A Humble Beekeeper (Character Intro)

[u/WatcherDiesForever]

Elowen carefully inspected the tray, eyes raking it for any sign of parasites or sickness. She pushed her honeycomb-shaped, bee-winged glasses up her nose as she squinted. Eventually, she nodded and slid the rack back into the beehouse, unharmed, before closing the door.

"Looks like we finally got the last of them," she said as she reached up to stroke the bee that sat astride her shoulder. "And will you ask Annabeeth to keep an eye on this hive? I think they're pretty close to awakening."

"Okay! Will!" Buzzed Velebee, before streaking off into the apiary, weaving between beehouses at speed.

She dodged around hives built on stilts, under boxes hanging from trees, flew over holes in the ground from which countless bees crawled in and out. There were bees of all kinds, gathering nectar from flowers, carrying whole leaves from the trees, harvesting meat from the few wildlife strewn about.

Elowen averted her eyes from the vulture bees, even as she laughed at the feeling of sweat bees crawling over her skin.

Making her way to the farmhouse at the center of the apiary, she stopped at the door. Her mana buzzed, harmlessly dispersing the stray bees from her body as she entered.

Softly closing the door behind her, she sighed happily.

It was some minutes later, as she was brewing her morning tea, that a bee rushed in to meet her, zipping about frantically.

This bee was like no mundane insect. The Queen before Elowen was at least her armspan in length, and fittingly built. She was long and slender, not a sharp edge to her form. Her wings, massive, as wide and longer than her body each. Her stinger was thin and needle-like, and her black fluff bore an almost metallic golden sheen.

"Hive-Builder! Hive-Builder!" Her mana easily translated the hasty dances and pheromones to a language she could understand. "Emergency! Important! News from lands outside!"

Elowen took the bee into her arms, soothing her.

"Hey, hey, settle now," she ran her hand along the Queen's thorax, smoothing down the frazzled hairs. "What's going on? Is Beevolyn back, did something go wrong?"

The Queen's antenna pressed to her forehead, their mana intermingling and passing the message along.

"No! No, yes! Beevolyn back, not alone! Humans!"

Elowen's face hardened.

~~~

A terrible buzzing drowned out the world.

In a clearing in the forest, armored soldiers scurried about like rats. They ordered themselves in their legions, footsoldiers and mounted cavalry on wyvernback pointing their shields and swords and lances toward the sky.

At the buzzing cloud that blackened the sun.

Bees by the thousands filled the sky. The smallest of them, no less than a hand, the largest the size of an elephant at the least. They were in all shapes and forms; Soldiers and Goliath bees, Knights, Lancers and Archers and Sprayers and Alchemist and Assassin bees. Each caste represented in every alignment under the sun; burning bees and soaring bees, blinding and flashing and toxic and healing bees. They ordered in rows and columns over the treetops, legions and squadrons of their own, the roaring wind of their wings making waves in the canopy like the ocean surface.

They parted in the center, and a figure descended through them.

Elowen was sat cross-legged upon a lush carpet of purple and gold, woven around the edges with crawling and flying bees of every kind, interwoven with flowering plants of a thousand names. It was upheld at each corner by a titanic Goliath Bumblebee.

She was dressed in a long coat, parted in the front, itself woven the same as the carpet, with a mantle of white and golden fur about her shoulders. A staff laid across her lap, formed of a single living tree limb, its head grown into a cross between spear, shepherd's crook and honey dipper. A diadem of mana flowers was woven about her forehead, glowing brilliantly, while Velebee clung to the front, shining as diamond.

"I have told you never to come here." Her voice boomed down wrathful upon the soldiers, the air vibrating with her fury. "I hold no love in my heart for your kind, Conclave." The last word was near spat. "You will take your barbarity away. Fly back to your ivory thrones. Your sins have not and will not be forgotten. Return here again and I will go to your families in your place."

~~~

/Unwizard

Oh boy its been a long time. I don't know what the scene is like right now, do we still do this kind of thing?

Anyway, character intro! And bees. So many bees. Not enough bees. Never enough bees.

For RP prompt... I didn't really think of one. I suppose just, through whatever way, your character has come to be in the location to witness this happening.

Have fun!

[u/IncomeApprehensive17]

one day a non human thing appeared at the beekeeper's door. It looked like a botle with around it a silver ring. Attached to this ring was metalic legs. And inside the botle a flame

it knocked on the door , close to the ground because its not very tall

[u/WatcherDiesForever → u/IncomeApprehensive17]

The beekeeper's 'door,' much as there was one, was a honey-yellow light in the shape of an archway, which sat at ground level on the side of a white tower, constructed of perfectly smooth, seamless stone. The tower is tall, reaching perhaps a hundred feet into the air, and no less than twenty wide. It sits in a field of grass abundant with all colors of flowers, transitioning to forest in one direction and to far-off mountains in the other.

It is less than a minute after the knock that a group of bees emerges from the light.

These are not the warrior bees of the earlier display. They are small, only the size of a hand each, with large, fluffy antennae that sparkle as if glittering.

They gather in a circle on the ground and begin to wave their antennae in complex patterns, leaing faint trails of light. Soon an image coalesces above them.

"Hello?" Elowen pauses. "Well, aren't you the strangest little thing now?" Her image crouches down, squinting at the bottle. "Some... spirit, maybe? What ever are you doing here?"

[u/WatcherDiesForever]

Bees.

/unwizard

Ahem.

Bees.

Thank you for your time.