Myrmidone was brought to General Tar. Without losing sight of the princess, he told the six messenger-locusts aligned in front of him: "Go to Bud and let them know that Myrmidone will be freed in exchange of two…" he weighed the queen again with his eyes a little bit before continuing, "…no, let's make it four apple orchards."
The queen spoke arrogantly and scornfully, while chewing: "You should make a more realistic proposition, since my caterpillars know better than giving up their land in exchange for a queen."
"Shut up, grub!" said General Tar.
This was a terrible insult. Myrmidone became very furious and spat her gum in the generalls face, which was now covered in a sticky, hard-to- remove mask.
The lady locusts, stupefied, commented that Myrmidone “is so vain that she cannot fit in her own skin." They did not imagine how true their statement was, though.
To soften the glue, Tar had to sit with his face facing the fire while the servants were pulling his beard and shaving him with a razor blade. Myrmidone was transferred to the Orange Tower, where she was fed just one leaf and one drop of water an hour. When they brought the food, the executioner-locusts also entered the room, together with three soldier-locusts that were pinning Monarch butterflies to the wall with needles, and Myrmidone was spitting gum on their faces or showing them her very long tongue.
Myrmidone sat by the table on a chair, her back to the pierced butterflies, for four hours straight. The locusts were talking to her, but she didn't even turn her head. "What happened to her that she doesn't spit at us anymore?” the executioner and the soldiers wondered.
