6th Timber. Eastern Courtyard of Central Compound
"Come on, lad! Just walk calmly and they won't sting you!"
"I can't!"
"Look it's perfectly safe, see?"
Bzzt!
"OW! Ok, maybe not. Stay still, and we'll knock a hole through the wall and get you out."
"THEY'LL STING MEEEEE!!"
'Look, just don't panic. You're stuck behind 5 hives full of angry bees, the last thing you want to do now is panic!'
McKiwi sighed. This was getting nowhere fast, although this fiasco wasn't Meng's fault.....for once. These hives were installed by the King, and she'd be damned if she knew how this planter (a new recruit to the beekeeping team) had gotten trapped behind them.\
"Alright folks, you know the drill. You need to get through that wall so we can pull him out of there. And do not drop stones on the beehives, or you'll find out what it's like having an angry swarm of bees stuck in your beard."
"Commander McKiwi!"
McKiwi turned towards the voice to see the self-appointed king of their nation, CaptainArchmage (the third, the first). Hurrying towards her.
Oh what now? Dashing's all very well, but today is just getting ridiculous! Don't we have an overseer to do all this stuff?
"Your highness? What can I do for you?"
"Where are all the new workers?
"What new workers?"
"The new ones from the other fortresses. I gave letters to Meng to be sent out to them, asking for new workers........have they not arrived?"
"Apparently not.....maybe Meng forgot to send your letters out?"
"Forgot?!! I appoint him to rebuild our mountainhome into a suitable capitol for our nation, and he forgets to send the letters he asks me to give him? Don't be absurd.
"Look. We need to find Meng. I've been trying to find him for months now, but he's never around when I'm looking. Let me send out the militia, we'll find him, and make sure everything's going fine. In the meantime, I've got a dwarf to rescue, so if you'll excuse me..."
"Very well. Find my Master Architect and sort out this mess. The last thing we need is another abandoned monstrosity around the place......"
Onomatopoeia of extreme buzzing/stinging action!
"AAAAAAIEEEEE!!!"
"Hang in there! We'll get you out!......erm....how did he get back there anyway?"
McKiwi turns to a hammerdwarf who has been standing guard in the Square
"Vaulted over the hives after smoking them, sir, just like you did last week. Think he had a bet going with someone. Then he grabbed a few frames for one of the new hives and realised he couldn't vault back. Quite a look on his face when he noticed that, sir. Then he dropped a frame and well......you know the rest. I don't think he'll be wanting to keep on beekeeping after this."
"I'll bet. I'll have to hold some proper classes if people are going to keep trying to copy that....also I'm a "commander" or a "Ma'am", not a "Sir", soldier.
"Sorry commander."
"Eh, everyone does it, and you're fairly new to the squads. Just don't do it again. Now then, let's see how this rescue goes.....it's not usually the dashing thing to do, but I don't suppose anyone's opened a book......."
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Three! That's three times McKiwi's been stung by bees! Ah ha ha.
I do have another part to this bit of plot planned, which I'll do later today...either by editing this post, or by writing a new post if anyone replies before then. At this stage we'll catch up with Meng. I'm sure he's doing just fine.
Edit: Fixed stuff!
Edit2: Changed the color of the hammerdwarves' lines. Sorry if it's less readable, but I'm avoiding putting it too close to the colors I use for named dwarves if I can avoid it.