by Jack Patton
Max put his thoughts aside and pitched in with the preparations, but whenever he could, he climbed up to the battlements and looked out over the forest. As night fell, Max peered into the distance and Alexis floated up by his side.
“Still thinking about the Dracos?”
“I can’t stop,” Max said. “In fact, I think we should go on a quick scouting mission.”
“If that’s what you need to cheer yourself up, sure.”
Max and Alexis slipped away, leaving the noise and excitement of the bug camp behind them. They headed out to the tree line, where web lines had been laid to trip up any reptile invaders that came over land. Then they flew past the first of the huge trees, which looked ghostly in the moonlight.
“See anything?” Alexis asked.
“Not so far,” said Max. “Let’s head on a bit farther.”
Up ahead was a crooked, ancient-looking tree draped in vines. It was full of gaping holes where branches had broken off long ago.
“Just a little farther,” he said to Alexis. “I think we’re getting close to—”
“Close to this!” hissed a voice from above and behind.
In the next second, sharp claws gripped Max. He went tumbling off Alexis’s back and down into the leaves. The Draco lizard had swept down as silently as a ninja.
Max fought, but there were more lizards swarming out of the old tree. They pinned him down. Nearby, Alexis had met the same fate.
All he could do was struggle as one lizard came swaggering up to him. It was the one they had fought with before—the one who they had cornered, and who had escaped.
“How nice to see you again.” He grinned. “I am Captain Drax. And you have flown right into my trap!”
Drax and his Draco lizards used the decaying tree as their base. Lizard sentries crouched down at the tips of the branches, hiding among the leaves, keeping a lookout.
Max watched, helpless, as two burly lizards bit lengths of vine free and used them to tie his hands and feet. Then they went to work on Alexis.
“Leave him alone!” Max yelled.
“Make us.” The lizards grinned. They wrapped vines around Alexis’s wings. Max could only watch as the butterfly struggled in vain.
“Earlier on, you wanted me to talk,” Captain Drax gloated. “I wasn’t in the mood then. But now, I’m feeling pretty chatty. But we’ll have to make it quick. Our allies, the birds, will be coming to fetch you and your butterfly companion soon.”
Max felt terror grip him as tightly as the vines that held him prisoner.
“Take him to the topmost branches!” Drax ordered. “When the birds come, they’ll find him all ready for them.”
The lizards dragged Max up and up, all the way to the very highest branch of a tree. They dragged Alexis over to a second tree and began to hoist him up that one.
“We’re keeping you prisoners separate,” grunted a lizard, “so you don’t get any funny ideas about escaping.”
Captain Drax tied Max to a slim branch that hung a long way above the forest floor. “Break the branch or slip your bonds, and you’ll fall all the way down,” the lizard said.
They left him alone, laughing all the while. Max craned his neck around, trying to see where Alexis had gone. He spotted a brief shimmer of blue among the branches of the neighboring tree—too far away to reach, even if he’d been untied.
Max wracked his brain to think of some clever way out of this jam. Nothing came to mind. As Max lay there, stuck to the flimsy branch, he overheard the whining voices of lizards down below.
The Draco lizards were swaggering around, overjoyed with their success. “Can you believe it?” hissed one of them. “Who cares that we didn’t take down the watchtower when we’ve captured Max himself!”
“We never meant to take down the watchtower,” snarled a bigger lizard.
Max pricked up his ears.
“So, why’d we attack it, then?” the smaller lizard asked.
“To make the bugs think the watchtower was the target, that’s why. If they knew what our real target was, they’d come after us in a wingbeat.”
Max lay very still in the moonlight and tried to breathe as quietly as he could. Keep talking, he thought. Don’t mind me.
Suddenly, a different voice interrupted. “What are you scaly beasts gossiping about?” Captain Drax snapped.
“This soldier doesn’t understand his orders,” sneered the big Draco lizard.
Captain Drax took a deep breath through his nostrils. It sounded like he was about to breathe fire on his troops.
