Krystal was putting on a show. Running, panting, and constantly looking behind her to drive home the idea that "wow this woman is fleeing from something scary! We should flee too!".

It was kind of working. She startled a group of guards by crashing into them from out of a bush. Her sudden appearance supported her claims of:

"Something's happening in the forest! We gotta go back to the village!"

Unfortunately, the guard captain happened to be in the group and he was a bit harder to scare. He held his ground while the others started to panic and falter.

"What is happening?"

"Something bad! We gotta go!"

The gray-haired man scowled. He wasn't buying it. Krystal was just about to spout some nonsense about swarms of monsters when the ground suddenly vibrated. A drawn-out boom could be heard from deep under the ground and the next instant the vibrations grew to a violent tremble, sending pebbles flying and making plants and people alike stumble and shake. For a moment it the only thing that could be heard was the shaking and clattering of stones and branches. Every creature in the forest held its breath.

Then somewhere in the middle of the black forest, something exploded. The ground split and gave way and from the open hole, a murder of crows erupted. The swarm of birds looked like a black cloud, billowing and growing, escaping the darkness of the underground in a cacophony of screeching and the sound of beating wings.

The cloud of wings and beaks screeched in unison and then began circling up and away from the hole, covering the sky completely right over the hole. The already reddening sky grew dark as the birds swept over it. Krystal and the guards watched in horror as the wave of crows swept over the forest. Then the birds reached over them and their voices rang clear enough for the humans to understand what they were screaming.

"THE BEES ARE HERE!"

"THE BEES ARE COMING!"

"FROM THE UNDERGROUND THEY COME! TERRORS OF THE DARK!"

"RUN YOU FOOLS! SHE HAS RELEASED THE BEES!"

"THE SWARM IS HERE! THEY WILL EAT ALL THAT REMAINS!"

"DO NOT IDLE, STUPID HUMANS! THE BEES HUNGER FOR YOUR FLESH! "

Krystal stopped pretending to be scared at that moment. She turned and ran the same second it registered what the birds were screaming. It didn't take long for the guards to follow behind her. Above them, the crows continued their ominous warnings, some taking the opportunity to swoop down and draw their talons through exposed hair and against the guards' helmets. The humans screamed and ducked but kept on running. The birds kept screaming and taunting as they herded them towards Ogon.

All over the forest they swept, and each human that saw them heeded their warnings. Who dared oppose the warnings of so many crows? Who was foolish enough to question the carrion eaters as they covered the sky and spoke of an unseen enemy? Very few. And those few soon joined their fleeing comrades as well because a second wave of sound soon caught up to the birds.

A low buzzing sound that soon grew strong enough to be felt in one's very spine. And then the first bee was seen in the sky. It was the size of a horse and entirely black save for the fuzzy white mane. It looked like a blend between an ant and a bumble bee. The first bee was soon followed by hundreds of hundreds more and together they swept over the forest much like the crows but at a slower, more steady, pace.

Henry the guard captain sweated heavily as he ran. Above him the crows laughed and taunted him to run faster. He couldn't see his comrades anymore, they'd been scattered by the low-flying birds. They'd probably left him behind. He wasn't that fast and his age was catching up to him. He couldn't really blame them for running ahead. He himself had already pissed himself in fear when the first bee had flown over his head. They were just too big. Insects should never grow that big.

Another bee flew over his head and he slid to a halt when it stopped bare meters in front of him. He watched it hover 3 meters above the ground about 5 meters away from him. He was too busy staring at the bee to notice the child leaping at his head until something even bigger jumped and crashed into it. He felt hooves clip his head and the next moment he was lying on the ground, world spinning.

In front of him, the child rose to its feet again, nose bloody and serrated teeth bared at the dryad that had knocked it off its course. The dryad reared, swinging its white hooves in the air before landing again with a heavy thud. It started circling around the child, putting itself between the child and Henry. He met its eyes for a moment at felt his limbs seize up in fear. The blood red eyes held no compassion for him. It turned around to face the child just as the tiny terror launched itself at it. The dryad turned and the child landed on its deer-half, digging its claws deep into the dryad's gray pelt.

The dryad roared and grabbed the child by the neck then swung it into a tree. The air flew out of the child as it connected with the bark. It barely had time to draw a new breath before the dryad sent its other fist straight into its gut. The child went limp immediately.

The hovering bee saw that as its cue to move again. It swooped down and took the child from the dryad, then quickly used its many legs to tie it up with the long silky threads it had been holding. The bee flew off with the child and the dryad ran off back into the bushes. Henry stared a bit longer before he finally rose up and started running towards Ogon again. Something crazy was going on in the forest and he wanted no part of it.

Maker was having a blast. She sat in the throne-room of her dungeon surrounded by the visvarg pups. The noisy children were walking about, pointing at things, chewing on things, and asking questions. Meanwhile, her creatures were out in the forest, picking up the rest of the bloodthirsty little loves. What a great day! She watched through the eyes of the bees as the dryads followed to rodent's directions towards the remaining children. She saw some of the bees flying back and forth between Sam, getting threads from him to use on the resisting children. Not all of the dryads was good at knocking others out. Most would either go too far and break some bones or hold back too much.

The bees were ironically not suited for combat. With like, anything. They were extremely weak so they only helped by bringing things and kids back and forth or scaring humans with their imposing build.

Maker chuckled as she watched the humans flee from her harmless little insects. The bumbleants lived far underground and fed mainly on minerals. They would dig and build tunnels and hoard minerals and other shiny objects in their hive. They were also a marvelous source of mana. The bees seemed to practically ooze the magical energy just by living and the density of it in the air around them made the areas they live in especially easy to claim for the dungeon. Magic is needed to spread a dungeon's influence over dead material since there's no mind to interact with.The bumblebees and the dungeon were perfect for each other. The insects that were too weak to survive on their own in the wild would get the dungeon's protection and in turn, boost its growth greatly.

Maker turned her attention to the visvarg children huddled around her. They were either tired and napping or walking around restlessly. The Dungeon Lady sighed. It was a shame, really. Despite the kids getting along with her and playing nice because their mother had told them to (or their siblings told them that their mother told them etc), none of them had let her claim them. It would seem their species was not compatible with the way a dungeon claimed a creature. They were too sentient and too strong. Fanv had been an exception because of the madness she suffered from her first transformation and from her weakened, dying state, that one night she entered the dungeon for the first time.

To claim the children she would need them to be in a similar state, and harming them was out of the question. Perhaps she would have to settle for them growing up in the dungeon and leaving once they became adults. It would be better than nothing... She sighed again. Why couldn't they have been born in the dungeon. It would have been so much easier...