Finding Order In Our Journey
The week just past has been at times revolting, and sometimes riveting, as one might expect with such a mix of creatures. The genius of our society, is that the perspective of buzzer, beast and human are so vastly different. As the Royal First Cousin, I've never had the chance to spend time in the outdoors, and some surprises I pass along, for the bee reader especially.
First of all, the human appears to be quite afraid of even a single bee. Though, of course, in the past we have faced them across the battlefield with numbers, it never occurred to me that they would find a single one of us to be a thing of terror. The human little ones, especially, seem to fear us, and will run muttering and shaking their huge limbs at the approach of even a single bee. Had this been generally known throughout our history, breeding levels for war needn't have been so high.
Note the surprisingly high level of fear scent coming from them.
There is, it should be said, an attractiveness to the human grubs, or children as they call them. Apparently, they are thrust out into the world quite early, at a stage where a bee would still be encased in wax and egg fluid. They are driven to tears and fears easily, but they at other times show great courage, and other qualities, such as a naive nobility. Not nearly in the class of a Queen's nobility, to be sure, but . . . nonetheless a nobility.
But their parents, that is another matter. An incident happened on the third day out, at the Hive of zzz'Dekk, the Queen's Sister. I informed Mayor Reg of the Queen's wishes, that but one human female eat of the honey stores, and that the others were to feed from that female.
Something approaching a riot ensued. Lou'ulf intervened, and explained that humans, like wolves, were polymatriarchal(a society with multiple mothers), and wouldn't dream of feeding in such a manner. Bees, used to gorging and disgorging food for others, who were all from a single mother, shared without shame in the Queen's bounty. zzz'Dekk, being very wise, offered honey to all who cared to eat of it, though describing it as 'vomited flower sugars.' In this way both she and Queen zzzzz'Drom saved face, and honey both, as not many of the humans cared to eat.
Once the feeding was through, we, or rather, I, had occasion to visit the Sister Queen in her chambers. When talk of Archaeology held her interest, she mentioned that a ruin existed not far from her hive, a ruin of an old water channel. Though I was not eager for a side trip after three days' journey, she wouldn't be resisted, and the bees who went were rewarded with a glimpse of the KinterSylvanian human past.
The Water Channel Ruins
The channel was just north of the hive, near the Sweet Sea, a ready source of fresh water. Originally sitting on iron towers, as was the whole of the ancient aqueduct system, this section had not rotted away with rust, because it had been encased for centuries by a small local bee hive, in the years before advanced medical care caused the buzzer population to soar, and hives had to become larger to accommodate. The fossilized hive itself, though it stretches out to encase the support tower and pipe, is barely half a meter in diameter, and could only have housed several hundred thousand bees. The water channel, for its part, consists of a few remaining flakes of iron, imbedded within the combs that once surrounded it. It measures only 25 centimeters in diameter. One can conclude from the small size, that the water channel fed tiny human populations, or that humans were once much smaller than they are at present, and required less water. The water channel could not have quenched the thirst of many, if humans depended upon it for their supply.
I asked Mayor Reg about the size of the channels, and he agreed that they were inadequate for water supply. He noted that the ancient human word for the water channels was 'Seep T'oara,' which means 'place of fish.' That conjured the hilarious image of humans sending their food supply through the pipes, letting the fish swim thousands of miles, only to be eaten for their trouble.
I think that Mayor Reg was pulling my feeler.
The trip to zzz'Dekk's hive was a good shake-down. The next hive would be fully seven days' journey, each day being forty miles or more. A lark for bees, a dance for wolves, the humans would, in the going, as in the society at large, be the anchor tying progress to a tree.
Scented into wax by me, zzzzz'ZOE, the Royal First Cousin, on this day, Twenty-Seven Roklee, in the year 15910.
Expedition Report -- 27 Roklee, 15910 -- 10 April
The Journal of BubbleLand Studies
© Copyright 1993, Local Author Stories
