A Tale to end all Tales Read online

  “I don’t know what I would have done if anything had happened to you.”

  “Oh Tallis!” Bebe repeated and for a second time in her life passionately kissed her rescuer. A kiss which was returned in full measure by the heroic bee.

  Escape

  For a moment both youngsters stood clutching each other before coming to their senses. The job of rescue was only half done, success would only be achieved if they could make good their escape. “I don’t suppose your rescue scheme included a way out did it?” Bebe asked as they disengaged, Tallis shook his head as he dusted himself down.

  “Sorry Highness, I think we’ll just have to chance it,” he replied, then was suddenly struck by an idea. “Wait a minute, we might just make use of the wasp if we can prop him up over our shoulders and walk him out. If anyone asks we can say he’s had too much to drink and we’re walking him into the night’s air for recovery.”

  “What if anyone recognises me, or suspects our story?”

  “Well I didn’t say the plan was perfect, but at least it’s a chance. Are you willing to risk it?”

  “Let’s go!” the Princess replied.

  The Royal prisoner and her rescuer found to their great relief that the evening revelries were still in full flow and security was lapse. Wasps and hornets lay slumped in senseless intoxicated slumber and any glances cast in the couple’s direction were met with the play acting of staggering with a drunken friend.

  Together Tallis and Bebe carried the wasp between them to the entrance where they dumped him before taking off into the night. They had made it out of the enemy camp, but were still deep within hostile territory and too close for comfort to the vengeful wrath of Queen Britney, Bebe’s unloving sister.

  A bee does not have huge reserves of energy and the events of the day began to catch up with the fleeing youngsters. The Princess had been captured and held prisoner, whilst Tallis had spent the day labouring with the thanksgiving tree and had fought off the enemy sentries. Both were nearing exhaustion as the night’s chill began to bite harder.

  Suddenly alarms started sounding behind them, clearly the escape had been discovered and the pursuit was beginning. “Sorry Tallis,” a rapidly tiring Bebe gasped, “I don’t think I can go on. Leave me here, save yourself.”

  “Never Highness!” a grim faced Tallis replied. “A few wing beats more should take us to the bridge, we can shelter there and rest for a while.” The trickling water of the brook alerted the escapees to the location of the bridge, they landed silently and crawled the last few paces before nestling down in the grass roots of the small embankment under the arch of the tiny bridge.

  Huddling together for warmth, Tallis and Bebe stilled their breathing and remained motionless, with good reason, for within minutes, the noise of angry pursuit could clearly be heard approaching their hiding place. Buzzing and rasping angrily a large enemy force noisily fizzed as they flew under the arched structure. Tired as he was, Tallis made ready to sell himself dearly.

  The quiet of the night had been shattered by the arrival of the insect force, but they were not the only force on the hunt that evening. A family of bats, who called the bridge home, had also been alerted. They dived and swooped at the visitors, plucking bees, wasps and hornets from the air and snacking on them in flight. Time and again the bats flitted through the thinning ranks of insects, shrieking their gleeful calls as they feasted. Within five minutes the carnage was complete. The enemy force had been destroyed, the few survivors limped home and the bats returned to their hanging roosts, most satisfied with their night’s work.

  Tallis and the Royal Princess, still locked in an embrace, fell into a grateful sleep. It was not until a watery sun welcomed in the new day that they stirred and having quickly breakfasted on a nearby thistle, flew off towards their own hive.

  A Final Showdown

  On his return, Tallis was pleased to note how well the colony was governed . Already the repairs had begun on the damaged structure to the cells, the wounded bees had been bandaged and the mess and litter of the previous evening’s raid had been cleared away.

  Commander Stinger had once more proved his worth as a true leader and organiser. He welcomed Tallis’ return with a warm greeting and having seen Bebe to her quarters, he pulled the former worker aside. “Well done young Tallis, you’ve served the hive with great courage and distinction, but I fear we’ve only disturbed a sleeping giant,” he said.

  “I fear so, Sir!” Tallis responded. “I was lucky indeed that the bats came to my rescue, but Britney and her new company will want to come after us now. This time they won’t be content with just a raid, but will want to destroy us completely.”

