Today was a perfectly fine day. Eli woke up from one of its numerous naps. This was the fifth since the sun had set, it must mean that dawn was not far away. All around Eli, workers were zooming around, some literally rushing, others were more dawdling than anything else. It didn’t matter, really. As long as the community as a whole was thriving, it didn’t matter who was hustling and who was simply happy to look around and go on strolls.
Shaking away the sleepiness, Eli started upward. They had slept in the biggest hub they had. Tunnels connected this hall in all directions, some going straight upward, others straight downwards. It had taken Eli a lot of time to understand how to get around this maze. Before learning how to see the lights, you could not navigate. One simply could not. Thankfully, other ants coming from the outside world were always easy to spot. They always emitted that yellow hue. You simply had to follow it and you’d make it outside.
Eli spotted one. They were emitting a vibrant yellow smoke. Eli rushed towards them, ready to follow the route that would lead to the outside world. So many stories were being told of the outside world, and so little was known of it, here, in the depths of the anthill. No one knew of its apparent beauty nor of its dangers. But Eli wanted to know. As Eli closed up on the ant coming from the outside, a creeping feeling came over them. This was no worker. This ant, this one ant that had been outside was a warrior. Eli had heard tales of warrior ants, but had never seen any up close. Their body was thrice Eli’s length, each of their mandibles were as big as Eli’s head and pure strength radiated from them. With a sense of wonder and excitement, Eli trotted past the warrior, and started rushing forwards. Today was the day, today finally they would go outside, see the world, go out of these tunnels. As they picked up the pace, Eli climbed over a slow worker and moved forward. After what seemed like forever, trails of yellow smoke started to appear more commonly. Warriors were known regularly patrolling the area. The outside must be close!
It happened before Eli realised it. A turn, then another, then up and–Eli stopped. They were barely aware that their entire body had started, as well to secrete an entire cloud of yellow smoke. This was the outside. It was so bright, so vast. Why were they living for so long in such a cramped space when this existed? Why hide when that was what the world had to offer? Beyond excited, Eli started forward and spotted a green light. A forager. Green lights meant that they had food to share. Knowing that this would probably be a long trip, Eli came up to them and after emitting some pink lights as greetings and blue ones as signals of hunger, the forager came up and kissed Eli. Well, obviously not kiss them in a romantic way. Ants were asexuals. No, what the forager did upon kissing is regurgitate an entire hour’s worth of harvest. When Eli wasn’t snatching food from workers carrying it from one place to another, regurgitation was a common way for them to get fed. As soon as the process finished, the forager went back out there to forage even more. Feeling rested, Eli decided to go explore; they had gone all this way already, hadn’t they? They were right, dawn had just started. The first rays of what must be the sun shone through the branches of pine trees, and the morning dew was starting to evaporate where the sun hit it. Eli rushed on a leaf and drank from a water bubble. How extraordinary. Eli had never tasted water first hand, but it was so refreshing and invigorating! From the leaf, Eli had an overview of the anthill. It was big. Ants were scurrying about in all directions and a firework of lights was exploding in front of Eli’s eyes. Pheromones all around, indicating happiness, worry, sadness, pain. All of it, all at the same time from this leaf. Having known the tunnels for all of their life, Eli had only experienced a much more toned-down display of emotions. Some ants obviously displayed more than others, but all the workers down there kept communications down to business, only secreting what they needed from others.
Turning around, Eli saw that the leaf was still attached to a branch. It was a twisted, gnarly branch so big that it seemed to extend indefinitely. It was, once again, a stark contrast compared to the small splinters Eli was seeing down there. They couldn’t help it. Eli had heard all the stories about the dangers of the outside, but this was too much of an occasion to pass up, they scurried along the branch, towards the tree. It wasn’t long until Eli met the strangest creature. Its body was long, big and round and with hundreds of legs. Splendid patterns covered its skin, filled by flashy colours of red, pink, blue and hues of orange. However mesmerizing the creature was, its colorful skin and slow, undulating movements toward Eli screamed danger. Another, normal, more prudent ant than Eli would have turned back. But not Eli. They broke into a sprint. Springing on the left, Eli willed each and every single one of its six legs to work as fast as they could so they would outpace the creature. And it worked! Within seconds, Eli was too far for the creature to catch, although it had turned its head towards them. It seems that six legs work better than one hundred and eighty-two.
It happened in an instant. On one second the caterpillar was trying to twist its body to go after Eli, on the next a bird had dived and snatched it in its beak. Soon, the bird was gone; all that remained of the caterpillar was a notch in the wood, where the bird’s beak hit it. Clouds of magenta erupted from Eli. Fear, and first hand realisation that this was what awaited them in the outside world. This was what could be left of them in a couple of seconds time. Maybe this was enough, maybe Eli had seen enough of the outside world. Turning around, however, was not an option.
The magenta lights still flaring up from Eli’s body had attracted unwanted attention. They were not in the anthill territory anymore. Those ants coming closer were not of the community. Those ants were no mere workers either. They were warriors, and warriors were not kind with strangers. Eli had to warn the anthill, had to warn the warriors to come defend and to their aid. The three warriors were now using their powerful body to sprint towards Eli at incredible speed. Eli could not go further on the branch, there was no outrunning them. Eli couldn’t go towards them either, how would one get through?No, there was only one way out of this. Down.
Eli jumped. The branch was now situated far, far from the ground. Wind rushed through and carried them over, making them tumble down the ground. During the fall, Eli caught a glimpse of their participants. They hadn’t jumped. Good. The landing was softer than what Eli thought it would be. But that might not be the best news, either. Eli was a leaf, in the middle of the sea. Well, it could have been a puddle, but it was big, and it was known to all that sea creatures were not kind to ants. The morning atmosphere had left its place to a warmer, sunny day. After all that had happened, and despite the precarious situation, Eli was feeling exhausted, drained. They would have to sleep, and eat. Eli regarded the leaf they were floating on, and the only source of food around. It is stupid eating your own boat when it was the only thing keeping you alive, isn’t it? Well, Eli did it anyway. Not the whole leaf of course, but enough to feel rested enough and feel drowsy enough so they would fall asleep.
When they woke up, the leaf had drifted closer to the shore, just enough so that eli was able to jump off it and land on solid ground. Only to be faced with an abomination. It was hairy, had a myriad of eyes, fangs, eight legs and a giant abdomen. It was sitting on the ground, not too far away, on what seemed to be silvery threads. Eli’s breath caught. One of the warriors from earlier was there, emitting a stream of magenta and red lights, trying to call for aid. It was still moving, but seemed stuck to one of those silver threads. Eli had to avoid them at all costs. Eli also hoped that the other two warriors were not closeby. Ducking and hopping, Eli managed to reach the edge of the web. Slowly, they climbed up the hill and to their amazement came up to a very familiar, very welcome hill. Eli’s anthill.
Finally, weary and tired, exhausted and beaten, Eli came home.