“Very well, let’s go over it again.” He seethed. “Tomorrow, during the bug parade, our bird allies will snatch General Barton and take him to Reptile Island. Our job is to keep the insects busy and draw their attention away, so the birds can make a surprise attack. Have you all got that?”
“Yes, sir,” came the response from the gathered lizards.
“Good!”
Suddenly, Max realized the extent of the lizards’ plan. “I’ve got to get out of here,” he whispered to himself. “Barton is in danger!”
He looked down at the dizzying drop below him. The tree he was in was old and probably dead, so the weaker branches should break. He could bounce the branch up and down until it snapped, but then how would he survive the fall?
Suddenly, something tickled the back of his neck.
He jerked away in panic. “Get off me!”
Max expected to see a lizard trying to take a sneaky bite out of him. But it wasn’t a lizard. Max was staring at a small, dark beetle, peeking out from a hole in the branch.
“Keep your voice down,” it whispered. “I’m here to help.”
Excitement gripped Max. “You’re a deathwatch beetle!”
“Yes!” The beetle bowed. “Let me introduce myself. I am Grim. I’m going to get you out of here!”
Max remembered that deathwatch beetles were a kind of wood-boring beetle. In their larval stage, they ate their way through decaying wood. As adults, they were known to make a ticking noise by banging their heads against wooden surfaces.
“Hold still,” the beetle whispered. “I’ll get rid of those vines.”
Max didn’t move a muscle as Grim clambered over his body. He listened intently. From somewhere nearby came the hissing sound of lizard voices. Then there was the low, steady munching of Grim chewing through his bonds, and the tickle of his legs as he scurried over him. After only a few minutes, the tight grip on his wrists loosened. Max tugged one hand free and held on tightly to the branch. Grim kept munching, and with a sudden snap, the last of the vines went tumbling silently down to the forest floor.
“Now follow me,” Grim said. “Don’t make a sound.”
Max inched back along the branch toward the tree trunk. His knee broke a twig off with a crack. The sound of lizard voices suddenly stopped.
Max pressed himself flat down on the tree branch so he wouldn’t be seen.
“What was that?” muttered one of the lizards.
“It’s probably just one of the deathwatch beetles ticking away inside this old tree,” said another. “Rotten old thing is infested with them.”
Phew, thought Max.
At the end of the branch was a tiny hole leading into the tree. Grim led the way and Max wiggled through behind him. It smelled of musty, damp wood. Max prayed he wouldn’t sneeze.
“Welcome to my home,” Grim said.
“I can’t see a thing in here!” Max whispered.
“Not to worry. Just put your hand on my shell and follow me down. If we get separated, I’ll make a ticking noise so you can find me again.”
Max set off on a strange, blind journey through complete darkness. He shuffled along behind Grim, down through the winding tunnels that the deathwatch beetles had eaten away through the dead wood.
It wasn’t long before the ticking began. Max knew that deathwatch beetles made their tick-tock noise to attract mates, but he hadn’t expected to hear it from all around, deafeningly loud.
To keep his mind focused in the dark and the confusion, he thought of Barton, who still had no idea of the attack that was coming. And he kept his hand firmly on Grim’s bobbing back.
Most of the time, his feet pressed against soft, rotting wood, but more than once he stepped on something squishy.
“Eep!” yelped something below him.
“Please be careful of the larvae,” Grim said.
“Sorry!” Max said.
“That’s my family you’re stepping on,” groused another beetle.
I wish Glower was here to light the way, Max thought. Or Roxy. Grim doesn’t seem to understand humans can’t see in near darkness!
To his relief, Max finally caught sight of the moonlit forest again, through a gaping hole between the tree roots.
“Freedom,” he whispered. “Thanks, Grim. I owe you big time.”
“I’m just doing my part,” Grim said modestly.
Max turned to leave—and then a thought struck him. He might be free, but Alexis wasn’t.
He needed to warn Barton. With every second that passed, dawn was drawing closer. With the dawn, the birds would come.
