War of the Races

Chapter 19- The Scent of Honey

Fog was crawling across the forest floor as everything grew very still. We were close now to the ravine with the black maw of a cave at its end. Long ago it was inhabited by bees and from there expanded into a large thriving hive.

It wasn't thriving anymore.

Huxian paused and looked back nervously to see if I was still behind her. I came to a stop and shapeshifted into my natural form as Quebracho grew a hardened wooden breastplate with long platemail that draped down my knees to clothe me, and 'Barkskin' boots to cover my feet. For the hundredth time I regretted not wearing the 'Claws of the King' before I came hunting.

Staring at the fog slowly enveloping us, I asked, "What do you think?"

"It's just fog," Huxian replied as she stood there rubbing her belly, "The forest always quiets down when a fog rolls in. However, I must say I feel more nervous than usual."

"Because of the fog," I asked and then cut my eyes to her belly?

"I'm not sure," She answered honestly, "I saw what happened to Maha and Tampa... What would happen to the baby if I were to get whatever that is?"

"Then I will heal you," I answered confidently.

Huxian nodded and smiled in relief as she let herself be reassured.

Leaves and grass swished behind us, my ears twitched and I quickly transformed into a hybrid-Fox and growled as I prepared to fight. Quebracho shifted the 'Barkskin' breastplate into a girdle with wooden mail that hung down to my knees as white 'Moonfire' enshrouded my back, shoulders, and arms, then the boots moved up to become schynbalds as my feet transformed into paws. Huxian twirled to face our attacker and crouched as she unsheathed her claws just as Coella stepped out from behind a tree...

"You two are pretty quick," She chuckled, "Not as fast as me, but still, pretty fast!"

"What are you doing," I growled, "Have you come to ambush us and avenge your friend, Noama?"

"I...," Coella answered as she broke eye contact and looked down at my armor, "I didn't come here for that." She looked up at Huxian and I could see the conflict in her face, of hate warring with something else, resignation maybe, before she finally continued, "I will never forgive you for killing my best-friend, but I understand why you did. The law of the forest is clear; every living thing deserves to be able to eat, and every living thing has the right to defend itself. Noama knew she wasn't supposed to be out there alone. It's just... I loved her... She was the only person I had left that felt like family."

Standing up straight in a more relaxed pose, I let my arms fall to my sides as I shook my head, "I am sorry Coella. I completely understand how you must feel."

"So why are you here," Huxian asked, her tone firm and to the point, "If not to kill me?"

"I...," Coella started to answer and paused, she brought her gaze up from the ground, her one pink eye fierce as she met Huxian's eyes, "If I kill you then I would become you, a murderer." Then looking over at me her grim features softened marginally as she continued, "The Council told me about what you did. Using the payment for this quest to get them to give me my home back. I appreciate that more than you can ever know. However, it is time I left, and so, I figured if you think so highly of me that you would do such a thing after everything I did to you and tried to do, then I thought that maybe I could accompany you until I figure out where I am going to go."

Huxian half-turned and fixed me with a knowing grin. I tried to not look at her, and instead found myself looking Coella up and down, taking her measure. I noticed she wore a small pack and blanket in the small of her back above her long knives. She stood there, her weight on her right leg, and idly tapped her other foot while resting her hands on her hips.

"Fine, you may join us. Are you able to transform like Huxian into a pure animal form," I answered and then asked.

"No," She replied with a shake of her head, "That is a rare ability among any genus of Animalkind. I have never seen it in anyone else until Huxian and you."

"I got the ability from her," I answered with a nod toward Huxian.

"How did she pass her ability on to you," Coella asked, her brow furrowed in confusion and curiosity, "If it is as easy to pass on that skill to me as it was to receive it, then I just might let you."

Huxian burst into a laughing fit and stumbled away as I explained, "The ability to absorb Animal abilities is a special talent on the Vale House in addition to being Druid Guardians. My family has the ability to cleanse the residual magic that contaminated Huxian's Chi, for instance. Once I did, I received a portion of the strengths of her Mind, Power, and Soul Wells, and then I also absorbed her magic and made it my own..."

"Okay," Coella interrupted as she stepped up to me eagerly and said, "Sounds easy enough, so do that to me just in reverse."

