The Body of Courage

A Story by Star Noble

Inspire yourself.

The humans released Georgie as if he was theirs to take in the first place. Every time this happened I grew disgustingly terrified. This time, the terror swelled into an unmanageable rage. The other ants could sit on their tiny asses and accept that they had nothing to do about their fate. I was astounded that they could sit well with the actuality that our fate deserved to be in the hands of some other creature that was supposedly put on this earth with the same intention as us. I had been confined in the interior of a chaotic slaughter house my whole life, fear progressing inside me every God damn passing moment. It made me so sick I was left with no other option, than to take the initiative of putting myself face to face with the humans. I knew I wasn’t rebelling against anything; freedom is the basic obligation of every living creature.

Plotting became irrelevant. This was about my courage that would benefit all of us. If no one else felt the need to get their just liberty, then it was up to me to inspire them. Beyond my family of ants are many others. We are all interconnected in sharing the same humble goal which is to do our ancestors the justice they deserve by making sure our people survive. It was my time for an ant to be courageous; it started with me.

I was sent something new to feel. Walls of grass wanted desperately to drown me, but I resisted. It tried to overwhelm me with vociferous vibrations along with water gushing against my body. I couldn’t let it. I did not remember that I had been crawling when I approached this huge blob right in front of my now tiny body. It was the foot of a human. I kept remembering the news being brought to me that another ant had been murdered. It sounded over and over again like a chant of motivation.

Suddenly, the mood changed, the air thickened, and blood was pumping violently through my body; a human was present. On top of that, it had noticed me. Good, I thought. The adrenalin swallowed any fears that were with me as I let the human pick me up. Could this idea of mine had been stupid move that would leave me as a legend as a lesson to all little ants who would try to be brave after me? It wasn’t a stupid idea. Even though the possibility that I was facing death was very high, I didn’t hold back; I had my people on my mind. The human noised weird sounds, as I was lying in its hand. “This time I’m deciding my fate!” I angrily spat out at the human, as I sprung myself onto the human face. For the first time, the ant was in charge.

The human fearfully shook me off and I flipped through the air and landed amazingly on all six feet. I was so proud, I finally confronted the human and was still alive. The options were eternal. I knew what I had to do. I decided to go home to my family. I knew my actions stretched bigger than just any ant escaping from a human one day. They would touch across all of the ants so they would proclaim each other’s names and realize that they, as creatures of this Earth, have imperative value. They would now know that each and every one of them is the body of courage.