POBee 124.2 - The First Ex-Bee-dition!

POBee 124.2 - The First Ex-Bee-dition!

The Fourth of the Seventh paused. She was currently in the mini-hive beyond the King’s realm, preparing to set out, but something shifted in the back of her mind. There, in the link to the children back in her main hive, she felt a new presence.

“Fourth of the Seventh?! Can hear?!”

A huge chunk of mana reached her, twisted into a dance by the communer that sent it. The Fourth of the Seventh’s antennae twitched and then she began to dance, the communer beside her converting the dance into mana to send back.

“First of the Fifth’s First Daughter?”

“Yes! It worked! Joined Fourth of the Seventh’s hive’s mana thanks to drone! All thanks to Fourth of Seventh! Amazing, incredible!”

The Fourth of the Seventh began a happy dance. She wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, but it seemed the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter was happy, so that was reason enough to celebrate. And it sounded like the drone she rescued did something too? She was happy he found something to do then!

And when she looked more closely, she found she could now see through the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter’s eyes, just like with her own workers! She could see her first communer glowing and passing along the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter’s mana. The drone was there too, taking mana from both hives’ workers and twisting it together. She sent her mana to them all.

“Amazing! Incredible! Great work!”

She then turned back to focus on her present surroundings. Her workers and soldiers were formed up outside. One flew in and danced a salute to her, the signal that all was clear. With that, the Fourth of the Seventh crawled out of the mini-hive, started beating her wings, and took off into the air. For today, she was joining the scouting party.

The Fourth of the Seventh initially planned to rely on her communers to watch the scouts, but with all the efforts her hive and the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter had made to let her come here, she and her scouts decided that she would join the sweep in person. The scouts had done a preliminary sweep to ensure the area was safe and then set a perimeter to keep it that way, and so now it was time for her to move. Her soldiers took up their formation around her, ready to respond to any threats, another group of scouts made a smaller perimeter around her in case the outer scouts missed anything, and a group of tenders flew next to her and monitored her own condition.

As for the queen herself?

The worker danced the negative.

“Not safe. Too close to enemy. And...is just rock? Not important?”

The Fourth of the Seventh paused to think for a moment. The worker was right on most counts. It was most assuredly not safe moving that close to the Hunger. And it was, after all, just a pile of rocks. If whoever built the rock hive wasn’t around anymore, then just an empty one.

And yet, she couldn’t take her eyes off of it. She couldn’t help but wonder what sort of being built such a hive. Were they like the karnuq? Maybe like the King, though how a being on par with the King could have lost a hive like this she couldn’t fathom.

“Can wait. King will push back Hunger eventually.”

But the worker was still correct. She was a queen, and her hive was already making great compromises allowing her out this far. She would not risk herself or them by flying into the jaws of the Hunger. One day, the King’s power would push the Hunger even further and then she’d be able to scout the rock hive to her heart’s content. Today it would be a flight too far.

So, she turned around.

“Let’s go back, get flowers for King!”

Thanks to the communer, she could see her workers and soldiers conduct a small relief dance, even though her back was turned. She buzzed her wings. Did they really think she would just fly right into danger like that? She only...slightly thought about it!

As she left, the scouts made a note of the rock hive’s location. They had noted it as a landmark, but previously hadn’t considered investigating it in full. After all, the field and forest around it were far more likely to hold ideal foraging spots. But the queen had marked it as a feature of importance. Her scouts, therefore, decided to pay a bit more attention to it, as well as to keep their eyes out for anything like it.

And indeed, while the writing of the Hunger occupied most of their attention at this distance, one scouted noted a faint hum of mana on the air, something other than the Hunger in the distance...