Welcome back to Legend Lunchbox. Last time, the crew arrived in Willowfoot Stands where the locals wondered how a group of strangers could walk out of the forest without a ship in port. But as CAM, Rolo, and Squawk move towards the warmer lights of town, Lysander fell a few steps behind. Something in the old streets caught his eye. Dark purple leaves, glowing orange flowers, and a faint smell of amber and sweet sap that reminded him of home. Unfortunately, Lysander was not the only one interested in those flowers. This is what happened after he stopped for a closer look.
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Guide (Chris):As the crew enters Willowfoot Stands, you find yourself at the back of the group. Ahead, the others are moving through the outer edges of the settlement towards lantern light, voices, and the warmer parts of town. Around you, the older streets are quiet. Empty storefronts, dark windows, old stonework, and weathered wood are being slowly claimed by vines, saplings, moss, and flowers.
Guide (Chris):However, one plant catches your eye. A vine climbs the side of an old shop in twisting ropes of dark purple leaves. Bright orange flowers bloom along it, each one glowing softly in a fading light. The smell is faint but familiar. Warm amber, sweet sap, something that kinda reminds you of home.
Guide (Chris):Thick winged bees move from flower to flower. Their bodies have a violet tint to them, and they do not wander like normal bees. They move together, crowding onto one flower, emptying it, and then shifting all at once to the next one. So what does Lysander do?
Lysander (Jay):I go over to the flower, and I look at it longingly. Oh, this looks exactly like home. This looks like the moon rose. And I bend over and I kinda cup it in my hands, and I go bring it close to my nose to smell it. Oh, I might be able to use this.
Lysander (Jay):Oh, and as I bring it close to my nose, a little bumblebee pops out and stings me right on the tip of my nose. Oh oh, I didn't see that! Oh, that's gonna be bad. That's gonna leave a mark. Oh, no.
Guide (Chris):So, like, the sharp pinch from the sting is followed by, like, a warm sensation, and then the world tilts a little bit as you start to get dizzy. How do you react?
Lysander (Jay):This is not right. What is this now? And as I look around, I notice that it's too bright. It's that this just doesn't feel right. And as I look at myself, okay, I'm not human anymore.
Lysander (Jay):I'm not human anymore, but this doesn't feel the same as I when I normally shape shift. I'm not human anymore. What am I? This is not this is I'm kinda really small. I don't like this.
Lysander (Jay):I don't know. What's going on?
Guide (Chris):So as you're doing that, the crew seems like they're really far away and, like, the buildings just suddenly start stretching way above your head. You know, the stone underneath you, all of sudden, it looks like cracked plains. And just like you said, you're looking at your hands. They're wrong. Your legs, they're wrong.
Guide (Chris):There's too many of them. Sound suddenly is like a vibration, you know, and smell suddenly, like, it feels more of like a direction. You know, the light breaks apart and then shatters and then, like, it snaps back, and it's like hundreds of tiny windows all at once, and you're just staggered.
Lysander (Jay):Woah! This is different. I don't know if I like this. How do I get out of this? How do I get out of this? How do I get out of this? And as I'm looking around, twitching around, I'm making all these twitchy noises. One of my visions captures another bumblebee that's off to the side. So I shimmy over to it and start, like, shimmying around it to see if I could get a reaction from it, just to see what he will do.
Guide (Chris):So this violet bee drops down in front of you and it hovers like a a little airship, And you don't really hear the words exactly. It's this scent and wing beats and movements and vibrations all at once, but your mind translates it anyways. Wrong bee, wrong bee! Too much two legs and bee!
Guide (Chris):So how do you respond?
Lysander (Jay):I'm a bee? Are you a bee? Are we bees?
Guide (Chris):I'm bee. You no bee! And he buzzes off, and then another you see him buzzing to the other bees, and some of them are swarming around and looking at you.
Lysander (Jay):Can you guys help me? I I I'm new here.
