I woke up full of resolve and fire in my belly. Then I felt my head resting against my caretaker’s fluff, and the coziness made me fall asleep again.

  When I woke properly, I had less fire but still enough resolve. I started by opening my quest screen.

  We were already building the hive, and I was unsure what was needed for it to be considered finished. The worker probably knew, because she was very capable.

  So laying eggs it was. When I thought about it, it came naturally. I only needed honey and the will to lay them.

  Phew. Nice that I did not need a drone. The only drones nearby would be my brothers, and that felt nasty.

  It seemed I only needed drones to make queens or bees with special bloodlines. Whatever that meant. I had no more knowledge about it.

  I told the ones outside to wait before gathering more, because I had a declaration to make. While we waited, a caretaker groomed me. It felt nice. She fixed my sleeping fluff that had become uneven.

  When the others returned, I gave off my most regal scent.

  “Grow hive. Lay eggs. More workers. More nectar.”

  The worker and the bee workers released a scent of happiness, and the caretakers danced about having more larvae to take care of. The warrior, however, smelled worried and unsure.

  “Queen not safe. Danger outside. More protection. Hive young.”

  “Why? Smell enemy or see?”

  “Enemy on wind. Not near. Hive young. More defenders.”

  “How far enemy?”

  “Very far.”

  So the enemy was not close. She simply wanted more warriors.

  “Lay warriors and workers.”

  Her worry lessened but did not disappear. The worker stepped forward and danced.

  “Must prepare. More honey. Make chambers. Egg cones. Fulfill queen’s wish.”

  Then she took the others with her. The warrior went outside to guard. Everyone except the worker left to gather nectar. She stayed behind to build my chamber.

  I did not fully understand everything she said, and irritation started to rise before fading.

  Whatever. I might as well help build the chambers with my new skill.

  My skill helped with quality. Things were less wonky, but everything took longer because I noticed every mistake. The worker still did almost everything herself. It took her the whole day to build the chamber.

  She then led me to the container of honey we had made.

  “How many eggs?” she asked.

  “What mean?”

  She smelled somewhat offended that I did not understand.

  “Honey. How many eggs.”

  Ah. From this honey, how many eggs could I lay? How was I supposed to know?

  But when I looked at it, a small Inspect appeared.

  But something inside me said I could only lay six if I wanted both warriors and workers. I was sure of it. Whatever queen instinct I had told me that.

  Was Inspect wrong, or did it simply show the maximum?

  I looked toward the crystals.

  I was shocked by the difference and confused, because this information was nothing like what I saw the first time.

  The worker bumped me to snap me out of it.

  “How many.”

  “Six with our honey. One thousand one hundred and thir—”

  She cut me off.

  “Never crystals to lay eggs. Never.”

  She could have let me finish, but her scent carried fear.

  “Why.”

  “Only crystal bee queen must use.”

  “Mother crystal bee.”

  “Yes. Not heir.”

  Okay… but why? She was very bad at explaining things. I needed a better communication system someday.

  “But why not.”

  “Larva wrong. Not crystal queen.”

  Fine. Only six eggs. Enough for the quest.

  I chose to wait before laying them, but I still slept in the chamber. It was cold, so my caretakers slept with me.

  Laying eggs was easy. It was instinctual. I simply had to concentrate on what I wanted, and then I felt what I needed to do. I consumed honey and concentrated on making three warriors, and after I felt the eggs form, I consumed more and concentrated on making three workers.

  It felt like the workers took less energy to form.

  I kept eating as the eggs were growing. The eating part was really nice. Some nectar containers tasted much better than others. I felt my rump grow, and after hours of eating, I felt ready.

  Without speaking, my caretakers helped me. One soothed me. One placed each egg into its honey container. Then they switched. The whole thing took a minute.

  I felt tired when I finished and had to lie down. It was easy to do, but it was probably the most exhausting thing I had done in my life. Mother had hundreds of eggs. How did she do this?

