Our group, or should I say our party, flew out from the hive, and it was a lot bigger than I had thought.

  The tunnels wound around in spirals that twisted upward, then curved down again, looping back and forth in endless paths. I didn’t understand how they knew the way, or if it was just memory, because the scent trail was confusing.

  The closer we got to the exit, the more bees rushed past us, and fewer branching passages could be seen. There must have been millions of my sisters, but none of them seemed to be an outer queen.

  The thought gave me a feeling of pride in my great station in life.

  I tried to inspect a few but only saw Worker Bee, Warrior Bee, and some ??? before my focus began to waver. After a while, I had to stop and concentrate more on my flight.

  When I looked at my information screen, I realized my mana had been drained. It must have been from Inspect. By the time I stopped, my mana was half gone, and I had only managed thirteen inspections.

  We flew directly downward, and there were no other passages as we left the hive, entering a world of warmth and light.

  The air was full of sweet smells—so many that I could almost taste the warmth itself. It was so bright that I lost my sight for a moment, and when it returned, I saw color for the first time.

  The world was filled with browns and greens, and above us the sky shone blue with a great sun of pure white light. It hurt my eyes when I looked at it.

  I heard buzzing in the background and the soft swishing of leaves. A gentle breeze brushed against me, carrying a scent of sweetness. I instinctively knew it was nectar.

  I saw specks of pollen in the air, and somehow I had expected it to be only yellow, but it came in soft shades of yellow, red, and even tiny hints of blue.

  I looked around and saw that the hive hung high in a tree. All around us were more trees, stretching endlessly in every direction.

  We were surrounded by a forest.

  I looked around, buzzing with excitement, and saw the prettiest flower.

  In my excitement, I flew toward it without thinking, ignoring the warnings my warrior sent behind me.

  I landed on a purple-blue flower that smelled delightful. Sitting inside it, I breathed in its scent, feeling pure bliss.

  My party caught up soon after, and I felt a small bop on my back, followed by the scent of frustration.

  I turned to look at my warrior, the one who had bopped me, and she began to dance.

  “Must wait. Word danger. I guard. I protect. Fly first.”

  I felt sheepish for rushing ahead the moment we got outside, especially when Mother had warned me this morning.

  I rose from the flower, giving them my most regal stance, and looked excitedly at my party. I wanted to fly around and explore, but we probably needed to figure out where to build the hive.

  I opened the information screen.

  “Woop woop!” I did a little dance when I saw the progress. I had just gotten this quest and was already almost done. I was, quite clearly, the greatest.

  Then I stopped, realizing in horror that I had forgotten to look at my new skills.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  I opened my skill screen, already forgetting that this was not the best place to stand around.

  Before I had the chance to start testing my new skills, I smelled impatience from my party.

  As a benevolent princess and future great leader of our hive, I decided to show my leadership.

  I puffed out my chest and looked around to choose a direction.

  The forest stretched endlessly, filled with flowers and scents. I looked up at the sky, and like any great leader, I asked for advice from my party.

  “Where go. What beyond here.”

  It was not my greatest speech, but it was hard to ask detailed questions through dance alone.

  I looked expectantly at the warrior, but it was the worker who answered.

  “Field. Queen Mothers. Beyond, lilies. Great hive hooman.”

  She danced toward a patch of red flowers far away across the field.

  “Beyond hive, much water. Many creatures visit. Beyond, big flowers. Death.”

  I looked to where she pointed and saw sunflowers as tall as trees, standing just past the treeline. I had not noticed them until she showed me, and they were magnificent.

  Still, what did she mean by death?

  Before I could ask, she kept going without waiting for permission.

  “And toward giant stones. Danger. Cold.”

  She meant the mountains.

  Was the cold dangerous, or was something else in the mountains dangerous and it happened to be cold?

  It did not matter. The cold sounded terrible. I would rather go to the death place.

  “Death place. Explain.”

  The worker’s scent shifted to worry.

  “Death walk.”

  What? I had expected some predator or barren land.

  “Death walk. Dead creatures walk.”

  Ah. Undead.

  A thrill ran through me. Real undead.

  I did not know why, but excitement bubbled up inside me at the thought.

  Wait. Real? What did I mean by real?

  My excitement and contemplation were cut off by the smell of fear from the others.

  Yes, as a good leader, I probably should not throw my party into danger before we even had a hive.

  Of all the choices, the big water sounded the best.

  We needed a place with flowers, and flowers love water.

  I did not like the cold, and on the opposite side of it was the death place—the cool and fun and probably very lifeless death place. And besides, those hooman sounded exhausting and complicated.

  The thought of staying near Mother’s hive had never really come to me, but when I tried to think about it, the only explanation I could give for the feeling I got was that it would be seen as a declaration of war toward my mother.

  And that would mean my destruction.

  So there was really only one choice.

  “Go water.”

  As soon as I said it, the party’s scent calmed.

  That was why I was the leader.

  The warrior gave me a crisp salute dance, and we began flying toward the place that would soon become our new hive.

  I thought the flight would be more of an adventure and full of danger, but all in all it was a nice trip through the forest.

  Sometimes the warrior gave off the scent of danger and pointed out a spiderweb, or flew higher to avoid roaming creatures.

  Since we were already flying upward, I, the genius leader, decided to go above the trees to see where we were going and if I could spot the water place.

  The warrior flew in front of me, stopping me from rising higher, her scent filled with fear. She warned me about flying dangers.

  I was going to listen, obviously. It definitely was not because, right at that moment, I saw a huge bird snatch a smaller one out of the air. I just wanted to show support for an experienced servant, my loyal warrior.

  The small bird had been big enough to eat us, maybe three times our size, and in a second it was dead.

  Still, maybe she was right this time.

  The world above looked far more dangerous than the calm air had led me to believe.

  As we flew, I looked at all the pollen and the different colors it held.

  I tried activating Pollen Sense and got more of a feel for what was good or not. Some motes seemed to glow a little, I guessed, but it was hard to tell.

  Maybe it was because we were flying, and they were only specks drifting through the air.

  We stopped and got some nectar from passing workers, who were happy to give us their day’s work.

  I looked at my stats and saw my mana was down to a quarter. Eating the nectar and a honey crystal gave me energy and strength for flight, but it did not recharge my mana.

  So even though using mana made me tired, it was not the same as stamina.

  It seemed so.

  We kept flying, and after a while I realized we had not passed a wandering bee for some time.

  Then I felt it, like we had gone past a bubble of influence, and the world felt a little colder. My wings twitched before I even knew why.

  I did not like the feeling at all.

  I flew back, obviously because I wanted to study it. Totally not because it felt like a cold emptiness that would swallow us all.

  After three tries back and forth, I realized that it was our mother’s influence.

  My chest felt tight just thinking about it. I did not feel as certain or as protected on the far side.

  Even then, I told myself that building too close to her influence would just cause a future headache, so I made the decision to keep going the whole way to the water place.

  Thinking about it made me excited again.

  I had a feeling it was a place full of fun and adventure waiting to happen.