Guide (Chris):So one bee flies over. He's like, your buzz your buzz has no elbows! And a second bee flies around and looks like it's judging you. Flower. No flower. Hive. No hive. Legs. Suspicious. Soul. Too many!
Lysander (Jay):Wait. What what can you guys help me? How do I fly? I need to fly. Try to I'm trying to, like, flap my wings, but my legs are kicking out. All my legs are kicking like akimbo. Each leg is going one way. One wings beat in. One eyes twitching.
Lysander (Jay):I... can you can you help me figure this out? I'm new.
Guide (Chris):So they're... No understand. Too much body. And then suddenly, they all scatter, and they all fly off and just leave you standing there on the ground. In front of you, you see this big what looks almost like to you a lake spread out in front of you.
Guide (Chris):And as you take a few awkward steps forward, you look down and you see this bee face staring straight back at you.
Lysander (Jay):Who are you?
Guide (Chris):You just see, like, the ripples in the water and you you hear a little tiny echo. Who are you?
Lysander (Jay):So I I I try to control one of my legs and try to, like, tap the image or tap the...
Guide (Chris):So as you tap it, you feel the one of your fore legs get a little damp and you see the ripples and, like, the the image of the bee ripples away.
Lysander (Jay):Oh, that's me. That's me. That's me as a bee. I'm, like, looking at myself, twisting my body around and looking. And then so as I I'm I try and motion one wing to see if it works in the reflection and then try and motion the other one to see if I could figure out how to coordinate my new body.
Lysander (Jay):Probably from the outside, it looks like this bee has taken some psychedelic drug, and is now dancing to itself in the in the reflection of this pool puddle or whatever this is.
Guide (Chris):Yeah. Because you you've been flying creatures before. You've been crows and eagles and even a hummingbird. But this is just a lot different feeling than when you were a bird. Like, as you start to flutter your wings, you start to feel yourself lifting straight up off the ground as opposed to you know, you're normally used to, like, running and catching the wind and flapping to push forward.
Guide (Chris):This is like you're just hovering and then shifting to the left and then shifting to the right. And suddenly, they're not really your wings aren't really flapping. They're just vibrating, and the movements are really jarring. They're fast. They're erratic, and you begin hurtling out of control down what feels like a like a canyon between these giant buildings.
Guide (Chris):You know, you nearly crash, like, a dozen times. You can't really control the flight, and you you don't really... you're having a hard time understanding what you're seeing through, like, thousands of lenses in your eyes, like things that are flashing past you you might have already gone past and things that you don't see suddenly are right in front of you. And every slight wind buffets you and you your abdomen, you're, like, feel kinda sick to your stomach a little bit, and the world spins as you careen around without any real clear direction. So how do you try and regain control of yourself?
Lysander (Jay):So I'm gonna try and find a place to land.
Guide (Chris):Okay.
Lysander (Jay):If I could land. So that's kind of, you know, maybe a a windowsill or somewhere that's secluded or protected a little bit.
Guide (Chris):Okay. Yeah. You try. And and while you half hover and and flitter down, you're like, and then you finally land on the rocks like kitty corner, your legs are your six legs are scrabbling, and and you're just like...
Lysander (Jay):So and I get and I'm gonna try and practice walking. Okay. Coordinate all my legs, do a little sidestep, little cha cha, little macarena, you know, wiggling my my back end. Okay. Flapping my wings.
Lysander (Jay):And as I'm doing this, I'm thinking to myself, why am I a bee now? I've never been something this small. I've never been a bug or something. And it dawns on me that I must have gotten a new ability. So this must be my next progression in my shape shifting abilities.
Lysander (Jay):Okay. Well, that would explain that. Okay. So, again, I'm just I'm gonna do a bunch of lift ups and down, you know, fly up a couple of inches and then come back down and fly up a couple inches and come back and fly up a couple inches and come back down. So I'm, like, bopping up and down, just up and down, up and down, and down, up and down, up up and down.
Guide (Chris):So you see, like, a dragonfly fly by just kinda giving you the side eye, like...
Lysander (Jay):Yep.
