Viona, Queen of all the Bees, sat upon a honeycomb throne and pondered in quiet contemplation. A lingering issue burdened her, a persistent concern that had haunted her through the past months.
As another of her daughters succumbed to age, flung from the sky like the mythical Icarus and welcomed by the earth to meet a lonely end, Viona glowered with a quiet fury before summoning her most trusted maidservant.
"Aveline" she said to the dependable creature. "I have watched generation after generation of my children be swallowed by the most dreaded disease of all: Time.
Thousands upon thousands of my daughters… dead, the colour sapped from their cheeks and their bodies left as husks unable to receive the love I sought to pour into them. And you, my daughter… set to join them with every moment that passes.”
"Therefore I have made a torturous decision. You must take two hundred thousand of our strongest drones, together you will leave Honeyland and head to the land of the Humans, in the area closest to the creek.
There you will encounter a young woman by the name of Agnes. She will have put her child to bed by the time you arrive and she will be quietly knitting in her living room.
You must bring this child back to me Aveline. "I aim to share my love with her during the remaining year of my life. She'll live on long after I'm gone. Do not fail me, my child.”
And so Aveline flew and did as her mother, the Queen, commanded.
Agnes, human mother of the child desired by Viona had indeed been knitting as predicted.
However, upon her perceptive ear the unusually loud buzz emanating from her daughter’s room did sound, and so she made haste and arrived just in time to witness a cloud of interlocked bees stealing the fruit of her womb away from her.
Faced with a searing panic, she did the most logical thing a mother would do and pursued the bees. For thousands of miles she chased after them like a woman possesed.
Barefoot, the rough stones of the road and the prickly vines of the trees did their best to deter her, but it was all naughty but scratches and pricks. Her energy did not wane until she had chased them to Honeyland itself.
The road to the throne, guarded by the fiercest drone guards, did nothing to dampen her spirit. Attacked by an innumerable swarm, their stings piling on a body already damaged by her journey, she pressed on till she burst into the throne room. Set in the center of the room was her child, ministered to and adored by the Queen and Aveline, who gazed on in shock at her arrival.
"Halt, woman! You must come no further!" Aveline shrieked, "What you seek is no longer yours to take." She moved to attack Agnes, aiming to finish her off in one swift motion.
"Enough!" Viona said. "We have taken enough from her, to take more would be a a stain upon us."
Then turning to Agnes, she softly said "Woman, I fear you have come all this way for nothing. I have taken your child yes but it is not forever. I simply seek to exhaust the remainder of my year giving my love to her, after which I she shall be returned to you."
Agnes sighed but still remained silent. "My children which you see all around us, they mark the final embers of the connections I have forged.
Inevitably, they will all pass on and I will be forced to make one last great mating call.
And after that, I shall bear the succeeding Queen before heading off to the great land full of pollen & nectar. Will you not grant me this last boon?
I will ensure your daughter is well cared for. Can you not bear to be separated for even a year? You giants live long lives, surely that should be nothing to you.”
Then Agnes answered and said:
"A year? I could not endure even a day without her! She is all I know of love. The most delightful of worlds lies enclosed within her warm embrace. Every challenging day turns to pure delight simply because she exists.
The most mundane of events become miracles when viewed through her eyes. You say these are the last of your daughters, O Queen? Does that not make every moment with them more precious? Every passing second more treasured?
You have a thousand daughters, I have just one. Soon we would both die and leave this world behind, would you seek to rob me of even a single moment with my child before then? I beg you, please give my baby back." And at this, her exhaustion and frustration gave way and she collapsed into tears.
Then the Queen who had been stunned into silence for a while did the unexpected. She turned to Aveline and pulled her daughter into a hug.
Sobbing uncontrollably, she said "My daughter, how I have failed you. I cannot even begin to ask for your forgiveness. Fearing that I'd lose you I kept my love tightly hidden when I should have showered you with everything. No more, from today till the day you breathe your last, I will love you with the fury of a thousand Suns."
Then turning to Agnes she said "Woman I thank you, and I severely apologise for the hurt I have caused you. Your child will be returned to you and from now till the day she dies she will be a friend of the Bees."
Then Agnes had her wounds treated, then she and her daughter were safely escorted back to the land of men, where they lived the rest of their days in quiet happiness.
As for Viona and her daughters, she did exactly what she promised. Every child was doted after and their names celebrated. And on the day the last of them died, Viona wept so much that her tears created a small river. And sometimes, decades after, a mother will walk past with her child to taste the waters of the legendary river that is as delectable as honey.