But if he ran to find Barton now, he’d be abandoning Alexis to his fate … He had to do something, now.
Max thought about how Alexis had saved his life by catching him in mid-air, and made up his mind.
“We can’t leave yet, Grim. Alexis is trapped in that tree up there. We have to rescue him.”
“Of course! Never leave a bug behind. That’s the Battle Bug motto.” Grim paused. “I think we’ll need a few more of us, in case there’s trouble. I’ll go get the rest of my family.”
Grim vanished inside the dead tree. Within minutes, he came back out again, followed by two more deathwatch beetles. Then three more after that. Then six, then eight. Max looked on, astonished, as a scuttling flood of little beetles emptied out of the tree. There must be hundreds of them, he thought.
“Deathwatch clan ready!” Grim said with a smart salute.
“Grim, when you said you’d get your family, I didn’t think you meant your whole family!”
The beetles poured up the tree where Alexis was being held prisoner. Two of them carried Max between them. It was like he was surfing on a giant wave of beetles.
Luckily, it was easy to spot the butterfly, even at night. His wide blue wings could be seen from far away. One of them fluttered weakly, as if it had been injured.
Max warned Grim to look out for lizard guards, but they didn’t seem to have posted any.
“It looks like the lizards thought you were the more valuable prisoner,” Grim said.
The moment they reached Alexis, Max went to untie him. “How badly are you hurt?” he asked anxiously.
“Not at all,” Alexis said, fluttering his wings. “I just pretended I was to fool those lizards.”
“So we can fly out of here?”
“Yes. Max, these reptiles are a menace. I’ve changed my mind. I’m not going back to my glade after all. I’m going to take you back to camp and stay to fight.”
“That’s great!” Max cheered.
Just then, a roar of rage went up from the old decayed tree where the lizards were based.
“Looks like they’ve noticed you’re missing,” said Alexis.
The lizards launched themselves from the neighboring tree, one by one. They whizzed through the air like deadly little darts, scrambling over the branches with frightening speed.
“You’d better get going, fast,” Grim said. “No time for good-byes. Warn Barton.”
Max threw his leg over Alexis’s back. “Thanks for everything, Grim. I owe you one.”
As Alexis flew, his powerful wings beat so fast that Max had to hang on for dear life.
“There they are!” a lizard behind them called. Max grimaced. Once again, Alexis’s striking colors had made him easy to spot, but this time it had worked against them.
Now that the lizards knew where to go, the entire troop of them came after Max and Alexis in a hissing storm. From branch to branch they zipped, clung, and flew again.
Alexis was only just keeping ahead of them. Max glanced back and saw the lizards were closing in fast. Any moment now, they’d catch up, and Max’s only chance to warn Barton would be lost.
“Can you fly any faster?” he yelled.
“I’m going as fast as I can!” Alexis gasped. “We butterflies are built for agility, not speed.”
Max thought of all the butterflies he’d ever seen fluttering gracefully around the flowers in Grandpa Mike’s garden. Maybe that agility could help them now.
“I’ve got an idea. Head over to the web barricades.”
“Are you serious? We barely made it through last time.”
“Trust me,” Max urged.
Alexis changed course. The lizards veered around to follow and were back in hot pursuit. Soon, the cloudy gray shapes of spider webs appeared, marking the edge of the trapped area.
“Here we go,” Alexis said grimly. “Hold on tight.”
The brave butterfly zipped through the first hole in the web, darted up, and powered through a second gap.
“Can’t stop!” howled a lizard from behind them. Max looked back to see it struggling to turn and reach the hole in time. It missed. The lizard crashed headlong into many sheets of sticky web. He hung there, helpless, looking like a sticky rubber toy that’d been thrown against a window.
The other lizards were more careful. Three of them made it through the first hole and grabbed onto a branch, preparing to leap and glide again.
Alexis bobbed and swerved, threading through the smallest gaps he could find. The lizards tried to follow, but one of them couldn’t even pull his legs off the sticky branch, while the other two messed up their glides and tumbled down into the soft, gluey webs.
