✖ PROLOGUE: ANIMAL AND MAN ✖ “What is the difference between animal and man?” A loaded question. Humans have spent years upon years investigating the true nature of our planetary co-inhabitants’ brains, constantly trying to pry out any kind of sign which might suggest that these living beings could be prone to develop full consciousness and a human-like awareness of themselves and the world that surrounds them. This inherent skill has, through millennia, only been documented in the human kind, which has not helped the prospects of one day being able to find – or create – an animal capable of thinking and communicating like a human. The fascination for this concept has hardly waned through the ages, however: from ancient folk tales to modern fiction or even – albeit in a somewhat reversed way – Kafka’s Metamorphosis, humans have consistently been engrossed by the endless possibilities of human-animal hybrids. The story I am about to present to you, dear reader, is framed in somewhat of a philosophical way, the problem being the inaugural sentence written in this prologue. Developing further, the story you are about to read is a story about humans, their thoughts, feelings and character flaws – many of them highly destructive –, but through the eyes of an animal. A chimeric tale of vanity and fragility. You can call me the Marshal – your humble narrator for this tale – and I beckon you to come explore the deep tunnels of the scenario that will be unveiled in the next chapter. Come dive below the ground.

✖ CHAPTER I: WITHIN THE COLONY ✖ Our story begins underground, within a colony of ants. This colony, nameless and equal to millions upon millions of others in the known world, is comprised of about two-hundred soldier ants and one single queen. While the queen’s figure is usually the center of every societal organization of ants, this particular one is anonymous and irrelevant – it is purposely not the focus of this tale; nor are the specific organizational mechanics of the colony it spearheads. Instead, we place our focus upon the working ants. Featureless and indistinguishable, they are the brute force upon whose lean shoulders fall all responsibilities regarding defense, gathering of nutrients and – ultimately –, survival: a supreme goal that is present in every single inch of the soldiers’ bodies, minds and souls, spurring them on and permeating every movement they perform during their cruelly short lives. This all-consuming instinct is, just as every other natural impulse, never questioned and permanently present at a subconscious level, engrained within their very DNA. Current science has not yet reached a point beyond the belief that full awareness is a mental state that is exclusively at the reach of humans, so it’s no surprise that these small beings are perceived as being incapable of possessing any degree of cognitive knowledge regarding what they are and why they do what they do. And that is a fact: they simply do it, unquestioningly and naturally. Nature is, indeed, the most impenetrable force at play here, and the root of the unbreakable loop that defines the entirety of their existence: the ants work in order to survive and, conversely, survive in order to work. In a manner not too dissimilar to the Greek myth of the Ouroboros Snake, the ants are designed to exist within this cycle, the species being eternally perpetuated by generations upon generations of mass programed workers. However, dear reader, I beg of you not to be mistaken nor put off by the extensive emphasis on meta-context, at this stage of the tale. In fact, despite the seemingly absolute similarities and inexistence of a logical way to distinguish or identify any sort of individuality among this mass of workers, our tale does have a protagonist. Our yet to be identified protagonist was born into this troupe of soldiers at an undefined point in time, from one of the many eggs laid by the colony’s matron ruler. Its existence is, just like every one of its familiars, enclosed within the working loop and justified by the colony’s needs. It has no name, as none of them does. It has no thoughts, as none of them does. Crucially, it has no individuality, as none of them does. Every waking second this ant works, instinctively placing its inherent blind faith in nature and drawing from it the necessary potency to go on working and surviving, is made possible by the very existence of a common goal. Its mind, heart and body belong to the colony, for without the colony the ants themselves would not even be allowed to exist at all. Thus, the soldiers work: their mandibles in constant movement, digging tunnels at breakneck speed and diligently using their antennas to scan the surrounding space, lest some unknown predator attack and bring about the end of their society. Their night-vision equipped eyes peering into the darkness beyond the tunnels, their scalpel fangs fashioning them in mathematically precise ways, they move on and on, never halting their eternal endeavor. They are but servants to the colony – tools for the greater good –, protecting each other only to make sure there’s never a shortage of working staff, and unable to be contaminated by even a single thought. Such is the way of the soldier ants.