Guide (Chris):Couple of ants on the ground looking up like, Hmm, don't see that every day.
Lysander (Jay):What's this one bee? Just up down, up down, up down, up down, up down. Do it. Then if I land, you know, I give myself a little alright. I think I'm getting the hang of this.
Lysander (Jay):So once I feel somewhat confident in being able to control my wings at least and my legs, I'm gonna try and get a little more height.
Guide (Chris):Alright.
Lysander (Jay):And get a little height, maybe a foot, two feet, and just hover. Try and control, like, the wind and give that a try. As long as that goes good, get a little higher, maybe five feet, six feet off the ground again. You know, we'll try that. And also, while I'm doing this, I wanna scan the area and see if I see my friends.
Guide (Chris):Everything seems really far away. You do see, like, far off in the distance through these gigantic buildings, there are lights and scents and something further up ahead. And you do feel like that that's where we were going. We were we were moving that way.
Lysander (Jay):So is there anything in that direction that I could make out that's relatively close that I could use as a destination?
Guide (Chris):The alleyway you are in, or I should say for you, it's it's the Grand Canyon. It's darkish. It's very open. And then at the end of it, you do see more light. And you can smell very well. Like, again, your your sense of smell and the vibrations in the air, like, you can feel there's something up there.
Lysander (Jay):Okay. Well, I'm gonna head that way as best I could.
Guide (Chris):So you fly haphazardly through these giant stone and wooden buildings as they blur past you. You hurtle down, and then it opens up in front of you in this giant expanse, and you sense other beings around you. These huge creatures that you instinctively feel could crush you with, like, the slightest of motions. But they're moving slow, or maybe you're just really moving fast. So you zip in and around them.
Guide (Chris):You're smelling and sensing the world about you, and then you see them. Those two legs that you sense were with you not long ago, the robot, the elf man, the pink bird. Something about them feels familiar, like helpful and welcoming. So what do you do?
Lysander (Jay):I'm gonna fly towards him, and I'm gonna fly try and get to the pink bird.
Guide (Chris):Okay. So you hurtle headlong towards them to try to get their attention. And, of course, Squawk or as you know her right now, the pink bird is the closest. And just she turns away just as you arrive in front of her, and one of her wings flails up.
Lysander (Jay):Pink bird. Pink bird. Pink bird. Pink bird. Pink bird. No. No. No. No!
Guide (Chris):You tumble and you recover for half a heartbeat, and then you hit something hard and shiny with, like, this resounding ringing thud. Dink. And then out of this blur of your fractured vision, you see the the pink bird, like, dive under a bench and then stand up looking trying to act very heroic. But dazed, you spiral down to the ground and you land, you know, as best you can. So you're hurt and your head's throbbing. So what what do you do next?
Lysander (Jay):Well, I shake myself off a little bit as best as I could and see if I could find, like, a leaf or something that I could crawl under for a minute just to regroup myself.
Guide (Chris):Mhmm.
Lysander (Jay):As I'm doing that, I wanna keep an eye on where they're going.
Guide (Chris):Okay.
Lysander (Jay):But I think really what I need to do is I need to make some friends with some bees because I gotta I gotta I gotta figure out how I can get a handle on this flying thing with this new body. So I'm gonna see if I well, I'm gonna locate a flower or something and see if there's any bees around.
Guide (Chris):So you do see flowers. A lot of these shops in the buildings have flowers planted, like or plants either near the entrance or in, like, these, to you, these gigantic boxes full of soil.
Lysander (Jay):And I got to imagine, must have some kind of bee instinct that, okay, I need to go to a flower to get nectar or something.
Guide (Chris):Yeah. I mean, you this is a different feel from before when you did your normal animal changing. You feel more of the it's almost like you're warring a little bit against yourself. Sometimes I'm Lysander, sometimes I'm the bee. You're having a hard time trying to differentiate which one like, you're both there, but you're not both there.
