Fenghuang Yu ate a Wood affinity breakfast to help with regenerating her body, got an ok from the healer on duty, and headed to the library to research the Vibrant Honey Bee. She needed to earn a lot of points and decided to be as informed as possible about her nectar competitors. Apparently, they were generally passive pollinating insects with only a stinger as a weapon, but one that they usually avoided using. The only times they turned violent without provocation was if any creature approached their nest, or when they were battling over flowers. That said, unless they were desperate, they generally did not initiate fights over flowers.

The creatures hunted for pollen by sight and smell, their sense of hearing quite poor. Their eyes gave them a wide-viewing angle but their pollen-gathering workers had terrible night vision. The bees were generally not active at night but their warrior caste did conduct surprisingly coordinated patrols of what they viewed as their territory after sunset. In general, it was advised to not approach at night without the ability to hide one’s scent which their warrior cast used to great effect.

So, Yu had a plan. She needed to get everything else ready, feed Bai, let the girls know, and attempt to take on her first mission.

***

Yu went to pick up the materials she needed for the flower pollen gathering mission. While she was in line at the pickup counter, she heard a good amount of gossip about missions, disciples, relationships, and the like. It was fascinating to Yu that certain names kept coming back again and again and one of them was her brother’s. She had underestimated his renown. He was so popular with the ladies that the rumors of him meeting with a girl for dinner, being publicly assaulted with physical affection, and having an intimate meal was the talk of the town. Yu just grinned and shook her head. That was until she heard another familiar name.

“Did you hear that someone screwed the Bao Consortium out of their mission?”

“Oh please. You say that as if it was owned by them.”

“Shhh! You know ears are everywhere! And even if you’re right, everyone knows those monthly food missions are reserved in advance by the competing factions in this place, and trading them is how the peace is kept.”

Wasn’t that interesting. Had Yu accidentally started something?

“Who knows what will happen when they find out which faction screwed up the peace.”

“You got that right. I heard all three are at least giving the impression of working hard to figure it out but someone is protecting the group who took it. That makes it even more likely it is one of the other factions. Who else has that kind of influence?” Yu’s eyebrows rose at that. Could it have been her master, or was someone doing it on his behalf? Elder Ting perhaps?

Either way, it was her turn and she approached the counter. She tapped her badge as proof, received the nectar applicator, bottle, transport ticket, and headed out, excited to go on her first mission for the sect and for contribution points.

***

When Yu arrived at the transport area, which was the same place all the disciples arrived on her first day, she was surprised to see a line of two dozen various flying beasts saddled with a driver by their sides. They were all near the edge of the platform and appeared to be either readying to transport someone if they were booked or talking, reading, resting, and such until their turn came. Each one had a bucket of water for both the rider and beast. Could this earn them points as well? Were those personal mounts or did the beasts belong to the sect? Yu needed to get flying lessons if she wanted to learn to drive one herself. Or maybe not. What did she know?

There was a table with three people behind it. While Yu saw little in the way of lines, there certainly was a brisk business for these mounts and pilots. When Yu reached one of the inner sect disciples behind the desk, she presented her ticket and said, “I’m heading to the western fields and have a two-way ticket.”

He looked at the parchment, somehow validated it was genuine, and then looked through some sort of information in a booklet. Then he called out loudly, “33.” He handed the ticket back and said, “You’ll need that to get back up without paying so don’t lose it.”

A young man in inner sect clothes but no outer robe jogged up smiling and said, “This mine?” Yu noticed he had a red ribbon of cloth around his arm that had the number 33 on it.

The one behind the desk confirmed it and told Yu to follow the young man. She thanked him and followed number 33 who said, “Hi. I’m Zhao Minge. I’m your ride down to the western fields.”

Yu said, “I’m Fenghuang Yu. Thank you for the ride. This is my first week so I’ve never used this service before.”

His eyebrows rose and said, “You move fast, don’t you?”

