Mother’s still form was one of beauty. A trio of foul vultures fell to my stinger as another took its last breath, choking in my grip.
My elder siblings watched. They were my spirit, the force that compelled me to continue my merciless slaughter. I pitied the vultures, I truly did. Was it their fault that they had made the mistake of becoming our enemy?
I stopped a vulture as it tried to dodge around me, presumably targeting Mother. A quick three-punch combo crushed its bones and it died, a screech floundering in its throat. The overwhelming forces of the vulture army defied reason, and I again glanced at Mother. Her battle with the Vulch was the lynchpin of this battle. The Vulch had instructed his soldiers to protect his body and move it around, ensuring I could not destroy him. Further, Beck warned me against killing the Vulch.
We were still ignorant on the matters of Mind. What would happen to Mother if she were trapped in the dying Vulch’s Mind?
I have no illusions about my identity. I am a weapon, an impossible force born from Mother’s feelings of helplessness. I was not strength. I was a well of weakness, a way for Mother to become strong.
I was Bedivere.
And yet, I could not aid Mother in her fight. She was alone against a foe with nearly every advantage over her. I crushed those feelings, those thoughts of shame.
I was weakness.
My body was Mother’s weapon to be used against the weak; my incredible physical prowess meant solely for discarding those who were not worthy of confronting Mother. My Mind was strong, yes. But Mother’s Mind was the true miracle. It was with her Mind that our most dangerous foes could be vanquished.
Eventually, I would learn. When Mother discovers the secrets of Mind, I will become an even more powerful warrior. When that happens, the strong of this world will become the weak.
But for now, I sliced and stabbed, protecting Mother and the hive.
________
I was close to a breakthrough, I could feel it. The Vulch hadn’t made any progress in finding a way to beat me, and I assumed he never would. This was a true stalemate, unlike last time.
Or was it?
The more I thought of this world, the more I realized how easy it would be to win. The basis for this mental realm was a Mind link. A powerful one that defied logic, or at least the knowledge I currently had about Mind, but a Mind link all the same.
Beck was the key.
Thanks to Beck’s calls, I managed to escape this world last time. That path had been a link. My Kin Link. Searching through the white void, I saw it again. The faint yellow buzzing in the distance, with the Vulch blocking the way.
He knew.
“Escaping will do you no good. I will simply bring you back here, and we will be right back at the beginning.”
“Do you presume to continue this battle forever, Vulch? Eventually, Bedivere will destroy your family, and your body will be exposed. When that happens, we will be able to escape and safely kill you.”
“You presume yourself to be a master of Mind, and you are skilled. But this Link weapon of yours is no match for our Mind. You further presume yourself to be a master of Links? Laughable. We are bees.”
It dawned on me. Queen was right.
“Why, Vulch? Why do you care about your family so much?”
The Vulch seemed surprised at my question, then angry. “Why? How could I not care for my family? Do you not care for yours?”
“I don’t mean specifically. I mean, why do any of us care about our families?”
The Vulch was silent. Queen too. She seemed very confused.
“Where is this coming from, Enno? We care for our family, and Vulch cares for his. It is in our nature to care for our families.”
“And yet, we bring them to war. We ask them to fight and die. You’re so jaded, Vulch, by your family’s huge size that the hundreds that have died in this war mean almost nothing. Before you say anything, I know you care about them, but only as a whole. What do the individuals really matter?”
Oh, he was pissed now. The Vulch’s already reddish face burned.
“I remember every single one of them. Every birth, every egg, every pattern of feathers. Human! Do not presume to insult my love for my family,” he growled. I could see his sadness as he thought of all the vultures that had died.
And I struck.
“Argh!”
I pushed, not towards the yellow buzzing light, but towards the Vulch. In him, I saw his family, but only the largest members. In thinking about his dead family members and those he still wanted to protect, his emotions briefly exposed him. He also had a Kin Link, but only to the most intelligent vultures. This world of his was between our Links. And I meant to exploit his Kin Link.
When Ben first encountered the Vulch, Beck described the Vulch’s presence as an intrusion. An invasion. Earlier in this same battle, the Vulch had attacked the Kin Link within Ben, Belle, and Bess, which Beck defended.
Beck had been able to hold him off. Beck was far less powerful than either of us, so how did they manage to hold off the Vulch? A vulture hive-mind? Ridiculous. The true nature of a hive mind is the area of expertise of one particular species.
Bees.
I pulled Queen close. She was the one who made me realize the way to beat him. Links were a connection between Minds. Sure, you could actively keep and maintain one, but it was best to automate a task like that.