✖ CHAPTER II: THE AWAKENING OF SOLDIER ✖ It was a time just like any other: the ants stood in place, getting on with their eternal duties: seconds upon seconds on end spent slicing rocks in twain, their sharpened jaws and fortified claws cleaving and digging their way through the construction of yet another tunnel, along the edges of the main portion of the colony. Their pace – urgent and frantic as always –, showed no signs of slowing down: it never could, of course, as that would mean something had happened to disrupt the natural way of things. Something like an attack from an outside predator was totally unheard of and extremely unlikely… At least in the traditional sense. We move to the upper world, where the humans roam. For reasons not fully known, yet more than likely fueled by a sick sense of pseudo-godly vanity, a mysterious and influent group had been toying around with the creation of a specific type of toxic fume: an experimental germ that would be seeped into the ground, with the aim of contaminating one random living being it came into contact with. This prototype germ, of neon blue coloring, was developed with a clear aim: to imbue conscience and singularity upon the creature that it ended up falling on. Its purpose was, quite simply, the creation of an animal which knew that it was an animal. But how would they know if they had succeeded? Well, according to their forecasts and calculations, they figured the creature would end up wanting to leave the underground and ultimately rise by its own merit, then setting out to ask for the guidance from the ones who brought this change about, and to this end, they would place surveillance cameras on the entrance of every test spot. Should the scenario not come to fruition, they would simply have to keep improving the formula and conducting further tests, until it would eventually work. Back to the underground: just as planned, the toxin was injected into the earth by the humans and made its way into the colony, where it ended up landing upon one of the working ants. As it descended upon the cold tunnels, the slight change of smell that it brought about was undetected by none of the workers, bar one – and thus, this is the moment where our protagonist became our protagonist. We shall be calling the poor modified ant Soldier – with a capital “S”, as if it were a human given name –, and as a way to separate himself from the rest of his brethren, all of which would continue working, none realizing what had just transpired. Soldier himself only realized something had changed when he felt an unexplainable impulse to stand up from the crowd, thus halting his work. This impulse came about when he looked up and somehow realized how thick the air was, as well as how tight the tunnel that surrounded him was. He could not explain why he had thought about it or why that caused him to stop – and as he tried to muse about it, he instantly realized something even more sinister: the very fact that he was thinking. Soldier was shaken to the core by the realization that he was, indeed, being able to do something other than working, and by the fact that he was able to realize anything at all. Thus, this brief moment of clarity turned into confusion, and then into fear: this was a breach of the natural order of things, after all. It was blasphemy. It was crime. This surely would not go unpunished, let alone unnoticed. “What could the consequence be?” – Soldier questioned, as he looked within in dread. Staggered, Soldier looked around and he realized that no other ant even as much as looked at him. This left him dumbfounded for a split second – how was it even possible that an event of this magnitude was being so utterly disregarded? Eventually, and not long after, his rapidly evolving mind started piecing together a logical answer to this question – which, as would be expected of such a neophyte thinking creature, felt unbelievable at first, before turning into a steadfast certainty: none of his broodmates realized he stood up because none had gone through the change that befell him. Logically, if everything else remained exactly as it was around him, he must have been the only one affected by the shift. But how? And “One is I - I am I - I am one - One is man - Man and ant - Ant and man - A chimera - Here I stand” - But how could he change like this, and what, if any, other transformations would follow? Let’s analyze then, dear reader, the natural evolution of cognitive abilities, across both species: In fact, human beings have at their disposal years upon years of practice, different experiences and overall growth, that makes them ease into the traits and pitfalls of consciousness and individuality. Other animals, on the other hand – in this case, insects – not only don’t have that sort of time at their disposal, due to their very short lifespans, but they also don’t have a neuronal structure capable of supporting the sort of complex and nuanced thinking that men do. What happens, then, is that the insect’s brain, modified by a cruel experiment such as the one at play here, is forced to evolve much faster than its human counterpart, which then rapidly increases the possibility of paranoia, delusion and sheer despair. All these aspects are, themselves, also in constant mutation, driving the insect to an extremely strenuous state of self-bereavement and confusion. Soldier’s inaugural stop in the long road of mental shifts that he had just embarked on was grief – an unescapable sense of profound self-loathing and sorrow for what had become of him, as he quickly realized that his very existence within the colony was not only threatened, but quite possibly finished forever. Alas, a new life had, regrettably, begun.

