Lessons in Beekeeping

April 2002 Challenge
Write a story including the following words
hives
salves
fever
bandages
honey
and the line "I'm sorry, there's nothing more I can do. It's up to the gods now."

"Herc?"

"Yeah?"

"Hives!"

"What?"

"Look - hives."

"Iolaus, what are you talking about?"

"Gods, Herc. Are you blind or something? Over there, see? By that big old pine tree - hives."

"Iolaus?"

"Hives, Herc. As in bzzzz, bzzzz, bzzzz. As in the best honey around. Come on!"

"Ah, that kind of hives. Why didn't you say so in the first place? Hey, Iolaus, wait up!"

There were five hives in all, clustered around the edge of a clearing in the woods. Even from a distance Hercules could hear the steady drone of the bees as they went about their day's work.

"Iolaus? What are you planning? These hives must belong to someone."

"Maybe." Iolaus shrugged and continued to jog towards the hives and the honey he knew they contained.

"You can't just take their honey Iolaus." Hercules said, beginning to feel exasperated at his buddy's easy ability to ignore unpleasant facts.

Iolaus stopped moving, Hercules nearly mowing him down because of the suddenness in his change of pace.

"You're right Herc. It's just..." Iolaus' face took on a wistful air and he sighed, "I haven't had any really good honey for the longest time. This place is perfect for a hive." Iolaus noticed the bemused expression on his partner's face and sighed.

"Okay Herc. Lessons in beekeeping. Lesson one. Take a deep breath, what do you smell?" Iolaus was secretly pleased that he'd found something he could teach Hercules.

Hercules frowned in concentration and wrinkled up his nose, trying to decipher all the scents that were assailing him. "Pine sap."

"Yeah, what else?"

"Um, grass that's still wet from that shower last night."

"Yes Herc, but what else."

Hercules just frowned.

"Oh, come on Herc, you can do better than that. Have a good sniff, what else is there?"

Hercules sniffled into the air reminding Iolaus of a rabbit, he valiantly suppressed his giggles not wanting to distract Hercules.

"Oh, Lavender! How did I miss that?"

"I don't know Herc, how did you miss that? Yes, lavender and do you know what that's really good for?"

"It's a great antiseptic, and it sweetens the air inside a house, you can make tea with it, bathe with it, you can make pillows with it, it's said to soothe your sleep, it's good for a headache..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. What's it really good for?"

Hercules just shrugged, not understanding what Iolaus was getting at.

"Making honey!"

"I don't understand."

Iolaus smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand, "Okay, little bees right? Buzz, buzz, buzzing, right?" Iolaus paused to ensure that Hercules was listening, Herc just nodded. "Right! So, out they come from the hive all hungry and full of buzz."

Hercules sniggered, "Full of buzz?"

"Yeah, full of buzz. So what do they do? They look for the tastiest dinner, like us finding the best spot to fish, right?"

"Right."

"But with bees it's flowers they're looking for, so what do they do? They have a good sniff. Buzz, buzz, sniff. And what do they sniff?"

"Lavender!"

"Give the man a prize! Yes, Lavender, and they think to themselves, 'Mmmm, buzz, buzz, that smells like dinner.' and they buzz off to the lavender and gorge themselves."

Iolaus stood with a smug smile on his face and hands on hips looking up at Hercules as if to say, 'there, that explains everything'.

"But what does that have to do with honey?"

"Herc! Haven't you been listening? Look, bees that feed entirely on one food produce honey that's flavoured by that food. It's a bit like meat, I mean we all know the best and tenderest rabbit is the one that's been eating the sweetest grass. See?"

Hercules nodded, and then frowned, "But...?"

Iolaus threw up his hands in exasperation, "Sometimes, Herc, sometimes I wonder if you do it on purpose, but then I think, nah, he's Hercules, he's the hero who's painfully honest, he's my 'best' friend, he'd never do that! So. Bees. Lavender. Great honey. Got it?"

Hercules grinned, "Got it! So, do we go find the owner of these hives and ask if we can have some honey or do we get back on the road?"