I smiled nervously though I am not sure it looked that way since I had a strange hybrid-fox face with a snout. I cleared my throat, and then I finished, "It doesn't work in reverse. The way that my cleansing ability works, I must bed and mate with a female in order to cleanse her, and it's only one way. I would cleanse your chi Coella, and then I would gain certain skills from you once I absorbed your magic..."

I would have laughed if it weren't so embarrassing for both of us. Coella's one pink eye opened wide and her jaw dropped in her shock. We stood there for a second as Huxian was caught up in another laughing fit, and then Coella's mouth slowly closed with a simple, "Oh..."

She took a step back as her pink cheeks grew three shades darker, and I let it go and turned and started walking toward the fog, "We can continue from here like this."

Huxian brought her gaiety under control and nodded as she quickly caught up and paced me. Coella hung back for several yards and then decided to catch up and whisper, "We are getting close."

She held up a hand as her long paddle shaped ears perked up and her little nose twitched as she inhaled deeply, half turning back she whispered, "This is odd. Usually you can hear a constant thrum of bees buzzing and there is always the smell of honey."

"It does smell like honey," I interjected.

Coella shook her head, "No, it is usually way stronger than this."

As we walked through the fog toward the cave the stench of death began to encroach upon the smell of honey. It wasn't long after that we came upon a strangely misshapen wolf with sores all across his body. It was noticeable that the sores had at one time leaked black ooze, but now they were dry stains on his fur. Scanning the surroundings I saw that the grass and underbrush were dead wherever black dried ooze had fallen.

"Stay close and don't touch either the corpses or the black stuff," I warned.

Huxian and Coella looked at me and nodded curtly saying that I hadn't needed to sound the warning. Satisfied enough with their answers I looked into myself and released my hybrid-Fox form and then concentrated on transforming into my newly acquired Arboreal form.

"Mmm, yes," Quebracho hummed in my mind, "I do love a man that knows how to stimulate my... interest..."

As I stood there perfectly still I could feel my walnut-brown skin toughen as it took on more of the look of wood. My eyes began to change until they looked like strange seeds with camera lens irises that spun open or closed, and they began to glow with green magic. Then my long golden hair stood straight up above my head. Not like Glenna's that wafted about like a flame. Rather, my hair stood like wheat stalks for two feet above my head, and a golden pollen began shaking out of my hair. The pollen didn't fall down upon me like it should have, instead it floated up and out like a huge mushroom cloud and then fell to the ground.

Quebracho giggled and I could feel her excitement as she shifted my armor again. Golden and dark burgundy limbs grew from the tree on the bracer on my left arm. The gold was Sequoia's wood, and the burgundy was Quebracho. The limbs grew like vines, encasing my walnut skin in burgundy armor with dark green leaves woven and overlaid like fabric so that it looked like traditional Villralfar hunting garb. As a last embellishment she used small vines from Sequoia's wood to create golden filigree with small nettles and leaves that were from them both.

Coella gasped in surprise, "You look like one of the Ash'drya!"

As my pollen fell to the forest floor, new shoots began breaking through the soil and pushing leaves aside. They grew very quickly until we were walking on a lush carpet of grass. For thirty yards in a circle around me everything was vibrant green. Where pollen landed on trees their bark suddenly took on a healthy glow and leaves and nettles turned from dull to a bright, almost glowing green.

"By the goddess's grace," Huxian gasped.

"Yeah," Coella agreed as she held her hands palms up as pollen landed on them and her, "I wasn't exactly tired after running here from the village..."

"I was," Huxian admitted with a shake of her head.

"...but now I feel like I've slept a week and am full of energy!" Coella finished with a sense of awe.

Giving them both a smile, I knelt down and dug my fingers into the grass and soil beneath. Drawing on my life force I used 'Entangling Roots'. The roots acted like antennae sending back information that allowed me to sense the earth and everything beneath. Soil variations. Rock. The roots of the tree immediately around me. It was all laid out in my head like I could see it, smell it, taste it, feel it, as I burrowed through it.

Delving deep into the earth before coming back up, I loosened the dirt and moved rocks out of the way. With a sudden explosion of dirt into the air, roots shot out like tentacles and wrapped around the dead wolf until his body was completely encapsulated. They tightened and then I pulled it down deep into the earth before canceling 'Entangling Roots' and standing up.

