The World of Myth Magazine

Bee thought herself to be very clever. Almost single-handedly she had taken it upon her own shoulders to discover the nests of the strange, insectoid creatures, and to exterminate, destroy, and ruin their plans, whatever it was that those plans proved to be. Over the past six months she had discovered at least one nest per month, more often than not there had instead been two nests discovered in a single month instead. Many of them had only been small, like the first one she had been lead to by a supposed friend; those nests she had been able to handle on her own, with her style of sword and sorcery that melded together in a perfectly balanced combination of dance and song. Some of the other nests had been bigger, and when Bee had found those she had reluctantly admitted that she could not handle such alone. On those, very rare occasions, Bee found that she had no other choice but to ask her two brothers for help. Thu and Jun were always happy to be of assistance to their sister, ready to prove that they could be just as heroic as she.

Thu was strong; he was the strongest of Bee’s whole family. Thu was perhaps not quite as strong as their father had once been, when he was a much younger elf, and there had been a time when Thu and Gwyn, their father, had been equal in their skill and brawn. Gwyn encouraged Thu to excel, to focus, to constantly improve, until the day when the son was able to defeat the father. After that Gwyn refused to compete, in fact he refused to have anything to do with Thu, instead focusing his attentions and his encouragement upon Bee instead. The little sister was surprised then, when she asked her brother for his help, that Thu seemed to agree without any hesitation. Bee had expected Thu would have needed a great deal of explanation; she had planned a full presentation, even an offering of potential treasures. In some nests Bee had discovered strange weaponry, on each occasion thus far she had decided to destroy such artifacts, but she had been willing to offer any such things as a reward to her elder brother for his assistance. Such an offering was not initially required though. Thu had been keen from the initial moment his sister asked for him to join her.

“Of course, little Bee,” said Thu, all straight-faced and serious. “You have had so much of the fun for far too long, it is about time that you let your big brother join in.”

Bee suspected that Thu thought by joining his little sister in whatever it was she was doing he would impress their father and somehow rebuild that relationship they had once had. Bee was not sure if that would turn out to be true, but she was grateful to have Thu by her side. She had a feeling that strength would be quite useful where finesse and flair had been suffice in the past. Bee had been lucky with the smaller nests she had been able to tackle alone, but she was a little afraid her style would no longer be enough for what she had discovered. And, she had also considered the loneliness of her quest. Why did she have to fight alone, when the pleasure and satisfaction could be shared?

After Thu agreed to join Bee and she began to explain what it was that she had been doing, it was inevitable that Jun join the pair. Jun was the youngest of the siblings, and he was also the best of hearing. His elven ears could detect a squirrel chattering over a mile away, or so he boasted to any who would listen. Jun proved on many an occasion that he could overhear anything and everything he was not supposed to. So when he caught wind that Thu and Bee were going hunting, naturally Jun decided that he would be coming too.

“What good would you be six feet or more under the ground?” grumbled Thu. “You don’t even like the dark.”

“We need you to stay here, to keep our father company,” suggested Bee. “You know how it is that he worries.”

“You both don’t truly care, not about me,” answered back Jun. “And father thinks less of me than he does think of the two of you put together.”

The youngest of the three stood stubbornly in silence, arms crossed, waiting to hear what Bee and Thu would suggest next. The elder brother and sister tried to find arguments against this suggestion from Jun, but failed. He was right, their father Gwyn had his preferred.

Jun had always been the favorite of the trio’s mother, Ru, but sadly Ru had passed away when Jun was still an infant. It could not be proven, and their father Gwyn would never admit it, but all three suspected that Jun was blamed in part for Ru’s death. For years Gwyn could not even bring himself to look at, let alone speak to, his youngest child.

“Let him come,” Bee quickly relented.

“If he must, little sister, it is your quest after all,” said Thu. “But I will not be responsible for you though Jun.”

“You sound just like our father,” replied Jun, an undisguised barb.

Thu stared back at Jun, but said nothing. His two younger siblings could see the anger building behind their big brother’s eyes.

“Come then, the three of us, each taking care of only ourselves,” said Bee, hurriedly. “Now focus and listen, this quest will not be easy.”

Thu’s anger simmered as quickly as it had risen and Jun’s mouth fell agape and refused to shut as Bee told her elder and younger brothers both about the strange cult and the insectoid threat that she and she alone had been fighting against.

“You did not think to tell us about this earlier?” accused Thu.

“If not your brothers, you perhaps could have mentioned this to the elders of our homeland? Or father?” added Jun.

“If I had mentioned this to anyone then you would have known immediately,” Bee suggested, accusing eyes on her little brother. “I was not ready to share, not with the elders, definitely not with father, and no, not with the two of you, not before now.”

“Let us not point the finger of accusation at one another,” Jun said quickly. “We are supposedly a team, are we not?”

“A team of two, reluctantly a trio,” grumbled Thu.

