Ellen meets more ants. (Part 2 of Ellen and the Ants).

The dark, black night in the back yard was creepy to Ellen. She clung to Thea's hoodie jacket, as her fearless twin sister followed the trail of the ant force across the yard towards their father's garden shed. The moon was hiding behind some clouds, scudding against the stars.

"I do not like adventures, Thea. This was totally unexpected." Ellen moaned.

"Nothing to be scared about. They are only ants."

"But they might be dangerous."

Despite these protests, Ellen was used to following Thea. Now they were both following the ants, and Mia was also. Their cat warrior with girl power seemed fascinated by this roaming around the back yard. It was only nine o'clock. Ellen wanted to turn around and head indoors to her safe bedroom. She inwardly knew she should grow up a lot, and stop being such a baby. But she could not help being terrified and frightened by every new and strange thing.

Still, she was now in the team, so she tagged along. By their torchlight, the twins could see where a large hole had appeared right next to the door of the shed. Ellen was peeking behind Thea, as the leader ant stood practically upright, still waving its feelers at Ellen. She wondered what this might mean. Some of the ants were heading into the hole, and marching together. They looked as if they were disappearing into a roomy tunnel. Ellen was convincing herself that this was all only a bad dream, one of her worst nightmares come to life. She just knew Thea would go exploring.

Sure enough, Thea's next words were, "This is a challenge. I think the leader ant wants us to follow the ant army down here."

"No way! Never in a million years." Ellen could be stubborn, in between trying to escape from this situation.

The leader ant marched over to Ellen and patted her foot.

"Aww," said Thea, "It think it likes you." She too was puzzled by the bug behaviour. Mia, the picky eater, had crept to the edge of the hole. She was peeping into it, her fur standing on end.

"Maybe we can send Mia down there," Thea suggested.

"No way, they might eat her," Ellen tried to grab Mia, but her beloved cat sprang down into the gaping hole.

"Come back, Mia. Here, kitty, kitty!" But Mia did not turn back.

"Come on," said Thea, but softly, in case their parents heard this fuss. "We've got to rescue Mia."

Ellen wished she was back in her own bed, hiding under the covers.

"We can't go down there!" she told Thea, "Mum'll have a fit if we get our clothes messy and dirty."

"What's she going to say if we don't find Mia? Come on, she's our pet."

Still, Ellen hung back, too timid to chase Mia, the picky eater, into the black tunnel. Even their tent in the hushed backyard was looking better than this.

Suddenly, as Thea tried to drag Ellen into the large opening, the edges all crumbled. Giving way, the hole had taken the twins under ground. Ellen was more than frightened. The two girl power sisters had lost Mia, and now their clothes were all covered with soil. She had held onto her torch, and peered glumly up above.

Thea emerged from her pile of crumbling soil, and found her own torch.

"Now how are we going to get out of here?"

Ellen tried hard to think of an idea, she was usually quite good at thinking. This time she had no solution. The two girls stood up, making sure that they were not injured.

"Soft landing, anyway. Look, there's Mia hissing at that leader ant.'

Mia turned in front of the girl power team, and raised her tail behind her. The leader ant seemed to showing the twins a path through the tunnel, as it led them deep underground.

Bravely, Thea followed their family cat and the teams of ants, which all seemed to be tracking further into the gloomy, crumbling caves and passages. Ellen definitely did not want to be left behind, she knew she had to overcome her fears. She had wanted to be part of a team, be more like Thea, but not like this. Mia just would not come back, she was stalking off. But then, Ellen decided, cats always liked the evenings, chasing moths. She hoped there were no mice here, that would be the last they saw of Mia. Ellen could not imagine what their mother was going to do. The two girls had filthy faces, their clothes were dirty, their joggers were nearly black by now. They did not even have a bottle of water between them.

Ellen was torn between worrying about Mia, and how to rescue herself and Thea from this gloomy, gaping, widening hole in front of them. She did like reading adventure books to well as well as fairy stories, but this was all too extreme. She wanted to be brave and bold like Thea. Nonetheless, Ellen had always had always had a real fear of night and the dark.

All she could say was, " I think my torch is fading. Maybe we should turn off one of our lights here. But then it will be even blacker. I do not know if I can do this, Thea."

Thea turned off her torch, and tried to smile in the face of this mystery. "We have to bring back Mia. We can't let her wander off down there. Here, hold onto my shirt."

Thea took off her shirt, zipped up her hoodie, and made a sling rope for Ellen, to follow her lead. Ellen put one foot in front of the other, as the pair of twin sisters set off, slowly feeling their way along a trail that seemed to appear. The leader ant was still in front, Mia was trailing it. There were teams of bug eyed ants everywhere, all marching in their columns. The torchlight was barely showing the girls the crumbling soil, and a strange vibration was filling their ears.

"Do you think we'll get home?" Ellen asked, nervously.

"Yeah, come on, we can't get left behind." Thea replied.

So, this tale continues, to see where the ants were leading Ellen and Thea.....