"There," I sighed as I brushed the dirt from my hands, "The body is deep enough now that hopefully it won't poison the ecology."

As we closed in on the cave we came across more. This time it looked like a battlefield strewn with the bodies of bees, wolves, bears, and another Animal I had never seen before. The males were fierce looking as if they stood seven to eight feet tall. Their coloring seemed to range from black to pink. They had short, turned up noses with wide bridges, wide set eyes, long top lips, large curved tusks that stuck out of the corners of their mouths and curled up in front of their cheeks. They would have walked on hooves, and they had small coiled tails.

The females were much smaller, seeming to range in height from four to seven feet tall. Where the majority of the males seemed to be muscle bound 'Hulks' the females varied greatly in shape and appearance. The tallest being the least attractive and the most fearsome and muscle bound, and yet, they were still very pretty. As they got shorter the more beautiful they became. Their bodies ranged from athletically toned to very plump. Their faces were softer than their male counterparts, and they had small tusks that just peaked out the corners of their mouths, or very often they didn't have any at all.

"What are they," I asked as I carefully moved a long lock of purple hair out of the dead green eyes of a dark brown female.

"Orc," Coella answered matter-of-factly.

"Orcs," I parroted excitedly, "This world has Orcs?" As my excitement grew, I thought of all of the fantasy books and games I had spent hours, days, and years reading or playing. "Unbelievable!"

"Why," Huxian asked, "They're simple pigs..."

"Yes, though you had better not ever call them that," Coella corrected as she chuckled, "Or swine, hog, porker, boar, and sow. If you do, you're not walking away without a fight or worse!"

"So they gave themselves the name Orc," I mumbled as I caressed the female's soft cheek.

"Yea," Coella replied with a shake of her head, "Some say it's because they're so stupid they couldn't pronounce pork. Others say it's a shortened form of the same word. Me, I don't care. If they want to be known as Orcs then let them be, after all, I get a little bent out of shape when some fool calls me a rabbit!"

I felt pity for having to bury such a young beautiful girl, Orc or not. She wasn't infected, so I could only assume that she had been an innocent killed by someone that was. As we investigated we saw more of the same. The contagious and regular folk lying dead on the ground, strewn fallen from what looked to be a large battle. Those that appeared well seemed to have been ambushed by the infected and they killed each other. The question was; did anyone survive, and were they infected. Whatever this plague was, it had to be stopped here or it would decimate everything.

After the mass burial of the Orcs, Wolves, and Bears, we marched on and arrived at the cave entrance. Once we saw what was in front of us we all wished we hadn't come.

"Oh my goddess the Colony has Collapsed," I gasped as I looked around at mounds upon mounds of small dead bees. At least a hundred thousands of little female Workers much like the one I met when in Sequoia's Grove, only two to three inches tall with little glossy black feminine bodies with a tail like insect abdomen sprouting from between what appeared to be their buttocks. Their abdomens were striped with yellow as well as their hair. They had broad thick thighs and two sets of arms though they only looked humanoid from hips and shoulders to the elbows and knees. From the knees and elbows down their appendages were insectoid. Many were infected with the plague, but the others were not. More smaller mounds were made up of at least a thousand male Drones. They were much bigger than the Workers looking like they would have been about a foot and a half tall in height. The next piles after the Drones were roughly five-hundred Keepers who were all females. Each Keeper appeared to be a more robust version of a Worker with the exception that they were three and half to four feet tall.

Shaking my head as I held a pretty Keepers head in hands and traced the contours of her face with my thumbs, I hissed, "There are just too many for me to bury!"

"It's okay my love," Huxian replied soothingly.

"You've done more than anyone else has, or could have done," Coella added as she nodded agreement with Huxian.

A peeling scream and the sounds of buzzing and thrashing snatched all of our heads up to look toward the mouth of the hive.

"You two stay here and protect each other," I commanded and then ran to the cave entrance without a second glance back.

