MARTYR???

It was just past midnight. The owl's hoot woke him from his doze. It was never more than a doze. Not that he was a light sleeper, but because it was all he could afford. A still moment. A break from his march the whole day. He can never afford to stop. He was counted upon by his entire family. He was not the eldest. But he was the oldest. Everyone older than him were dead or were devoured by the drought. He had managed to cheat both. His mother had somehow managed to raise another family and now it was upon him to serve her and her new family. He was her minion. He was destined to serve her.

His family was so huge it was dubbed "The Colony". They had a whole hill to themselves. He was the eldest now and he had to bear the burden of bringing in food for his family. He did not necessarily have to haul the food in. If he found something worthwhile, he could call out for his brothers and they would come give him a hand with the haul. He seldom hunted. It was dangerous to hunt, given that he had to provide for his family and he could not afford anything happening to him. But when he was high on his senses, he would try his luck with a fresh catch.

He liked an adventure. He actually craved for them. He would wander into the most dangerous parts of the wilderness just to catch a glimpse of this huge atrocity of a monster that was the cause for all his sufferings and losses. The monster had single handedly devastated his whole life. It had killed his father (or so his mother said). He watched the monster kill his brothers with a single blow. He had seen it crush his brothers, armors and all. He had seen enough to trust in its immense strength. It was his mission to save his present family from this thing. He was ready to risk it all, if necessary. War was not new to him. He had conjured many a wars and had infiltrated a number of secure, so-called impenetrable sites.


The owl that woke him up, swooped down pretty close to him. He was worried for a moment that he might be caught off guard. But he had enough time to react to the owl's sudden frenzy. He was out on the prowl for some food for the colony. It was now 3 days since he had caught the glimpse of any food. He had recently found traces of some new food. He called it food because it was very much edible and it also had an amazing taste, quite unlike his mother's. He had never tasted anything quite so similar. He realized that this was the crumbs from the monster's feed for the day. It was not difficult to deduce as he soon saw a whole bunch of it placed neatly on a silver tray, the size of a parking lot. He decided this was going to be his dinner for toy and for years to come. He decided to call out for his brothers. A bunch of them could definitely haul the whole loot out. Trouble was it was well past midnight and there wasn't so much as a stray beam of light to guide him out of this wilderness and into his hill. It did not matter. He had left a trail for himself as a precaution. But before he left to get his brothers, he thought he would take a closer look at how just how much food the monster had left for him to forage. He was astounded at the expanse of food laid out in front of him. It was too much emotion for him to control. He almost cried in exhilaration. He tried a spec of the monster's food and wan moved by the very taste of it. It simply melted in his mouth. He decided it was worth risking the lives of his kid brothers. A least it'll keep the ones alive, alive.

He turned to get his brothers and caught sight of the monster. Rolling in his sleep, his mouth wide open to the skies. A long thread of drool hanging from his mouth. His snore was piercing through the air. Every breath of his sent a cold spike down his back. He stood there watching the monster's huge abs rise and fall in rhythm to his snore. He was disgusted at the very sight of this thing. He was reminded of the many brothers he had lost to this monster's swipe. He could remember his mother's drawl " You were fools to go to a fight naked. You should have dressed up like me. Those monsters like us women better than you puny freaks". It just infuriated him. He decided it was time. He controlled his emotions long enough to call his brothers to the scene. The trail he had laid earlier proved helpful. Soon his brothers were feasting on the monster's meal. When they were full, they slowly started shifting the food, speck by little speck, to their little hill.

Our hero slowly gave his brothers the slip and made his way to the spot where the monster lay. He clawed his way up an was now face to face with the monster that has caused him so much grief. He stared into the monster's half open eyes for sometime. By this time, the sun had just started to peek out from behind the clouds. A faint ray of light streaked across the wilderness, breaking the lining of the clouds. It cast a huge shadow of him on the monster's face. The monster, feeling the sun hit him on the face, turned in his sleep. Our hero, slowly made his way closer to the monster. With all his might and with all the strength he could derive from his every limb and muscle of his, he tried to choke the monster. He could not fit his limbs over the monsters neck so he tried biting off the monster's wind pipe. He slowly made his way to the monster's neck and again, with all his might, took a bite at the monster's throat.

Who can stand a bite at the throat, even when they are sleeping? I am no exception. I just crushed the ant and went back to sleep, without realizing that I had given a completely stupid ant, the title of a martyr.