The Two Queens
A war of the fools
The queen sitting on her throne looked at her subjects, they were all worried about things she did not care about. They were worried of the bugs asking for food from the winter supplies. She was not worried, she was their queen, she could get food from them even it meant their own death.
She did not care about their worthless lives. All she cared for was that she could be better than her competitor colony’s queen. “The other queen” they called her, though she was not their queen. She hated her for everything. She wanted her colony to be better than hers, even if it meant paying the bugs from the winter supplies.
The bugs had proposed to help her, they would kill some of the ants from the other colony and for each killing they would take a payment, due to being short of payments she had asked her subjects to pay the bugs from the winter supplies. Her advisors, to whom she never listened, as they were useless, they only spoke of making an alliance with the other queen and to drive away her dearest allies, the bugs.
She loathed the other queen, she even hated her own advisors and her subjects, she did not much like the bugs as well. They were dirty and they were evil things. They were always stealing and killing, though they were mostly killing on her orders. But they were always killing, even before she had asked them to. Killing was their everyday job.
She commanded her subjects to silence, “My loyal subjects, we were beaten again by our competitors yesterday. You will know about it more than I would, as the ones who were killed were one of your own. They were your friends, your colleagues and your family.
The other queen as you have dubbed her. I do not see anything so queenish in her. She is just a fraud. She kills our people and we in return can do nothing but ask these fiends to protect us and avenge our dead.
You ask me to stop doing it and be allies with that evil fraud?” She looked at her advisors directing the last question at them. “You want me to be friends with that evil fraud who has killed many of ours?” She was doing great, there were boos and shouts from the people for the advisors. “I say no.” She shouted louder than she already was and the people shouted in encouragement. “I say we kill every last one of those ants, and then we will take every last grain in their winter supplies and let the bugs feast on the dead.”
A loud uproar rang the walls of the colony. She was a queen, but she knew her part of politics very well, even if the advisors were the politicians and she was not.
She looked at her subjects with pride and then looked at the advisors and said, “Get the payment ready, and I also have to meet with them.” She had to meet them again, she wanted to give the other colony a tough time. She wanted them dead come winter. She would stake every grain in her winter supplies to kill every one of them.
The mob split up and everyone began to do their work. She walked with the advisors to her own chambers. “My Queen, forgive me but don’t you think this is a bit rash to use the winter supplies so close to winter?” She stopped and looked at him.
She felt anger surge through her body, she could not stand the idiocy of her advisors any more. She told them to leave and sat there alone in her chambers. She was thinking of a conquest and they wanted to die in the same small colony like their ancestors. She was different, she was a conqueror, the first conqueror in history.
Not any conquest in their history had gone well, they had all turned out to be disasters. But her conquest was a bit different, she wasn’t going all-out like the other conquerors of their history had done. She was playing politics. Unlike her predecessors, she was making allies, strong and feared allies.
She was using her allies to get rid of the strongest of the enemy’s fighters and then when they were all dead, she would take their colony and kill every last one of them. Then the advisors would not call it a rash decision, but praise her for her intelligence.
She did not much care about the praise of her advisors, she just wanted to live as a queen who is revered by her subjects. She just wanted to live forever and be remembered forever as the first conqueror.
She was thinking of doing something great with her rule, not just sit around and gather grains for the winter. She was not a gatherer rather a fighter and a real ruler. She was not just a Queen, she was The Queen. The queen who would bring a better tomorrow.
She was in deep thoughts when one of her maids came in. “My Queen, the bugs are here.” She stood up and smiled, her maid thinking that she was smiling at her, smiled back. But she did not smile at her, she smiled at the future that was to come. She smiled at the cheer that she would get after the conquest, not different from the one that she received today.
Her allies, she called them, the word “bug” in her world was used as a bad word. Her allies did not deserve to be called bugs, though they were. Her allies were standing in the throne room, they were looking around. The herald was scared and stood at a safe distance, ready to run at the first step taken by her allies towards him.
