There was a wise yet strange mantis who lived very lonesomely in an orchid plat near the base of a tree. His neighbors, bless him, were a colony of carpenter ants who lived inside the base of the tree. The mantis was an outcast, he was small and couldn’t even fend for himself when he was put up against other mantises. It was hard for him to find food, in fact, even with food right at his doorstep he was wise to know not to play around with a colony of ants, especially ones with big chommpers and a reputation for getting angry.
But, being wise, mantis hatched a plan. He froze, unnmoving, like a stick, right outside the openings of the colony’s empire. He observed, and watched as they worked all day into the night...until work stopped. See, in first hour of darkness the ants would stop working, and exactly a minute before nine, the last ants would arrive one by one with their catch of food for the day. The mantis knew this was his chance to strike, his chance at survival.
So the mantis waited another night till the last ants arrived, one by one. One by one he snatched them with his long, jagged pinchers, eating their heads first. It was a feast, and more often or not he got lucky as the ants would bring their own side dishes to his dinner table.
For a while, mantis went unnoticed. But being such a small mantis before, he began to gain weight from the constant eating he did every night. And the queen? Oh the queen was on high alert, some of her favorite workers had been going missing; and the lack of food coming into the colony had dwindled significantly. She asked a group of ants to start patrolling outside the colony to find out what’s going on, and it wasn’t long before they witnessed the slau ghter of their comrades by the stick they passed by every day,
Mantis was found out, so he booked it. It’s been so long since he’s moved so much in his life and his constant feasting didn’t help. The ant patrol caught up with his quickly, and gnawed him to pieces. Needless to say, the ants had a great feast that night, one to last many days.
(Google image from Pxhere)
Authors Note: I loved the story about the Hypocritical Cat that tricked the mice into trusting him. I thought I’d give it a spin and change the stakes to ants and a mantis. Ants are somewhat similar in their actions to mice in the story, so I think ot worked out really well. Oh, and I made it to where the mantis just hides in plain sight, cause mantises can do that...
From The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse with illustrations by W. Robinson, online at: Project Gutenberg.
But, being wise, mantis hatched a plan. He froze, unnmoving, like a stick, right outside the openings of the colony’s empire. He observed, and watched as they worked all day into the night...until work stopped. See, in first hour of darkness the ants would stop working, and exactly a minute before nine, the last ants would arrive one by one with their catch of food for the day. The mantis knew this was his chance to strike, his chance at survival.
So the mantis waited another night till the last ants arrived, one by one. One by one he snatched them with his long, jagged pinchers, eating their heads first. It was a feast, and more often or not he got lucky as the ants would bring their own side dishes to his dinner table.
For a while, mantis went unnoticed. But being such a small mantis before, he began to gain weight from the constant eating he did every night. And the queen? Oh the queen was on high alert, some of her favorite workers had been going missing; and the lack of food coming into the colony had dwindled significantly. She asked a group of ants to start patrolling outside the colony to find out what’s going on, and it wasn’t long before they witnessed the slau ghter of their comrades by the stick they passed by every day,
Mantis was found out, so he booked it. It’s been so long since he’s moved so much in his life and his constant feasting didn’t help. The ant patrol caught up with his quickly, and gnawed him to pieces. Needless to say, the ants had a great feast that night, one to last many days.
(Google image from Pxhere)
Authors Note: I loved the story about the Hypocritical Cat that tricked the mice into trusting him. I thought I’d give it a spin and change the stakes to ants and a mantis. Ants are somewhat similar in their actions to mice in the story, so I think ot worked out really well. Oh, and I made it to where the mantis just hides in plain sight, cause mantises can do that...
From The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse with illustrations by W. Robinson, online at: Project Gutenberg.
Hi Callie,
ReplyDelete(Big fan of the drop cap. Anyway…)
I really like the visual of a the stick lying there looking hungry and eating up the ants one-by-one. It’s a rather dark image at the end, but a deserved fate for the mantis, I guess.
(Random note: there seems to be a period missing at the very end of the fourth paragraph.)
Best,
A.M.
Hi Callie! Great story. I really liked how you were able to effectively keep the idea of the story the same while adding a good twist in it. Changing the characters is my favorite thing to do also. I agree that mantises hide in plain sight. I can always remember just barely seeing them when I would hunt for bugs as a kid!
ReplyDeleteUmmm... Am I the only one who isn't getting the image? I can see a tiny icon for it, but the image itself is absent. It also lacks a proper caption. Now the professor is going to steal all of your strawberry icecream. The only way to stop this is to edit this story to have a proper image caption. That's what happens when you don't listen to an obnoxious moron. I mean skilled technical writer.
ReplyDelete♪And the dinosaurs are gone♪
Hi, Callie! I enjoyed reading your story! I thought you did a great job at switching up the characters. However, I have a few suggestions. With that being said, I feel like it’s kind of redundant when you repetitively said “one by one” in the beginning of the third paragraph. So maybe you could take it out the first time or to try to rephrase it in a better way?
ReplyDelete