don't worry bee happy

With no small amount of trepidation Armando watched as the naked dog began to pull at the thin sides of the fallen tree. As Sunder did this, Armando noted a steady rise of bee activity at the entrance to the hive. The bees appeared more curious than anything else. Alert and wary, sure, but their slow, inquisitive movements did not hint at (at least as far as his untrained eye could tell) a growing hostility. The wolf, Dunkan, was ushering the smoke towards the hive and this, combined with Sunder's excruciatingly slow movements appeared to be keeping the bees mellow. He could only hope it remained this way. In all honesty they would be quite lucky if it did. Bees had a fearsome reputation for a reason; it was not unearned. Creating a sweet, energy dense food was not without it's risks and for that reasons the bees were well equipped to fight off would-be thieves.

Smoke or no smoke the bees that were determined to take flight did. Their patterns were a bit lazy and they seemed unsure of the thick blanket of smoke, and briefly Armando wondered if he should let those be. After noting that, drunk on smoke or not, they seemed awfully interested in the naked dog, he decided to remove them as best he could.

Gently he began to "brush" at the bees with the pine bough. The action was far too gentle to be considered a 'swat' even though it was roughly the same motion. When he caught sight of one looping towards Sunder, Armando would reach out and with slow, careful movements direct it away from him. Most bees complied easy enough. Only the occasional renegade required a second send off.

WC: 288