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Little Hanna watched the bees and butterflies swarm her garden. She was so happy to see these creatures, mother had explained to her how they were important helpers in the garden. Hanna wished to see more of the bees and the butterflies hence she planted the flowers they loved all over her garden.
The hive near by was buzzing with activity, there was so much honey and pollen everywhere. It was spring and every bee was coated with gold dust from the flowers. Each one came back smelling so different but beautiful and there were loads of food to eat and loads of work to be done. The babies would soon arrive and everyone knew that growing beebies needed more honey.
The queen worked hard at laying eggs in the hive. The worker bees were collecting honey and some were cleaning and sprucing her up for the job. It was the busiest time of the year for the bees and also the happiest one.
It never occurred to anyone to complain about how busy they were or how much work they had to do. They did it all happily, humming, flying back and forth, living each day, accepting the challenges of life as it came. In fact they saw it as their strength and power. The bees helped one another with their waggle dance moves all day long.
Smiles and good cheer went all around. A huge buzz was raised as each batch of babies were born. They raised a toast with some fresh honey still smelling of the perfume from the flowers.
My Bitterbee wasn't exactly elated about the things happening here. He had different views about life in the bee world. He believed that he should have been promoted to the position of the stud drone months ago. He thought of himself as a wise bee and was annoyed with the number of babies produced in the hive.
The queen needed rest and he knew how to care of her. The others were only interested in increasing the population and feeding the humans, that ingrate lot. They never really appreciated the work of the bees, with fire and smoke they drove them away to collect honey from the Hive. Evil humans with a malicious intent. Greed had taken over their souls, Bitter was sure of that. He would never let that happen to himself, he knew it in his heart.
In the garden as he went about collecting nectar, he spoke to the busiest of them all, Chatterer bee. She did more buzzing than collecting nectar and was always happy to have someone to chat with. He looked at her wizened, almost evil face, with kindness as she collected nectar and said, "Oh dear! you are so bent with age, I am sure your back hurts dipping into these flowers to collect as much honey as you do. I've heard that you collect the most and you are the busiest bee around the hive".
Chatterer beamed with pride, no one had ever been this kind to her before. None had appreciated her work ever. She took the opportunity to whine about her delicate state of health. Bitter promised to help her with her work from this day forth, he also assured her of being there for her at all times.
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Each day Bitter would tell Chatterer a little about how oppressive the system was and how they were forced to work for the babies that were birthed endlessly. He then added that if their numbers was reduced they could lead a life of luxury and have more personal time for better things. Bitter also told her about how all their effort was in vain because of the greedy and ungrateful humans. Chatter took advantage of these sessions and lay sunning herself on the flowers as Bitter spoke.
Every day Bitter humored her with fancy gifts and flattery as she rested beside him. He noticed that Chatterer was slowly falling in line with his thoughts as she enjoyed a life of rest and relaxation. He created opportunities for her to speak to the other bees about how things were, soon enough there were more on her side than there were on the queen's.
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With propaganda Bitter had accomplished the task of obliterating all the knowledge the bees had acquired from nature and instinct. All this while he firmly believed that he was doing the hive community a world of good. He ignited fires where he thought their old thoughts had run dry and the ground was parched enough for old ideas to be burned down. These little fires cheerfully spread discord and unease among the disgruntled souls.
Their already frail minds was now injected with hatred and programmed to think only from one perspective. They firmly believed that they had a better understanding of good and evil and they choose good.
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Alas its our frailty not we! For such as we are made of such we be! Source
Provoked the bees burned in anger and hatred against those who were the queen's folks. They believed the queen and her people were imbeciles who could not open their minds to rational thought and ears to strong reason. They were trapped in their ignorance and were doomed to die.
Doomed she was, the queen and her new born babies as they did not have enough royal jelly to sustain them. The large crowd of bees protesting against forced labor grew by the hour. These protestors bullied those who still worked and forcefully stopped them from working. They beat up the store keepers and looted the meager stores of food that was left. They bragged about how strong they were in making the non-conformists conform to their ways and how they made them see the light of reason.
Bitter bee decided that it was the appropriate moment to stage his attack, kill the guards and the queen herself (she needed to go as she still didn't accept reason). He could then become the king. Women had their place in the world, they needed to live like queens, every single one of them. The bee community needed bees of valor and rational thought to rule the kingdom, his enlightened mind told him so There was no malice in his heart, he knew he was doing the bees of the world a huge favor by sacrificing his time and being their king. He would protect their race from forced labor aka slavery. He was sure he would be soon called the savior of the Beedom.
The world would then be the perfect place. He would teach the worker bees the art of living life in comfort and ease. They could perhaps employ machines just as men did, to do their jobs while they relaxed on the sandy white beaches, sipping cold drinks as the warm rays of the sun caressed them gently.
His marveled at his own wisdom, he could not understand why no one else ever thought such noble thoughts as he. Wasn't there any wisdom left in the world, he mused.
After five seasons of failed crops Hanna was still planting flowers in her garden for the bees which they said were now becoming extinct. She hadn't seen any around in a long while. Hope never dies, does it? She would wait forever.
This is my submission for the #pob-wotw .
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