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  I shrugged and looked at an egg inside a container, clicking softly.

  Then I opened my quest screen.

  When did the hive become finished? And why did I not have more servants?

  I looked at my eggs. Must they be born first?

  Not even hatched and already not listening to me. Naughty children.

  I puffed out proudly. I would forgive them because I was a benevolent ruler. Only this time.

  The caretakers smelled amused.

  “Care eggs. Queen rest.”

  I rested happily, then sorted pollen and prepared it for bee bread, making an even distribution of glow so all larvae got an even share.

  Everyone came back early because they had smelled a storm. The explanation took a while, with scent phrases like danger, bad coming, and sky lightning. We needed a better way of communicating.

  I had never seen a storm. I wondered how it would feel.

  When the storm rolled in, cold wind and rain hit the tree. Thunder shook everything.

  It smelled fresh, but it overtook everything else and removed all the sweet scents of flowers that had dominated the clearing.

  How dare it behave like this in front of a queen.

  I helped make bee bread for the larvae. It was easy, just pollen and honey.

  The storm drained me, so I slept.

  My caretakers kept me warm while also caring for the eggs.

  Hopefully tomorrow the larvae will hatch.

  It will be so fun.

  I woke to shock and the scent of danger.

  Attack.

  The fog of sleep disappeared as I saw a caretaker.

  “Queen, enemies. Many. Must run.”

  “Eggs.”

  She and two workers held all six eggs, two each. I tried to ask about my other caretaker, but she cut me off.

  “No time. Follow.”

  Outside, everyone but the warrior waited. All carried honey.

  I grabbed the honey crystals, and they pushed me outside. A dead creature lay at the opening. I just knew, without Inspect, that it was a wasp.

  I looked up. The warrior killed another that fell unmoving to the ground.

  Why did they want to flee? We were winning.

  I gave off a scent of confusion.

  “More. No time.”

  Then I felt it.

  Danger.

  We prepared to fly, and the warrior was returning.

  My head followed her, and I saw behind her a cloud of wasps not too far away.

  Then one dropped from the tree.

  It landed on a worker and bit her head off.

  No one had time to react. She was killed instantly, and everything blurred into panic.

  I had just started flying away, and the only thought I could form was: It was not supposed to be like this. We were building a hive.

  As I was thinking that, the warrior reacted. She stung the wasp through the neck, grabbed the eggs the worker had been carrying in one smooth motion, and flew after us.

  It all took seconds.

  I beat my wings as hard as I could, realizing I was slowing everyone down. My backside was still heavy from laying eggs.

  There was no time for sadness. No time to think. Only beating my wings as hard as I could.

  The warrior made a caretaker drop the honey bread so she could carry more eggs.

  The wasps’ wings grew louder. They invaded our hive behind us. I felt a burning in my chest and wanted to shed tears, but I could not.

  Ten wasps followed us—or maybe more. I couldn’t count properly when I looked back.

  I tightened my hold on the crystals and was grabbed by the caretakers as they dragged me faster. The fear felt like a cloud over me, preventing any other feeling from entering, even the indignity of being dragged.

  I heard a wasp hit a worker. She tumbled, but as she spun, she stung it through the eye. Its legs had come close to its incisors, and just before dying, it bit off her leg.

  She had just steadied herself, but as the leg was severed, she dropped an egg. A wasp was about to eat it as she dove to kill it mid-air, but another came and ate the falling egg.

  I wanted to scream, but nothing came out. Only a tight ache in my chest and confusion.

  The worker flipped mid-air and slammed her stinger into the wasp’s head, splattering it.

  She tried to fly back toward us, her flight choppy from pain. I lost sight of her as we changed direction and saw two more wasps trying to overtake her.

  As they approached, I could smell others to the side and felt the warrior flying past me without warning. Before they or we could react, she killed one and bounced off it to fly into the other, wounding it. But more arrived.

  She killed a final one before two bit into her and tore her apart.

