Morendo would never tell his mother no so as soon as she mentioned that she wanted to work on constructing some beehives on the island and wanted some help with it he immediately volunteered... only to find out one of his brothers had also agreed to help as well. He mostly did his best to keep away from his brothers and their antics, picking activities and tasks that he knew they wouldn't care for so he could either keep to himself or just spend time with his mother. Unfortunately their mother had somehow gotten Revenant in on this as well so his plans had been foiled.

At the very least it was one of his more tolerable brothers. Out of the lot of them Revenant was probably one of the less annoying ones. He just needed to help put together some bee hives and then he could be on his way. Easy enough. He followed their mother out to where she was wanting to set them up, glancing at Revenant beside him before just focusing all of his attention on their mother and the instructions she was giving them on what they needed to do.

"Aliana & Morendo"

Revenant wasn't exactly thrilled to be voluntold to help his mother out with building... whatever the hell it was they were building again. Something about bees? Beehives for beekeeping or something? It sounded stupid. Bees were stupid. They were obnoxious and stung you. Why their mother would ever want to keep even more bees around the island was beyond him, but he supposed it didn't matter. Chimera had sought the boy out and enlisted his help when Aliana asked for two of her sons to help her with the hive construction. Of course, Morendo, being the goody little mama's boy he was, wanted in on it, so now Revenant was forced to spend his afternoon in the hot summer sun doing manual labor with his brother and mother. Yay, every boy's dream come true...

The dark-pelted pup heaved an exaggerated sigh as he followed with Morendo on their mother's heels. He caught his brother glancing over at him and shot him a look with an eye roll that showed exactly how much he didn't want to be doing this. But as much as this sounded tedious and boring, disobeying his father's direct order and earning his ire seemed like a much worse fate. So, sucking it up, Revenant asked, "Where are we going, Mom? Is it much farther?" He hoped not. The sooner they got this done, the sooner he could go back to hunting the annoying little marmosets that inhabited the island.

"Revenant"

Aliana led her two strapping young sons a little ways away from the compound they resided in and toward the southern end of the island. The north paddocks held the slave pens, and she wanted to keep her children's innocence intact for just a little bit longer before the world tried to corrupt them. Plus, if she could avoid going there as much as possible, she preferred that as well. No, her little passion project would exist on the other side of the island from Chimera's business ventures. The ash and snow queen had cleared out a section of jungle and planted a small garden of fragrant florals as a foundation for the beehives, and with Chimera's help, she had also gathered all the requisite material and lumber they'd need to build the hives themselves. All she needed were a few extra strong paws to help her assemble it all together! As she had expected, her sweet and not-so-little-anymore Morendo volunteered in a heartbeat, and after asking her mate to bring one of her other sons to help them, Revenant had turned up as well. Ali was glad her second largest son had shown up and not Strix; she loved her little runt, but he wasn't the one she had in mind when it came to physical labor.

The trip to the construction site was mostly quiet, filled only with Aliana's occasional humming and Bolero's chirping as he flitted about overhead. As they drew near, Revenant asked if they were getting close, and Ali cast a bright smile to her tall sons from over her shoulder. "Almost there, my darlings!" she told them, following the cobblestone paths until they came nearer the beach and the scent of fresh flowers became stronger. She turned down a side path, and there before them was her garden with all the lumber lying in wait. "Here it is!" Ali led the boys over to the piles of wood, lifting one of the three large boards. "We're going to be building three beehives today, my loves. Bees play an important part of keeping our flowers and plants alive, and they make honey for us to enjoy as well! So we're going to build them some homes to live with us," she explained, gesturing to the wood. "To start, we're each going to take one of these big boards. These are our bases for the hives. Then, pick any spot in this garden to build your hive and I'll show you how to get started!"

With her instructions given, Aliana dragged her board over the lush grass, careful to avoid any flowers, then set it down near the middle of the gardens. There would be plenty of room for both of her sons to pick their spots, and she waited for them to do so before moving on.

"Aliana & Morendo"

Morendo didn't relate to his brother's displeasure at being recruited to help their mother build her hives so when he rolled his eyes Morendo simply looked forward again toward their mom to continue following her out to one side of the island. He was fairly glad that they were getting close to where the build would take place when Rev asked about it and their mother assured her it wasn't much farther only because it was quite hot in the Auster summer sun and he was eager to get back to their compound and into the shade. He glanced up occasionally at Bolero as he fluttered one way and another over head, listening to his chirping and song to pass the time as they continued to walk. Eventually though, he noticed the smell of fragrant flowers and it pulled his attention back down to the garden they were approaching and he spotted the lumber that was clearly set aside for the purpose they were here for.

