Tarwantrad looked away with her arms cross and her cheeks puffed. Urubran smirked. Tarwantrad glanced at him, saw his smirk, and turned away with another huff. Urubran chuckled and shook his head.
“I’m sorry Tarwantrad…or, well, I’m not, but I do understand this is upsetting for you.”
She clenched her teeth.
“…how? How did you get the blessing before me?!”
Urubran shrugged and then smiled, his eyes full of mirth. Tarwantrad scowled.
“No, don’t you say it…”
“I built a home for the bees…”
“Don’t you dare say it!”
“…and made them happy.”
Tarwantrad grabbed her hair, pulled, and screamed, drawing looks from pedestrians and other café patrons.
“How?! How are your bees happier than mine?! All you did was stack some rocks and dead wood together! I wove together a wonderful grove of their favorite flowers, right into the walls of their home!”
Urubran raised an eyebrow.
“You’re the one who told me they actually prefer flowers a bit further away from their hive, though?”
Tarwantrad clasped her mouth shut to try and hold in her next scream. Urubran chuckled once more and then began to rub his chin. He decided he should probably stop teasing her there if he ever wanted her to speak to him again.
“Hm, you know, that’s probably it.”
Tarwantrad narrowed her eyes.
“What is?”
Urubran looked up at her, now with a serious expression.
“We both know it’s unlikely my bees are happier than yours, and we both know it’s impossible your bees are unhappy in the first place. So, the key is probably in the homes.”
Tarwantrad crossed her arms once again.
“Are you saying your bee home is better than mine?”
Urubran shook his head.
“We both know that you know bees better. The home you made is probably better too. But…I built mine myself.”
Tarwantrad furrowed her brow.
“What are you…”
But her eyes started to widen as she trailed off. Urubran clasped his hands together.
“Let me guess…did you use your blessing to form the home?”
“Ah.”
Urubran smiled a bit as Tarwantrad stared off into space with wide eyes.
“That’s probably it. It’s not about making the best possible home for the bees…it’s about doing something for the bees that fits the God of Bees. Using your blessing to grow flowers would probably fall more into your patron’s domain than the God of Bees', if I had to guess?”
Tarwantrad’s face fell as she slumped forward. She then whispered in a barely audible voice.
“Can you…show me what you did? I, um, don’t know how to build things.”
Urubran’s smile grew.
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“I’ll do you one better.”
He held out his hand and a flame grew above it. The flame spread and thinned out until it was more light than heat, and then the light flickering in its center began to shift and swirl, turning into an image. An image of a box made out of wood. Tarwantrad looked up, and then tilted her head.
“What…is this?”
Urubran shrugged.
“Got it from the God of Bees. It’s called Belissar’s Beehouse.”
----------------------------------------
The Queen of All Bees’ awareness slowly grew as she tried to move her groggy body. She shook herself and waved her abdomen about to try and boost her breathing. She spread her wings out, trying to soak up as much sun as possible. Bees milled in confusion all around her, with some of the guard bees opening and retracting their mandibles over and over.
She soothed them as soon as she could. She knew that their instincts told them that bees showing signs of sickness or poisoning were to be removed from the hive by all means necessary…but that she, as the Queen of All Bees, could not be removed. She may, in fact, need to communicate to them that not all poisoning is worth a death sentence.
Indeed, this sort of poisoning could even be desirable.
This was not the first time the Queen of All Bees had tasted alcohol. The various plant gods who made use of her services had shared with her their wines and ales before, but this was different. This was mead, an alcohol made from honey. That was, therefore, made with the help of bees. That could only be made with the help of bees. It was, therefore, an alcohol fully within her domain…and therefore one that could affect her deeply. That spread to her innermost being, such that she took on its properties to represent them in full.
Once again, Belissar had proven himself her best dungeon master, even if he had not been her only. She had been only vaguely aware of mead, having never been offered it by a follower before.
Now…well now she had plans. Plans based on an aspect of her being that was new even to her. She now understood why the various gods kept asking her to take it up…and now she planned to delivery.
Yet another thing her best dungeon master would need to be rewarded for. And now, that moniker had begun to take on meaning. She may not have been their main patron, but she had now been established in other dungeons as well. And, thanks to Belissar’s efforts, she could only imagine more would follow.
Indeed, they would follow sooner than even she imagined.
Just then, one of the flowers in her domain began to grow. New buds split off and bloomed and split off again as the flower grew far beyond its normal size. It emitted a sweet scent as it began to resemble a tree more than a flower with all its branches, each holding a budding flower of its own. And then, the flowers began to change color, shape, and even species.
Soon, they began to assemble themselves into the form of a woman. Flowering trees made up her legs, a huge bell flower became her skirt, a pitcher flower became her torso. The branches of flowering bushes and creeping ground cover twisted into her arms, a pair of sunflowers bloomed as her eyes, and rose vines grew back downward as her hair.
The God of Flowers had arrived. And a moment later, she leapt at the Queen of All Bees, wrapping her arms around the bee.
“BEE! Why didn’t you tell me you have a dungeon now?!”
The Queen of All Bees was going to answer but the sight and smell of the God of Flowers overwhelmed her, and instead of answering she began drinking sweet nectar from one of the flowers on the God of Flower’s arm. In fact, all the bees in the area began to swarm around the God of Flowers, lapping up sap and rolling around to cover themselves in pollen. This caused even more flowers to bloom and grow on the God of Flower’s body, which continued growing as more and more bees arrived. Soon, flowers with smoking centers drew the attention of burning bees, blood bees swarmed a flower dripping red liquid, bees with ice for chitin landed on a flower surrounded by frosty mist. The God of Flower’s body grew in size and gigantic flowers began to bloom from her back to hold the weight of equally large bees.
The God of Flowers then spun around, swinging the God of Bees back and forth.
“This is amazing! We have to celebrate! You should have told me, we could have issued joint quests to our followers from the start! But anyways, we’ll talk about that later. Let me get…wait, are you drunk?!”
A vine extended from the God of Flower’s arm to pick up a jar on the ground.
“This is…mead?! Bee, you got mead after all?! Hey, hey, let me have some too! And then I want to see your dungeon! I can’t imagine the flowers that will grow with all those bees! And then our power will intertwine and I can bring you to all of mine! This is going to be great!”
Somewhere, deep down, the Queen of All Bees wondered if it was a good idea to let the God of Flowers drink mead. After all, mead was made of honey, which itself was, most of the time, made from the nectar of flowers. So, what would happen if the God of Flowers then drank it? But such concerns quickly faded at the sight of all the wonderful flowers blooming in front of her.
Well, it would be fine, wouldn’t it? She was set to get more mead later in any case, and the God of Flowers was one of her closest friends, one who always gave her as much authority as she could. She herself was not one of the most popular gods, so she didn’t have all that much to spare, but she always prioritized the Queen of All Bees.
Suddenly, though, the taste of the nectar changed, growing a bit less sweet as something else slipped into the nectar.
“And then…you can tell me why you let that God of Fire into your dungeon first. So, let me drink some of this mead, ok?”
Ah, that was right. The God of Flowers…had some thorns as well.