The Bee Dungeon

Chapter 5: Bee the Builder

Belissar walked back over to where his monster bee was still making her first little hive. His heartbeat slowed and his mind calmed as he watched the bee buzz around, and little comb cells take shape.

So, he was trapped here, waiting either for the gods to judge him or for the Tower to purify the Hunger surrounding it. Oh, and the local Tower Lord’s son had burned his village to the ground, cutting down everyone in it, including himself.

Belissar frowned. He wasn’t particularly close to anyone in the village, not since the old beekeeper who took him in had died. And even before that, the rest of the village had little interest in him after he lost his parents. But still, the idea that everyone he knew, good or bad, was gone...

He shook his head. His had been an unlucky life, and now it seemed that misfortune had spread. Perhaps that was why he was now out here, besieged by the Hunger. But what could he do? The situation wouldn’t change if he sat here moping about it. The gods hadn’t smote him yet for defiling their gift, so he may as well do...something.

He walked around the field, passing by the trees and scouring the field around them. He picked up whatever fallen branches he could find. He wasn’t sure why there were fallen branches when the trees had just grown today, but he wasn’t about to complain. Especially not about the inner workings of a Tower of the Gods. He also began to pick some of the dandelions as he made his way back over to the monster bee’s tree.

And then, he got to work.

He picked the flowers off of the dandelions and gathered their stems. He found a low-hanging branch and tied the dandelion stems together, hanging them from the branch. Now he just had to wait for the sun and the breeze to dry them out.

And while he was waiting, he thought about what else he could do. He frowned as he realized his priorities were wrong. If he was going to be trapped here for who knows how long, he would need food, water, and shelter. So once again he walked through the field.

When he was done, Belissar grimaced. There was nothing there but dandelions and a handful of trees. Well, hypothetically the bees would produce honey eventually, but that would take a while, and the bees would need it for themselves. He also didn’t have any of the heavy robes needed to approach the hive safely. Well, since he could talk to a bee now, maybe he could just ask them for some?

In any case, that was something for the future. Right now, all he had were dandelions for both food and drink, and he did not relish the idea of subsisting on them alone. But what choice did he have?

He sighed once again and started to gather more dandelion stems. He would eat them once he got hungry or thirsty, but until then he’d at least start gathering some material. Maybe he could make a cushion or something if he gathered enough...

Initial Purification attempt in 2 days, 22 hours, and 41 minutes...

After gathering and hanging as many dandelion stems as he could, the first stems had dried out. Or close enough, as Belissar was getting tired of doing the same thing over and over and wanted to move on. So, he gathered the driest stems and began to make some basic cordage out of them. Then he took some sticks and started to tie them together into a basic square.

It was something he had discovered back when he was young. The old beekeeper had shown him that hanging some branches from the top of a basket would help the bees shape their hive and give a way to pull out the honeycomb without destroying the entire colony. Belissar had experimented with different shapes and sizes in order to find what the bees liked best. He eventually found that if he put straight square boxes in rows, the bees would build their comb within the boxes. He especially liked that he could just pull the boxes out when he wanted the honeycomb, and so didn’t have to destroy the hive.

He looked at the rickety square made of twigs and dandelion rope and sighed. This...wasn’t exactly what he had in mind. But he didn’t exactly have his woodcutting axe with him, and the knife he kept on his person wasn’t going to chop through a tree branch. He wasn’t going to be making nice beehouses anytime soon, it seemed.

He could see the bee watching him. He held up the square.

“What do you think?”

The bee buzzed and flew around rapidly.

“King making hive! Worker help!”

Belissar chuckled.

“Well, at least you like it.”

He went ahead and made some more dandelion rope and then hung the square from the branch near the monster bee queen. She looked at it curiously, and then started to build her new comb within the frame. Meanwhile, his other bee companion flew around the corners of the frame, adding some beeswax to hold the sticks together.

Belissar blinked. That...definitely wasn’t normal bee behavior. But well, these also weren’t normal bees...

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But he felt a smile grow on his face as he watched the two work. He went over to see if any of the other dandelion stems had dried yet.

He ended up working up until the sun began to set, making as many frames as he could and hanging them together. He didn’t even notice that he wasn’t hungry, even after hours of work.

Belissar frowned as the sun went down. How was there night when he was inside a Tower? In fact, why was there a sun and sky inside the Tower? But he shook his head. Such things were the purview of gods and Tower Lords, not of peasants like himself.

So, he stretched, gathered what dandelion cords he had...

