Honey

Despite the cold, Honey is very glad she insisted on joining Leo. Not only has she had the chance to learn so many interesting new things, but she can help organize everything the scouting wolves bring back, along with the bees that nestle in their fur to provide some extra eyes.

Already, she’s working to create a more accurate map for Leo to plan from, and even the Stag is more respectful of her presence, after seeing her contributions. Or Voice Teemo managed to beat some sense into his antlered head. Possibly even both.

The attacks from the invaders have not changed much since she and Leo started helping, but she has a feeling that won’t last forever. Whatever is controlling those odd drones must have felt the tension ramping up in the defenders before, and so must be feeling that tension easing with the tundra wolves proving so effective.

The first battle went very well, as Leo was able to more or less just overwhelm the drones with numbers and the affinity advantage. Even with the wolves outnumbered by the drones, the surprise counter with the ice affinity wolves left very few casualties for the Southwood or the wolves.

Leo even was able to form a counter-offensive with some of the Southwood’s stronger denizens, sallying forth past the Southwood’s borders to catch the drones before they could properly amass for another attack. With that breathing room, Leo’s scouts have been able to ambush drones and fade back into the wintery woods. From what Honey can tell, the drones aren’t smart enough to be psychologically impacted by it, but simple numbers reduction makes everything easier regardless.

The downtime has also let her examine the Southwood’s denizens, which has been fascinating. It appears most of the Southwood’s spawners are resource focused, including the deer. Their hides appear almost crystalline, and there’s no almost about the antlers. She’d love to collect some samples to send back to Thing and Queen, but she doesn’t think she’ll have much chance to do so.

Most of the other spawners are familiar to her, things like birds and ants and so on, also focused towards various resources. The only two spawners she’s spotted so far that are not resource focused are the bears and foxes. The bears are physical powerhouses, and the foxes are magic focused, with illusion affinity.

That was interesting to learn, and it was interesting to watch the foxes use illusions to deal with the more ordinary invaders. For weaker invaders, illusions seem to work incredibly well, either to hide a stronger denizen so they can deliver a decisive blow, or to outright kill the weak invaders on their own.

She had a good discussion with a fox, and learned that a lot of illusion use becomes rather philosophical. What is the difference between experiencing something and having that something be real? Experiencing all her black and yellow stripes switching was new, but not anything dangerous. She started to understand the implications when another fox approached and asked her to warm herself in its fur. It was delightfully soft and warm, and then it vanished. The entire fox was an illusion, right down to the body heat. She could still feel the warmth on her fuzz, even after the illusion vanished.

If they can produce phantom warmth, why not phantom harm? If they can reproduce all the feelings of a severe or even mortal injury, what’s the difference? If a heart is stabbed, it will stop, and it’s difficult to get one beating again, even if there’s no actual injury. She declined to experiment with that level of illusion, even if the questions have some tantalizing answers. She has many experiments she’d like to try once back home, to potentially expand her knowledge affinity into illusion. If knowledge is about learning, about taking in information, illusion is about putting that information out into the world. She just needs to figure out how to take that kind of step.

That’s something she can toy with later, though. For now, her attention should be on helping the Southwood and Leo. One of the scouts just came back, so she makes her way out of the small portable hive and buzzes to land atop Leo’s head so she can listen and direct her drones.

The ones with the wolves head into the hive to prepare their reports, as Honey prefers them in writing. Leo, however, likes verbal ones.

“Report,” states the Warden, glancing up from the large map, and the bits of twig and twine that are being used to mark out the planned scouting paths, and expected enemy movements.

The small pack of wolves flick their ears in salute, before the leader begins. “We were tasked with scouting to the northeast, section C, uh…”

“Seven. C7,” provides Honey, and the wolf nods.

“Right, C7. The terrain is much the same, though we did find a dense copse of trees. I think the bees will be able to update the map more accurately than I can. We scented more of the drone invaders and found a trail, but I don’t believe it’s their main approach. It seemed to lead…” he pauses and looks at the map as he talks to himself. “If C7 is… there… then…”

He straightens and speaks louder. “I believe into D7 and into D8. We could smell more of their scent in that direction, but I don’t think we’re close to their main force.” He looks like he wants to say more, but holds his tongue for now.

Leo glances at the map and nods to himself, before speaking. “What else did you want to say?”

