BD - POBee 447.1 - Bee-g Plans (Patreon)

The Third Chimeric Queen of the First Dynasty of the First Chimeric Spawner, the first of her line, was standing completely still atop a flower, for she had no idea what she was supposed to do. She had scarcely come to awareness when the First Chimeric Queen showed up, cowed her into submission, introduced her to a prey bee empress, and then started telling her about the Great Essence-Weaver’s plan.

To be honest, she had absorbed very little other than the monster bee empress First Chimeric Queen had shared with her.

Something about empires of prey and predators that all followed the Great Essence-Weaver’s will. And there was something about hives made of hives, which sounded delicious until she was informed there would be no eating prey. And then the prey gave her a full, queen-less hive that would apparently willingly feed her honey and take care of her brood.

It was all a bit…much. All she really understood was that the Great Essence-Weaver’s plan were far beyond her comprehension.

And now, she found herself at a gathering of the Great Essence-Weaver’s thralls, utterly surrounded by prey of all shapes and sizes. Yet, she apparently didn’t have to disguise herself because she wasn’t supposed to infiltrate their hives? It was…strange.

So, she just stood still and watched, observing, trying to catch up with all the incomprehensible happenings that greeted her first day of life…

At that moment, a shadow passed over her and heavy buzzing filled the air. Her eyes caught sight of something that made her flutter her wings and clack her jaws.

There, joining the gathering, was the biggest prey she had every seen, a bigger prey than she could ever imagine, a prey queen that was bigger than an entire mundane hive! Stingers would bounce off her chitin…if they weren’t knocked away by the forest of fuzz covering her body. Her wings could blow away a swarm. Her stinger could threaten a bear, a predator of bees that even a chimeric cuckoo bee feared.

Suddenly, all of the Third Chimeric Queen’s thoughts came into focus. Incomprehensible plans? Rival queens taking charge? Prey that wasn’t acting like prey? All of it faded away as a single thought dominated her mind.

She wanted to be big.

Her instincts immediately complained. They warned her that being big would prevent her from infiltrating any hives, would make it all too easy for the prey to spot something wrong. They told her she wasn’t ready, she didn’t have the essence or the aspects necessary to take on such powerful prey, nor the food and mana to sustain such a form. They told her that this was a goal that was far in the future, that it would be the culmination of her life’s work to prepare herself to take such an essence. That such essence would be of no use to her until she was so powerful she could crush entire prey hives outright.

But then…she remembered that she wasn’t supposed to infiltrate hives in the first place and that it wasn’t necessary for her to hide at all. She didn’t need to acquire the food or mana herself, the prey bees had already given her a thrall hive to do that. She may not even need to take on the big prey to get its essence…the prey empress had given her a bunch of larva moltings and said they’d provide whatever she needed. She didn’t have to fight prey at all, much less crush their hives. They, in turn, were not attempting to crush her, nor bar her access to their essence, so she had no need to defend herself either.

So…could it be…she could get the big essence…right now? Could she start getting big…right away?

If so…if that were really true…then the Third Chimeric Queen felt she understood a little of how great the Great Essence-Weaver’s plans really were.

***

Meanwhile, as the meeting continued, First Bloodsucking Sister separated from Big Sister First Butcher for the first time ever. She buzzed her wings, feeling as if she were exposed to predators all around, but she pressed on. This was necessary for Big Sister First Butcher’s own sake, so she had to do it.

She instead flew over to another bee, one of the wisest and most powerful queens in Big Brother King’s entire realm.

“Hi, Fourth of Seventh Honey Sister. Have request, can help?”

The Fourth of the Seventh Honey Sister spun around.

“Hi First Bloodsucking Queen! Ok, will help! What need?”

First Bloodsucking Sister was a bit taken aback, having expected to have to convince the other queen. But Big Sister First Butcher was amazingly and incredibly generous and kind, so it made sense that the other sisters would be too. The honey sisters gave honey to both her and Big Sister First Butcher, after all.

“Want send bees hunt in Beyond. First Guardian Angel Sister will help. Fourth of the Seventh Honey Sister’s scouts can show where? Show how avoid hive-burners?”

A little shimmer of light revealed the guardian angel worker riding on First Bloodsucking Sister’s back. The Fourth of the Seventh Honey Sister spun around.

“Ok…wait, no. Can’t answer.”

The Fourth of the Seventh Honey Sister slammed to a halt, then spun and turned towards Big Brother King.

“Normal Beyond full of spider-King-things, so can’t forage there. But skunk-King things have places with no spider-King things! Just need ask if can go there, so need ask King.”