Iolaus giggled, "Is the world flat? Is Ares bad-tempered? Of course we go find the owner Herc! Haven't you listened to a word I said? Come on!"

It didn't take them long to find a small cabin not far from the hives and situated on the edge of an open field filled with lavender. Both men unconsciously took several deep breaths and sighed. They could feel all the tensions that they hadn't even realised were there, drain away.

The cabin was cosy with a small flowerbed at the front and a herb garden to one side. Iolaus knocked on the door as Hercules looked about him. They didn't have to wait long before the door was answered. You couldn't quite describe the woman standing before the two heroes as a little old lady but it wasn't far wrong, she was small, tiny in fact. Iolaus towered over her. Her hair was speckled with grey and there were lines on her face, but you could never call her old. Her grey eyes danced with too much mischief to ever call her old, and her handshake was firm and strong.

It was almost as if she'd been expecting them, she shook their hands and hurried them inside before they knew what was happening. "Come in boys, quickly now, you haven't got all day I'm sure. Two strong warrior types like you, I'll bet you've got lots of important things to do."

Hercules smiled warmly, he'd taken an instant liking to this strange woman. "Well yes we are on our way to Thrace for some important negotiations."

"Negotiations?" The woman winked at Iolaus, "You look more like men of action than talk! Now then, I suppose you'll be here to ask for some of my honey?"

Iolaus nodded, enraptured by this tiny person who was even fuller of energy than he was. "We spotted your hives, they're in a good position to make some tasty honey."

Gesturing for the men to sit, their host made herself comfortable in a chair near the window. From outside they could hear the soft drone of the bees.

"You look like a man who knows a thing or two about bees, young man."

Iolaus grinned, "I know some. I've always loved honey, there was a man who kept bees when I was a kid, he'd let me have some honey in return for helping him."

"Well then, you won't have any trouble gathering some honey for yourself, will you. What about your friend here?"

Iolaus and Hercules exchanged an amused glance and spoke simultaneously,

"I'll be fine..."

"I'll show him what to do."

Hercules raised an eyebrow, "More lessons in beekeeping?"

Their host smiled and nodded as if satisfied, "Well then boys, you'd better go get yourselves some honey!"

"But, what do you want in payment? We can't just take your honey."

"Yes we could Herc." Iolaus muttered too quietly to be heard, "We asked first didn't we?"

"There's nothing I need my dear. I have no use for money and as you can see I have everything I could want right here."

Hercules couldn't accept the gift as it was offered though, he knew that even if Iolaus didn't feel guilty, Hercules would feel enough guilt for the both of them. "I noticed that your gate is hanging off its hinges, and the wall is crumbling. We could fix those things for you at least. Please let us help you."

"Well." The beekeeper was taken aback at Hercules' need to pay for the honey. "If you're sure?"

Iolaus grinned and nodded, "We're sure. A bit of hard work never hurt and it wouldn't be right to just take the honey."

"But you didn't 'just take the honey' you asked for it."

Hercules noticed a strange expression cross the bee keepers face but dismissed it from his mind. It must have been a trick of the light.

The chores didn't take long, even though Hercules kept finding new things for them to do, and they were soon back in the clearing by the hives. Iolaus bent and started gathering wood.

"What are you doing Iolaus?"

"Lesson number two Herc. Bees are like people, they don't like it when strangers invade their homes and take their property, they defend themselves."

"They sting."

"Right. So we need to relax them, set them off to sleep so we don't get stung."

"I don't mind a few bee stings."

"Hercules! You can't ... haven't you ever been stung by a bee?"

"Umm, no, don't think so."

Iolaus shook his head, "Just because you're a demigod Herc, it doesn't mean to say that a bee sting couldn't be ... well ... it could..."

Iolaus had gone pale and Hercules put a hand on his shoulder in concern, "Iolaus? What's wrong?"

