Berry, Mustard, and Pepper

The flower—if it was a flower—was unlike anything Berry had seen before. It had no petals, and consisted of two leaves sitting across from each other. Each leaf was bright red on the topside and lined with long, narrow spines. Or were they teeth?

Could plants have teeth? They could be a type of thorn, Berry supposed. She wished Blade were here. The wizened mantis seemed to have answers for almost everything, as his vast eyesight and slow, observant demeanor allowed him to notice things a busy bee did not.

But Blade wasn’t here. Berry would have to investigate this all on her own.

She swooped down low to the mysterious flower and found it smelled sweet, better than even the finest nectars and fruits she’d laid antennae on. The lovely aroma lured her down further until she had landed on the strange, smooth red sides of the leaf, where she found tiny droplets of nectar waiting for her. She took a sip of one.

It was good. Not as great as the scent made it out to be, but not an awful snack either. Satisfied with this venture, Berry turned to leave and, unbeknownst to her, brushed against two tiny hairs sticking up from the leaves.

Before she knew it, the plant was snapping shut with terrifying speed. The spines were teeth, and they were closing in, trapping her inside!

Berry squeaked in alarm and clambered towards the light, only to find herself wedged in the plant’s disguised maw. She had been fast, but not quite fast enough.

Terrified, she kicked and flailed, and beat her wings rapidly to escape, but this was only making things worse, for the venus flytrap is a wily plant.

As Berry flicked more of its prey-sensing hairs, it clamped down harder, and began preparing its mixture of digestive acids to dissolve the bones from its meal. Had she sat still, the plant may have been fooled into thinking it was a false alarm, as it could only tell when it had caught prey by counting the number of disturbances to its prey-sensors. Though this wouldn’t have been a foolproof plan, as she would have to wait for nightfall to be released.

While Berry was not aware of any of this, she was aware that the trap was clamping down and holding her fast, and that her hind feet were beginning to burn and sting.

She tried to sting the plant, but of course, that didn’t work. Her next plan was gnawing away the spines, but this had hardly been put into action before a complication arose.

The sound of buzzing wings was steadily drawing closer. Berry looked up, hoping to see a fellow bumblebee, but saw only a sleek, ant-like shape flying towards her. The flight path was crooked and wobbly, as if a strong current were pushing the flying predator to and fro, but that hardly mattered. Berry was trapped. That wasp could be the most weak and sickly bug in the world and she would have no way of defending herself in this state.

This was it.

She was going to die.

Berry watched in horror as the sleek carnivore careened straight for her. She had just enough time to brace herself before it crashed into her with such tremendous speed that she was both freed from the flytrap and flung backwards. The duo wheeled through the air and crashed in a heap some distance away, at the bottom of a vast flowerbed.

As Berry scrambled to free herself from the wasp’s legs, the distinct, sour smell of fermented drink reached her nose. Immediately, Princess Twig’s voice rasped in her ear: “One of Nature’s sneakiest poisons!”

Although she suspected the wasp would be too drunk to put up any fight, Berry’s attempts to muscle her way to safety failed. The wasp clung on like a mite, giggling madly, but otherwise showing no indication of stinging or biting.

“Ohohoho! Wheehehehe! What a rush! You were about to be gobbled up, bee-juice! And here comes me, whoosh!”

“Yes, I’m very grateful,” Berry said, equal parts relieved and frustrated, “Will you let me go now?”

“Ah, boo! You bees, boring bugs, can’t have any fun can you?” the wasp loosened her grip as she began trying to right herself, “Now which way is up? The world’s spinning.”

“I don’t know, up is up,” Berry said. She finally freed herself from the predator’s uncoordinated legs and gave herself a quick brushing. She’d need to spend the rest of her foraging trip bathing or she’d be whipped by the guards for unprofessional conduct. Even the smell of fermentation on you would have them lecturing her for a season.

Just as she prepared to fly away, a shadow cast over her. It was another wasp, and this one was perfectly sound of mind.

“Mustard!” the wasp snapped, “I told you that flippin’ bee was too much for you to hunt like this!”

Berry immediately hurried away, but the wasp chased after her.

Mustard piped up before the hunt could last long. “Oh, but Pepper, that’s my buddy!”

Pepper hesitated, and thinking quickly, Berry added, “Yes, it’s really very, uh, strange. Here I was, about to die, but then she starts going on. Tells me stories, a-about hornetbees…”

“Hornetbees?” Mustard said. A tense pause later, she continued, “So you want to hear about hornetbees, is that it? Can we tell the story? Can we, Pepper?”

“No!” Pepper snapped, “Look at what you did! You can’t keep talking to prey, then we can’t hunt it!”

“Why not?”

“It’s improper. What sort of weirdo strikes up a conversation with something they plan to kill and eat? Eh? Do I look weird to you?”

Mustard giggled. “Eheh, well I don’t know if I should answer.”

“Nature and Fire, what am I going to do with you, Mustard?” Pepper shook her head, then turned to Berry. “Well, then. Consider yourself lucky that it’s all worked out for you, bee.”

“Don’t you know?” Mustard said, “We’re rich! All the caterpillars you can eat, the most delicious, fattening lymph in the forest!”

Berry was about to attempt a polite reply, but was spared at the last moment.

“Ignore her,” Pepper snapped, “I mean, she is right, which is why you and I are gabbing it up instead of fighting, just—ignore the way she’s acting. Now flap off!”

Berry didn’t need to be told twice. She flew away as fast as her wings could carry her and sheltered inside a blooming flower to collect her thoughts.

Nearly eaten by that weird toothy plant and by a wasp in the same trip?! Was she lucky or unlucky?

No, it could be worse, she decided. An assassin fly could have happened upon her. Those long legged, needle faced menaces were skilled at taking down bees and wasps of all sizes.

Berry figured that she may as well collect some nectar while she was sitting in a flower, and gathered a little over half a bellyful. It would hardly be enough to fill up a honeypot, but she was certain her explanation of the morning’s events would make up for it.