Their mother in her usual chipper, lively way explained what they were going to be doing and why the bees played an important role in the growth of their garden and plants on the island. He nodded with understanding and then looked to the boards she indicated to start with. After their mother had picked up a board and started dragging it over to her selected spot, he did the same, though he didn't have to drag the board to where he needed to go. He lifted it and carried it to another open area, giving some space between where his mom had sat hers and where his could be built near a patch of daffodils. He didn't know if it mattered how far apart the hives were built or not, but he figured giving the bees more room to roam couldn't be a bad thing. With that done and decided on he looked back to their mom, waiting for the next instruction.

"Aliana & Morendo"

Morendo seemed utterly apathetic to his attempts to relate to one another, so Revenant instead just rolled his eyes again at his haughty brother this time around and huffed an exasperated breath. Whatever... he thought, wanting this task to be over now more than he had before. Sulking all the way out to his mother's flower gardens, the young Klein prince watched as a few bumblebees buzzed by his head, ducking out of their way with an irritated snarl. Stupid obnoxious insects... Revenant was still grumbling about the bees when Aliana brought them to the gardens and explained what they would be doing today: building beehives for said stupid obnoxious insects. Revenant felt his mood deflate like a balloon that had just been let go. Gods, there was nothing he wanted to be doing less than manual labor for annoying bugs that only stung you out in the sweltering summer sun!

But, as always, Morendo had to be the good little suck up and get right to work imitating their dam while they positioned their boards out in the gardens. Breathing a sigh of defeat, Revenant resigned himself to his fate and grabbed the last base board, able to lift it and carry it with ease like Morendo had thanks to their larger sizes. He carried the board to practically the other end of the garden until Ali called for him to come back closer, and with a begrudging roll of his eyes and grumble, he relented to his mother's instructions. Picking a spot a few meters away, Revenant set his board up, then waited for further instructions.

"Revenant"

After giving the instructions to her two biggest, burliest sons, Aliana watched pleased as punch when Morendo did exactly as he was asked to and without fuss, picking an ideal spot close, but not so close as to crowd the hives. "Good work, Morendo sweetie!" she praised her sweetheart of a son. Revenant, however... "Oh, Revenant, dear! Try to pick a spot within a dozen feet or so. We don't want to confuse the bees!" Ali didn't notice the way Revenant rolled his eyes, but his second choice of location was much better, which the proud mother confirmed with a brisk nod. With all three of them set up, they could move on to the next phase of their construction project.

"Okay, boys, now we get to build the actual hives!" The clouded ash and snow queen moved back over to the pile of lumber she had acquired from driftwood and wrecks along the coast of the island. The old flat boards would make the perfect timber to build the main structure of the hives out of. Picking up a few pieces, Aliana once more dragged them over to her base, showing where she had already cut some notches into the wood, and then the ones she had carved into the planks to make pegs out of them. "I've already gone ahead and cut the notches into your boards and the planks. All we have to do now is put them together to build a sturdy hive, like so!" Ali demonstrated by lifting one of the planks and fitting the pegs into the slots on the base, feeling it slide in easily and hold firm. She wiggled the plank to show how it stood upright and didn't move or topple. "We're going to interlock boards until they're about as tall as I am. Then we'll put the roofs on, and we're done!"

With her final set of instructions given, Ali watched her sons while she let them take first pick at the driftwood planks. They should have more than enough wood between the three of them, but she wanted to observe to answer any questions they had and to make sure they were doing things correct before she'd return to finish hers.

"Aliana & Morendo"

Revenant watched while his mother began to demonstrate how they would actually construct the beehives, using the pre-notched planks to interlock together to form the walls. Okay, he had to admit, that was a pretty clever trick on his dam's behalf. Now a little more intrigued by the mechanics of their construction project, Revenant moved over to the pile of lumber and selected out a few boards, dragging them back over to his base with his teeth until he had assembled enough to build the walls. He looked over each plank, figuring out how they aligned and interlocked together, then began to assemble them together. When the first notches slid together and held firm, his expression brightened with triumph and his tail began to wag. This was pretty easy! Revenant attached those connected planks to the base of the hive, then proceeded to grab one plank after another, stacking them to form the walls of the hive and locking them together securely, assembling them like Ikea furniture until he had a decent-sized hive put together.

The Klein prince rose to his paws, doing a loop around the hive he'd assembled to assess his work. He nudged at the walls with his paw, but the structure held firm. A swell of pride grew in his chest. What had begun as seemingly dull and menial manual labor had actually turned out to be an interesting and educational lesson on construction. Aliana gave her son a proud nod and a nuzzle, then directed him to the larger boards they'd use as roofs. The dire lad lifted the roof with ease, setting it on top of his hive and making sure it stayed in place. As he was giving his work one last look over, he noticed a couple of honeybees go buzzing by his head, landing at the entrance to the hive and beginning to poke about inside. Soon another followed, and then another! Rev smiled with victorious delight; the bees actually liked his hive!

"Revenant"