She walked to her throne, with grace, as a Queen should be. She sat on her throne and looked at her allies. There were five of them. The one standing in front of all of them was their commander, the son of their King. The others, she assumed, were lower officers, whose names and designations she did not care to know.
The commander ordered the others to kneel, while himself bowed. At their first meeting she had considered it insolence. Later though, she had understood. Being better than others, you had to keep your self-respect. He was a prince who was soon to be King and Kings never kneel.
She smiled at her ally and said, “You did great the last time. Didn’t the anteater disturb you?” He smirked and said, “Oh that foolish thing, we were miles away when it realized we had killed anyone.” She laughed, her laughter was like thunder, it was merciless, it was the perfect laugh. The laughter of a conqueror, a conqueror must never be merciful. Either you can be a merciful ruler or you can be a conqueror. “Foolish of her to trust an anteater. They are the enemies of our kind, never in history the ants have made alliance with the anteater. They have always brought death for our kind."
Then she smirked and said, “Let those fools think they are friends with the better one. They think they can defeat us, but they are mistaken. They do not know or understand strategy. Our alliance can take them down, then you shall take whatever you want.” She was careful not to disrespect them by saying “I will give you” and rather saying “You shall take” Because her allies were not charity workers, but they were proud and liked to take things by force.
Great fighters had died in the on-going war, both from her side and from the other colony. But she wanted to continue the war because she saw victory in her dreams. Even the seer believed he had seen victory.
One day he had entered the throne room, which was after a very long time. When he had entered everyone had bowed in respect. She, in his respect, had stood up and let him stand beside her, where nobody was allowed. He had looked at her and had said, “We have a real Queen among us for the first time. She will give us better days, for I see a great victory coming nearer as the days go by.”
He had just said this and left, while the cheers that started after his praise did not end even after he had gone. They had continued until she had silenced them.
She sat on the throne and looked at her subjects, they were much less than the time the seer had entered, and more so when they had cheered her for her speech about taking the other queen down. Many were battle-worn and were injured. None of them were demotivated by the deaths, they could also see the great victory ahead.
She stood up and said, “My people, we have lost many of ours. But this shall not go in vain. We will win for sure. With the help our great allies and our own strength, we will make them pay for our people. We will avenge each and every one of ours and we will do so by killing them one by one and ending their race root and stem.” At her every sentence the cheers grew louder and louder, by the time she was done, the chants of “Long live the Queen” were everywhere.
She was sure that these chants must even be heard by the people of the other colony or even the whole world. She was their leader, she was The Queen.
The Other Queen
More battles had taken place and many more had died. She was losing. Her ally, the anteater, was unable to do anything. He was much slower than the allies of the other queen. He was effective in killing in case of an open battle, but there were no open battles.
The other queen was playing at politics. Herself, she had not wanted this war, but the queen of that colony had made an alliance with the bugs. They had killed many of her best warriors, so she had to avenge them, by taking her down and conquering her colony. She had no intentions of being merciful, she would kill everyone in the colony.
She walked to the throne room and sat on her throne. She could see how the number of her people had decreased, the remaining ones were all injured and almost dead. She wanted to end this war.
She had gone against the advice of her advisors and had given a payment of grains, the anteater was not satisfied, but she had promised him a feast when the war was over. Her supplies were depleting due to the war. Without a war they could have spent their time in gathering supplies for the winter. But now they were only consuming the supplies as there was no way of bringing in more. But she was sure the other queen must have an ample supply of grains for the winter.
“My people, we might seem to be losing. But it is not so. We will win and take them down root and stem, for we are the ones who are right. They invaded us and we will make them pay for disturbing our peace. And understand they will, but they will not live long after that understanding.” Her people gave a cheer that shook the walls of the colony and for sure, the hearts of the enemy if they heard it. With the loudness of the cheers she was sure they could.
She walked down the throne to walk among her people, to give them some courage. She greeted the aggrieved and personally tended to the injured. She was a Queen to be revered, and was not just a Queen, she was The Queen. The gentle, the merciful (only to her own people) to her enemies, she was a tyrant. Just the perfect blend of Queenish qualities.
