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Chapter 300 Hive
🕑 Added 2023-01-07 22:51:13 +0000 UTCAuthor's note:
Hey there!
Here it is! The big 300! This! Is! Spartaaa!!
Ehem. Sorry about that... Anyway, enjoy the chapter!
Cheers!
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Triple-Eye carried us around the town and then up the tree. A few of the tree people eyed us warily but I simply ignored them. The giant squirrel carried us up the trunk of the great tree at a rather quick pace. I barely saw some of the animals hide in their holes as he passed by.
About two-thirds of the way to the top he started to weave inside the tree. The many gaps in the bark turned out to be more like caves. Parts looked to be cut out with tools creating a vertical tunnel system with a confusing layout. It did not take long before we started to see more of his people. Their pelts were all kinds of browns, reds, yellows, and greys. The patterns were as diverse as that of common house cats and yet there seemed to be some deeper system to them. There was too much symmetry to think otherwise.
Most importantly, as soon as we got close, the rest of the ‘hive’ connected to us.
When I heard Triple-Eye call his people [Hive Mind], I expected more of a cacophony. Instead, there was a system of communication much more efficient than common [Telepathy]. It seemed every squirrel was connected to everyone else in a certain radius. They could directly talk to those but for any further away contacts through the chained [Telepathy] they needed to pass on the information. Instead of just having a name and have everyone call out ‘message for this-and-that’ there was a sort of telepathic key for everyone. It was just a teeny tiny bit of their soul seeped into the network. If something for them was sent off outside their range, they could broadcast their position. With two sets of pings from each side sender and target would be located within the network and the data would take the shortest path.
On top of that, there were some constant signals coming from what gave off a feeling of ‘homestead’. It was immediately apparent that the people there were offering some kind of task and if someone needed it done, they could send to that ‘task frequency’ to get a quick response. Carrying food or tools was the most common task this was used for. Our arrival prompted Triple-Eye to immediately send out a ‘threat-inspector needed’ signal. A response arrived not five seconds later with a location that made our ride turn and climb around the outside of the tree.
Now, how could I see all of that? Well, with their system relying on souls, our [Sleep Talk] could overlook everything that was going on from a much farther distance than they were able to. And with our Wisdom, we had enough control to hide our thoughts from the collective. Not that that would have been difficult. There was another system in place for private conversations. A simple broadcast signal that would make everyone else actively avoid looking for surface thoughts other than those they wanted to converse with.
The giant squirrel carried us into a chamber that was decidedly empty and away from others of the hive mind. The only other one there was a little smaller than the average of his species at just about two metres from head to foot. He glanced around the room frantically and I could see more vis on him than most others.
“Elder!”, Triple-Eye said, “Here they are. Take a look.”
The other squirrel focused on us the instant we left our ride. He stepped closer and inspected us from all sides. I did not feel an [Identify] take hold but that did not have to mean anything. Still, I simply greeted him.
“Hello. I’m Fio. And this is Catori.”
“Hi!”, my headmate said.
“Yes. Two? No. One but two. What?”
I glanced at Triple-Eye but he just shrugged.
“We share a soul”, I said by way of explanation.
“Oooh!”, the Elder made, “Yes. Yes! You do. Good. Get [Hive Mind]. We need you. You need us. Great trade!”
“Why would we need you?”, Catori asked with a bit of vitriol.
“To be two and one with two. Yes.”
“Huh?”
“You will join.”
I hissed.
“Piss off.”
He ignored me and turned away.
“Safe”, he said, “They can come.”
“You don’t want the tree people to know about your [Hive Mind], right?”, I asked, “Then stop and explain. Properly.”
Vis was already gathering and my body halfway back to being metal and glass. The Elder turned to us. I could see his teeth. They were… strange. They should have been the normal rodent teeth. Two large ones on the top and bottom of his mouth. Instead, there were dozens, maybe even a hundred. All of them lined up erratically around the edges of his mouth with one big tooth on each jaw in the front.
He snarled and I pushed my [Eldritch Shift]. With a snap, reality broke and I was properly transformed. The snarl got stuck in his throat.
“Fine. You do”, he said.
With a wave of his paw, he melted into the wood. Seconds later, we were completely alone with Triple-Eye.
“I do what?”, the squirrel asked.
“Explain. Why do you want us to join your [Hive Mind]? And why do you assume we want to?”
“Oh. You don’t want to? It’s good.”
“Hove many of your people can fly?”
“Like… go up while in the air?”
