The young queen ant looks so paunchy, even though she has been expressing her desire to go on an adventure with me, both of us know that this is not realistic.
After staying with the young queen for a while, she lay down in my original position to bask in the sun, while I walked towards the valley under the hills and began to search for my target - salt.
I was already familiar with the old domain of the Hill Country, I knew every plant, every tree, every rise and every stone in it. I have walked through any area of these hills countless times, hunting, resting, and patrolling here.
However, there is no such stone that can precipitate salt in the old territory.
As for the new territory, half of the valley is larger than the hills. I have never explored it except for the time when the boundary was drawn.
As a hunter and the "chief warrior" of the tribe, I have the responsibility and obligation to patrol this territory, not just for the salt.
When hungry, only a hunter who is familiar with the terrain will know which stone may have a worm under it, which piece of rotten wood may have silverfish, and which patch of grass may have the most crickets.
When a foreign enemy invades, qualified warriors must understand every terrain in the territory, track and ambush them in a timely manner to eliminate the enemy, or retreat as quickly as possible by taking advantage of the location.
But the workload of exploration is not small. We need to climb every stone, every tree, and every blade of grass to construct a complete map in our minds.
There is rich vegetation in the valley, and the time spent exploring the same area of land in the valley is several times that of the hills.
I explored from the north side of the valley territory along the boundary line to the foot of the mountain. When I reached the end, I went a little further south and continued to explore the boundary.
In this way, when the sun was already setting in the west, I had only completed one-third of the exploration of the territory. And, I found no salt.
Every time I passed the border, I could see a wary sibling in the territory of the opposite tribe.
Sometimes she thought she was very hidden, hiding in the shadow of the plants and watching me. Sometimes she stood on a high stone in the sun, waving her tentacles and mandibles at me majestically.
"An inexperienced warrior," I judged.
It seems that this is a rookie from the opposite tribe, sent to patrol the border. She noticed that I was hanging around the border a lot, so she made a warning move to warn me not to cross the border.
She may have seen me defeat the taller guy in a duel cleanly, but this warning was just a sign of fierceness and softness. I can take down three or four of these rookies.
Maybe she was not at the duel at the time, so she is demonstrating to me unscrupulously now.
In any case, I had no intention of violating the sacred duel or crossing the border—now was not the time to be hungry enough to go poaching.
In addition to this rookie warrior, I also saw a large force from the opposite tribe near the border.
They seemed to be moving. They were forming a long line from deep in the vegetation and appeared at the boundary of the territory - the ditch of the dry stream.
They chose a tall French palm tree next to the river ditch as their new nest.
The trunk of the French paulownia tree is smooth and thick, and often has natural tree holes, making it a suitable nesting place.
However, this move of the other tribe made me a little uncomfortable. The new nest location they chose was too close to the border. Some branches of the French tung tree had crossed the river ditch and reached above my head.
Of course, these palm tree branches are also the territory and activity range of the tribe on the opposite side, but they can easily jump behind our border with just a slight jump from the branches.
When building a nest as a species, shouldn’t we try to choose the middle location of the territory? Only in this way can we control the entire territory. The new home chosen by the tribe on the opposite side is unusually close to the border.
If you look closely, this location is roughly in the middle of the entire valley, which is similar to the location of the old nest of the neighbor tribe, the owner of the original valley that has been wiped out.
Could it be that the tribe on the opposite side has not given up and wants to control the entire valley?
Thinking of this, I can't sit still.
I first withdrew from the sight of the rookie warrior on the opposite side, and then took a detour and turned back. This time I was extremely cautious and lurked back, and the tribe on the other side didn't notice me.
I hid behind a blade of grass, with only my head exposed, watching the busy moving scene opposite.
The old nest of the tribe opposite should be to the east. Judging from the direction, there is also a small hill there. I can only vaguely see the shadow of the hill.
But I could see the scene of the tribe moving across the street relatively clearly. Most of them were within ten meters of me, while the French paulownia tree was only two or three meters away from me. An average soldier can easily observe movement within five meters, but I can clearly see a distance of six or seven meters.
The relocation team of their tribe was very sparse, with only dozens of warriors running back and forth as far as the field of vision could see, far apart from each other. They seemed not to worry about being attacked by enemies or fierce insects.
Only when the queen ant appears, will she be surrounded by a few protective warriors, and the other warriors will act alone.
There were exceptions. There were two male ants in the opposite tribe. They followed a warrior with a look on their face. The warrior held ant eggs in his mouth. The two male ants did nothing and just followed the warrior to seek protection on the way.
Haha, these parasitic pets are the same in any tribe.
These movers generally carry ant eggs, pupae or young ants in their mouths. It seems that their tribe has just ushered in a wave of large-scale production. After the food is abundant, what the ant queen likes to do the most is to keep giving birth to children.
I have a faint worry in my heart. When the number of ant colonies increases, there may not be enough food.
Food will always be a pain for our tribe and our race.
It is said that God gave us "bravery", "sharpness" and a strong body, but took away "fullness". Our race is destined to starve, and being full is only temporary.
I can't understand God's actions, but the oldest queen and male ants have passed this story down from generation to generation. In the future, the younger queens will also tell the story to the descendants of our tribe. So this story is familiar to everyone.
Just let me eat for two more days, I thought to myself.
Once hungry, the world becomes a completely different place, full of danger and struggle.
Territory is dangerous. When warriors brave hunger to hunt, they are often driven insane by hunger and can easily become prey from hunters, or be injured by struggling prey.
People of the same tribe are also dangerous. Neighboring tribes will take risks to poach. Once encountered, it is easy to fight to the death. It may even trigger a war between the two tribes.
It is dangerous even within the tribe. The dying warriors will be eaten by their hungry companions as if they were food without mercy.
Damn hunger!
