“I think you know,” Vlugh said.


    Now, I was a bee with a powerful Mind. Even beyond that, I had my B-boxes and the CBU to process and comprehend insane amounts of information in times that would make a modern computer jealous. Like, I knew what most of the hive was looking at, thinking, even doing at any given time, even if it was still a bit odd to experience. And yet I found it hard to process exactly what the hell was going on.


    “They…heard…mister…them?”


    “Well…stupid…right?”


    “Yes…”


    The bear, now an adorable panda, was having a fairly unpleasant conversation with the shiny beaver, and we could understand them. At least, in part. Now I knew it wasn’t the distance that obscured their words, they were just indecipherable. The bear growled and roared, as bears tend to do, but through Queen’s ears we could faintly hear the hint of words spoken by a soft-voiced woman lurking underneath. The same was true for the newcomer, the beaver slamming its tail on the ground. Like seriously, this thing was beyond pissed off. At least it sort of explained the dam, though I wasn’t sure a regular beaver should be capable of constructing something as elaborate as the metal-clad beast stemming the river’s flow. It made the strangest noises, some bizarre whimpering hoots and howls, totally unlike what I expected a beaver to sound like. It was chubby and short, and its fur was a shade of brown so shiny it seemed almost metallic. To top things off, its brow was comically prominent, which made it look as pissed off as it sounded.


    Upon noticing the beaver’s cute little angry face, Queen couldn’t stop a giggle from escaping. The bear spun, moving to shield the beaver from us. How adorable. Such nice friends. Still safe outside of the barrier, the beaver only flinched a little bit, but as a testament to the trust it held in the bear’s Ability to keep us contained, it didn’t move an inch. Instead, it just stared at Queen with its angry eyes, whimpering something about ‘stupid.’


    “Greetings, bear. And hello to you too, beaver,” Queen began. “I am-“


    “Now!…kill…stupid…” the beaver shouted without warning.


    “Wait. Human…language…similar…”


    An odd pair they were. Enfla and Follo still watched the bear with trepidation, but the bees, trailing behind, obscured by the bamboo, observed calmly. Queen continued, trying to inch closer towards the bear, but the beaver’s sudden outbursts spooked her into backing off each time. On the bear’s part, its face scrunched in concentration, as if hanging onto Queen’s every word.


    My fears, or maybe they were worries, were unfolding before my very eyes. Vlugh was right. The answer at this point had to be obvious.


    “Vlugh. Did you know about the bear and the beaver that came from the east?” I asked him.


    “Specifically? No. But the eye was clear. You, the Bee’s creature, were not the only one misplaced here.”


    “Why now? You only spilled the beans when you heard we were being attacked. You had to have known it was them somehow.”


    “Not at all,” he said with a toothy grin. “I’ve just been listening to Elofan’s stories.”


    Though they each had a unique accent, I understood some of the bear and the beaver’s words. They were in a language I understood, with behaviors and terms I could relate to. The bear’s Ability had hints of ideas from my world, and the beaver’s dam had a disturbingly modern design compared to what I’d seen here. Maybe I was jumping to conclusions. Maybe I was trusting Vlugh’s word too much. But there was an easy way to find out.


    “Are you from Earth?”


    When Queen spoke those words, both the bear and the beaver shivered in unison. Blissful silence. And solid confirmation. ‘Earth’ meant nothing to the people of this world, and even the fernen were confused. Based on their reactions, the bear had some understanding of the Somuian language, but not much. The beaver, on the other hand, seemed to be totally oblivious. But the word Earth, without translation, could at least be sounded out in English. Now, as far as I could tell, these two creatures - people - weren’t speaking English at all. And yet, we could sort of understand them.


    Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like they were actually ‘speaking’ any discernible language at all. Instead, their voices were the typical animal sounds, and their voices became infused with Mind, conveying their meaning across. It was actually pretty similar to the way us bees communicated, but our methods were entirely based on an intimate Mind connection. It was odd, then, that we could understand them, but only partially.


    “Enfla. Can you feel the Mind these two infuse in their voices?” Queen asked over her shoulder.


    “Of course. But it is not any different from typical conversation. All speech must be infused with Mind, of course. How else would we convey meaning?”


    “Then you can understand them?”


    Enfla stared at Queen. “Certainly not. How would I?”


    “You just said all speech conveys meaning through Mind.”


    “Obviously. But that does not mean I understand what they are saying. I can simply sense the vague feelings they convey, as all creatures do.”


    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    Queen rubbed her temple in frustration. Of course, the fernen relied heavily on Mind to convey meaning in their speech, but it didn’t explain how only we could understand the animals in front of us while they couldn’t. Even the other bees couldn’t understand, although I could just convey the meaning to them at any time. I was just cutting them off from those two at the moment. What we were hearing was more than conveyed feelings, it was conveyed thoughts. Actual words. And as far as I could tell, the words I heard weren’t in Somuian.


    “It seems we understand each other. I am Quee- I am Yelah. We mean you no harm.”


    The bear listened intently before relaying what we understood to be an approximate translation for the beaver. At least, it was conveying the intent. Because it didn’t actually mention a single word Queen said. It was possible the bear had a working understanding of some of the general meaning Somuian words carried, but it didn’t actually understand the language. But if it recognized Somuian, that meant it had been around humans before. Where had they come from? Why were they building a dam?


