Dragonfly

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. The Dragon clan moved in after the catastrophic fire in their valley. The people of Floral Valley called them the first climate refugees. Their clan varied in size, as many ventured outside Floral Valley looking for work, their numbers ebbing and flowing with the seasons. The most that people ever saw was around five hundred, when they came for a summer wedding and camped in the luscious gardens that surrounded Edana Dragon’s estate, but in general there were only fifty at any one time.

The Dragons stayed to themselves, though when they were in town picking up supplies or going to the pubs or the eateries, they were friendly, and one could almost say jovial. They spoke English without an accent, but amongst themselves they spoke a dialect that to the locals sounded like bird song.

All the Dragons were similar in appearance, tall and slender with golden skin and gorgeous white teeth. The only thing that distinguished them was their hair. With colors ranging from sleek black to shimmering auburn to boisterous blonde. A few had exotic hues of fiery red, verdant green or peacock blue and all had various textures that ranged from sleek to wavy to coarse and curly. None were bald.

The Dragons were proud of their hair and displaying it in various fashions was their trademark. They certainly enhanced the joy of ‘people watching’ that the natives of Floral Valley did as a compulsion when they attended the markets, shops or community events that provided Floral Valley with an active and vibrant social life. You could say that the people of Floral Valley enjoyed seeing and being seen in public—they were busy bodies and were most interested in the goings on of their neighbors.

Perhaps this busy body attitude came from their main industry—Bees. Floral Valley specialized in the raising, cultivation and selling of everything to do with bees. From their honey to their wax products, to the exporting of live bees, and the cultivation of flowers the entire valley revolved around bees.

On most mornings in the spring and summer the beekeepers would gather for tea at Tiffany’s Teacup Bistro where they would exchange all the latest news about their industry. They would compare photos of their bees and discuss the various attributes of the different strains of bees that were nurtured in the valley; Italian bees, East African lowland bees, European dark bees, Buckfast bees and more. Beekeepers were always looking to cross breed varieties of bees to enhance attributes.

Some daring farmers even kept African Killer bees, but they worked under strict regulation, and you could only be approved to keep them if you were a Masterclass Beekeeper, an honor that only twelve families in Floral Valley held, and of them only Oswald Warrington and Jacek Boswell were brave enough or foolish enough to tend them. But the one topic that was always discussed was what flowers were in bloom. Particularly in the spring. Were the crocuses out? Was the clover blooming? Were the dandelions producing enough pollen and what was the state of the tulips, petunias, begonias, lilacs, azaleas, marigolds, or multitudes of other flowers that were cultivated in the valley?

It was on such a morning in early June. Jacek Boswell had settled into his favourite wicker corner chair on the outdoor veranda of Tiffany’s Teacup Bistro and ordered his tea with a honey glaze donut. Normally he would be sitting beside Leilani Warrington, the Chief Apiarist of Floral Valley, along with a brood of other beekeepers, but yesterday Leilani had been called to Eden valley where a giant nest of wild bees had been uncovered, hidden in the wooden column of a Victorian estate house that was being restored. The nest was so large that Leilani had pressed the other keepers to join her to rescue and transplant this hive. It would take two days and several pickup trucks to contain and move the swarm intact. The fact that they were wild bees made the task even more important. Wild bees were on the decline and to find such a vast hive was like discovering a rare bird that had not been sighted in decades.

Jacek was in a somber mood. Partially from the fact that Leilani was not there. Normally he sat beside her for the morning pow wow with the other keepers and for reasons that he could not discern whenever he was in Leilani’s presence, he felt calm and fulfilled. He had heard the same sentiments from other people in the valley particularly the men and he suspected that this was the reason Leilani was not married, she just had too many amorists. But today the real reason he was in a somber mood was the early morning trek he had made yesterday out to Willy Warrington’s remote apiary. Normally it would have been Leilani’s job to inspect the apiary, but as her second, the task had fallen to Jacek. It was a long early morning and what he found there was most disturbing. Willy was in a panic.

“I’ve never seen anything like it Jacek,” said Willy as he opened the first hive. “See, everything dead, their heads all clean chewed off. Thirty thousand healthy bees obliterated. And not just this hive— ten others! It happened during the night. Have you ever seen anything like this?”

“Nope.” Jacek shook his head. “It looks like they put up one hell of a fight. See here how they are in a circle like they were trying to surround something. But what kind of invader can do this? I have no idea.”

“The other ten are all the same. I’m not sure what to do.”

“Well, something came in that’s for sure. So, the first thing I would suggest is to seal all the hives up at night. Close the entrances once the evening settles in. It may confuse some of the late returning bees, but they should be okay they will seek shelter in the flowers.”

“Do ya think it’s a Murder Hornet?”

“Don’t know for certain. I’ve never actually seen one, and for hornets to take out ten hives in one night I don’t know if that’s possible. I don’t even know if they forage at night.” Jacek scanned the surrounding pine forest. “We’ll put out traps in those trees. In the meantime, let’s check the other dead hives, maybe we can find a clue as to what did this.”

This morning Jacek had returned to Willy’s apiary and together they set the traps for Murder Hornets in the trees surrounding his farm. They also did one more inspection of the devasted hives and it was there that Jacek discovered the clue that he now had in the plastic vial he was studying. A peacock blue insect abdomen about four inches long and thick like a pinky finger of a child. He had discovered it under a pile of dead bees. He had no idea what it was, and he was waiting now at Tiffany’s for the return of Leilani to see if she could identify it. If not, they would send it to the University for identification.

Jacek was pulled from his somber thoughts by the arrival of Edana and Seraphina Dragon to the teahouse. As usual Edana and her niece Seraphina were dressed in yoga attire, loose colorful tops over black leggings. The material of their tops shimmered as the morning sun’s rays danced off the metallic strands that were randomly woven into the material. Edana’s had more of a reddish hue while Seraphina’s was blue. They ascended the stairs like dancers, their long legs glissading each foot gently in front of the other. The women were talking in their lyrical dialect, but both took the time to smile at Jacek. He smiled back, lifting his hand in in a small gesture of a wave. As they passed their perfume wafted by. A most pleasant intoxicating aroma of subtle vanilla, musk, and sweet mown grass.

Their beauty, gracefulness and pheromone laden aroma stirred Jacek and he unconsciously allowed his eyes to follow them across the sweeping wooden veranda. They were intoxicating. It was only after they had entered the tearoom that his thoughts returned him to his reality and the mystery clue he held in his hand. For a moment the blue of the insect abdomen matched that of Seraphina’s hair and top and there flickered an association in his mind.

“Blue…?” he thought, “Dragon…?” And as he stared more intently at the vial an image materialized. “Dragonfly?”