The Haunted (ant) the Hunted!

It was morning once again, and the sun was shining through the trees in the forest of Thailand. The ants of Aaranya anthill, situated just at the edge of the forest, were already foraging for food, while stopping at intervals to talk about where food could be found. But Aroon the ant was feeling very strange thatday. He felt sick. He didn’t want to go out at all. But what would the other ants say?

‘Being sick’ was a joke. His leader often said, “Only humans fall sick. Lazy creatures!” Ants eitherlived or died- If you lived, you worked non-stop, and if you died, it was because you were stomped todeath or eaten up by a larger animal. As he hurried out unwillingly to finish his daily chores, he wondered what could have made him sick.

He had eaten some strange looking reddish-grey spores the previous day. Was that it?

As he went on, he found himself becoming more and more disoriented. He couldn’t walk straight. Hisfriends Lilly and Chaisee were coming from the opposite direction. “Hi Aroon”, they said, waving. All of a sudden, Aroon felt a a strange force control him and he rushed forward to greet them, with a huge smile, “Hellooooo friendsss…”. He bumped into them, knocked them down and went on in his crazy way.

Lilly and Chaisee were puzzled. Aroon hardly spoke to them otherwise, and here he was being overfriendly. “What’s wrong with him?” wondered Chaisee. “Looks like he’s gone mad!” said Lilly. Aroon meanwhile, had strayed away from his regular trail and was heading into the forest. He was feeling fuzzy, and puzzled about his own behaviour. Why had he spoken like that? Was this how humans behaved when they were drunk? He knew he was going the wrong way.

But he couldn’t stop himself. Some unknown force inside his head guided him deeper and deeper into the forest. He had heard of ghosts in the forests of Thailand. “Is this some spirit or ghost possessing me?” he wondered. But he couldn’t think anymore. Surrounded by huge trees, plants and moss, he felt happy, at peace.. all he wanted now was to find a leaf.

He looked around and saw a big, healthy green leaf on the lower branch of a tree. He headed happily towards it, as if remote-controlled, his mind no longer his own. He climbed onto it, settled himself at the centre, and dug his mouth into the leaf’s vein. As the sucked the juices from the leaf slowly, his mind blanked out. Nothing mattered anymore. Three weeks passed. Aroon had not returned to the anthill. Lilly was worried.

“Let’s look for him, Chaisee”, she said. “He must have lost his way in the forest”, Chaisee remarked, and both headed towards the forest. Deep inside, they searched frantically for him. “Look, there he is, hanging onto that leaf!” cried Chaisee. But when they went closer, Lilly let out a gasp of horror. Aroon was dead, and growing out of his head was a long tube like structure. “Run!” cried Lilly. But before they could run, the strange tube burst and showered reddish-gray spores all over them…..

By:Sneha Verghese