The Bee Dungeon

The Firstborn flew to the Memorial, the first to arrive as the queens of the Flower Meadow gathered at the end of the day. They had agreed to confer with one another once each day so that the queen in command of the army could report to the others on what she had done and any changes she had made, as well as to confirm would be in charge next. Soon, they all had arrived and formed a circle with the queen in command for the day, the First of the Third, in the center. She began to dance…

The First of the Third’s report resulted in buzzing wings and twitching antenna. The Firstborn herself couldn’t help rise in the air a bit. The sprayers had performed remarkably well in their first battle. The shade had hardly a chance to retaliate as they took it down and not once was a single bee in any real danger.

The Firstborn’s mind wandered a bit. Would these sprayers have changed the outcome of the battle against the flying enemy? It certainly seemed possible. The shade’s overwhelming speed may have been less of a hurdle to the sprayers, who could still have landed attacks even if they couldn’t catch up to it. Bees attacking from a distance also would have had more time to evade when it turned to assault them or when it unleashed its lightning attack.

On the other hand, the sprayers did not seem faster than the shade had been, so if they had all been deployed forward and the shade got past them the outcome may have ended the same regardless. The shade may have taken a toxic spray or two, but would that have been enough to bring it down? It may have been weakened, but the Firstborn imagined it would still have come down to her and the wounded soldier in that case.

Still, she had not yet seen the sprayers in action so she could not say for sure. The point was that they should not neglect their current efforts just because they had a new type of soldier. The sprayers would do their job and do it well. It was the queen’s role to put them in a position to succeed.

But she put her wonderings aside, for the First of the Third indicated she had more to say.

“Also, met Fourth of Seventh, here in Flower Meadow…”

That alone stopped all dancing and pondering and brought every queen’s attention back to her, the Firstborn’s included. The only time queens had moved between the rooms were major battles, the King’s banquets, or when the First of the Fifth came to coordinate with her. So, the Firstborn knew that this news must be important.

But even she did not anticipate the First of the Third’s next dance.