Tama's Tale

Tama was a Soldier Mootix. Her mother Tixa was always very anxious about what would happen to her when she fought off pests, but Tama thought her mother was such a worrywart, and she never paid attention to her.

      "Pests!" cried Tixa as she always did. "Pests! Help, help!"

     Tama ran to the nests. It was a beautiful day, and the sun was shining down on the Habitarium. It wasn't an ordinary group of pests by the nests, however. It was an invasion from another Habitarium.

      "Prisoners!" shouted an invading Pinchit. "Take prisoners!"

     Tama ran forward to fight.

      "Back off!" she screamed, flinging her fists at the Pinchit. He swung his claws at her. "Get away!" Tama shouted again.

     The Pinchit grabbed Tama along with some other P3s and took her away.

      "Welcome to your new Habitarium!" he said after they had walked away from the other one. "You will all live here from now on! No trying to escape!"

     Tama gulped. The Habitarium was strange and different. The nests were on the eastern side of the Habitarium instead of being on the southern side like in Tama's Habitarium. The houses were on the southern side instead of the western side. The hospitals were in the north instead of the east and the barracks were in the west instead of the north. The storage houses weren't in a big cluster in the center but scattered all over the place. There were P3s everywhere. Tama felt her stomach growl, and she reached for a hunk of cheese nearby.

      "Back away," said a big Larnikin. "This is my cheese. Find your own. And bring me a piece of yours while you're at it."

     Tama watched as the Larnikin at the whole hunk of cheese. Then she hurried away.

      "Looking for food?" asked a Worker Pinchit in a business-like tone of voice. "I'll get you some. I'm one of the secretaries here, and I help everybody find what they need. My name's Naoma. You're Tama? Glad to meet you. There should be some cheese right around here. Yes, here you go!"

     The Pinchit handed Tama a hunk of cheese. Tama soon had eaten it all.

      "All right!" said the Pinchit. "Now we're a big Habitarium, always growing, so we need to invade other Habitariums often to keep our soldiers busy and collect valuable resources. Your raid should start... Oh! You'd better gather over by the barracks! Go on, then."

     Tama ran to the Barracks. A surly-looking Mootix was pacing around in front of a group of soldiers.

      "Now, the P3s in this Habitarium are stealthy!" he said in a commanding voice. "They will sneak around behind you and they will hurt you! Be on guard! We take no prisoners unless I say so! We steal all the resources we can! We will make the triangular formation when we walk in! Got it?"

     The Mootix stared around at all of them.

      "You!" he said to Tama. "You're new?"

      "Yes, sir," said Tama.

      "Well, fight well!" he growled.

     Tama nodded. She nervously swallowed and began to march with the other soldiers into the other Habitarium. She knocked a P3 to the ground, and then she ran to grab resources. She grabbed some grass and some mud and fought a few P3s. Then she stole water, damaged a few resource tiles, and then the captain called out:

      "Raids over! Come on, let's get OUT of here!"

     Tama followed the other P3s out of the Habitarium carrying her resources in her arms.

      "Put the resources here," said Naoma after the soldiers arrived back, indicating a large storage house with the word SOLDIERS on it. "That's the soldier storage house. It stores the things we steal from other Habitariums. We have several of them."

     Naoma walked off, leaving Tama to sit alone. She felt extremely tired, so she walked into a house. The house was light with very dim candlelight and there were three comfortable leaf and dandelion fluff beds sitting on the floor. There was a carpet of mostly moss but some grass and leaves across the floor and tiny bits of daylight crept into the room from tiny cracks in the leaf walls. A Nester Larnikin slept in one nest and the other two were empty. Tama chose one and lay down. She fell asleep. When she woke up, the Nester Larnikin was gone and a Worker Mootix had replaced her. Tama felt very refreshed and ran out of the house.

      "You're a soldier, right?" asked a Soldier Larnikin.

      "Yes," said Tama.

      "Good, I need you to help me with a raid...."

    ***

      It was a week since Tama had come to the new Habitarium. She had made some friends and proven herself to be an excellent soldier, as well as been promoted to a captain, but she ached to go back to her Habitarium and see her old friends, and even her fussy mother.

      "Alright, listen up!" said Captain Tama as she walked in front of the P3s helping her with the raid. "I want all of you to be constantly on your guard! Take no prisoners! Be on defensive! All we need is resources from them, so only fight if necessary! Get all the resources you can. Ready? Alright, let's go."

     Captain Tam led her soldiers into the Habitarium in the south. Tama's old Habitarium. She watched her soldiers grabbing resources, and she quietly slipped away into a house in the Habitarium. In there a Nester Mootix slept in one nest and a Worker Mootix in another. Tama smiled. Mixa and Tixa. She curled up in the last empty nest and fell asleep....

     Tama woke up. She could tell the raid was over. Outside she could hear P3s repairing buildings. Tama looked over to her right and saw Mixa and Tixa waking up.

      "Tama?!?" asked Tixa. "Tama, is that you?"

      "Yes!" cried Tama. "It is me! I escaped!"

      "You escaped?" asked Mixa. "Tell me all about it! What happened? What was it like?"

     Tama smiled.

      "I'll tell you later," she said. "Right now, I just want to enjoy being home..."

    ***

      Tama is living happily in the Habitarium with Tixa and Mixa to this day. She has been in charge of several raids, and one raid was against the very Habitarium that captured her. Tama's Habitarium had grown a lot bigger, and though they were not as big as the other Habitarium, they were a force to be reckoned with. The two Habitariums got in several squabbles, but finally they decided to make a truce. Eventually the two Habitariums combined, and they are now a great, huge prosperous Habitarium. And the other Habitarium gave up its silly strict rules about raids and food and storage houses when they combined with Tama's Habitarium, so they lived in peace without constantly being called to raid another Habitarium or find a different piece of food. Tama is now the leader of the combined Habitarium. Tixa is very proud to have her daughter be in this position and Mixa is even prouder to be second in command.

The End