Epic of Bee

"Just as we were finishing gathering the nectar from the flowers, the Virgin Queen showed up. Leah had already warned us, and we got away quickly. They saw us, I\'m sure of it, and they left before even harvesting the flowers," Talli explained.

"That means that we don\'t Hive a lot of time; they could be coming at any time now," I said as I tapped my fingers nervously.

"Not until at least tomorrow. The Queen won\'t come in the night; it will be too hard for them to coordinate. They will most likely come tomorrow in the morning," Leah explained, but that didn\'t make me feel a whole lot better.

"How are we doing on getting everything loaded up?" I asked as I could see people walking around the rings bringing up supplies and belongings.

"Almost complete, we should be done and ready to move within the hour," Thiamon announced.

"We have enough food on hand to last us four, possibly five days at most; one of our main goals should be to secure something to prepare and cook food," Tita explained.

"Yes, once everyone is loaded, we will Bee going directly to the Nightmare Falls. From there, I will complete the second Hive mission, and then we will be coming back here to pick up the five Hive Sections Pixie and the other workers completed," I explained to the gathered group of council members and all my Bees.

Pixie had flat hexagonal rooms that were about four meters tall, and each was just a bit wider than tall at five meters across. There would be plenty of room for small crops in two of them, food in the next two, and then the Cockatrice ranch, but we had to leave them behind for now.

Even if the Virgin Queen got to the village before we did, they wouldn\'t touch the birds. If we saw them there before we got back, we would have to wait.

There was also a chance that they wouldn\'t altogether leave until they brought another race to take the village over. So, time was essential for us if we wanted to make it back to get the havebesections and birds.

"All right, everyone knows what we are doing? Sooner we can get moving, the better. Please send Tag and Sig in; I need to talk to them about the crystal Sig will be getting for me," I asked Riza, but Leah stood up and put a hand up.

"Let me, they are out helping clear Miku and Xani\'s hut right now, so I will take their place. Keep Riza and Joni with you at all times. Even when in the Hive, just to keep in the habit. After hearing about the Predators you encountered, and now the Queen is starting to move, so we need to place your security at the highest level," Leah explained, and Messia stood up to second her statement and voice her own opinion.

"I also think that for the time being, you should stay within the Hive. Only until we Hive a proper guard that can handle problems as they arise, but at the moment, they can\'t handle the predators or a full Legion of Worker Bees," Messia explained.

"Wait, what? A Legion? That\'s…"

"Four thousand worker Bees will be sent here tomorrow, and they will be the first or second Legion, all are stronger the Leah, by a lot," Messia explained calmly, but I was feeling anything but calm.

"Hold on, how many legions does the Queen have?" I asked in disbelief, and this is where Leah spoke up again.

"Normally, the Queen would have about thirty-two thousand worker Bees in the Hive. Now, because of the new Virgin Queen and the current Queen still being able to give birth, there is swelling for a storm, and there will be over fourteen Legions of Worker Bees," Leah explained, and I just gaped.

How is that even possible? Fifty-six thousand workers that doubled as an army if needed. There was no way I could stop even a quarter of a single Legion right now.

Not even half of that, and we would still have more than four to one odds against us, but my people weren\'t all guards. The few that we had didn\'t have much experience, so we stood no chance to deal with them; we would just be crushed.

"Okay, let\'s just get everything loaded up and get moving. I don\'t want to lose the pods or the birds, so we need to get back here as soon as possible," I said after taking a deep breath and letting it back out.

Everyone nodded their heads and broke away from the table to take care of their assigned tasks. Miasma and now Serria were the only ones left around me, and I needed the two of them right now.

I was actually starting to get really stressed out about this, and part of me wanted to start yelling at people to hurry up, but that was the old part of me. My Queen brain told me that my Subjects were all moving and getting their work done, and I needed to leave them to it.

What I needed to do was distract myself with something and calm myself down. I was letting my emotions get the best of me, which meant that everyone would feel my stress and uncertainty.

Then I heard the soft vibrating purr of Serria from beside me, and then Miasma came and sat in my lap and leaned back. She turned her head, and I met her lips with mine, blasting all previous thoughts away like the thoughts were nothing more than smoke in the wind.

After we finished, not wanting to get into any heavy petting, I reached out one of my hands to Serria, and she placed her soft, oversized paw hand into mine. Instantly, I felt my body loosen up, and the unspoken stress seemed to melt off me like butter in the sun.

"Thank you, both of you; I really needed that, but now there is a new option in the Hive Menu for a shop, so I think that we should check that out right now. I am hoping that there might be something that we can buy from it to help us with our current problems," I explained to the girls, and they both nodded in excitement as I pulled open the menu for the Hive.