POBee 63.1 - The King's Rewards
The Daughter of the First of the Fifth laid the last egg her current mana would permit. She gave her workers some space to tend to the new egg. Now that she needed to wait for her mana to return, she took a moment to observe her hive. Or rather, their hive.
As the Fourth of the Seventh’s workers offered to assist her with building her hive in the first place, she had worked up her courage and proposed to build one joint hive. Since they were working together anyways, it didn’t make sense to do the same job twice, she thought. And, on a more selfish note, she thought that if their hives were joined together she would have more opportunities to repay the Fourth of the Seventh for all she had done.
She recalled trembling as she had approached the Fourth of the Seventh with her unthinkable idea. What queen would share a hive with a bee other than her children? There were bees that did that…the cuckoo bees. The evil scourges that refused to produce anything of value and stole the work of others. She had prepared a full dance routine to explain her reasoning, and how her intentions were purely to improve the efficiency of both their hives. How she would never, under any circumstances, even think of exploiting the Fourth of the Seventh’s efforts, and how she fully intended to contribute back in excess of what she had received.
But, when she first asked the question, the Fourth of the Seventh cut her off and said…
“Ok!”
And now they were working together. She and her mighty savior. In a grove filled with mana flowers and protected by vast chasms, built specifically for them by the King himself. A clear sign of his favor, one that would surely please her mother greatly once she was ready to report on their progress. And that the Daughter admitted made her feel quite happy in and of itself.
She watched as her workers returned with nectar brimming with mana…including workers from the generation she feared she would lose. Instead, they were now the most numerous and energetic of her laborers yet.
And it was all thanks to the Fourth of the Seventh.
Speaking of which, one of the Fourth of the Seventh’s workers now approached her. The one who had approached her from the start and coordinated their hives efforts. The Daughter and the worker greeted one another. And then…the worker paused. She seemed hesitant to start her next dance. The Daughter crawled forward and gently brushed antenna against the worker. Their mana and pheromones had clashed at first, but at this point the hives had started to acclimate to one another. They knew they did not belong to each other, and yet they were not strangers or rivals. So, the worker relaxed and slowly began to dance.