Our team looked from above the trees, our ten thousand strong army marching behind the commander who was flying in the air.

The presence of our commander astonished me.

I knew that the captains would come, but who thought that the commander would be personally coming to handle the reigns.

While most of the ants in the army were common soldiers, there were still quite a lot of variants in the mix.

“Don’t look so surprised. This is nothing. The workers which number three to every soldier we have, aren’t here. I think you will like the scene of us migrating. That is one hell of a joy ride.”

I asked my team leader why the other captains weren’t here and she said in times of war only the captain of the army had the power and everyone would be distributed under the various officers of the army.

When I asked her how we would be distributed then she said, “You already know that every squad has five teams…”

I nodded my head and she continued.

“Now, every officer has ten such squads under him, and there are ten officers under the captain of the ant army…”

Team leader who looked too excited and in joy, spoke like a true follower and believer in the strength of our colony.

She didn’t stop there, and took me to introduce the various soldiers she knew.

While most ants I met were common soldier, but in the mix I met three officers.

And from them two looked at her in awe as if she was the awesome one from the bunch.

The first one I met was the squad leader of the thousand fire corps.

He had 50 fire ants under him. But he wasn’t a simple variant either.

“You know this guy was born with inherent fire mastery at the intermediate level. You know how great that is?”

“Oh! Stop bragging Chichi, Give the newcomer some room to breathe.”

The squad leader then looked at me and smiled.

“You look good brother. I have heard about your exploits, not bad huh.”

I didn’t shy, but did end up smiling awkwardly at the sudden praise.

We talked with the guy some more, and then she took me see the another two ants.

And thankfully they were standing together, and we didn’t have to go meet them one by one.

The first one was a Red streaked yellow ant. A mutation of the extra rare variant. I found him interesting and dangerous both at the same times.

The second was one of those common soldier ants who were blessed by the nature. He was twice the size of my team leader, and had clubs at the ends of his antennae.

The glint in his eyes told me to stay away from him, and the crude and rude way he talked made my decision firm.

And just when they saw us or rather team leader walking toward them, they came running toward her like hungry beasts.

They fought or rather competed on the way to get first to us and on winning, the big brute hugged my team leader, lifted her up and started rotating round and round, while yelling, “Ahaaha! You still remember me Chichi.”

“Hey stop! I am a lady and not a kid anymore!”

“Oh lady shanady! Come here give your uncle a kiss.”

Stolen story; please report.

“No~…”

And on the side I looked at them with my face twitching and my mind confused.

The other squad leader finally reached us, and stopped by my side.

“Do you love her?” He asked me with the strictest face I had ever seen and to his serious and badly timed question, I gave the silliest reply.

“Wha…!!”

“Look kid; let me tell it to you straight.” He conjured a fireball over his arm and pointed it at the big brute.

He fired it without even looking and spoke, “You are no match for her. You better find come other scrub of the road. The only way you can get her is by getting through us. Now, do you have the strength to…”

And the big brute, now on flames, punched the big bad guy right on his jaw, before looking my way.

“Sorry kid. I know you are the hero and everything, but you just don’t cut for her…”

And the lady finally came to stop their misunderstanding.

“Both of you shut up!”

And she explained to them how I was just a member of her team and nothing more. Which for some reason made me take a deep breath?

“Haha, so it’s like that, it’s like that.”

“I’m sorry kid I did something unreasonable.”

The big… uncle then patted my back and shallow praised me, “Good, good, you are the current hero right? Very good…”

I thought about what he meant by the term ‘current hero’ and my team leader told me, “They were the heroes of their generation.”

“Ah! Being praised feels so good!”

“It sure does!”

I asked her how she knew them, and it turned out that they were the guardians of the nursery when she was a novice, and the big brother from before was her senior.

But I couldn’t believe her when she told me that even the big brother from before was a hero of his generation.

“Ah! this girl, always bragging about your family, why don’t you tell him about yourself.” The big soldier uncle smirked and the fire uncle snorted.

“You probably don’t know kid, but she was the hero of her generation too.”

And I looked at them with my jaw opened wide.

‘What the hell is wrong with this atrociously blessed family?’ I thought.

We talked little and came to know that the uncles got their post as their wish, and team leader wished to get her team sanctioned.

 Her being a previous hero was also the reason, why so many talented individuals joined her and she was given the mission as a spy. Everything was laid bare in a single conversation.

And we were still talking when a shot sound burst made me shiver.

“The time is here. Listen to your squad leaders for further information.” The announcement ended there and my team leader mumbled, “Looks like the bird is out of the nest.”

She then looked at me and spoke, “It’s time to loot the eggs.” and smiled.

----------------------------------------

Our squad was relieved from our spying duty. We moved to stand with the other members of the group, and then the officer in charge came.

My face warped when I saw that our officer in command was the Big brute uncle.

Our team members only smiled at me when they found me looking confused, and team leader winked at me and gestured me to be silent.

Though I wanted to laugh like a maniac at the sudden revelation, but I complied. I mean, who was I to go ask for trouble on my own.

The war actually didn’t felt real to me untill I stood midst the group of one thousand ants. The unnatural silence and composure made my nerves tinge.

And our officer in command gave his orders.

“Ants, our duty in this war is to create a hole for our forces to enter and then hold against the enemy retaliation. You all need to understand that our objective is not to lose our lives, but simply hold against the oncoming forces, until our other groups kill their queen.”

He spoke until then, looked at everyone single one of us and nodded his head slightly before saying, “Now seeing that you all understand, let me inform all of you who are thinking this is a suicide mission that  the forces under ‘Fire Breather’ and ‘The dissolver’ will be joining us too.”

And a smile formed on every ones faces and various shouts and comments made the group lively and energetic.

“Hoo!”

“The two legends will work together. Hooo!!”

“I will be working under the two legends!”

My team leader explained to me that those were the titles of the two other Rank three ants. I asked her who gave them the titles and she replied with a snort, “Stupid, no one give the titles. The thing is, the ranks are like the various stages of life. Rank 0 is childhood, Rank 1 is teenage, Rank 2 is the when the ants finally grows to hold responsibilities and gain a name. Rank 3 is only achievable if nature finds the ant worthy. They are then given a title worth their life experience and their nature. Rank fourth is leader class and rank five is a myth.”

It was interesting information to have, and allowed me to glimpse at the path we ants walked upon.

Our conversation continued for a little bit more when another blast wave issued the start of our attack.

“Ants its time! Remember, don’t pity the weak, don’t remorse for the dead, this is war! KILL EVERYONE!!”

“KILL!”

“KILL!!”

“KILL!!!”

And we started running.

Ants on my left, ants on my right and ants in front of me, there were ants and ants everywhere.

The ground shook when we all ran at the same time.

There was no one between our group and the mound. The guards standing outside the enemy base froze when they saw a whole colony worth of ants coming towards them, and turned to sound the alarm, but before they could do so, a volley of fireballs burnt them to crisp.

“Horroya!!”

With that shout, we avalanched into the mound, and thus started my first large scale war.