The Bee Dungeon

POBee 54.3 - The Child

POBee 54.3 - The Child

The First Daughter of the First Queen of the First Dynasty of the Fifth Spawner, the Second of Her Line, lay flat against the floor with her antenna drooping, even as her mother’s worker repeated the dance. She had received a new command, she was to move her hive at once to an entirely new and unknown land, and lay claim to it in the name of her mother.

This…did not excite her. Her mother was the greatest and most productive of all the queens of the Apiary, and as such demanded excellence from all of her children. Her first daughter was no exception to that. Her mother had great expectations as to the growth of her hive, the quantity and quality of her honey, and the numbers of her workers.

But a queen was not a worker, and working as hard as she could was not a simple matter. A queen needed to carefully balance the growth of her hive against her currently available workforce. Her workers had many jobs to do: gathering nectar, processing honey, making wax, and tending the brood, all of which were necessary for the growth of the hive. If she tried to lay as many eggs as she possibly could, her worker force could end up overwhelmed by the extra tasks the new children created. Too many workers needing to build honeycomb could end up cutting their nectar gathering. Too many workers needing to gather nectar might leave the eggs and larva untended. And, of course, all of those workers required honey to sustain themselves, on top of the honey and mana required for the new brood to grow, as well as what the queen needed to replace her own reserves and keep up egg production.

The First of the Fifth’s expectations had driven her first daughter to the brink. Her hive had barely managed to balance honey production, hive expansion, and brood tending. She did not have the magical palace built by the King’s own hand her mother did, and so her workers just couldn’t produce honey as quickly as her mother’s could. Likewise, without access to the Mana Flowers her mother had, her workers had to work even harder to ensure the honey was fit for the larva.

Her mother was not unreasonable, however, and had sent her own workers and donations of her own reserves to help her daughter achieve the stated goals…at least at first. However, events elsewhere had interfered. A great battle had occurred, and her mother moved to support the King directly. She had, as a result, withdrawn her support for her daughter. Whether or not she had withdrawn her expectations as well never crossed her daughter’s mind. She had a job to do and she did her utmost to fulfill it.

Her hive came close to collapse in that time…but timely assistance by the Fourth of the Seventh’s hive had managed to carry her through. With that help, she managed to reach her mother’s expected goals for her growth. She was just stabilizing to the point she wouldn’t require assistance when her mother’s latest order came in.

This would be her greatest challenge yet. Her hive had been operating at the limits of its own production for all its history, and she thus had no reserves. Moving her hive would require her to send scouts to find locations, rebuild her entire hive, move all the honey and brood, and then locate and arrange for new foraging routes. All of that would take time and effort from all of her workers, time during which they couldn’t be making honey. And without any reserves to tide them over, that meant in the short term either her workers or her new brood would have to go hungry until the new hive was established and honey production stabilized.

She slowly crawled over to her brood, watching her workers tend the eggs and the larva lying within. Her antenna drooped once more.

She would have no choice. She could not starve her workers when they would be needed for the work of setting up the new hive and then gathering the next wave of honey. Her entire hive would starve if she did. So that meant…she would have to cut rations to her children that were not contributing.

She would have to let her latest generation starve to fulfill this command.

But to fail the command of her mother was unthinkable. To beg another queen for assistance was equally inconceivable, especially for her who had already received much. She was a queen bee. To be a bee was to complete her job or to die trying. To be a queen was to guide the hive…and to accept its failures as her own.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

She rose upon her legs as she resolved herself. She would not fail in her task, not matter the cost…

Just then, one of her workers brushed antenna with her. She turned her attention and the worker began to dance.

The Fourth of the Seventh…had come to visit?

The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter slowly crawled to the entrance, her antenna twitching about. The Fourth of the Seventh was the queen who had saved her earlier. It was thanks to her that she had been able to meet her mother’s expectations beforehand. The Fourth of the Seventh had offered said assistance unprompted and had asked for nothing in return. So, the First of Fifth’s Daughter could not help but hesitate.