First Bloodsucking Sister turned towards Big Brother King and buzzed her wings. She hadn’t talked with Big Brother King since she had spawned…and to be honest, she was more than a little nervous to. He was the one who created the meat and bloodbags for all the butcher and bloodsucking sisters to feast on. He himself was full of powerful blood containing the mana of the very realm itself. While she would never even consider feeding on him, just the presence of his blood made her own hemolymph ripple. He was an overwhelming existence to even approach.

But she forced her wings to stop. After all, this was necessary for her plans and for her to protect and give back to Big Sister First Butcher.

“Ok, will ask King…”

Only to find that Fourth of the Seventh Honey Sister hadn’t waited for her and was already dancing with Big Brother King.

***

Meanwhile, one of the Fourth of the Seventh’s tunneling nomadic scouts were still keeping watch on the spider-King things. More and more of them were moving through the tunnels beneath King’s realm every day…and each wave of new spider-King things was more powerful than the last. The tunneling nomadic scout stood almost completely still, only moving the absolute minimum that was necessary to keep air flowing through her body.

Fortunately, they had not discovered her, nor the path she was guarding. The fair ones’ magic had once again hidden the route up to King’s realm and the spider-King things hadn’t seemed to notice, so none of them approached. They mostly seemed to run down in the direction the hive-burners had fled and away from King’s realm, which was good.

But then, tunneling nomadic scout had to suppress a buzz. Her antennae just caught a whiff of powerful mana, the most powerful mana she had sensed from the spider-King things thus far. She did one final swing of her abdomen for breath, then stood completely still.

She felt rather than saw as a spider-King thing emerged from the shadows, as if she had crawled out of them. All the other spider-King things in the area immediately stopped what they were doing and saluted to her. The one that seemed to be in charge walked up to the newcomer.

“Daughter of Liberation, we’ve been expecting you! The area is secure, neither Hunger nor monster will interfere with the Queen of Liberation’s march!”

The tunneling nomadic scout listened in, grateful for the fair one’s spell that let her interpret spider-King thing words. The Daughter of Liberation inclined her head.

“Good, but the Hunger shouldn’t be the main threat in this area, right? What of the God’s Nest, have there been any movements from its defenders?”

The other spider-King thing shook her head.

“No, but there’s no tunnels connecting us to them, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

The Daughter of Liberation paused, then narrowed her eyes.

“No tunnels connecting us? That is not what your queen reported. Didn’t the Sorcerer Kings, the ones she pursues even now, besiege the God’s Nest using this very location as a supply base? How, then, is it possible there are no tunnels connecting this place to the God’s Nest?”

The other spider-King blinked.

“That’s because…huh?”

The other spider-King kept blinking. The Daughter of Liberation ignored her and began glancing at the walls. The shadows twisted around her as her mana crept out, tendrils of shadow grasping at the dirt and stone. The tunneling nomadic scout stood stiller than she ever had…because the Daughter of Liberation was walking straight towards her and the hidden path. The spider-King thing stopped right in front of the path, which the fair one’s magic should have been hiding from her…

A moment later, she smirked.

“Ah, I see what’s going on. What a surprise…it’s not just a rival Underway tribe that lives here, is it?”

The other spider-King thing tilted her head.

“Daughter of Liberation, is something the matter?”

The Daughter of Liberation shook her head.

“Nothing for you to concern yourselves with. Return to your vigil and prepare for the Army of Liberation’s arrival. The queen plans to march straight through, so we will only need a quick resupply.”

The other spider-King thing saluted and then she and the others all got back to work. The tunneling nomadic scout didn’t relax yet, though, because the Daughter of Liberation didn’t step away.

In fact, she turned to face the hidden path…and then looked up, staring right at the tunneling nomadic scout’s hiding place.

“No, we have someone who is familiar with this sort of thing. Don’t you worry, she’ll be arriving soon.”

With that, the Daughter of Liberation turned and marched away, vanishing back into the darkness. The tunneling nomadic scout waited until she could feel no further trace of the spider-King thing’s mana…then began frantically tapping on the alert web.

Author’s Note:

Good, Third Chimeric queen, goooood. You are catching on well, you’ve glimpsed deeper into the Great Essence-Weaver’s plan than most. No instinct must stand in the way of beeg bees!

…so, someone tell the silly non-bees that they better not stand in the way either, or we’ll let First Bloodsucking Sister hunt more bloods.

Anyways!

Can Third Chimeric Queen become big? Will Big Brother King answer First Bloodsucking Sister’s request? Will the non-bees do something silly? Tune in next time, to find out!