1

Anthony the Ant Gets Lost

THE SUN WAS dropping heavily, huge and red, at the end of a summer’s day. Anthony was an ant, and Anthony was lost, very lost indeed.

“Oh dear,” moaned Anthony, “The sun is disappearing, and the stars are coming out to twinkle, and I’m lost.”

Anthony stopped walking, sat on a pebble, and began to cry.

“Boo hoo hoo hoo … I must have taken the wrong turn somewhere or other … My antennas must be confused … Probably my hay-fever,” he moaned between sobs and sniffles.

Anthony looked very lonely sitting on that pebble sobbing as the sun finally disappeared. And all around was inky black with just the twinkling of stars shining down from high above. To make matters worse, it was a little cloudy and Anthony could not even find the moon. He wondered if perhaps it was behind a cloud or not in the sky at all, but what did it matter, he thought, if he could not see it.

Anthony was not only lonely but also very frightened, and he felt as small as small can be, and perhaps a little bit smaller. And because he was a black ant, he could not even see his own feet. Poor little Anthony.

Suddenly, through rather large teardrops, Anthony saw what he thought was a star dancing towards him, zigzagging, this way and that, but definitely coming right towards him! This surprising sight made him gasp and stop crying.

Then, within seconds, the glowing star landed like a tiny helicopter in front of him. He could see what this star really was now. There before him stood a small creature with fly-like see-through wings and a glowing body. It was about half his size. He had never seen anything like it before. At least the creature was smiling. Anthony was so curious he forgot to carry on crying.

2

Frankie the Firefly

“OH!” EXCLAIMED ANTHONY. “What are you?”

“What am I!” chirped the creature. “Well, I’m a firefly, of course. Frankie’s my name.” And the firefly bowed gracefully while fluttering his wings as if Anthony was the King of Nighttime. Frankie the firefly’s face beamed with happiness as he completed his bow.

He did look friendly, thought Anthony.

“What’s your name then?” asked Frankie.

“Anthony,” replied Anthony. Then Anthony tried to bow like Frankie. But he forgot he was sitting on a pebble and nearly fell off. He looked quite comical as he pretended to Frankie it was part of the bow. Frankie’s eyes seemed to light up as if he was about to burst into laughter at Anthony’s bowing attempt. But he just glowed a bit brighter instead.

“And, you are?” asked Frankie, with his glow lighting up the place around them with a warm golden hue.

“Er … Anthony,” repeated a slightly confused Anthony. “Didn’t I just tell you?”

“Ha ha. You’re very funny, Anthony,” chuckled Frankie, unable to stop himself from laughing at Anthony this time. “You’re making my glow get brighter. It always gets brighter when I laugh. Why, it’s almost like the daytime around us right now. No, but what I meant was—what are you? You don’t have a glow like me. I’ve never seen one of you before. What are you, Anthony? Are you a moth who has lost his wings?”

“Oh!” said Anthony. “Me? No, I’m not a moth who has lost his wings. I’m an ant who has lost his way home.”

“An ant,” exclaimed Frankie, looking ever so curiously at Anthony. “Wow! An ant. An ant! What’s one of those? Never heard of one of you. Maybe you shouldn’t be here in the night. I mean, how can you see where you’re going without a glow?”

“Yes,” said Anthony, “that’s right. I shouldn’t be here in the night. I should be at home enjoying supper with my brothers. It was honey-sugar soup tonight. I’m lost, and I’m scared of the dark.” And with that thought, Anthony started crying again.

Frankie’s eyes clouded over with a look of great pity and concern as he stared at Anthony weeping on the pebble. He glowed even brighter, and he said, “There, there, Anthony. It’s not so dark and lonely with me around.”

“But how … can … I … ever … get home?” moaned Anthony between shuddering sobs.

“You must know something about where you live? Remember, I’m a firefly, and I can fly. Perhaps if you describe something about where you live that can be seen from the sky, I can fly up and find it. I’ll just fly up and look down towards the ground until I see it. I can see quite well in the dark, you know. All fireflies can. We don’t just glow in the dark, we see in the dark too.”