✖ CHAPTER III: SUFFOCATING AWARENESS ✖ Having left his designated work post only to seek temporary refuge in one of the pockets of the colony which were unoccupied at the moment, Soldier experienced a strong indisposition, which left him nailed to the ground for a small while. Then, he found himself sorrowfully pondering his new condition. Mourning for his lost life, the one he never even realized he had, he feared his very existence could end then and there, such was the unbelievable pressure he felt in his thorax and the nauseating stench of the rancid air that filled the narrow tunnels. Strangely, while down in the ground, Soldier couldn’t help but to wonder if this new condition could actually not be a curse, but rather some test or challenge placed upon him by some sort of superior entity. It did make sense that he, at his darkest, would turn to religious thought, as that is something that human minds seem to be wired to do. And that did seem to offer some small amount of respite, if not only temporary. What this thought did more efficiently, though, was to offer a different potential solution for his problem, which would prove to be of extreme importance to the alteration of the flow of events in Soldier’s very near future. This possibility pertained to an at first naïve, but soon laced with insidious and growing arrogance, aggrandizement of himself: Soldier fashioned himself as some fated hero, who had been placed upon this situation in order to overcome his very nature and become a champion of his kind. A king to his kind. That that could very well be the reason for all of this, was what he couldn’t help but to convince himself of. And if so, did it mean sublimation was his now true goal? Finally overcoming his physical difficulties, Soldier rose up decidedly, and began scouring the net of tunnels for any possible breaches or building imperfections that could be turned into an escape route, utilizing his powerful compound eyes to examine every inch of earth and stone that surrounded him. As time went on, Soldier’s endeavor became increasingly frantic, to the point that he found himself effectively running up and down the full colony at full speed, all the while having absolutely no success in his search for a way out. The feelings of fear and shame hadn’t fully abandoned him either and within his mind raged a fierce inner conflict between two opposing personas: on the one hand, the fearful regular ant, who wished no more than to go back to the way things were before – and on the other hand, the self-proclaimed future champion of the insects, consumed by his odyssey of vanity. After a long while, Soldier was forced to face the frustration of his fruitless search and he grew increasingly impatient, as the possibility of being ultimately unable to escape started to morph into a probability.

✖ CHAPTER IV: THE ESCAPE ✖ Panic then took the place of grief and, after an excruciating moment where all he could feel was sheer helplessness, Soldier turned his attention to the structure that had surrounded him since the dawn of his life – one that he had only considered once he became able to consider things. Still very much struggling with the aftermath of his infection by the virus of individuality, his restless mind – awakened to the concepts of existence and singularity and thus alienated from the rest of his vacant-minded broodmates –, was trying to come to terms with the dawn of his horrifying desire to escape the Cage of Tunnels, the aforementioned structure that had surrounded the ants’ Colony since uncharted times. By now, the fear of leaving his natural home had become secondary to the increasingly intense claustrophobic feeling provoked by the Cage’s thick and stale air, something that had been slowly driving Soldier mad. In a moment of fiery determination, he finally put his claws to work and started frantically searching for a way out. Before we move any further, it is important to provide a sliver of context on the Cage: A fortified labyrinth of earth and stone, it had been meticulously crafted and perfected by many generations of working ants, its main purpose being the complete and absolute protection of the clan from the unknown horrors of the outer world. Its structure was thought to be flawless – that being, at the very least, the objective shared by the ones who built it, albeit driven only by their meticulous and primal ant instincts. At this stage in his ordeal, it had been established by Soldier that no other ant had realized the change in his nature, nor his attempt to escape – this would mean they too had risen from the crowd and achieved individuality, and he had already confirmed beyond all doubt that he’d been the only one contaminated by the mysterious toxin. Broken by his own frustration and fully overcome by rage, Soldier snapped, crying and screeching as his panic finally reached a boiling point, the deafening silence that answered his bellows becoming more sinister by the second. Frantically running through every pit, nook and turn of his brood’s fortress, his mind metamorphosized even further, after having come up with a concept that began drastically changing his outlook on what the next step of his ordeal would be. Truthfully, he realized that he had never thought about what he would do once he managed to escape the Cage and, consequently reached the outer world, but now something else was brewing. The new concept was fame, and it reflected the darker side of his new found vanity – visions of the recognition that he would surely achieve by reaching the surface and becoming known to the universe as the first ever creature in existence to achieve individuality. Naturally, as he had absolutely no inkling of what life in the upper world was like – nor any way to know the identities of the architects behind his transformation –, the prospect of being indeed unique – special – had begun blinding him, as he