7 Very Import-ant!

Chapter 7 VERY IMPORT-ANT! They came out of the tunnel and into a huge room of the cave. Andrew's eyes grew wide. "Neato mosquito!" he shouted. Lying in the middle of the room was a monster- sized ant. It was a hundred times bigger than the other ants! It was surrounded by shiny white eggs. Worm-like things wriggled next to the eggs. Regular-sized ants were climbing among the eggs and worm-like things, touching them with their antennas.

meep… "That ant queen!" said Thudd. "Queen ant make all ant babies. Ant babies hatch from eggs. Look like worms. Ant queen use smell to rule! Lotsa ants take care of queen and ant babies." Their ant carried them through the queen's room into another dark tunnel. Judy moaned. "How are we ever going to get out of here?" meep… "Got idea!" said Thudd. He pointed to his antennas. "Thudd make smells like ant. Try make smell that tell ant to take us out!" Thudd's antennas waggled. Andrew and Judy couldn't smell anything. But their ant came to a stop and put down the mealybug. "Oop!" said Thudd. "Wrong smell."

Thudd waggled his antennas again. The ant gently picked up the mealybug and scampered down the tunnel. meep… "Try again," said Thudd, waggling his antennas. This time, the ant's antennas waggled, too. It turned around in the tunnel and began to race toward the queen's room. In the queen's room, ants were scurrying frantically. Some carried eggs. They were all leaving. Their ant rushed out with the others. "Holy moly, Thudd!" said Andrew. "What did you tell them?" "Make big danger smell!" said Thudd. Andrew saw a dot of light ahead. Their ant was scrambling up the tunnel that led outside. Andrew turned off his flashlight and clipped it back on to his belt loop. "We've got to get off this ant!" said Andrew. "Without getting stomped by the other ants," said Judy.

The ant's head popped out of the anthill. Andrew took a big breath of fresh air. Ants were trailing out into the garden. Andrew and Judy tugged themselves away from the sticky mealybug. Their ant was skittering over a rock. The ground below was covered with brown teacup-shaped things. They were half the size of the ant, but they were big enough to be swimming pools for Andrew and Judy. At the bottom of each cup were shiny black blobs. Andrew pointed to the strange cups. "We can jump into one of those. We'll be safe there until the ants go by," he said. Judy nodded. meep… "Okey-dokey," said Thudd, "as long as no rain happen." "It's sunny!" said Andrew. He jumped off the mealybug. Judy followed. Andrew and Judy drifted down into one of the cups. They landed on one of the shiny black blobs. It was sticky.

meep… "Land in cannon fungus," said Thudd. "Cannon fungus?" said Andrew. "Why do they call it that?" "Aaaaaack!" they heard Mrs. Scuttle scream. "I'm soaking wet! Drop that water gun right now, you little beast!" "Nuh-uh!" Jeremy Snarfless answered loudly. He gave a nasty laugh. Splaaaaat! A big drop of water splashed into the cannon fungus. "Oop! Oop! Oop!" said Thudd. "Hang tight!" The next instant, the blob, with Andrew and Judy and Thudd on top of it, flew out of the cup!

They whizzed up through the leaves. It was like riding a rocket! "Yaaaargh!" yelled Andrew. "Yeow!" yelled Judy. meep… "That why it called cannon fungus," said Thudd. "Black blob filled with baby fungus spores. When cannon fungus get wet, shoot blob into air so baby fungus find place to live!" "Zip it, Thudd!" hollered Judy. The little blob paused, then began to fall!