And if it was automated, that meant that as long as we lived, those Links would exist. How else would I have gotten to my body if the Link I approached sounded like Beck?
I dove into the inky void of the Vulch’s feathers.
“Stop! What are you-“
Silence.
The Vulch’s voice faded as we left him behind in his world, traveling through his own Kin Link. Instead of white, black now surrounded Queen and me. White specks, like stars, glowed in the distance. Behind me, I could see a giant white orb. I clawed towards one of the white pinpricks that had appeared in the black void, and voices flooded my head.
“Father, what will we do? The humans have never been so aggressive.”
“Untrue. Indeed, humans have always been monsters. However, I do agree that this attack is…unusual. Do not worry; I will keep the flock safe.”
“I understand, father.”
It was agonizing. Every word punched me in the gut, flooding me with depressive thoughts. What was this?
“I know these feelings,” Queen said, “Loss and pain. Emotions given form. This is similar to our connection, Enno. Together, yet apart.”
Was that possible? But the Vulch’s family were, well, his family. They had their own bodies, and they grew up. They weren’t the previous inhabitants of a body.
“No, it is not identical. Merely the same concept. Vulch and these intelligent children… they are one and the same, yet not so.”
So then, what did this mean? These thoughts felt similar to memories, ghosts of ideas that had passed through these Links.
The depressive thoughts turned to rage. I had never felt so angry, such righteous fury. Not when my brother tricked me. Not when my mother accused me of stealing her meds. Not when my friend had been killed in an accident.
Not even when Bedivere’s egg had been injured.
The emotions shifted, changing to represent a new scene.
“Chief, chief! Tell us about it again! About when you escaped the humans!”
“I have already told you this story. Indeed, you must have it memorized by now. Would you not rather hear something more uplifting?”
“Come on, chief! At least talk about the towers! Those are my favorite!”
“You… like hearing about those? Those… human abominations?”
“They sound so cool! Like super tall trees!”
There was the anger. This was hatred, unlike anything I had experienced. The Vulch didn’t just hate humans because of the attack on the forest. There was something else. Before I could find out more, the emotions shifted again.
“Please, leader. The family is desperate for revenge. Why must you send us away?”
The feelings were angry this time again, but not as strong, more like anger mixed with sadness and anxiety.
“I will not repeat myself. Go towards the mountains. This enemy… I have not felt anything like it before. The spy it sent was weak, yet strong. I do not understand it. Indeed, I am the only one capable of exacting our revenge.”
“But it’s not just revenge, father,” a different voice called out, “This forest is ours! The humans have destroyed our progress, and it will take ages to rebuild the nest. How long will we have to wait before we can lay waste to the human gatherings?”
“We will wait as long as is necessary. Indeed, it is devastating for our nest to have been destroyed, but so be it. We can rebuild. But to do so, we must once again become this forest’s rulers. Competition will not be welcome. But I also do not wish to risk your lives. I will face the threat alone and crush them.”
I could only listen in horror. The Vulch had always planned on destroying us to prevent any competition in the forest, regardless of whether we killed his family or not. Even worse, he was preparing for an all-out war on the humans before they had even destroyed this forest.
And yet they were still forced to run.
Milky white tendrils appeared near me, and I could see the Vulch was trying to drag me back into his world. No, wait. He was afraid of what I was doing and was done playing around. If I let him catch me, we would never let me go. He wanted to finish me off.
Enough was enough. I felt around, trying to grasp the white specks. Instead of crushing them, I imagined myself entering the links. I poured my Mind into the idea of connection.
I remembered Beck’s voice. I remembered how it echoed through the buzzing yellow dot, and together with Queen, we began to buzz.
“…St….p….deed…destro….” The Vulch’s voice echoed behind us, but we kept buzzing.
I gripped Queen’s hand tightly. She led the way, trusting her instincts to guide her in corrupting the links, but I was along for the ride. I helped her, but I felt weak. I knew at that moment. My power, my powerful Mind, none of it was mine. It was Queen’s. It had always been Queen. I was just a… a parasite.
The buzzing exploded into a crescendo, yellow filling my vision. The white specks winked out of existence as our buzzing yellow pushed against the eerie white of the Vulch’s Mind.
“….no…NO!”
I saw him. The Vulch looked frail. We had hit him where it hurt, somewhere he never thought anyone could reach. The yellow surrounded the white, engulfing it. We had caught him off guard and were free to crush him. His skill didn’t matter anymore.
Queen and I buzzed, pushing with the full force of our-her- Mind. The Vulch stood no chance.
“Human… Queen… Indeed, at least, spare my family….”
