Beatrice awoke to a loud hollow clattering, the loud noise causing her to jolt in surprise as awareness returned. Since bees had nearly three-sixty vision and no eyelids, Beatrice had an excellent view of a collapsing pile of acorns and a few flailing bee legs sticking out at several improbable angles. She stood there for a second as the fog of sleep cleared, feeling a drowsy sense of amusement. After giving the situation some thought, Beatrice walked over and started moving acorns one at a time. 'I really miss having hands.'

  Due to the limitations of bee language Ian was unable to communicate until Beatrice could free him.

  Luckily the acorns were empty and easy enough to lift, and Ian was quickly freed.

  Before long Ian stood there, antennae askew and one wing slightly bent out of shape. "Ahem. I thank you for your assistance dear Beatrice, and I'm sorry to have interrupted your rest." Ian said, and his body language was a mix of gratitude, apology, and shame that only made Beatrice feel awkward.

  "It's fine." Beatrice said with a dismissive gesture. "I was about to get up anyways. Actually, isn't it a bit late in the morning?" She noticed a bright light streaming in from the entrance and diffusing throughout the wood hollow.

  "Yes. Well, you appeared rather tired yesterday evening, and It was my intention to ensure your uninterrupted rest." Ian clearly wasn't going to let the situation go with a simple apology and forgiveness.

  For the first time since meeting him, Beatrice was getting annoyed at Ian's incessant chivalrous behavior. But snapping at him wouldn't solve anything. Back when she was human, and a man, she had a certain strategy for dealing with annoying social situations. Bargaining. Some poor sap who was getting bullied wants to thank you for helping them? Ask them for help studying. The class clown decides to make it their mission to annoy you? A simple exchange of peace for the continued integrity of their jawbone could be arranged. Bargaining was indeed the key to untangling the maze that was social interaction.

  "I'll tell you what. I'll finish my wax cells, and you'll show me a nice place to get some nectar as an apology. Also, friends shouldn't sweat the small stuff. If I say it's fine, then it's fine. Okay?" Beatrice wasn't going to let this happen again, so her tone was a stern and brooked no nonsense.

  "S-sweat? What is... I mean yes ma'am." Ian responded meekly.

  'Oh no. Not a "yes ma'am". I was almost literally born yesterday and my first friend in this life is calling me ma'am. If only bees could sigh in exasperation.' She thought with some resignation. 'Actually I've been able to emote surprisingly well as a bee. Why should exasperation be any different?' And she began to buzz lightly with what she could tell was mild exasperation. Neat. Between antennae waggling, buzzing, and dancing, bees had a surprising breadth of expression. At least monster bees did. Beatrice was no expert on bees.

  "My apologies... Madam?" Ian said with a slight bow and a questioning tone.

  "No! Stop it! Just call me Beatrice or I'll give you something to really feel sorry about!" Beatrice shouted with a buzz of menace for emphasis.

  "S-s-sorry Beatrice. I'll b-be careful from now on." Ian said with a level of submissiveness that made Beatrice wince.

  'What is wrong with Ian? He's usually so confident and upbeat, and now he's acting like a kicked puppy. I didn't actually hit him or anything, right?' With another buzz of exasperation -this time with a hint of resignation- Beatrice walked over to her wax cells, hoping to finish up before midday.

  A few hours later, Beatrice put the finishing touches on her first wax project. Stepping back to examine the wax cells, she was filled with a sense of pride at the cluster of seven symmetrical and even hexagonal cells.

  Congratulations! Due to your proficiency and knowledge of construction using wax as a material, you have acquired the skill Novice Wax Construction (F).

  'Neat. Now to check up on Ian and get to collecting some nectar.' Beatrice's mood was much improved from finishing her first wax project and getting a new skill. But she was still slightly annoyed to find Ian sitting in a corner, half-heartedly chewing on a chunk of silver wood. She didn't understand why he was so down-in-the-dumps. She thought about it for a bit and would've grimaced, except bees don't have face muscles aside from their mandibles. Maybe shouting was a bit too much. Beatrice wouldn't be that bothered by a little shouting, but she didn't know Ian for very long. Maybe he was more sensitive than he seemed.