She was not supposed to be the conqueror, but just a Queen, who was kind and gentle to her people. But the idiot, who was not even able to be a queen, had attacked her people. If anyone, she is responsible for the death and destruction of her colony, not her. The queen of the other colony had attacked first, and deserved to be taken down.
Her advisor, the old ant, came to her and said, “My Queen, I think you should meet the anteater. We should devise a plan for the next attack. I think this time we should be the first to attack not them. They have done enough attacks to weaken our defenses. They might not even have thought of defense as they think that they are better attackers and we were not.
We should devise an attack that should take them down, once and for all.” She nodded and walked out of the colony with him and her guards. They had attacked her once during a meeting, it had not gone so well for them, her guards had killed all the bugs that had attacked.
The anteater sat there looking around at the ants sitting around to guard the area. He was after all their predator, it must be hard for him to stop himself from attacking them and eating them all. What stopped him from doing so, was the large feast that was offered.
She walked to him, not very close but close enough for him to hear. He smirked and said in a mocking manner, “My Queen, how happy I am to see you. I hope the matters in your colony are going well, and you have enough to eat for yourself.” He was always mocking her, but she could not do anything about it and only said, “The matters inside my colony are not your concern, your concern is the borders of my colony.” He gave the same smirk again, “Oh, yes.”
He nodded, “I am just worried about your subjects, the one I care for, I do not want them to be attacked or starve.” She knew very well he did not care about her people, he only cared about his payment and the feast he would get after the war was over. “You will get your payment, and we will win. I was just here to inform you that this time we are the ones to attack first and we will end the war once and for all.”
He did not smile this time, in his eyes she saw something, it was not fear. He did not fear anything, he could not be killed not by a group of ants and bugs. It was pure greed she saw. With greed in his eyes and his voice he said, “So the war is going to end, is it?” She did not reply him, she left and let her advisors discuss further. She could stand his insolence any longer.
She looked at the war from the sidelines, she could not say who was winning. There was not much difference between her people and the people of the other colony. She could see many a times that the anteater killed soldiers from her army and saw the bugs killing people from their own side.
There was not much difference in her army and the other. They were both the same, the anteater and the bugs were the outsiders. But she had fallen into the trap, the trap of trying to be great. She had wanted to look like a better queen. The queen who destroys her enemies.
She had never once thought of joining the other queen and getting rid of the bugs and the anteater, but she only had listened to the rumors she heard and had attacked. She had not once thought of stopping the war.
She saw the bugs happily killing everyone they saw, the same was going on with the anteater. They were killers and she was the one who gave them the chance of killing. She thought the anteater was her ally, but he was merely doing what he liked to do (killing innocents).
But he and the bugs were not alone in their crimes, she was one of them. She was also a killer, she had killed many of hers and many of the other colony’s, if anyone was responsible it was her. But it was too late now.
The bugs had killed hers and the anteater theirs, her winter supplies were finished. Even if one of the colonies survived, they would not survive the winter, she was sure the other colony would not have much food left either. They would starve come winter, and it was much harder to die of hunger than of war.
The allies
He walked in the halls where once stacks and mounds of grains were kept, but now nothing. The halls were empty. The queen that once ruled here had nothing for him but lies. She must be among the dead or had fled to some far away land to die. He knew that she had just been lying all along.
“Commander, the boys from the other colony have come as well. The allies of the anteater had nothing but dust for us.” He laughed, a merciless laugh. His laugh echoed in the empty hall and sounded like thunder.
The thought that made him laugh was the idiocy of the ants. Both of them had thought to win the other colony for the grains and both had spent their grains for the other colony’s grains, in the end both had nothing but piles of dead bodies. Both the Queens had disappeared.
He left the empty halls, and walked out of the colony to meet the anteater. He was standing right outside the colony, “Anything?” the anteater asked, he shook his head and said, “Do not worry, we have a feast for you. Come with us.”
