"Get a life! And don't come back." The noise of Mrs Bud shouts could be heard right through Prata.
A newly unemployed servant Shot out of the Buds front door with a very large imprint of Mrs Buds shoe size on his back end.
Nelly rubbed the sleep from her eyes and rolled out of bed. It was quite normal for her to be awoken by the noise of a servant being sacked. She walked over to her bedroom window and glanced out over the cobbled street.
The servant was already halfway down the road. There were only a few clouds in the spring sky. Only two more days to the graduation of the exam. A bird flapped passed her window.
She opened it a couple of inches to let the morning smells seep into her room. She changed into suitable clothing for the day and headed down for breakfast.
Her father and mother was listing to Mr Jones as he talked about his work in the Queen's Council.
"Good morning Dove." Mrs Bud said as she laid her eyes on her still half asleep daughter. She took a seat at the table and waited for one of the many servants to serve her.
"So what are we going to do with the rebellion?" Asked her father. Mr Jones sat opposite of him sucking on a bone pipe which was ornately carved. He blew a cloud of smoke into the room.
"I can't say that I know. There are rumors of war, nothing more." Mr Jones said. He took another puff.
"Do you really have to use that beastly thing in here?" Mrs Bud asked coughing. "You are aware of what the ancestors wrote in their books about how smoking can course your body to die faster than the normal rate?" She asked Mr Jones, still coughing.
He blew out more smoke and smiled.
"We, the QC have cured that problem a long time ago." He took another puff.
Mr bud put down his fork on the empty plate and changed the subject.
"The prices for fruit and vegetables have gone up so much in the past couple of weeks. I hear that the fields and forests between the villages, towns, and cities are dying rapidly. With you driving through the countryside to get here, you must have seen the effects of the disease?"
Mr Bud asked excitedly and sadly at the same time.
Mr Jones laid his pipe down next to his empty plate.
"It is true. But there is hope, the QC is working night and day to make a powerful antidote to battle the bacteria."
Finding the conversation interesting, Nelly deciding that she was no longer hungry waved a waiting servant away.
"A letter for Mr Jones." A servant came walking into the room with a metal tray. The servant handed a envelope to Mr Jones and them turned and left the room. Mr Jones broke the seal and read the letter. Is face changed shape and the returned to its normal calmness. He then rolled to letter up and lite the end of it with the embers of his pipe. He placed the burning letter onto his plate.
"I will leave tomorrow morning. I am needed back at my labs in the QC."
A servant came and took the plate of smoldering embers away. Nelly watched as the servant went. What secrets did the letter hold for Mr Jones to burn it? She thought.
"What a shame, it would be nice if you could stay longer." Mr Bud said in dismay.
"Well I hope you have finished your personal business here in Prata." Mrs Bud said as she placed another piece of egg into her large mouth.
"Not quite." Mr Jones whispered so only Nelly could just hear him. He was a mysterious man. When he asked a week before if he could stay at Mr Buds house, Bud couldn't say no even if he wanted too because of Jones's status in the QC's council.
Nelly was still turning Jones's words around in her head when he got up from the table and left the room. She started to get up from her seat as well to fallow him.
"Honey aren't you going to have anything to eat?" Mrs Bud asked in surprise.
"I am not feeling so good; I think I will go and work with my hive." She lied. Her mother looked worried. Before she could say anything more to her, Nelly had already left the room.
Nelly fallowed Mr Jones down the street at a safe distance. People where about their daily routines. Many said "Hi" to Jones as he walked by.
Nelly fallowed Mr Jones all the way to the towns old folks home where she hid behind a bush close enough to hear the brief words that exchanged between Mr Jones and Mrs Right.
"Good morning Mr Jones. I heard that you were in town, how long are you staying?" Mrs Right asked smiling.
"I am planning to leave this evening, ah, do you know where Jack would be?" He asked.
She still had a smile on her face but Nelly sow it twitch when he asked.
"Ya, he's um, he's in apiary field 9 working on his hive."
Mr Jones thanked her and started to walk towards the edge of town.
"That would be Apiary field 9!" She shouted out the door after him.
He didn't make any movement to tell that he had heard her.
After waiting for Mrs Right to go back inside, Nelly fled from her bush after Mr Jones.
