Room for Rent: Spacious, Good View [IC]

[Fox]

Shaking his head, Tarrant chuckled and led the way back through his tunnel (Hm. I need to remember to fix that up sooner rather than later. I'm pretty sure I ate out part of the second-floor supports there....) toward the heavy front gate and Stesha's throne. "I wouldn't mind a good meal, if it's not too much of a bother," he agreed as they walked, rolling a shoulder and wincing. "Moving that much rock is...I don't know, energizing - thrilling, maybe - but after the joy wears off you realize it takes a lot out of you. Heh - after I made the bee hive, I slept for almost two days straight - breaks pretty much just for teaching and eating. I think half my students thought I was drunk or off depressing medication, or something."

[Electra]

"Here, let me drive then," Stesha offered with a smile. "Take a load off." She reached out and took his hand, then put her other hand on Bay-bee's head. In a moment, one of the giant coral bells she'd created for the little bee grew even larger, descending over them like a bedsheet falling on their heads.

Moments later, they appeared in front of the massive hive, which was even busier than last time Tarrant had been there. The adult bees were all occupied with any number of activities, and there were also a half-dozen more bees Bay-bee's size flitting hither and yon, all with the same loopy bumbliness that suggested they weren't quite steady on their wings yet. "There you go," Stesha told Bay-bee, "get on home now." The little bee flew up to join her siblings, after waving goodbye to the humans with her antennae.

Before Stesha could teleport them again, some sharp eyed bee caught sight of them and raised the alert. "IT IZZ GAIANIGHT! HE HAZZZ BEETURNED TO OUR HIVEZZZ!" Suddenly the air was full of excited giant bees, all heading towards them. Their interest was not aggressive, just very enthusiastic. "DO YOU ZEE?" another asked Tarrant hopefully. "WE HAVE UZZED THE HIVEZZ YOU MADE FOR UZZ. IT IZZ HOME TO OUR COLONY AND OUR YOUNGLINGZZZ."

[Fox]

'Gaianight' took half a step back in the middle of waving goodbye to Bay-bee, a couple small rocks pulling up off the ground before he got back his reflexes back under control. Aggressive or not, seeing a bunch of massive, massive bees flying toward you was a hell of a thing. "Ah. Um. Hello," he managed, reminding himself that they were really quite nice bees (even if they could probably snap him in half like a twig). "I'm glad you're enjoying it. Is it holding up okay? Still plenty of room for the new children?"

[Electra]

"IZZ VERY GOOD," one of the larger bees assured Tarrant. Stesha seemed to have some way to distinguish between at least some of the bees, but they all looked very much alike. "THE QUEEN HAZZ FLOWN, AND NOW SHE MAKEZZ THE BABY BEEZZ, VERY MANY OF THEM! MORE THAN WHEN WE WERE SLAVEZZ OF THE BEEKEEPER AND LIVED UNDER THE GROUND!"

"THE WATER IZZ VERY GOOD TOO," another one reported. "IT IZZ CLEANER AND BEETER THAN THE RIVER, KEEPZZ THE QUEEN COOL, LETZZ UZZ BUILD FASTER. UZZEFUL!"

"WE ZZTILL NEED A HOT TUB!" another bee interjected urgently. "LIKE ON ZHE TELEVIZZON, FILLED WIZZ ZHAMPAGNE!" He waggled his antennae for emphasis.

"ZZHUT UP, CURL-BEE," the first bee said impatiently. "ZZHE DRONEZZ DO NOT NEED A HOT TUB FULL OF ANYZHING!"

[Fox]

Laughing, Tarrant held up a hand. "No, no...it's not a bad idea, exactly. I don't think Miss Fleur wants to buy or make a bee-sized hot tub's worth of champagne, of course, but some extra heating in the winter might not be so bad. I'll tell you what: when it gets cold again, remind me and I'll see about heating up your water supply a little. It should keep the hive warmer, and give anyone who had to go outside a nice place to heat back up." And me time to practice, he added, but only to himself. Heating their water pool would probably mean finding some sort of nearby geothermal vent or magma tube, and that wasn't the kind of thing you bring close to a dwelling without having a pretty good idea of what you're doing and how you're doing it.