The white and black of the Vulch’s Mind disappeared, swallowed by a sea of buzzing yellow.
_______
Urgh. Was my alarm more annoying than usual? It almost sounded like screeching birds.
Vultures.
I shot up, shaking myself out of my daze. Vulch! How was the hive?!
“Mother, we did it,” a collected voice said, “The vultures are retreating! You have defeated their leader!”
Beatrice? A quick look told me she was right. The black blanket that once covered our clearing had scattered, panicked vultures flying in every direction. None of them tried to attack us.
“I give high praise, Mother. You fought courageously.”
Bedivere’s deep voice was a strange addition to the crew, but his words were relieving. I had defeated the Vulch! And with his death, the vultures wouldn’t dare threaten us anymore.
“Shall I pursue them? Without the Vulch’s presence, nothing is stopping me from finishing them off.”
I looked at Bedivere, surprised to see no hint of malice despite his gruesome suggestion. In fact, he almost seemed… sad. Did he understand the Vulch’s situation?
“No. No, leave them.”
I felt crushed at what I had done to Vulch. The least I could do to respect a fellow family guy was to honor his final wish.
“What do we do with this, Mother?” Bella was holding a single vulture corpse. A corpse with a scarred face. Vulch.
I refused to eat him. He didn’t deserve a fate like that. Was that hypocritical, considering my family would likely eat his family’s corpses anyways? Maybe. But remembering those impossibly strong feelings he held, it just didn’t feel right not to give at least his own body some mercy.
“Bury him. Bess, would you mind creating a gravestone of some kind? Something to honor him.”
Was this what it felt like to have a mortal enemy? My feelings felt so conflicted. I felt unbearable guilt for what I had done, yet overjoyed that I had overcome that challenge.
This surely wouldn’t be the last time. Next time, I would be ready.
“This will never happen again, everyone,” I ensured everyone listened closely, “A war like this will never happen again. We will make the hive strong. So strong that nobody would fight us. So strong that people like the Vulch wouldn’t take revenge.”
The hive would grow. I refused to be stopped, not by vultures or humans. As I looked upon the tiny number of hive members gathered before me, I knew.
“The joke you told Beatrice is no longer a joke, is it? The world shall be our hive.”
Duvil And thus ends this arc, and the end of the beginning of the story.
Mother’s still form was one of beauty. A trio of foul vultures fell to my stinger as another took its last breath, choking in my grip.
My elder siblings watched. They were my spirit, the force that compelled me to continue my merciless slaughter. I pitied the vultures, I truly did. Was it their fault that they had made the mistake of becoming our enemy?
I stopped a vulture as it tried to dodge around me, presumably targeting Mother. A quick three-punch combo crushed its bones and it died, a screech floundering in its throat. The overwhelming forces of the vulture army defied reason, and I again glanced at Mother. Her battle with the Vulch was the lynchpin of this battle. The Vulch had instructed his soldiers to protect his body and move it around, ensuring I could not destroy him. Further, Beck warned me against killing the Vulch.
We were still ignorant on the matters of Mind. What would happen to Mother if she were trapped in the dying Vulch’s Mind?
I have no illusions about my identity. I am a weapon, an impossible force born from Mother’s feelings of helplessness. I was not strength. I was a well of weakness, a way for Mother to become strong.
I was Bedivere.
And yet, I could not aid Mother in her fight. She was alone against a foe with nearly every advantage over her. I crushed those feelings, those thoughts of shame.
I was weakness.
My body was Mother’s weapon to be used against the weak; my incredible physical prowess meant solely for discarding those who were not worthy of confronting Mother. My Mind was strong, yes. But Mother’s Mind was the true miracle. It was with her Mind that our most dangerous foes could be vanquished.
Eventually, I would learn. When Mother discovers the secrets of Mind, I will become an even more powerful warrior. When that happens, the strong of this world will become the weak.
But for now, I sliced and stabbed, protecting Mother and the hive.
________
I was close to a breakthrough, I could feel it. The Vulch hadn’t made any progress in finding a way to beat me, and I assumed he never would. This was a true stalemate, unlike last time.
Or was it?
The more I thought of this world, the more I realized how easy it would be to win. The basis for this mental realm was a Mind link. A powerful one that defied logic, or at least the knowledge I currently had about Mind, but a Mind link all the same.
Beck was the key.
Thanks to Beck’s calls, I managed to escape this world last time. That path had been a link. My Kin Link. Searching through the white void, I saw it again. The faint yellow buzzing in the distance, with the Vulch blocking the way.
He knew.
