesitant cough.

"Yes, speak up ant!" bellowed Ant 1.

 "Well, how about one of us climbing up onto it's head and shouting into its ear? We HAVE got our high work kit with us," said Ant Two.

"Hmmm?" reflected Ant 1 for a moment, "Not such a bad idea. Only thing is, will it hear if only one of us goes up??"

"Hold on ants" chipped in Ant 5, "Aren't we one ant missing? What's happened to Ant 4?"

"Ant 4 broke a leg carrying out a cross-twig jump this morning, during commando exercises. His left, number 3, leg is in a splint and he couldn't come on the march" replied Ant 1.

 "But never mind him for now. Ant Two, I like your idea but I think it would work better if we ALL climbed up and we ALL shouted, together, into it's ear. We can use our antplifier system to make our voices louder. So. Let's get to it!"    

So, kit packs were duly emptied. Climbing ropes were handed out and joined together to make them longer - it was quite a climb up to Waddle's ear level. Marching boots were changed for duck climbing boots; the kind with special feather-gripping, non-trip soles. Special feather-pinning clips were carefully counted and issued out - 4 clips each. Finally, the secret to success was carefully rationed out to each ant - 4 drops of Ant Sticky - guaranteed to stick to ANYTHING, even small duck feathers!

"All ready?" asked Ant 1. "Right, to the duck, CLIMB!" And so they began.

All this while, Waddle had been blissfully ducky-snoring his morning away, completely unaware of the impending ant assault. He was having a very strange dream, all about ants. Weird! He knew that bugs could talk, but he hadn't yet met any ants, much less Soldier ants, that talked and climbed up onto ducks.

The heat of the day began to warm him just a little bit much for comfort and he was getting wiggly. It felt like ants were walking all over his feathers.

Suddenly, he jumped upright. "Golly!" he quacked, "look how high the sun is! It must be WAY past lunchtime. Mother will be looking for me in Two Tree Thicket and I didn't even get there."

So off he dashed at small duck speed.

He arrived at 10 Gallon Puddle just as Mother duck was calling him for lunch. "Oh, there you are! Good. Time for lunch" she announced. After lunch Waddle asked his Mother, "Mom, have you ever met any ants?

"No," she replied cautiously, wondering what his next question would be, "why do you ask?"

"Well" began Waddle, "it's like this. I fell asleep on the pathway to Two Tree Thicket; it was such a nice warm day. I had a weird dream about ants! They called themselves Soldier ants and they could TALK. But they talked just like Soldiers, and, they were talking about ME! They had duck climbing kit, special boots and all sorts of other things in special little bags they carried with them. The thing that worried me most was stuff they called Ant Sticky! Have you ever seen anything about, or heard of, Soldier ants?"

Just then, Waddle experienced the most horrible pain in his left ear. "Ants!" bellowed Ant 1, "ABANDON DUCK!!"

They never recovered all their duck kit, and they got more than the long jump for losing their ant stingers!