[Electra]

Stesha chuckled at the bee byplay. "Don't let him talk you into too much," she warned Tarrant, "the drones have all sorts of ideas they got from television. Now that the hive is done, the workers have been making all sorts of interior improvements. If you'd like to go inside, you can see the sleeping chambers, the honey storage, the larvae chambers, it's quite impressive. But we might want to put that off in favor of lunch."

She raised her voice to address the bees. "Gaian Knight is moving here to Sanctuary to live with us. He has made a castle up past the sunset side of the forest!" There was a wave of general bee-acclaim at that news, Stesha let it quiet before continuing. "Gaian Knight has made his castle with rooms big enough for bees to visit, but you must not go inside unless you are invited!" She looked to Tarrant to see if he had anything to add.

[Fox]

Tarrant rubbed the back of his head, pondering. "It's not really done," he addressed the bees, "so be a little careful where you go looking. And a lot of it, I'm afraid, isn't really bee-sized. Well, giant-bee-sized, anyway. Ah, don't make a mess, please, especially when I get some nicer things in there...and if you're curious, you can all go take a look for the next couple of days without asking, and get it out of your system. I can't promise I'll be around here all the time, but if I'm around you're welcome to come on up if you need anything."

[Electra]

The idea of visiting Gaian Knight's new home met with general acclaim, at least the overwhelming buzzing sounded cheerful anyway. A phalanx of worker bees formed up in the sky above the hive and zoomed off in the direction of the castle, apparently taking the invitation quite seriously. "That should keep them busy for awhile," Stesha murmured to Tarrant with a chuckle. "We can probably sneak back and have lunch while they're investigating, if you don't mind them exploring without you."

[Fox]

Tarrant snorted, whispering with a tone of overblown mock conspiracy. "Are you kidding? We should get going while the going's good!" He chuckled, watching the group fly off until they were the size his instincts were pretty sure bees should be. "There's not much there that they can destroy, honestly. Not yet. All I had to work with was stone, so that's all they'll find there...even if they did manage to break something, I could put it back up. Goodness knows I have some repair work ahead of me anyway."

He opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it, quirking an eyebrow. "I was about to say something along the lines of, 'What are they going to do, bring down the islands?', but, ah, in this line of work maybe it's best not to tempt fate. If anyone could find a way, it'd be giant, talking bees."

[Electra]

"They're surprisingly dexterous," Stesha assured him, "they shouldn't hurt anything while they're visiting. And unlike the little ones, the big ones have a strong grasp of where they can go without getting stuck." With another laugh she teleported them back to her cozy plant house, which had grown since last time Tarrant had visited. Stesha had obviously been doing expansions. The main room still looked much the same, though the kitchenette had a real sink now instead of just bottled water and a basin. "Have a seat," she invited, gesturing to the table. "Lunch will be right up."

[Fox]

Tarrant glanced around, whistling. "Man. A house that literally grows as you need it to. It's probably a little weird to say after what I just spent the day doing, but that's gotta be pretty handy." He chuckled, pulling his goggles down around his neck. "Floating castles made in a day, plant houses that can be told to add to themselves...somewhere back in Freedom City, a contractor weeps."

The dirt and dust that liked to cling to him while he was working flowed across him, collecting in one hand to keep it from getting on anything in Stesha's house. "Do you need help with lunch?" he asked, tucking the little dirt-crafted rock away in a coat pocket.

[Electra]

"But think of the nightmare it would be to get permits here," Stesha joked, walking over to the kitchenette. "Everything is already made," she told him, "I just have to get it out of the fridge. Be right back." With that she touched the flowers in her hair and disappeared, leaving Tarrant alone in the cozy flower-scented cottage. It wasn't more than a couple of minutes, though, before she was back, this time carrying a tray of meats and cheeses, a reusable grocery bag full of condiments, and two loaves of crusty fresh-baked bread. "Nothing too fancy," she told him, "but I just baked the bread this morning. My poor bread machine is going to seize up and die from all the dough I've been making lately."