Once inside, the entrance of the cave was dark and cool for five-hundred feet. Turning a corner, I noticed that as I continued it began to rapidly warm up. There was another corner and a warm yellowish glow lit the small cavern. The light came from honey in the comb that lined the walls and hung from the ceiling. The entire room was filled with long walls of honeycomb from floor to ceiling. As I moved further into the cavern I saw damage and signs of fighting. Honey spilling out across the floor and dripping from partially wrecked honeycomb walls.

Another scream further inside lifted my head and drew me onward. With the soft glow of honey to light my path I jogged down twisting tunnels until I came to another massive chamber. It was completely destroyed!

Like the previous chamber every wall was overlaid with honeycomb, and then there were massive walls like bookshelves. Or, at least, there had been. Every wall was destroyed and little white eggs, larger larva, and pupa were slashed and smashed so that the grey matter inside was splattered everywhere.

I wanted to puke, but in my Arboreal form I couldn't...

Dashing across the room I found several tunnels leading out of the Egg Chamber, but only one was significantly larger than the others. Choosing it, I felt a deep sense of urgency and I had the feeling it would lead me directly to the Queen's Chamber. The tunnel was straight as an arrow but at a steep decline taking me deep beneath the mountain. As I ran I wondered how we ever heard the fighting of the combatants?

I ran for what felt like a mile before I heard a terrible shriek and the sounds of clanging reminiscent of swords ringing out as they struck each other. Running faster I the descent of the tunnel finally leveled out and I saw the end up ahead. As I passed through the portal the Queen's Chamber opened up before me like a grand arena!

The space was massive. It was lit by walls and ceiling covered in honeycomb and all of it was filled with golden nectar. In the center of the chamber was a large, tapered, black abdomen nearly three times as large as the Hive Queen herself. It had three yellow stripes that seemed to pulse with a golden glow, and every time they pulsed I could see hundreds of small eggs inside. At the far end I finally saw her, the Queen...

She was beautiful!

Like all Animals, the Prime Races made her so that she looked very humanoid, even if none knew what that meant anymore. She was a smooth glossy black from head to the tarsus claws of her feet. Four long clear wings buzzed on and off as she jumped about as her two middle arms with long sharp blade-like forearms swung back and forth to fend off the attacks of her rival. Her primary arms unlike any other bee type had very humanoid forearms and hands that she gripped two curved swords with.

The Queen's arms were a blur of movement as she shifted from stance to stance, but she was always on the defensive. Her abdomen was too large to move easily. In contrast the other Queen's abdomen was much smaller and more proportional to her four feet of height being nearly three feet long. It's appearance was like that of a traditional bee's abdomen, but the way it met the Queen's pelvis and buttocks made it look like a massively bloated tail sticking straight out behind her.

"Get out of here!" I suddenly heard reverberating in my skull.

I thought it was telepathy, but still began to yell, when another message blasted through my brain again, "Leave! Run! I can't hold out much longer..."

"Is she infected with the plague," I screamed.

"Yes," The Queen answered.

Gathering my wits I gathered my magic and ran toward the battle as my fingers grew into large claws coated with poison. The Queen defended against another onslaught as I charged in and slashed my claws across the smaller infected Queen's abdomen...

She shrieked in outrage, leaped as her wings 'vroomed' to life, and landed on the other side behind the Hive Queen. With a snarl, the infected Queen clawed and viciously slashed at the Hive Queen's large, exposed, abdomen...

The Queen wailed in pain as great gashes were ripped in her side and eggs began spilling out, "I'm dying!" She cried directly into my head.

My anger blazed with frustration. Running as fast as I could my golden wheat stalk hair suddenly began to glow gold and all of a sudden I felt like I orgasmed as a giant plume of pollen shot up into the air, hit the ceiling, and mushroom-clouded the whole room!

Both Queen's turned and looked at me with naked lust in their black composite eyes. The Hive Queen eyes roiled and changed from black to copper-orange, while the infected Queen screamed and launched herself at me.

"Noooo!" The Queen screamed and twisted just enough to slash down with her right secondary arm through her own abdomen a foot below where it connected to her buttocks.

Stumbling forward, as the infected Queen collided with me, the Hive Queen slashed across her rival's back, slicing through her humanoid thorax as her hands grabbed the sick Queen's throat and wrenched her backwards. There was a shriek, then a gurgle, and then the Hive Queen dropped her rival's torso to the ground before stumbling a few feet back toward her abdomen.