The sky is made of boiling metal, rolling across the horizons. It churns and roils in a nauseating way.

The land is shifting beneath me.

Angry earth titans stride the surface, scouring the land clean behind them with sweeps of their massive tails.

An endless sea of burning sand and molten glass stretches from horizon to horizon, the giant creatures striding the surface occasionally being swallowed back into the earth or vaporized by an errant strand of boiling metal.

In the distance, a great black spire pierces a giant opening in the boiling metal sky. It looks ordinary at first glance, but the titans grow smaller and smaller in the distance, and I don't understand what I'm looking at until a tiny speck begins crossing in front of the tower. It's another titan, so small in the distance that it looks like an ant. The tower behind it is so massive it takes me a while to understand what I am looking at.

Tiny specks fly from the top and disappear into the black. Is this a space elevator? It definitely looks sinister.

A spine jutting from the base of the tower begins to glow red, and suddenly I feel like someone is looking at me. I get a really bad feeling and start running. There's only two bees here with me, Eliza, and one of the more industrious sticks in the mud. I decide on the spot to name him Herman, he seems like a Herman to me. Herman sits on my right shoulder, and Eliza on the left. My, that's... Sinister! I giggle at the pun and am amazed to find I make noise. Eliza turns to face me and speaks. “Hey, I understood that? Where the Oleander are we? What is this?”

Herman mutters to himself “Almighty orb of light, protect and preserve us. Though I am dragged down a path that leads to my demise, please deliver me from evil” Hey, that's rude. I'm too occupied to say much though.

“I don't know what's going on, but I think I should run faster.” I shout.

The spine in the distance is too bright to look at now, and that feeling of dread grows larger. It's almost strong enough to make me want to just lie down and suffer. I won't though. I've been mistreating my inhabitants a bit, but it's my job to protect, lead, and grow the hive. I am certain in that moment that, despite my unwillingness to live a safe life standing by the sun orb, I will do everything I can for those who live within me.

At this moment a giant red spear of energy sprays out from the distant spine, and rips across the landscape, tearing a giant chasm across the land, and I find new momentum as it races towards me. I run like the devil is on my heels, I run like I've never run before, but I can't outrun whatever this is.

“Herman, Eliza! Fly you fools!”

I'm bathed in red fire, and I scream. I see Eliza and Herman in the air, fleeing desperately, but my vision goes red and I'm falling into the earth, screaming all the while as I burn.

Then it's just darkness, quiet, and peace for a long time.

Wait a minute, was I dreaming? It felt so real I forgot I was blind in real life. I reach out and form a few psionic tethers and reengage BeeVisionTM. Oh, I'm slumped against the wall next to Mr. Biggs, and that noise is those VERMIN attempting to get in through my beefy wood door. I made it almost 6 inches thick, and I can see claws and teeth poking through. Holy crap.... How long have I been out?

Mr. Biggs isn't bleeding anymore, but there's a worryingly large puddle of crusty blood around where he's lying. He's curled up on his side. I probably had better see if he's ok, but first, our uninvited guests.

A spell shape wraps around the rope hanging above the door, suspending the giant cruddy sandstone block where I left it. I cycle heat, and in a moment, there is a disgusting crunch, some squelching, and the clawing at the door stops. From here all I can see is rock through the hole in the door, and a few bits of flesh hanging off where the abrupt movement of their previous owner peeled them off its snout. A few teeth litter the floor inside the door, and blood splatters line the vines.

I reach out with grow and patch the hole in the door, and go take a look at Mr. Biggs. He's... really not doing very well. I don't know much about medicine, but I do remember hearing honey has disinfectant properties. I co opt a few bees into helping me smear honey in his wounds, while I try to figure out how to make a bandage out of leaves.

After a little trial and error, getting a leaf to curl around a wounded limb and bond to itself, making one contiguous leaf tube like a living cast seems to be the only way to go. It looks good too, green suits Mr. Biggs. I finally get a muzzle looking bandage on his face, since his snout is... mangled and make a little vine shift around the tissue back into a shape resembling a snout. I'd try to stitch it with little vines, but I have no idea what I'm doing. Besides, chicks dig scars. Or something. I'm just trying to feel better about my own incompetence. It doesn't help that he woke up, and every time I shift his wounds while bandaging him, he makes a pitiful wail. Even if he's still dangerous, he's not going anywhere for a while, especially with 6 casts, one for each extremity poking from his shell.

We've run out of honey after slathering his tail, all of his legs, and his face, but the rodents haven't returned, so I ask the bees to restock and decide to rest up. Herman and Eliza are still sleeping, and I remember my weird dream. Is it? No... couldn't be. I might be a little nutty but believing they are trapped in that terrible dream still is ridiculous.

Isn't it?

I don't really need sleep, but we need to recharge, so I root down and deploy some leaves, and get to work merging mana crystals together to make bigger ones, and continue messing about trying to figure out how they are etched. If I can make a big enough attributed core, maybe I can make something properly devastating. I remember the red beam of energy for my dream, then imagine having one of those at my own beck and call and rub my viney hands together as I get to work.