Honey Suckers

"It's this way," he directed with a casual shake of his head. Some days ago Jupiter and his companions had stolen a beehive. It hadn't ended well. The shattered hive now lay in the orchard with a pair of ropes tied around it. Bubbles had been intent on dragging it to the river and drowning all the bees in it to get to the honey, but he'd made it about halfway there before the stings had gotten to him and he'd been forced to cut himself free and run for the hills. The bees, to their credit, had done wonders to fix the mangled hive. The last time he'd looked at it he'd noted how quickly they'd managed to fill in the cracks with more comb. Their situation on the ground was still precarious but he had a feeling they'd adopted a fuck it stance since chancing off one would-be thief.

This time Jupiter was better prepared. He and his companions were draped in leather that had been wrapped tightly at the neck and anywhere else determined bees might enter. There was still quite a lot of exposed skin, but only so much could be covered without sacrificing flexible. Amadeus, his emperor tamarin, had also brought along a tinder bundle in the hopes a little smoke would sooth the savage stingers. Bubbles, having learned his lesson, was trailing far, far behind the others. He was coming along more as distant moral support than any real aid and in truth, he wouldn't even be offering that if Jupiter hadn't heckled him into it.