This was *not* normal!
'Could these eggs have evolved? Or more likely… were they laid by an evolved animal?'
I had a dark premonition.
"Girls, stop with the eggs!" I shouted to the Beemarines working around me. "A new order—retreat immediately! Forget about the carts—we will fly away from here!"
Maybe I was being paranoid, but I didn't know how much the gods hostile to me directed their "champions". From the parts of the rules I heard while in the divine dimension, and from what my system deemed to share with me, it was possible.
Giving omens and such was against the normal rules—but the rules have changed. A god would need to spend a part of their "evolution points" to give direct orders to creatures, but they could do that.
(The cost in points was why the Goddess of Bees and the God of Humanity gave me no directions or hints so far besides the explanations of the rules.)
And spying on me was free real estate.
"What? Why should we retreat?" a few less experienced and younger Beemarines asked in confusion, but their more disciplined sisters soon took over and everybody moved to obey the order.
"Obey the command and abandon the eggs!" their Sergeants and Lieutenants shouted. "Cover the backs and the flanks! Organized retreat!"
In no time and all, the Beemarines abandoned their hauls and assumed combat formation around me, acting as if the enemy was in sight already.
I led them outside, looking around on high alert.
'Well, if the enemy was actually there, Commandos would've warned us…'
I could see nothing out of the ordinary outside the skink's burrow. A Commando Bee, who was watching over the entrance, looked at us in confusion and flew toward me. The Beemarines let her pass.
"Father? New orders?" she asked.
"Tell me—there was still no sight of any feathered beasts?"
The Commando shook her head.
"No new reports. It must be still hunting far away."
"And there is only one beast living in this burrow? A single parent?"
The Commando Bee suddenly looked unsure.
"Yes… We saw only one. The Beehound that led us here said that there was another smell, but old."
I kept frowning. This was common behavior, wasn't it? Some evolved male lizard mated with several female lizards in the area. It didn't mean that the evolved lizard was nearby.
'But its improved eggs are here. Wouldn't it be cool to have its eggs and use its hatchlings for my profit? He-he-he… If anything, it will be a safer way to find out what we are against.'
"Alright. Beemarines, stay on combat alert. I want half of you to patrol the approaches to the entrance, while the other half will carry out eggs. Just grab a few and destroy the others, then we will leave."
I didn't want to lose the eggs, but I still felt like we should hurry.
"Yes, Father!" the Chief Beemarine said, saluting. Her subordinates repeated the gesture.
The work resumed, but now with more tension in the air than before. I and my bodyguards, instead of watching the happenings inside, stayed with one of the combat patrols, which comprised 11 Beemarines.
The forest around and above us was wet and peaceful. Since we were looking for enemies hiding below the canopies, we also stayed there—besides, keeping from the sight of dragons and wasps was an old habit.
I could smell some flowers blooming in the distance, and old traces of lizards…
A short scream of a bee at the edge of our group made me jolt.
So fast that I barely saw it, something long and blue caught her and carried her away. And everybody around me looked as shocked and clueless as I felt.
"Danger! To weapons, soldiers!"
"Where is the enemy hiding?!"
"Protect Father! Surround him!"
I spun around wildly, but could see not a hint of any enemies. Whatever caught this Beemarine wasn't big, though. It looked like a snake, or perhaps a tentacle? At least, as far as I saw it.
But what kind of land creature would have tentacles? And it didn't move like a snake!
There was another shout behind me, and our group became another bee smaller.
"It took another one!"
"It escaped before we could stop it!"
"We are easy targets here, for whatever it is!" I declared. "We must fly above the forest, then warn your sisters elsewhere. They could be attacked, too!"
As much as I didn't want to abandon the kidnapped bees, I was sure they were already dead. Otherwise, we'd hear at least a shout from them.
"Yes, Father!" Beemarines shouted and followed me immediately when I flew up (slowly enough that they weren't left behind).
As we were escaping, I kept glancing back, trying to spot where the attacks came from.
'It was the same direction both times, wasn't it? If I can just pinpoint it…'
Then I saw it—the blue thing, reaching right toward a bee from the outer perimeter of our group.
"Look out!" I shouted, but she was caught before I could finish the first word.
However, this time I saw this happening in more detail. The blue thing really looked like a tentacle with a sticky end, which enveloped the Beemarine and stopped her from escaping.
Then the tentacle retracted just as quickly and disappeared in a gathering of green and red ferns.
Then the ferns blinked, and I realized that not all the leaves and branches were that. Some of them were moving, and not because of the wind.
Something was hiding there, but so well, that I had no idea what was what!
Then I and my Beemarines flew above the tree canopies, and the suspicious ferns disappeared from my sight.
I let out a long breath, feeling marginally safer at the height of several dozen meters above the tree canopies.
"That thing… we will find it and kill it—later. First, we must warn our sisters. Fly on!"
I waved my hand, and our group flew to the skink burrow.
But then, I heard a loud flapping of wings coming from the forest below!