Yu blushed and said, “Umm. Yeah, I guess. I need a lot of points so I can’t afford to waste time.”

He seemed to understand and nodded as he said, “Ahh. I understand the need for the points. Well, don’t burn yourself out. Trust me on that.” They eventually reached a large bird of prey Yu had a hard time identifying. It was entirely brown-feathered with a yellow beak and feet and massive black claws. The young man walked up to it, patted its massive neck and it leaned down to pump heads. Zhao Minge was pushed back a step but laughed. “You always have to show off how big and strong you are in front of the ladies, don’t you Jin Kong.”

Yu smiled at the pair, who clearly adored each other, and watched as Disciple Zhao leaped onto the large saddle. He called her up and she landed behind him. “Sit and hold onto the rope please.”

Yu did as instructed and he clicked at the mighty raptor. Yu felt the bird lower, saw it straighten, and grinned as it dropped off the edge. After a brief feeling of vertigo and a look downward at the approaching glowing orange magma, Jin Kong’s wings extended and in a few massive flaps they were rising upwards into the blue sky. Yu was grinning as she yelled over the rushing air, “He’s beautiful. What kind of bird is he?”

The disciple yelled back, “He’s a Mountainous Golden Eagle and way too smart for either of our goods.”

Yu laughed and watched as they lowered themselves through the clouds. Yu asked, “How do you see?”

Chucking he called, “I can’t. Jing Kong does. He does most of the work. I just give directions occasionally. He also eats more than any ten disciples but he’s pretty much my best friend so I don’t care.” The bird turned his head sideways briefly, showing the pair an eye the size of Yu’s head, opened his beak, let out a screech, and then looked straight again.

He yelled back at his beast companion, “Oh stop. I’m not calling you fat.”

Yu giggled and decided he enjoyed these two. If allowed, she’d request them for her next trip down as well.

When they exited the cloud layer, Yu took a breath and saw what was at the foot of the mountain for the first time. Spread three-quarters of the way around the mountain were flatlands covered in multicolored plants and fields, the details of which Yu could not make out from such a height. She saw colors strewn across the lands like swirling rainbows and separated by what she thought might be both stone walls and water channels cut to the foot of the mountain. Huts, barns, and warehouses of various shapes and sizes were dotted throughout the fields, as were occasional open areas of grass with herds of animals grazing.

The last quarter of the way around the mountain was a vast forest with a canopy thick enough that Yu couldn’t see through to it and it went on past the horizon. She would be heading in there by herself in another few days. Hopefully she would be strong enough. Yu would have her fifth meridian open by then if all went to plan so maybe that would help. Either way, she was going to learn something.

Jing Kong swooped around and headed towards a large set of fields to the west of the mountain. Yu saw a cleared-out circular area with various large winged beasts that appeared as a smaller version of the flying beast area she left from. With flaps that caused Yu’s ponytail to rise and wave behind her, the eagle landed and she jumped off after Zhao Minge. She bowed to him and thanked him for the assistance and he waved it off saying it was a pleasure. He went and reported to the desk person who jotted something down in a book after which he lifted back off and headed straight back up to the mountain.

The riders received points for this somehow, although Yu was curious if it was by the number of runs, distance, or some other measure. Moving on, she asked the person at the desk where the Migomo Flowers were and he pointed.

Thanking him, Yu jogged away and passed various signs for each field and type of Qi plant or crop the sect raised. As part of her research, Yu learned that her target flowers had red petals and stems, but yellow centers and mostly clear nectar. It was obvious when Yu arrived seeing a field of pure red ahead of her. She also heard the buzzing of the bees she was told to expect. They were easy to spot as the insects appeared as long as her hand. And there were hundreds of them flying around the square field that was at least five li in each direction.

Yu took out the applicator she was given for the mission and examined it. It was a long thin tube made of something Yu didn’t know and was so thin at the tip it appeared almost needle-like. Trying to figure out why it looked familiar Yu grinned when she recalled an enemy long dead. Fangbao, a mighty beast that was killed in her first adventure into the forest of her home, was a grade 6 Windstorm Porcupine and the device looked like one his spines hollowed out.

