Pollen fell asleep in the forest, nestled deep in a bed of smushed grass. She slept and dreamt and did not stir until the sunlight hit her eyelids and she blinked herself awake in a matter of moments. Even her bees began to stir, crawling from the hive-home they’d made in her aster-bedecked mane. Honeycombs and purple blooms in the pale froth of hair that tumbled down her neck; she looked like some meadow-nymph that had wandered astray.
She stood and stretched and smiled at the trees. Clearly an odd girl but aren’t those always the best kind? The fringe-type folk that don’t quite seem to fit in. Pollen kind of likes the forest, and her bees were divided on it - some liked the prospect of the trees and others preferred the more open spaces. Their debates buzzed on in the background as she continued to look around.
There happened to be a little sun-dappled path off to the side that she noticed. It looked inviting and charming, as only those kinds of paths can look. Quaint, might be more apt and of course, she decided to take it. Those are the kinds of paths that lure curious girls like her into deep dark forests that fill themselves up with spiderwebs and howls. Not that Pollen was afraid at all.
Golden and slim, a train of bees trailing after her, she skittered down that path like a wild hare until noticing that the trees began to change all around her. Her progress slowed as she looked up in awe, staring and sometimes tripping over exposed roots. The trees had grown more massive and towering, redwoods she guessed. Mist crept around their bases and lent the air an eeriness that still did not manage to scare her.
If anything, she remained awed, certain the palpitations in her heart came from anticipation and excitement rather than fear and foreboding. Even her bees seemed more hushed than usual, opting to crawl back up under her hair or cling to the golden fur of her back in a line. It never occurred to her that she was trespassing, had crossed some invisible boundary designating this as something separate from the common lands.
Somehow, she had bypassed the hilly regions and stuck to this old enchanting path that kept her tucked up in the trees. Such mishaps were rarely given consideration; this place seemed to possess a magic all its own that was part of and independent from its denizens and she was not exempt from that. Not as she felt an unseen pull towards this place, creeping forth in hushed reverence with a gaze that was nearly rapturous in its worship of the trees until she tripped again —
“Ow!” Pollen muttered, grumbling unintelligibly just a little as she craned her head down to eye her foreleg. This was the third time she’d managed to go down on her knee and it’ll likely bruise or swell from all this carelessness and abuse. She takes to herself in consternation, jolting a few bees into flight from her back with her uncharacteristic fit of anger. Pollen knew they’d be back, not that they had gone far to begin with.
The bees sort of just hovered in front of her face, providing just the distraction she needed as she blew a friendly snort out at them and the bees caught the updraft of air with their wings and buzzed happily back at her. It left her standing there beneath the giant redwoods with a big grin on her face.
@[Nashua] ❤️