It didn't take even an hour for to see that Tamsha was getting better.
His stamina was recovering, and his health stopped falling. Those were all great signs!
But I still had to keep watching, and Tamsha still needed rest. This entire night I barely slept, constantly waking up to look at Tamsha's status—the best way to check his health (especially at night).
Each next power nap I had was calr than the last, because Tamsha was steadily getting better!
By morning, he stood steadily on his feet and wolfed down the simple al prepared for him by his servants.
These two also had minor infections in their scratches by now, but their health was high enough that I didn't worry. Even in the world of evolving viruses, people could fight off sothing *that* small.
'I hope you are feeling well enough to… assist your servants with assisting my people today, Tamsha,' I ssaged, flying closer to the man. 'And you could feel the power of the cure on yourself.'
Tamsha turned his head in my direction and frowned, although it was hard to see from my position—I was too close.
'I feel much better today. My fever is gone like it was never there! But it's not uncommon for a body to fight fevers like this on its own, even without a healer to help—'
I huffed out loud.
'You aren't going to deny *now* that the cure helped? After being so sure yesterday that you were going to die, Tamsha? After asking to be honorable? Are you *that* stubborn and prideful?'
What an annoying man! I was one slip of tongue away from calling him a dumb oaf with a stick up his ass.
To his credit, Tamsha looked away and his thoughts sounded much more ashad.
'I… Yes. That's… Dishonorable of , now. But how can I not be? You, the Emperor, and all your people—they are… So… Out of this world! It's only fair to not believe soone like you easily, isn't it? But now I think I can see… your position, in a way. You said that you need this cure, those birds we are gathering. Is this to save *your* people, spirit?'
I clicked my tongue. So when this man wasn't so distrustful, he could be smart, too. Although, he wasn't as close to the truth as he thought he was. Bees could evolve immunities relatively quickly, although older generations will... Not have long lives, either way. This was for humanity's sake as much as for that of bee-kind.
When I didn't reply imdiately, Tamsha's thoughts kept running on their own.
'And who would believe you, soone so strange? Farini, of course—but he was always more impressionable than myself. And I heard about the position he was in. If only I was in a position to help back then—well, it doesn't matter. I was so busy thinking about saving my family that I didn't think about other… options.'
I raised my eyebrows, wondering where this thought was going. But Tamsha just shook his head and cut himself off.
'I'm ready to even climb more living mountains, Your Majesty,' he thought to . This was the first ti he called so officially. 'Thanks to your cure, I feel almost as good as new.'
His health went up by a dozen points from where it was. It was far from "as good as new", but it was way, way better than before. The fever took a lot of health from Tamsha, but he was still wounded and tired.
'We will see about that. But for now, we move out!'
***
Two days later, we had six more nests and 16 dodo chicks in total. Fewer than I'd like, but… it looked like this will be the rest of them.
The scouts reported more nests—but they also reported finding so of them empty, with the bodies of dead dodo chicks below—they must've felt out of the nest that beca too small for them.
Only a few still could fit in their nests, being tended to by their parents. But these dodos didn't have long to live, either.
And my group had fewer and fewer hands to keep all these saved chicks in check.
But then… The call of my Agents reached . Help has co! And I could finally feel calm putting this mission in their hands.
The help comprised twenty devoted horseback soldiers from Farini's army. They traveled as stealthily as a group their size could, bringing news and supplies. Alongside them were a thousand bees, including Beemarines, Beehounds, Agents, Physicians and workers with experience in tending animals.
The most important ssage was for from Ambrosia herself, transferred telepathically to Bloodimina's camp so an Agent could bring it to in her perfect mory, word by word.
"I'm sure you've succeeded by now, Nectus, and had enough of living in the dirt of the wild. Now co back ho. The hive cannot grow without you here. And I also miss you."
She beca such a romantic… And yeah, I was sick of sleeping on a bedroll. I wanted my soft bed and my softest two pillows (my wife's breasts).
Thus, I gave the reinforcents all instructions on how to care for dodos, where to find the rest of them, and where to bring them!
One would go to Tamsha as paynt; the rest were ours. We were going to grow them, then breed them, then breed more of them.
Then, prepared to fly back to Hive Supremo on one of our dragons—possibly even Woe, who was still hobbling on one leg, but thanks to the splint still attached to it, doing it cheerfully. (Good thing that its break was a closed one, or the dragon would have caught an infection like Tamsha.)
However, before I could leave, the Agent sent to follow Tamsha like a shadow ssaged that the man wanted to talk with .
'What does he want, Agent?'
'He says… Ah, he only wants to speak with you. But I caught his thoughts—he tried to hide them, imagine? As if! This is sothing about Farini. A deal? A plea?'
Reviews
All reviews (0)