It's really hard to describe the complete and utter embarrassment of lying on the ground, with the colony's doctor; little alone the /princess/ looking over you, first offering you a bead of dew, then assisting you to a shady location. I was stronger than that! Oh, sure. I'd not really done any heavy work for the better part of a year, having been stuck behind that rock, filling out form after form after form on the great heaven's above only knows how many of those blasted leaves...

But in the scramble to replace the destroyed amounts of grain and food by that clumsy ant, I'd passed out from heat exhaustion and overwork due to this situation I'd basically, and quite literally stumbled into. Having had to leave my last home, and being incredibly fortunate in finding this one, it turns out that the circumstances weren't entirely fortunate, because this group of unfortunate individuals were stuck in a situation where they had to offer a fairly sizeable amount of their grain and food stuffs to a group of grasshoppers.

I personally think its extortion, but the ants I've spoken to say it's for protection. Whatever. It's not like too many people listened to me at my last colony either. And that's basically what's brought me to this place, this colony and this most undignified position...

__

I loved working as a tunneler. I mean... oh, the pleasure in a well built tunnel, and we in my team build well and firmly. Tunnels to not only last for generations, but to withstand the test of time. And I'll be frankly honest, I'm not all that big into kids, but when that little girl came up to our group and thanked us for building such a 'pretty' chamber for her and her family... well, it's stuff like that that makes this job all the worth while.

So it's times like these, lying under the shade of a leaf, having passed out when others seemed to be doing fine that cause me to go back to where things went wrong; why I didn't stay in that job to begin with.

It was only just a few weeks after Shamrock's death that my supervisors started taking an interest in my work. 'Oh, Riley, you're doing /such/ a wonderful job,' or 'Riley, you're limiting your self in this mundane work. We could really use you in a more... important position, a more... /prestigious/ position.

Naturally at first I just shrugged it off, but it didn't stop. For nearly three months, at least a couple times per day. So finally, I broke. And it wasn't just an idle decision, either. My group was having a particularly difficult time in removing a stubborn rock that was in our path. Seemed that no matter what we did, the darn thing just wouldn't cooperate. Then when we'd finally discovered how big this rock was, it was clearly impossible to get out of the entrance of the tunnel opening without extensive rebuilding of the entrance to get it to fit through, and the other alternative was to cut this tunnel short, and being working on a new one. Which took planning, time... gah! Time, of which we really didn't have.

So, with perspiration running down my forehead, sore muscles and a growing headache. That same supervisor came up to me again. 'Riley... you're too good for this, this /menial/ labor. You could be right now working in a nice, comfortable office chamber and-'

'All right, all right! I'll take it!' I yelled out as I glared at the rock, which would be said more accurately that I was glaring at /him/ but not to his face. He then patted me on the back a few times and spoke again. 'You won't regret this,' then began to leave for the entrance of the new tunnel. 'Be sure to see me in my office first thing tomorrow morning.'

And I'd be more than willing to admit that at first it /was/ nice, being a Tunnel Construction Supervisor. I still did some digging myself, even at the at times snickering and cajoling of the other supervisors, but I still felt it was part of my job. I didn't care so much who did what, but that the job was getting done. I even began to feel some pride in the work we were doing.

But it wasn't long before things started changing. Oh, not all at once, and some of it I didn't even suspect, but after a while... Well, take for instance how I suddenly found myself so often and so repeatedly getting new people. And unless I was crazy, it seemed that each new person I got was just a little more incompetent than the last one. Then the other thing I noticed was that the piles of leaves on my rock desk kept getting larger and larger. It was almost as if I was taking on other's paperwork, but I never was able to prove that.

But I'll probably never forget the day they put Greenway into my group. Oy. I know he meant well, but... ugh. How do you describe it? The guy was about as competent as a one legged, one-armed ant in tunnel digging. I really think he should have been assigned to harvesting or water detail-Oh... the water.

A few months into my work, they put a restriction on the water we were using. I questioned the cause of this, since the timing didn't make sense. It was springtime and we'd had plenty in our reserves. More rain than usual too. Oh, they said it was because they found some digging teams were squandering their water, but I'd never seen or heard about it.

It was also about this time I was doing a little looking around to see how other supervisors and teams worked. Well, I tried, but I was told I needed to stay with my team. But getting back to Greenway... He somehow was given duty to carry the water supply to our team, and as about as expected as the leaves turning color before winter, he dropped it. Well, that was it. That was the allotment. Okay, that wasn't it. I went personally to acquire for more water, but they wouldn't give us any.

I didn't go right back to my team. I went to my supervisors. 'I quit!' I yelled out of anger. 'I'm beyond what I can do for this group, and I'm not dealing with it any more. The water restrictions, the tons of paperwork that I'm not convinced that is more than what I'm supposed to have, and my /team/. For cripes sakes! Most of these people wouldn't know the digging end of a shovel it I pointed it out to them!'

My supervisor just shook his head with a sympathetic smile. 'Sorry, there is no one currently available to replace you, but I'll see what I can do to find a replacement.' That of course never happened, and each time I spoke to my supervisor, he mostly avoided the subject.

It didn't take long before I began to snap at my team with all the pressure I was dealing with. I very much regret saying a number of the things I did to them, and I make no effort to excuse my actions.

A little 'break' as it were came about a month or two before I was forced to leave my home. Amber. Not the most coordinated, but for some reason she took sympathy for me, and frequently spoke to me or visited me in my office to try to offer some words of encouragement. I really had no desire to get close to anyone after Shamrock's death, but I was starting to get those feelings of friendship with Amber. Too bad she was involved in that accident.

As I was told, she was talking with another ant about some sort of deal, and in the excitement of her conversation, accidentally knocked over the support that was holding the roof in place. No one was permanently injured, but five of the twelve ants in my team had a broken arm or leg or whatnot that would keep them from working for several weeks.

I requested additional workers for at least a temporary basis, and I my request was flatly refused. On top of that, I was told that due to the ever-increasing growth of the population, we'd need to increase our productivity. 'Let me get this straight,' I said with clenched teeth. 'You want me to significantly increase my output, but with nearly /half/ of my work force out. If the colony is increasing, why can't we find any new tunnel workers?' I was on the verge of screaming, but the person simply shrugged his shoulders and simply stated. 'Sorry, life's just like that.'

Back in my office, pouring over yet another pile of leaves, Amber came into my office to apologize. I really have no idea why, but I really snapped at her awfully. Said things I didn't mean to say; it was like they came falling out of my mouth like water from a waterfall. She left with eyes moist, teeth clinched and hands tightly balled up into fists.

Less than a month later, I became the newest resident of Ant Island.

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