The Giant Forest - COMPLETED - True to life adventures of preteens.

What I Hate Comes to Rescue

28 - Back from the Dead ... Sorta

"Daddy always said, 'Cheer up. It can always be worse.'"Aimi said shivering ... both from cold and revulsion. She got goosebumps.

"He told me that silly joke so many times. 'They told me to cheer up it could be worse. So, I cheered up and sure enough things got worse.' Which he followed up with a big belly laugh. My daddy likes to laugh. Who doesn't? Right? I wish he were here to laugh with me now.

"Here I am lost in the woods, at night, getting colder by the minute, nearly drowned, talking to myself and being saved by what I thought were, but now hoped were Lilliputians, only to have discovered that they are BUGS!!!" I HATE BUGS! I HATE BUGS!!!"

Aimi looked down into a stream that was feeding into the ocean that had tried to gulp her down. In the stream were more beetles than she could count.

"What happened? Did you guys get lost after the 5th, or was it the 6th plague of Egypt and end up here? Is this where you came when Moses sent you away? I have never seen so many beetles in one place. Help! Rescue me!!!

"Uh ... Wait! It can't be. Was it you guys who ... no, that couldn't be. Or was it? How is that possible? How could you?

"You touched me?!!? When I wasn't watching? Eeeewww! Yuck!!

"And, why am I talking to bugs? And why ain't, um, aren't I more grateful to you guys for saving my life? Did you? How could you? How can I give credit to something so small with a history of feeding off of other dead things for saving ....." she didn't want to finish her sentence, "... me!?"

It was becoming clear to Aimi that the army of bugs she was staring at, martialed their efforts and pulled her from 'Ariel Land.' Ariel land was what Aimi called the place beneath the sea. One of her favorite princesses lived there. The irony was not lost to Aimi. Something, a mermaid, that Aimi loves is known to entice its victims into the sea, then drown them. Here was something she hated who had saved her from becoming a victim of the sea.

"Take me to your leader!" Aimi said in her best smart-alecky way. She raised her hand as if to salute. But her palmed faced forward instead of downward at an angle which is the correct way and she ended up looking stupid. Thankfully there was no one there to criticize her.

The beetles ignored her. Instead, the army unit of bugs created a V-shaped swarm and started motoring upstream in the direction of the small point of the V and away from the beach where Aimi had been dragged.

Aimi pondered out loud, "Are you guys wanting me to follow you in that direction?" Then caught herself. "Well, no, stupid. Forming a 'V' is the best way for them to make progress well when swimming against the stream."

The swarm stopped as if swimming in place. From the outer edges of the group several bugs took flight.

"That's cool! You guys can swim in formation. I know you can dive. You can also fly?! You're like a full-fledged US Navy unit, aren't you. How cool!

"Roger, roger. Scarlett, you go to enormous girl's north side, I'll take the south. Maybe we can direct the behemoth to follow." Aimi pretended she was in the cockpit of a plane shaped like one of the beetles and was talking to the leader of the other formation ... using her imaginary I-am-a-pilot voice

Aimi changed her voice to make it as deep as possible, "Roger, roger. Acknowledge. Heading south. Scarlett out."

Aimi chuckled. "Imagine these guys thinking I am a giant just because I am bigger than they are. I am not a giant. I am just bigger than they are. Of course, I reckon anything that is much bigger than I am, I would think is a giant, too. Hmm ..."

Beetles gyrated on both sides near both ears. Aimi reached out to swat them away, then stopped just before causing them any harm. She also forgot to cry out her usually over-exaggerated "EEEwww, I hate bugs!"

"Maybe I should keep these guys, one formation on the left, the other on the right and follow this V. But who would be stupid enough to follow bugs in the dark?"

"No!" A voice came out of the darkness.

"Roci?!" Aimi cried out in response.

"Did you guys hear that? Was that ... ? Could that be? Is it possible that Roci is out here in the woods, too?" Aimi asked secretly hoping that the bugs could and also couldn't talk back.

"I am sure I heard ...," her voice trailing off.

Aimi determined her new buf friends were whirligig beetles. And since they were her lifesavers she decided to call them the Cherry and Lime formations.

"Pretty clever of me," wide-opened mouth she laughed to herself by the names she thought up. She followed with an unexpected hacking cough and spitting.

"Did I swallow a ...? Did I just swallow the leader of the Lemon formation?

"Yuck! I'll stop talking now. After you!"

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