The Bee Dungeon-Chapter 250: Bloody Histor-Bee
“Belissar, could we talk?”
Belissar was finishing his morning routine when Chief Rohsuak sent him a message. He sighed to himself. His last interaction with the karnuq hadn’t been the most pleasant, but this was a conversation they needed to have.
“Ok, I’ll head over.”
Belissar walked over to the karnuq settlement. The karnuq going about their days seemed withdrawn, giving him short greetings and steeling glances at him when they thought he wasn’t looking. He guessed they must have heard what was going on. Niobee noticed as well and buzzed her wings, but didn’t say anything.
Belissar made his way to Chief Rohsuak’s home. She invited him in and they sat down at her table. Metsaitti was there as well. Chief Rohsuak began by bowing her head.
“First of all, you have my apologies again for yesterday, Tower Keeper Belissar. I did not understand how you saw the situation, and my view was clouded by my past experiences with the spiderkin.”
Belissar drooped and shook his head. He had been replaying that conversation in his head after he had calmed down…and he realized it wasn’t Chief Rohsuak he was angry at.
“No, I’m sorry too. I also let my anger get the best of me. It wasn’t you I was upset at.”
Chief Rohsuak gave him a smile.
“Apology accepted if you accept mine?”
Belissar blinked for a moment. He slowly made a sheepish smile and nodded. Chief Rohsuak relaxed, though her expression turned serious.
“That said, you are the Tower Lord and we are your sworn defenders. It is not my place to question your decisions, only to advise you as best I can. Now that you know the risks and have made your choice, I won’t question you further. Just…be aware that most of us have lost someone to the spiderkin and won’t be comfortable around them. I’ve informed the clan of your decision and made sure they know not to cause any trouble over it, but it may take them some time to accept it. I apologize in advance, Tower Keeper Belissar.”
Belissar sighed.
“No…I guess I understand. I’d hate it too if someone told me to get along with the Tower Lords now. Honestly, I don’t know what to do about all of this…but as long as they don’t hurt the eggs then it’s fine. I just…don’t want to be as cruel as the Tower Lords are, if I can help it.”
Chief Rohsuak smiled warmly at him.
“And we appreciate you for that, it is why we felt confident giving you our loyalty. We would be in the wrong to doubt you for it now. I appreciate your consideration for us, Tower Keeper. I’ll do my best to help the others come around…provided things go well once the eggs hatch. Again, I don’t mean to question you…but do be careful when they do. I don’t wish to see you come to harm.”
Belissar just nodded at that, he didn’t know enough about spiderkin to say it wouldn’t happen after all. He then noticed Chief Rohsuak’s smile fall.
“That’s not the only thing I wanted to talk to you about, though. After this situation, we felt we should tell you now about all of our old enemies. I don’t expect you to do anything about them, but I thought you should be aware of who might react violently if they see us again, so you can be prepared to prevent a fight if you so choose.”
Belissar’s stomach churned a little but he nodded.
“No, that’s a good idea. I’d appreciate the heads up.”
Chief Rohsuak took a deep breath.
“Metsaitti, could you prepare us some drinks?”
Belissar’s face fell. Reporting old enemies…was going to take long enough for drinks?
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Belissar’s stomach churned quite a bit.
“Are…are you serious?”
Chief Rohsuak just nodded. Belissars head pounded.
“You’ve fought with…catkin, lionkin, tigerkin, sheepkin, frogkin, molekin, ratkin, batkin, lizardkin, porcupinekin, mantiskin, rhinokin, foxkin, scorpionkin, AND snakekin? On top of the spiderkin? And you attacked most of them yourselves?!”
Chief Rohsuak curled up on herself. Metsaitti averted his gaze but still replied.
“Ah, Chief, don’t forget the chimeras.”
Chief Rohsuak winced but nodded.
“And the chimeras.”
Belissar leaned on the table and clutched his head with both hands. He had been vaguely aware the karnuq hadn’t been as nice to everyone else as they were to him…but this was beyond anything he expected.
“Is…is there anyone you haven’t fought?”
Metsaitti coughed.
