Sheldon

Sheldon was out collecting food for the rest of the colony. It was a pretty sunny day, thank god, Sheldon didn’t do so well in the rain. Not like those red ants, they do just fine it seems, but Sheldon was all alone, on a rock, in the sun, and he was happier for it. Some large creature was nearby holding a giant metal box that glowed. Sheldon didn’t care, he was out looking for food.

So, he wandered towards a shady spot on the rock, passed over a few leaves and left the giant person with the glowing box behind. He walked past a few trees and one dying vine, and then over a few more sunny rocks. Sheldon walked for quite some time before coming across anything suitable for his colony. He found one bug nearing death but Sheldon could tell the bug was sick and didn’t want that in the colony. He was came across a salty spot on one of the rocks, but today Sheldon wasn’t looking for salt, he was looking for food. So he kept on walking. Eventually, Sheldon saw a few seagulls squawking at each other in the sky. Seagulls, Sheldon thought, they’re always fighting about something or another, what an exhausting life they must live, squawking like that. Meanwhile, Sheldon had no such arguments with his colony, they simply all did what needed to be done.

“This is my bit of food,” one of the seagulls yelled. “It’s mine,” chimed in the other, “I found it first.”

“I’m stronger,” the first retorted.

“I’m faster,” said the second.

Sheldon watched as the two argued and began chasing each other in the sky, every now and then one nabbing the piece of food from the other. He wondered why they didn’t just share the food, it seems if one bird was stronger and the other faster, they could get quite a lot of food as a team. Ah, but seagulls would never understand, he supposed. They’re just birds.

“That’s it, give it to me or I’ll snip off your feathers,” the one who originally had the food yelled.

“I dare you to try,” said the other.

Things were getting heated now, usually one seagull would have already given up. They chased each other some more and had a bit of a tussle in the sky until the first had been snipped pretty good and flown off squawking in pain. Sheldon was still watching as the second seagull went off to land on a sunny rock nearby and eat the food he had reclaimed from the first. It was then that, near Sheldon, a few feathers floated down from the sky, having been plucked from the seagull. Sheldon walked over to them and found one with a bit of dry skin left on it. It had been quite a fight, but thankfully it had given Sheldon what he needed; a bit of healthy food for his colony. Satisfied, Sheldon turned home.

He went back into the woods and pass some trees. He went over a few sunny rocks and through where the large person with the glowing box had been. He went all the way around the little cove and back up to beside the road where his colony was. Sheldon marched in, having completed a good mornings worth of work, and brought the bit of food inside the colony. The other ants greeted him and his bit of food which he put right next to the other bits of food. Then he went back out to find some more. It takes a lot to grow a colony.