NHH 2022 Day 21: Bee Balloon Bumbles Blissfully By, Bolstering Boons Beyond Belief
Link to the challenge
Today’s Word is: Balloon
Characters: Scar, Cub
Season: HC7
Other tags/warnings: Hermitcraft Big Bee Swarm and the Infinibee
Word Count: 781
Summary: The Infinibee is coming! Praise bee! But... where did the Infinibee come from?
Read it on ao3 or
Sparkles drifted from Scar’s sleeves as he slipped quickly out of the main Nether portal into the shopping district. He looked at his hands and dusted them off, but they still shone with magic. Shrugging, he stuck his hands in his pockets and headed for Doc’s food shop. He and Stress had been working on magic all morning to really make their part of the jungle stand out, and now he was ravenous!
On the way there, he passed Doc's old Mending Machine. It didn't get much use anymore, with Keralis' bookstore taking over most of the business...
One of the "beeloons", the bees kept on leads for advertising, drifted toward Scar. "Aww, poor little guy," Scar cooed. He ruffled his fingers through the bee's fuzz. "I wonder if I should free you... I don't think Doc would be happy about that. I'll at least get you some flowers, okay? Once I get some food for myself first!"
Scar straightened up and continued on to the food shop nearby, completely ignorant of the small flecks of glitter still clinging to the bee.
-
Cub looked up from checking his Origin shop. What was that yellow flash-?
Oh geez that bee had startled him. It looked like it was the size of a ravager! It was just...
Was it a trick of perspective, though? Cub sidled around to look at the bee from a different angle.
It took off from where it had been sitting next to Cub's flowers, with a very loud and very low buzz. That... yep, that was a very big bee.
Cub glanced over at the mysterious tower nearby, the abbreviation that no one had figured out the meaning of yet. The BB in the middle... Big Bee? Hmm.
-
"So, yeah," Cub told Scar as the two of them landed on the Nether side of the shopping district portal. "It's this whole thing, I've got a speech prepared and everything-"
The portal spat them into the Overworld, where they found the exit unexpectedly blocked by a huge, curved wall of yellow and black. The thumping sound of very large wings flapping buffeted the ground.
"OH geez-" Scar yelped, stumbling backward and almost falling back through the portal. "Cub! What is that!?"
"That... would be the Infinibee," Cub mused, watching it fly away. "And it has indeed gotten even bigger."
-
"...We’ve brought this bunch of banners today in the belief we may yet bind and broaden the bridge between bees and builders. Praise bee."
"Praise bee," Cub's audience repeated.
As Cub stepped down from the raised lectern, Scar ran up to him. "Cub! Cub Cub Cub."
"Yeah?" Cub glanced around. The other hermits had dispersed; this conversation was as good as private.
"I-I kinda tuned out during your speech," Scar explained, "and I started thinking about the bee, right? When it flew right over us? And, Cub, I know where it came from."
"Wait, really?" Cub looked up at where the big bee, now larger than some of the shops around it, had alighted on the HCBBS tower. It flicked its wings, ignored the chorus plant Cub had grown for it, and instead tried unsuccessfully once again to get nectar from the rose bushes around Cub's shop without crushing them.
"I think..." Scar sighed. "I think I did that, Cub. I went shopping after I'd just used enlargening magic on some things around the village, and the bees at Doc's place were so cute, and the next thing I know there's a giant bee flying around! It's all my fault."
"Huh. Yeah, that tracks. But that means there's a limit on its size, right? Probably?"
"Cub. We have to get the giant hungry bee out of the shopping district!" Scar started pacing. "Maybe we could ask Stress if we could lure it to her base somehow? It would have all kinds of giant bug friends there, and she has the big flowers, too..."
Cub shook his head, still watching the giant bee bumble its way across the island. "Bees don't like water. I don't think there's a way to get it across the ocean."
"Well, we can't just leave it here!!"
"Why not?" Cub gestured at the bee as it bonked against the glass wall of the Barge and changed direction. "I don't think it can hurt much, except the local flower population. It might even like your greenhouse, Scar."
"Yeah... that was kind of what I'm afraid of."
"It's fine, Scar!" Cub encouraged. "The Infinibee won't hurt anyone after all, and it might even draw people in just to see it! This is just the way it is now, I think. The bee is part of the shopping experience!"
3 notes
·
View notes