Last year was a terrible year for my colony.  Firstly we went to war with the red ants, our arch enemies.  It was a difficult and long battle that we eventually lost, but it was at a great cost to our numbers.  Then, after we had protected our nest from being taken over by them we suffered our second catastophy - The great flood.  It wiped out large numbers of the colony, we were left with only 50 of us, and 35 larvae.

As soon as we had settled into our new more protective home under the slabs, I began to lay numerous amounts of eggs.  These I hoped would boost our numbers back to somewhere near where they had been before.

I gave the order to the remaining workers to begin collecting food stores.  I wanted to ensure we had enough food over the winter so that in the spring we would have great numbers again, and finish our further growth. It may even be possible to created young queens and males again to send out into the world.

Winter was thankfully mild, and even though towards the end of it we were low on food, we were able to forage out into gardens around us and stay well fed.

Our numbers had thankfully become strong again.  I decided itwould not hurt us to raise new queens and males.  I began to lay eggs, a different kind of egg to the normal ones.  These we took even more special care of.  In time, they hatched into beautiful new queens.  Shiny Black bodies topped with incandescent wings...wings that would take them onto a journey of discovery, and hopefully lead them to rear a new colony.

The queens nuptial flight days arrived.  I could sense it was the right time, so once again gave the order for them to leave the nest.  Away they went, and I was sad because I knew I would never see them again.

Some time that evening it was brought to attention that one of the queens that had left our nest had now returned.  Wingless as she was I knew she had mated.  I decided to let her live here with us for a short time, I even lent her some of my workers to tend to her.

A month later, I suddenly remembered that I had let one of my daughters live on the outskirts of the nest, I wondered what she was doing, and how she had been getting on with her new life. I sent my favourite daughter 'Mantriba' to find out.  It was a week later that It came to dawn on me that she had not returned.  I could not understand it, but this was a nest, this was my chamber and there was no reason to suspect that she hadn't died of natural causes somewhere in the darkness.  If our children died, it was not told to me, there was no need, it was all part of the natural life way of things.

There was a terrible and sudden commotion outside in the tunnel that led into my chamber.  Worker was fighting worker, sister against sister.  I didn't understand what was happening unti she rushed at me!  It was the young queen that I had let stay here in the tunnels on the outskirts of the nest.  She knocked me over.

"I have come to claim my rightful place as the NEW queen of this colony" she stated.

This was a first for me obviously, and I was shocked.  I knew though that I was older and wiser than this new queen, I knew that I could beat her.

We locked mandibles, wrestling each other this way and that way, side to side, up and down.  Soon after what seemed like an age, my strength began to wane that was when my loyal Mantriba rushed through the crowd and dove at the alien in our mist.  Mantriba locked her mandibles around the neck of the intruder and remained their.  The new queen struggled, but she was now struggling against the two of us, and her struggle was in vain.  As I pulled at her head, Mantriba bit further and further into the neck of the queen until finally, the neck snapped, and the queen was dead.  I released the head from my jaws and it fell to the floor with a thud.  Mantriba lay on the floor not moving. It was then that I noticed she had lost her thorax, and one of her legs.  This was a wound that she would not recover from.

"Mantriba, my daughter" I spoke softly to her by rubbing my antenae on hers.  "What happened?"

"Oh mother, I tried to kill her for you when I found her turning our own workers against you.  She hurt me mother, she hurt me" Mantriba said with an even softer, weaker touch.

"Sleep now my brave Mantriba, your name shall never be forgotten within these chambers"

Mantriba touched antenae one last time a simple goodbye.

I was saddend so much by this, I knew though that to honour my daughter I would carry on with the colony and make it the biggest and greatest colony ever seen.  I tire now, and need to rest.  I will tell more of my story soon.