Epic of Bee

I followed Maurice and Hamble out, with Helaina floating along with me. Thanos was alert and looking around, but Tigra was nuzzled up into my neck and already asleep.

She had done a lot of work today, and Tigra deserved to rest. Even though it had been unintentional, Tigra had fought a Behemoth on her own and won.

I was delighted with the progress of all three of my pets, but I was concerned about my new snake pet, Hexi. She had been reticent since I had used the Vulture Bees to consume the body of the other giant snake.

I wondered if that might have bothered or maybe even offended Hexi, but it wasn't like I would have done things any differently. The cards all fell into place, and the remainder of the body was the perfect ratio for the remaining Vulture Bees.

We were just coming to the opening of the tunnel back into the spaghetti strained cavern,  so I put my thoughts about Hexi away for now. She seemed to be content with resting around my neck, but I would speak to her later about how she was feeling.

I let my glowing blue orbs drop, and I got a different view of the vast cavern. I took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the dimmer light, but I slowly started to get a better look at the different parts of the canyon.

Now I wanted to focus on the people that were milling around the strange stone slab huts that were in the center of the cavern. There was glowing fungus all over the cavern, giving the entire area a soft bluish-green glow that my eyes had not been used to when I first entered.

"I don't know if you are familiar with these different races," Maurice said, speaking up, and started to point around. "But over there, the group that is talking with armor on their backs and arms are Roach Folk, and they are very nice people and nearly indestructible. They work with explosives and combustibles that we use for clearing blocked tunnels."

I looked over at the Roach Folk and took a deep breath. They had two long brown antennas sticking out of their foreheads and chitinous brown armor that covered most of their bodies.

They weren't repulsive, just different, but the shells still gave me an uneasy feeling. Still, if they were as resilient as the Cockroaches from Earth, then they would make an excellent addition to Jeff, the Explosive Specialist research lab.

"There are three different races of Lizard Folk down here; Monitor, Bearded, and Frilled. There are some around, but you will recognize them when you meet them," Maurice explained as I was led forward to a tunnel entrance at the back of the cave.

"I Mite Bee the best Inventor down here. Simon is the name!" A small man that was similar to the Roach Folk asked from my left side, straddling me a bit.

"This is Simon, one of the Mite Folk. Ignore him," Maurice told me as we walked into the tunnel, but I was interested in what he invented, and I stopped.

"What do you invent?" I asked curiously as I turned to the very short and broad man.

Simon's antennas were a lot shorter than the Roach Folk, and the armor on his body didn't look very solid. The shell also was a burgundy tinge, instead of the dark brown like the others.

"Headaches," Maurice said as he rolled his eyes and put a hand over his face in frustration.

"My rock sifter is a genius idea! The rock roller works really well too!" Simon explained as he waved his short little arms.

"We don't need to sift rocks! And the rock roller ran over three Roach Folk!" Maurice roared, shaking a finger at Simon, but then Hamble pushed Maurice.

"Give him a break; Simon is trying to help out," Hamble said as he shook his head at Maurice, but Maurice just rolled his eyes.

"Ike, Trik, and Crick are all fine! The men don't even have a scratch on them! Also, I think that they did it on purpose!" Simon said as he waved his hands in the air.

I wasn't really sure about the rock sifter, but I think that Gamble would be able to pick his brain and get some new ideas from him. The Rock pusher might be worth checking out if they had figured out how to construct an engine of sorts to drive it.

"I would be interested in taking a look at some of your work when I get back from the tasks that I have to do tomorrow," I explained to Simon, and his face lit up with excitement.

"Really? I have a new project that I am working on, but I will let you go rest! Thank you for talking with me!" Simon said with excitement and then waddled off, talking to himself excitedly.

I turned back to the two Slug Folk and nodded for them to continue, but I was curious about something. After seeing all the different races down here, I wondered what brought them down here?

"Did Bill bring you all down here? Or how did everyone else join you all?" I called up to Maurice, and he called back while still sliding forward.

"We all came with someone that was on death's door, but Bill requires that anyone that joins us has to come with others. It is usually family or a loved one, but it keeps us all sane and creates a stronger bond between us. I am sure that you have guessed, but Hamble is my younger brother, and we brought our father here. He was going to die from a disease that was eating him from the inside out, and nothing that we or anyone else did would help," Maurice explained as we came up to another large cavern, but this place had been sectioned off with rock wall dividers.

"Now dad is doing great and healthy! Plus, we get to live for so much longer than what we normally could have!" Hamble said with a big grin, but Maurice shook his head.

"It is not all roses; there are several disadvantages to this as well," Maurice started to explain.

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