"It's too dangerous to go alone! Do you know how many monsters in this forest could instantly kill you?!"

  "You're not my dad Ian! I can go wherever I want whether you like it or not!"

  "And I can protect you whether you like it or not! I'm level nine, while you're still level one! And on that note, I'd prefer for you to survive past level one! Don't throw you're life away just to make make honey quickly!"

  "I can't do anything besides kill myself without honey! If I sting anything I die! If a monster's trying to kill me and I don't sting it I'll die! Sorry if I want to be more than helpless a bit faster!"

  "I can't be alone again!" Ian's emphasis on the word 'can't' was almost violent, and he shook with a combination of frustration and fear.

  Beatrice saw the fear and started to feel like and idiot. Of course Ian didn't want to be alone after being kicked out of his hive. A honeybee living alone wasn't just strange, it was unnatural. 'Putting together the harsh survival and his age, it's no wonder there's some lingering trauma. My protector is less than a year old and has abandonment issues, and I thought it would be a good idea to start yelling at him again.' Beatrice's thoughts quickly turning any lingering anger into shame. 'Also I pulled the 'you're not my dad' line?' A healthy dose of embarrassment mixing with the shame.

  "Eaaargh!" *Thwack* Beatrice smacked her face into the silvery floor.

  "Beatrice?!"

  "It's okay Ian, I am now cool as a winter lake." Beatrice said, her twitching antennae giving the lie. "You're right. I need to be careful if I want to survive, and it probably wouldn't change much to just fill the cells with nectar and then finish the honey. I'm sorry I yelled at you Ian."

  Ian slowly relaxed his tense posture, the sudden shift in the conversation taking him a moment to adapt to. "Yes, well. I just want you to be safe. I mean... all is forgiven. I shouldn't have yelled at you either, it was rather uncouth of me."

  The rest of the morning was fine, but there wasn't much to do except get to work. Beatrice could tell that Ian was making an effort to be extra alert during their trips to the clover field. After spending the day collecting nectar with the occasional break to rest their wings and drink some nectar, they managed to fill three and a half cells with nectar, leaving only one cell empty. They said goodnight and went to sleep.

  The next morning was uneventful. Beatrice woke to Ian working on his acorn collection, and they ate a quick breakfast before flying back out to the clover field. The fifth trip of the day was different. Scattered around the field of clovers were other honeybees, nearly a dozen within view as Beatrice and Ian flew out over the clover field.

  Beatrice was excited to see other bees, and they had to have a hive full of even more bees, not to mention the honey. 'My fellow bees! Do bees accept strays into their hives? Guess we'll have to find out.' And with that thought, Beatrice flew over to one of the bees who had landed on a flower nearby. She didn't notice, but Ian began to trail behind a bit as they approached the other bee.

  "Hi. Who are you?" Said the other bee.

  The casual greeting of the other worker-bee was encouraging. "Hi. I'm Beatrice, and you?"

  "I am a worker from Beelinda's hive. Are you from another hive Beatrice? But you smell familiar." said the nameless worker, a hint of confusion in her motions.

  "My hive was destroyed by big ol' fire bears. I emerged from my cell to see giant fire-breathing bears before falling on my face and passing out." Beatrice almost told the bee to stop smelling her, but bees use their antennae to smell, and they rely on smell a lot more than humans. So it wasn't that weird.

  "My sister! You're a survivor of the massacre? It's a miracle that you survived to find us again." The worker-bee exclaimed.

  'Wait. Are these the remnants of my old hive? What are the chances of that?' Beatrice felt a surge of excitement, and some affection for her newfound sister. "I'm so happy! I didn't think I'd find any survivors from that disaster, let alone a new hive. But I wouldn't have survived without Ian." Beatrice looked towards Ian and realized that he was keeping distance from her and the worker. But he was clearly paying attention, because he cautiously approached at the mention of his name.

  "Nice to meet you madam. I'm..." But Ian was harshly interrupted by the worker before he could even finish introducing himself.

  "Silence drone! Keep your useless thoughts to yourself!"

  The silence that followed was tense, but the unnamed worker didn't appear to notice. Beatrice slowly turned to face her, and took a step forward so they were almost touching.

  "His name is Ian." (Actually it was Waximillian, but that was like doing a whole dance sequence in bee language) "I wouldn't have survived without his help." Beatrice spoke with a cheer that made the worker feel uncomfortable for some reason. But the worker brushed it off to the isolation poor Beatrice must have suffered.

  "You might not know this Beatrice, but drones are useless. Aside from mating with the queen they can't do anything. They're just a drain on the hive's resources." As the worker spoke Ian stepped back slightly and his antennae drooped sadly. But Beatrice grew more still, neither her wings or antennae moving an inch. The unfortunate worker-bee continued speaking, oblivious to the increase in tension. Ian was also unaware of Beatrice's thoughts, but it was clear in his body-language (Not the actual speaking kind) that he wasn't optimistic. Beatrice figured he expected to be excluded from her miraculous return to her original family.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  And the worker-bee continued speaking. "The queen will be excited to see you, and so will the other workers. As for your drone. The queen doesn't need one, so he can just go die somewhere."

  "I see. Well there's only one thing left to do before we leave." Beatrice said with saccharine sweetness. Both the worker and Ian misunderstanding Beatrice's emphasis on the word 'we'. And with a quick and violent motion, she ripped out the worker's left antenna with her mandibles.

