Cloud "walked" away without saying his piece. The Bulls were most shocked,leaderless and paralyzed as their charred commander smoldered. Before they could react, the bees were gone.
Alia, the elder bee, trembled mid air. Dizziness blurred her vision,the Cloud's voice and the Bulls' incineration had shattered her understanding of the world. She barely stayed aloft, wings faltering.
Beside her, Raiz, the younger male bee, hovered with eerie calm. He watched the Cloud's retreat, curiosity overriding fear. He matched Alia's unsteady pace as they followed their savior.
The Cloud halted over a sunlit grove. Its voice vibrated in their minds:
"Ok, you are free to go now."
Alia sank toward the flowers in relief. Raiz lingered a moment, studying the Cloud's shimmering form, then dipped low to join her.
Alone, the Cloud focused on the energy fragment within its mist. What is this? As the thought formed, reality dissolved.
--- MEMORY: INFANCY ---
He opened eyes. A giant human face loomed,soft and warm hands lifting him. Confusion. (Clouds don't have years, let alone infancy.)
A door slammed open. A breathless man rushed in:
"Raiz, my boy! I ran through the clouds the moment work ended!"
The man?tossed the baby high
Only one thought ran in clouds mind. Why run THROUGH a cloud?Dude, thats Rude! the Cloud mused midair.
--- MEMORY: NINE YEARS ---
Nine human years flowed. The Cloud experienced Raiz's life as a passenger and to sum it all up.
Love: Parents' warmth bandaging knees, reading stories, steady as sunrise.
Money is Power: Paper, metal, cards dictating survival. A brutal necessity.
School & Inequality: Gleaming classrooms vs. street beggars.
Racism: Humans hating over skin deep differences. When the skin issues was gone(a theory at best), there was always something to divide them. Illogical, the Cloud judged.
Fragility: Funerals for the loved Why mourn? They have gone , nothing you could do to bring them back?
Ingenuity: Sky scraping buildings, roaring planes. Admirable perseverance. This was somewhat suprising for the cloud. Its miracle they got anything done with their lvl of destruction.
Burden: Needing food, sleep, toilets. Bodies betraying with sickness.
Birthdays baffled the Cloud. Raiz celebrated yearly with cakes and gifts.
Once is understandable. But annually? Humans fixated oddly on this time. What possibly could be the reason?
Entertainment intrigued him suprisingly. Raiz's video game marathons and vibrant anime. Yet human had needs, needs that seemed to always interrupt his enjoyment. Had to sleep, was hunger, had to go to work.
Conclusion
Such high effort for a fleeting joy.
--- MEMORY: COMING OF AGE ---
Raiz graduated college,acing studies to please his parents. He thanked them monthly
"I'm lucky to have you."
Truth, the Cloud agreed. But Raiz's awareness of his this was rare. Most humans blinded themselves to blessings, craving what they lacked, never seeing what they Have.
For seeing his fortune? Raiz earns a human thumbs up.
--- MEMORY: BETRAYAL ---
Job rejections piled up. Every company barred Raiz at pre interview. He resigned himself to "bad luck."
Then, a coffee-shop meeting with a friend:
"Remember Bapes? That day he asked if you could be happy.. as poor?"
Raiz stiffened, he felt where this was going .
"You said 'Yes' His family is top-5 rich in the country. He blacklisted you to prove money's power."
Silence.
Bapes' diamond was wealth, the Cloud mused, yet he stole others' hope to feel its shine. He had something most were craving but he himself was trash.
--- MEMORY: DEFIANCE ---
Raiz launched a company. Early months near-crushed him: empty coffers, sleepless nights.
Then—breakthrough. Clients trusted him. Profit grew. The company flourished.
--- MEMORY: RECKONING ---
Bapes noticed. His influence had barred Raiz from every major firm. Yet here Raiz was succeeding without connections or inherited wealth to start with.
How dare he, what gave him the right!!
Rain slicked the city streets, reflecting neon like shattered rainbows. Inside his luxury car, Bapes swayed, whiskey blurring the world. Then a figure under a flickering streetlamp. Recognition cut through the haze, it was none other than despised Raiz, walking home, shoulders hunched against the downpour.
Bapes' knuckles whitened on the wheel. Him. Alive. Successful. Rage, sharp and sour, flooded his veins.
He accelerated.
Tires screamed on wet asphalt. Raiz turned too late.
Impact.
Bam!
A sickening thud. Raiz's body flew into the air, limbs twisting unnaturally, a spray of blood arcing across the headlights before vanishing into the rain. The car fishtailed, then sped into the night.
