The Slice and the Mountain

“Why can’t we explore the mountain, mama?” asked the tiniest of voices.

In a tiny town.

Within a tiny bakery.

Sat a tiny slice, of a tiny chocolate cake.

Atop it, several families of ants have lived for nearly a week. They discovered this delicious, sugar-coated mountain of taste, hidden in the shadow of a much larger cake, decorated with two dancing humans. Queen Myr, of the colony closest to the large cake, sat with one of her sons, looking out over the expanse.

“If we leave our portion,” she explained, “then someone else would take it.”

The old, wooden floor had a snow-like coating of sugar and flour, despite the large Baker’s best efforts to sweep and mop. A fact that never particularly bothered the colonies, for more food is always best. The Slice, as it had been dubbed, was a marvelous find. It could feed several generations, and so many families moved onto the rich clouds of icing.

To avoid arguing, the Queens decided to split The Slice into equal portions, giving each colony its own landmass. Everything was peaceful for the following weeks, until...the mountain.

The mountain was an enormous wedding cake, decorated in cascading, white fondant, with large arches of caramel and sugar lacing running down its sides. Two human figurines were dancing atop the highest portion, looking downwards, with large grins on their faces. From eye level, the humans probably seemed to be smiling and waving at their guests, however, on their tiny island, it appeared as if the wax humans were taunting the ants, as if to say “I dare you.”

The mountain appeared yesterday, and the colonies had been abuzz since its arrival. Yet, despite its massive size, and delectable appearance, not one of the colonies made their move. The gigantic cake had enough food to last seemingly endless generations, yet moving to the mountain, meant giving up their portion of The Slice.

“Are you not happy on The Slice anymore?” she asked.

“I am, mama,” replied her son, “but it looks so tasty!”

“It does, but if we leave, then the other colonies would take our spot. Then what would we come back to?”

Many of the other colonies were having similar conversations with their unknowing and misunderstanding young. It seemed so obvious to the older generation. This piece of the slice was ours after all, therefore, giving it up to the others was just silly. Even if the potential gain was there. The Slice was here now, and the mountain may leave.

No no no, The Slice was the correct choice, thought Queen Myr. Let Queen Campa go explore, and when she leaves, we can expand into her land.

“But mama,” continued her son, “if we explore the mountain, wouldn’t the large man do what he normally does when he finds us, and place it into the smelly bin, where we can eat it safely?”

He clearly doesn’t understand, she thought.

“Don’t worry about the mountain, young one. We will be just fine here.”

The tiny worker ant skipped off happily, and the rest of the day, the colonies went about their daily business, but in the back of their heads, they continued to wonder about the expansion onto the mountain. Every Queen had the conversation with one of the workers, and it always came back to the same conclusion: The Slice is safe, and if we leave, one of the other colonies would steal our piece of Eden.

The Queens, all content with their decisions, went to bed that night.

“This is correct,” thought Queen Myr. “Maybe some day we will explore the mountain, but not if Queen Campa will move in here.”

Heavy footsteps walked into the back of the bakery to lift up the wedding cake and bring it forth to the front. Upon moving it, a deep voice could be heard, vibrating the ants from their slumber.

“Hey boss, there’s a piece of cake left on the table behind this that’s covered in ants.”

“Ahh, I told them to make sure they cleaned the bakery every single night! Are they on the wedding cake?”

“No sir, it’s completely wrapped up, and it doesn’t look like they noticed it.”

“Perfect. We would’ve had to throw it out. Toss out the piece in the corner. We don’t want an infestation.”