5 Tail on the Loose

Chapter 5 TAIL ON THE LOOSE Suddenly more ants were charging from the opposite direction. These ants were huge. Their long jaws were like jagged saws. meep… "Bulldog ants!" said Thudd. "Fierce fighting ants! Hang on to prey and not let go!" Some of the meat ants let go of their captured prey as they battled. A bulldog ant lunged toward the meat ant that had captured Andrew. Both ants reared up. Andrew looked into the round black eyes of the bulldog ant. Each eye was made up of hundreds of

tiny tiles. The antennas of the two ants touched. Their front legs tangled. The bulldog ant wrestled the meat ant to the ground. "Burp, Drewd, burp!" squeaked Thudd. "Ants not like garlic smell!" Andrew reached up and grabbed one of the ant's wiry antennas. He dragged it close to his mouth. "URRRP!" he burped loudly. "UKRRP!" The antenna waggled. The next instant, the ant's jaws loosened. Andrew was free! He fell to the ground and rolled clear of the battle. Through the tangle of ant legs, he saw the meat ant that had captured Judy. It was battling another bulldog ant. They seemed to be fighting over which one would get to eat Judy. The bulldog ant clamped its jaws on Judy's neck. Andrew crept between the two ants. "URRRRP!" He burped his biggest burp.

Nothing happened. "Judy!" yelled Andrew. "Burp on your ant! You ate garlic pizza, too!" "I don't burp, Bug-Brain!" hollered Judy. "You can do it!" Andrew hollered back.

"ooo OOO OOOO OOOOORP!" burped Judy. The ants' antennas waggled. Judy fell from the meat ant's jaws. The bulldog ant reared back. Andrew and Judy tried to scramble away but ants were everywhere. Ants were climbing on top of ants. Ants were climbing over Andrew and Judy. They could barely move. Suddenly ants began to scatter in every direction. To keep from being trampled, Andrew and Judy crept around a pile of rocks and onto an island of prickly grass. Andrew climbed up a stiff grass stem to see what was happening. The stem was as rough as sandpaper. Streams of stampeding ants were flowing away from a lump in the sand. Andrew squinted to see it better. The sand-colored lump was as big as a person's hand. Every part of its body was covered with sharp, thick white thorns. Thorns surrounded its eyes. Thorns ran up and down its neck.

"Holy moly!" Andrew shouted down to Judy. "Something weird is coming! It looks like a mini- Stegosaurus!" As the monster scuttled along the ground, every ant in its path disappeared. Its sticky tongue snapped up ants so quickly that Andrew barely saw it happen. Thudd pulled himself higher up in Andrew's pocket to get a better look. meep… "Thorny devil!" squeaked Thudd. "Shy lizard. Gentle lizard." "It's sure not gentle with ants," said Andrew.

meep… "Thorny devil gotta eat two thousand ants every day," said Thudd. Andrew climbed down the stem of grass. "We'd better get our ant-sized selves out of here," he said.