Chapter 170: How to Bee?

Chapter 170: How to Bee?

Belissar spent the rest of the day gathering materials and working on the Memorial hive. Upon Beero’s request, he would build a second Bee Barracks like the first, positioned just before the Memorial. The Bee Barracks would be largely as the first, but Beero and Belissar did come up with some new ideas.

The karnuq helped him carry lumber and stone to the battle meadow. At first, Belissar wasn’t going to bother then seeing as they had wounded to take care of, but when he went to ask them for material Chief Rohsuak insisted. There were plenty of karnuq who hadn’t participated in the battle, such as Muuraqi, and Chief Rohsuak reminded Belissar that working for the bees like this was precisely what the God of Bees wanted as her trial.

The karnuq quickly brought over the necessary materials. Muuraqi’s mana could cut through stone like a hot knife through butter, or stick separate pieces together like they had been solid from the beginning, so with his help the new barracks took shape rather quickly. The soldier bee army also flew over to help once they saw what was happening, dramatically speeding up work on the roof. By the end of the day, Belissar hadn’t finished all the frames, but the basic structure was already complete.

Belissar was thus able to implement the new ideas. First, Belissar made the roof flat, with an entrance and a ramp directly up to it, so that the wounded soldier bees would have a place to perform their magic dances. Beero specifically requested platforms for them, and so he obliged. Belissar also placed a stone parapet around the edges of the roof to help shield the bees from spines, breaths, or any other long-range attacks a shade might come up with. His hope was that, should a shade reach this barracks, the wounded soldiers could rain spells down on it without exposing themselves to danger, even if they couldn’t fly.

Belissar’s own idea was to place a shortcut directly within the Bee Barracks, now that he knew he could. He linked this one to the Bee Apartment the Second of the Sixth lived in, so that her medicinal bees could fly directly to Beero’s hive when they wanted to check on the wounded. Both Beero and the Second of the Sixth enthusiastically approved of the plan when he proposed it, and even now he could see medicinal bees exploring the new structure.

Now all he had to do was finish up the trays and convert the structure into a proper Bee Barracks feature and the Memorial hive would be complete. To Belissar’s chagrin, though, the time for the purification arrived before he finished. Still, the wounded bees now had a roof over their head, so Belissar could tolerate finishing up tomorrow.

Because like it or not, his Tower needed to grow, lest there be far more wounded next time...

Metsaitti stood alone in one of the larger caverns within the Dirt Tunnels. With the casualties in the bee army and most of the karnuq’s veteran hunters wounded, Tower Keeper Belissar had considered skipping today’s purification. Metsaitti had stopped him by volunteering to face this one personally.

It would be good for him, both to fulfill his duty to the Tower and to face challenges on behalf of his patron gods. But, well, if pressed Metsaitti just might admit that he was also excited to use his new blessing in battle. He had explored his new abilities since the trial, but he would not be able to take their full measure until he had used them to slay an opponent in a true battle.

And, so long as the incoming shade wasn’t one of the fireproof ones, today would be the day.

“Looks like it’s the wolf shades again. Do you need help?”

Metsaitti shook his head at the Tower Keeper’s question.

“No, I can handle that.”

“Ok. Just be careful.”

Metsaitti nodded and then took his stance, facing the tunnel ahead. He stirred up his mana as he felt the chill of the Hunger creeping ahead, his shoulders bursting into flames that took the shape of bee wings.

The tunnel ahead was just a corner that opened right into the cavern, so the shades entered the room the moment they came in sight. Metsaitti kicked off the ground before he even saw them. His wings flared up, beating and sending tongues of flame flickering behind him. He had learned, sadly, that the wings were more of a focus for his mana than a physical limb, and so he had not been able to achieve flight so far. But he did discover that it was possible to boost his speed at the very least, and so he dashed forward faster than he ever had.

The first shade growled and began to run into the room but Metsaitti was already thrusting his spear forward. He was still out of range of his physical spear, but his mana coated his weapon and thrust forward as well. Instead of the usual spear of mana, his mana formed into a bee stinger made of flames.

Yesterday had been...humbling. The Tower Keeper made it look so easy, and she could understand the bees’ own language, so she assumed it’d be the same. She’d just walk up, say hi to the bees, and do as the Tower Keeper her taught her.

Then the bees attacked.

She supposed if it was going to be that easy that the Tower Keeper wouldn’t have bothered with the lessons. She tried talking to the bees but they seemed to ignore her. And so, she had no choice but to run off.

But that would not deter her today.

She stepped forward cautiously, keeping an eye on the bees, waiting for the moment they began to react to her. As she stepped within ten karnuq paces of the hive, the bees began to turn towards her and buzz. She slowed down, very gently taking her next step.

The bees had frightened her yesterday. She had heard what they could do, how they swarmed over shades that even the hunters couldn’t handle. She thought she was dead when they swarmed around her, buzzing from every side. But they had not stung her, mostly just charging at and headbutting her. In hindsight, she realized she wasn’t truly in danger.

But that didn’t mean that they liked her or tolerated her presence. And until they did, she would not succeed.

So, she reached back into her own memories, of stories her parents had told her. They had been herders, once, before their exile. Most of their herd was lost when they were kicked from their home, the rest did not last long on the sojourn. Her family had thus been at a loss, unable to put any of their skills or craft to work. They were little more than laborers, unable to truly contribute to the clan.

That would change now, if she had anything to say about it.

Her family had certainly never interacted with bees, much less monster bees, but Paisijik believed that they were animals deep down. And if they were, then some of what her family knew of animals should apply. Paisijik thus decided to approach today by following the most basic rules of domestication there were.

She took a few steps forward. The buzzing grew louder and some of the bees began to take off from the hive, slowly hovering towards her. A few began dives towards her direction from a distance. She took that as her cue to stop. She knelt to the ground, place the jar down, and opened the lid.

Wild animals mostly considered other beings as either threats or food. If she didn’t want to be considered a threat, she needed them to associate her with food. So, with the Chief’s permission, she brought a jar of honeydew.

The bees around the hive continued to buzz at her, but some of the foragers coming and going sniffed the honeydew. One of them drifted towards her direction, hovering out of range as it watched her. She remained still.

The forager slowly hovered forward until eventually it landed on the lid of the jar. It crouched down and extended its little tongue into the sweet liquid. It lapped up the liquid for a full minute before it buzzed its wings and flew back to the hive. Paisijik smiled, and resisted the urge to move.

A few minutes later, more foragers flew out of the hive and began to drink from the honeydew. Paisijik remained completely still until the jar was empty.

Then, she slowly stood up and backed away until the bees stopped buzzing at her.

She would stay patient, and take this slowly, until the bees recognized her as a provider instead of a threat. And then...then she would be the first karnuq to learn the Tower Keeper’s own craft...while reviving her parents’ own.