Ep 1: Golden Harvest, Surfing Wind and Moonlight

In the heart of a giant oak tree over 300 years old, deep in a dense primeval forest untouched by humans, the most perfect geometrical structure on earth, a hexagonal golden kingdom, was breathing brilliantly. The regular hexagonal wax walls are nature's greatest mathematical masterpiece. Tens of thousands of hexagonal chambers were created by worker bees removing pieces of white waxy scales from the four pairs of glands on their abdomen, chewing them with their large jaws, mixing them with salivary gland enzymes, and gently kneading them. The walls were placed at a perfect angle of 120 degrees without a single millimeter of wasted space, boasting amazing structural elasticity and durability.

The elaborate 'Maraldi Rhombus' structure, which consists of three interlocking rhombuses that form the floor, easily withstood the heavy load of up to 30 times as much honey with minimal beeswax consumption, and the wall thickness was maintained at a uniform, error-free thickness of exactly 0.073 millimeters. In each room, clear and transparent wild flower honey collected while traveling through the forest since last spring was flowing, exuding a fragrant scent like amber jewels, and it was filled in an orderly manner with nutritious anther dumplings made by kneading fresh pollen with saliva.

In the center of the kingdom, 3,000 worker bees were gently trembling their chest muscles, maintaining the perfect incubation temperature of 34 degrees Celsius, 365 days a year, without any error, and in the larval room, white new life that had just awakened was munching on golden royal jelly. At the entrance of the hive, worker bees in charge of ventilation lined up and fanned their wings fiercely, operating a perfect natural air conditioning system that blew the fresh phytoncide night air of the forest deep into the hive. Around midnight. As the silver full moon rose above the forest and began pouring a shower of brilliant moonlight through the lush oak leaves, a sleek and imposing bee warrior appeared above the flight deck at the entrance to the hive.

Behero. It was a young worker bee with vivid golden and jet-black ebony stripes crossing like lightning from head to belly. The downy fur that covered his torso was so thick and shiny that not a single dewdrop was on it, and the large three-layered single eye on the top of the head, which sensed the polarized light of sunlight and moonlight, and the left and right compound eyes, made up of thousands of single eyes, were reading minute changes in air currents in the night sky with the precision of a hawk's eye. Beheroes were different from ordinary worker bees. Unlike most worker bees who only move under the hot daytime sun, he was the squadron leader of the 'Moonlight Search Squadron' that chased the mysterious and clear nectar of nocturnal nectar plants blooming in the cool night air.

“Behero Squadron Leader! Are you really planning on going ahead with the sortie tonight?” From the flight deck railing, an experienced Senior Scout Organ approached with his antennae trembling. The tips of his old wings were slightly worn from long flights, but his sense of reading the air currents of the forest was the keenest in the kingdom.

“Senior Organ, why are you doing this? Did you notice any problems with the weather tonight?” Behero asked, lightly shaking off two pairs of transparent wings. “The barometer and humidity sensor are extremely unstable. The wind blowing across the valley north of the forest smells particularly cool and ominous. The temperature is dropping faster than usual, and a thick fog is covering the valley below. The rule is to stay inside the hive on nights like this to conserve body heat.” Hearing Organ's sincere advice, Behero smiled calmly and lightly rubbed his leg joints and antennae.

“Thank you for your concern, sir, but the evening primroses and wild bellflowers blooming under the rocky cliffs of the southern valley will open their clear honey wells under the moonlight for just a few hours tonight. This pure nocturnal liquor, which can only be collected during the cool midnight dew, is the best and most irreplaceable nourishment for the larvae in the nursery. If this golden nectar is not collected tonight, there will be clear milk for the three hundred young larvae that will hatch tomorrow morning. It becomes insufficient.”

“I am well aware of your loyal sense of duty. However, the night wind is on a different level from the daytime air current. Once caught in a whirlpool, it is easy to lose your sense of direction and crash into a tree branch.” “Don’t worry, senior. The wind is a solid wall to those who defy it, but it becomes powerful wings to those who ride it. If we adjust the angle of our wings to the waves of the air current without trying to go against it, the night wind becomes the fastest highway that takes us to our destination in an instant.” Organ sighed in admiration and nodded at Behero's unwavering confidence.

“As expected of you. I can see why Captain Stinger cares for and trusts you so much. Please take care of yourself. Make the safety of your squadron your top priority.” “I will keep this in mind, Senior Organ. I will return safely with a bountiful golden harvest.” The behero walked to the edge of the flight deck. After that, squadron worker bee Ama approached with a nervous expression.

“Flight leader! We are ready for sortie. We have finished cleaning the hind leg flower pots and completely emptied the honey sac.” “Okay, I guess. We’ll have to ride the rough gusts in the southern valley tonight. Don’t panic and follow close behind me.” “I understand! I won’t miss the flight leader’s flight trajectory!” Behero spread his wings wide at the end of the flight deck. humming-! The refreshing and clear hum created by the fierce wings beating 230 times per second shattered the silence of the night. The behero vigorously bounced his leg muscles and soared into the air.

Shuuuuk! The moment it flew through the branches like lightning and soared above the forest canopy, the huge night wind current in the night sky rushed in like a huge wave. The cold northwest wind beat fiercely against the surface of the wings. Ordinary insects would have been swept away by strong wind pressure and crashed into tree branches or plummeted to the ground. But Behero was different. He did not compete with the wind. Like a skilled surfer riding a wave, he glided through the valley of the air current, tilting his wings at a 45-degree angle against the back of the wind. A dizzying and elegant aerobatic flight that involves finely adjusting the left and right wings' angles in 0.01 millisecond increments to catch the rapidly rising air currents and performing 180-degree barrel rolls while riding the waves of cold wind blowing from the valley!

