Keeper and the Firefly, page 4
"The bees." Ariel pointed at the hive, a short stride away. "You said they make honey."
"Oh, yes. Bees make honey from pollen they collect from flowers. They store it in their hives."
"So how do you get it out?"
"We're going in after it."
Ariel blinked and stared at him. He had pulled on his gloves and flipped the hood of his shirt over his hair. Was he serious? She looked at Dill, Sage, and Basil. They were getting their gloves out, too.
"You're going in there?" She couldn't believe this.
"Well, they won't bring it out to us, so we don't really have a choice, do we, sweetheart?" Dill winked at the girl. "Want to come?"
"No! Bees sting and then you die!"
"You don't die if you don't get stung," Basil reassured her. "And I brought antidote just in case."
Ariel wasn't buying Basil's line of reasoning. "If you go in there, you will get stung."
"And why do you think that?"
"‘Cause bees are mean." Ariel was watching the hive. It was suddenly too close for comfort, now. She twisted her hair. It was a habit Basil noticed she took up when she was feeling nervous. She obviously didn't care for bees.
"They aren't mean, Ariel. They're just defending their hive." But Basil could tell that her mind was made up. He sighed. "Look, we’ll go in without you. We figured you wouldn't care to, and there is a risk factor involved in extracting honey. You stay here and watch from where it's safe. We won't be long."
Dill and Sage shouldered the yokes again and Tanner took four of the smaller buckets.
“Just sit there and be awesome.” Sage advised.
She nodded absently. She wasn’t feeling much like an awesome woman right now. That didn’t set too well with the gentle giant. The sprite plucked a small clover blossom, came over to Ariel and stuck the flower in the girl’s hair. Gently lifting her chin. He stared down into her eyes.
“Don’t forget,” he reminded her, “you’re a woman: the most awesome of all creatures. How can any little bee compete with that?”
That got Ariel to blush and smile shyly at him.
"Just stay quiet so you don't spook them," Basil instructed. He handed his walking stick off to the princess, took up two buckets, and started toward the hive with the other men. Then the young hopper had another thought. He stopped and turned around to make sure Ariel was still watching.
"You're not going to kill any of them, are you?"
"Not as long as they stay away from me,” she offered.
Basil looked at her sternly. "We are in their territory. Don't mess with them, Ariel. Understand?"
She nodded, exasperated. "Yeah, yeah, yeah." Sometimes he treated her like a little kid.
Basil wasn't too impressed with her attitude but decided lecturing wouldn't do any good. He would have to trust her. He turned back towards the hive and proceeded.
As the elves drew nearer, they used more caution and walked slower. The bees noticed, but determined the strangers weren't a threat so let them be. They became a little more anxious as the four drew near to the entrance of the hive. A guard bee flew out and landed on Tanner to investigate.
From where she watched, Ariel gasped. This was it! Tanner was going to die for sure! She watched as the bee crawled over his head and body, curiously examining him. Tanner stood perfectly still. Good night! The bee was as big as his head! It flew from Tanner to Sage and alighted on this second sprite. Sage also stood still as the bee investigated, only raising an arm up a little as the bee crawled under it. When it was Dill’s turn to be examined, the hopper slowly reached up and petted the bee between its wings. He looked over at Ariel and grinned. The flyer could feel her heart pounding in her chest. She covered her mouth so she wouldn't scream. The petting must have reassured the bee of the group's non-threatening intentions because after a quick examination of Basil, it flew back and left the elves alone. They continued on.
Outside the hive's entrance, Sage and Dill sat down their yokes. They were too big to go inside without causing a commotion. Tanner handed back two of his smaller buckets, took a good grip on his own and stepped over the threshold into the kingdom of honey collectors. Sage, buckets in hand, didn’t bother to step over. He merely phased through the bark. Basil and Dill followed through the opening, each carrying their own pair of buckets.
Ariel could feel herself holding her breath, wondering if any of them would ever come out. Strangely, she realized she would miss them, especially Basil. I wonder why, the flyer asked herself. She missed her mom, but that was different. Her mom was a flyer and had loved her. Basil wasn't a flyer, and she was sure he didn't feel about her the way her mom had, though sometimes, the way he treated her reminded her of her mother. Weird, she thought.
