POBee 108.1 - Exploration Bee-gins!

POBee 108.1 - Exploration Bee-gins!

But the Third of the Sixth was not the only one about to fly to their destiny. The joint hive of the Orchard was a flurry of activity. A large group of bees gathered at the front of the hive, including several newly born soldiers and a new communer, a contingent of workers, and all of the scouts who normally would have spread out beyond the Tower. And, of course, the two queens and the communer. The communer was scrambling around the ground, moving as fast as her legs and wings would carry her as she kept brushing different bees with her antennae.

“Ok, have soldiers?”

The Fourth of the Seventh followed her.

“Yes!”

“Workers to build mini-hive?”

“Yes!”

“Have honey for trip?”

The Fourth of the Seventh crawled over to a piece of honeycomb, which was being tied by many smaller ropes to the worker bees.

“Yes!”

“Know which where going to build? Which way to fly?”

“Yes!”

“Not going to get distracted until mini-hive built, right?”

The Fourth of the Seventh flew over to her first communer and brushed antennae.

“Communer, is going to be alright. Not leaving forever, will be back quick! Communer can watch the entire way!”

The communer’s antennae and wings drooped but she paused and allowed her queen to continue brushing her.

“Sure? Queen promises?”

The Fourth of the Seventh used her antennae to turn the communer around, so that she was facing the bees preparing to depart.

“Promise! And won’t be alone! Soldiers will protect, workers will take care, communer will keep track. And if anything happens, will come right back! Believe in sisters!”

The communer drooped a bit more before picking herself up.

“Ok, go ahead. Stay safe. And...enjoy, queen.”

The Fourth of the Seventh brushed her communer once more before turning to the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter, and all of the newborn queens standing behind her. They all had the same expression, and the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter danced for them all.

“Looks great! Let’s get to work, then!”

Her workers and saluted and construction of the mini-hive began.

Somewhere else far, far away, Ruckanos stood imperiously at the edge of their camp as the scouts returned. They had set up in a small forest clearing, hidden from the Tower in the area by the trees.

“Well?”

The scouts shook their heads.

“No settlements near the Tower, sir.”

Ruckanos sighed and shook his head.

“Well, let’s forage what we can, then.”

A wyvern could fly far and fast, a species that in the wild was known to spend nearly all of their time in the air. But even they required food and rest eventually, so Ruckanos was forced to put down whenever they found a purified area. Ideally, they would find a settlement of relatively civilized folk who they could...persuade to offer supplies. Unfortunately, they had no such luck yet. Records of past Grand Subjugations indicated that beyond the boundaries of the Conclave, the vast majority of Towers were small and their purified zones unoccupied by civilized people, or even subhumans.

And were he a normal Grand Subjugation participant, this would have been a great find. A small Tower like this would be relatively easy to intimidate...or conquer. But Ruckanos was no normal participant. He had been chosen by the gods for this mission, and he would not waste time on any Tower but the one he was seeking. The gods demanded thus.

Additionally, his force was quite small even as far as the initial scouting wave was concerned. If they wanted to have the strength to deal with the target Tower, they could not afford any casualties enroute. So, he would ignore this minor Tower for now, and content himself with the bounty of its territory. Assuming there was any bounty to find. An isolated Tower like this was not guaranteed to have any edible flora or fauna dwelling in its territory at all.

Just then, he heard a buzzing. A bee flew past his face, landing on a flower a short distance from his feet. He scowled and pulled back the mana he had subconsciously stirred up. For some reason, despite their isolation, every single purified territory they had landed in had bees. In the past, he would have blown away any such creature that dared approach him, especially the ones armed with stingers. However, this was to be a long journey where preserving their strength was critical. Ruckanos could not permit himself any unnecessary expenditure of any resource, including his own mana. So, he just kept scowling and backed away from the creature.

If they at least had the decency to offer up their honey, he might have forgiven them. But, for some reason, his scouts had failed to find a single beehive in any of the purified territories despite the constant presence of the workers. But Ruckanos shook his head and cleared those thoughts. It was a minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things. Such paltry creatures paled in comparison to a mission from the gods, so he’d treat them as the gods did...

Later that night, one of Ruckanos’s entourage walked over to his wyvern. He glanced around before opening the pack, and slowly removing some of his provisions. After a bit, he found something he had not packed at all. A small beehive, covered in wax. A big bee poked her head out of the hole, the queen herself if he wasn’t mistaken.

The man...smiled.

“Hello little bee. We’re leaving tomorrow so don’t send out your workers, ok?”

The queen buzzed her wings. The man didn’t know if she could actually understand him, but he figured these weren’t normal bees when they didn’t swarm him after he first discovered them. He took his water pouch and dripped a small pool on top of the hive. The queen and a couple of the workers came out to drink from it. The man watched them for a bit.

“Sure you don’t want to stay here? Lots of flowers here, you know?”

But the bees ignored him, finished drinking, and then climbed back into their hive. The man sighed.

“No again, huh? I don’t think you want to go where we’re headed, little bee. None of us are coming back, you know? I hoped you would make it but...I guess you can’t understand me after all. Ah well, as long as you’re happy for now, I guess. That would make one of us on this trip...”

The man slowly repacked his provisions before turning in for the night. They had a long trip ahead of them and no end in sight the man wanted to consider...