CH 7: Sap and Suckers

It was about time we got to do something more interesting: a field trip to Forever Fall Forest. Glynda was chaperoning and enlisted us to collect tree sap—what for I do not know. Allegedly we were collecting it for a 'Professor Peach' who I've never seen or heard of before. I'm assuming that either she or Ozpin were devising some sort of mind control device or that one of them had a massive sweet tooth. Anyway, we split into groups based on our teams, but Jaune was dragged off by Cardin Winchester.

I found a tree, that I admit was a slightly different color, but I didn't think it mattered. It had softer bark than the others, so getting the sap out was a lot easier. As I finished filling my jar, I walked over to where the rest of my team and team Jnpr minus Jaune were collecting their sap.

"Um… Zaine, are you sure that's the right sap?" Ruby asked me.

I looked at theirs then back at mine and noticed that mine was a shade of red-orange-gold while theirs was a deep fuchsia. Glynda said we needed 'red sap' so I figured this was good enough. Weiss, however, wasn't in agreement with that logic.

"Of course it's not the right sap, it's the wrong color," Weiss scoffed.

"Well, how was I supposed to know? Neither of them are actually red," I scoffed back, "besides this is what tree sap is supposed to look like."

"What tree did you get it from?" Ren asked, peeping into the conversation.

"That big one over there," I said as I pointed out the tree.

Listen, I've never been much of a nature guy, alright? I've probably accidently burned down a forest or two in a past life, but I was never the best at navigating them.

"That… isn't a tree," he responded.

"Well, then… what is it?"

"…It's… a hive."

"Honey!" Nora exclaimed.

"Wait, you mean a bee hive?" I asked.

"Duh, what other kind of hive would it be, you doofus?" Weiss asked.

"I don't know, rapier wasps maybe?"

"Actually, these aren't regular honey bees or rapier wasps. I believe this is a nest of dragonbees," Ren pointed out.

"Why… does that sound intimidating?" I asked, intimidated.

"Because dragonbees are a form of grimm," Ren said in a monotone voice.

"What?!"

"But their honey is actually quite delicious. It is very spicy and makes for great chili."

"Spicy, huh?" I said. I happen to adore spicy food. I dipped my finger in and tried some. "Wow! This is great!" I exclaimed.

"Oh, come on. You didn't even flinch. It can't be that spicy." Ruby said as she dipped her finger in to try some.

I have to say, the look on her face was priceless. It immediately shifted to a deep red. I think I even saw some steam come out of her ears (meh, maybe that part was just my imagination).

"AHHH! HOT HOT HOT!" She screamed as she ran around in circles. She was in the process of frantically trying to wipe the spiciness off of her tongue, "lahg—lah—are you evthen human?!"

The honest answer to that question is… no, I thought to myself.

"Ruby! Pipe down, you'll draw the attention of the bees," Weiss called out in a scolding whisper as a faint buzzing sound started to come from inside of the tree shaped hive and slowly intensify.

"Sowrry…" she responded, her tongue still out.

"You okay, Ruby? Cat got your tongue?" Yang said as she appeared along with Blake and Pyrrha.

"Acthuawthy, it thwaws thiths thspithy hothey."

"What is she talking about?" Yang asked me.

"It's not my fault she couldn't handle it," I responded jokingly.

"Handle what?" she asked me.

"This, awesome spicy honey," I said as I took another finger full without flinching. "Mm…."

"Oh yea, give me that," she said as she took the jar and prepared to take a big swig.

Everyone's eyes widened.

"No, no!" Just about everyone said in some regard.

Meanwhile, Ruby, "YANG, NOOOOOOO!"

Well, the deed was done… I blame myself.

"WOAAH! HOOOOOOT! HOOOOOOOOT!"

This time I'm sure it wasn't my imagination. Yang literally breathed fire. The entire forest shook and birds retreated from every tree within a mile. From that, the hive shook violently and thousands of small, beelike grimm (dragonbees) started to form a swarm.

"Well, that's not good," Pyrrha said.

The swarm started to flock, and everyone backed up.

"It's ok," Ren assured us. "They're only attracted by large amounts of heat. We should be fine."

Did he just say… heat?! SHIT! I thought. Sure enough, the swarm came right after me... Oh, the PAIN.

"AAAHHHH!" I yelled as I ran frantically in circles around the forest trying to shake off as many as I could. For the minute I completely forgot about the fact that I had blink.

"Wait, then why are they all going after Zaine?" Pyrrha asked.

"What kind of heat were you talking about exactly?" Yang added.

"…why do you ask?" Ren responded.

"Oh, no reason," she said smiling while glancing over at the shit-show.

"Instead of worrying about why they're chasing him, shouldn't we help him or something?" Blake asked.

"Oh, he'll be fiiine," Nora said, "They only start to kill you after like 30 or so stings."

"That's a lot more than 30 bees," Ruby said, immediately taking out crescent rose and becoming a lot more worried.