Basil reappeared at the entrance and slowly emptied one of his smaller buckets into a large yoked one. Bees climbed over him as he worked. It made Ariel's skin crawl to see, but the hopper didn't seem affected by it. The drones accepted him as part of the woodwork. Once the second bucket was dumped, he disappeared back inside. A minute later, Tanner came to the entrance and went back and soon after came Dill followed by Sage.
Ariel watched them make trip after trip to the entrance to empty the buckets. How much honey would the big buckets hold? She soon grew tired of counting, sat down on a ground, and let her mind wander. She wondered what it was like inside the hive: all sticky and full of bees crawling everywhere, over each other and anything else. It gave her goose bumps to think of and she shuttered. I guess it's kind of like the flyer colony in winter though, she thought. Too many people crammed together crawling over each other. What would it be like if flyers lived in hives and collected honey? She tried to imagine her tribe fluttering from flower to flower gathering pollen. It was a silly picture and she giggled.
Ariel heard a buzzing behind her. Startled, she whirled around. A huge bee was attracted by her clover blossom and had flown down to investigate. It hovered at arm's reach from her face. Ariel screamed. She grabbed up Basil’s walking stick and swung, striking the insect a hard blow. Instantly, the others in the area were on the alert, aware of their sister's distress. The injured bee wavered on the wing, trying to regain its bearing. Ariel screamed again. She grabbed the staff tighter and swung again. The bee went down at Ariel's feet and the flyer kept beating the helpless creature until it was dead.
"Ariel! No!" Basil's scream had reached her too late. The other bees were loudly droning in the sky above, agitation evident in their noisy hums. Ariel stared at them, petrified with fear.
Luckily, Basil kept his wits. He’d come back to the entrance just in time to see Ariel first strike the curious bee and could predict what the outcome was going to be.
"Come on! We’ve got to get out! NOW!" He shouted to the others and quickly tumbled out of the hive as angry bees swarmed out to the aide of their fellow colonists. Dill swore under his breath and dove through the opening on Basil’s heels. The wood sprites looked at each other and quickly phased into the walls of the beehive.
In two bounds, Basil covered the distance from the hive to the princess. He ignored the painful spasms shooting through his leg as he grabbed Ariel up in his arms and set off at a rapid leap through the grass with the bees on their heels. At the crest of the jumps, Basil scanned above the grass, looking frantically for a miracle. He finally spotted a gleam of hope in the form of a mud puddle and jumped for it. They plunged into muddy water that sloshed up over their heads. Ariel was beyond terror now. Enveloped by wet gooey mud, she thrashed out wildly in panic. Basil still held onto her and pulled her back up. They broke the surface and she gasped for breath. There was another splash beside them as Dill also took cover in the quagmire. Ariel flailed for balance.
"Stay still!" Basil hissed in her ear. He held her tightly against him in a firm grasp and had to repeat the order a second time; each word held a second so the importance of them would seep through and held her even tighter.
"You're hurting..."
Basil clapped a muddy hand over her mouth.
"STAY! STILL!" It wasn't a request.
Ariel forced every inch of her body to be as still as possible, even though she was trembling violently by this time. Basil held her so her face was barely above the mud. He was behind her, just as low, watching the sky overhead. It was dark with the droning colony. They were very upset and ready to sting anything. The bees hovered there for ten minutes before they began to settle down and drift back to their normal routine. During the long wait, Basil had loosened his grip and let his hand drop from her face, but as soon as Ariel made the smallest sound or shifted ever so slightly the grip tightened and he growled a warning "shh" in her ear.
Finally, the air seemed to have cleared. The hoppers looked at each other. Did they dare venture out? As in answer, they heard Sage and Tanner calling for them.
“Over here!” Dill yelled. They could hear the pounding footfalls as the sprites ran toward them. In a minute, their faces appeared over the rim of the puddle. Sage laid down at the edge and offered Dill a hand. With a gasp of relief, the older hopper was pulled to safety, the mud sucking at his body until he was freed. Tanner dragged Ariel up from the pit. Last of all, Basil was pulled out, too angry to speak. They all sat silently on the bank for a minute trying to catch their breaths. The girl was trembling with fear, her teacher with rage. Dill, Sage, and Tanner looked at each other. This hadn't been a good experience. Basil sat in silence, trying to keep his emotions under control. It wasn't working. When he finally spoke to Ariel, he exploded in anger.
