The Adventures And Mishaps of a Half-Plant Apothecary - Febuwhump 2024

Day 9 - Bees

CW: Dizziness, bees (obviously)

AN: wooo this one really didn't want to be written but I got it down anyways! enjoy

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Calixto is really starting to regret bringing Emery along on her mini expedition.

So far, the pair had been sidetracked at least three times, once because neither were very good at using maps and twice because someone had gotten distracted by something-or-other and ended up getting left behind.

It reallly doesn't know how it's dealt with Emery for this long.

Because you love her, its brain says.

It tells its brain to shut up.

Calixto glances behind it, making sure Emery hasn't wandered off too much. To its lack of surprise, Emery has stopped in her tracks to take a look at some interesting looking tree.

Typical.

"Hiya, Em," Calixto calls, "Whatcha lookin' at?"

Emery doesn't answer for a moment, before realising that Calixto was talking to her. She blushes. "Oh, uhm, I saw a beehive."

Calixto hums. "Oh?" It steps back toward Emery. Sure enough, there's a beehive, dangling on a branch just next to the path on which they're travelling. "Neat," it says.

Emery grins. "Right?"

Calixto pauses. "Well," it says, "Better be goin'. We should be by—" it glances down at the map— "Lyansi by the end of today, if we're quick."

Emery huffs, but starts speed-walking in the direction they're supposed to be going. "A'right."

Calixto glances back at the hive for a moment, before rushing to catch up with Emery, who is already a good distance ahead. "Hi, wait up—"

As Calixto swings back around, it accidentally bumps its arm onto the beehive. It lets out a startled squeak at the contact, before realising what it just did, a second too late.

"Em! Wait up!" it calls, trying to shake off the mass amounts of bees currently covering their arms. It flinches every time it gets stung. Which is often.

Calixto is really regretting their decision to not wear long sleeves.

It sees Emery, still travelling ahead, completely unaware of the predicament Calixto has gotten itself into.

"Hiya, Em, would you mind getting the hell back here? Please?"

Finally, Emery hears Calixto calling to her, and starts to run back.

"Huh? What's—" she starts, but stops when she sees the bees practically blanketing Calixtos arms. "—problem. What did you do?"

Calixto lets out a weak laugh, but hisses as another bee (seriously, how many are there?) stings it. Thankfully, the swarm has already started to dissipate. "Well," it says, "I may or may not have bumped the hive a little— ow— when I was going to run up to you."

"Maybe," Emery agrees. She pauses. "Uh, alright. Do you have ointment or something in your bag?"

Calixto nods. "Well, uhm, can you be quick?"

Emery hums an agreement, already digging through Calixto's bag, which was left on the ground at the start of this entire escapade. She eventually finds the ointment in the bag, and after carefully shooing away the remaining bees and sitting Calixto down, starts to inspect the stings.

The bee stings cover both of Calixto's arms fully. Emery touches its skin, and it flinches. Emery looks up at its face; it looks a little bit dazed.

"Uhm," Emery says, "So, uhm, how do you feel?"

Calixto frowns. It was kind of wishing that Emery wouldn't ask that. "Well, uh, a little dizzy. And I have a bit of a headache. That's it though," it says sheepishly.

Emery mutters something under her breath. "A'right," she says after a second, "so, hopefully, uhm, Lyansi, was it? Has a good healer, or something."

Calixto nods, wincing as Emery prods at a particularly painful sting. "Yeah."

"So, uhm..." Emery hesitates for a moment. "We better get going, huh?"

Calixto takes a second longer to answer than it usually does. "Yeah."

Calixto starts to stand, but wobbles a bit. It barely manages to balance itself out. "Woah."

Emery frowns at it. "You okay? What's wrong? Need anything?"

Calixto shakes its head, vision whirring a bit as its headache grows, just barely, in intensity. "Nah, I'm just dizzy."

Emery tilts her head in confusion, but doesn't press further. "A'right. Let's go."

---

"You did a good job getting over here when you did," the healer says, poking a little at the stings. Calixto winces a little.

"Yeah," it says.

The healer hums, turning to Emery. "So, Em," they say, and Calixto suddenly gets an unexplainable wave of jealousy that this stranger already has a nickname for her best friend, "Em, and uh, Calixto, was it? I'll have to put you under for a bit, just to make sure that the venom hasn't caused too much damage, all that stuff."

Calixto breathes in. "Sure."

" 'kay. Hang ti—"

And Calixto passes out.