progressively became unable to do anything but thirst over the prospect of that uniqueness. However, this wasn’t something that could distract him from his claustrophobia and paranoia and actually amplified his need to escape. His newfound illusions of grandeur also further increased the perceived terror behind the possibility of not being able to make it out of the Cage at all, as he had not yet found any semblance of a clue which could indicate this wasn’t an impossible task. Piecing everything together, not only did he not have any way of knowing whether the impenetrable structure had some sort of flaw or built-in escape route, but rather, that very prospect didn’t even make sense: he hadn’t forgotten his instincts, nor the previously locked memories of his time as a regular non-thinking ant, which regrettably made it painfully clear to him that since the structure was built to be fully hermetical, leaving had never been an option. This flurry of thoughts and fears kept pushing Soldier closer to his breaking point and it was at this point that he stumbled upon something which could very well what he had been seeking: a tiny breach in the tunnel’s wall, which was letting a tremendously narrow string of light through, along with a constant stream of chilled air, showing Soldier the way to go. Huffing and staggering towards it, all the while thanking whichever superior forces that he felt were guiding his path, he placed his claws upon the rim of the breach and started furiously widening it, thus burrowing a brand-new path, into a wholly different place. Then, suddenly and violently, a burning beam of light showered over his face, overwhelming his eyes, which began adjusting slowly. Breathless, Soldier reached the Frozen Vale.

✖ CHAPTER V: THE FROZEN VALE AND THE OMINOUS TOTEM ✖ Stepping through the fabricated passage, Soldier found himself surrounded by a stunning sight, his eyes stimulated by bright and luminous colours the like of which he’d never fathomed could even exist. Naturally, adjusting his eyes was the immediate challenge, as he had spent his entire life thus far surrounded by nothing but darkness, which prompted him to be extremely slow and careful with the first steps he took inside this new realm – he was also mindful of potential attacks by other unidentified creatures. This new location was truly a sight to behold: an enormous chamber of snow-white walls and translucid ice covering its entire floor. Elegant swirling vibrations filled the airspace, the wind singing songs entirely alien to Soldier, which also refreshed his stuffy body in a way he had never dreamt of feeling before. “Could this be the upper world?”, Soldier thought, as he made his way through glaciers that glowed intermittently in tones of blue and green. Moving further into the wintry realm, Soldier realized that it did indeed exist outside of the colony, but at the same time, it was likely not part of the upper world – in truth, the frozen vale was a middle-point between the ants’ underground world and the surface. The vale acted as a secret passage, which connected the two worlds – but Soldier did not know this just yet. He did know, however, that he was reaching the cave’s core as soon as he saw, in the distance, a strange totem standing tall. The totem was located right below an enormous mass of earth, that formed an enormous tunnel entry, hanging from the ceiling. The tunnel was identical to the ones Soldier and his brood had spent their every waking minute building, which meant he could immediately recognize the similarities. Turning his attention back to the statue, Soldier felt a cold shiver run through his thorax, as he started to examine its bizarre shape: resembling an ancient fossil and covered by dark green musk, its shape was built oddly familiar to Soldier – familiar to a sinister degree, in fact. The totem’s rugged husk had its base shallowly buried in the frozen ground and was just under Soldier’s body’s full height, if he was standing solely on his hind legs - as Soldier was walking in his natural 6-footed posture, the statue towered over him. Soldier couldn’t help but to feel extremely uneasy about this artifact, though he did not know why – or rather, he was dramatically forcing himself not to think about all the weird possibilities that were swimming around his still rapidly developing intellect: “a totem shaped like an ant, right below a tunnel that seemed as if it had been built by an ant?” – indeed, all signs pointed to the fact that Soldier had not been the first of his kind to step foot in that vale, and the sounder idea would probably be to turn back while he still could, so as not to risk any further grief. That was, however, only one of the possibilities, of course. Although Soldier’s mind had, by this point, already evolved to a state where he could understand the concepts of premonitions and bad omens, it had also evolved to a point where he was able to force upon himself the belief in other possibilities that went beyond portents and fears. His thoughts had also become arrogant enough to impede him from giving up on a journey that had already taken him this far. Cursing at himself for lingering on for so long, Soldier decided that the origins of the statue and the tunnel were irrelevant, choosing instead to view them – and, vitally, the tunnel – as nothing but his ticket to the upper world, the promised land where his glorious destiny would finally be manifested. With truth, lies, arrogance and paranoia all mixed together in a tight emotional bundle, Solder fixed his sights on the entry for the tunnel that separated him from the world above. Determined to make absolutely everything within his power to reach his golden fate, Soldier moved past the bizarre statue and, never looking back, began his climb. Only a few meters separated him from eternity, and he was more than ready to bask in the glorious light of the upper world.

