I rejected the queen's suggestion to go hunting in the valley.

I know it's the territory of our neighbor tribe.

When our tribe was driven out by outsiders, we had no way out and occupied the barren hills that had belonged to our neighbors, and our neighbors abandoned the hills without much resistance.

However, that doesn't mean they're weak, they just don't feel the need to fight a desperate tribe on a mountain with little prey.

The measure of the strength of a tribe is the ant mouth, and through the pheromones left by each other in the territory, we can estimate each other's ant mouth information.

Our tribe has only a hundred warriors, and here in the valley there are twice as many warriors.

Only a rich valley can have enough prey to feed such a large tribe and so many warriors.

Now, our tribe and the valley tribe are bounded by the foot of the hill, and we can still enter the hunting grounds at the foot of the mountain, but once we enter the valley, the neighbors will never let us leave alive. It's the same with our tribe.

The queen ant was still unrelenting, and she told me that the valley was so big that we wouldn't necessarily meet the neighbors if we sneaked there.

She has a certain truth in what she said, even if two hundred warriors all come out to hunt, it is impossible to occupy the entire valley, and there must be their blind spots in the valley.

But I don't want to take risks, the warriors of my clan who are more daring than me are basically dead, and I haven't survived the first half of the year after breaking the chrysalis, but I'm still alive, that's why I don't want to take risks.

The queen kept urging me, and even gently pricked the carapace on my back with a sharp palate.

I'm annoyed, you're the queen ant, for the sake of the tribe, I'll 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 also very limited.

The status of queens is ranked by age, and the young queen next to me is the bottom of all five queens.

The fighters, on the other hand, are arranged according to their combat effectiveness. Although I am young, I have proven myself again and again in duels within the tribe, I am the noblest rank of warriors, and the other warriors will prostrate themselves when they see me to show respect, and I will eat the prey that the collective catches first.

So, this young queen can't force me.

I ignored her and prepared to turn around and return to the lair, I was not hungry yet, and it would be no problem to hold on until the day after tomorrow to hunt.

I walked slowly, waited for the queen ant to give up, and then followed.

However, I didn't hear the queen ant follow me, which made me wonder. I looked back, only to see the stubborn queen dragging her bloated belly and crawling towards the valley.

I was so angry that she actually acted on her own.

Although she is also of my kind, the queen ant has never been a good hunter, and very few queen ants are opponents of warriors when fighting, and they always need protection.

Now, the stubborn young queen is planning to sneak into the territory of her not-so-grumpy neighbor to poach.

Then I hesitated, what should I do?

Follow her? It wasn't something I wanted to, and it was dangerous, and my gut told me I shouldn't.

Can this ignorant and fearless queen be left to her own devices? I can't do it, she's an ant queen, and she was born to need the protection of brave warriors.

Just look at her bloated belly, sluggish steps, any random encounter with a warrior from a valley tribe, or a bark mantis that just left, she would be very dangerous.

I shook my head in annoyance, and the tentacles crackled and hit my large compound eyes, which hurt a little.

I calmed down with a slight pain, and the faint sense of danger that lingered in my mind dissipated. So, I chased after me in three or two steps and crawled to the queen's side.

The queen didn't communicate with me, and crawled forward on her own, seemingly ignoring me.

I ignored her either.

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 ways.

This was already a danger zone, and the two of us resumed my formation in front and behind the ants, carefully groping our way forward.

The vegetation in the vicinity is dense and suitable for concealment. And the smell of dampness and decay in the air can also hide the smell of our bodies, and even the pheromones of the marked territories that the valley tribes deliberately left under some vegetation at the border are dimmed by this smell.

I cautiously watched my surroundings, and only when I was sure it was safe would I scurry to another location, and then continue to lurk, observe, advance, and repeat.

I have to be cautious, the warriors of our kind are natural hunters, ambushers, and stalkers. As long as our eyes are locked, it means that there is a tail behind us that cannot be shaken off, and this tail will launch a deadly sneak attack at any time.

However, my eyes were just as good, my patience was enough, and it was still early in the dark and I had plenty of time to grope my way forward.

There was a lot of prey in the valley, but some were not something the two of us could deal with.

Huge stag armor, with thick carapace and sharp spines, often required a siege by a tribal warrior to win.

The snail is small and delicious, but the thick volute is not something we can deal with.

I'm looking for the right prey, like crickets, grasshoppers, baby cockroaches or small beetles, and that's what I'm aiming for.

It would be great if there was a fat white worm, it was slow, it couldn't escape, and it tasted good. The point is, I know that the queens around me love the protein-rich taste of worms.

However, after wandering around the edge of the valley for a long time, we did not find any prey. Although I didn't encounter those unkind neighbors, I don't know if this luck is good or bad.

I always felt that something was wrong, but I couldn't tell what was wrong, and the faint instinct that had always warned me of danger had returned.

I didn't catch the prey, and the queen ant didn't want to go back, so I could only be more careful, trembling every step of the way, and paying more attention to any wind and grass.

What's wrong?

I pondered it, and from my experience and observations, I was sure that neither of us was being targeted by the warriors of my own kind, otherwise I would have found the clue.

There weren't any predators like the bark mantis peeping at us nearby, I'm sure of that.

Because, there is no unusual sight or sound of plants shaking nearby, otherwise I would be keenly aware of the slightest hint of a star.

The neighborhood is too normal, except for ......

That's when I finally realized the problem - it was so quiet that there weren't even sporadic insect chirps.

All of a sudden, the bristles on my body stood up tremblingly!