Well, wherever it came from, Yu was supposed to attach it to a special bottle she also received. She would be rewarded based on how much she retrieved so Yu walked around the outside until she saw what she hoped was an opportunity. Approaching a flower in an area isolated from the bees for whatever reason, Yu gently inserted the applicator as far as it would go and waited. Yu felt and heard a slight tinkle inside the palm-sized jade bottle in her hand and smiled.

***

Yu’s joy was short-lived. Apparently the reason that area was devoid of bees was because they had emptied the flowers recently so she only managed to get a tiny amount of the precious liquid - Yu figured maybe two or three full drops worth. Looking in the barely transparent bottle, Yu figured it could hold thousands of drops, not that she expected to retrieve that many. That said, If she wanted to get anything of value out of this, she would need to find an area that the bees had yet to visit. Wonderful.

Yu quietly and slowly moved along the edge of the field, using the applicator on those flowers and observing the bees, seeing if any areas had only one or two. Finally, she came upon a group of about 50 flowers with only a single bee buzzing about, sticking its head inside and messing about for about thirty seconds. Her research intimated they don’t like fighting over flowers already occupied so, after validating no other bee was within ten paces, she worked her way around and approached from behind, where its compound eyes would have the most difficulty seeing her. Then as soon as it stuck its head in the flower, she did the same to a nearby flower. Unfortunately, her applicator took about twice as long as the bee to work so she stayed very still when the bee exited and moved on to another flower.

She had just withdrawn the proboscis and stepped to the next as it flew out and did the same. It clearly saw her, turning directly to face her, but she was outside of five paces (which was the distance her research said should be safe) and not bothering it so after validating she wasn’t a threat, they both moved on. And so for about ten minutes they did a dance of swapping flowers. It turned out, the bees did not completely empty the flowers so she managed to get another bunch of drops worth, thirty at least.

She and the bee moved on. Thinking about the right approach, Yu decided to follow it and see if it moved to another set of flowers that might be safe for her. She stopped with it when it arrived at another group, this one with two other bees. Moving very slowly, she made sure to stay at the recommended five paces and danced in and out, poking the flowers as long as was safe and then moving on. She played it very cautiously and left flowers early if she had to, just to be sure.

One of the other bees moved on and she followed that one instead. She repeated this process, and very slowly made her way around the field, gathering what she could of the liquid safely. If she was willing to take more risks she could have probably increased her take, but decided that whatever she got would be fine.

***

Many hours passed and Yu had just been draining another flower when she looked around for her next target to drain and noticed that the bees had started to fly away. Curious she straightened, scanned the area, and noticed the shadows were long and the sky showed a deeper blue than she was expecting. Yu also realized she was unintentionally getting close to thirty paces to the shack that all the bees were heading towards. A sign was set up to warn all the humans not to pass that point and she was just a single pace from that invisible line.

“Oops,” Yu whispered to herself. She immediately turned her back to what she presumed was the hive and started a slow jog directly away. After a few strides, Yu heard a buzzing in the distance but it was not the higher-pitched kind she heard from the bees she was surrounded by all day. It was deeper, and in Yu’s mind, more ominous. What Yu saw when she turned her head was what she feared she’d find. The warrior caste of the Vibrant Honey Bee was about half again as large as the gatherers, most of that difference was taken up by the large stinger protruding from its abdomen. That group was primarily responsible for defending the hive at night and against any general threat.

What surprised Yu, however, was that they were not the ones making that deeper buzzing sound. Eight black blobs were flying across a field of green and blue flowers and towards the migomo fields. She crouched down and watched them approach, interested to see what would happen. While she was there Yu started draining a nearby flower. Why waste an opportunity?