✖ CHAPTER VI: THE GLORIOUS CLIMB ✖ Soldier found himself frantically climbing up the tunnel, his inner thoughts always reminding him of why he was trying to reach the upper world in the first place: to be known by all, to have his exploits recorded in history and passed down through generations upon generations of whichever living races existed up there, and to be revered as a king. The simple act of feeling the upper world’s air seeping through his skull would be sign enough of Soldier’s triumph over his own race’s limitations. In pendular motions, however, he also couldn’t keep his ant instincts from making him feel tremendously uneasy about the bizarre totem that he had come face to face with at the center of the cave. What began as a genuine fear, however, was becoming more of a nuisance, in response to which Soldier’s mind kept doubling down on its arrogant desires, forcing him to ignore these symbols, focusing instead on the glory that awaited above. He could not and would not be stained by failure, that much was absolutely clear. Reaching the very end of the tunnel – his triumph close at hand –, Soldier entered a state of maniacal ecstasy, cackling loudly as he thought about all of his forsaken broodmates, still roaming the dark in endless circles of mindless labor. He had achieved an unthinkable feat and was truly above all of them, or so he thought. Through a loud and distorted scream, he proclaimed himself king of the ants, as he finally reached the surface. At the peak of his euphoria, Soldier was greeted by… Absolute, soul-crushing defeat.

✖ CHAPTER VII: THE UPPER WORLD, AT LAST ✖ Let us take a brief moment, dear reader, to consider the nature of dreams: often grandiose goals that tend to, in a way or another, guide our lives – sometimes smaller, mundane goals; and other times – depending on each individual’s particular situations –, just the will to survive for another day. Multi-faced and intoxicating, the very concept of a dream is something that can by itself offer meaning to one’s whole life, turning every waking hour into just another resource that must be used to perpetuate the chase. But what happens when that goal is reached, and one comes to realize that the result is different from what one had imagined? That one doesn’t feel the way one thought he would – that the thing one actually attained is, in fact, very different from how one always thought it would be… Is it salvageable? Or is the black hole created by this dark realization enough to consume everything else and to drive one to an endless vortex of regret? Back to our intrepid ant: this was the exact scenario he was thrown into, at what should have been his crowning moment. After finally reaching the surface, and basking in the light of his triumph for only a brief moment, Soldier quickly realized something was very, very wrong. Looking around while hoping to be found by the mysterious ones that had made him what he now was, he identified a whole slew of other creatures of similar builds – many of them ants – that were, just like him, surfacing from their respective colonies. One, two, five, twelve… Dozens of them. Dozens of other creatures, where there should only be one. The realization that his story was a tragic one came when, contrary to what he had always believed – or at the very least, made every possible effort to convince himself that he believed –, he realized he was not the chosen one. He wasn’t special nor above the rest in any way, shape or form. He was, in the end, what he had fought so hard not to be – just another insect turned arrogant chimera, just another marching soldier, playing to the beat of a cruel will, that had been controlling him all along. Vanity and hubris had thoroughly corrupted Soldier’s mind, to an extent that the realization of this disturbing fact was enough to knock him off his paws, his legs not able to withstand the weight of this sick revelation. And this came at the worst possible time, as another side-effect of the apparent completion of his task started manifesting itself on him. Here he was: above ground at last, in a place where there were no walls to be seen, nor caves or intricate tunnels – and it was at this very point that Soldier had his first encounter with the notion of infinity, of everlasting horizons, which seemed overwhelming and terrifying as there were no boundaries anymore, no guiding lines to keep Soldier grounded. The scale of everything was just massive, too massive to even fathom. The wild, unfiltered winds felt like blades, relentlessly striking Soldier and keeping the struggling ant unable to find balance for more than only a couple of seconds at a time, as his head – ridden with panic –, added even more instability to his entire body, his mind furiously rotating out of control. His vain, ambitious and delusional dream had led him to proclaim himself king, in what first had seemed like a claim to fame led by destiny, but was now revealing itself as nothing but a colossal mistake. The longing he felt for his previous drone-like existence came back with a vengeance and became the only other thing able to occupy Soldier’s mental space, piling upon the current and very pressing issue of his breakdown. Realizing he wouldn’t survive if he stayed up there for much longer, Soldier turned back to where he had come from, in a desperate attempt to avoid from being mowed by the ever-increasing potency of the earthly winds. If he could only get back to the vale – he thought – maybe he could maybe be able to rethink and figure out a new way to survive. Right at the outer edge of the tunnel, Soldier tripped on a stone, tumbling down the whole length of the tunnel, before crashing violently into the frozen ground of the vale. Every single one of his limbs broke and he found himself at the very center of the cave, unable to move.

