It had been two weeks since the new queen bee had taken over the charge of her hive, called Rampalinca, and she had certainly been enjoying this sovereignty.

She occupied the largest cell in the honeycomb and was the only one in the entire kingdom to be presented the ‘royal jelly’ to feed upon. This special feed had made her grow visibly bigger, more beautiful and prominent than the rest of the bees. In fact, anyone could easily spot her by just observing her appearance. But being the queen not only meant enjoying different privileges, it also meant that she was solely responsible for laying eggs, as many as two thousand a day! Besides, she also had to keep an eye on the worker bees and ensure the safety of her kingdom.

The worker bees had built Rampalinca very skilfully on a mahogany tree in the world’s largest rainforest Amazon, and if you ever had a chance to look at Rampalinca, you would simply be awestruck by its huge size and grandeur. There were three entrances which were well-guarded and the ‘guard bees’ were always on the watch for any invaders. Every morning the ‘field bees’ left the hive to collect nectar in order to make honey and would fly several kilometres in search of the best quality nectar.

On the fifteenth day, the queen bee, as usual, laid about a thousand eggs in the morning and then had a meeting with her courtiers, who briefed her on the different state affairs and after the lunch, she got ready to visit the eastern part of the hive to see how things were going on there.

There was an unusually loud buzz around the hive and the guard bees started circling the hive just as they do when there is a danger. The captain declared an emergency as Bablu, the notorious bear, was standing right below the branch of the tree

One of her courtiers helped her wear the majestic cloak that had been decorated with exotic embellishments. She did not forget to put the crown made of pollen grains on her head and looked proudly in the mirror.

At that very moment, a house bee entered into the royal cell, bowed and said, “Your highness, the courtiers await to escort you to the eastern territories and show you work progress.”

Turning away from the mirror, the queen replied, “Very well then, let’s go.”

Like a flash of light and with an escort of four house bees, she was there, inspecting the cells where she had laid the eggs a week ago. To her utmost delight, the eggs had hatched into larvae and were being taken care of by the ‘nursing bees’.

Then she moved to check the cells where nectar had been stored and ordered the house bees, “There is still plenty of water content in the nectar which needs to be evaporated. Wait for three more days and when the nectar becomes viscous enough, cap the cells with wax.”

The house in-charge bee bowed and replied, “Your highness, your orders will be carried out very precisely.”

Inspecting the empty cells, the queen said disgustfully, “These cells should be cleaned by tomorrow before the field bees arrive. We’ll need plenty of clean empty cells to store the fresh nectar that will be brought tomorrow.”

She then headed towards the entrance of the hive, where she watched the guard bees performing their duty assiduously.

The captain of the guard bees approached and saluted her, “It is such a pleasure to see your majesty here. We caught two spy bees today who were up to no good. They have been locked up.”

This certainly made the queen happy and she gave the captain a pat as a gesture of appreciation.

At that very moment, there was an unusually loud buzz around the hive and the guard bees started circling the hive just as they do when there is a danger. The captain declared an emergency as Bablu, the notorious bear, was standing right below the branch of the tree on which the hive was built and obviously he had come to destroy Rampalinca in lust of honey.

The Queen shouted in her shrill voice, “Captain, take all your guards and attack the enemy from all directions. The time has come to prove your loyalty and teach that beer a bitter lesson.”

The captain divided her army into two squads and commanded in her grave voice, “Squad Alpha, attack from the front. Squad Charlie, attack from the back.”

Only a moment later, Bablu’s screams could be heard even by the hawks flying high above in the sky as each of the two squads attacked him, making an arrow formation and stung him on his back and on his face and all over his body. Bablu waved his forelimbs in the air blindly so as to hit the bees, but all his attempts went in vain. His body was burning with thousands of stings and he was madly stomping his feet. All he could do to save his dear life was to flee into the jungle.

The guard bees followed him to a spring where he jumped in to get rid of the bees and the burning pain. It was now time for the Rampalincans to rejoice; and they danced and sang with triumph:

“We join our hands, to save our land.

In the face of danger, united we stand.”

And there was a gleam of pride in the queen bee’s eyes.

Published in Dawn, Young World, March 30th, 2019