The larger bees became agitated and started making louder buzzing noises themselves. Apparently, this was some sort of warning because a group of ten of the warrior bees exited the shack and started flying in loops and circles in the air in the general area where the new creatures were approaching. A few minutes (and many flowers) later, Yu could finally see the details of the intruders. They appeared to be black beetles nearly twice the size of the bees with massive pincers in the front of their heads and multiple pairs of transparent wings extending from the top of their backs. Black carapaces glistening in the evening light that made them appear as armored warriors ready to take and deliver blows that Yu could not imagine the bees would be able to combat.

They finally approached the bees’ territory and the buzzing from both sides nearly caused the air to vibrate. The bees started waving their stingers and flying so they pointed at the invaders. The beetles charged forward, heedless of the bees threatening demeanor. Battle was joined and Yu’s eyes opened wide at the brutality of the beetles' attacks. They simply ignored the stingers which failed to penetrate the armored carapace, occasionally closing their massive scythe-like pincers bisecting a defender.

Without realizing how it happened, Yu found herself ten paces away from the fight with her whip in her hand. She didn’t even consider what she was doing, but knew she didn’t want the bees to die. Logically speaking, this had to have been a known quantity for the sect, but Yu wasn’t really in her logical mind at that moment.

And so Yu crept forward and before she could stop herself, her arm was back and struck forward. The red leather whip uncurled and stuck at a beetle that had just closed his large jaws on the wing of a warrior bee. At the same time, more of the warriors had come out to do battle and managed to swarm one of the beetles. The four bees’ weight drove it towards the soft dirt and repeatedly attempted to puncture it.

While that was happening, Yu’s whip struck the beetle that had the bee’s wing, causing it to stumble through the air and slam into the ground. At the same time, it released and flung the bee in its pincers away. Yu crept forward and saw the beetle she struck swarmed with bees. That time their attacks were much more effective, both because the beetle was dazed and because her strike had caused it to land on its back.

Yu swung again and the snap of the whip was loud enough to be heard over the constant buzzing. Another beetle went flying, but she was too late to save the captured bee that was sliced in half. Yu crept forward ready to strike again but stopped as she heard a buzzing close by but from below her. She had come upon the bee with the injured wing. She saw it struggling to fly but its right wing would not work, having been nearly torn in half. Yu put her whip away and started glowing blue as she reached down. It buzzed at her and moved around, but was mostly immobilized. Bees are simply not very agile while on the ground. And so she laid one hand on the bee’s body to hold in place gently and her other hand on its injured wing just above the joint and sent her Qi into it. Soothing Flow was a skill that reduced pain and the bee slowly calmed. Since the pain ebbed, the bee started flapping its wings, thinking it could fly again but Yu held it down as gently as she could. Then she used Follow the Water, attempting to understand as much about the wing as she could. Yu was amazed at how many tiny veins flowed through it. It was an irreplaceable part of the creature’s anatomy, the same as any limb for a human. She wasn’t a good enough healer to have three skills going at once so she had to let go of Soothing Flow and started glowing green as Regenerative Vines began building minuscule versions of the plant, starting at where the slice began and slowly and very delicately moving along the slice, pulling the wing together. Yu hadn’t used Qi in any meaningful way that day thankfully, allowing her to have a sufficient amount for such delicate and precise healing. When the last vine sewed the wing together, Yu was sweating and breathing harder.

She mumbled to herself, “Why didn’t I pick up those two new skills before coming down here?” Her Follow the Water skill told her the wing was doing ok and would heal the rest of the way without her so she released both skills and pet the head of the bee. She pressed her hand to it and sent her Qi directly to it, sending feelings of comfort and relief. Then she released all her Qi, crouched, and leaped as far back as she could, not sure any of that worked. Hopefully, it wouldn’t think she was an enemy and come after her. Thankfully, as she ran crouched through the flowers, she did not see the bee following her so hopefully she had gotten away with it.

Feeling pretty good about herself, her whip reappeared in her hand and she crept to within range of another beetle. This time it saw the weapon coming because the beetle escaped the hit with a sideways jerk. That surprised her. “They can dodge?” she said out loud to nobody.

