Fly Frenzy Read Online Free Page B

fat fangs out of her mouthparts.
    â€œNo,” admitted Josh.
    Danny shut his eyes.
    â€œBut they will!” Josh yelled.
    There was a crunching noise.
    Danny opened his eyes just in time to see the spider’s last leg disappearing into the furry face of . . .
    â€œSCRATCH!” he yelled, joyfully. “SNIFF!” he added, just as joyfully. Another furry face appeared. Two giant brown rats were now peering at him with great concern. The last time he and Josh had met Scratch and Sniff, the rats had saved their lives. It looked as if it was becoming a habit!
    â€œCareful now,” said Scratch. “It’s pretty delicate work, picking silk off a fly without picking the legs off with it. Normally we just eat flies still wrapped.”

    Danny hiccuped in fright. “Oh, don’t be silly—I’m teasing you,” laughed Scratch. “We don’t eat flies. We and flies have a bond! Humans hate ’em as much as us! And all rats and flies do is tidy things up, you know. Clear up the gooey stuff that you don’t want lying around. Nah. We get along all right, rats and flies. Want me to get a swarm together and have them attack that Petty Potts for you? Ow—this stuff is sticky!”

    â€œOh, move over! Let me!” said his wife. Sniff leaned over. She carefully began to unwind the silk with her delicate, long-nailed fingers.
    Josh landed next to them. “You gobbled that spider in one munch!” he marveled. “I thought you two said you never ate spiders . . . the last time we met.”
    â€œWell, dear,” said Sniff, still carefully unraveling Danny. “We were being polite. You were both spiders yourselves at the time.”
    â€œDon’t really like ’em much,” said Scratch. He picked a bit of thorax out of his teeth with a cough. “But can’t have one of ’em eating an old friend, can we?”
    â€œWhat are you both doing here?” asked Josh.
    â€œOh, just doing our rounds, love,” said Sniff.
    â€œAlways worth popping in when she’s making cakes. We heard a bit of a to-do in here. We recognized your voices!”
    â€œThank you so much!” sighed Josh. “I thought Danny was done for this time.”
    â€œWell, he will be, if you hang around here much longer,” said Scratch. He cast his beady eyes around the dark cave behind the sofa. “Plenty more spiders where that one came from. How come you let that mad scientist catch you and spray you again?”
    â€œWe didn’t—I mean—we decided to spray ourselves, this time,” said Danny. He got back up on his six feet and carefully flexed his wings.
    â€œYou must be stark-staring bonkers,” said Sniff. She shook her head with a quiver of whiskers. “You nearly got eaten last time. And here you are nearly getting eaten again! Didn’t you learn your lesson?”
    Danny and Josh quickly explained their mission.
    â€œSo,” said Scratch, “let me get this straight. You let Petty Potts turn you into flies so you could rescue some bits of twig for your mom?”
    â€œWell . . . sort of,” said Josh. He had to admit that it now seemed like a fairly silly idea. “We wanted to find out if they cut off Mom’s birds. Now we know Tarquin cut the birds off. And now we’ve found them here, Mom might still be able to wire the twigs back on again if we can get them back.”
    â€œWhat—those bits of twigs that they’re picking up and pulling apart now?” checked Scratch.
    â€œNO!” shouted Josh and Danny, together.
    â€œYou’ve got to stop them! Please!” begged Josh. “We’re too tiny to make any difference! Can you both create a distraction?”
    Scratch and Sniff looked at each other, shrugged, and then ran out across the carpet.
    â€œEeeeek, eeeeek,” said Scratch in a rather bored voice. Mrs. Sharpe whirled around, looked down, and began to shriek with