It took some more cajoling, but with my help, Tamsha calmed enough to accept his wounds being cleaned and bandaged.
I insisted the servants used their drinking water, since I knew it was at least boiled, but was still absolutely sure that the numerous wounds on Tamsha will get infected.
By the time the bandaging was over, Tamsha stopped acting like he smoked something bad. His eyes cleared, and so did his thoughts.
By then, I had already moved on to help my girls and check for losses in our equipment. Now I was busy trying to bend the remains of my spear into a shape that made it at least somewhat usable, with the help of a crafty Beehound.
Tamsha said something loudly. After getting no response from his servants, he marched straight to me, making several bees dart out of their ways with gasps and curses in his direction.
Of course, my bodyguards didn't take this show of aggression well. By now, they recovered from the worst of the hypnosis and took the places of my guards again. Even the recent battle didn't diminish their energy—they just snacked on some leftovers from breakfast to recover it.
Before I even said anything, they all dashed to block Tamsha's approach several hundred meters away from me. Although the distance seemed large to us, before this moment, Tamsha was resting way farther from us.
'Destroyer!' I put the broken pieces of gold aside and messaged my Sergeant bodyguard in alarm. 'Don't attack. What does he want?'
'He thinks, Father, "I don't want to be put under this sorcery ever again, devils,"' Destroyed replied. 'How dare he demand something from you? Especially after you saved his life! If you let us, we will remind him to fear us with a few stings.'
'Dear, oh dear. No stinging, Destroyer. I will talk to him.'
I flew toward Tamsha and stopped near Destroyer. For a conversation, bees had to be at least within 10 meters of a human's head, which was an uncomfortably close distance for them. Usually, they tried to get away, which is why we preferred to sit on their heads or shoulders.
Right now, Tamsha just stubbornly stared right at us, although it made him look cross-eyed.
He was still a hundred times larger than me. Several bees could dance on a single eye of a human. It'd be intimidating if I wasn't so used to the size difference. And if Tamsha didn't look cross-eyed.
'Remember our deal, Tamsha, and don't disrespect me or my kin again. I can find other helpers among humans,' I told him coldly. 'The sorcery saved your life. Can't you even bear some discomfort?'
'Discomfort? Those visions… They might haunt my soul even in the afterlife. Perhaps I will be cursed forever—what's one mortal life compared to that? And—'
'Stop. Whining. Tamsha.'
His thoughts fell silent, and his shoulders fell.
Perhaps his little hysterics would've been more effective on someone else, but I had too much experience dealing with girls, young and less so, who could also be very emotional. They rarely complained (at least to me), but when they began bickering with each other, some Dad Voice was surely necessary.
And don't even let me start on young Queens.
Compared to an entire empire of my progeny, Tamsha was just one young man. I understood he went through some shit, but had no patience to suffer through his outrage.
'Get up and keep walking. Our time is still short, and now you will need a cure, too. This means you and your servants should gather as many dodos as possible before these wounds will get infected. Which they will,' I said. 'And thank me again that they aren't more serious.'
Tamsha lowered his head.
'This arrogant…' he thought, but cut himself off. 'Yes. Our deal. I will follow through.'
I clicked my tongue and messaged Malevolence.
'Have a Beemarine watch Tamsha at all times. I don't want him to actually try to betray us or run away with a dodo chick. In the worst-case scenario, she can even sting him in the eye… Well, only if I allow it, of course.'
'This ungrateful creature! I will arrange everything, Father,' Malevolence assured me immediately. 'Our forces are almost ready to continue moving. In ten more minutes, we can march.'
'Good. Then we will do that.'
This place was becoming too infested with scavengers wanting to chew on dead dragons, anyway. Too bad we couldn't harvest their scales—they'd make great armor.
The wounds slowed humans down, especially Tamsha. Of course, he was a bad mountain-climber in his state.
Instead, one of his servants was sent to reach the nest. He was a worse climber than Tamsha and shook like a leaf whenever he glanced down.
Several bees had to guide him all the way up, and if Tamsha and the other servant didn't give him a lift to the lower branches of the living mountain.
With this, and several close calls when the man almost slipped and fell, he managed to grab the dodo chicks and get down, while the bees fought off the nest's defenders. This time, I ordered my squadron to do their best to kill this dragon, or at least seriously wound it.
It took more effort, and more risk—we had to let the beast get closer, first. Another bee got her ribs broken and several god bruises while getting on the wrong side of an angry dragon's wing.
But then I buzzed closer and shot stingers into it until one finally hit.
Today, we only cleared one more nest after this. And by evening, when we returned to the main camp with all the dodo chicks, Tamsha's wounds became brownish and inflamed. His face became brown, too.
Brown, not red, because his chitin was already green.
The man was wobbling on his feet when he walked. He was running a fever!
'It looks like I will need to sacrifice some of these birds sooner than I wanted to…'