Catching a scent

Then it hit her, a strong sweet scent like the honey they used to drink back home on rare occasions whenever they had a successful raid on a beehive but this.. this was even stronger, it was rich, earthy.. floral and something else she could not quite tell what it was but it was good.

It came from the same direction her sister had gone but she herself had already flown quite a distance in the meantime. {Oh 'HORN-IT'! It smells to good and it will give me so much energy.. I.. I'll just take a look, it's probably from an active beehive and guarded by their swarm if not by an ursine.

She flew in the general direction not allowing herself to get distracted by the changing pattern in the wind, only when its scent doubled she started to follow slowly descending down to a more ground level back inside the forest she'd mostly avoided thus far. She could sense the smell was near and decided to travel further by foot as flying this low wasn't an option. She had to be careful of tree branches sticking out on her head level and the tree roots beneath her feet so as not to trip over. She wasn't used to this and thus it delayed her progress heavily cursing 'stingers' and 'horn-it' under her breath whenever she did trip or catch a branch in the face.

"Oh buzz off!" she exclaimed loudly to the tree as if it was sentient. Another twig got caught in the bun of her hair, leaving her to stop to untangle herself. She breaks the twig and pulls it out of her bun realizing she had cursed louder than intended. Luckily there appeared to be nothing within her vicinity that had been drawn to attention or any other disturbances in the pattern of the chirping birds. She remained silent for a bit but decided that if there was a predator lurking and hiding for an ambush there was not much she could do anyway. Just when she was about to continue to track the scent she could hear something.. the sound of.. footsteps and a cart, multiple in fact. It was soft, most of the sound absorbed by nature but it was definitely there and something to investigate.

She started to approach the sound with an even slower pace, now crouching slightly so she could focus on just the ground and her massive frame would not stand out as much, not that it would help much as the vibrant yellow colours on her frame would warn anything of her presence, it would stick out like a sore thumb against the darker contrast of the treebark, moss or leaves. Luckily she was in the shade, and she figured that what or whoever was moving this cart would be slower to spot as it didn't seem to be coming in her direction but rather moving horizontally ahead of her. She's getting closer or it is getting closer to her, perhaps by a curve in some road up ahead. It does not take very long for her to see some movement through the bushes ahead of her and she takes her time to position herself behind it and a tree. The smell from before is much clearer too, a rich honey with various other tones of different flowers and spices.. cinnamon.. vanilla and tones of dark ground coffee beans somehow all blending together and 'singing' a symphony of magestical scent. It's almost distracting her from why she came here, she had almost just walked out towards it at this point but shakes off the impulse, the source of the sound and smell is clearly visible to her now.

In front of her is a caravan of several carts escorted by small honeypot ants judging from their slightly distended abdomens in which they store food to share from their community stomachs, they however are rather small and seem to be just enough to leave them lightweight and capable of feeding anyone in need or sustain themselves. They stand about half her size just above a meter or so in height. Each of them is wielding a small wooden shield decorated with leaves and a wooden spear in the other hand. She can count on about seven.. no, nine carts separated several meters from one another. Three of them have already passed towards her left and towards her right, she can see the end of the convoy in the distance. Each cart appears to have one guard on either side and a rider in front of it. She can also see two much larger ants in front of each cart pulling them along, these are easily reaching 2 meters (door) just a head or so smaller than herself by the looks of it. These however aren't carrying any weapons as far as she can tell and are built much differently than the other smaller ones. She's unsure whether they are captured as slaves or some kind of less intelligent species or some kind of genetically mutated form but one thing is for certain, they look strong as the carts are the size of houses. They are made up of wooden planks for a frame with huge leaves covering the roof and sides, held together by some sort of silk and stick frame smeared with clay up to a meter high to make out the walls of the movable 'homes' with small windows on the sides and an opening in the front for both the driver to stand and residents to enter, she doubts the big ones are able to go inside however.

Three more carts have passed and only the remaining three are towards her right. The one approaching is slightly larger than the others and decorated differently. The leaves on the roof have a shimmer to them as if they are coated in something wet and the walls of the cart have different engravings on them. As it rides past she catches the strongest waft of the scent she'd smelled before and her eyes locked on. "Thorns, that must be wear they hold their bounty" she said softly to herself. There was quite some distance between her and the two carts and guards for them to hear it without any supernatural sense and judging from their lack of interest they didn't. She needed to find a way to get inside that cart, the gears in her mind turned, she was outnumbered at least eighteen to one, not counting the brutes hauling the carts or their drivers but if she went in from the back and took them out from one side and cart at a time she'd only have to deal with one at a time six observable fighters total and three drivers.. as for the brutes..

"No you can't stop to have a break Brutus, we cannot afford to put any more distance between us and the queen or we'll have a weakness in our convoy!" One of the drivers yells at one of the oversized ants pulling the cart, it slumps its head in disappointment and simply grunts something back. "Oh don't give me that, you know I don't make the rules. Hey I can put in a word for you with the queen at the next resting spot, does that sound good? If only you guys could tell her yourself maybe she'd already changed her mind but alas, it is what it is."

{Brutus huh.. funny. So the larger ones are mute? hmm.. at least that's what it seems, that changes things. If they are unable to warn everyone she can simply take out the guards from either side, stick something inside the wheels of a cart and quickly dispatch of the driver. With that the groans of the mute ones would be too far for anyone to hear! If it came to it she could fight off the two brutes as she was taller than them and they were strapped in a harness, she could sting them if she had too or use the spears from the guards.. those she could stick inside the wheels too! Perfect her plan had formed.}

She would sting the guards without venom and cover their mouths before she'd dispatch of them, take their spears and shove both between the wheels speaks into the ground and at least cause the cart to hiccup but hopefully stop it in it's tracks or break a weel. Then she would quickly rush the driver and then turn to deal with the brutes if she had to. By that time there would be enough distance for the other cart not to have noticed and she'd rinse and repeat.