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Ariana Lenoir · Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 2:23 am Post subject: One Buzz to Rule Them All.

Ariana blinked several times as the bright light of the late morning sun nipped painfully at her eyes. Her back arched as she stretched lazily, the silk sheets caressing her smooth skin as if to draw her back into her restful slumber. Her daughter stirred as if sensing her mother was awake, reaching out a tiny hand as she whimpered softly. She wrapped her tiny fingers around her blanket and involuntarily pulled it tighter. Ariana smiled to herself as she listened to her breathing deepen as sleep claimed her once again into it's peaceful embrace. Ariana became still, submitting reluctantly to the infant's unspoken degree to not yet escape into the disturbing reality of blood, politics and expectations that hung heavily outside the bedroom door.

She wrinkled her nose slightly as the infant's steady breathing tickled her skin, steadying herself against the urge to squirm. She took a slow deep breath, exhaling softly as she pushed her resolve to the forefront against the unconscious assault against her sensitive skin. She turned her attentions inwardly in an effort to further resist the instinct to pull away. Taking slow deep breaths, she let her mind wander within the confines of the walled sanctuary in her mind as she pushed herself into calm meditation.

She imagined herself dressed in a long flowing blue gown, the silken fabric clinging to her delicate frame as her toes found the warm, firm earth between her toes. She walked around a beautiful courtyard which was surrounded by a thick stone ivy-covered wall. As she made the botanical circuit, she inspected the health of the flowers and trees. The health of this phantasmal garden were symbolic mental representations of different aspects of not only her physical well-being, but her mental security as well. She strongly believed that the body communicates with the mind subconsciously and if one took the time and the patience to listen to those communications that they could be used to alert one to problems before they became serious. The plants were vibrant although a few showed signed of faint wilting as if exhausted under the warmth of the unseen sunlight. She paused a moment, breathing in deeply the fresh air and closed her eyes. All was seemed to be at peace as she opened her eyes with a smile and continued to follow the circular cobblestone path amidst the greenery of new life her body had recently given the world.

As she walked, she slowly became aware of a low buzzing sound that warbled slightly in and out of her ear range. She looked around and finally saw a single bumblebee as it buzzed around a tall, vibrant rose bush in the very center of the beautiful garden. It bounced and hovered around the blood red roses, dipping and buzzing as if irritated in some manner. It suddenly paused and for a moment she swore as crazy as she knew it was... it turned and looked right at her. The buzzing intensified and then the bee flew straight at her as if on a collision course with her face. Ariana quickly ducked to avoid the irrational flight of the tiny insect, her eyes wide with disbelief. Crouched, she pivoted slowly and looked around for the little intruder. She listened as the bee buzzed loudly above her, the sound coming and going as it flew in an elliptical pattern overhead. Then just as suddenly as it had happened, the garden was once again silent. She waited a long moment and then slowly drew herself up, turning to look around as she did. Her turn stopped a moment before her sight fell upon the same direction as her toes were pointed. There at eye level was the hovering bee as silent as death and she froze where she stood.

What the hell...

The bee hovered in the air a mere few inches from her eyes, bobbing slightly as its tiny wings tried to keeps its massive body level with her gaze. Her light blue eyes crossed as she focused on the tiny creature which despite all she knew was defying the natural world and remaining absolutely silent. She blinked in disbelief at what happened next. She watched its small black head turn to the side as if to allow the unblinking compound eyes to get a better view of her. One of the middle legs bent and the tiny foot came to rest on the side of the abdomen as if it were a anthropomorphic hand on the hip. It floated right in front of her eyes as if to convey a silent, "What the hell is your problem?"

She blinks again slowly.

Damn.

The bee looked down and then up as if to give her a slow once over and then clicked its tiny mandibles in an excited manner and bobbed slightly in the air.

Double damn.

She watched as its tiny head shook back and forth like a mother shaking its head at her child as one of the tiny forelegs slowly waved back and forth as if it were a proverbial maternal finger wagging at her negative thoughts. She blinked again slowly, her mind completely at a loss for what she was seeing. The bees mandibles opened and closed again before it flew off a short distance down the path. She watched it hovering for a moment as if expectantly. She stood still, her mind at a serious loss to grasp what it wished of her. When she stayed motionless, it flew back, the loud buzzing once again returning as it zoomed to hover again in front of her. It flew off and back, repeated the path several times as if to show her the way. She swallowed and hesitantly placed one foot in front of the other in a tentative step to follow. The bee bobbed, buzzing in a higher pitch as if it were encouraging the movement. She took another step, then another as she slowly began to follow it down the path.