Guide (Chris):And you're you're just trying to struggle with that. So as you pick yourself up and get in the air, your wings, you know, start vibrating and you you take off. And you see the those people, those two legs moving off towards the lights of a distant building, and you you just get this distinct impression of, like, Shadetree or or something like that emanates. You you think you heard something from them.
Guide (Chris):You can still see them, you know, at least pieces of them. You see, like, pink feathers and, you know, the blue shape that smells like oil and and medicine and a little trace of cinnamon and sand from somebody. But then another scent cuts across. It's, like, sweet and it's sharp, but it feels, like, claimed. And as you do that, these three yellow gold bees hover out from behind this old wooden sign hanging over a narrow alley.
Guide (Chris):They fan out in front of you like tiny guards, and your bee body and bee mind understands that this might be a warning. This might be their flower route, and maybe you are wrong in it. So how do you react to the other bees?
Lysander (Jay):Hey, guys. I give a, like, a little bee wave. Can you help me out?
Guide (Chris):So they they hover around you, and they get in all the different corners around you. And one of them buzzes up to you directly in front of you, and its wings kinda are like these short angry bursts. And its whole body speaks to you, and it's your mind translate, wrong bee, purple bee! And then you hear from the side, you hear the second bee is like, declare flower home. And then the third bee is like, why do you contain bones? And they're just kinda buzzing around you and swirling around you trying to understand what's going on.
Lysander (Jay):I'm new. I'm a new bee. I I'm a newbie, and I just was I just was hatched. I'm a new bee. Need flower. Need need flower.
Guide (Chris):New bee? Too too much. Two legs. No no new bee.
Lysander (Jay):I got I I got I got six legs. No all bee. All bee!
Guide (Chris):No, no, you no bee.
Lysander (Jay):Bee. Look bee. Bee. See bee.
Guide (Chris):And they're getting seem to be getting a little bit more agitated as they're buzzing around. And...
Lysander (Jay):Need flower. Bring bring bring nectar back to hive. Need flower. Need flower.
Guide (Chris):No hive. No flower. No work. Suspicious.
Lysander (Jay):But I I need it. I need it. The the bee, I guess, sense is taking more control of me now, so I'm gonna and I just start flying towards the flower.
Guide (Chris):So as you do that, the buzzing and the vibrations coming from the other three suddenly intensifies, and you can feel it even at a distance. And suddenly more bees start pouring out around the edge of the sign. And one of the original trio pulses out a message through sense and vibrations. Bad purple bee! Wrong bee home! Protect! Defend!
Guide (Chris):And then suddenly, the three original bees surge forward, and you see the others flowing around the sign moving to join them. So what do you do?
Lysander (Jay):I look back. I look at the flower. I look back. I look at the flower. I guess I better get out of here because there's a lot of bees. So I just take off and they start to fly towards where I saw the pink bird last.
Guide (Chris):Okay. So you you start flying away and you have this big swarm coming up behind you. So how do you try to get away from them? Because they are now definitely chasing you, and you hear a lot of muttering like, bad bee, go bee, no bee.
Lysander (Jay):I'm going to learn fast how to fly really fast. I'm just gonna beat my wings as fast as I could and just fly it straight ahead. Long. Look out. Big bee coming through.
Guide (Chris):So you're flying as fast as you can, and and the swarm is behind you. And just as you're flying further down the lane, the door to this building opens up. And for one glorious second, you see the elf man standing there. He's huge, familiar, confused. Wait. Rolo?
Guide (Chris):And then the bees behind you all kind of pulse at the same time. False bee flies to two leg hive! And then you turn, and you're like, whaaa! You try...
Lysander (Jay):Rolo Rolo Rolo Rolo! Like I'm like flying right towards him. Hey hey!
Guide (Chris):Yeah. You fly to him and his eyes widen, and then he slams the door shut. And the air, like, just throws you back towards the swarm. So what do you do?
Lysander (Jay):Well, as I'm tumbling in the air, I'm like, Rooooloooo.... As I tumble back and screaming his name. I'm going to fly back to the building and see if I could find an opening somewhere in the building that I could fly into it and hide in whatever building they're in.
