CHAPTER 475: ICE-HOLE TREES

The next day, Undecided, together with an entire posse of Oracles, came to the Empire Council, carrying heavy stacks of paper scrolls. On them were maps with new prophecies about possible avalanche routes.

After these maps were spread on the Council’s table, I could see that the avalanches weren’t targeting our settlements on purpose, after all. All affected places were near the tall and snowy mountains from which avalanches were likely to fall on their own.

What was unusual was how so many avalanches were provoked at once over hundreds of thousands of kilometres of the mountain range.

But this also became clear on that day, when the Beehound scouts compiled the results of their work into a single report. They drew a map of sightings of the cold-resistant plant, and these sightings were even worse than I feared.

"This asshole tree already took most of the mountains! I can’t even imagine how many avalanches they caused already where we couldn’t see them," I said, staring at the map covered in blue dots. There was an entire carpet of them!

Although they caused avalanches with their growth, this didn’t slow them one bit. I suspected that the trees might’ve used avalanches to spread their seeds over enormous distances.

What was worse, the scouts’ reports said that the trees not only grew faster than any weed, but also were dangerous. They have lured several mountain beasts into the tree groves, but after walking through them for several dozen meters, the beasts would inexplicably lose all strength, just lie down and die.

It was a terrifying thing to even imagine.

"Father, is ’asshole tree’ the plant’s name?" Tabletina asked. Her pen’s metal nib was hovering over a paper sheet, and a drop of ink threatened to fall on it.

"What? Why would you even think—of course it’s not how it’s called. Ugh... We need to come up with a name for it, huh?" When Tabletina nodded, I scratched my chin.

Nothing good was coming to me. If only I could see this plant’s species...

Worriesgone hummed to attract my attention. When I looked at her, she smiled.

"What about the ice-hole tree, Father?"

I chortled, and a wave of snickering went over the room. Worriesgone smiled brilliantly, clearly proud of her joke. Even Amby giggled, although she was one of the least pun-loving bees.

"Yes, this is amazing!" I even slapped my knees in excitement, then let out another laugh—I needed it! "Ice-hole trees... Tabletina, write this down, this is it!"

"This is a much better name than ’murder hornets, ’" she said as she wrote this note in her notes.

"’Murder hornets’ was just a nickname. They were actually ’Murderous Giant Hornets," I pointed out. "Although this isn’t very different..."

I shook my head, and with this, shook off my mirth. It was time to become serious again and get back to business.

"A lot of mines and old human villages next to the mountains can become victims of avalanches. They must all be evacuated until the buildings can be recovered. Workharder, I want you to organise the evacuation and construction of temporary shelters. How badly will this tank our production?"

"It will be a blow, but we will weather it, Father. These mountain settlements produce very little except for metals and minerals, but they aren’t the only places where we have mines. Metals are also not a vital resource."

I nodded.

"Good, good. After the avalanches end, we must be ready to quickly clear and rebuild affected areas. Avalanches, at least, can’t last forever. What I fear is that new trees will sprout in places covered by avalanches."

"What about the existing ice-hole trees, Father? They are a danger, and we must destroy them before they become an even greaterdanger!" Bloodhero said.

I let out a heavy breath.

"No bee in a physical body will approach these trees until we find out how they kill. If bees meet these trees, they should spit fire at them or retreat if they can’t."

Bloodhero nodded sharply.

"Yes, Father. I understand—but a combat scouting mission could bring us a lot of insights. It won’t be simple, but we have some dragons powerful enough to carry a squad of fire-breathers toward the nearest area with the ice-hole trees."

I rubbed my temple.

Even after all these years and all my daughters who have died because of our enemies or to help the Bee Empire, sometimes it was still hard to give my girls orders to risk their lives.

However, I knew this information might save many more of them.

"Alright. This plan is on you, Bloodhero. Undecided, you can’t say anything more about these trees?"

The Oracle shook her head.

"No... Not yet, Father. Not yet. The line of time where we are now is muddled because of my earlier warning."

I nodded and turned to the last person who could have valuable information. Or at least, in the direction where she was supposed to be right now.

"Agent Whisper, is there any information on this plant in the human books? They couldn’t have studied its evolved version, but knowing something about its base version would be good."

’I will make sure the humans search studiously, Father! The books probably don’t have anything about this, but humans who lived for a long time near mountains might. The same ones who might get under an avalanche... They might as well answer questions while they evacuate!’

"Would they be in the mood for questions when they are running away from deadly danger, hm-hm?" Things-Things asked with doubt.

’Believe my methods, sister. It’s all about nudging people’s thoughts in the right directions—then they start remembering things they forgot they even knew!’ Whisper bragged.

I cleared my throat.

"No fighting during work time, girls. We still have a lot of work to do. These avalanches will destroy a lot of roads in the area—we must make sure none of the affected areas will lack essential supplies."

This was what we worked on, while I waited for more information about the ice-hole trees...