As they walked, she could hear more buzzing from down the path. Every time she thought to pause, her tiny companion would repeat the motions it first did to get her to take that first step. As long as she kept moving, it hovered happily along in front of her, occassionally turning in a circle as if to make sure she was still following. The buzzing grew louder, until it was unwavering in its intensity as the noise seemed to even drown out her own thoughts as she attempted to evaluate what was going on. As she turned the corner around a tall juniper tree, she paused with a look between disbelief and horror.

The air seemed alive with hundreds, or perhaps thousands of bees. Her legs seemed frozen in place from the shock of the sight before her. The sound was deafening, almost a solid unending roar as each individual bee became indistinguishable from the others. The bee that had been her minuscule guide flew suddenly in and out of the swarm and she swore she could hear his buzzing above all the others. As she focused on listening, the buzzing of the swarm began to change. Instead of the all the sounds of the individual wings seeming to compete with one another, gradually they slowly became synchronized until it was one steady buzzing sound. The little bee flew back to hover in front of her as if it were the tiny conductor of this unnatural symphony. The buzzing rose and fall like a tide upon the air as the sound lapped almost melodiously to her ears. Her mind wrapped around the image as if searching for some hidden meaning to what she was seeing. A few sporadic words seemed to trickle into her delving mind.

Thousands of voices. Weakness. Apathy.

United. One voice. Strength. Power.

The little bee flew up as the words crossed her mind, hovering near her face as it slowly nodded its head as its antennae flicked slightly. It reached out its foreleg once again as if it were gesturing. Whether out of compulsion or some inner morbid curiosity she looked in the direction this unnatural insect motioned. There in a portion of her thick, solid stone wall that had acted as a mental barrier of protection was a small crack. Out of the crack, from the outside, crawled an unending stream of bees. They crawled onto the wall in a jagged counterclockwise spiral as the squeezed their way through the tiny crack. Their individual buzzing taking the same rhythm as the swarm as they launched themselves into the air at the end of unusual spiral.

Ariana studied the symbol for a long moment and then looked over at the bee. It bounced up and down next to her on unseen air currents. As she turned her head, so did it to look right back at her. Once again the head tilted and she felt uneasy as its eyes seemed to focus directly on her. For a moment, she felt as if those eyes looked into her very soul. She felt a rush of deathly cold that made her gasp as if she had just jumped completely naked into the icy waters of the Dagger Isle. Her eyes widened as she attempted to breathe, but each breathe only seemed to pull more of that cold deep inside her.

Then she was suddenly awake. She had been completely drenched in ice water. She sat up with a deep gasp with wild eyes as she looked around her room. Sabine was holding the empty bucket and her daughter was being walked around the room by Shiori whom had a seriously worried look on her face. Sabine dropped the bucket and grabbed Ariana by the shoulders, shaking her, "Are you alright? Ariana?" Ariana looked at her with a wild expression, still overwhelmed. "The child was crying and you wouldn't wake up. We tried to wake you, but its like you weren't with us anymore. We could barely tell you were breathing!" Sabine exclaimed, a mixture of exasperation and relief in her eyes.

Ariana simply nodded her head and stammered slightly, "I was meditating..."

"Well, you scared us all half to death! Next time, tell one of us before you do that, " Sabine snapped back. Ariana nodded slightly, still a bit dumbstruck as she tried to regain her soggy senses. Sabine tilted her head a moment to study her with a quizzical look at the lack of reprimand from the tone she had used. She softened her tone slightly as if caught off guard by the helpless and confused expression of her cousin, "Go get take a bath and get dressed. We'll watch the child. " Ariana nodded slightly again, watching as Sabine, Shiori and the infant left her room. She reached up to wipe the water out of her eyes and took a deep cleansing breath as she attempted to clear her mind.

She frowned.