  "IAN IS MY FRIEND YOU FUCKING BITCH!!!" Then Beatrice jumped on her back and started savaging the poor worker's wings.

  Ian was stunned. He was certain Beatrice would head back to her hive, as would any other worker fortunate enough to be reunited with their family. And while he saw Beatrice as stubborn and strange, he didn't expect this sort of savagery from her. Then he started to panic a little. What if she stung the other worker and died? or what if the worker stings her? He wanted to interfere, but there weren't any opening as the worker flailed and spun in a futile effort to dislodge the apparently berserk Beatrice. After the worker's wings were almost totally shredded, Ian noticed that there was no way for the other bee to sting or even bite Beatrice, since she was on the worker's back. And despite Beatrice's savage biting and tearing, she hadn't tried to sting the other bee.

  Ian still wanted to separate Beatrice and the worker, but there was no guarantee that the worker wouldn't try to kill him or Beatrice. So he stood there in mild shock at the bee-on-bee violence, forced to watch as Beatrice finished with the bee's wings and began tearing at the other bee's thorax. Ian's panic grew. He knew the other bee was as good as dead without functional wings to return to the hive and evade predators, but if Beatrice killed the other bee she'd become a pariah and would never be able to return to her hive.

  But ultimately Ian was unable to do a thing, and with a crunch if chitin and a sick tear of tissue, the worker collapsed like a puppet with their strings cut.

  You have killed a Silverwood Honeybee Worker Level 4 Tier 1.

  Congratulations! You have reached level 2.

  Congratulations! Due to your actions, you have acquired the title Kin-slayer (C).

  And that's when the other honeybee workers approached, attack pheromones wafting through the air with a sharp and unpleasant smell.

  Congratulations! Due to your actions, you have acquired the title Pariah (E).

  "Beatrice! We must away!" Ian half expected Beatrice to ignore him, but she took off and started following close behind as they fled from the small pack of angry bees. Ian wished he could grant Beatrice a portion of his speed, but there was nothing he could do except hope Beatrice could outpace the bees chasing them. Fortunately Beatrice must have had more agility than the average worker, probably because workers tended to overinvest in the endurance stat. They gradually lost sight of the other bees and Ian started leading them back to his hollow. Ian realized that they had veered far off course from the path to his hollow he had memorized, but that was only a good thing. He still had a good Idea of where his hollow is, and the other bees couldn't trace the path back to find them without spending more effort than it would be worth. If there was something Ian knew about bee society, it was that the hive was the highest priority, and waste was anathema.

  They didn't speak on the flight back, but that was nothing unusual with the difficulty of speech while flying excepting simple messages like 'This way' or 'Enemy here'. But the silence was still uncomfortable. Beatrice and Ian arrived at his hollow without incident, and the silence continued as they stood apart, waiting for the other to speak.

  'What the heck was that? I've never felt so angry before. Is there something wrong with my mind? Have I always been like this?' Beatrice's thoughts were in turmoil. She couldn't say she was feeling guilty about what she did, but losing control of her emotions wasn't something she had a lot of experience with. It wasn't like nobody had ever threatened someone she cared about, she had gone to public school after all. Actually, her emotions felt like they were slowly escalating over the last few days.

  Ian's thoughts were a bit more chaotic. On one hand Beatrice hadn't left him alone, and a sense of relief and elation filled him like an ambient glow. And on the other hand, Beatrice acted like a psychotic murderer earlier. He wasn't exactly afraid of Beatrice. It was more like he was afraid for her, since she had made an enemy of her old hive and might again randomly attack another monster. 'Except it wasn't random. She was angry on my behalf, my dear Beatrice.' He resolved to level up and evolve to tier two. He doubted keeping Beatrice alive would be easy if he remained tier one.

  "I'm sorry Ian." Beatrice said, shaking slightly. "I shouldn't have risked our lives like that. We should've just left."

  Ian was shaken out of his thoughts and turned towards Beatrice. "There's nothing for me to forgive. You were defending my honor, in a way. Maybe." Ian hesitated upon recalling Beatrice's savage and brutal attack, an attack without warning with no quarter given. "Ahem. What I mean to say is that you were angry on my behalf, and I appreciate that. We can say that my appreciation at least cancels out the threat of a hostile hive. Not that they weren't hostile to me in the first place! Hehe."

  Beatrice had been perking up until his last sentence. Then she went still in the same way she did before her attack. But then she relaxed again and gave a little bee nod. "Good. I didn't think I could... Never mind. I'm glad we didn't get hurt, but what are we supposed to do now? Our nectar source is compromised." Beatrice said, looking worried.

  But Ian waved an antenna dismissively and reassured her. "Worry not dear Beatrice. I can think of a dozen different in-season flowers off the top of my head. They vary in quality I suppose, but any one of them is sufficient for survival." Ian made a little bee grimace at the thought his least favorite nectars. The grimace was like chewing with his mandibles, but without making any snapping noises.

  Beatrice buzzed with relief. "Great! Then we should finish making some honey! I'm excited to try some that I made myself." She walked over to the wax cells and started buzzing with conviction. Hoping that it wouldn't take too long to see results. While she was doing that Ian resumed his woodcrafts, chomping away at the bee-shaped silver wood. While she was buzzing, Beatrice turned her attention towards a notification she hadn't registered at the time, since she was busy committing bee-murder.

  Congratulations! You have unlocked a branching skill advancement. Please select your preferred advancement for Honeybee Interpretive Dance (E).