Chapter 2--CATTAIL ALLEY

 

Hector Spittle and his brother BoBart, Bart for short, were two of the ugliest archerfish in the swamp. They had a nasty reputation for spitting prey off the cattails and once they got an eye on a bug, they never missed. Before a wet insect could swim to safety from the pond, the boys gobbled them up. They had big, bulging eyes, brown and yellow speckled skin and fat lips that molded spit like bullets. Hector had the ability to shoot multiple times like a machine gun at a bounty of prey. With one mouth full of water, he could knock down an entire gathering of mayflies.

Bart Spittle lost an eye during a fight with an eel. He had knocked a plump cicada into the swamp one day and the eel beat him to it, or so the story went. The eel used its tail to slash him across the face and the eye went dead like a broken headlight. He was still just as deadly an aim as ever though, it only takes one eye to spot a victim.

From the edge of a leaf, Felix could see the Spittle brothers swimming his way. He remembered them back while he was in the egg. They had called him a runt but that did not stop them from trying to eat him, then. Luckily, they spotted several juicy tadpoles and began chasing them instead.

“Hector and Bart are coming, we have to get to the top of the cattail were they can’t reach us,” Felix said.

Lily started her wings a humming. Selma did too but they appeared too frightened to fly.

Slink-slink, slink-slink.

The noise grew closer and closer and then it stopped with one loud Ker-slunk. High on the stalk above, the noisy creature sat watching.

It was difficult for Felix to see her at first. Her green skin blended well against the reeds. She looked nothing like the insects he had seen before and it was not much larger than Selma and Lily. She had pale green hair like straw, ruby colored lips and shaped like an inchworm from what he could tell. A little blue dress hid most of her segmented body.

Selma flew a short circle toward the creature. “Lucy…Lucy Lacewing? Is that you hiding up there?”

“Get away from there girl, the Spittle boys are coming,” Lucy said.

Indeed, Hector and Bart were not far away now and they began to swim faster.

Felix had his wings started when Lily began to push from below. Together they buzzed to the top of the cattail and burrowed into the soft brown catkin top.

Lucy followed with a slink, slink, slink.

Hector spat bullets, but they fell short, landing with a thump and a thud, against the green cattail stalk below.

“I is gonna get you one day, little runt,” Hector yelled.

“Yes we is,” Bart said and then gave a wink from his scratched-out eye.

“That was close,” Lucy said. “You better grow out those wings, or next time they will catch you.”

The view over the pond amazed little Felix. The tops of the cattail looked like brown warriors marching in rows. He could see that it was a long way to the snake grass and half the day was already gone. At this rate, it would take months to get across the pond and by that time, the summer would end.

“What happened to your gossamer wings?” Selma asked Lucy.

Lucy gave a short chortle and then began combing the strange things attached where her wings should have been. “I was minding my business, dining on a nest of delicious aphid eggs when along hopped Filbert the green speckled frog. Now what business does a frog have licking his lips at little ol’ me, I asked myself at the time. Then he shot that dirty tongue of his, right out of his mouth.”

“Oh my dear,” Lily gasped.

“Yup... that’s right. I turned to flutter away but not quick enough. The tongue stuck to my wings and then he began to reel me in,” Lucy said and then she gave Felix a stern glare.

“How did you escape?” Felix asked.

Lucy scrunched her funny little nose and then wrinkled her giant lips until they looked like red-colored prunes. “Well, I gripped deep into the bark of a tree and fought like the devil. Clawing and scraping, I even used my mouth, biting a hold onto the wood. Filbert fought too, sinking his webbed toes into the mud and jerking hard. The tug-o-war ended when my wings detached. Then, he swallowed them down and started to turn blue.”

“Blue?”

“Yes indeedy. Why an old frog like that doesn’t know Lacewings are poisonous was beyond me. He must have been starving that day.”

“What happened to Filbert?”

“He croaked of course,” Lucy said. She batted her eyes and then began to laugh.

“That is such a shame…you had the most beautiful wings,” Selma said.

“Once Filbert swelled up like a balloon, I got a few beetle friends to help me with the body. We rolled him onto his back and then pushed him into the swamp, where he floated like a raft. I made a paddle with a flat stick and jumped on his swollen belly. Then, I rowed to his house in the mud near the nettles. That’s where I found these curtains in his home,” Lucy said. “They’re not perfect but I get around all right. I figured he wasn’t going to need them any longer,” She added with a snort.

Felix looked up to Lucy with his big blue eyes and said, “Maybe I could find a set of curtains to get across the pond.”

“With a body that small, I’m afraid they’ll weigh you down and you’ll be frog bait.”