"The sting of a bee can kill a person Hercules. Most people recover without any trouble. I've been stung lots of times and I was fine, but... I don't know why but sometimes, with some people, they react badly, sometimes they die - just from one little sting. So, you do what I say all right?" Iolaus' voice had become hoarse, if Hercules didn't know better he would have said that his friend was fighting off tears. He squeezed his buddy's shoulder and agreed to do anything Iolaus said.

"Okay, so we're making the bees sleepy, like a burglar making sure the man in the house is fast asleep and snoring before he goes inside. It doesn't mean the guy won't wake up but it at least improves the odds."

"How do we make the bees sleepy?"

"Smoke. We build a fire upwind of them, ideally with green wood so that it smokes a lot. When the hives are full of smoke we should be able to go in and get some honey. But you must remember to make no sudden moves okay?"

"Yes, master." Hercules said grinning.

The fire was smoking nicely and Iolaus watched the bees carefully to see their response. Everything was to his satisfaction so he turned to his pack and pulled out a wad of bandages. Hercules watched as his partner started winding the bandages around his head.

"Um, Iolaus? Lesson three?"

Iolaus stopped his winding, both arms over his head holding the bandages, the bottom of his face was covered and his eyes looked out over the bandages and twinkled up at his partner. "You think I've finally gone don't you? Mad, mad as Deimos. But hey, you wouldn't walk into Aphrodite's temple stark naked would you? It would be too much like tempting fate, or 'Dite in this case, but you know what I mean." Iolaus' voice was muffled through the bandage but Hercules could still hear the teasing tone.

"Don't 'you' get any ideas. I don't think Hephaestus would approve!"

"All right. You are such a party pooper sometimes. Well, as I was saying we might have made the bees sleepy but they can still sting you. If a bee stings you on the face it can be very nasty so you protect your face as best you can. You mustn't let a bee sting you on the mouth or nose Herc. It's very important that you don't let any fly into your mouth either."

"Like I would!"

"You'd be surprised Herc. Trust me on this, put up with the bandages, you can breathe through them but you can't breathe through the swelling from a bee's sting. We can't cover our eyes, but just be really careful, a sting on the eye is pretty unpleasant."

Iolaus finished wrapping his head in bandages and Hercules couldn't help laughing, his friend looked like a mummy that hadn't quite worked out how to be a mummy. He stopped laughing when Iolaus started putting the bandages round his own head. He felt hot already from the fire, but now he felt claustrophobic and his breath was moistening the bandages making him feel like he was drowning in a hot spring. Iolaus slapped his back to let him know that the bandages were in place and he stood up and started towards the hives. Nodding at the muffled "Be careful." that came from Iolaus, Hercules gently pulled up the first hive's roof.

He could hear Iolaus humming to himself as he worked at his own hive. Nice as honeycomb was they were after the pure honey, the bee keeper had given them a couple of jars to hold the honey and as Iolaus carefully held up his first honeycomb he smiled as the golden viscous liquid started to drip into the container. This honey was ready for taking, and the sweet scent told him it would be well worth the effort.

"Ouch!"

Iolaus turned to his friend and said, "Hey! You're stealing my lines! Herc? What happened?"

Hercules didn't answer, he was looking closely at his right hand. "Herc? Did you get stung?"

Iolaus dropped his honeycomb and ran over to Hercules who was shaking his hand as if that would stop the stinging. Iolaus pulled Hercules away from the hives and taking hold of the demigod's hand with his own, he pulled out his knife with his free hand.

Hercules eyed him suspiciously, "What are you doing Iolaus?"

"Lesson number four, or is it five?" Iolaus said cheerfully, trying to hide the panic that was trying to beat its way out of his chest. "You have to get the stinger out as quickly as possible, like ... so!"

As he spoke Iolaus scraped his knife over the wound and triumphantly held it's blade up for Hercules to see the stinger.

"Did you need to take so much of my skin too Iolaus?" Hercules was looking a little like he might be sick so Iolaus quickly unwrapped the bandages from his friend's head, just in case.

Hercules turned his face into the breeze and sighed, "Thanks Iolaus, that was getting uncomfortable."

"Okay Herc. Now," Iolaus rummaged around in his pack and came out with a small pot, "rub some of this salve onto the sting, and sit there while I finish collecting the honey."

