We went over a couple of small lakes, and around a dozen pillar mountains, all of which I noted on a wax table to the best of my ability. The drawing stops also allowed us to regain our stamina.
The cover of tree leaves protected us from the worst predators. Others were just too scared by our numbers to approach our swarm. And the enormous creatures that roamed the upper parts of the pillar mountains didn't care for us.
Their cries and roars were scary already! They made me jolt every time I heard one.
Approximately half an hour later (I had no clock and even no sun to check), I called the swarm to a stop again.
"This is far enough," I said. "This will be a starting point of your patrols."
At this point, I couldn't see the mountain hosted my hive behind all the others. But there were other landmarks—a small pond, a patch of purple flowers. I noted as much as my wax tablet had space for.
"Look! Ants are here already!" a Sergeant Warrior shouted, pointing somewhere below.
I turned my head and saw three ants on the ground.
They surrounded a corpse of some much larger insect—at least four meters tall—that was lying on the ground. So many pieces of it were already missed or mangled that it was almost unidentifiable. It could've been a large wasp, or a fly.
Before my eyes, an ant tore a piece of bloody meat from the insect's torso and began walking away.
I frowned. Sergeant Warriors frowned.
"Father, should we kill them? They are *right* at our borders," a bee asked.
"Yes. Let's that be your battle christening, girls! Attack! Paint your battle ranks with their blood!"
God, I was becoming really bloodthirsty next to all these bees, wasn't I? But when I looked at these little ants with their emotionless faces, all I saw were thieves of our food and true insects—just bugs to squash.
Maybe I was becoming a racist, too.
"Attack!" my bees cried out as they charged at unsuspecting ants.
3 against 40 stood no chance. The ants turned into paste in seconds, and my Sergeant Warriors returned with crosses painted over their foreheads in ant blood.
And I was *almost* not queasy!
"Good work!" I told them proudly. "Now let's get moving. There's a lot of distance to cross yet."
The rest of the day was just a lot of flying, with occasional stops to snack on nectar from conveniently growing flowers, just give rest to our wings, or kill other ants we met.
We were almost at the start of the patrol route when I heard a thud on a leaf below.
I paused my flight and raised my head.
"Huh? What was that?"
"Um… I think that's rain, Father."
As if to confirm the bee's words, a droplet of water the size of a water balloon splashed over my shoulder.
The bees around clustered closer to me in alarm.
"Father, are you alright?"
From the cover of the hive I only heard how noisy the rains of this place were, but this was a gigantic droplet!
Why was rain in this world gigantic, too? How could the weather be gigantic?! It was more like some asshole god throwing water balls at us!
'I should've listened to my fears. I should've let the sky stop me from going outside! Oh no… No, no, no. We are so doomed.'
Like that, I panicked for about 0,5 seconds, then forced myself together. For my daughters' sake. They were all waiting for my orders right now.
True soldiers—full of obedience, not initiative.
"I'm fine. Girls, I hope you remember the patrol route, because there's no time to show it to you again!"
"We have everything right here, Father." A Sergeant Warrior next to me proudly patted her head. "I can even dance about it—right now!"
"No. No dancing—just moving to the hive, and fast. C'mon, quickly!"
'I didn't even tell Ambrosia where I was going… When will she wonder where her beloved Nectus Stingprince went?'
I led by example and flew toward the hive. My Sergeant Warriors followed closely, but their stamina was much lower than mine.
A few minutes later, they fell farther behind me. Hammers in their hands dragged my bees down, and when one got hit by a ball of water from the sky, she almost got knocked to the ground.
"Stop! We still need to rest a little. Hide under this leaf!" I shouted and flew under a thicker part of the canopy of fern-trees.
Their gigantic leaves shook under the droplets, but for now, held off the assault.
We all huddled close together, listening to the wet slams that happened more and more often.
The stamina took an awfully long time to recover… Several minutes felt like an eternity. When I saw 〔11/11〕 on the statuses of my Sergeant Warriors, I gave the order to move again.
"Now let's go without stops! Really push ourselves!"
"Push! Push!" a bee cheered, flying after me.
"Rain won't sto—glarb!"
A globe of water that hit B1054 right over the head. She flailed her arms, dropping her hammer, and began falling.
"Daughter!" I shouted, turning to her in alarm.
To my relief, a pair of other bees already stopped her fall and helped B1054 straighten herself. A third bee was about to fly toward the dropped hammer.
"Forget the hammer—just fly faster! I'd rather we lose the hammers than our lives!" I shouted.
"Whaaat?! No, let me get my hammer! What kind of Sergeant would I be without a hammer?!" B1054 shouted back.
These girls really got too attached to their hammers! I understood carrying them around to not lose them, especially since I told them to care for and protect those important tools, but this was a bit too much love.
"I said forget it! This is an order!"
Under my authority, the swarm resumed flight.
We were chasing against time.