Selma began shaking her head. “He’s frog bait now,” she said. “How I got stuck with him and his crazy twin, I’ll never know.”

Felix lowered his head and rolled his thumbs a few times. The way Selma talked about his sister made him feel sad. “You’re free to go anytime.”

Selma flapped hard dislodging a few cattail seeds. “Oh no, no…not without a swarm. I missed the last swarm while hovering over you.”

“Why wait for a swarm?”

“What…were your born yesterday?”

“Yes, around ten p.m. as a matter of fact.”

Selma continued to flap, now fluttering a circle around the top of the catkin. “That’s what Mosquitoes do. We swarm and that’s how we get across the pond. The weaker ones fly on the outskirts of the swarm, to draw off attackers. It’s a part of nature that only the strongest survive.”

Felix tried to swallow the lump building in his throat but it continued to grow. “That is so unfair,” he managed to say.

“Well fry me up a basket of nymphs and call them chicken,” Lucy interrupted. “If you’re going to catch a swarm this late in the summer, you’ll have to get to the outpost on the edge of cattail alley. You better hurry though, storms a coming.”

Selma’s wings stopped humming and she glided silently onto the catkin. “Are you coming with me?” she said to Lily.

Lily grabbed Felix by his wee hand and gave it a squeeze. “I’m sticking with my brother,” she said.

“Fine,” Selma said and then she flew off in a buzz.

“She’s right you know, you need to find the swarm,” Felix said.

Lily turned with her loving eyes and smiled. “We can do this.”

Lucy dug at her teeth dislodging what looked to be the barb from an Aphid’s leg. She wiped it on the collar of her dress near two similar stains. “I’ll go with you as far as I can...you never know I might find a few snacks along the way.”

Felix eyed the first of the cattails and started flapping his wings. He took a running start and leaped into the air. A second later, he landed safely back on the same catkin top only on the other side.

The curtain rings began to slink again as Lucy walked toward Felix. “I don’t think this is going to work sonny, unless you get those wings fired up.”

“I’m afraid they’re just too small,” Felix said. About then, a bee buzzed past with the smallest wing on a great round body he had ever seen.

Lily apparently also saw the bee. “How does he do it…how does that bee fly with such small wings?” she asked.

“I suppose he doesn’t know any better,” Lucy said. “Most bees have small wings and shouldn’t be able to fly but they do.”

A spark of hope filled Felix heart. He started flapping his wings again until they hummed loud and then set for the nearest stalk. After a successful landing, he began to jump. “I did it, I did it,” he shouted. “I really can fly!”

Lily joined him with a shout of her own. “I knew you could.”

After a short climb across the cattail, Felix prepared for his next flight. As he viewed the horizon, he saw hundreds of cattails and broke into a cold sweat. “We’ll never make it to the outpost tonight. I’ll be lucky to make it in a week.”

“Chin up, brother…take it one at a time,” Lily said.

Felix trusted Lily but feared he did not have her courage. “I just can’t—” he started.

Lily held a finger to her mouth and said, “Promise me you’ll try.”

Slink-slink, slink-slink.

“The day’s not going to wait, let’s get moving,” Lucy yelled.

Felix reached deep into his heart and mustered all the strength he had. After another successful jump and then another, he made his way across a few more cattails. About eight or so flights later, his energy began to wane and his wings began to weaken. His next flight failed and he fell down, down, down, finally landing on a springy leaf. That is when he discovered the strength of his legs.

“Follow me,” he yelled.

While Lily flew above, he ran leaf to leaf, jumping across the stalks where they linked. Some had small gaps but still he was able to make his way from one plant to the next.

Soon the sky turned gray and dark clouds rolled in like dirty cotton balls. The swamp became eerily quiet and nothing seemed to be moving. Little Felix came to rest on a sturdy leaf, nearly out of breath.

“I can’t go any further,” he said to Lily when she landed by his side.

Lily panted too. “It’s evening and I need to feed,” she said. “The cravings have begun.”

Lucy soon arrived. The noise from her curtain wings chased away an annoying bottle fly that had come to tease Felix.

“I told you there was a storm coming. Better settle in, you’ll never make it to the outpost tonight,” Lucy said. “As for me, I must go. I’ll send help if I can find it.”

Some time later, when no help came, Lily said she thought Lucy was going back for a nest of eggs they spotted a while back. Felix agreed.

Below the cattail where Felix and Lily stood, a critter moved about the swamp, nibbling on water chestnuts and tender sprouts.

“A swamp rat,” Lily squealed. “I love swamp rat.”

“Wait, be careful,” Felix said but she was already gone.