Despite being awake... she could still faintly hear the sounds of buzzing...
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Ariana Lenoir · Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 3:15 am Post subject:

It had several days since she had meditated and had the incident with the bees. The whole situation had her both perplexed and concerned. It was obvious something had penetrated her mental defenses, but what was it? How did it find the weakness in her shield and what did it want? It didn't appear to want to harm her. She needed answers that she didn't have. The subdued buzzing sound had yet to leave her thoughts and continued to haunt her curiosity. Late at night when her world was quiet and her thoughts normally drifted, it seemed to grow in intensity as if encouraging her to follow. It was a tantalizing white rabbit to lead her down the rabbit hole with unconscious promises of leading her into Wonderland.

She asked Sabine to take her daughter for the evening and explained that she needed time to meditate. Sabine agreed after insisting that Adonias stay present in her room to guard her in her vulnerable state. Ariana consented rather easily as her personal guard's presence was nearly constant during most evenings even if none knew. She didn't trust him, but at the moment she knew she had some hidden use to his plans and as such, he would ensure her safety.

After her bath and preparations, she settled onto a soft fur to begin the process. As soon as her mind quieted, the buzzing sound that constantly lingered in the back of her thoughts began to rise and fall once again as a tide upon her consciousness. She listened to it allowing her breathing to slow and flow to match the rhythm of the sounds. It called and sung to her, beckoning her to listen to its sweet song. It serenaded her to follow... and follow she did.

She opened her eyes and she stood once again on the path of her mind with the beautiful garden surrounding her. The strange little bee was waiting for her as if it knew she was coming. It hovered about a foot from her, bobbing lightly on unseen air currents as the steady, strong buzz of its wings came to her ears. Ariana found herself smiling and relieved to see it as if its presence once again solidified that she wasn't going insane, at least she didn't think she was. The tiny bee turned its head to the side with an almost quizzical look as if studying the odd smile on her face. It buzzing raised an octave as it flew closer and landed precariously right upon her nose. It warbled its head to the side and her eyes crossed to look at it. Tiny claws gripped her nose as the wings folded against it and yet the buzzing continued despite the logical need for the wings movement to cause the sound. She concentrated and listened as she studied it. The sound continued to rise and fall in various lengths as if it were trying to communicate with her. Her brow furrowed slightly as she listened intently as her eyes fixated on the compound eyes of this tiny quandary. The buzzing changed very slightly for a brief, heart stopping instant she could hear several syllables of an archaic language she didn't recognize. She gasped at the icy cold that bit painfully at her insides in that moment and the language fell from her grasp and once again was the simple buzzing of a bee.

The bee clicked its mandibles together a few times and with a flutter of its wings lifted off. It hovered about a foot away and once again hung in the air expectantly. Ariana paused as her mind attempted to analyze the situation. The bee clicked its mandibles again as if insistent and flew towards her, buffeting air upon her face with its wings as if to get her attention. She smirked slightly and stared at it as she felt her own dominant streak flaring up to rebel against its unspoken command for her to follow. She stared at the bee and the bee stared unblinking right back at her as if unshaken by her impetuous response. Ariana arched one of her eyebrows gracefully at the reaction. The bee clicked its mandibles again, bending one of its antennas in a crescent above one of its compound eyes. It lifted it in a mocking arch of her expression and wiggled it with another click of its mandibles.

Damn.

She followed the bee along the path to the far side of the garden. Her steps hesitated slightly as their destination became obvious.

The tree of blackrock.

The soft sound of the swarm began to grow as the walked closer. Her companion was happily flying just ahead of her. It turned on its back and flew upside down, kicking dramatically with its last set of legs as if it were doing an aerial backstroke. It turned its head and then let it drift back to stare up, its forelegs arching gracefully back as if they were propelling itself through the air on a sea of unnaturalness. Then, it clicked its mandibles together again, turned its head slightly to the side and let a stream of nectar erupted from its mouth as if it were squirting water at her while it... was... swimming... in the air.

What. The. Hell.

A movement out of the corner pulled Ariana's eyes away from the perplexing unnaturalness that had held her gaze. Ahead of them, stood in leafless majesty the tree of blackrock. The gnarled tree resembled a large century's old oak fashioned entirely out of the infamous blackrock. Its twisted, foreboding branches seemed to actually absorb the light as if they were botanical rapiers of the void itself. One of its large roots, until recently, had been pushed firmly through the base of the thick stone wall as if to anchor a permanent thread to the outside. The tree had steadily grown from a sapling within this mindscape after her initial exposure to blackrock. As she experimented with the uses and powers of blackrock grew, so did the tree.

