"Girls, you need to stay behind and watch what the humans are doing. I will send dragons to pick you up when possible, but it might take a while. Will you be alright on your own?"
The Beehounds nodded imdiately. They even looked a bit offended.
"Of course, Father. We even have supplies you told everybody to take just in case," Hound-Solo said, patting the bag hanging from her shoulder. "It will be good."
She shared a small smile with her sisters, probably being eager to stay in the wilderness on their own instead of returning to a noisy hive.
'Adorable!'
I wanted to pat their heads, but held myself back.
'Unlike so of my cold-to-get daughters, Beehounds might *actually* don't like this…'
I still smiled at them.
"Then go, and good luck, Beehounds. The rest—we will continue on our way."
As we kept going and then flying, I heard more shouts from the village—but no one chased us. I kept looking back, wishing I could see what was happening instead of relying on Beehounds' reports, but—Ambrosia was waiting at ho, and she was worrying, so I better be back in ti for lunch!
To my relief, even our dragons were still waiting in place while we ca. Fitting extra passengers on them and making sure that nobody will fall off during the flight wasn't easy, but we managed.
We even tied the body of the dead Beemarine to Scourge's neck, despite his protests. It took a lot of dried at pieces and Invincible-13's growling, but Scourge tolerated the entire process.
At least the weight of extra bees wasn't a problem—dragons could easily carry coins that weighed several tons, so they barely noticed a few dozen bees!
(It felt like dragon flight was breaking so aerodynamic laws, but then, the sa was said about bees. And who knew what aerodynamic laws even looked like in this world?)
Two hours later, we were back in Hive Supremo. The dragons barely had ti to land before they were surrounded by bees.
All the workers that were just passing by now were waving their hands at us and shouting enthusiastically.
"That's them! The rescuers!"
"Father has returned!"
"Quick, tell Queen Ambrosia!"
"Tell the Industry Adviser! Tell everyone!"
The amount of sudden attention made the dragons screech in alarm and flap their wings warningly, which threw a bunch of bees back.
"Careful!" I shouted in alarm.
To my relief, nobody was hurt—but now their excitent was tapered, at least.
Which reminded the Foren Bees in the crowd that they were Foren.
"Stop crowding the dragons and the Beemarines! Get back to work—you can celebrate in your free ti!"
"Stop gawking and start moving, lazy-bees!"
I exhaled and flew off Scourge's back.
"So things never change, do they? Everybody, unpack the dragons and let them rest for now. This evening or tomorrow, when they are ready, they should pick up the Beehounds from the village."
By now, most of the gawking bees had returned to their duties; instead, another group of about twenty bees was approaching us determinedly.
I saw my bodyguards there together with a dozen Queen Attendants. The bodyguards imdiately took their place behind my back, where Destroyer joined them, while the Attendants landed in front of .
"Father, you are back! We've been waiting, but we could only hope to see you so soon. I've already sent ssengers to Queen Ambrosia and your Advisers about your return!" Chief Attendant Helping-Hands said, approaching us with a smile.
"Good! Now—get soone to help the wounded Beemarines to the hospital. They've been through a lot, and they need the best care. I also want to organize a special morial service for this brave warrior, Assault-9. Store her body sowhere for now…"
"Anything particular I should pass to the Culture Adviser about the morial service?"
Ah, the Attendants—always so dutiful and attentive, competing for this only with my bodyguards.
The nerves of the hive, which passed orders from the brain () to everybody else, while also working as secretaries, maids, and so on. Without them, I'd be like without hands! And to think about it, originally they were just responsible for feeding and washing the Queen.
They really picked their new roles seamlessly, and with no effort from my side. I could only thank Amby for that—she did an excellent job training them, so much so that I barely noticed anything going on.
It just worked. And I didn't have to think about so many things.
I exhaled tiredly and smiled.
"Tell Worriesgone that Assault-9's murderer was killed, so I don't want people to be vengeful on her behalf. But I want this ceremony to be in honor of everybody else who died fighting humans, too. And add a welco party for the bees we saved."
Helping-Hands nodded and gestured at her subordinates. After a few exchanged glances and nods, several of them fled back into Hive Supremo.
"The Physicians will be here soon, Father."
Malevolence walked up next to .
"Father, there are *at least* two humans who still need to die!" she snarled. "No, all of them need to die. For what they did with us, they deserve nothing less!"
A glance at the surrounding bees told they shared this sentint. I could understand them… But not to the point of hating an entire species because of the sins of a few people!
Every human had their own individual reasons to be hated!
Or not hated, of course. I wasn't a human-hater—I was just angry on the behalf of my daughters.
"They will get their due, Malevolence," I said solemnly. "Eventually. For now, forget about humans—focus on your sisters and yourself."
Malevolence bowed her head, but her anger still clouded the air with a spicy pheromone sll.
I patted her shoulder—carefully to not touch a bruise—and flew toward Hive Supremo.
As soon as I reached the landing pad, I was assaulted for the second ti again.
Again, there were curious bees stopping to look and greet us, more Attendants, and then—
"Nectus!"
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