While I waited, my bodyguards got me a leather pillow with straw filling to sit on, a jug of nectar to sip, and set up a portable sundial to check time on.
All that was missing was someone with a fan blowing a cool breeze at me—the sun was hot and glaringly bright, despite yesterday’s chilly night.
After so much time spent in this world, I began to notice seasonal changes. If I guessed right and this world had a year of the same length as my own, then we should be approaching autumn by now—but the overall hot climate made it hard to feel.
’I missed my birthday, and I can’t tell *when*… This world’s birthday doesn’t count.’
Hornets were still attacking, but there were never more than a dozen of them at once, and our numerical superiority allowed the bees to crush them with ease.
They’d be much scarier if they worked in teams, but their intelligence was too low for that.
According to the sundial, three hours passed before the hornets finally stopped coming. Not entirely, but eventually a flood turned to a rare trickle, and Bloodimina turned to me.
"Father, I think we’ve spent enough time here and should move forward. The cries of their sisters don’t lure any more of them!"
I nodded and checked my notes.
I wasn’t spending the time entirely idly. Between this and that, I’ve listened to scouts and counted the dead hornets.
"We killed 83 of them. There are clearly many more inside the hive, and still foraging in the surroundings. But you are right, we shouldn’t wait for them. Set out defensive cordons around the army against any more attackers and let’s move out, Bloodimina."
She saluted.
"Yes, Father! All according to the base plan?"
"Yep! Unless they *all* get out of the nest at once, it should be simple enough."
On a drum signal, the army regained a loose march position and moved out. Several hundreds of Warriors circled it, watching out for the few incoming hornets and protecting the non-combatants and the wounded trailing at the back of the formation.
Behind us were only hornet corpses, bloodied ground, and trampled grass.
The closer we got to the hornet nest itself, the more often we met new hornets, but there were never enough to stop us until we arrived.
The army landed on the ground half a kilometer away from the hornets’ nest, where we planned to build fortifications. From here, the hill and the cave it was made in were easily visible through the sparse forest around.
If I squinted, I could almost make out the glint of gold! Or maybe I was deluding myself.
The hornets, of course, noticed us.
I watched a dozen hornets crawl out of their cave, waving their antennae and looking at us with inhuman malice. Then, ten more followed them.
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"Bloodimina, command everybody to prepare for a fight. If they think we are a threat to their nest, they might attack preventively!"
"Yes, Father! Drummer, signal combat positions!"
Thum-thum-thum! Thum-thum-thum!
THUM-THUM-THUM! THUM-THUM-THUM!
The drum beat spread over the army, echoing through the forest and making a bunch of insects fly, jump or scuttle away in haste.
The hornets were alarmed by the noise, too. Perhaps, before they would’ve still considered, but now they *definitely* were attacking!
More and more hornets emerged from their nest, creating a swarm of what must’ve been a hundred of them.
I bit my lip and began with the self-calming mantras.
’There’s still 1 hornet to 100 bees! There was no avoiding this fight before we can start a siege, and at least here we have a favorable place. It could’ve been worse if we had to fight them *after* we set up the cordon around the nest and our forces were spread out.’
"Bloodimina, be ready! I leave you the full command!" I shouted over the noise of drums and beating wings.
I myself planned to sensibly stay safe and away from the main fight.
I didn’t come here because I thought Bloodimina didn’t know how to kill hornets—I came here because she only knew how to lay a siege *in theory*.
"Yes, Father!" Bloodimina saluted and began shouting orders down the line at the several bees that served as her messengers.
I and my bodyguards flew a bit back to the non-combatants, who were guarding themselves with hammers and watching the start of the fight with awe, glee and, in some cases, envy.
Just in time for the hornets to fully descend upon the bee army, which met it with an equal amount of ferocity.
Despite the greater numbers of their opponents, the Warriors used the same tactics as before, doing their best to split the hornets apart. This time, it was harder because of hornet numbers; thank God they were still stupid.
Hundreds, thousands of bolas were thrown in the air; hammers crushed chitin and skulls; someone screamed in pain, but I couldn’t tell who those screams belonged to.
It was utter chaos, but I soon began seeing patterns there.
The main swarm of fighters spread apart—the Warrior Bees separated most of the hornets from each other. But even the lone hornets were still massive, deadly and agile.
They moved erratically and switched targets, and sometimes reinforcements would show their noses from the hornet nest.
Soon, the first wounded began flying or were being carried in my direction, where Physician Bees were already preparing their tools.
And yet, the bees were definitely, *definitely* winning!
The amount of hornets was decreasing slowly but steadily.
Although by system numbers, hornets had more stamina than bees, in reality their bigger bodies burned through it much faster. And when a hornet took a breather, there were a hundred bees ready to pounce on her.
Especially Beemarines!
Their small force was cutting the enemies down like a lawnmower. I could make them out from the main swarm just from the way they moved! And no hammer-throwing this time.
"Father!" I was startled by a Commando Bee who suddenly appeared near. "A report!"