What would the Fourth of the Seventh say to her? What was she like? What should she say back? How should she act?

Such thoughts nearly paralyzed her, but she was a bee queen with a great deal of work ahead of her, so she had no time to meander. As such, she made good time and crawled out of her hive.

She froze as she gazed upon the visiting queen. She was a mighty thing, nearly as large as her mother. Her wings were strong, carrying her extended abdomen in the air without strain. Her mana shone bright like the fires of the King.

“Hey! Nice to meet!”

The First Daughter was stunned as the giant queen began to dance, and so was a bit slow in her response.

“Hello. Nice to meet?”

The Fourth of the Seventh danced happily in response before continuing on.

“Just want to tell. Moving to new room. Will keep trying to help but might slow down.”

The First Daughter froze.

“Fourth of the Seventh moving…to new room?”

“Yes!”

The First Daughter was having trouble thinking and so just danced out something related.

“Me too.”

She nearly took a step back as the Fourth of the Seventh flew right up to her.

“Really? You too?!”

“Y-Yes?”

The Fourth of the Seventh began a dance more rapid than the First Daughter would have thought possible for her size.

“Let’s move together! Help each other, build hives together!”

The First Daughter froze. An unrelated queen…wanted to build hives together? It took her a while to respond.

“…can’t.”

The Fourth of the Seventh drooped mid-air.

“Why not?”

The First Daughter’s antenna twitched about rapidly at the sight of the Fourth of the Seventh drooping. The First Daughter did not wish to speak of her own failures, but the Fourth of the Seventh was her savior and deserved to know.

“My hive, no reserves. Can’t help.”

The Fourth of the Seventh rose back in the air.

“No reserves? Hive ok for move?”

The First Daughter couldn’t bring herself to admit it, but she also couldn’t bring herself to lie, and so just stood in silence. Unfortunately, that in itself was enough of an answer for the Fourth of the Seventh.

“It’s ok! My hive has! I help! New room has lots of flowers and can ask Firstborn if not enough!”

The First Daughter took a few steps back at that. The Fourth of the Seventh…was offering to help her? She quickly began a dance.

“No. Won’t bother.”

But the Fourth of the Seventh flew up to her, overwhelming the smaller queen.

“Not bother! Firstborn and Conduit says we hive of hives! All King’s bees help! We help now, you help later! First of Fifth helped too, gave new flowers! Now I help First of Fifth's daughter!”

The First Daughter couldn’t respond to that. Her mother…had helped the Fourth of the Seventh? Gave her flowers? If all this were true…

The First Daughter very slowly danced her response, more of a crawl than a dance.

“…ok. Please help.”

“Yes! Let’s go! Need get hive ready!”

The Fourth of the Seventh danced happily mid-air, leaving the First Daughter to collapse on the floor of her hive once more as she stared up at the mighty and glorious queen flying around, the sun shining off of her chitin. Once again, the Fourth of the Seventh was helping her unprompted. Once again, the mighty queen didn’t even think to ask her for anything in return. And once again, the help was truly necessary. If the Fourth of the Seventh helped her, if she shared her reserves during the move…then The First Daughter’s hive would not need to cut rations. Her youngest children would not starve.

She could fulfill her mother’s command without sacrificing her hive in the process.

“Hey, you ok?”

The Fourth of the Seventh noticed her on the ground and flew over to check. The First Daughter looked up at her for a moment.

She didn’t remember what happened after that, only that she began to dance. She didn’t know what sort of dance it was, only that she needed to convey her gratitude, and that the normal dance was insufficient to express what she felt. She danced until both the Fourth of the Seventh’s workers and her own retrieved their queens and began to prepare for the impending move.

The First Daughter then walked over to the brood and brushed an antenna against one of the larva, ignoring the honey sticking to her as a result. She swore to herself in that moment.

One day, she would repay the Fourth of the Seventh for all she had done.