“Well…we had the fortune not to encounter any dragonkin. We kept our distance from the oxkin as well, the rabbitkin traded with us, and no one intrudes on badgerkin territory…we also hadn’t met the sigmaka, humans, or fair folk prior to meeting you.”
Belissar sighed deeply. Chief Rohsuak hung her head.
“I apologize, Tower Keeper, but it was necessary at the time. As I mentioned before, we raided to survive back when we were nomads. We did not, and could not, hesitate to create enemies.”
Belissar sighed yet again. His image of the karnuq had certainly changed today. What could he do about it, though? He wasn’t about to kick the karnuq out now…but he certainly didn’t want to end up repeating the fight with the spiderkin with everybody.
“…ok. I was thinking about asking the digging bees to keep scouts in the Underway so that we wouldn’t get ambushed again. I think now…your hunters shouldn’t go in the Underway except when the bees are scouting ahead. We’ll have to try and talk to anyone who shows up before they see you, apparently.”
Chief Rohsuak just quietly nodded her head.
“As you say, Tower Keeper.”
Metsaitti frowned and crossed his arms.
“It may not be an issue, though, because there’s a bigger problem.”
Belissar glared at him.
“What now?”
Metsaitti quickly shook his head and waved his hands about.
“Ah, not something we did. It’s just…if the spiderkin sent out a band to build a new nest all the way out here…there’s a good chance there are now established nests between us and everyone else we fought with. I agree that it’d be a very good idea to keep an eye on the Underway from now on…and for us to hunt cautiously as well.”
Belissar’s eyes widened and then he clutched his head once again.
“Just what we needed…”
Belissar took a deep breath and rose to his feet.
“Ok, in that case, I’m going to ask the bees to scout the Underway right away. You two…I don’t know, think of what to do about all these situations or something.”
Belissar began to leave but paused by the door. He turned around and gave the two karnuq a stern look.
“And no more raiding from now on!”
Both of them just nodded sheepishly as he marched out the door.
“Ok!”
Belissar smiled as the Fourth of the Fifth danced about and saluted to him as she agreed to scout the Underway. The bees, at least, weren’t picking fights with everyone they met.
“Thank you, I appreciate it. And be careful, there might be more spiderkin in the future.”
The Fourth of the Fifth responded with a “King best king!” happy dance. Belissar, even as worried as he was, could not help but smile at that. After he took his leave, he took a deep breath and shook his head.
“Bees really are the best.”
Niobee began dancing on his head.
“King is best!”
Belissar smiled and reached up to brush her again. He then paused and his smile dropped. He realized he had one more person to talk to about the spiderkin, the one he should’ve spoken to first.
“What about you, Niobee? Are you ok with having spiderkin in the Tower?”
Belissar kicked himself for not asking her, after all, Niobee had nearly been killed by a spider. She also had great reason to dislike the present situation.
Niobee immediately began dancing.
“King wanted, so fine! As long as help King, then ok!”
Belissar smiled once more and resumed brushing her.
“Ok, thanks Niobee. And…I won’t let them catch you, or any of the other bees.”
That earned another “King is best king!” dance from Niobee. Belissar smiled…but he still resolved to speak with Niobee more. He didn’t want to take his best and oldest friend for granted, even if she’d always be ok with pretty much every choice he made.
“Why don’t we take a break and get some honey?”
“Ok!”
After a quick snack with Niobee, Belissar found himself wanting a change of pace from potential Underway wars. Since he was already back at the Apiary farmhouse, he decided to check on his mead. Notably, the mead made with burning honey, if his last attempt proved successful, had passed the minimum fermentation period, at least for normal mead. He couldn’t rule out it taking longer, but he could at least confirm that it was fermenting if nothing else.
This content is taken from freёnovelkiss.com.
He gulped as he reached for the lid of the jar. He really hoped that this one had worked, he wasn’t sure what to try next if it had failed as well. With all that had been going on lately, he hadn’t given this task as much thought as a mission from the gods deserved.
But there was nothing for it, so he opened up the jar…
He leaped back and clutched his nose. The very scent of the concoction within was spicy, burning his nose just from a whiff.
But as the heat and pained slowly eased…Belissar noticed the distinctive smell of alcohol. He slowly began to grin.
He had succeeded in brewing burning mead. At least something was going well today…very well indeed.