  "Hey Ian. I didn't mean to shout at you earlier. I let my frustration get the better of me and made a mistake." Beatrice said carefully and calmly.

  Ian just turned around and continued gnawing at the wood.

  Beatrice felt a spike of anger, but quickly calmed herself. Letting emotions get out of hand was what got her in this mess to begin with. Instead of kicking Ian in his fuzzy honeybee ass, she walked up next to him and bumped him playfully.

  "Come on Ian, I really am sorry. I really want us to be friends, without any silly "sirs" or "madams" to get in the way." Beatrice said earnestly and with a hint of teasing.

  Congratulations! Due to your knowledge and experience in seducing the opposite sex, you have advanced the skill Novice Seduction (E) to Seduction (D).

  'Shut the fuck up you stupid system! I'm not freaking seducing anyone! I'm just making up with a friend!' Beatrice had never been one to use foul language even in her mind, but the timing on that skill advancement was downright nasty.

  Ian however, stopped chewing and gave a little bee nod, which was more like a little bob. Why was bee body language so damn cute? "I'm sorry too Beatrice. I've never had a worker-bee friend before, and I just... Well I'm used to being treated poorly by the workers. Actually, thinking back, I've never had a friend before. I'm sorry for letting my experiences come between our friendship, and I hope we can continue being friends going forward." Ian said with a growing sense of the confidence Beatrice knew him for, and he put down his wood project and turned towards Beatrice. "Now. I believe you wanted me to guide you to a source of nectar. You must promise me to carefully follow me, and not to attack anything we run into. I wouldn't want to lose my friend so soon after meeting her."

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  Beatrice mentally threw her skill advancement to the back of her mind and gave her own little bee nod. "Okay, I'll follow your lead. You are the older and more experienced friend after all." and internally 'Oh, thank god that's over. I hate having drama with friends.'

  As she and Ian flew through the forest, Beatrice was gawking at the forest like a country yokel experiencing the big city. Or maybe like a city boy/girl more used to a concrete jungle experiencing an actual jungle for the first time? Whatever analogy applied, she couldn't help but drink in the mix of the exotic and familiar. Most of the plants in the forest were mega-sized, and so was the insect life she saw. And it wasn't that she was a normal sized bee and was seeing the world from a bee's perspective, because she could see that the other animals were normal sized. She saw a deer stepping between massive blades of grass, occasionally taking a bite out of the side of one. She also saw normal sized birds flitting about and singing to each other, making their nests in a humongous humongous bush with purple flowers that looked like lilacs. And the silver trees towered over everything else, like giant pillars in the hall of some god of nature.

  It felt like no time passed at all before Beatrice and Ian were suddenly out from beneath the canopy of the Silverwood Forest and flying out over a field of white and purple clover flowers. The field was surrounded on all sides by the giant silver trees, but the field must have been miles across. Just how large was this place?

  Ian quickly led her down to some of the flowers closest to the forest and they landed on clover flowers close to each other. "This is where I get most of my nectar. Clover nectar is nice and mild, much better than the spicy nectar of the winter flowers." Ian said with his usual exuberance. Maybe he just liked being a teacher.

  "Sounds good to me. But you should know something about me Ian, I like two kinds of food. Sweet food, and spicy food." Beatrice said, her excitement to get to collecting nectar was palpable in her movements.

  "When did you have a chance to eat anything spicy?" Ian asked, confused.

  "A long long time ago, in a galaxy far away." Beatrice said with comical levels of wistfulness, only confusing Ian more.

  Before Ian could respond or possibly retort, Beatrice stuck her face into the flower and let her bee instincts do their thing. A long tongue-like organ distended from her face and dipped into the center of the huge flower. 'Woah, freaky.' It was weird, but she was kind of expecting it. She was out of sorts after dying and becoming a bee, but she did drink Ian's nectar earlier after all. After sucking up all the nectar she felt it settle in a different organ than her stomach. Some kind of nectar or honey stomach? Unfortunately, she could feel that she would need a lot more nectar to fill it up. Oh well.