Hercules did as he was told and sat and watched as Iolaus deftly filled both jars with honey. He breathed a big sigh of relief when his friend was sitting beside him on the fallen log unwinding the bandages from his head. "You didn't get stung too did you?"

Iolaus grinned for a moment, "Nope." then his face turned serious, "Now Herc, I mean it when I say that you must tell me if you start feeling strange at all in the next few days."

"How do you mean strange?" Hercules said, he was worried by the intensity of Iolaus' words and by the tight grip the hunter had on his uninjured hand.

"Strange, different, extra tired. Tell me if you get a fever, tell me if you feel short of breath. Just anything that isn't the normal demigodly thing for you, okay?"

Hercules shrugged and nodded, "Sure." Then he winced as Iolaus' grip tightened even further.

"That's not good enough Herc. You still don't get how important this is do you? If you react to that sting you could die, maybe being the son of Zeus can protect you, but it's no guarantee. And I'll tell you, it isn't a nice way to go." Iolaus lapsed into silence, his thoughts miles away from the clearing and Hercules.

"Want to tell me about it?"

Iolaus ran his hands through his hair, which was sticking to his head because of the heat and the bandages. "I wish we'd never seen those damn hives, why do I still have to have such a sweet tooth."

"Hey, Iolaus, come on. I'll be fine, you'll see. You don't 'know' that I'll react badly, so don't act like it's a done deal. come on Iolaus." Hercules lightly cuffed his partner on the arm, "Now talk."

Iolaus looked up at his friend and silently berated himself for putting Hercules in danger unnecessarily, fiddling with the bandages in his hand he said. " 'I'm sorry, there's nothing more I can do. It's up to the gods now.' that's what the healer said. He didn't really care though; it was only a street kid, no real loss to society. The kid was younger than me by a couple of years, your age Herc. His name was Andros, and okay so he was a street kid, but so was I back then. He wasn't a bad kid. Anyway, I was in with this beekeeper guy and I took Andros along with me one day. He had an even sweeter tooth than I did. He watched as I helped the beekeeper to gather some honey, but he got too close and he was stung. He didn't let on though, I guess he thought that it would make him look like a sissy or something."

Iolaus scratched the back of his head, the bandages had made his scalp itch, but he wasn't really noticing the itch or his response, he was too deep in his memory.

"Everything was fine, nothing happened for a couple of days and then Andros started getting sick. The other kids didn't care; we couldn't afford a healer so there wasn't anything we could do. I sat with him and stuff, but ... then he finally told me that a bee had stung him and so I took him to the beekeeper. He took one look at Andros, put him to bed in his spare room and called the healer. The beekeeper let me stay, Andros was pretty scared by now and he thought my company might help. I don't know why, I was a wreck, I was so scared.

"The healer tried all kinds of salves and potions - only because he liked honey, he didn't want his supply drying up. But nothing helped. In the end Andros was too tired to open his eyes, he even stopped trying to breathe. He died and I felt like it was my fault."

Hercules was surprised to see the glint of tears in Iolaus' eyes, he didn't normally let other people, even Hercules, see him cry. Iolaus rubbed his eyes and muttered something about all the smoke making his eyes sore. Hercules was relieved that he didn't have to try and cope with all that raw emotion; but just so Iolaus knew that he was there Hercules put an arm around his friend and gave him a couple of reassuring pats on the shoulder. Removing his arm he spoke softly. "It wasn't your fault Iolaus."

Iolaus stood up trying to shake the mood off, "Nah, I know that. You're just clumsy my friend. I told you - no sudden moves."

Hercules stood beside his friend, "So, are there any other lessons I need to know?"

"Well, lesson number six? Five? Whatever. Then next and most important lesson is how to eat the honey."

"That can't be too difficult Iolaus!"

"You'd be surprised." the beekeeper said walking up to the two men smiling. Iolaus gave his friend a sideways glance and spoke in a whisper, "Where'd she come from?"

Herc shook his head, he hadn't heard her approach either. They must be slipping.