"WHAT HAS GOTTEN INTO YOU?!?” he bellowed. "I TOLD YOU TO LEAVE THEM ALONE AND THE FIRST THING YOU DO IS BEAT ONE TO DEATH! DON’T YOU EVER LISTEN? DON’T YOU THINK I MIGHT HAVE THE TINIEST INKLING THAT I KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT?!? Good grief, Ariel! You nearly got us all killed!"
She huddled before him like a whipped puppy, not daring to meet his eyes. "I'm s-s-s-sorry," she choked out in a whisper.
He didn't appear to hear. "DON’T YOU EVER LISTEN? WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO BE A LIFE AND DEATH THING WITH YOU? That kind of thinking is dangerous, and it tends to create enemies, Ariel! A lot of enemies!"
Dill thought about defending the naive young flyer, but Basil's cold eyes cut him off and instead he ran a nervous hand through his muddy hair. Tanner and Sage looked at each other, and Sage nodded. He cleared his throat. Basil glared at him angrily, but Sage’s eyes spoke volumes.
She’s just a kid, you’re not, they reminded him. You know better: she doesn’t. And regardless, you don’t treat a girl that way.
Basil was furious and had a lot more to say, but those warning eyes made him stop and he felt ashamed of his behavior. To make matters worse, Ariel burst into tears. She was terrified beyond belief and Basil's verbal assault had been more than she could handle.
"I d-d-didn't mean it," she blurted out. "It j-j-j-just hap-p-p-pened. I was s-s-scared."
The hopper closed his eyes and shook his head. This wasn’t fair! She’d ignored his warning and endangered their lives with her recklessness. He’d risked his own neck to keep her from being killed in retaliation and now he couldn't even effectively blow off steam because he knew better. And to top it off, he’d made her cry. Basil sighed and offered her a shoulder. The flyer threw herself into his arms and bawled, her body shaking violently. Basil held her and let her cry. He stroked her hair and comforted her as best he could.
“I’m sorry,” he soothed. “I shouldn’t have yelled.”
"It’s m-m-my f-f-fault!” she stammered. " I'm s-s-s-so s-s-sorry. It w-w-was an accident. He s-s-scared me and I s-s-swung at him."
Basil nodded. He should have figured. She reacted before she thought. Typical.
"She," he corrected instinctively. "All worker bees are girls."
"I w-w-was so s-s-scared."
"You're ok. They're gone now."
Ariel cried on for another minute than suddenly felt very self-conscious and pushed away. She wiped her eyes with her hand, and then wiped her nose the same way. The men valiantly suppressed their desires to gag.
"Well," Tanner pushed himself up. "I guess today's shot. I don't think the bees are going to give us another chance for a while. I'll collect the yokes tomorrow. And your walking stick, Basil."
"I'm sorry, Tanner," Ariel choked out.
Tanner gave her a smile anyway. "Bees can be pretty spooky at times, Love."
And with a wave, he was gone.
“I better get going, too,” Sage said. “Rosie was planning on making honey cakes this afternoon. I better let her know she needs to make nut bread instead.” He ruffled Ariel’s wet dirty hair in passing.
“You’re still an awesome little lady,” he reassured her. The girl accepted his assessment with a halfhearted nod. She definitely wasn’t feeling awesome right now. And her clover blossom that’d caused all the disturbance was lost at the bottom of the quagmire.
“You going to be alright?” the oldest Rapha asked Basil.
Basil nodded. “Sorry.”
Sage patted his shoulder and left them.
Dill laid back on the bank of the puddle and closed his eyes. "What a day," he sighed.
Ariel sniffed and rubbed her nose again.
"Look at me," she choked out. "I'm acting like a baby."
"Don't worry about it." Basil pulled a handkerchief out of his breast pocket to offer to the flyer, but it was mud soaked. He stuffed it back. "You were scared half to death; you deserve a good cry."