“You can see in the dark?” Anthony stroked his chin, wondering if perhaps Frankie was joking.

3

The One Magico Piece

“OF COURSE.” FRANKIE looked over to his left (which was Anthony’s right). “See that daffodil? Well, I bet you can’t see the gold coin next to it, can you?”

“Gold coin? I can’t even see the daffodil!” Anthony wriggled his antennas as he tried his best to see what Frankie was enthusiastically pointing at. All he could see was blackness because the area was out of range of Frankie’s glow.

Frankie skipped over to the left, and his glow revealed a daffodil.

“I can see the daffodil now,” said Anthony. “But I’ll be blowed if I can see a gold coin.”

Frankie gave Anthony a huge smile, and then he got on his hands and knees and started dusting feverishly with his hands at a patch of dirt that the daffodil was growing in.

“What are you doing, Frankie? This is no time to start gardening, you know.”

Suddenly Frankie leapt up with a gold coin in his hand. He scampered quickly back in front of Anthony and held the gleaming gold coin up to him. “There! One gold coin. Value: one hundred magicees; that is to say, one magico.”

Anthony was highly impressed. “Gosh, a one magico piece. I could buy my weight in jellybabies with that. You can certainly see in the dark. Probably even better than I can see in the day.”

“Told you so, didn’t I. Here, you can have the coin since I only found it because I found you.” Frankie held up the coin for Anthony to take, but Anthony politely declined.

“Oh no, I couldn’t,” said Anthony, but he really wished he could.

“Now, go on. Take it,” insisted Frankie. “Honestly, we don’t need any more money. Coins are easy for us to find. We find thousands of them throughout the year. It’s easy to spot them from the sky. The gold ones especially. Just a single glint from them when they’re hit by a stray moonbeam, and they’re as easy as pie to spot.” Frankie forced the coin into Anthony’s hand, smiling broadly.

“Well, if you’re sure,” said Anthony, a little hesitantly.

“As sure as eggs is eggs.” Frankie did one of his graceful bows.

Anthony slid the coin into a pocket that was almost invisible inside the tight skin of his tummy. He couldn’t believe his luck. If only he could get home and share his treasure with his brothers.

“Well, Anthony, now perhaps you can understand that if you describe where you live I’ll easily be able to spot it from the air, even if the moon stays hidden behind that cloud all night.” Frankie pointed up to a huge cloud. “It’s that one there.”

Anthony looked up at the cloud hiding the moon. Then he looked back down at Frankie. “But you’ll have to leave me here, and then you’ll never find me again because I’m so small. And maybe something big will eat me while you’re away. My grandpa said there are monsters called anteaters that eat ants by the dozen. He even drew pictures of them for me and my brothers. They’re very, very frightening. And … they come out at night.” Anthony shook his head in despair.

“Don’t you worry about that,” said Frankie. “I won’t leave you here on your own. I’m your friend. Just tell me about the place where you live.”

“Well, there’s this big lake, which you can float around on, using giant leaves as a boat. And I live under a giant tree, standing tall like a sentry by a church.”

“Great,” said Frankie. “I know all the lakes in this area. It shouldn’t take long to find your home. I mean, you couldn’t have walked that far away from where you live even if you sped along like a money spider. There aren’t that many giant trees here in Genland. There’s quite a lot in Cotsland and Lawes, of course. But definitely, hardly any here in Genland.”

“How do you know that? Those countries are hundreds of miles away.”

“Oh, we fireflies can fly hundreds of miles in a few hours. Of course, we have to fly quite high, and it depends on favourable winds.”

Anthony was still worried. “But how can you find my home without leaving me? I might be just an ant, but even I know that’s impossible,” protested Anthony.

“Well, fireflies are especially good at finding things,” said Frankie, with his big, black eyes gleaming in his glow. Then he glowed a bit more brightly, and added happily, “Especially when we work in teams.”