Guide (Chris):Okay. Give me a roll to try and shake the bee swarm because they're swarming all around you.
Lysander (Jay):I got a two.
Guide (Chris):So you get away from the main swarm, and you're like, I I think I got it. And as you fly around this big flower box, you run into a whole bunch of worker bees of the same kinda yellow gold, and they'll look up at you, like, surprised and like, violet bee?
Lysander (Jay):Hi, guys. I'm here for the I'm here for work.
Guide (Chris):No. Violet bee. And then suddenly the swarm comes, like, just comes up. It sounds like a a bunch of bombers coming over.
Lysander (Jay):So I just take off through the other worker bees, like, get out of the way! Get out! Get out! My wings are clipping them. I'm just flying straight.
Guide (Chris):So as you do that, just as you do that, you the door to that building opens as somebody walks outside.
Lysander (Jay):I duck in.
Guide (Chris):So you duck into the building.
Lysander (Jay):Find a place to hide anywhere. Inside a cup. If I could find something that's that I could just hide in. Maybe a cup.
Guide (Chris):Yeah. So you you dive into the building, and it feels like this warm cave around you just with these impossible smells. You you you smell and almost feel like bread and smoke, old wood, wet boots.
Lysander (Jay):Anything sweet?
Guide (Chris):You do smell something sweet and something that, like, your body insists, this is important, but then a little bit of Lysander is like, no. No. No. I I'm I'm good. Like, I I you know, you're, again, fighting inside.
Guide (Chris):The windows are real bright. The door behind you opens and closes, and you do see a couple of the other bees swarming past and getting swatted at by people walking through. Somewhere inside the building, you can sense and even smell are your friends.
Lysander (Jay):I'm gonna try and go towards the scent of my friends and fly around, see what see where they are, what they're doing. And as I'm doing that, if I when I find them, I'm gonna try and I'm trying to talk to them.
Guide (Chris):Okay. So as you're flying around, everything is just it's a completely different feel. The chairs scraping sound like landslides, and you hear these booming voices from everywhere, and the air is just shaking, almost rattling you out of the air. The light from these little boxes with light coming out of them splash across your vision, and you smell this sweet smelling something coming from a lot of these big mugs or cups these these people are holding.
Guide (Chris):And then you see them. There's elf man, pink bird, and robot. And wait a minute. You're like part of your mind's like, no. No. No. That's not right. Rolo, Squawk, CAM. That that's that's the right names.
Lysander (Jay):So I'm gonna go to them. And is there any is there a sweet smelling something coming from them?
Guide (Chris):They're there. You you see all three of them. CAM's there. Rolo's there. Squawk's there.
Guide (Chris):And as you get close to them, you're thinking maybe one of them will notice. Like, something's wrong. Like, I'm not a normal bee, you know, and you zip that way. And just as you're heading to land, suddenly the the bird that you back of your mind is like, Squawk, Squawk. What are you doing, Squawk?
Guide (Chris):She, like, explodes into motion and, like, feathers, like, fly all over the place. And you hear this cheerful shout in, like, a blast of air, and then her wing clips you like a tidal wave. And you tumble end over end, bouncing off of something wooden and skid.
Lysander (Jay):Squawk!
Guide (Chris):Yeah. Then you finally, you skid into, like, a dark corner under some table.
Lysander (Jay):This is not going well for me at all.
Guide (Chris):So what do you do now that you're under this table?
Lysander (Jay):This is not going well at all. Maybe Squawk's obviously not the one that I should be communicating to. I figured animal to animal. Let me try CAM. He seems to be the more level headed one of the group. I'm gonna fly over to him and see if I could get in it get some kind of response from CAM.
Guide (Chris):Okay. So you you take up off the floor, and the room seems to be slowing down a little bit. Like, these two legs or people seem to be departing. Rolo's sitting there quietly, and Squawk is finally calmed down and sitting. And you see CAM just still, but he's close enough to reach.
