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Perhaps more than half a year had passed since I had become a honeybee at the end of April. Yes. What had happened to me since this summer? There was one occurrence that I am not very predisposed to recollect. There was pandemonium during the purging of male drone bees from the castle in the early autumn. As the seasons change, and toward autumn to winter when there are few flowers blooming, the amount of nectar in our castle's nectar cellar becomes scarce. Moreover, when it gets cold, our honeybees are unable to work outside. The male bees are no longer welcome in the castle because all they do is consume food. They do not perform any work. It is a cruel practice but there is a reason for it that is based on the survival instinct of a honeybee tribe. I was very anxious when a large number of worker bees began the assaulting on the seventh floor. Some of the male bees running away were chased by worker bees running down the ladders and purged from the castle. But this is was less cruel than the punishment mete out to the captured males. The by smaller worker bees were biting the male bees they captured---it was simply hellish. Those gigantic bees with such big eyes were such cowards. I had never expected that. It is now the middle of autumn now. Everyday, we fly off to collect nectar from a field of orange stonecrops. The nectar of the orange stonecrops stinks and was of a deep color. Moreover, it was not delicious. But we simply have no other alternative. We're on our third sortie today. I flew off with my fellow bees from Room Q. We reckoned the direction over the castle and advanced toward our destination. Suddenly I heard a big buzz. "A hornet!" Miss Q cried with a trembling voice. I looked back fearfully and saw a hornet hovering while quivering its wings within three meters. It had a black body with yellow stripes and big eyes and large wings. It seemed to be four to five times our size. But the enemy was a single hornet. I wondered what to do for a while but then took the initiative and yelled out, "Nosedive! Let's get back to the castle." But that hornet had already entered a nosedive a moment earlier. The hornet went down near the entrance of the castle, and was flying low, making a stiff buzzing sound with its wings. The gatekeepers become aware of note of this and shut the entrance gate tight. Unable to advance or retreat, we regrouped on a tall tree and kept an eye on the developments below. Soon some honeybees descended from the other side of the castle. I was startled but there was nothing we could do. When the surprised bees ascended again, one of them was caught by the horrible hornet. Boom!. The hornet flew up above the tree, its wings humming at a higher pitch. The hornet, having landed on the branch of a tree whose leaves had fallen, began to eat the honeybee it held in its mouth. At this point the hornet was five meters away. "This was our chance!" I summoned up all my courage and called out to my fellow bees. But no one made any effort to fly. Munch-munch The hornet crunched the honeybee into pieces. It did not eat the honeybee but made a ball out of it instead. Finally, the hornet, carrying the ball that was once a honeybee, flew away up into the air. "The hornets aren't going to be satisfied with this single attack," said Miss Q. "Yes. That was probably a reconnaissance bee. That hornet will carry the ball back to its own tribe to inform its companions about us." "Yes. A swarm of hornets will then assault the castle." Other Qs said unanimously. We flew down from the tall tree in a great hurry. The honeybees hiding behind the trees and grass in the neighborhood assembled at the entrance of the castle one by one. The gatekeepers opened the heavy gate again and urged us in. In the castle, many worker bees were running busily and the bees that came to the gatekeepers' help stood aligned in tight formation in the corridor. First I ran into the hall. Indoor worker bees sealed the stairway to the nectar cellar and the nursery with wax plates whose material they produce in their body.  I must work, too!I tried but was unable to secrete any material for wax plates from my body. Then I saw the elevator moving down in the glass column. The queen bee was escaping to the nursery. "Oh. I must guard Her Majesty the Queen," I said to myself without realizing it when the honeybees in the stairway began to glare at me with a fierce look. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to defend the eighth floor, aren't you?" Perhaps they had mistaken me for an attendant worker bee from Room A or Room B I was puzzled and tried to ask Miss Q what to do. I didn't know where my fellow bees from Room Q had gone. I hurriedly left the hall. Running in the corridor to go about performing my duty, I saw honeybees occupying the six ladders making preparations to defend the floors above. "Shutting the gate." "Please help us." The voices of the gatekeepers were trembling. Trying to be of use, I pushed my way through the honeybees around me and rushed to the gate. I drew the heavy sliding gate sideways with all my strength in front of the gatekeepers. "Oh. Don't shut the gate so tight!" Someone was crying. "Leave an opening." "There are still some more honeybees on their way home." From the top of the castle, a message from the watch was relayed. There were cries here and there. "A large swarm of hornets is close by." "What shall we do then!?" I screamed unconsciously and opened the gate a little. Boom!...Boom!... Outside of the castle that horrible sound of wings was getting louder and louder. "No!" "Get out of the way!" The bees that knocked me out of the way once again tried to shut the gate with all their might. Another message was conveyed from the top of the castle. "The honeybees that had been carrying nectar outside the castle have all perished." I heard a strange noise that sounded like BZZZZZ! A hornet managed to get in through an opening in the gate that we had almost shut tight. I was startled and came to my senses. By carelessly attempting to shut and open the gate, I had made it possible for the enemy to invade the castle. In an instant, with a cry of resolve, I extended out a poison stinger from my bottom and hurled myself at the invading hornet. But the enemy continued to invade one by one. BZZZZ...Boom!... BZZZZ...Boom!... The hum from the opening of the gate was becoming more fierce. Boom!...Boom! Although the honeybees fought desperately, they were unable to hold back the onslaught of the enemy. All of them were wounded and crumpled on the floor. Our poison stingers were useless against the hard bodies of the attackers. There were no wounds on my body so I threw myself against the gate. With an unexpected energy brought about by my fears and tension, and with a cry of resolve, I pushed the gate to shut it. At that point, one of the invading hornets got caught in the gate. The eyes of the trapped hornet glared at me menacingly. It seemed to be trying to bite me with its large, sharp gasping jaws. I was trembling with fear. The body of the hornet wearing a striped armor was almost outside the castle. Its big wings, trapped in the gate, had been flattened. The hornet no longer had the strength to attack me. So I left the gate and, together with bees around me, rushed headlong into the fight with the hornets that had invaded the hall. Of course, this was with my poison stinger fully extended. "Mercy on me!" I spread my wings and fiercely attack the enemies head on. The enemy managed to evade my attack by protecting itself with its rigid body armor. My stinger simply bounced off the body armor with a clinking sound. Assuming that there were some soft area on their body, I aimed at the throat of the enemy and repeatedly attacked that area. The honeybees providing me with support rallied to my defense. The battle had become a storm of confusion. Buzz...buzz... One hornet versus several dozen honeybees. I would soon be exhausted. I was so disoriented that I wasn't certain whether I was flying or still struggling on the floor. I woke up from a nightmare of some seemingly lost, eternal fight. There was nothing by silence all around me. When I tried to move, a sharp pain ran throughout my body. But I was alive. I propped my injured body up slightly and examined my immediate surroundings. What I saw was a heap of honeybee corpses in the hall. The honeybees that had defended the stairway to the nectar cellar and the nursery lay dead in a pile. But when I noticed that there were three big hornets lying dead on the floor with their bodies stiff, I suddenly got my spirits up again. Whee! Weak honeybees like us, by working as one, had managed to defeat a tough enemy!In my thoughts I was crying out with joy, but I lacked the strength to say anything. I simply fell into a deep sleep. |
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The two of us stood in silence near the entrance to the hall. |
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