Bee gave her elder brother a look at that moment, to which the strong elf shrugged, muscle and bone cracking as he flexed.

“Come then sister, lead us to this nest you have discovered,” urged Jun. “That our elder sibling may put his superior strength to work and we may demonstrate to him that brain is far more important and useful than brawn alone.”

Hurriedly, Bee did as she had been bade, before the arguing between her brothers became more than words.

Bee had been clever enough to mark the place where the insectoids had settled. It was on the outskirts of a dwarf village, a freshly dug gold mine, no longer reaping the rewards that the rock did offer. Bee had noticed a great amount of raw meat being brought into the mine and sacks that looked to be filled with eggs being brought out. The chimneys on the stone houses puffed merrily, though it had been the middle of the warmer season, Bee had concluded that perhaps she had finally discovered the Queen. Unable to seek confirmation from the dwarf community, all looked to be already followers of the sect, dressed in crimson robes, beards trimmed and short where once they would have flowed wild and freely. Bee had learned that the plague preferred their slaves to be hairless, as close a mirror image to their masters as was humanoidly possible. All signs pointed to a skirmish that was far more challenging than anything Bee had faced before. When she returned to the site, with her brothers in tow, Bee pointed out the signs, and what she considered them to mean.

“It would be stifling in those houses, would it not?” agreed Jun. “It will probably be roasting hot in the Queen’s chamber too then if these creatures like warmth.”

“I’ll not want any heavy armor then,” suggested Thu. “Perhaps you could supply me with some sort of protection?”

Bee nodded and drawing forth her longsword with a flourish, began to dance. She tapped her sword’s point upon both shoulders of her elder brother and with flicks and slashes outlined his form from head to thigh.

“There,” she sighed when the dance was complete. “Are you satisfied, Thu?”

Thu pulled from a sack his mallet and gave it a practice swing. The chest-plate of hardened oak and the soft leather arm and leg guards allowed the warrior free movement while still protecting him from stings, bites, and claws.

“Thank you sister,” Thu said with a brief bow.

“It shall last an hour and then the magic will wear off, so we will need to make the most of our time,” Bee explained.

“And what of me, big sister?” whined Jun. “Do I go bravely into the nest with little but my wits?”

Bee laughed.

“I shall not forget you, Jun,” said Bee.

Again the sword flashed about in the air. This time Bee focused above the head of her target. A song of strange words, not elven, accompanied the blade’s hum.

“There,” said Bee, once she was satisfied.

“So what has that done?” asked Thu.

“I don’t feel any different,” added Jun.

“I have made you invisible to the senses of our enemies,” explained the sister. “Or at least that is what I hope I have done.”

“So you don’t know for certain?” Jun asked, both shocked and worried. “You expect me to wander on in, uninvited with nothing but hope as a shield?”

“Yes?” suggested Bee, uncertain. She considered at that moment whether she should have tried this alone.

“Fine,” stated Jun, clearly unhappy.

Without further hesitation Jun then bravely stepped out from the forest undergrowth and approached the village gate. Bee was gladdened to see that the two soldiers guarding the entrance did not even flinch as Jun walked between them.

“Hey!” called Thu, he also choosing that moment to break cover.

This did attract some attention, and as one guard held high his axe, ready to strike when Thu came within reach, he felt Jun’s long knife slide up between his armor’s plates. Bee distinctly heard the crack of a hardened shell as her younger brother’s blade hit home. Jun quickly withdrew his weapon as black ooze ran across his blade and hand, acidic blood that caused him pain. As the first guard fell Thu caved in the helmeted head of the other. Bee followed after her brothers and inspected the damage. A hummed tune and a tap from cold steel and Jun’s aching hand healed up.

“What would I do without you, sis?” Jun asked with a smile of gratitude.

“I worry to think,” said Bee with a smirk in return.

“Less talk, more action,” grunted Thu.

And that was how they cleared the village and the mine. Of the hundred and fifty miners and others that made up the settlement, only twenty had remained unchanged. They happily told the three elves of their harrowing experience, refusing to bury their dead, burning them without service instead, something Bee thought disrespectful.

“Not right,” the miners had said, trying to explain. “Not them, something else.”

That had been the first big nest, the first of four that the trio had now fought together to destroy. After that one Thu had thought it necessary to tell father what they had done. Again, Bee considered what it was she thought Thu’s motivation to be, and what she thought would be Gwyn’s response. But, where she was certainly right about her elder brother she could not have been more wrong about their father. Gwyn gushed with pride at how well all three of his children had handled themselves, even Jun, to his surprise, was given open praise.

“We must alert the elders of this,” Gwyn had suggested. “You three continue to seek our more signs of this plague, leave it to me to handle the politics.”

So, Bee found more nests, more evidence, still the site where the Queen resided seemed too well hidden, a step ahead, just beyond her reach. The nests seemed to appear more and more often and they seemed to be more further established each time, and yet, were they small or large, the Queen was never anywhere in sight.