The wolf hesitates, but soon continues. “I think they’re radiating from a single place, rather than marching down some main road. If they organized to a more specific path, they’d attack one part of the Southwood, en masse.”

Leo grins. “Why do you think they haven’t focused yet?”

The other wolf tilts his head in confusion, then tilts the other way as he thinks. “Because they’re stupid?”

Leo sighs and shakes his head. “Never assume an opponent is stupid. They will have a reason for everything they do, even if you can’t see it. They’re looking for something, most likely a weakness. If they find one they like, they’ll prepare to focus on it. I want to find where they’re coming from, first.” He pauses for effect and grins. “Then we can see how they handle a siege. Go rest and recover, you’ll be headed back out in the morning.”

The wolves nod and make their exit, and Honey takes the chance to speak up.

“Do you think we can siege them?”

Leo considers for a few moments, then slowly shakes his head, not wanting to send Honey flying. “Not right now, at least. I want to try to train the bears and foxes before trying something like that. Southwood just doesn’t have the temperament to prepare them for an attack on his own, so that’ll be on me. I’ll also want to teach the Stag a bit more about defensive tactics before we’re ready to try something like that.”

He chuckles and stands, pacing around the cave they’ve been using as their headquarters. “And we don’t have nearly enough forces to try a siege, even if we had good intel and training. The Alpha has been sending more wolves, but I think it’ll take a more concentrated force for something like that. I’d love to get some wyrms to help breach whatever defenses they have, too.”

“Do you think they can handle the snow?”

Leo shrugs. “I have no idea. I’ll make a request,” he says, and Honey can see him concentrate. She follows suit and focuses on the bond with Emperor Thedeim. While Leo may wish for a few wyrms, Honey would like some healing slimes. If they can handle the cold, they could help keep injuries down, and so keep their forces up. And the slimes tend to be rather cheerful, and good for morale, too.

She can feel the attention of the Emperor upon her, and him weighing her request. It will take the slimes some time to get there… which only really means they should get started immediately, instead of waiting. Honey buzzes in happiness when she feels the Emperor accept her request, and the wagging of Leo’s tail says his own request went well, too.

“They’ll be slow, but they’re on their way. Good idea with the slimes, too. I can’t forget that reinforcements are days away, so it’s good to keep the denizens healthy and able to fight. Hopefully the slimes and wyrms both will work out.”

Honey nods at that, and lets her attention drift to the map. “You said you think the drones are looking for a weakness? Have you found any on your own?” The first step to fixing a problem is to identify it, after all.

Leo gives a soft growl of frustration. “Yes and no. The entire northern border feels like a weakness. There’s just too much area to try to actually defend on short notice. There are a few good defensive positions, so we can secure the area between them. If we’re able to reinforce those spots, I’d expect them to make an actual effort in attacking around A14 or so. That whole area is pretty flat and boring woodland. There’s no real mountains or even hills there, nor any bodies of water or other hindrances. It’ll take longer than we probably have to be able to actually make it defensible.”

Honey looks at the section, and she has to agree with Leo’s estimation. There’s not a whole lot in the area to actually make a proper defense. Hmm.

“What about the foxes?” she asks, and Leo tilts his head in confusion at the non-sequitur.

“What?”

“The foxes and their illusions. They could make the area look less vulnerable.”

Leo considers that for a few moments, before a grin starts to form on his muzzle. “No… we’ll make it look vulnerable on purpose. Even if the wyrms can’t handle the snow, we can work on clearing that section and they can prepare all sorts of nastiness that the foxes can hide. We’ll put up what looks like a paltry defense of the area, look like we’re just spread thin and don’t have the resources to fortify the area, when in reality it’ll be a killing field.” His grin fades as he thinks it over a bit more, and he shrugs as he continues.

“Assuming the foxes can keep an illusion up over that area for as long as we need it. I’ll also need to ensure the patrols closer to the borders are thick, so they can’t get too good a look at the area while we prepare.”

Honey nods at that and returns to the small hive, both to get the reports from her bees, and to also update her notes. Perhaps even more interesting than the knowledge of nature and of the dungeon, is the knowledge of battle. The Emperor seems to think it more of an art than a science, and little flashes of wisdom sometimes drift through the bond. She has to admit there is a certain beauty to the wisdom of how to fight on a large scale, and she’s more than happy to write every scrap down so she doesn’t forget it.