Author Information
Away from the hill
Away from the hill
Rutzy was born in an island named Gimminon, and like his parents, he was a worker ant. He couldn’t understand how if he was an ant as many others, he needed to work that hard to bring food for most of the ants in the island. Of course it was not only him; it was a good amount of inhabitants who were in charge of this job. Later on, he realized that this kind of occupation was part of his social class. There were many others, such as the ones who stayed in the hill taking care of the food. Others, who could fly, were in charge of being guards, who looked after other ants’ colonies. Who really were in charge of how the work was done and were the chiefs of this business, were ant-Queen Zeen and ant-King Spice.
Rutzy would always come home to his cave arguing with his parents, Yuly and Triton. He kept saying that he lived in an oppressing system, and he thought it wasn’t fair. He knew there could be an end to this and a way to be free, getting everyone gather their own food. Anyways, arguing with his parents was not worth it. He tried to take any chance he could to talk to the worker ants to keep pursuing justice, their dreams, that there could be many ways to find real happiness, not only beside superior ants, but being in a huge community of different other species.
Rutzy didn’t let himself down, and he tried several times to go a bit far away down the hill, but when he was almost there trying to see the gardens and flowers all around, he could feel his parents trying to search for him. He could really feel it; it was almost midnight when he tried to escape from the colony, so Triton was already waiting for him uphill.
Later on, King Spice heard about Rutzy’s crazy plans that he had been telling to the workers, spreading the idea of individualism. This idea struggled Spice, which could shift his disruptive strategy to keep his superiority and hold the colony with the idea that the only way to survive was to work this way, that outside of this world, dangerous situations with human beings and other species would make their lives even more difficult.
Rutzy was unwilling to stay this way his whole life, he couldn’t hold the idea that his parents had worked his life the same way, even in cold and rainy seasons, struggling with tiny portions of food each day, a demand of hard work, and guided by a chief that didn’t let them rest for a minute.
He waited for midnight to escape again downhill to try to see even closer what he has missed. This was his opportunity to get the life his parents couldn’t fight for, and time to pay back to his parents what they have given him all his life. He walked far away from his colony this time, but he was afraid that the weather wouldn’t let him come back. He was holding some food and made a secret path to come back home. The rain started, thunderstorms were everywhere. He hid under a huge tree, where some other ants were hiding from the awful weather. They weren’t from the same colony, and he knew there were many other ant colonies outside. The problem was that he didn’t know how to handle them. He was in astonishment, but tried to hide himself.
Triton was terrified. Rutzy could have escaped again with that weather. He thought Rutzy wouldn’t know what to do, were to go or maybe how to come back. Triton and Yuly knew he might have tried to go downhill again. Triton figurate out the path he could have taken. Therefore, he saw the trail Rutzy had made with his footprints. Triton was exasperated, but kept walking ahead, until he saw the trail of food Rutzy had leave. Yuly was amazed of what she was watching. Astonished of the paradise he was at, her face changed, and just until the rain was over, Rutzy was there. Rutzy was under the tree with some other ants that aided him. Triton and Yuly didn’t know what to say. Triton tried to calm himself, and unexpectedly say, “We’ll go after you, Queeny”. Queen Titsy answered, “You will see what a big family is, no one will work for anyone, and you will feel like home.”