Bee discovered after hearing praise from their father ringing in his ears, Thu had also decided to do his own self-discovery, boasting on more than one occasion to have been able to wipe out a larger nest all on his own. This made Bee worry, a fact she shared with Jun.

“The thick-headed fool,” Jun agreed. “He thinks he is invincible.”

“I worry for Thu,” Bee said, at a time when their big brother had been gone for almost ten days.

“If you worry then seek him out,” Jun suggested. “There is no law to say you cannot look for what you cannot find.”

“Please tell father then where I have gone,” requested Bee.

“I will if I must,” sighed Jun.

It was almost as if Thu wanted Bee to find him, he had marked his trail through the forest with a strange symbol; that of a muscled arm with wings sprouted forth. Bee discovered the sign etched into almost every tree trunk she passed, where it did not feature upon a tree it was marked in the dirt or scratched upon a great stone. Deeper and deeper the trail went, further and further from home, until Bee discovered the signs of a nest. With great confidence she ventured in, following after where Thu had shown his sister he had been. The nest was empty, used, lived it, but now vacated.

“Thu, Thu, where are you my brother?” Bee called in wonder as she made it to the heart of the nest.

It was then that she heard a familiar buzz.

“You hazzzzzzz taken zzzzzzeeeee zzzwwwwweeeeeetttt time, little Beeeeeeee…” buzzed the insectoid.

Bee brandished her blade, but felt no threat from this lone creature. She raised up the sword for the killing blow but what the creature said next stopped her.

“Your bruzzzzzzer hazzzzzzz proooooved to beeeeeeee zzzeeeeeee great friend…”

“Jun?” queried Bee. “I knew he would betray us.”

“Nooo… Zeeeeeee other brother…”

“Thu? But he is destroying your kind, just like me,” said Bee in disbelief.

“Destroy uzzzzzz?” buzzed the insectoid. “You could neeeeeveeeerrrr… Strike down zzzzeeeeee one and zzzzeeeeee hundredzzzz more will appear befor zzzeeeeeeee…”

“Shall I prove you false now?” asked Bee. “Will a hundred appear in your place if my blade strikes you down?”

“Dezzztroy thizzzz nezzzzt if you muzzzzt…” buzzed the creature. “Zzzeeeeeee hundred I did zzzzpeak of are in your nezzzzzt now… Your bruzzzzzer izzzzz leading zzzeeeeee waaaaay…”

Without further delay Bee struck, silencing the insectoid as her blade cracked the carapace. Turning away from the nest she hurried back homewards as quickly as she could.

When Bee arrived back home again it was just as the creature had promised. All were dead, everything was destroyed. She found her younger brother broken, lying still beside their father.

“Bee!” cried Gwyn as he opened his eyes and witnessed his daughter standing before him. “We did not stand a chance.”

“What happened, father?” asked Bee, though she wondered if she truly wanted to know. “Please tell me that we were attacked, but not betrayed.”

“Betrayed, daughter?” coughed Gwyn. “You say the word as if you already know the truth.”

“Thu?” asked Bee. “Please say it was not so…”

“Sadly it is as you say, daughter,” sighed the father. “The hive came through with the Queen at its head, your elder brother Thu acting as their personal guide.”

“I vow I will revenge you, father,” stated Bee solemnly. “You, Jun, the elders, all of you…”

“Then go with my blessing, daughter Bee,” sighed Gwyn. “Go with fire raging in your heart.”

With these, his last words, spoken, Bee’s father closed his eyes and gave out his final breath.

Seeing her father and brother together in death, Bee felt a sudden emptiness, an emptiness that filled with anger. As her anger built to fury, Bee discovered a new song upon her lips.

“Ash-lu gree-okk te aluu ree-u-luut… Saa ii-uut thk fuul… ASH-LUuuuu… ASH-LUUUUU… Saa ii-uut thk FUUUUUUUULLLLLL...”

As she chanted and sang, Bee drew her blade and felt it vibrate with power. Alone, surrounded by so much death and destruction, Bee allowed her anger to form into balls of flame that grew larger and larger, hotter and hotter. She threw them to her left, to her right, behind her and before. Soon the place she knew as home was alight, friends, family, all was vanishing to ash, everything except for her big brother Thu.

“Run from me, big brother,” growled Bee. “Run, fly, flee, however you think that you may escape… You have merely prolonged the inevitable, for I shall find you and I shall have my revenge.”

With the flames still burning high and bright, Bee turned away from her past and turned north, in the direction of her future. It seemed like Thu was leading the hive towards the greatest collection of bodies, the human kingdom, its very heart, a place known by all as The Capitol. Bee thought very little of the simplicity of humanity, but she had realized finally that The Capitol was where the Queen of the hive had always aimed to be. Therefore that was where Bee would find Thu. That was where her big brother, the warrior, would soon discover a sister’s wrath.

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