To Bee or Not to Bee

Gonyaul bowed goodbye in thanks to Boyce, who had just been so kind as to help him fill the outdoor wooden tub with well water for a bath. Gonyaul's hands were painfully inflamed, limiting their dexterity. In addition, his sight was hindered due to one eye being swollen shut. Moving in general hurt. He waited until he was alone and then carefully stripped and slowly moved into the frigid water.

He experienced instant relief, just for a second. It pulled a deep sigh from his lips, half comfort and half pain from just the movement of sitting. The cold water in the outdoor wooden tub normally was jarring; however, it felt helpful due to the burning heat under his skin from the numerous bee stings. He had been covered in mud and had been covered up as much as he could with clothing, yet those little buzzers still managed to get their pointers in more than he had expected.

The team had done it! They had successfully worked together to plan, capture, transport, and relocate a wild beehive into their own custom-made beehives on the property. Their strategy was well flushed out. The execution didn't go entirely to plan though and called for some improvisation.

Gonyaul had received the worst of it, especially wherever a tiny bit of skin had been exposed. And as he closed his eye, he relived some of his less than shining moments of the heist.

---

The morning had been a great start to their plan. They had all worked together to construct and place the new cube-like beehive homes. The work process almost resembled an assembly line once they got the swing of things. Boyce had been instrumental, due to all his studies, with coming up with a very effective intelligent design for the builds. In addition, while Alexis and Gonyaul completed the finishing touches and placed them in their final resting places, Islana and Boyce worked on the incense-burner idea to generate a safer way to control the smoking. Not only was that item going to be useful in the heist, but would be useful latter when beekeeping.

The building of the beehives was quite a pleasant time filled with cordial conversation and efficient teamwork. Once finished they prepared themselves physically, fashionably, and equipped themselves with all necessities. Gonyaul led them easily through the woods to the location of the wild hive. They could hear the buzzing before they visually were able to locate it high up in the tree.

Upon arrival, Gonyaul prepared his muddy self for ascending the tree; he looked like a mud-covered ninja. The other three began generating the smoke at the base of the tree and directed it towards the large beehive. This tree was a lot thinner than the one Alexis and Gonyaul had climbed together. It also had no lower branches at all, so he had to use a different technique. Using the small hatchet they brought, Gonyaul began making small carefully angled notches in the side of the tree. His foot would go into the notch and he would lift himself up with a rope tied around him and the tree as a safety line. He would then notch the other side and place that foot. Then another, for a hand hold. Then another. Then another. And slowly and laboriously he went upwards.

The smoke was doing it's job and the buzzing sounds were getting less and less as Gonyaul climbed higher and higher. When he reached the top he felt optimistic this was going to work as they had envisioned it. And the encouraging shouts from below pumped him up with confidence.

And that is when things started to go off script. The first problem was where the hive was positioned, he wasn't able to get a good orientation due to another branch to use his dominant left hand to saw it off the tree. He was able to spear it with a stick though, to bring it down slowly (if it fell from that height it would bust open like a bee grenade), but he just couldn't get a good angle to saw. He thus had to use his right arm at a weird angle which took longer. And that extra amount of time and jagged saw strokes agitated the bees more than he would have liked and gave them more time to begin rallying themselves to Gonyaul's uninvited presence.

Gonyaul winced and flinched occasionally as a well-placed stinger found its way past his defense every now and then. Those below could hear him pleading with the hive in his native tongue. And that is when another thing went wrong and slightly right. He had not factored in, based on the time of day, that not all the bees would still be in the hive. Some where returning to the hive from working. And it was one particularly heroic bee that landed a stinger right under his right eyebrow. Gonyaul yelped in pain. Almost simultaneously another stinger hit his forehead and another his nose bridge. Even though his face, including his mouth, were mostly covered the small area around his eyes were not. He jerked, lost his footing and swung inward towards the tree thanks to the safety rope. His crotch slammed into the tree and he involuntarily curled into a fetal position hugging the tree with a loud audible groan. He dropped the saw; however, was able to hold onto the spearing branch. Fortunately though, the violent movement ripped the hive the rest of the way from its anchor point on the tree he had been trying to saw through.

Once the vomiting feeling and queasiness in his gut passed, Gonyaul began trying to get down as fast as he could. The spearing branch had the hive and showed the bees a direct path to Gonyaul. He could feel those that could muster the strength trying to get at him. Those below tried to direct the smoke more at him. It helped a little; however, it also burned his eyes and made it harder to breathe. When he was but five feet from the ground another bee stung his left hand right between the webbing of the fingers, a very sensitive place. He cried out in pain as his hand lost its grip. He tried to recover, but couldn't without dropping the hive; and he couldn't do that for the other's sake. He knew what was coming next and that didn't help one ounce.

His crotch once again hit the tree trunk, being more prepared it wasn't as bad a hit, more inner thigh. It still hurt, and it caused him to spin sideways more than he expected. This made the tension in the rope go slack and he went head over backwards from the tree towards the ground. He extended his left leg to tighten the rope and wrapped his right leg around the tree as best he could. He slid down the tree a couple of feet before coming to a stop, but his back banged against the tree hard. He lost his footing from the impact and crashed into the ground; however, by then it was only a couple of feet to fall.

He did it, the hive was still intact on the spearing branch. The others took it from there to help get the hive ready for transport and then all of them would be on their way. Gonyaul groaned as he got up to his feet. His hands and areas of his face that had been stung were noticeably swelling. Alexis and Boyce had the primary responsibility of transporting the hive and keeping the smoke on it. Islana helped the shaken Gonyaul to his feet, retrieved the dropped saw, and then they all headed back for home as fast as they could.

Once back, Gonyaul added insult to injury as he had to open up the hive and find the queen. It was not that bad as up in the tree because the smoke was right up on them now, but with only one working eye it was making it harder and prolonging the time it took. This increased the amount of stings that occasionally found a way into his skin. He eventually got it all done and thankfully the others disposed of the wild hive. His hands felt like he couldn't even make a fist anymore.

---

What a fun day of adventure he mused with a drunken grin. It was either his always look on the bright side, or the stinger venom coursing through his body causing him to get a little loopy. Completed washed off, he had to crawl out of the bath. He did not even bother to drain it. With difficult and pain he put on a set of clothes he stationed there before they had even left in the morning. He then began walking back to where the others were having trouble walking in a straight line.

He would be fine. It was just going to take him a few days to recover. And it was going to be a painful few days.