Instead of heading straight to Apiary field 9 like Nelly had expected Mr Jones headed to an abandoned honey trading building that stood near the Apiary fields. He disappeared into it.
Nelly stood waiting outside. After not coming back out, Nelly was wondering if she should go and find Jack, but as she started to walk towards the field that held Jacks hive Mr Jones came back out holding a package.
He saw Nelly and thought she was just walking by to her own hive.
"Nelly!" He shouted.
Nelly turned around thinking that he knew what she had been doing.
"Can you please rush this to the post office, and if your quick I will give you a dollar." He said smiling.
Excellent, thought Nelly. She took the package from him and started to run towards the post office.
There was something hard metal like thing in the package.
As soon as she was out of sight she opened the package. In side was a glass box with bees inside of it.
"Why would he want to post a box of bees?" She said annoyed.
"That is none of you business." Said Mr Jones behind her.
She turned around like the wind. He quickly placed a rage over her noise. She started to struggle with his grip. She slowly stopped and fell unconscious.
&
The sun shone brightly and the bees buzzed from flower to flower.
Jack carefully checked the brood frames for any signs of disease.
The Varroa Destructor seemed to be under control, so that side of things he didn't need to worry about.
Mr Lodovico watched Jack as he chewed on a pie.
"Mrs Right can make really good pies." He said with his mouth full of pie.
Jack nodded. He placed the frame back into the box.
"Jack do you know when that type of hive was invented?" Mr Lodovico asked with his mouth full of pie.
Jack shook his head.
"They don't allow this information out to the public anymore since Apis became the leader of QC."
Apis was the head of the QC at that time, he had been at the head of power as long as Jack can remember and probably longer.
"Anyway," Mr Lodovico continued. "The hive was created in AD 1852 by Mr Longstroth. A thousand years later we are still using it. You know what that means?"
Jack shook his head yet again.
"We don't seem to move forwards." He said, finishing his pie.
Jack looked at the hive. A piece of a thousand year old invention he used everyday or rather the whole QC Nation used every day.
"I hear my old Tutor is back in town." Jack said after a while. Mr Lodovico's face clouded over.
"Really? It would be nice to catch up." He said.
Jack didn't hear the fear in his voice.
"I was wondering if I could take the afternoon off, so that I could call around and catch up." Jack said.
"Sure, um yes." The bees buzzed angrily around Mr Lodovico as if he was hiding something.
"Ok, thank you Mr Lodovico." Jack placed the supers back on top of each other and headed towards town leaving Mr Lodovico standing alone in meadow.
In his anger, Mr Lodovico tipped a neighboring hive over. Which in the end was not a vary good idea. The angry bees chased poor Lodovico across the meadow.
As Jack neared the town center Mr Jones walked out of the post office. He looked flustered and annoyed. He smiled when he spotted Jack.
"You look more like your father since I sow you last." He said still smiling. He had slowed his pace and stopped a couple of feet away from where Jack was standing.
"You knew my father?" Jack asked. Mr Jones glanced at a cafe off to the edge of the town square.
"Of a way yes, why don't we talk about it over a drink." Jones started to head over to the cafe, Jack fallowed him.
After sitting down and a waitress had served them, Mr Jones started to speak.
"Your father and mother were impotent people in the Queen's Council. And as you know your mother was brutally murdered by the rebellion, and your father disappeared." He said sadly.
"Anyway, I came back to Prata to ask you if you want to join us at the QC as an apprentice."
Jack's heart seemed to miss a beat.
"You mean actually work with all the equipment and stuff?" Jack asked. The couple at the next table lent in to hear a reply.
"Yes, you will be working with all the equipment." Mr Jones said smiling. "And you will also get paid." The people at the next table seemed to mumble between themselves, Mr Jones ignored them.
"But what about my qualification here and Mr Lodovico? I can't just leave, can I?" Jack asked.
"You wont need normal qualification where your going. And Mr Lodovico will find another apprentice to teach." Mr Jones said sipping his cold drink.
"When are you planning to leave?"
"This evening."
Jack played with his cup in thought. "Can I get back to you later on, I need to think it over."
Jones seemed to be annoyed, he had been expecting a yes straight away.
"Well then, we can meet up again here this evening." Mr Jones said reluctantly.
Jack got up and started to walk towards the old folks home. Mr Jones watched as he went.
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