✖ EPILOGUE: THE NEW KING ✖ His dream had already died a long time ago, but the tragedy was still not over: After his violent plummet, Soldier also lost the ability to move, being left paralyzed and semi-buried at the center of the frozen vale, the limbo between the upper world and the underground. But something was missing there: where was, after all, the statue that Soldier had seen just moments before, during his first passage through the grotto? The question was futile. Soldier already knew the answer to it and, truthfully, he had always known: As previously established during his encounter with the totem, he had already felt like something was very ominous about it. Instinctively, perhaps, or simply through basic deduction, Soldier knew straight away that the statue was, indeed, the corpse of an Ant, one that had attempted the same thing he was attempting. He also knew at the time, albeit subconsciously, that a situation such as the one he had now met was a probablillity, but his sheer refusal to pay attention to this realization was what made him go through with the plan anyway. And ultimately, did he have a choice? At the time, after all the sacrifices he had already made, was there really any way not to follow through, and see for himself just what would end up happening? Futile questions. Back to the reality of his current situation, he verified that the totem did indeed sink to the ground, freeing the space at the center of the cave for his new occupant, in a fated passing of the promethean torch. Soldier did not know for how long he would remain conscious, but as he laid there, immobilized and beginning to freeze, he finally resigned himself to his final state, accepting his final metamorphosis: this time, he morphed into the new totem of the frozen vale. He resigned himself to the instinctive knowledge that he was now the one whose husk would, in time, greet the next self-aggrandizing chimeric ant, who would inevitably stumble his way into the vale, only to climb up the tunnel and come crashing down, repeating the cycle once more. Alas, Soldier had reached his journey’s final stop. He was now the incarnation of the end of his cycle of arrogance and grief and would, in time, be the origin of the next one.

✖ REPRISE: UNTIL THE CYCLE BEGINS ANEW ✖ An indefinite amount of time had passed since Soldier became the new totem of the frozen vale. He had long since become unaware of any sort of structured thought and simply laid there, silent. How long had it been since his vain adventure, at the end of which he lost everything? The answer was irrelevant: he couldn’t, nor would he if he could, dedicate any portion of his already tattered brain into musing about it. Numbly awaiting his final breath, whichever residual amount of conscience that still lingered enabled him to feel the warmth of a miniscule light beam that suddenly came into view, pointing directly at his frozen eyes. “Come, shine upon me, even for a short while” – Soldier managed to painstakingly string together these words inside of his fractured brain, as the beam widened. The husk of the previously awakened ant remained there, right at the axis of its own demise, as the air started to shift around it. The swirling currents of the vale became fiercer and cooler, as the icy ground started vibrating rhythmically. Soldier’s broken body and faded awareness then stood witness to another titanic change… And so, dear reader, what do you suppose this might be? The start of the next cycle, through the arrival of a new self-proclaimed ant king? Or could it simply be Soldier’s final moments of consciousness, the big change being the appearance of the spirit of death, come to finally grant him solace and end his nightmare? The answer to this question is, alas, a story for another time. As for myself – your humble narrator –, I bid thee farewell... Until the cycle begins anew.