6 Chapter 6

6 At first the glow bees just ignored Azmina, flying around her as if she were nothing more than a weirdly-shaped golden flying tree. She coughed

some glittery sparks to try to get their attention, and one of the bees stopped mid-flight. "Do you mind not doing that? It's very distracting!" it buzzed irritably. "Sorry," said Azmina politely. "We were just wondering if you could do something for us. We'd bee so grateful." Another bee stopped. "Glow bees don't do favors!" "And we hate bee jokes!" said the first bee. "But if you don't help us, the whole forest could lose its sparkle!" called Naomi from where she was hovering. "Shhh!" whispered Willa. Naomi made a sorry face and shrugged. "I'm sorry about the bee joke. It's just, this is really important," said Azmina hastily. "Could we possibly talk to your queen?" Now a whole group of bees flew up, buzzing angrily. "Glow bees do NOT have a queen! We

have a democratically elected president. You clearly know nothing about us!" Oh boy! This is NOT going well, thought Azmina. But she needed to make this work somehow. "You make the best honey in the Magic

Forest," Azmina said, using her Can I have another scoop of ice-cream? voice. It sometimes worked on her mom. The bees buzzed again, but in a proud kind of way. "And only your special honey can help the Magic Forest right now," Azmina added quickly. "Help? What kind of help does it need?" asked a new bee. The other bees parted to let her through. "I'm President Bee. What exactly is the problem?" "Well, have you noticed that the sun isn't shining brightly today?" asked Azmina. There was a buzz of agreement. "All the flowers have already started to close, but it isn't even late afternoon!" called one bee. "It's because of the Shadow Sprites," Naomi cried. The buzzing grew loud and angry again. "Don't worry!" Azmina said. "We are working on a special potion to stop them. We already have

one ingredient. But now we need some of your special glow honey." She smiled at the bees. Surely they would agree. If there were no sunshine, there would be no flowers. And if there were no flowers, there would be no honey! The bees' buzzing grew so loud that little sparks of light shot into the air. "Absolutely not," cried one bee. "Glow bees do NOT give away their honey," buzzed another. "We work very hard to make it. Why should we let you have it for nothing?" "But we're trying to help the forest!" erupted Naomi. "You bees are—" "Making a good point!" interrupted Azmina before Naomi could finish. The glow bees had long, gleaming stingers. She did not want to find out exactly how sharp they were! "We don't expect you to simply give us your honey," said Azmina, thinking fast. "We could exchange it for something! Like, some glitter?"

she said hopefully. "Glittery honey would be pretty amazing." The bees went into a huddle, buzzing softly together. The Dragon Girls exchanged nervous looks. Finally, the huddle broke up, and President Bee flew over to Azmina. "We all agree: Our glow honey is perfect just the way it is. We don't want your glitter." Azmina listened in dismay. What were they going to do now? But the president hadn't finished. "However, we have another idea. We challenge you to a flying competition: bees versus Dragon Girls. We will fly through the same course. If you three can do it as well as us, we will reward you with some of our honey. What do you say?" The Dragon Girls looked at one another. The bees had been flying all their lives. Today was Azmina's first day! It didn't seem like a fair competition. But what choice did they have?