The fifth floor turned out to be a great success. The initial idea came when the hive wanted a big area for all the flyers. The decision to build a huge level made sense as the hive had so many creatures, the spirits decided that a big area for them to interact and fly was needed.

Building the level into a dome came somewhat by accident. The hive wanted a level that was high enough that the flyers could roam in relative freedom and after the Earth spirits finished digging, the ceiling of the fifth floor was shaped roughly like a dome. Some spirits then suggested they designed the floor into the shape of a square but the hive just couldn’t be bothered to do it. To the majority of the spirits within the hive, that was just a waste of energy.

The floor was not an instant success. It big and spacious but it was also totally empty. The flyers had room to fly but that was about it. The fifth floor had no rooms, no tunnels, and honestly, no reason for the creatures to visit. It was just plain and boring. That was when one of the Nature spirits suggested that the hive build a forest within the floor.

At first, the hive rejected the idea. The spirits considered it a waste of energy but the Nature spirits would not let it go. They had their idea of the forest and soon got the Fire and Air spirits on their side. Together, the Fire, Air and Nature spirits gathered what energy they could and grew a small patch of grass on the fifth floor. The Nature spirit grew the grass while the Fire spirits maintain a temperature suitable for the grass to grow and the Air spirits put in a constant light breeze on the floor.

Suddenly, the floor became a lot more crowded. The Werewolves came first, then the Steamed Wolves, and then came the hive’s pride and joy, the Porkasus! The flying pig even began digging the grass which the spirits within the hive thought was cute. The other creatures there did not and the Porkasus was chased away from the patch several times.

The hive soon realized the crowded grass patch had become overcrowded and the spirits spent more energy enlarging the patch of grass. That was when the rest of the hive took notice. The hive has grown to such power that most of the spirits within cared little if some of the spirits within the hive wanted to use a little energy for individual projects, much like what happened when the unicorns were made. However when the results were as successful as the unicorns, more of the spirits within the hive took notice. For many of the spirits within the hive, they could see the potential of the grass patch.

Sensing that they now had an audience, the Nature spirits once again floated their idea of building a forest on the fifth floor. This time, the majority of the hive was receptive to the idea. Of course, the hive had the problem of how to build the forest. The hive had no problem with grass as there was grass right outside the entrance of the tunnels, well within their range of influence. Trees and plants were another matter. The problem was quickly solved though when the spirits ordered their creatures to go and bring back some trees and plants. The forest was right outside after all.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

After their creatures brought in some nearby trees and plants, the hive absorbed them and the Nature spirits immediately went to work. The grass patch on the fifth floor soon had some trees and plants on it. Seeing this, the creatures went and brought back more trees and plants. This was when the hive told them to only bring back tree and plants the hive had not absorbed yet.

The creatures realized they had to go further afield for this and this was what they did. They brought back more variety of trees and plants and the flyers were especially useful for this. The small grass patch soon became a small forest. That in turn meant more of the creatures went down to the fifth floor more often. Then some of the werewolves decided to move their den from the third floor to the fifth floor and the hive knew they had succeeded.

Over a winter, the hive had built a forest in the tunnels. The spirits within the hive had provided a new floor and place to live for their creatures. In fact, several of the creatures had begun setting up their own homes on the various floors like the ignored Giant Ants that had set up their colonies on every floor of the tunnels. It had been a very successful winter for the hive. In fact, everything was great…except for one simple thing.

“We are bored”

“No, we are very bored”

“We are super Bored”

“We are so bored we need another word for bored”

“We are so incredibly bored we need to do something stupid about it!”

A series of “YES”, “Yeah”, and “All Right” greeted that statement but then, like usual, one of the spirits had to be a spoilsport.

“Like what?” the spirit asked. “We already have more than enough creatures and all this snow stuff is preventing animals and humans from coming to us!”

“Not true!” one of the other spirit said. “The wolfgirl told us before humans do travel in the snow if they had reason to.”

“Well, what reason do they possibly have to go through the forest just to reach us in winter?” the first spirit asked.

“None whatsoever,” answered another spirit.

“Let’s just wait. According to the werewolves, the winter is almost over. Let’s just wait for a few more days and who knows, maybe a few more humans would come to us.” 

“Who knows when that would be?”

“That’s right. The humans only come once in a while. Who knows when we will get to test out our lizard?”

“Oh, stop complaining you Fire idiots.” A spirit said. “Most of the werewolves are now below us on the fifth floor. Don’t worry. Once the humans come, you Fire idiots would have the chance to kill them with your fire-breathing lizard.”

“If the humans come to us that is.” The Fire spirit replied. “It’s not like they would come once the snow stops.”

“Not unless we give them a reason to.” A spirit suggestively said.

“…you got a bad idea, don’t you?”

“No, I/we got a great idea!” The spirit said. “We need to give the humans a reason to visit us more often!”

“…and how do you propose to do that?”

“Remember what happened the last time a human group came and stole from us?” The spirit said. “We just need to tell the werewolves to do just that?”

“Steal from the humans?”

“No you moron! Well, not exactly. Steal from the humans and bring their items back for us to absorb might be a good side-effect…,” the spirit said. “Remember this revenge thing the humans got? If the werewolves kill a lot of humans, the humans would probably send more humans to us in revenge. Problem solved!”

“That’s…exactly sound like a plan.”

“Wait a moment,” a spirit said. “Aren’t you that spirit that likes death and blood?”

“What’s your point?” The spirit who suggested the idea asked. “It’s still a good plan right?”

The hive had no answer for that. It did sound like a good plan. They got to absorb things and the humans would come to them due to this revenge thing. The hive gathered its power and called out to its creature. It got work for them.

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