She set all the sandwich fixings on the table, then went to the minifridge for bottles of water. That was a bit of a challenge, as bending over for anything was these days, but she managed by holding onto the counter. "How has school been going for you?" she asked as she returned to the table and sat down.

[Fox]

Tarrant inhaled, deeply, with the pleased expression of someone for whom fresh-baked goods brought back good memories. "Fancy's all well and good, but there's certainly something to be said for simple, delicious food," he assured her, taking a seat and twisting the top off his bottle. "Thank you, it looks and smells wonderful. And school...well, is school." He grimaced a little, but more with good-natured long-suffering than actual dissatisfaction. "I mostly teach freshmen...who are after easy science credits more often than not, or a few credits or hours to round out their semester. Finals come in a week or two, though, so that's at least keeping me busy."

He raised an eyebrow, sipping the water. "From the work they've done so far, I'm guessing maybe three quarters of my basic geology class will get a passing grade. But I'm told I'm a pretty nice grader."

[Electra]

"Ah, those were the days, huh?" Stesha asked with a laugh. "I remember having to round out my general education credits with history and math classes, since I was majoring in plant biology. I didn't mind the English requirements, but the math was tough. It's funny how I graduated just four years ago, and it seems like a lifetime now." She was attacking her own lunch with relish, having worked up an excellent appetite helping out with the castle's landscaping. "Do you have any particularly promising students this year?"

[Fox]

"A couple," Tarrant admitted, stealing some bread and meat when he was sure he wouldn't get his hand bitten. "I'd say...maybe five that actually seem to enjoy the class, two of which might be future earth science majors. All but one of those five could probably flunk the final and still pass, which is a refreshing change - the one whose grade wouldn't withstand that seems to like the work, but he's missed a lot of labs." He shrugged helplessly, taking a bite of bread (with an approving noise) and waiting until he'd swallowed. "He doesn't want to talk about why; I'm guessing it's some sort of personal drama."

[Electra]

Stesha chuckled at that. "Maybe you should shadow him one of these days," she suggested, mostly in jest. "He might be one of us. I'm sure you've probably felt the pain of having to duck out or cancel a class to go handle a heroic emergency, imagine if you couldn't reschedule things and just had to miss! But you're probably right and it's some sort of trouble with a girl. That's one thing I don't miss about college. I never dated because my dad was a professor and I had three obnoxiously protective older brothers, but it seemed like everybody around me was neck deep in drama all the time. It was exhausting just to watch!"

[Fox]

"Ugh. Don't remind me," Tarrant laughed, gesturing with his bottle of water before taking a drink. "I did some dating, and had some drama of my own, but some people just seem to jump into that stuff headfirst. I knew a person or two in grad school that...well, I'm just amazed they had time to get any work done at all!" He grinned, shaking his head, and added, "As long as he keeps his grade up - mostly, anyway - I figure the least I can do is offer him some space. Freshmen don't want their professors poking their noses into their personal lives, and I figure that if they can put up with me having to cancel class on short notice when some idiot rides a mutant gummy bear into campus, I can try to give suspiciously absent students their space."

[Electra]

"That's true," she agreed thoughtfully, "or it might be worth it to call him in and say you were hoping for better from him. I'm sure some kids come from high schools where they were able to excel with very minimal effort. Having someone expect more might be a surprise, even a wakeup call. It'd be a shame to waste his talent, but we both know that outside of school, no one he works for is going to care what his personal dramas are when there's work to be done and he's expected to be there. Would you like some applesauce?" she added, switching beats suddenly. "I just realized I forgot it at my apartment, but I can pop right back."