  She took off and flew over to another flower, repeating the process. Ian followed close behind, keeping a close eye on Beatrice and their surroundings. Staying alert meant staying alive after all. Beatrice continued flying from flower to flower, generally oblivious to Ian's protective bodyguarding. It took nearly fifty flowers before Beatrice felt full, and after informing Ian he led them back to his tree. This time Beatrice was careful to pay attention to their course, and was reasonably confident in navigating back to the clovers with no issue. Navigating back would be more difficult though.

  "Thanks Ian!" Beatrice said before quickly heading to a wax cell and pouring out the nectar she had collected. The wax cell was only filled an eighth of the way. She turned back towards Ian. "Can we go again?"

  Ian waggled his antennae in amusement. "Certainly Beatrice. Just follow me." And they were quickly on their way back to the clover field.

  Beatrice managed to fill two and a half of her cells before darkness began to fall, and she and Ian were forced to return to the hollow. Beatrice wanted to figure out how to make honey before sleeping, so she started questioning Ian, who had actually lived in a hive once upon a time. "Ian. How do I make honey?" she asked, to which Ian replied. "I don't know." And so Beatrice did what she usually did. She let her bee instincts guide her.

  Beatrice was sucking up and spitting back out the nectar she collected over and over again, wondering what the heck this was supposed to do to the honey. She somewhat trusted her instincts to guide her at this point, but this was almost too bizarre for her human sensibilities to handle. She mentally shrugged and continued what she was doing for what felt like half an hour, before her instincts told her to stop. Then she stood atop the wax cells and started to buzz steadily, increasing the airflow over the nectar.

  'Oh, this part makes sense. Reducing the liquid content of the nectar causes it to thicken into honey. I wonder if I can get Ian to do this while I go get more nectar tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I know how to get to the field and back after nearly twenty trips there and back. He'll probably insist on coming along based on how protective he's been acting.'

  Beatrice continued her fanning until darkness truly fell over the Silverwood Forest. Then she made her way next to Ian who was already sleeping and settled down to sleep. 'How does Ian sleep before it gets dark with no eyelids? That's a bee skill I can't see myself getting the hang of.' And with that last thought she drifted off to sleep.

  Unlike the morning before, Beatrice was full of energy and ready for the day. 'The main goal for the day is to collect nectar and process it into honey. I think I've got the process down so there should be no problems. Also I just though of this, but I should practice flying. I don't want to discover the limits of my flight capabilities in an emergency.'

  She took in the hollow and saw Ian moving around empty silver acorns very carefully. His motions were so exaggeratedly careful that Beatrice started shaking with internal laughter. Ian noticed the motion and quickly set aside the acorn. "Good morning dear Beatrice. I'm happy to see you full of energy today." Ian said with his usual energy.

  "Good morning dear Waximillian. You seem to be in possession of an abundance of energy yourself." Beatrice replied with as much punctilio as she could muster.

  Ian jolted in what might have been surprise. "Beatrice, you shouldn't just copy me when I speak. My interpretive dance skill is a bit high and you might not understand what exactly I'm saying. When I call you dear Beatrice, the dear is an expression of esteem. And furthermore, you shouldn't copy the way I speak. It feels strange to have you change so suddenly. I suppose the combination of your impressionable youth and isolation from a proper hive slipped my mind." Ian continued worriedly.

  Ian seemed more agitated than Beatrice would've expected, and he was babbling which was kind of interesting. But it would be better for everyone not to have any silly misunderstandings, so she interrupted him as soon as he paused his somewhat frantic waggling and shaking. "I know Ian. I was just messing with you." Beatrice said, her movements clear and calm.

  Thankfully Ian stopped freaking out and visibly relaxed. "Oh. good." Ian said with uncharacteristic brevity.

  Beatrice quickly broke the stillness before it could become properly awkward. "Could you stay and fan the nectar while I go collect more nectar? That'll be the quickest way to make some honey."

  Ian stiffened and responded with a resounding "No."