The Giants

I watched through the tall grass as the giants walked by. This was a normal occurrence. Every day at the same time the giants would pass our village and later that day they would come back from where they originally left. They hardly seemed to notice us, it seemed they almost always looked past us. It had been like this for thousands of years, yet there was never an alliance formed between my people and theirs. I had heard tales of a time before the giants existed, a long, long time ago. Now they acknowledged that we existed, sometimes they would treat us as pets. Enclose us into a glass chamber. Sometimes they would try to kill us. I had only heard stories of what we called the death rain. Anyone who had endured it never lived long after it touched their body. It was cast upon us by the giants. They had the ability to summon a substance upon us that burned, it caused instant paralysis and attacked the nervous system. It was a cruel death. The giants looked upon us in disgust. I never knew why, we were just trying to live, we all had a duty, as I assume they did. We worked together as a village, supported each other, fed each other. Feeding the village was the most dangerous job here. A lot of my friends left the village and never returned. There were stories about how others went out and returned, only to have the whole village be wiped out not too long after. No one knew why. I had always asked my mother about these stories, she would sit and tell me about her early days, when she went out and scouted the lands. She had encountered the giants before, she told me what they looked like, some of them were very hairy, some of them fat, some of them skinny. They were greedy creatures, they stockpiled food and kept it small rooms. Sometimes they wouldn't even eat it, it just sat in their storage. She made her adventures sound thrilling, like something I would want to do when I was older. So when the time came, I went with the other scouts.

I saw wonders, huge magnificent buildings built by the giants, and their food stocks were glorious. They had so many different kinds and a lot of it! We had brought a small amount of scouts, only about 5 or 6 of us. We snuck inside the house underneath a crack in their foundation. A crack in the concrete of which their massive building sat upon. It was small to the giants, barely noticeable, but not to us. It was a gaping hole inviting us in. We could fit easily. Once we were inside, it was cozy. It wasn’t hot like it was outside. We marched on, over a long distance, we saw huge exotic creatures with four legs. They had collars on their necks, they were the giant's pets. I felt bad as we passed these poor creatures. There were large paintings of vast beautiful landscapes. Somewhere I would want to go someday. We finally got to their food stocks, they had a huge room full of food, all wrapped in plastic or in boxes. I was told that the room past the one we had reached would have easier access to the food, there we would find the motherload. And so we marched on again, however sore and tired my legs were, I kept marching. After climbing up onto the giant's large table that held the more accessible food, my mouth began to water. I could smell it, I saw it. There was bread, fruits and vegetables all laying out in the open in bowls. This was amazing! Everyone ran to get their own piece. We decided to send out a signal to the others to tell them where the food was. We all grabbed what we could and began to head back to the village, leaving a trail so we could find our way back the next day. The trip back home was successful even though it was tiring. We all gave a piece of the food we brought back to our families. The next day we would venture back out and go collect more food with more help.

The next morning was here and we all set out to complete our mission to feed the village. We had brought a lot more help this time, more scouts, more workers. Those who could carry a lot more than just us mere scouts. We led them to the fruits and vegetables, everyone grabbing what they could, everyone was reveling in the found food. I was already heading back when I felt the ground shake, I also heard heavy footsteps. I looked back and above me was the source of the earthquake. A giant. This must have been their home. I scrambled away, out of sight, only to hear the giant yell out to another one. Now they both stood there, looking at their fruits and vegetables in disgust. We only took what would feed us, what we needed to keep us alive. They had more than enough in their storage room with the other foods. My mother was right, the giants were greedy. The giants were angry, they began grabbing the fruits and vegetables and throwing them into a container, they were capturing my friends, my people. I had no idea what they do to them, they had no care if they killed any of them or hurt them. My heart sank as I saw others trying to run away. One giant with a hairy face began crushing them with his hands, a look of disgust on it’s face. I saw the other one walk away into a different room. I was horrified. My superior was running towards me, he was telling me to go back to the village, to leave immediately. As he ran past me, I soon turned and followed him. We made it to the crack of where we entered, and when I looked back, I saw what I had only ever heard tall tales of. The death rain. The one giant that had left came back and it began dispensing the death rain upon my people who remained. I saw them reaching up to block themselves with their arms, in vain, screaming in terror. As soon as it touched them, they wilted and fell to the ground, they tried calling out for help but no sound escaped, their brains beginning to shut down instantly. I turned away and slipped back through the crack, trying to erase what horrors I had seen. I wept as I ran, my heart beating hard and fast in my chest. We got back home to the village and I told my mother what I had seen, what horrors had occurred. She consoled me, tried to, anyway. She told me it was the way of our people, sometimes they made it back, sometimes they didn’t. She told me it was the way of the Formicidae.

That's what we were. A colony of ants.

(Formicidae is the scientific name for ants.)