[Fox]

Tarrant blinked. "Applesauce? Only if you want some too," he chuckled, pointing accusingly at Stesha. "Even if you can teleport around I'm not sure it's really worth the trouble for just me. And...yeah, if he was in our department - just majoring, or a grad student, or something - I'd probably try to pull him aside and talk to him. As it is...." He grimaced, and helplessly shook his head. "The kid's going to pass the class with a pretty good grade as long as he doesn't miss the final. It's borderline, but for now I'm trying to keep my nose out of it."

[Electra]

"That's fair enough," Stesha decided. "Hopefully he'll get himself straightened out. Most people do eventually. I'll be back in just a minute." She rose from the table and disappeared, leaving only the faint smell of flowers in her wake. A minute passed, then two, with no sign of her return. It was very quiet out in the woods, he noticed, with very few birds and small animals left to make any noise. The whole world was quiet... except for a rustling, crunching-shells noise that seemed to be getting closer. Suddenly, there was an urgent knock on the cottage's wooden front door.

[Fox]

Tarrant sat patiently, slowly helping himself to some bread and cheese while he waited. He had to admit, not for the first time, that it was a pretty nice house; very...cozy. Comfortable, too. I'm going to have to start thinking about furnishings...and on a teacher's budget. Hrm. Some stuff I could always make, but for the rest I might have to poke around old-

Suddenly, there was an urgent knock on the cottage's wooden front door.

He blinked, glancing at where Stesha had been, but she obviously hadn't yet reappeared. He grimaced and glanced back at the cottage entrance. That sounded...insistent. Well, okay, then. Time to pull my weight. He put his food down, pulled his goggles and face cloth back into place, and opened the door. "Er, the lady of the cottage isn't in right now, but...."

[Electra]

Tarrant vaguely recognized the dark-haired, rough-hewn man at the door as one of the refugees he'd helped build sod homes for, a recognition aided mightily by process of elimination. There simply weren't that many people on Sanctuary, so even in his nearly-new blue jeans, jacket, and work shoes, it wasn't hard to tell. The man certainly recognized him in turn, snapping off a respectful salute. "Gaian Knight! We didn't hear you were coming! We need Fleur de Joie, there was a fire, and people is hurt. The cookhouse it's still smoking and could maybe get into the trees if the wind changes. She's here, innit she?" he asked worriedly.

[Fox]

Gaian Knight immediately snapped out of relaxation mode, straightening up and glancing in the direction he was pretty sure held the refugee's settlement. "No, she isn't. But I am," he replied, patting at his coat for paper and a pencil. The one time I forget to have them with me....

He pulled out a couple of the many rocks in his pockets, flowing them together into an honest-to-goodness stone tablet, on which was etched a succinct note about where he was and what was happening; said tablet got placed on the table almost before it was even done, the geomantic man already on his way out the door and assembling a stone platform with standing room for two. "Hopefully she'll be back soon, but in the meantime I think we're going to have to do what we can without her."

[Electra]

The settler got onto the platform without hesitation; he had watched Gaian Knight at work and obviously had no qualms about the hero's skills. It was only a few miles to the pretty and pastoral area Fleur had created for her refugees, a broad pasture surrounded by trees, with a cluster of sod houses around a central windmill-powered well. A generator provided some power, and through her contacts, Fleur had been gradually supplying them with what would be considered bare necessities of life on Prime. The first thing Tarrant saw was the plume of smoke rising into the air as they crested a hill, and as they drew closer he could see the charred and smoldering building with anxious people milling around nearby. Several of them began pointing and waving their arms at the flying pair.

[Fox]

Gaian Knight brought himself and the man in to the edge of the crowd, letting the rock he'd been riding settle to the ground to let his passenger off. Okay, Tarrant - hero mode time. "Fleur de Joie isn't here," he announced, raising his voice to make sure he was heard as well as could be expected when there was a smoldering building nearby to distract people. "Hopefully she'll be back soon, but for now, I'm all you've got. So who wants to get me caught up on what happened?"

He glanced at said smoldering building, wincing. "Quickly would be best. I really hope no one's still in or under there?"