I gasped, jumping to my feet, and dashed outside.
Seeing this, my bodyguards—who, as always, waited for near the entrance, ready to pounce on my back if I tried to leave the hive alone—dashed after .
"Father, wait! If you are heading into danger, let us stay close!"
I slowed down so Destroyer's team could catch up with , but then flew right toward the source of the noise.
Very soon, I saw a scene that made grab my head in panic.
A familiar trio of dragons, whose nas might've been more prophetic than I planned, landed on the ground only forty ters away from the training Beemarines.
Close enough to still tower over them, and to easily attack if they wanted to—but I knew they wouldn't!
Unlike *these* Beemarines, who never worked at Camp Rich, and only heard about dragon taming from rumors.
They already flew into a combat formation, while Scourge, Disaster, and Woe barely showed any alarm!
"Ugly beasts! They dared to approach our hive—we must punish their arrogance!"
"No one can stop the Beemarines!"
"PREPARE THE BOLAS! At my command—aim!.."
"Stop this! STOP!" I shouted, flying the remaining distance from the hive to the ground so fast that I almost didn't slow in ti. "Beemarines, put down your weapons!"
The dragon trio, who had enough brains to hop away a little when the Beemarines got alard, now craned their necks toward and stared with their round black eyes.
"Graaaw?"
"Graa."
"Graaaa!"
If Explanatory was around, maybe she'd know what it all ant.
I ignored the dragons for now and flew in front of my Beemarines. Although their faces were steely, their jaws were clenched so tight, I feared they might break their teeth.
"Father, what is the aning of this? We are supposed to kill all hunters we can reach in our territory! These ones are big, but we can take them!" Chief Beemarine said, flying in front of her thousand.
"These are exceptions. Scourge, Disaster and Woe won't hurt a fly! I suspect they are more after carrion, anyway." I smiled and waved my hands to calm the Beemarines down. "Now stand down, girls, my Beemarines! Return to what you were doing!"
I heard sothing crack. Was it Chief Beemarine's tooth?
Nonetheless, she gave a sharp hamr salute.
"Yes, Father. You heard him, soldiers! There's nothing to look at here!"
The Beemarines settled down, going back to their drills, and I turned to dragons. They were hopping around almost impatiently.
"GRAAAAW," Woe growled.
"What are you even doing here? Your feeding place is a day's flight away! Although with your wings, it's much closer."
I frowned. Then a realization hit , and a smile blood over my face.
"Were you searching for ? Were you? Did you miss ?"
If they did, it was an absolute success!
Excited, I flew toward the dragon trio, entirely forgetting the 10 distrustful Beemarine bodyguards who shadowed my movents.
"I missed you too, my silly lizards! Hey, want head pats? My headpats are the best in the world, all my daughters say so!"
With this babbling, I flew on the level with Scourge's head. It was larger than my entire body.
Now only five ters separated us, and I could see my reflection in the dragon's glassy eye.
"Hey, let just—" Explore more stories with My Virtual Library Empire
The dragon flinched away and hopped a dozen ters away. Its friends joined it imdiately.
"Ouch." My hand fell.
Next mont, I spun toward my bodyguards.
"Maybe it was spooked by you? Maybe if I let you stay here, Scourge will let pet it?"
The faces of my bodyguards showed exactly what they thought about this.
"If this is your order, Father," Destroyer said.
I sighed, but then smiled again.
"This is alright! I probably spooked it by flying too close to its eye. I would flinch if a bee got close to my eyes, too! Okay, let's arrange bribes, I an, food for the dragons. They deserve a lot of food for getting all the way to Hive Supremo!"
The arrival of the dragons beca the talk of the entire hive before their pack of food was even gathered.
As soon as the Forager Bees put the bags of food on the ground, the dragons would swoop in, tearing into pieces of at and swallowing them without chewing.
Although originally I wanted to try petting a dragon while they ate, the sight of their gigantic fangs snapping so close quickly made reconsider.
"Eat your fill, eat in peace… Don't accidentally eat a bee, or I will have to reconsider the taming thing," I said, backing off. "Destroyer, we are going back to the hive for now. I will need to write a letter to Explanatory about where her study project went."
By the ti I reached the hive entrance, an entire swarm of curious bees gathered there to look at the dragons below from the incredibly safe distance.
There were so many bees, I'd have to push my way through!
Thankfully, I didn't have to.
"GET BACK TO WORK, EVERYBODY! Why are you gawking here? You forgot your quota? YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO MAKE OTHERS WORK HARDER, NOT LAZE AROUND TOGETHER, CATERPILLARS!" The voice definitely belonged to Workharder.
Other Foreman Bees echoed a mont later.
"Back to work!"
"Watch the ta hunters after the work is done!"
In minutes, the crowd dispersed, but it gave a beautiful idea…
***
I led Ambrosia by the hand until we stopped at the very edge of the hive cave entrance. The dragons were still below, scuffling for the last scraps of their al and raising clouds of dust in the air with each swipe of their long tails.
"Look, Amby—my almost pet dragons! Scourge, Disaster, and Woe. We can watch from here or get closer. They are almost very safe by now, even if they don't show as allies by the system, I swear!" I said, grinning at her. "Aren't they amazing?"
Ambrosia leaned over the ledge and squinted to see below.
"Hmm…"
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