Beyond Space & Time

Atlas kind of wanted to get back to their own dimension as quickly as possible, to help the citizens who needed it. But without knowing where the one who'd brought them here was, they couldn't do anything. It made Atlas a little antsy. She looked to Wolfie, letting him decide.

They did - but the people in their universe didn't. Atlas was in turmoil internally but externally she calmed herself and smiled slightly. So long as she was with Wolfie, she could be alright.

"Sounds just like us," Atlas said, smiling at the thought. It was nice to think that there were some universal constants. It seemed elder Atlas was thinking the same thing as she smiled warmly. "I know where we can go for now," she said. "It's somewhere I haven't taken my Wolf yet, so you probably haven't taken your little one with you," she said to Wolfie.

Elder Atlas pulled her Wolf in close and blasted off into space, taking them towards a brightly coloured nebula. Wolfie would probably recognise this place. They approached planet of blue and green, and as they descended towards the ground they realised everything here was like a meadow on Earth - but much, much larger. There were towering flowers and grass blades the height of houses. And insects, enormous insects. Atlas 'ooh'ed in excitement. What a beautiful place!

"Woooow!" Atlas crooned as they flew closer to the surface. "We aren't just here to sight-see, though," Elder Atlas said, dripping with the smugness of knowing what was up. "Looking down there." She pointed towards a clump of white flowers, atop which sat an enormous honeybee the size of a horse. On its body were a couple of small, oddly coloured creatures that didn't resemble any insects from Earth. "There's an alien infestation taking over this planet," Atlas explained. "The delicate ecosystem is being destroyed. We can help them but first we have to prove to the natives that we're worth more to them than a squishy snack. Shall we?" She turned to Wolfie before diving down to the bee and ripping one of the parasites off of its back. The bee bucked up in surprise and the parasite shrieked as Elder Atlas crushed it to death with ease. There was still one more on the bee though.

Both of the parasites were taken care of so Wolf jumping in was unnecessary. Atlas followed him down and watched as the bee shook its body like a dog shaking water out of its fur, before turning to look at Atlas and Wolfie. She appeared to be studying them. Satisfied, she clacked her mandibles a few times before taking off into the air, her wings throwing up a surprisingly massive shockwave of displaced air. They could hear her still clacking away to herself as she flew up. "Alright, we're safe here now," Elder Atlas said. "That bee is telling everyone that we can help them with their infestation. We're more useful to them than just a meal now." Atlas 'ooh'ed in wonder.

"Indeed," Elder Atlas said, clapping her hands twice. "But in the meantime, we can also sight-see and such. I've heard many things about the nectar on this planet, and the honey the bees make here is the liquid magic, they say." Her stomach growled loudly, making younger Atlas giggle. "Oh I see. You were just hungry," she teased, and the pair of them giggled together. Despite being from different universes, and thousands of years apart in age, their giggle was exactly the same. It was a bit creepy.

"We should have a prize for the winner," said Atlas. "I agree," her elder self agreed. "But maybe, a prize between myself and Wolfie, and between yourself and Wolf. Seeing as we are clearly superior so there is no competition," she joked, grinning. Atlas was about to argue when they heard a rumbling sound approaching them. It was more bees, flying towards them from out of the sky. All of them had at least one parasite on them.

And so they began, cleaning each bee as they came. At first they were weary of the small soft creatures, but when a few of them had been preened of parasites they were more trusting. They themselves were too big and clumsy to help one another so they had to rely on the smaller creatures to help. It was long work, but soon enough they had helped thousands of bees. A few of them started nudging and pushing the vertebrates, wanting them to go somewhere. "Maybe it's time to visit the hive," Elder Atlas suggested.

"I'm gonna rescue the queen!" Atlas whooped, jumping onto a bee's back and letting it fly off with her. Huh, Elder Atlas had been just about to do that. She commandeered a bee of her own and soared into the air. Flying through the giant grass and flowers, this was what it felt like to be a tiny insect. It was amazing and disorientating. They could see many other kinds of insects too - beetles, flies, butterflies. They really did look like Earth insects too, Atlas could even name some of the butterfly species. What was up with that...?

They flew for a little while, taking in the sights and sounds of this magical world, until they arrived at the hive. It was an enormous structure, like a skyscraper, and was rumbling like thunder with all the bees that were inside. They were taken in, into a soaring mass of orange wax structures, and roomed-sized hexagonal pools filled with honey. The smell in here was divine, though the height of it was dizzying. The guests were taken down a spiralling tunnel through the pools of honey, past countless works and hundreds of squishy white grubs that were being fed by smaller bees. Then they reach a large chamber, inside which was the queen. She was much larger than all of the others bees, and had an unnerving intelligence in her compound eyes.

There was in fact one very large parasite, hunched over the queen's back. As she gave birth to another grub, the parasite stabbed it with its tube-like tail, planting a tiny baby parasite into the surface of its skin. The grub shrieked but there was nothing the bees or queen could do. The queen parasite had its mouth parts latched onto the back of the queen's neck. Maybe this was why the bees weren't attacking the parasites, because if they did their queen would be killed. "If we kill it, do you think all its babies will start dying?" Atlas asked.