“What is that,” Rudder asked, echoing Pim’s own thoughts.
Just then, something slammed to the ground right in front of them and kicked up a cloud of dirt and dust. Once it cleared, a honey bee laid before them. They looked above at the top of one of the structures, and saw someone jerk back inside.
“Rudder, we have to go in there!”
“Why?”
“Look at this poor thing! It’s a honey bee, and it’s still covered in pollen. It didn’t deserve whatever happened to it.”
“No one else is getting inside our hive! We’ve had enough!”
“We’re just trying to help!”
“Why should we trust you?”
“One of your brothers fell out of the sky a moment ago. It didn’t deserve to die.”
“How is that any of your business,” one of the bees snarled.
Pim was stunned. He didn’t have a good explanation for that question. “I don’t know. But we’re Turlochs. It’s our duty to help humans, and, if I’m not mistaken, you have a similar duty, right?”
The leader of the swarm, nodded. “We collect nectar and make honey. The humans like it well enough.”
“Well, then, we’ll help the humans by helping you.”
“The name’s Orno. I’m the queen’s first knight and head worker bee. About a week ago, someone who looks an awful lot like the two of your barged inside our home and began drinking all the honey. When some of our friends tried to stop him, he fought and killed many. He’s squatting in our home, and we can’t get him out. We’ve done everything we can: we’ve tried to fight him physically, we’ve tried to get the queen and her court to throw him out. But he’s claimed ‘squatter’s rights,’ and refuses to budge. It has to end.”
Pim listened intently, then said, “Rudder, Orno—I have an idea.”
After mapping out the plan in the dirt, the group got to work. Pim climbed onto Orno’s back, and flew to the top of the hive. He jumped off and stepped inside the hive to find someone slurping honey directly from a comb. When the figure turned around, Pim was stunned.
“Oh, you little Turlochs are always getting in the way!”
“Who are you?” Pim stared right into the figure’s eye as it stepped forward.
“Oh, you would have come to know the name Sephoro well in no time, but you chose to step in here, and for what? These bees?”
“Well, Sephoro, yes. I’m here for these fantastic bees. And that honey. Do you realize that without these bees, you’ll run out of honey in no time? I’m sure you wouldn’t want to starve in this hive.”
Sephoro glared at Pim with such intensity that he didn’t realize Orno and his crew had scrambled behind him. “Turlochs and Shelldings have never gotten along,” Sephoro started, “and now will be no different. I don’t know what you think you’re about to do to stop me, but, trust me, it’s no—“
Before Sephoro could continue, Orno and his team jumped onto him, pinned him to the floor, and tied him up with ropes of grass. Sephoro screamed and kicked, claiming those same squatter’s rights, but Pim just smiled. When Sephoro stopped fighting, he stood still and matched Pim’s smile. “Oh, you little Turlochs always think you have the upper hand, but you never see anything coming.”
With that, Sephoro jerked his hands out of the grassy cuffs, ran, and lunged out of the hive. Pim, Orno, and the crew ran outside and searched for him from the ledge. “What’s your plan now, Pim,” Orno asked.
“I have a feeling this is going to be another grand adventure,” Pim smiled.
“You just don’t want to see Mama,” Rudder laughed, nudging Pim with his elbow.
The prompts for the Mutant 750 Challenge #65 at Grammar Ghoul Press is the world "squat" (a verb, meaning "2. unlawfully occupy an uninhabited building or settle on a piece of land.") and the following image:
|
Author
Born and bred in a small town, Tony now helms from a suburb just outside Birmingham, Alabama. He earned his Bachelors of Science in Elementary Education from the University of Phoenix and plans to guide young creative minds through the joyful wonders of writing as regularly as possible. In what little downtime he has, Tony writes as often as possible, acts in community theatre productions around Birmingham, dabbles in filmmaking through acting and writing, and more. He is the creator and co-writer of "the Park bench," a new webseries from Background People Productions coming in 2017. Tony has a deep love for music, movies, television, tacos, Greek yogurt and Yankee Candle candles. His website is Bedbug's Writing, which can be found at tonylovell.weebly.com. His first book is Bedbug's Writing: A Collection of Short Stories + Poetry, Volume One, available now in paperback on Amazon, and available for Kindle on Tuesday, April 4th.