  I searched for the limping worker. She still tried to reach us, but I smelled her death before I could find her.

  This would not work. They were picking us off one by one.

  We needed a way to lose them and regroup.

  Mother’s hive was too far.

  The lake. I had a feeling it would either help or kill us.

  I switched scents until they understood. We turned toward the water.

  By the time we reached the lake, there were twelve—at least that was what it looked like through the chaos.

  Guilt bubbled inside me as I dragged everyone down. I could not fly at full speed anymore, and they had to drag me along. My wings shook so much I thought they would snap.

  A fish jumped and ate a bee worker.

  The guilt became a stabbing pain.

  The caretakers tried to fly higher, but I stopped them when I saw a fish eat a wasp.

  They did not fully understand, but still followed my order and stayed low.

  I realized the water darkened when a fish was ready to jump. I warned them each time.

  We dodged. Almost died.

  We learned.

  My warnings became more precise.

  I looked around and could see that only about half of them were still flying behind us. The rest must have been eaten.

  We might survive—

  A shadow fell over the lake, larger than any before it.

  A huge fish rose as water fell around it like a storm. A massive bird dove and smashed the wasps aside as it pierced the fish and flew upward.

  The force from the fish and bird came as a shockwave over all of us, spinning us and almost throwing us into the water.

  Some of the wasps fell into the water and were eaten.

  We hit the shore hard. Everything hurt, but at least we had not ended up in the water.

  For a moment, I could not move, like my body had forgotten how to breathe.

  We still had to run. There were more.

  A wasp landed beside me. Pain shot up my leg, which was bent the wrong way. I could not move. I just froze.

  My caretaker did not.

  She dropped her egg, grabbed me with one arm, and dragged me aside while the other caretaker attacked.

  She climbed onto the wasp’s back and stung its wings. She was thrown off, her leg broken, but she still flew.

  The wasp ignored her and went for the dropped egg.

  I watched my egg be eaten. The squishing sound. The smell of its death. The liquid running down the wasp’s face.

  It broke something, seeing three of my unborn children gone.

  I felt like I was crying, but no tears came—only a burning behind my eyes.

  I had not helped at all. My sister was dragging me away while I just looked at the vile creature as it killed.

  Then I realized we were nearing the forest.

  My other caretaker caught up.

  Three wasps flew behind us.

  One landed and started eating the wingless wasp.

  Disgust filled me. They were truly vile.

  Two kept chasing close behind, with more buzzing farther back. The caretaker behind us was overtaken.

  I could smell my last caretaker making up her mind. She brushed her antenna against mine. It almost felt like I heard her thoughts.

  “My queen. My sister. Your birth and serving you was the greatest happiness in my life. I will hold them back.”

  Before I could even ask how, I understood.

  She gave me the egg and flew back toward the wasps.

  I tried to follow, but she stung toward me and danced.

  “In the way. Find after. Go.”

  Burning filled my chest, and I felt sick.

  I flew into the forest, clutching the egg, not daring to look back. Deep down, I knew I would never see my sweet sister again.

  My last hive members fought behind me.

  I did not look back.

  I smelled rain.

  And for a moment, something else.

  Bees and earth.

  I followed it.

  Another hive might kill me, but they might scare away the wasps. It was the only hope.

  The rain weakened the scent. I lost it many times and circled until I found it again.

  A hole in the ground.

  No bees outside. The scent was old.

  I had to go in.

  It was too cold for me and the egg.

  Inside were old honeycombs, destroyed long ago.

  My grip tightened around the egg.

  I limped deeper. My broken leg bent the wrong way. The pain made me dizzy.

  After many wrong turns, I reached the queen’s chamber.

  No creatures.

  Only silence.

  A giant bee lay in the center, bigger than my mother.

  Dead.

  Full of holes.

  Fear froze me.

  If something killed her, I had no chance.

  I walked around the room. Nothing else moved.

  I lay beside her.

  My last thought was wondering why they had not eaten her.

  Then I fell unconscious.