    Argh! So frustrating. A language barrier like this had an easy solution, but these two were people from my old world. Did that really matter very much? I was inclined to say of course it mattered, but I realized I thought it didn’t make much of a difference. Maybe that was a good thing? It meant I didn’t think lesser of the people here, right? Not that it mattered, because now that Queen didn’t want to Link people willy-nilly, problems like this would continue to arise. We got lucky with the fernen, but this was totally different. They still hadn’t disabled the bear’s Ability, and the bamboo forest was slowly growing thick enough to nearly block the swarm’s path towards the panda. Thick enough to smother them, even. Queen had Linkers hidden under her clothes at all times, so now would be the perfect opportunity to finish this once and for all. They’d just be Linked for a little bit, we would learn everything about them, and we could send them on their way.


    Doing her best not to act too prim and proper, Queen sat on the ground and instructed the fernen to do the same, which they did halfheartedly. Follo especially looked like he wanted nothing more than to jump up and choke the bear out - though he might have some trouble doing so for the bear’s current fluffy form. Enfla was simply baffled.


    Much to the beaver’s - and my - dismay, the bear also sat down after only a moment’s hesitation. As far as I was concerned, Queen was on a ticking timer. The moment the situation changed, if the swarm started getting crushed or if the stuffed bear appeared or something, I was going to knock the panda unconscious and send a Linker to its neck. We knew nothing about these people, but I wasn’t inclined to trust someone from my old world so readily. Sure, they could definitely be some average Joe, landing here without a clue. But they could also be infinitely more dangerous than even the Somuian knights. It was really a toss up between the two in my eyes.


    After all, what if they were anything like me?


    “So. It seems we may have a difficult time understanding each other. You can barely, if at all, understand my language, and I can only hear a fraction of your words,” Queen said, absently drawing in the dirt.


    “Can you speak English?” Queen then asked, the words thick and foreign in her mouth. Internally, she grumbled. The new language was unfamiliar and awkward on her tongue, and she wanted to rub her jaw from the movements she was forced to make. Somuian was already unfamiliar; and although she knew English thanks to my memories, she cursed in our Mind in frustration. Even so, the words were fairly comprehensible, if layered in odd, otherworldly accents and mired in pauses.


    The bear brightened. “English! I…but…try.”


    Hm. Maybe the bear and the beaver were from other countries and didn’t speak my old language. It didn’t affect us at all, since we understood their words, but it didn’t help on their side much. Queen was optimistic, though. Every little bit counted.


    “I will do my best as well. Why did you attack us?”


    “You…human…danger…scared…”


    The conversation continued in that fashion, Queen speaking thick, accented English, pointing and making facial expressions and drawing pictures in the dirt while the bear strained to understand and the beaver muttered angrily in the background. The fernen simply sat, Follo with a look of utter disbelief and concern while Enfla was lost in thought. Occasionally I came back to Vlugh, but he had become tight-lipped once again, as if he knew what was going on and was waiting for something. And I? I was at a loss for what to do.


    “CBU. I know you’ve been quiet for the past few weeks, but this is an important task. I need you to piece together what those two are saying. Can you do that?”


    Until now, the CBU had been nearly dormant beside the tasks it was always carrying out. That was partly my fault. Everything with Queen and Yelah’s body had shown me that the CBU was a tool I couldn’t actually control, something extremely powerful held back only because it didn’t have the capacity to go beyond its means. The current version was, in name only, a weakened version of the old CBU, having less Mind locked to its processes. And that was a huge load. Whether through tiny bits of Mind I afforded it for complex tasks, or through my own growth, or whatever, the CBU’s current form was more advanced than what it had been previously. So really, there was no ‘more powerful’ CBU. This was it. And it felt more like a Mind of its own than just a bunch of tiny instances of our own Mind at work.


    And so, I’d ordered it, firmly, to stop. Stop trying to grow, stop trying to do its own things, stop doing anything unless ordered to. Honestly, I expected it to ignore me, but no. It had quietly powered down, gone idle. Now, though, it was waking up, eager to work. And I kept an eye on it. Queen, as far as I’d seen, was mostly disinterested with the CBU’s inner workings. She saw its value as a tool, and was concerned about it, but she wasn’t on board with my assumptions about it being something to worry about. I hoped she was right.


    “Vlugh. We’re done here.”


    “Excuse me? You must know how important my - our - mission will be. You know the implication behind the appearance of other lost creatures. It is a mandate from the gods. Whatever they are involved in, I don’t really want to be a part of, but we don’t really have a choice.”


    “And why’s that?”


    He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “Because they’re gods?”


    “Exactly. Which is exactly why I want nothing to do with this. Now, Queen will probably make friends with the weird bear and the weird beaver, and they’ll become part of the hive or something like that, but the first chance I get, I’m kicking them and any others like them to the curb.”


    I got up close to his face, my compound eyes reflected in his one.


    “You don’t know anything about the gods. And I won’t say I know much either. What I do know is that because of them, when I was dead… because of them, I’m here. And all they do is cause me grief and freak me the hell out. They’re weird and dangerous, and I don’t want them near my hive. End of discussion.”


    With that, I called my bees to take me away. I had work to do, because new queens weren’t going to birth themselves. And there was no telling how long Queen would take to settle up with her new cuddly forest friends.