NJ104042806

April 28 2006 (Back finally) NJ104

Okay. Johnathon has started bugging me to catch up because otherwise, he won't be more than two months
ahead of the game with the on-line comic. So I need to give him outlines and ideas to thumbnail and then
create. *grin*

So...more detail folks. More detail.

Okay, you know about the walking and walking and walking.

Well after we go up that winding staircase - lucky for us we got a ride - we walked the rest of the way to the
Council Chamber.

We got there and it looked very official and there was a full house of council members. All of them were sitting
on really neat looking petal chairs. (You'll see.)

Now, I think I've already described the queen. She's awesome. And again, all that hair! So curvy, too! That's
the norm here, with the honeybees it seems. Roundness. I'm not surprised because it's what happens when
they're full of honey. They get even rounder. That seems to make them even more attractive to predators.
Something about being even tastier.

Um...Back to business.

Leonorus greeted us. (I looked that up, by the way. Helianthus is sunflower.) Cool! Even cooler that now the
little flower symbol that I keep seeing everywhere makes sense. It's a sunflower!

Then, before questions, she sort of officially introduced us to the hive. I think I wrote of this before but now I
think I have it in the right order. I get things all mixed up sometimes but now Fleur and Johnathon are helping
me to get the puzzle put together correctly this time.

Queen Leonurus' announcement was something like this. "Good hunting all! This promises to be a most exciting day. With us we have
two new guests that I would like for you to welcome with open wing into our hive. I believe that rumor has gone before me and teased you
with their arrival. The rumors are true. They are oomans. Yes, as legend would have it, real oomans. I believe that Bael has sent them
this way in order that we should learn from them and they from us. The have traveled a great distance with two of our people who will
remain with them as they travel and they are all very excited to be here. Their friends are our old friend Theta. SueMac, a beautiful Fire
Wasp who is currently without egg and has given full Truce also travels with them. She is well met and most welcome here, to our hive.
And our two special guests names are ooman Danny and ooman Fleur. They are fairly newly arrived to Cyeatea. Remember, they are not
from Cyeatea, thus everything is new to them. As if they were prepoppers." She smiled at that. "Let us show them what Cyeatea has to
offer, shall we?" she said, her voice filled with laughter and excitement. "We shall be introducing them through-out and learning much
from them, I think. What of you? Give them welcome when you meet them. And -- Good Hunting all!"

I could hear cheers everywhere! It was a shock and delight.

To continue with what I was seeing - It was a very interesting contrast in the Council chamber as Leonurus had
that mane of hair and yet every single council member was bald! Not a stitch of hair on their heads. I found out
later that the reason is symbolic. It's to show the rest of the hive they'll give up personal things to serve the
hive. The thing is, though I really don't get into the bald look myself, they didn't look bad. And most of them
had very ornate and jewel-like head pieces to decorate their heads.

Still - it was kind of funny, too. I could tell that one of the members, - Yahi I think his name was - had a sense
of humor. He wore his little head piece canted like a fedora that's tilted side-ways on the head. He was always
smiling and he had some pretty funny questions. At least they were funny to me.

Oh! Yeah. The questions. Once we were invited the questioning began. And it was definitely not one sided.
They were more than a little eager to share and answer our questions. I almost froze at that point. Not out of
any nervousness but because I have so many questions I was trying to decide where to start. I could sit there
for days and days with all of them. So I was trying to think of the "bigger" questions. *grin* But that didn't
work for long. Especially with Fleur around. But we'll get back to her in a moment.

I wish I could remember all their questions. It wasn't a lot because they didn't want to make us uncomfortable.
They were just simply curious.

How did you get here?

That one took us a minute as we tried to describe Dreamwalking. They immediately accepted it, with large
smiles, nodding almost knowingly. "We've heard of such from Theta."

How long do you plan to stay?

We smiled at that one, and almost shrugged. "We don't know. We can never tell how long this particular 'walk
is going to last." I tried to explain how time didn't work the same on both sides.

A large female commented with a giggle in her voice. "Oh, Dill would love to hear about such things!"

Queen Leonurus nodded. "We shall introduce you to our Lead Scientist, Dill. She will have even more
questions," she laughed.

Where are you going?

Fleur laughed out loud then and told them. "Hon, wherever this adventure takes us, that's where we'll go."

Everyone laughed and a few of them even clapped in delight.

Now I want you to know that every single question was asked with an eagerness to know. To understand.
There is no suspicion in these people. No lack of trust. It's something that I realize the greyside lacks almost
completely, these days. Except in children but even then, these days a parent has to actually teach his children
to not trust strangers. There is none of that here. Not that I could see.

And while I watched them, my heart kept dancing between tears and joy.

A good part of the time, all I could do was, well, stare at them. I'm so much more into my visuals than
remembering the other things. This drives Johnathon crazy but then he grins and he'll draw something that I
completely missed or did not actually see.

Remember - Johnathon is Theta.

Okay, okay. Back to the questions, then to the tour. *grin* Yes, tour. I'll tell in a little bit more detail a few
parts of the hive. There is so much that I could write a book just on our being escorted through the hive.

"Why are you here?"

Fleur and I grinned widely at that. "To explore. To find out. To learn."

We looked at each other for a moment and then turned back and said almost simultaneously - "To play."

The grins that broke out on everyone's face were priceless. And contagious. If they had been full of gregarious
questions and eagerness in their voices, it just trebled. Oh hell, it went off the scale.

"To play is good!"

"It's the best!"

"Oh, would you play with us?" asked one.

Fleur and I grinned. "We're trying to learn how. Our bodies are nothing like yours - at all. And we're much
denser and have to be much more careful because somehow with that, we're stronger.

"But, boy, yes! We'd love to play with you!"

"In the Arena?" asked one, her voice almost childlike but filled with that eagerness that was making me want
to constantly giggle.

Fleur and I both stopped. "Arena?" I asked.

Leonurus spoke then, smiling widely herself. "We shall introduce them to the Arena when they are shown the
hive. Now let us finish welcoming them."

The Council all looked at her and she must have said something else because everyone's antenna bobbed in
unison and they all suddenly rose up from their chairs and rushed down to us, all of them smiling and wanting
hugs as they surrounded us with their soft honey sweet smelling bodies and soft smiles.

It was awesome. Really awesome.

And I think we woke up there. But with time the way it is, I was not worried. I knew we'd be going right back to
that spot.

So did Fleur and we both tried to think of our own questions and then she said, "Ah ta hell with it! We'll likely
find out the answers to most of our questions as we're given that tour they're talkin' about."

I agreed. "Did you smell them? Up close. I'm usually made sick by perfume. This didn't and you sure couldn't
call it anything but sweet."

She nodded. "Y'know. They mentioned a scientist. Maybe that'll answer a few of those questions we've been
asking each other. Y'know, about why we look so similar in some ways."

I grinned widely and raised my eyebrows at her. "Oh you mean in those ways."

She nodded and shook her head. "Did you see that? Every single one of them was really well hung!"

Johnathan sat there in the bed between us and just smiled. He kept a lot of things to himself because he
wanted me to remember them on my own. We thought it would be better to do so after the accident. To try and
recall things myself might help that part of my brain heal. Who knows?