At that moment, I ran by again. "AHHHH!"

Ruby tried to swipe at the swarm a few times, but only caught air and a few dragonbees, which zoomed around her face, causing her to lose her composure. She managed to get them off, but in the process wound up getting dizzy and falling over.

"That sure went well," Nora said sarcastically as Ruby picked herself up and wiped the dust off of her clothes.

"We need to try something else! Ren, you seem to be the expert here, so how do you deal with these things?" Ruby asked him, annoyed at this point.

"Hm… I think I skipped that part," Ren replied.

"Whaa?"

"Wait, didn't you get the highest score on the grimm exam?" Weiss asked him.

"Yes, I got a 99."

"So?! Think!"

"Hm… Oh! I remember!"

"What, how do you beat them?" Ruby asked.

"I remembered that the answer to the question about how to neutralize dragonbees…" Everyone leaned in, " …was the one I got wrong." Everyone fell flat after that.

"WHAT?!" I hollered, still running from the bees.

"Well, like Ruby said, we need to do something," Pyrrha said, as she pulled out milo's rifle form and started shooting into the swarm.

"Woah! They're shooting at me now!" I called out, not knowing where the bullets were coming from.

"I'm Sorry! Well… this isn't going to work," she said. "There's too many of them, and they're too small to hit."

"They are naturally resistant to and attracted by heat… so perhaps something cold will slow them down," Ren inquired. Everyone immediately look at Weiss.

"What am I supposed to do?" She asked.

"Um… Oh, I know! Ice flower!" Ruby suggested.

"Are you sure? I thought we were still practicing that one," Weiss responded, concerned.

"Well, now's a better time than any to try it out!" Ruby responded, "He's circling back! Ice flower! Now!"

With that, Weiss created a few glyphs in front of Ruby, who aimed crescent rose through them, right at me and the swarm who were heading straight for them.

"Zaine, Jump!" Ruby called to me.

"Jump? Here?" I responded as I ran towards them.

"Anywhere, just jump! Now!" Well this seems awfully familiar, I thought.

Right as I reached them, I jumped into the air, right over the glyph and over Ruby, and… didn't quite make it over Weiss. But as I was in the air, Ruby fired repeatedly.

"YAHH!" She yelled as she unloaded crescent rose.

Her shots created ice blasts as they passed through the glyphs in front of her and after only few moments, the entire swarm was frozen solid.

"It… worked!" I exclaimed as I fell over in a heap. "Thanks a ton, Ruby."

"Oh it was nothing," She responded with a smile.

"Hey, what about me?! You practically used me as a landing platform!" Weiss interjected, as she too sat up, having been sent to the ground by my landing.

"Oh, yea. Thanks, Weiss," I said from the floor.

"Looks like somebody's energy got sapped," Yang said as she and Ruby helped me up off the ground.

"Un-bee-lievable," I said with a faint grin.

"Um I hate to be the one to rain on the parade, but…" Pyrrha started.

"What?" Weiss asked.

"The bees are… thawing."

Everyone looked at each other for a minute, then back at the bees, which were generating heat and starting to move around inside the ice block.

"Yea, we should run," Ruby said. And with that, we all fled the scene.

We managed to find a better spot to collect tree sap, after putting a good distance between ourselves and the dragonbees. While we were finishing up, we heard some commotion from Jaune and Cardin's group. A massive ursa was attacking Cardin and John! We thought about helping, but Jaune managed to take it down on his own… well, Pyrrha gave some help with her polarity, but we decided to let Jaune have his victory.

Despite how much of a jerk Cardin had been to Jaune lately, Jaune saved his ass. After that, I guess Cardin decided to leave him alone. But, that didn't mean he would stop being a jerk altogether. Sooner or later, somebody was still going to have to teach him another lesson.

After we got back, I was covered in stings—it wasn't even funny. I could barely move for several days. Ruby had to help me put ointment on my back.

"Ow… ow. Ow, ow…" I muttered as she applied the ointment.

"Oh, don't be a cry baby," Yang said.

"Easy for you to say…"

"Hey, I got stung by a bee once."

"Yea once. Try fifty times in one day."

At that moment there was a knock on the door. Blake answered it. It was Ren.

"How's he holding up?" He asked.

"He'll be ok," she responded.

"OW!"

"Sorry…"

"It's a wonder he even survived. Normally even twenty stings can be enough to kill, even with the protection of an aura."

"Yea, I guess he's pretty tough, huh," Blake responded, a bit suspicious.

The truth is, if it weren't for the fact that I have a natural resistance to poison from being a phoenix, I probably would have died.

"Most definitely. Either way, I just wanted to let you all know, I remembered that dragonbees can be easily neutralized with electricity."

"Yea, thanks Ren, just in the nick of time." I called from inside of the room, "Ow…"

From that day on, I've always despised bees—especially dragonbees. But, their honey is still delicious.

End of CH 7