“Escaping will do you no good. I will simply bring you back here, and we will be right back at the beginning.”
“Do you presume to continue this battle forever, Vulch? Eventually, Bedivere will destroy your family, and your body will be exposed. When that happens, we will be able to escape and safely kill you.”
“You presume yourself to be a master of Mind, and you are skilled. But this Link weapon of yours is no match for our Mind. You further presume yourself to be a master of Links? Laughable. We are bees.”
It dawned on me. Queen was right.
“Why, Vulch? Why do you care about your family so much?”
The Vulch seemed surprised at my question, then angry. “Why? How could I not care for my family? Do you not care for yours?”
“I don’t mean specifically. I mean, why do any of us care about our families?”
The Vulch was silent. Queen too. She seemed very confused.
“Where is this coming from, Enno? We care for our family, and Vulch cares for his. It is in our nature to care for our families.”
“And yet, we bring them to war. We ask them to fight and die. You’re so jaded, Vulch, by your family’s huge size that the hundreds that have died in this war mean almost nothing. Before you say anything, I know you care about them, but only as a whole. What do the individuals really matter?”
Oh, he was pissed now. The Vulch’s already reddish face burned.
“I remember every single one of them. Every birth, every egg, every pattern of feathers. Human! Do not presume to insult my love for my family,” he growled. I could see his sadness as he thought of all the vultures that had died.
And I struck.
“Argh!”
I pushed, not towards the yellow buzzing light, but towards the Vulch. In him, I saw his family, but only the largest members. In thinking about his dead family members and those he still wanted to protect, his emotions briefly exposed him. He also had a Kin Link, but only to the most intelligent vultures. This world of his was between our Links. And I meant to exploit his Kin Link.
When Ben first encountered the Vulch, Beck described the Vulch’s presence as an intrusion. An invasion. Earlier in this same battle, the Vulch had attacked the Kin Link within Ben, Belle, and Bess, which Beck defended.
Beck had been able to hold him off. Beck was far less powerful than either of us, so how did they manage to hold off the Vulch? A vulture hive-mind? Ridiculous. The true nature of a hive mind is the area of expertise of one particular species.
Bees.
I pulled Queen close. She was the one who made me realize the way to beat him. Links were a connection between Minds. Sure, you could actively keep and maintain one, but it was best to automate a task like that.
And if it was automated, that meant that as long as we lived, those Links would exist. How else would I have gotten to my body if the Link I approached sounded like Beck?
I dove into the inky void of the Vulch’s feathers.
“Stop! What are you-“
Silence.
The Vulch’s voice faded as we left him behind in his world, traveling through his own Kin Link. Instead of white, black now surrounded Queen and me. White specks, like stars, glowed in the distance. Behind me, I could see a giant white orb. I clawed towards one of the white pinpricks that had appeared in the black void, and voices flooded my head.
“Father, what will we do? The humans have never been so aggressive.”
“Untrue. Indeed, humans have always been monsters. However, I do agree that this attack is…unusual. Do not worry; I will keep the flock safe.”
“I understand, father.”
It was agonizing. Every word punched me in the gut, flooding me with depressive thoughts. What was this?
“I know these feelings,” Queen said, “Loss and pain. Emotions given form. This is similar to our connection, Enno. Together, yet apart.”
Was that possible? But the Vulch’s family were, well, his family. They had their own bodies, and they grew up. They weren’t the previous inhabitants of a body.
“No, it is not identical. Merely the same concept. Vulch and these intelligent children… they are one and the same, yet not so.”
So then, what did this mean? These thoughts felt similar to memories, ghosts of ideas that had passed through these Links.
The depressive thoughts turned to rage. I had never felt so angry, such righteous fury. Not when my brother tricked me. Not when my mother accused me of stealing her meds. Not when my friend had been killed in an accident.
Not even when Bedivere’s egg had been injured.
The emotions shifted, changing to represent a new scene.
“Chief, chief! Tell us about it again! About when you escaped the humans!”
“I have already told you this story. Indeed, you must have it memorized by now. Would you not rather hear something more uplifting?”
“Come on, chief! At least talk about the towers! Those are my favorite!”
“You… like hearing about those? Those… human abominations?”
“They sound so cool! Like super tall trees!”
There was the anger. This was hatred, unlike anything I had experienced. The Vulch didn’t just hate humans because of the attack on the forest. There was something else. Before I could find out more, the emotions shifted again.
“Please, leader. The family is desperate for revenge. Why must you send us away?”
The feelings were angry this time again, but not as strong, more like anger mixed with sadness and anxiety.