And promptly realized that he had spent all day building improvised beehouse frames, and not actually preparing a shelter for himself. It was growing too dark to work on anything, as well.

He sighed and made his way over to the other side of the field, where the door to the core room was. He stepped inside and found it just as he had left it. A room of pure white, where he had trouble distinguishing where the floors and walls even were...assuming there actually were floors and walls. Maybe he’d try exploring the edges of the room later.

For now, he used the light of the room and the core to gather up some dandelion cords into something of a pillow, then lay down and placed his head upon it. The ground felt like...well, it felt solid, but it didn’t really feel like anything. Which was kind of weird to Belissar...and grew weirder the more he thought about it.

So, he tried his best not to, and to close his eyes.

He lasted about half an hour before deciding that the weird floor that was there but not really and the white room that seemed the same color and brightness everywhere at all times were not conducive to his rest and stepped back out into the flower meadow. He ended up just lying down wherever and staring up at the night sky.

Well, the meadow wasn’t very cold, and the field of flowers was soft enough. He had slept on worse before. He sighed, and tried to get as comfortable as he could...and put aside the thoughts of gods, Hunger, and burning villages...

Initial Purification attempt in 2 days, 10 hours, and 23 minutes...

Belissar had a fitful sleep, and awoke as soon as the sun peaked over the horizon. Strangely, though, he didn’t feel tired. Or hungry...or thirsty...or even the need to relieve himself. He narrowed his eyes.

Ok, this was getting weird. Or not? The Tower Lords were supposed to be something beyond the ranks of mortal men. They lived ageless lives and wielded powers the common folk couldn’t comprehend.

Belissar had always thought that was why they were chosen to rule the Towers...but maybe some of it was from the Towers themselves?

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and rose to his feet. In the end, Belissar was no thinker or theologian. So, he’d do what he did best.

Keep his head down and take care of his bees.

He walked over to the monster bee queen’s tree...and gasped.

Dozens of worker bees now buzzed around the frames. Some were filling the rows with comb, others were forming wax into an outer wall around the edges. Still others were off harvesting from the flowers. The queen herself was now busy laying eggs into the cells as the workers formed them.

Belissar blinked. Bees grew quickly but he thought it took a few days for an egg to grow into an adult worker at least. Well, they were supposed to be monster bees. So, he supposed they might grow faster than a normal hive, or something?

He crossed his arms and hummed. They honestly had enough frames...and he wasn’t even sure they needed them, seeing as they could form their hives with those basic outlines on their own. In which case, what should he do today?

At that moment, his bee companion buzzed in front of him.

“Oh, another one?”

He walked over to the center tree, just in time to see another monster bee queen climb out of the spawner hive. She shook herself, then flew over to him.

He made a small smile.

“Let’s build you a hive.”

The monster bee queen danced her salute and began gathering pollen as Belissar went to collect his frame materials. Another day saw another hive taking shape...and yet another day where Belissar forgot to build any accommodations for himself.

Initial Purification attempt in 1 days, 10 hours, and 15 minutes...

Belissar still tossed and turned at night, but still didn’t feel that tired in the morning. So, he got to work as soon as it was light enough for him to see.

Again, another day came and went, another hive was built, and he again forgot to prepare anything for himself.

But he didn’t mind. He apparently didn’t really need much, and he preferred working on the hives in any case. In fact, as the sun set, a few of the bees from the first hive came and danced in front of him.

“You want to show me something?”

Belissar followed the bees back to the first hive. It was very nearly complete, a box shape very reminiscent of the beehouses he had back home, only made of wax and hanging from a tree branch. The queen bee came out and flew in front of Belissar.

“You want...to give me some honey?”

The queen bee continued her dance.

“Tribute for the King.”

A few workers guided him to one of the frames. He climbed up the tree, and pulled out the frame in question, filled to the brim with golden honey. He broke off a piece and took a bite, his eyes widening.

“Delicious.”

A delectable sweetness graced his tongue. And more than that, he could feel warmth spreading through his body, of a similar sort as the core had filled him with at first.

The entire hive began buzzing and dancing at his word, the queen bee most of all.

Belissar felt a smile grow on his face and held out the frame.

“Please, have some too.”

The queen bee began to refuse but Belissar shook his head.

“A diligent worker deserves her reward.”

The queen bee hesitated, before slowly flying over to the comb, and sipping from one of the cells. Belissar’s smile grew.

As the night grew dark, Belissar gathered his materials into the core room, and continued working on more frames with the light of the core.

All other thoughts left his mind save for the task before him...

Initial Purification attempt in 8 hours, and 51 minutes...

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