I declined the Queen's suggestion to hunt in the valley.
I know that this is the territory of our neighboring tribes.
After our tribe was driven away by outsiders, we had no choice but to rush here and occupy the barren hills that originally belonged to our neighboring tribes. At that time, our neighbors gave up on the hills without much resistance.
However, that does not mean that they are weak, they just feel that there is no need to fight against a desperate tribe of the same race on a mountain with few prey.
The standard for measuring the strength of a tribe is the ant colony, and through the pheromones left by each other on the territory, we can estimate each other's ant colony intelligence.
Our tribe only has a hundred warriors, and the tribe here in the valley has twice as many warriors as we do.
Only fertile valleys could have enough prey to support such a large tribe and so many warriors.
Now, our tribe and the valley tribes are bounded by the foot of the hills. We can still enter the hunting grounds slightly higher at the foot of the mountains, but once we enter the valley, the neighbors will never let us leave alive. The same goes for our tribe.
The queen ant remained unyielding. She told me that the valley was so big that if we sneaked over, we might not encounter those neighbors.
What she said made sense. Even if all two hundred warriors came out to hunt, they would not be able to occupy the entire valley. There must be their blind spots in the valley.
But I don't want to take risks. Most of the warriors of my clan who are more courageous than me are dead and have not survived the first half year after emerging from the pupa. But I am still alive, which is why I don't want to take risks.
The queen kept urging me and even used her sharp mandible to gently prick the carapace on my back.
I'm very annoyed. You are the queen ant. For the sake of the tribe, I will respect you and take care of you, but now I don't want to.
Although the status of the queen ant is higher than that of us warriors, it is very limited.
The status of queens is ranked by age, and the young queen next to me is the bottom one among all five queens.
The soldiers are ranked according to their combat effectiveness. Although I am young, I have proven myself time and time again in duels within the tribe. I am the noblest level among warriors. When other warriors see me, they will kneel down to show respect, and the prey captured collectively must be mine. Eat first.
So, this young queen can't force me.
I ignored her and prepared to turn around and return to the nest. I wasn't hungry yet, so there was no problem in hunting until the day after tomorrow.
I walked very slowly, waiting for the queen to give up, and then followed her.
However, I didn't hear the queen follow me, which confused me. I turned around and saw the stubborn queen dragging her bloated belly towards the valley.
I was so angry that she took action on her own.
Although she is also a member of my race, ant queens have never been good hunters. Few ant queens are opponents of warriors in battle. They always need protection.
Now, this stubborn young queen actually plans to sneak into the territory of her bad-tempered neighbor to poach.
Then I hesitated, what should I do?
Go with her? That was not something I wanted to do, and it was very dangerous. My intuition also told me that I shouldn’t do it.
Can this ignorant and fearless queen ant be allowed to act on her own? I can't do it either. She is the queen of ants, and she is born to be protected by brave warriors.
Looking at her bloated belly and slow pace, she would be in great danger if she ran into a warrior from the valley tribe or the bark mantis she just left.
I shook my head angrily, and the tentacles hit my big compound eyes, which hurt a little.
I felt a slight pain and then calmed down, letting the lingering faint sense of danger in my mind dissipate. So, I caught up with her in a few steps and climbed to the queen ant's side.
The queen ant didn't communicate with me, and just kept crawling forward, as if she didn't want to pay attention to me.
I ignored her.
In this way, it was not until we crossed the foot of the mountain and entered the territory of the valley tribe that we changed our approach.
This was already a dangerous area, so we resumed our formation with me in front and the queen behind, and groped forward cautiously.
The vegetation nearby is very dense, suitable for hiding one's figure. The smell of moisture and corruption in the air can also hide the smell of our bodies very well. Even the pheromones that the valley tribes deliberately left under some vegetation at the border to mark their territory become dim in this smell.
I carefully observed the surroundings, and only after confirming that it was safe, would I rush to another location, and then continue to lurk, observe, and move forward, over and over again.
I have to be cautious, the warriors of our kind are all natural hunters, ambushers and stalkers. As long as it is locked with our sight, it means that there is a tail behind it that cannot be shaken off somewhere, and this tail will launch a fatal sneak attack at any time.
However, my eyesight is also good and I am patient enough. It is still early before dark, and I have enough time to feel my way forward.
There are a lot of prey in the valley, but some of them are beyond the ability of both of us to deal with.
The huge stag beetle has a thick carapace and sharp spines. It often requires a tribe of warriors to besiege it to win.
Snails are small and delicious, but the thick shell is not something we can deal with.
I'm looking for suitable prey, such as crickets, grasshoppers, small cockroaches or small beetles, and those are my targets.
It would be great to have a fat white worm, they are slow, unable to escape and taste good. The point is, I know the queen ants around me love the protein-rich taste of worms.
However, after wandering around the edge of the valley for a long time, we didn't find any prey. Although I haven't encountered those unkind neighbors, I don't know whether this luck is good or bad.
I always felt something was wrong, but I couldn't tell what was wrong. The faint intuition that always warned me of danger came back.
I didn't catch the prey, and the queen ant was unwilling to go back. I could only be more careful, every step of the way, and I paid extra attention to any wind or grass.
What's wrong?
I thought about it carefully, and based on my experience and observation, I was sure that neither of us was being targeted by warriors of the same race, otherwise I would definitely be able to find out the clues.
There are no fierce insects like bark mantises peeping at us nearby, I'm sure of that.
Because there are no unusual sights or sounds of plants swaying nearby, otherwise I would be keenly aware of them as long as they appear.
The neighborhood is so normal, except...
At this time, I finally realized the problem - it was too quiet nearby, not even the sporadic insect chirping.
For a moment, the bristles on my body stood up tremblingly!