Picking up one of the full jars, the beekeeper stopped it up with a cork and handed it to Iolaus, bending to do the same with the remaining jar. "I see you filled the jars, good. I thought you might like to join me for supper, I know some great recipes for lavender honey, and there's a story about bees that you might like to hear."

Iolaus relaxed back into his chair, patting his full stomach with pleasure. The meal had been extraordinary; he thought that he might have found someone whose cooking skills rivalled Alcmene's. And every course had used honey as one of its ingredients, they were even drinking a honey-based beverage.

Hercules was equally replete in his chair opposite Iolaus, stifling a yawn he said, "Thank you so much for supper, it was wonderful."

"I'll second that! You're a terrific cook, thanks for inviting us."

"You're welcome boys. It's nice to have good company, too many of the people that come through here go through without a by-your-leave."

Hercules took a sip of the mead and shook his head, "A lot of people don't seem to have the time to stop and say hello anymore."

The beekeeper smiled, "But you two have been perfect guests. Now, I know you'll be eager to be off, you'll need to set up camp and I haven't left you much time. I'd offer you a bed here, but as you can see..." she shrugged and extended a hand to include their surroundings. The cottage was tiny with only the one room and a small kitchen.

Iolaus laughed, "That's all right. Herc wouldn't be able to stretch out in here, and he gets so ratty when he doesn't sleep well."

"I do not!"

There was a moment of comfortable laughter before the beekeeper spoke again, "If you remember, I said that there was a story I wanted to tell you boys. After that, I'll let you be on your way."

Both men enjoyed listening to stories, especially after a good meal and so they both settled back to listen.

It was nearly a week later and Hercules and Iolaus were finishing their evening meal and licking their fingers of honey. "Who'd have thought that there were so many ways to use honey, eh Iolaus?"

"Mmmm," Iolaus responded lazily, "Who'd have thought. Mind you, I can think of a few..."

"Oh, no you don't Iolaus. I don't want to know."

"Come on Herc. Where's your sense of adventure, all you need is a beautiful girl and a jar of honey and you..."

"I'm not listening Iolaus."

"All right, all right." Iolaus paused and Hercules could feel his friend's mood grow serious. "Herc? Are you feeling all right?"

"I'm feeling fine Iolaus, stop fretting. I promised I'd tell you if I felt sick. You don't have to ask me every five minutes."

Iolaus lay down on his side close to the fire, "Sorry Herc. I was just ... anyway, it's been a week, I think you're going to be okay now."

"So, no more asking after my health?"

"Nah, I'll let the son-of-a-god thing do it's work on you. I'm just not used to needing to worry about your health, you know?"

Hercules smiled, knowing that even though Iolaus wouldn't be able to see the smile he'd still know it was there. "Iolaus? What did you think of that story the beekeeper told us? You reckon it was just a story?"

"I don't know Herc. I went all cold when she told us what the bees did to people who didn't ask their keeper for their honey, and the look in her eyes.... brrrr."

Hercules lay down and tried to make himself comfortable on the hard ground, "I know Iolaus, but do you really think that bees could carry off a human being like that?"

"Why not Herc? There are millions and millions of bees in a hive; they're pretty strong, like millions of little Hercules'. I guess they could do most anything if they worked together."

"Yeah, I wonder what happened to the men though, I mean if they were never found, did the bees drop them down some crevice, or sting them to death, or just smother them? I'm glad we asked nicely."

"Herc, you are letting your imagination run away with you, that's my job. I'll thank you not to keep stealing my lines. Anyhow, I was thinking that maybe they turned into some kind of giant black and yellow striped, winged, buzzing monsters with huge stingers."

"Just so long as we don't have to fight them."

"Oh, yeah!"

"Thanks for the lessons Iolaus, you're a pretty good teacher, if a little confusing. But the prize lesson has to go to the beekeeper for her story. I'll always remember to keep on the good side of bees. Night Iolaus, honey filled dreams."

"Yeah, right Herc. Night."

"Buzzz, buzzzz."

The End

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