Not all mosquitoes drink blood for their meals. The girls do, but boys preferred sugary things like nectar from flowers and sweet fruit. For poor little Felix, there was nothing nearby.

Funny how thunder sounds like the growl of an empty stomach. Felix could now hear it off in the distance.

A few plump bees, giddy from the nectar of the water crocus they had collected, crashed onto a leaf nearby. They seemed in a rush to get back to their hive. One of them left behind a single drop of honey and when they were out of sight, Felix ran over to drink it. He stabbed the end of his snout into the droplet and began to suck, but the honey was too thick to draw up the siphon. A clever thought came to mind. He found a small puddle of evening dew, mixed it with the honey and when it thinned, he ate the meal.

The nectar tasted sweet and made him feel good inside. After his belly was full, he leaned against the stalk to rest.

A damp haze began to fill every crevasse in the swamp. It didn’t take long before the cattails a few yards away began to disappear one by one. When the smoky mist began to swallow up the leaf where he rested, He worried Lily would not make it back before dark.

“Lily, Lily can you hear me?” he cried but Lily did not answer.

Suddenly a flash of lightening stretched angry fingers across the sky. It made the only three hairs on Felix round head, straighten. When a clap of thunder followed and shook the leaf, the hairs then curled.

“Lily!” Felix yelled and yelled but more thunder drowned his voice.

He braced himself, taking shelter under a leaf, but there was no rain. It was a land lightening storm. There was a good chance it would set fire to the dry grasses in the swamp tonight.

“Please,” Felix whimpered. Just then, Lily appeared through the mist. The tip of her snout was red and so was her swollen tummy.

“Ahhh,” Lily said. “I just love swamp rat blood.” She plopped down next to Felix seemingly unaware of the storm crashing around.

“Aren’t you afraid the lightening will strike or the thunder, knock you into the pond?” Felix asked.

“No,” Lily said. She patted Felix on the head and smiled. “It makes me feel alive.”

He never imagined such a thing, but the powerful storm did make him feel alive, alive and frightened. Lily had just become the bravest person he knew, next to Delilah the seahorse. Oh, how he wished he could have told Delilah how grateful he felt for what she had done, but life rarely offers a second chance.

In a leaf hammock, they cuddled together and just before Felix dozed off he said, “I love you Lily…you’re the best sister in the world.”

“I love you too, Felix.”

At dawn, the mist had cleared but something new clouded the air, smoke.

Felix felt pain as he awoke and began to stretch. His legs and wings were still sore from the day before.

“Wakey, wakey, wakey, fires on the way—tweet.” The cowbirds voice startled him but that was nothing compared to the terror he felt when he discovered Lily was gone.

“Fly little friends, fly high and fast before you burn.”

Snap, snap, crunch! Snap, gulp.

“Lily,” Felix whispered.

“Shhh…I’m above you, under the leaf.”

He could not see her through the smoke but dare not move while the cowbird hunted. A flutter of wings stirred the haze as the bird flew away.

“Quickly,” Lily said and then dropped down beside him. “We have to get to the top of the stalk to see what’s going on.”

Up they climbed where the smoke turned thick. Felix began to gasp and he felt his lungs were about to catch fire.

Ash began to fall like grey flakes of snow, coating everything. It reminded Felix of what winter might look like, minus the cold. Nothing is safe from fire in the swamp, nothing above water, he figured.

“Lily, we have to go down,” Felix yelled. “Trust me, we have to get as close to the water as we can.”

Lily fought at first. “I’m not sure this is a good idea,” she said

“It will be safe there,” Felix insisted, tugging her by the hand. Down they went as fast as they could climb to where the air cleared a bit and breathing became easier.

“How did you know?” Lily asked.

“Instinct, I guess.” It was not instinct though. Felix just wanted to go where the air felt clearer and where he could breathe. On second thought, maybe it was instinct after all. Something had prompted him to imagine that water provided safety from fires. What ever it was, right now he was just happy that his eyes no longer stung.

“It will be too dangerous traveling so close to the water,” Lily said. “Hungry fish are likely to get us.”

“Not with the smoke blotting out the sun. Swamp fish follow shadows to catch their meals. Right now, we’re all but invisible.”

Felix’s wings felt stronger today. He was able to fly between several stalks at a time before taking a rest. He was right about the shadows as well. They flew over several fish, undetected, a few frogs as well.

The winds began to shift and as the smoke cleared, they made their way back to the top of a cattail to view the damage.

“We’re safe,” Lily said with a happy little dance. “The smoke came from the grasslands and not the pond.”

Fortune had favored them for now, Felix believed. Still, it was a long way to the outpost and the cattails were starting to grow further and further apart.