“I will not repeat myself. Go towards the mountains. This enemy… I have not felt anything like it before. The spy it sent was weak, yet strong. I do not understand it. Indeed, I am the only one capable of exacting our revenge.”
“But it’s not just revenge, father,” a different voice called out, “This forest is ours! The humans have destroyed our progress, and it will take ages to rebuild the nest. How long will we have to wait before we can lay waste to the human gatherings?”
“We will wait as long as is necessary. Indeed, it is devastating for our nest to have been destroyed, but so be it. We can rebuild. But to do so, we must once again become this forest’s rulers. Competition will not be welcome. But I also do not wish to risk your lives. I will face the threat alone and crush them.”
I could only listen in horror. The Vulch had always planned on destroying us to prevent any competition in the forest, regardless of whether we killed his family or not. Even worse, he was preparing for an all-out war on the humans before they had even destroyed this forest.
And yet they were still forced to run.
Milky white tendrils appeared near me, and I could see the Vulch was trying to drag me back into his world. No, wait. He was afraid of what I was doing and was done playing around. If I let him catch me, we would never let me go. He wanted to finish me off.
Enough was enough. I felt around, trying to grasp the white specks. Instead of crushing them, I imagined myself entering the links. I poured my Mind into the idea of connection.
I remembered Beck’s voice. I remembered how it echoed through the buzzing yellow dot, and together with Queen, we began to buzz.
“…St….p….deed…destro….” The Vulch’s voice echoed behind us, but we kept buzzing.
I gripped Queen’s hand tightly. She led the way, trusting her instincts to guide her in corrupting the links, but I was along for the ride. I helped her, but I felt weak. I knew at that moment. My power, my powerful Mind, none of it was mine. It was Queen’s. It had always been Queen. I was just a… a parasite.
The buzzing exploded into a crescendo, yellow filling my vision. The white specks winked out of existence as our buzzing yellow pushed against the eerie white of the Vulch’s Mind.
“….no…NO!”
I saw him. The Vulch looked frail. We had hit him where it hurt, somewhere he never thought anyone could reach. The yellow surrounded the white, engulfing it. We had caught him off guard and were free to crush him. His skill didn’t matter anymore.
Queen and I buzzed, pushing with the full force of our-her- Mind. The Vulch stood no chance.
“Human… Queen… Indeed, at least, spare my family….”
The white and black of the Vulch’s Mind disappeared, swallowed by a sea of buzzing yellow.
_______
Urgh. Was my alarm more annoying than usual? It almost sounded like screeching birds.
Vultures.
I shot up, shaking myself out of my daze. Vulch! How was the hive?!
“Mother, we did it,” a collected voice said, “The vultures are retreating! You have defeated their leader!”
Beatrice? A quick look told me she was right. The black blanket that once covered our clearing had scattered, panicked vultures flying in every direction. None of them tried to attack us.
“I give high praise, Mother. You fought courageously.”
Bedivere’s deep voice was a strange addition to the crew, but his words were relieving. I had defeated the Vulch! And with his death, the vultures wouldn’t dare threaten us anymore.
“Shall I pursue them? Without the Vulch’s presence, nothing is stopping me from finishing them off.”
I looked at Bedivere, surprised to see no hint of malice despite his gruesome suggestion. In fact, he almost seemed… sad. Did he understand the Vulch’s situation?
“No. No, leave them.”
I felt crushed at what I had done to Vulch. The least I could do to respect a fellow family guy was to honor his final wish.
“What do we do with this, Mother?” Bella was holding a single vulture corpse. A corpse with a scarred face. Vulch.
I refused to eat him. He didn’t deserve a fate like that. Was that hypocritical, considering my family would likely eat his family’s corpses anyways? Maybe. But remembering those impossibly strong feelings he held, it just didn’t feel right not to give at least his own body some mercy.
“Bury him. Bess, would you mind creating a gravestone of some kind? Something to honor him.”
Was this what it felt like to have a mortal enemy? My feelings felt so conflicted. I felt unbearable guilt for what I had done, yet overjoyed that I had overcome that challenge.
This surely wouldn’t be the last time. Next time, I would be ready.
“This will never happen again, everyone,” I ensured everyone listened closely, “A war like this will never happen again. We will make the hive strong. So strong that nobody would fight us. So strong that people like the Vulch wouldn’t take revenge.”
The hive would grow. I refused to be stopped, not by vultures or humans. As I looked upon the tiny number of hive members gathered before me, I knew.
“The joke you told Beatrice is no longer a joke, is it? The world shall be our hive.”
Duvil And thus ends this arc, and the end of the beginning of the story.
