The Journal of BubbleLand Studies
Scented into wax by me, zzzzz'ZOE, the Royal First Cousin, on this day, Four Oak, in the year 15910.Deep in the wilderness, the Archaeological Expedition, now openly in rebellion against Queen zzzzz'Drom, forms the New Republic of BubbleLand, naming the new government after a mythical ancient land, dimly remembered by Bees, Beasts, and Humans.
A new Queen was chosen, Queen Sarah I, the daughter of Mayor Reg, killed by zzzzz'Drom's Scorpion Bees in a DownSizing.
New BubbleLand faced many dangers; pursuit by zzzzz'Drom, and a newly discovered hiveless Bee culture directly in the path of the fleeing Archaeological expedition. Newly elected Prime Minister zz'Tain, a microbee waxware engineer, negotiates with the new culture, trying to win passage.
The Hiveless Bee
By
zzzzz'ZOE, For Queen Sarah I
The Archaelogical Party wasn't expecting anything out of the ordinary, as we huddled for breakfast beneath the crowns of pine and fir in the ButterSnow IceField. Bees were swarmed and organized as usual, maintaining a shamed distance from the Humans, whose number had been decimated by our renounced Queen, and my Cousin, zzzzz'Drom.
A small clearing separated us, one devoid of any but the most ordinary flora and grasses, and messenger Wolves padded endlessly from Bees to Humans and back, as we planned the day's movements, trying to zig in anticipation of zzzzz'Drom's zags.
zz'Tain, the new Prime Minister, was thought far away, in negotiations with a hiveless race of Bees, trying to win passage through their territory. We didn't dream we were about to meet one.
Hours before his expected return, zz'Tain's Wolf burst into the camp, sides heaving from the burden of the Wolf-back Hive. The hackles on the Wolf's back stood at strictest attention, causing a stir among us.
"It's, Whoa!, war!" gasped the Wolf. "They've, Whoa!, sent trackers, but we lost them!"
It was then that one of the most discerning among us noticed a peculiar scent coming from the Wolf's back. The unmistakeable laughing scent of a Bee!
Queen Sarah came running with the other children, indistinguishable from them with her small leatherleaf toy bag. A crisp yelp from zz'Tain's Wolf reminded her to stay back, among the other youngsters, so as not to give herself away. She remained beneath the trees, watching her Bee servants carefully surround zz'Tain's Wolf, and the unknown intruder.
zz'Tain hurried from the Hive, and I swerved to meet him. His antenna sprang in surprise as he, too, whiffed the stranger. "Oh zz'Omma!" he moaned. "We're discovered."
Again, a strong laughing scent wafted from the back of the Wolf, inviting us to discover the tracker, as though he had no fear of us. "Do you think he saw Sarah and the children?" asked zz'Tain, his tiny head bent in shame.
"I'm not sure," I said. We waited, silently, until three of our Bees approached us, their scholars' bearing all but erased by the rigors of our odyssey.
"We have found a disgusting Thing," said one of them.
zz'Tain and I accepted his gestured invitation.
'Thing' was a fitting description for this Bee, if Bee he be. Apicultured Bees have the decency to go about unclothed, that all might see their secrets. As I circled this barbarian, however, I shuddered to notice that he wore a tail garment, as though treasuring up a stinger of superior quality to ours. Swallowing the insult, I resolved to thoroughly inspect him, because of the implications for Archaeology.
The Bee didn't even rise to greet me, but lay back in his hiding place, a cradle of Wolf-hair. His legs entangled it, almost woven into the thick gray fur. Though slightly smaller than a Hive Bee, probably due to poorer nutrition, he held his head high, as one used to gazing about in freedom, away from the stares of Bee Counters, wax manufacturing, and honey production. He now laughed right in our faces, and his scent spoke of disdain, especially for me.
I found his air of superiority incredible, considering his abominable appearance. Each yellow stripe on his abdomen had been tattoed in crude symbols, in raspberry and blackberry juices. Body piercings with animal hair gave him a bristly appearance that must have slowed his flight considerably. Still, his leatherleaf garment was most offensive. A conical leatherleaf butt-helm, laced up and secured at the narrow waist by braided threads of white spider silk, was the largest article of his outfit, but by no means the strangest. Extra black mandibles grew from his cheeks, ornamentally grafted in. Scratches and scars marred the shine from his body, and even his wings appeared to have been scarred with bites, in patterns I could not recognize.