  “I think you’re right, I expect a full scale invasion before the winter proper begins. I’ve asked all our outlying sentries to be on special alert for an approaching enemy army.”

  “I hope we can give a good account of ourselves when the time comes,” replied Tallis. “Although I think we may yet have a surprise up our sleeve, if we’re given enough time to use it.”

  “What do you have in mind?” an intrigued Stinger enquired. So Tallis explained his plan and as he did so a smile of satisfaction spread across the veteran commander’s face.

  The rest of the day was spent labouring as Tallis took a sizeable workforce to the high walls of the reservoir, where they began the task of chiselling into the clay and mortar of the huge dam wall. A tall flag pole was also erected on the highest part of the structure. The work went on for a further three days and finally the young officer was satisfied. It was a timely end to the work as the outpost sentries reported the sighting of a large army marching towards the colony, with the colours of Queen Britney in the vanguard.

  From the reports arriving at command headquarters, the enemy horde consisted of countless numbers and appeared to be taking its time as it tramped over the fields. Stinger calculated it would arrive, ready for battle, the next morning. That evening, in the colony, the bees went about the business of sharpening their stings and preparing themselves for the forthcoming fight. There were no illusions amongst the citizens of the hive, everyone knew this would be a fight to the end, a fight for survival itself.

  At dawn the next morning the full complement of the colony assembled and at Stinger’s command walked the short distance up to the walls of the reservoir where they saluted Queen Beetrix and Princess Bebe as they raised the Royal Standard high on the newly built flagpole. “I do not want there to be any doubt.” Beetrix announced. “The enemy will know where I am at all times and whilst my flag flies, I’ll keep fighting to the end.”

  “To the end!” the chorus was echoed from the assembled bees in a massive cheer.

  Tallis broke from his own ranks and flew straight at the leading brigade of attackers. Before any contact was made however, he broke off, turned tail and fled the way he had come. With an audible shout of derision, the enemy force simply increased its pace. Rank upon rank of insects in perfect formation strode confidently forward. There were no bats to come to the rescue this time and no tricky little passageways where their size would be a hindrance. This was to be a battle in the open, a fight they relished.

  Tallis had not fled the scene at all, but at once flew to the reservoir wall upon which his own forces stood and surveyed the massive army before them. At once the young bee plunged his extra long, needle sharp tail into the previously weakened mortar and levered a stone out of position. As he did so his comrades atop the wall moved to the sides. Wiggling and digging, picking and chiselling with his sting, Tallis finally felt the dam wall crack beneath him. The crack became a fissure and the fissure became a split. With the huge weight of hundreds of gallons of water behind it, at last, the wall gave way.

  A huge torrent of water gushed out with incredible force. It plummeted down on to Britney’s army. There was no time to escape the all engulfing flood, it simply swept everything before it. Bodies tumbled and tossed in the maelstrom, twigs and pebbles, caught
up in the surge, crashed into the enemy force, an enemy which only moments ago had believed itself to be invincible.

  The devastation lasted a full thirty minutes and only stopped when the reservoir emptied itself. Of the enemy ranks there remained only drowned bodies, hundreds of them, washed up and discarded as the flood had wrought its terrible toll.

  Not a cheer was raised by Beetrix’s people. What they had witnessed had been too appalling for celebration. Instead they began the work of building up the dam walls again and clearing away the fallen enemy. A huge party of workers was also sent to Britney’s hive in order to reclaim their own pollen and nectar stores and return them to the colony.

  The End of the Tail and the Tale’s End

  Within three days a good repair had been made to the damaged reservoir wall and already a decent amount of water had been channelled into storage. The stores were safely gathered and it seemed, with luck, the colony might yet survive another winter.

  A belated thanksgiving festival was held at which Tallis, once a humble worker of lowly status was married to Princess Bebe. Many a joke was made during the wedding speeches since Tallis’ tail, consisting as it did of a long thorn, had broken off during his exertions on the wall. It now measured half its former length.

  “Now my fellow citizens, thanks to Tallis we can look forward to a peaceful winter cluster.” Queen Beetrix addressed the crowd. “Before we do, however, Tallis and my beloved daughter I hope we emerge to see your first grub. After all, if he’s anything like his father, he’s bound to be a bee to be reckoned with.”