Bapes skidded into a side street, heart hammering. He's dead. He has to be. But doubt gnawed. He scrambled out, stumbling toward the impact site.
No body.
Only a dark, rain-diluted blood trail snaking into a narrow alley barely wide enough for one person.
He crawled in there.
Bapes drew a knife, breath ragged. The alley split left or right.
He hesitated.
Then blood smeared thickly on the left wall. A grim arrow. Bapes smiled, confidence surging. Fool. Always predictable.
He lunged left, rounding the corner.
"Idiot."
The word, guttural and wet, came from behind.
BANG!
A brick slammed into Bapes' temple. Bone cracked. He crumpled.
Vision blurring, he saw Raiz leaning against the right alley wall, face a mask of blood, shattered legs useless beneath him. Raiz raised a trembling, bloody middle finger.
"See you… in hell," Raiz rasped.
Bapes' world went dark.
Raiz slumped, the brick falling from the numb fingers. Agony consumed him, ribs piercing lungs, legs mangled pulp, cold seeping into his core. He dragged himself toward the alley's mouth, leaving a smeared crimson path.
He reached the open street. Rain washed over his face, clean and cold. Above, the storm clouds parted. A single patch of clear, starlit sky emerged.
Raiz smiled, a faint, peaceful curve of his lips. His parents' faces flashed in his mind,their warmth, their pride. Sorry… Mom… Dad…
His eyes fixed on the stars.
Then, the light left them.
------------
Consciousness returned as agony.
Crushing pressure. Burning cold. The sensation of being unmade.
Raiz gasped, but no air came. He flailed—but not with limbs. With… wings?
He forced sticky, multi-faceted eyes open. Blurred shapes resolved: damp earth, roots, the dim interior of a hollow log. He was tiny. Fragile. A bee.
Memories surged as impact, blood, Bapes' hate, the stars. I died and I'm… a bee?
Movement beside him. A bee, her carapace cracked, wings shredded, antennae broken. Her faint aura pulsed with fading gold light magic?
Alia.
Her voice, weak but resonant, touched his mind: "You… lived. Barely. Core… almost shattered."
Understanding flooded him. She found my broken body. She used her own life force… her core magic… to rebuild me.
The cost was etched into her ruined body. She'd sacrificed her chance to flee with her hive. For him, a stranger.
Gratitude, profound and aching, filled his bee-heart. He nudged her gently with his head.
"I stay," Raiz thought back, the mental voice new but firm. "With you."
Alia's hive had moved on. With her on this condition, she couldnt keep even if she wanted to
"The Bulls are coming! They are looking for preys! We must go now!"
The decree was final for their survival. The hive migrated to distant meadows, leaving the hollow log behind. Only Alia remained, too broken to fly far. Her magic core, drained to heal Raiz, couldn't sustain a long journey.
"Go," Alia "Save at least yourself
Alone in the decaying log, Raiz tended to her ignoring her requests. He learned to gather minuscule droplets of nectar, to shape pollen into healing poultices for her cracked shell. Something he knew instinctly.
"Why?" Raiz finally asked one dusk, as fireflies blinked outside. "Why save me? Risk everything?"
Alia's antennae twitched weakly.
" I simply acted on instinct, i guess down to my core. i am healer" Alia smiled happily.
Raiz felt a strange warmth bloom beneath his carapace. From what Raiz could tell, this bee body didnt belong with Alias nest, complete stranger but she didnt hesitate? He pressed closer to her, sharing warmth.
"I won't waste it," he promised
------
Oddly, Raiz knew his wings.Like it had been with him since his birth.
Human Raiz had dreamed of flight,soaring free, wind rushing past. Bee Raiz lived it!
The first time he pushed off from a dandelion head, wings a furious blur, the world dropped away.
Thrilling didn't cover it. It was ecstasy.No metal cage. No engine roar. Just… me. And the sky
He darted between blades of grass like an emerald canyon. He hovered above a clover flower, drinking in its dizzying purple scent. He spiraled upwards, the sun warm on his back, the blue vastness beckoning.
Landing was clumsier,a bump against a leaf. But he laughed, a soft buzz in his thorax.
Alia watched from the log entrance, her pain momentarily forgotten. A flicker of pride warmed her aura.
"Look at him go… " she looked happy
Raiz zipped back to her, alighting gently.
"I'll find stronger nectar," he promised, antennae brushing hers. "Heal you. Then… we fly together."
He looked up. The same clear sky he'd died beneath now promised freedom. A bee's freedom. A second chance, bought with an elder's grace.
He flexed his wings, ready.