A long bundle of sheerest mothwing, secured by ant-jaws, was slung over his back. zz'Tain cautioned me not to stare at the bundle, as it had some religious significance concerning ancestral remains, but his warning was too late.
Sensing my interest, the pierced barbarian leapt deftly from his rest, and released the ant-head fasteners from his bundle.
"What's he doing?" I asked zz'Tain. "It doesn't look like a religious ritual."
"I'm not sure," he said. "They do that when they're angry."
As we circled slowly upon the Wolf's back, the Bee wafted something whose scent I couldn't understand. New grotesquenesses became visible down his back, a ridge of grafted-in ant-skulls, their dead and open mandibles presenting fierce gargoyles, but serving no purpose that I could see.
"We can't let him get away," whispered zz'Tain. "He mustn't leave . . . for Sarah's sake."
"I know," I said wafting a silent command scent to my ablest Bees. They exploded at him in a small whirlwind of yellow and brown, splashing the air with their shining wings.
The stranger's own wings screamed with anger, and he unrolled the mothwing bundle faster than eye or scent could follow, uncovering an armory of slender thorns.
"What the . . . ?" said zz'Tain.
"Ancestral body parts? Those are Bee Stingers!" With a deft motion, he rolled his back over the thorns, and the ridge of snapping ant-heads closed their mandibles around one.
"Here is a Bee with a dozen stings!" I shouted. No wonder he had looked so fearless. His bravery didn't cost him certain death, as it would for us. I feared for my young Bees.
He charged through our number, stinging several times. The blows were not lethal, but the dead stinger still could burn its victims out of fight and flight. When the stinger broke free of the ant mandibles, he returned to snap one once again upon his back. Our Bees backed off of him."He's going to escape!" said zz'Tain. "And I brought this upon us all!"
The Bee had clutched up his bundle once again, ready to flee, when suddenly, Queen Sarah and the other children stepped from the brush. The effect on the stranger was immediate, and staggering. His flight stopped as if a spider snared him from the sky, and he hovered motionless in the shadow of their giant figures. I could see that his eyes were on Sarah, and on her toy bag.
"Grab him!" shouted a Bee.
"No!" I ordered, sensing a change in the stranger. The Bee remained motionless, and I gave orders for my Bees to land down. Reluctance mixed with relief flew like rumor among the Archaeologists. And it was then, drunk with the tiniest taste of peace, that we let our guard down.
And zzzzz'Drom struck.
A Wolf howl cried from the camp, where zz'Bic's Browser Hive lay saddled on his fine Grey Wolf. A Scorpion Bee struck at his neck before he could rise on his speedy legs. He choked out his dying howl, and zz'Bic cried nearly as loudly, rushing to his Wolf's side.
He raced right into a tempest of soldier Bees, who quickly subdued the tiny waxware engineer. My eyes met the puzzled eyes of the Hiveless Bee. "zzzzz'Drom!" I said, mixing as much fear and disgust as I could into the scent.
He cried, "zEmma!"
"zz'Omma?" I said, shaking my head. "This is no time for praying!"
It was his turn to shake his head. "zEmma! zEmma!" His gestures beckoned me up into Sarah's defense.
"No!" I said. "We are outnumbered. Her only hope is to hide among the other children. To defend Sarah would be her DownSizing!"
He looked at Sarah, then at me. I whiffed a scent of understanding. Then the Hiveless Bee did the strangest of things, and changed irrevocably my estimation of his appearance. He bowed his head to me and spread out his wings into their silvery, bite-scarred beauty.
And in their patterned bite marks, the sunlight revealed a mystery that our cursory inspection of his wings had not. There was a figure, not of Wolf, or Bee, or anything else the Hiveless Bee had ever seen, but it was unmistakable. A Human girl, with a leatherleaf bag at her feet.
"zEmma," he said. "zEmma."
The fragile picture blurred into wing flight, and the flyer vanished as well. I turned back to the clamor, to face my fate at zzzzz'Drom's feet. I whispered the name, trying to caress it with the stranger's accent.
"zEmma," I said.
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3 July, 1996 -- Expedition Report -- 4 Oak, 15910
