There would be a meeting every Friday, after the second meal. All the bees met in the center of their large hive. In this place are thousands of balconies, each fitting a few bees comfortably. The balconies are the amber of the hive in color. They spin downward and move closer together in time, so the whole ends up in a cone shape, and in the bottom contains the focus inside a perfect little circle. Occasionally the Queen would enter hear to speak in this circle, but on most occasions it was the General. The Queen, when she appeared, would usually graciously thank everyone for the productivity, and then leave promptly. The General spoke of matters of increasing productivity, and anti-Shoe words. There was always to be a swift introduction of the Shoes, for those too young to have yet left the hive. They all, of course, have heard enough hearsay and stories from elder bees, to nearly know all there is to know, discounting experience. “And Shoes” the General would say, “shall be the 2nd most important concern in your lives. Shoes have the option of destroying this very place in which we speak. When a small Malmithian consumes a brother bee, they need it for food. We, of course, try to avoid this tragedy, and are devastated when it happens, but when it happens, it prolongs life for all species on the Dirt. When a Shoe kills, they kill without mercy, and without any progress in life. It actually turns out to be one less life, and more earth on the Dirt. So beware now young ones, and hold your ready guard the rest of you. Now let me tell you what I know about the Shoes. They are hundreds of brother’s length in tall, and thousands of brother’s length in overall. They have group tendencies, and each carries the same thoughts relating to us. They all want us dead. You can easily recognize one by their shiny eyes, that are mostly white, and by the vibrations they communicate to each other with. As soon as you hear these vibrations young ones, as you will know them by heart in time, you should escape as quickly as possible. Even if you believe one is not a threat, their companions may be. What you should especially look out for are the extremities of their self, as those are what will end your life. They will swat down with fear and even if you do survive, a piece of you is to be useless forever, and your life will be cursed for as long as you exist. The only fear the Shoes have is from your stinger. You are all aware that using such an attack will render you lifeless, and be aware now, that such an attack will not render the Shoe anything, but in pain for a temporary amount of time. However, make note that for some reason they fear the sting enough to run away in their smaller sizes. Use this to your advantage, and show them no more pity than they have shown you. Go now, and work. Do not allow these words to discourage you, but create courage in you as you face the world.” It would be the same speech every time, and every time at least one young one would weep.
One particular day, a young bee, who was expected to weep, did not. He kept his abdomen high the entire speech. There was a way that he held his antennae that made the others wonder what he was thinking. Later on this day, some of the other bees approached this young bee and asked him about his strange behavior. “Why were you not weeping?” they asked, “Why did you hold your abdomen high and your antennae unnaturally?” He replied “Don’t you understand that the fear we instill in them is useless?” The others looked confused. “Why even bother to sting them if we are to die, and with out death the fear of another sting is gone?” What the bee spoke of now was against The Rule, and The Rule is very clear on such thoughts. The Rule states: Obey the General and the Queen.
Despite the other bees mumbling The Raw to each other, the little bee continued, “I do not think the General [gasps from the other bees for this blunt infraction] considers that the Shoe’s fear is the same as ours. We do not live in terror of dying at the extremity of a Shoe, we are heroes if such a thing happens to us. We live in fear because we do not understand or know about the Shoe’s thoughts or intentions.” The little bee had not noticed the General standing right behind him, hearing every word spoken against him. The General made his appearance known with a great bellow of “And by assuming what I think perhaps makes you able to decipher what the Shoes think, young worker?!” The General was much taller than any of these bees. He had many markings on him, and even a leg that was frail. His leg was a reminder of the Shoe that attempted to kill him in an earlier day. His height and his life scars commanded respect. But something that was once small in the young bee turned large. He shot his head over to the General with such a speed that no one noticed until he was facing directly at the General. “As soon as we leave the Shoe, they are no longer afraid. This is not good enough. If fear is only present when we are, then we are only an instant shock, not fear.” said the young bee, with a strength in his words that, if the words had been any weaker, the bee would have been killed on the spot for breaking The Rule. But something in his words touched the General. The young bees courage to try to improve the brother tribe through new ideas appealed to him. “And”, as General always started speeches with conjunctions, “how do you suppose we go about this new definition of fear, young worker?” The other bees now stood motionless at this point, thousands of Darknesses have passed since anyone has challenged the General. The young bee, half the General’s height and one fourth as experienced, replied calmly “We will confuse them.” The other bees now laughed, and even the great General himself let out an explosion of laughter that stopped the other bees laughing in a half-moment. The General said, “And Young worker, without this final act of humor, I would have your life ended at the end of this conversation.” He then became gravely focused “But if you so much as break The Rule remotely, then you shall be lucky to be banished!” The General spread his great wings out, turned around sharply, and flew off. The young bees, who were with the young one speaking, grouped together and flew off, laughing.