It wasn't the blackrock tree that held her surprised expression now, but the tens of thousands of bees that hung in its bare branches. Their vibrating, thrumming bodies forming a living hive that covered the base of several thick branches and a third of the trunk. All around that thick blanket of bees, were hundreds flying around it in an ever-widening, counterclockwise spiral from its base. Her tiny escort flew forward and Ariana took a step back as she watched the entire hive morph into a frenzy upon its approach. Once again the swarm's humming began to change to match the constant rise and fall of her companion.

It hovered for a moment in front of the hive and then as if satisfied, it flew down to the ground. It picked up a very small twig and flew up to a large broad leaf on a nearby plant. It held the twig with its right foreleg and tapped it lightly on the leaf several times. Despite no sound of the motion being audible upon waxy surface of the leaf, the entire swarm fell into absolute silence and turned their attention to the tiny fleck of black and gold against its green platform. It stood up on its back pair of legs, rising up as it lifted the twig into the air and gave a single buzz with its wings as if it were setting a note on a scale. Then with crisp movements it slowly began to move the twig as if it were a miniature conductor's baton. The bee gestured with its left foreleg as it directing movement while the conductor's hand led the swarm into a haunting song. The swarm moved as one as it untangled itself from the tree and took flight as one. It swirled and dipped with the rise and fall of the sounds as a living aerial tapestry. Upon this moving canvas, shapes began to come alive as vibrating spirals, circles and balls danced flawlessly in the air in front of her. Each bee giving into the tiny bee's directing without question or hesitation. Ariana stood memorized as she watched, the tiny vibrations of all the bees in complete unison seeming to find its way to her skin making the airs on the back of her neck stand up. The fantastical performance concluded with a dramatic bow of the would-be conductor to Ariana as the bees hovered effortlessly as if awaiting future instructions by their own perfect puppetmaster.

Ariana blinked a few times and then clapped slowly as if she were unsure how to respond. The bee dismissed her applause with a tiny wave of its foreleg, dropped its makeshift baton to the ground and took once more to the air. It flew over to her and landed lightly upon her shoulder, turning in a small half-circle to once again face the swarm that hovered as if on baited breath. It buzzed loudly and the swarm hung silently as if listening. Then as if they were given a command began to move off as a group towards the center of the garden. The tiny bee on her shoulder thrummed its wings strongly to lift the fabric up as if it were encouraging her to follow... and follow she did.

She watched as the bees drifted one by one to land upon individual flowers. As each began to drink from the sweet nectar, she watched the flowers change before her eyes. The stalks grew thicker and stronger, additional buds began to grow and blossom in rapid succession. Flowers that had been tasted went to seed and then showered their seeds upon the fertile ground. Each seed germinating more vibrant plants as each reached towards the sun. The plants weren't the only thing that changed. The bees themselves became larger. Their soft downy black and gold fuzz falling like unnatural snow to the ground. A myriad of colors took its place as if their very skin were like oil slicks on a pond as they reflected all the colors of the spectrum of light that radiated upon them. Their abdomens elongates into domed points with only a thin strong shaft of flesh attaching it to the thorax. Their mandibles grew larger as their wings thinned and grew pointed like slices of winged death. The constant thrumming was still there, but it now carried a quality that chilled Ariana to her core. The bees had become wasps. The gatherers had become the carnivores. The peacemakers had become the hunters.

A strong buzz pulled Ariana's attention from the metamorphosis. She turned her head and looked to her shoulder. There standing among the snow of black and gold fuzz that littered the fabric covering her shoulder was one of the largest wasps she had ever seen. Unlike the dead black eyes of the swarm, this one has compound eyes of the most brilliant green. It clicked its dripping mandibles clicked together as it reached out a foreleg and patted the cheek of her shocked expression almost in the manner a mother might humor a child. She opened her mouth to speak, but her words were smothered by the scream that tore from her lips as the wasp jabbed its stinger through the fabric of her dress and deep into her shoulder.

She woke from her meditative state, with a choked scream. Adonias stood there with a malicious, deadly expression as he looked her over as he attempted to find the cause of her pain to end it with an abrupt finality. She choked out a gasp as she reached up to her shoulder. There on her shoulder stood a growing welt... from a sting... of a wasp.
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