It clearly could and was obviously not pleased because it ignored the bees’ ineffectual strikes and looked directly at her. Yu struck out again and it dodged again, and this time rushed towards her. Yu tried one more strike but it dodged again and Yu backpedaled. Swapping the whip for the swords in her ring, she prepared herself for a completely unfamiliar type of combat.

The bees seemed to think it was running from them so the ones chasing it moved onto other targets, leaving her alone with it. It flew straight at her, just as it did the bees, seemingly considering itself superior in melee combat. It dove directly for her right side, likely aiming for a wrist or arm that it could snap. The creature was many times faster than it looked and Yu was surprised enough to simply jerk her body out of the way without striking back. She heard an unpleasantly loud click as its pincer jaws barely closed over the air, but it didn’t take a break to settle or recover. It spun in place and came again towards her right arm. Yu turned and leaped backward crashing through flowers while rather inelegantly swinging upwards with her right sword. The bug dodged but she clipped its left pincer and it tumbled in the air. The beetle straightened itself quickly but Yu saw an obvious spiderweb crack where she had struck.

She readied herself and was much more stable, prepared for its next lunge. But it didn’t attack; in fact, it backed off a pace or so. Yu discovered why a breath later when she yelped from a biting pain in her ankle and she fell to the ground. One of the damn things had its pinchers closed around her left boot and was squeezing. The one flying immediately dove down and attacked and she instinctively swung upwards with her right-hand sword. It clanged off the beetle which went tumbling in the air, but Yu ignored it after that. She immediately turned her sword, pointed hilt facing down, and jammed it at the beetle with Qi-infused strength. Its carapace shattered and Yu yelled again as the jaws tightened with its death. Yu saw a flicker in her vision and she dropped to the ground, watching above her as the beetle flew through where her neck was a moment ago. It turned in the air, once again demonstrating a level of aerial agility its size seemed to belie. Yu tried to rise but her ankle collapsed out from under her and it turned into a roll which flung the dead beetle clamped around to her ankle off. The flying one charged again and Yu swung her sword but had no leverage from her prone position so was only able to knock it higher in the air. It recovered and started charging down at her face. Yu knew it was going to hit that time and she prepared to use the last of her dwindled Qi on a skill, but a buzzing blur zoomed in from an angle behind and above her and struck the beetle in the side. Both went tumbling through the air, the new attacker off to the side and away, the beetle within a stride from Yu. She didn’t miss the opportunity and struck with the flat side of her sword from as much of a downward angle as she could in her position, completing its tumble to the ground. Using her good leg, she leaped towards the downed bug and once again drove her pointed hilt straight through its carapace, pinning it into the soil. Using her other sword, she jammed the hilt at a downward diagonal angle into its face and twisted both swords. The creature twitched and stilled.

Yu let out a breath and collapsed backward. After a few moments of calming herself, she said to the flower in front of her face, “I’m so glad nobody saw that. How embarrassing.” Honestly. What a shameful showing. Well, at least she’d learned from it. Don’t drain yourself of Qi in the middle of a fight to heal a strange insect. Right. Duh.

Oh. And beetles can dodge.

As Yu barely had any Qi left, she didn’t bother with trying to heal her leg. She heard a buzzing approaching and sat up, prepared for more. A warrior bee made its way to her slowly. It was wobbling in the air and Yu examined it closer. Was that an injured wing? It lowered itself in front of her and she watched it. It crawled its way to her and rubbed the hairs on its head against her legs. She slowly reached forward and gently pet its head and body. Then it turned around and wandered off. Yu stayed there watching until it lifted off and made its floundering way back to the hive. Or so she assumed.

The sounds of battle seemed to have dulled and Yu decided to sit there amid the flowers and watch the sky darken. Then she did a quick scan of the area and said out loud, “Well, while I’m here. . .” And she took out the half-full nectar bottle.