The young bee quietly sat inside his room and attempted to create ways to frighten a Shoe beyond being injured temporarily. How would I be able to create a lasting impression on them? he wondered. They hold a lasting impression on us because we are confused, so we must confuse them. In order to confuse we must act outside the ordinary. I suppose it is I who must act out of the ordinary, as I have gained as little assistance as I anticipated. I also suppose my act with the Shoe must threaten my life, because surely the brothers will have me destroyed if they find the act out of the ordinary. Even if I die, others may find inspiration in my courage and ideas. I know there will be others stronger than me, others that will realize when the General is behind them. Sigh. After this the bee went into rest.
During this rest the little bee dreamt. He dreamt of colors other than the different shades of yellow that he has seen all his life. He dreamt in blacks that were not contained by the Darkness or on the back of a fellow brother. He dreamt of crawling, instead of flying. He dreamt he crawled right next to a Shoe, and the Shoe did not harm him. In fact, the Shoe lifted up its lower extremity and went behind him. He then turned around and crawled towards the same extremity, more confident that it would move in his path. He giggled to himself with laughter, as this Shoe was under his spell. This continued until the Shoe had left. He could feel the Shoe’s confused vibrations, and even felt it well after he walked away. Even hours after the vibrations resonated. In trusting a Shoe, he had broken the trust the Shoe had for him, and therefore won. This is how he is to instill a lasting impression.
The bee woke up to a loud noise outside of his door. He quickly sat up and went to see what it was. Opening his door he no longer saw the waxy dark yellow hallway that was outside of his door, but a large gray surface that went up just as many floors as it went down. The bee could hear the young ones screaming, and the older ones sending vibrations that demanded an attack on a Shoe. The young bee watched as the giant gray slab started to slowly move downwards past him. The speed at which it passed increased greatly, until it simply disappeared. The young bee looked down at where the gray was. He saw thousands of his brothers flying out towards this dark figure. The hole created a hollowing similar to the speaking arena. The young bee decided to jump down in this hole. On his way down he could hear the terror in all of the vibrations from each floor. This was to be his first time outside of the hive. He spiraled in towards the dark figure, now recognizing it as a Shoe. The Shoe had a handful of those gray slabs, and was firing them towards the hive. The Shoe then started to run, but not nearly as fast as the brothers approached. The young bee was amazed. He wondered at the willingness to die these brothers had. Only a few had given their lives, so far. The young bee decided to take action and swiftly flew into the thin and oddly abundant antennae the Shoe contained on his head. He then gripped tightly, and watched as extremities smashed directly next to him. The Shoe, then ducked into a large hive-type place. The vibrations coming from this one inspired more brothers to give their lives in stinging, as the “fear” the General spoke of was strong in this Shoe.
Inside this large hive contained the colors the young bee dreamt of. There were shapes that he had never seen, and odors that were so plenty and so strong that he was instantly stunned. The little Shoe’s abundant antennae contained enough odors for the young bee to ponder on for at least twenty Darknesses. Feeling it was an appropriate time to exit, as the extremities now had more time to smash him, the bee did so. He saw a few other brothers trying to exit through the door. He watched, in horror, as the Shoe smashed them, their mangled limbs still stuck to the door by their own inner fluids. Some of them were still screaming.
The young bee escaped away from the place where he entered, and flew further and further into the gigantic hive. The floors were lower than he has ever seen, as ceilings are higher than he could imagine. He thought to himself this must be the sky. He felt both lost and free. Turning to a higher level, he entered into a smaller cavity of the hive. There was a Shoe lying in bed. This Shoe had far longer and more plentiful antennae than the previous one, and did not expose its great white eyes. The young bee was filled with rage, after seeing those bees smashed on the door, and the happiness the first Shoe felt from its kill. All of them had attacked it, and it is still alive while they are all dead. There must be a weakness he thought. So many of us can die with so little accomplished. There must be a way to kill a Shoe with only one sting! Just then he remembered his dream, where trusting a Shoe was the way to defeat it. At that moment, he heard laughter vibrations coming from the first Shoe. He then remembered the image and sounds of his fellow brothers smashed against the door. “It is unfair!” shouted the young bee. At this the white eye of the young Shoe was exposed, and shifting about. The young bee shot down towards the open eye and lunged his stinger into it.
