Everything hurt. The world had become a desert. Her life, unimaginable. She cleaned her antennae with nervous energy. Hoping against hope that this was a problem she could fix. She assessed as she rubbed her injuries. Clean, all clean, She waggled her feelers summoning courage to continue. She tasted the world again.

There was smooth hard glass ground, not a bottle with the sweet promise of sugar water but only hard smoothness and detergent aftertaste. She thought their might have been cookies here long, long ago. Circling, She picked up her own scent. Moving in expanding circles She scrutinized her new tiny world. Where were the We? Thousands of sister trails that hold the world together. Crisscrossing scents that told stories, screamed warnings, offered aid, and always always led home.

Without We, this world was a desert. She shivered, tripping over her six-legged fear. The false sun returned. It burned her again. Zigzagging, She ran as she had been taught. The false sun followed. The reek of humans made her fear turn to rage. She was tired of this game, tired of this desert. She stopped at the world’s edge. She would burn or She would not burn but She would not be sport.

Her exoskelton curved in on itself and She dreamt of home. Home in the warmth of the sisters, She put herself there waving a parasol of leaf, carrying her journey on her legs.

“I’m telling, Mom?”

“What! I’m not doing nothing. Come here.”

The world quaked. The false sun shifted away as the humans wrestled. She hoped the littler one would bite off the head of the larger one. Or at least disassemble a limb with it pincers. No it looked like the larger one would do the head bite today. She despaired but returned to walking in circles for this was her way. Surprise! The little human emitted a powerful alarm harming her atttacker and knocking the world to chaos.

“Mommy! He hurt me. He broke the cookie jar. He’s hurting me!”

“Liar! Mom she’s lying.”

She scampered from her desert. Plans spun in her mind. The noises were so loud it was hard to think. Salt and fear perfumed the air. A big human arrived.

“What the actual—I cannot leave you alone for one moment without all hell popping loose.”

The sound of slaps filled the world and She knew this was the moment to act not think. The little human skirted away with She clutched to her shoelace. With a sugar rain of cookie crumbs tailing behind, the little one picked up speed. Soon the world was right again. Scents of green grass greeted She immediately. The return of the We scent slammed into She’s thorax. Carrying the biggest crumb She could muster in her mandibles, She launched herself back into rightness. We scents waited to bring her home.