Like lizards landing in cotton candy, Max thought.
One by one, the Draco lizards got caught in the webs. They were fierce, but not a single one of them could match Alexis’s flying skill. By the time Max and Alexis flew out of the last of the web traps, only one Draco lizard was still following: Captain Drax.
“Looks like you’re all out of barricades, human,” Drax snarled. He swooped toward them.
Max leaned away at the last possible second, and Drax sailed past overhead. The lizard banked around in flight and came back for another pass.
Max looked down, wondering where they were. He saw familiar-looking blooms in scarlet, blue, and gold, along with several pairs of toothy green jaws. “The Forbidden Glade!” he cried.
“Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse,” Alexis wheezed. The butterfly was running out of steam.
Max could think of only one thing to try. If it failed, both he and Alexis were doomed.
“I’ve got an idea, but it’s dangerous,” he said.
“Do it!”
Drax swept past again, drawing closer this time.
Max guided Alexis low to the ground, toward the gaping jaws of a Venus flytrap plant. They flew closer until they were almost within reach of its green mouth.
Max glanced behind them. Drax was incoming.
“Ha!” Drax gloated. “My lizard-born strength is greater than yours, human. Prepare to be eaten!”
Drax hurtled toward them on a collision course. His mouth gaped wide. But the Venus flytrap was gaping even wider.
Alexis flew between the open jaws. His legs almost brushed the trigger hairs. Then Max signaled Alexis to change direction suddenly, swooping up just before Drax caught them.
Drax realized, too late, that he’d been tricked. He tried to fly up, but the angle was too steep and he belly flopped into the Venus flytrap’s open mouth.
He wiggled and twisted around, desperate to escape, and crashed into the trigger hairs.
The jaws began to close.
“Noooo!” Drax howled, but it did no good. The jaws clamped shut, trapping him inside.
Faintly, in the far distance, Max heard the thunder of hundreds of birds’ w
ings rising to fill the sky.
“I think our problems may only just be beginning,” said Alexis. “Look. The sun’s rising.”
“We need to warn Barton. Let’s go!” Max cried.
Soon, they reached the bug parade ground, an open square that seemed to be bigger than a football field. It was surrounded with burrows and little mounds. Bugs of all kinds were gathered in groups, forming into squares and lines, practicing for the parade.
The air above the ground was crowded, too. Wasps, hornets, and bees zipped past one another, showing off their flying skills. Flies circled in huge swarms. Max could hardly see a thing through it.
“I don’t see Barton anywhere,” Alexis said.
“Bring us down near the scorpions, then, so I can find Spike,” Max told Alexis.
When the pair of them landed at the edge of the bug parade ground, the bugs looked at them in amazement.
“What happened to you guys?” asked an ant. “Barton’s been looking for you, Max.”
Spike was parading with his friends in the scorpion division. As soon as he saw Max land, he broke formation and barged through the bug ranks to reach him.
“Little buddy! Where have you been?”
“It’s a long story,” Max said. “No time to explain. Where’s Barton?”
Spike jabbed his stinger at a mound of earth in the middle of the square. A swarm of bees bustled in the air above it. “He’s supposed to give his speech from up there in five minutes. The Elite Bee Guard is doing a flyby.”
Max climbed onto Spike’s back and they tried to push through the masses of bugs to reach the hill.
It was slow going. The parade ground was just too crowded. Insects and arachnids from all across Bug Island covered every bit of ground. With the IAF practicing above, there was no way to fly straight there, either.
“Sorry about this,” Spike said to the bugs in front of him. “COMING THROOOOOUGH!”
With that, he charged. He went through the smaller bugs like a snowplow, sending them flying to the left and right. Bugs yelled, buzzed, and squealed in annoyance, but Spike ignored them.
General Barton crawled up to the top of the hill and looked down on the gathered bug crowds. “My fellow bugs, large and small, we are assembled here today for one important purpose …”