Page 109 of Tiger's Quest
He led us to a range of hills and made for a small cave at the base of one. When we arrived, I peered into its murky depth. “Great. Another cave. I don’t like caves. My experiences with them have not been good thus far.”
He replied, “It’ll be okay. Trust me, Kells.”
“Whatever you say. Please lead on.”
I heard a buzzing noise that grew louder the deeper we went. It was dark. I pulled out my flashlight and swung it around. Thin pillars of light broke through the soil above in several places, spotlighting the rocks and ground. Something brushed my face. Bees! The cave was full of bees. The walls were dripping with honeycomb. It was like we’d stepped into a giant beehive. In the middle of the cave, on a pedestal, sat a stone object with a hole on top that looked not unlike a beehive.
“The omphalos stone!”
A bee crawled down the neck of my shirt and stung me.
“Ow!” I smacked the insect with my hand.
“Shh, Kells. Keep quiet. They’ll bother us less if we move slowly and quietly and get done with what we came to do.”
“I’ll try.”
Bees swarmed angrily around us. It took all my resolve not to bat them violently away from my body. Several had landed on my clothing, but it seemed the stingers couldn’t penetrate the fairy cloth. I felt a sting on my wrist and pulled my hands into my long sleeves, holding the opening closed. I approached the stone and looked inside. “What do I do?” I asked.
“Try using your power.”
Kishan had been stung several times on the face; in fact, his eyebrow was swelling. I shook my hands out of my sleeves and winced as a bee took the opportunity to crawl up my arm. I put both hands on the sides of the stone and willed the heat to move up from my belly. Fiery warmth shot down my arms and into the stone.
The stone turned yellow, then orange, and then bright red. I heard a hissing sound from within and smelled gas fumes. As smoky gas began to fill the cave and the bees became sluggish, they plopped to the cave floor like fat gumdrops and slept.
“I think you might have to inhale the fumes, Kells, like those oracles Mr. Kadam talked about.”
“Okay, here goes.”
Leaning over, I took a big whiff. I saw shooting stars and colors. Kishan became distorted, his body twisted and elongated. Then, I was sucked into a powerful vision. When I woke, we were in the jungle again, and Kishan was dabbing my stings with a gooey substance the color of inch-worms. To say it wafted a strong odor would be an understatement. The fetor permeated my hair, my clothes, and everything around us.
“Ugh! That stuff is nasty! What is it?”
He held out a jar. “The Silvanae gave it to us when I told them we would be seeing lots of bees. They’ve never heard of bees that sting but they use this salve on the trees to repair damage when a limb is blown off by the wind. They believed it would help.”
“When did you tell them we’d be going to a bee cave?”
“When you were changing. They said this bee cave was outside their realm.”
“It smells awful.”
“But how does it feel?”
“It feels . . . good. Soothing and cool.”
“Then I imagine you can tolerate the smell.”
“I guess.”
“Were you successful then? Did you see the tree?”
“Yeah. I saw the tree and the four houses and something else too.”
“What else?”
“Like you said before, there’s a snake in the garden. To be specific, it’s a very large snake wrapped around the base of the tree preventing anyone from accessing it.”
“Is it a demon?”
