Long ago, Anansi was relieved.
“The hornets are not in the caves, they build on the surface!” Obea screamed as Anansi passed through his web portal to the Disc of Sakpata. She threw some of her magic to change the destination of the portal so Anansi wouldn’t have to look too hard for the hornets he sought.
“Good, I’ve never been to the caves’” Anansi said aloud to himself as he started on his journey.
Admittedly, Anansi hadn’t spent considerable time on Sakpata’s Disc and he had no real idea where to find the famed Mmoboro hornets that he had heard of before and admired the structures attributed to them on Agê’s Disc. Once he stood in the rocky mountains, he admired the view around him before he was interrupted by a very faint buzzing noise.
Anansi tried to follow it, he must have lucked out on the location of his portal onto the Disc and was in close proximity to the hornets he sought, but as he moved to try to find the source of the sound, he realized that he was moving away from it and he backtracked. There was no direction that he could walk that would bring him closer to the sound and he stood puzzled in the spot where his portal had opened up before he wrapped it up and put it in a bag. There was nowhere to go but down, but he knew he couldn’t burrow through stone, and the prospect of hiking for an entrance then finding his way back to this spot didn’t seem very promising. Anansi analyzed his surroundings as he pondered.
He was in the overlap between the Discs of Agê and Sakpata that is rocky but there is jungle that grows up through the rocks. The trees that grow in the overlap are extremely sturdy and grey like stone, and the mmoboro hornets who build elaborate structures from wood, use the rocky lumber in their construction.
The mmoboro hornets are responsible for many of the elaborate structures built into the mountains of Sakpata’s Disc. The construction of the mmoboro is usually made to blend with the rocky terrain of the disc so it can be difficult to spot their handy work from a distance, but the intricate patterns in the stone-colored structures are obvious when analyzing them close up, and the interiors have hexagonal rooms and ornamentation.
If Anansi had been aware of these details, he would have seen the subtle indications that he wasn’t standing on rock, but on the sturdy surface of a hive that was buzzing with life and activity that was very faint from the surface. But Anansi was unaware and he didn’t notice the subtle sound of the exterior of the hive cracking and splitting under his sustained weight. It didn’t help that Anansi was stomping around in annoyance, but one of his feet broke through the hive exterior and he fell, causing his entire body to smash through the hive wall and he tumbled into the darkness before he landed on what felt like cushioned ground.
The interior of the nest was much hotter than the surface and Anansi cried as he stood and brushed himself off, clearing dust and parts of the hive that crumbled underneath him. He was in what looked like an uneven corridor, the walls were warped and not exactly parallel and the floor was lumpy and uneven. It wasn’t pitch black inside but dark enough that he had to really look with all of his eyes to see anything. The sound of buzzing intensified just being inside and soon the sound was very loud as he watched a hornet approaching him, its translucent wings flapping so fast that they were a blur. The hornet’s body was larger than Anansi, but he wasn’t intimidated. In his experience, winged insect Fonladers were the easiest to subdue because they were helpless without their wings and they usually panicked when he shot webbing at them. The hornet that approached him waved with one of its hands that had four digits including a thumb. Then it began to sign at Anansi who was surprised that this hornet knew the same sign language that beings of the deep used. It did make sense that verbal speech in the hive would be drowned out by the overwhelming buzz and they would need another means of communication.
Anansi waved and concentrated on the hornet’s hands as it said,
“I came because I heard a commotion. I am in charge of hive maintenance in this sector. Did you crash though the hive exterior?
“I did, yes,” Anansi signed back. “I am very sorry to damage this structure, the integrity of which is most impressive. I hurt myself considerably smashing through at the speeds I traveled. But you all here must have heard me screaming and yelling for my life from miles away, for I was only traveling at speeds fast enough to crash through such a fine and sturdy structure because I was being pursued by a rogue whirlwind from the Disc of Jo that picked up water from the Disc of Agbe and dirt from the Disc of Age that threatens the lives of every mmoboro in this hive.”
“There is a large whirlwind of water and dirt approaching?” The hornet asked and it moved to fly up to the hole that Anansi had fallen through, but Anansi stepped in front of it and he flicked the fingers on two his hands into water formation that caused a torrent of water to come rising in through the hole. “Oh my,” the hornet said and quickly flew away, Anansi ran along the walls of the hive behind it, keeping up with it because of his many limbs that were capable of adhering to any surface at his command.
“I fear that your hive will be flooded,” Anansi said. “Take me to your Queen, I can keep her safe. I blame myself for this calamity and I vow to protect this hive with my life.”
The hornet agreed and Anansi followed it as they both alerted every hornet they saw to the danger that was flooding the hive, and all the while, Anansi exhausted his Divine Essence to produce torrents of water that caused a panic and sent them all rushing to the center of the hive where the queen was ensconced in her reproduction duties.
“What is the meaning of this?” The queen asked angrily as Anansi arrived at her chambers with seemingly every other hornet of the hive.
“Queen Vespa, mother architect of this glorious hive,” the hornet that Anansi first met when he arrived here said humbly with his hands as he floated before her and Anansi dangled from its stinger by his webbing, “our hive is being flooded by a whirlwind that has gained strength across three Discs of the Fonlands. This noble Fonalader with many limbs has promised to save you and then the rest of us.”
Vespa was larger than the other hornets, but she wasn’t distended in pregnancy as one might expect of a queen. She looked mighty and her body was seemingly armored in smooth, gray stone that looked formidable and heavy, though her wings flapped easily to keep her aloft. Despite the intimidating view of her, the water that Anansi continued to summon into her chambers made her panic.
“Well, get me out of here!” she screamed frantically and Anansi didn’t even bother to hide his smirk and cast a portal close to her that she quickly flew through. Anansi was about to pat himself on the back for a trial easily done, but then all of the hornets started to fly through his portal, which he hadn’t anticipated and he had to force his way through to find an extremely angry Obea throwing spells with her hands to subdue the frantic hornets.
“Close the portal you idiot!” Obea screamed and Anansi did, then he used his webbing to subdue as many hornets as he could. When they were all corralled, Obea contained them inside of a clear force field with their Queen buzzing angrily at their center.
“That’s three,” Anansi said through heavy breaths. He had large bumps on his face and limbs where he’d been stung or splashed with the venom of the frantic hornets’ stingers. Obea was unblemished and she laughed at him.
“I am surprised at you,” Obea said with a hint of pride. “You are proving to be your mother’s son. I had expected these trials to be completed with force, but you know your strengths. The tales of your completion of these trials will be legendary, Anansi, you are the true spinner of tales.”
“And what story will they be telling exactly, Luminary Aziza? What will you do with your champions that I have risked life and limb to assemble?”
“They will help to seal away the Death Witches for good,” Obea said confidently, sure that Anansi was helping her keep the entirety of the Fonlands safe forever.
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