"I deserve a good thrashing."
"That too, but you'll have to settle for crying."
The flyer suddenly looked closely at the two hoppers a minute and couldn't keep from smiling.
"What’s wrong?" Basil asked. Dill opened an eye, wondering what was going on.
"You guys! You're covered with mud! I've never seen you so dirty before."
The two looked at each other. They were in bad shape. "You're pretty muddy, too," Basil informed her.
Ariel looked at herself for the first time. Her arms and tunic were caked with the brown goo. She was as filthy as they were. Dill grinned.
"Aren't we a pretty sight?" he asked.
"Yes! Of jackasses!" a voice boomed at them.
Ariel jumped and looked around. Dill zeroed in on the speaker in an instant and Basil winced in recognition. Oh, not now, he thought. Anytime but now.
"Or perhaps mud skimmers."
This time, Ariel located the speaker perched on a low branch of a cedar tree. It was an elf - middle aged - dressed in brown pants, white shirt, woven tan vest and a brown cape. His pants ended just below the knee. The man crouched there with an elf sized shepherd's crook in his hand. Graying hair twined out from beneath a red hat and a thick beard adorned his chin. His deep brown eyes were piercing as he glared at Ariel. One long white scar ran the length of his face, snaking up from his beard to right below his left eye, reappearing at the eyebrow, and finally disappearing into his hairline. Beside him was another elf, about Ariel's age with brown hair. He was dressed in traditional hopper green and stared down at Ariel in curiosity. The old elf jumped down from the branch and stood before the flyer. He was about Basil's height, but that was where all similarities ended. Basil was lean with fair skin. This elf had a ruddy appearance with a broad chest and thick muscular arms. Oddly, he was barefooted with feet of a leathery red that extended part way up his calves. At first, Ariel had thought the redness was a strange colored boot, but no, a quick glance at his exposed toes confirmed it was his actual skin.
Ariel quickly looked back into his eyes. They were dark and cold, boring into her. There was none of the warm friendliness the girl had felt from most of the other plains' folk. Something about this new elf forced Ariel to take a step back in caution.
The young boy silently shadowed the elder, landing a pace behind.
"Or maybe it's just two fool hoppers and a no-account flyer," the older elf growled, continuing his critique.
Basil sighed.
"Hello, Keeper."
5
Keeper
Keeper! This was the leader who would decide if she was going to stay! Ariel sized the man up and decided she didn't care one bit for him. The expression on his face mirrored her feelings.
"So, Basil, now you are hanging out with low-life," Keeper circled around Ariel, inspecting her as if she were a disgusting mutated life form that should be regarded as potentially dangerous. The young hopper circle too.
Dill stood up.
"Well, I'm out of here," he announced. "See you tomorrow, Bas."
Keeper spun around and shot a threatening look at the hopper.
"You're not going anywhere!" The command held no room for debate and the young man stayed in his place. Keeper returned his glare to the flyer, but directed his comments to the hoppers. "I'd heard you two had taken up with a flyer, but I didn't want to believe any of my students would be so stupid! So now you 've begun hanging out with bee killers, have you?"
"She's uneducated, Keeper," Basil defended. "She doesn't know any better."
Ariel's glare shot from Keeper to Basil and back again. She definitely didn't care for this new creature, or the tone of the overall conversation.
"Being uneducated gives her a right to kill anything she wants for no reason, does it?"
The girl was considering taking the newcomer on when Basil, still sitting at the puddle's edge, tried to stand. He couldn't stifle a cry as intense pain shot through him. In their departure from the bee situation, he had been able to shift the majority of the work to his strong leg - most but not all. The injured leg had not fully healed, and the excursion of a few minutes ago had taken its toll. Basil had all but forgotten it when Keeper came on the scene. Now, the leg demanded his attention. He quickly sat back down again.
"Oh, jeez, Basil! Not again!" Dill dropped down beside his friend and felt the site through the pant leg. It was hot and throbbing. But the damage was deeper than that. Dill couldn’t help groaning.
“Torn ligament,” he informed his wounded friend. More surgery, back to the crutches and another round of recuperation.