“Yes.”
“Twenty? If there’s a tree above.”
“And without a tree?”
“… There’s the tree?”
He pointed up. I took his hand with a tendril of darkness and pointed it outside.
“And when you go far enough that there’s no more tree?”
“… oh.”
Catori sniggered.
“You guys are not the smartest, aren’t you?”
“[Hive Intelligence]. We share Intelligence.”
“The Attribute?”
“Yes. That.”
“Okay, that’s cool but… you need to be in range?”
“Yes.”
“Well, we travel a lot. So it won’t help us.”
“Why travel?”
I clanged my tongue.
“Triple-Eye. Let’s go back in range of your people. You’ll get smarter, right?”
“A bit.”
“Anything helps at this point…”, Catori mumbled.
“Don’t be mean”, I reprimanded her.
Triple-Eye made to move back to the hive and once we were flying started to climb. It only took a minute to get back in range and I learned a new signal they were using. A request for collective thinking. About a dozen squirrels responded and within half a minute we were surrounded.
“What now?”, Triple-Eye asked.
“Think”, I encouraged him, “Why would we not want to stay here.”
I stood regally as I observed the thoughts shooting between the dozen squirrels. It was quite clear they expected me to listen in as they eventually turned to me and nodded.
“We understand now. No more threats.”
I nodded. Whatever conclusion they came to, I was happy if they left us alone.
“Good. Then I have a few questions. What’s with the tree people and their reaction to us?”
This time, the answer was split between squirrels. One or two words per person. The sentences were surprisingly coherent for being spoken by this many people but still…
“They are smart thinking about seeing your disturbance warp. Taint is scary fearsome. They are scared fearsomed of you.”
I nodded.
“They do take care of the silverwood trees, right?”
“Yes correct.”
“Do you know how to grow more?”
“Negative no we do.”
“… what?”, Catori made as the group turned towards one of the smaller rust-red squirrels.
“I do?”, she tried, “You don’t?”
“We don’t teach make us go learn this is good help now please mas…”
The sudden barrage of thoughts was almost breaking my mind so I pulled out of them.
“What just happened?”, I asked Catori.
“Apparently they don’t share everything despite being a hive mind.”
“So the question just never came up. That is weird.”
“Maybe they rely too much on their Skill to tell them everything and don’t actually converse enough.”
The sudden barrage of giant squeaking squirrels interrupted our conversation. There were at least two hundred in an immediate cluster of information sharing all around us. I peeked for a moment and the glimpses I got were terrifying. Literally.
“No more need fight we get protect us kill barks will…”
“SHUT IT!”, I shouted with all my mental power.
Every squirrel turned towards me.
“Okay, slow down. You’re planning to kill the tree people?”
“Yes!”, two hundred voices spoke in unison.
“Why?”
“They hate us.”
“Then don’t give them a reason to hate you more”, I said.
“Kill everyone?”, a lone squirrel asked.
“No”, I said, “Someone will escape. And killing is bad. Don’t you hate when one of your friends or siblings dies?”
That set off another avalanche of discussion. I observed for a moment before sighing in relief at the averted tragedy.
“Do they know about the Hungry Node?”, Catori asked.
All at once things went eerily quiet. The mental communication was one thing but on top of that every single squirrel completely froze.
Then, one very large presence pushed them away from us. They were still there just… distant. And the presence came from below and inside the tree.
“I do”, it said. The voice was a deep bass, speaking slow and distorted as if through water.
“Are you the Hive Queen or something?”, Catori asked.
It took half a minute to get another answer.
“… yes.”
“We want to stop the Hungry Node”, I said, “We need every bit of help we can get.”
“That means the tree people and you and your hive”, Catori added, “If possible.”
Again, a long wait. Almost a full minute, this time.
“It is done. I will sleep.”
“Wait, who are…?”, my question broke off as the presence retreated. My mind followed it. As did Catori’s. And we shuddered in fear as we realized what was going on. The hive mind of squirrels was controlled. There was a connection between every one of them and this one being. Now that I saw it, a part of its soul was in every single squirrel. It had to be a huge being.
With trepidation, I activated [Hidden Identify]. On the wood. It flipped back to normal.
[Identify]
Species: Soul Tree (ancient)
Age: 27903
Name: Hive
Gender: -
Status: healthy, sapient, living node
Level: 414
Class: [Dryad], [Greater Hive], [Protector of Life], [Manager]-
I was just glad the tree did not wake up from that.