For B-Hero, the night wind was not a fearful barrier, but a vast silver sea where he could run around and cut through the waves to his heart's content. “Be-Hero Squadron Leader! The speed is too fast! The wind keeps pushing the wings!” Behind him, a flight member, Ama, staggered, breathing heavily.

“Maybe! Relax your wings! Instead of trying to force the wind away, surrender yourself to the ridge of air illuminated by moonlight! Let the eddies of air that touch the leading edge of your wings flow to the tips of your wings! Feel the buoyancy of the air lifting you up!” Following Behero's calm wireless telepathic instructions, Ama relaxed her wings and conformed to the flow of air. Then, the strong wind, as if it were a lie, began to gently push her forward instead of throwing her roughly.

“Wow... Oh my! I really feel lighter! The wind is pushing me!” “That’s right! That’s the skill of riding the waves of the night wind. Now, descend to the southern valley!” Behero smiled cheerfully and spread his wings toward the evening primrose colony in the southern valley of the oak forest. Purple wild bellflowers and pure white evening primroses in full bloom under the moonlight were covered in night dew and giving off a soft and refreshing scent. Behero landed lightly on the largest and most desirable purple petal. He firmly grasped the fine velvet villi on the surface of the petal with the hooks at the end of his legs and pushed the long snout (snow tube) on the front of his head into the nectary gland deep inside the petal.

The sweet and cool natural honey of wild flowers flowed down his esophagus and into his honey sac. Unlike the rich and heavy honey provided by flowers during the day, evening primrose honey at night had a refreshing feeling like mint and a clear refreshing feeling like lemon. At the same time, Behero was busy moving the pollen basket (pollen basket) on his hind legs. It skilfully scraped up the nutritious pollen that was like snowflakes on the down of its body as it brushed the flower petals with its front and middle legs, mixed it with saliva and honey, shaped it into two round, hard golden balls, and fastened them tightly to its hind legs.

It was a heavy and brilliant harvest worth half of his small body weight. “Flight leader, I also filled up my flower pot! This evening primrose pollen has a really sweet scent and the particles are fine!” Ama cheered as she saw a lump of golden pollen on her hind legs.

“Today’s harvest is better than expected, probably. At this level, three hundred young larvae surviving the winter can eat royal jelly in abundance for several days.” At that time, a nocturnal firefly, fluttering blue light as it flew among the grass, came near the flower petal.

“Bee friends, you’d better hurry home tonight.” The firefly whispered, blinking its soft light. “Did something happen, Firefly?” Behero raised his antennae and asked. “Black shadows were wandering on the rocky cliffs of the northern valley. The scent of the vicious invasion pheromones of those vicious wasps was mingling with the scent of the forest sap. The night air in the forest was unusual.” Behero's compound eyes narrowed at the firefly's warning.

“Thank you for letting me know. I will tell my brothers to remain vigilant.” “Be careful, little wings. I don’t think the peace will last long.” The firefly disappeared into the darkness. Behero inspected the flower pots on his hind legs again and sent a signal to Ama.

“There is probably no time to waste. Return to the hive immediately before the wind gets stronger!” “Yes, flight leader!” The two bees, full of pollen, returned at full speed to the hive in the giant oak tree, riding the waves of the night wind. Upon arriving at the hive entrance flight deck, Behero began performing the legendary 'Waggle Dance' while hundreds of fellow worker bees watched. A wonderful biological language that calculates the angle of the moon based on the direction of gravity on a vertical wall of wax and moves straight ahead while violently shaking the abdomen left and right 15 times per second, then turns in a semicircle and vibrates again in the opposite direction!

Each of his gestures conveyed the exact coordinates of the wind strength and evening primrose colony at 850 meters in the southern valley as perfect mathematical data. “At 850 meters in the southern valley, the nocturnal honey spring is wide open under the moonlight!” The worker bees cheered and smelled the pollen on the behero's body with their antennae. Hearing the commotion, the kingdom's benevolent mother, Queen Bee Melissa, approached in person, escorted by her royal maid bees.

“Good job, my proud winged behero.” The queen bee gently stroked Behero's forehead with her affectionate antennae. “The golden dew and pollen you collected tonight have saved the young new lives of our kingdom from starvation.” “It is a natural duty for the kingdom and the Queen. However, Queen, an ominous omen has been detected in the northern valley. There has been word that scouting traces of wasps have been detected.” The queen bee's expression became solemn upon hearing the behero's report.

“The power to protect oneself must be prepared in times of peace. Reinforce guard duty and thoroughly inspect the defenses of the outer wall.” “I will keep that in mind, Queen.” Behero stood alone at the end of the flight deck and looked up at the round full moon in the night sky. The cool night breeze gently tickled my antennae. This peaceful daily life of collecting honey and cultivating a perfect hexagonal nest with colleagues. That was the supreme happiness of the kingdom that the little wings had to sacrifice their whole lives to protect. However, Behero did not yet know that on the other side of that peace, in the deepest darkness of the forest, the shadow of a gigantic monster covered in bloody flesh was quietly sharpening its fangs.