Guide (Chris):And you start thinking, like, CAM has special vision. He he has medicine. He notices strange things. Like, maybe if somebody can understand that this is I'm not a normal bee, it it should be him.
Lysander (Jay):That's right. I'm gonna try to land...
Guide (Chris):Yeah. You you launch yourself from the table edge and you cross the air over the cups and you land right on his nose.
Lysander (Jay):Yep.
Guide (Chris):So what do you do to try to communicate with CAM?
Lysander (Jay):Well, I'm gonna do my best shout as a bee. I'm gonna wiggle my butt and vibrate my wings and dance on my six legs and, you know, hop up and down a little bit and, you know, tell them, hey, it's me, Lysander. I changed shape, you know, in bee talk.
Guide (Chris):K.
Lysander (Jay):He'll he'll understand that.
Guide (Chris):So for, like, a second, you're you're on his nose and you're buzzing and you're gesturing. And...
Lysander (Jay):Actually, I'm gonna, like, do the macarena. You know? Hey, macarena. And I start doing a dance along the up and down his nose.
Guide (Chris):So you're you're pouring out all of Lysander
Lysander (Jay):Yep. That's it.
Guide (Chris):Into the body language. And then just as you're doing that, you hear this, like, like, this vibrating sound behind you, and then this giant hand closes around you. And you can sense it it's Rolo. It's Rolo.
Guide (Chris):And and it's not cruel. It's not, like, angry. It's just very carefully. And he he cups you in both his hand, and he slowly carries you away from the table like he rescued the smallest creature in the world, and his voice kind of rumbles through his fingers. Can't really make out the words he's saying, but the tone feels gentle, soothing.
Guide (Chris):And for, like, a heartbeat, you think maybe maybe Rolo understands.
Lysander (Jay):Yes, Rolo. Yes, Rolo.
Guide (Chris):Then the window opens.
Lysander (Jay):No, Rolo, no!
Guide (Chris):With a cold rush of air, and he with one last encouraging send off, he chucks you out into the night. So while you're still spinning into the cold air, something flashes past the window behind you and you hear a blade hit the frame. And from inside, you hear a Squawk protecting everyone. And you hear, like, Rolo yelping.
Lysander (Jay):Again, Squawk with the knives.
Guide (Chris):Your friends are safe from the bee. Unfortunately, you are the bee. So what do you do now?
Lysander (Jay):I cry. I sit at the window. I I fly up to the window, the closed now. Now closed window, just my two front bee legs on the thing and just rest my head on them and just stare in there crying. Guys! It was me...
Guide (Chris):So you sit there thinking like, well, nobody's chasing me, you know, but no one's helping me. Like, the the window glows behind the glass, full of warmth and food and your friends. And you're outside in the cold sitting on the windowsill and your your wings are trembling, your legs ache, your body buzzes with instincts that you don't really feel are yours. Like, bee body wants flowers and wants warmth and safety in a hive, but your Lysander mind is like, no. Friends. I I need my friends. And underneath both, this magic, you can still feel flowing through you. It's not really gone or settled. It's just churning back and forth between these extremes. So what does what does Lysander try now?
Lysander (Jay):Is it dark?
Guide (Chris):Yes. So it is definitely I I mean, as bees would understand it, it's nighttime.
Lysander (Jay):So the sun's so...
Guide (Chris):This is hive time. You know? I mean, you should be...
Lysander (Jay):Yeah.
Guide (Chris):in the hive.
Lysander (Jay):Well, I'm just gonna crawl down the side of the building.
Guide (Chris):Okay.
Lysander (Jay):See if I could crawl back maybe under the door, see if there's, you know, the between the door and the floor. If there's enough space, I can crawl under there.
Guide (Chris):There there's not really a ton of space. And once or twice, you try to go towards it and the door sweeps open and almost you're like, woah. You know?
Lysander (Jay):Okay. I guess I well, I'm gonna fly up again and see if I could find some way to get inside, maybe through a window or a crack in the wall or just kinda crawl around looking to see if I can get in.
Guide (Chris):Okay. So you you fly up and you're trying to find a way into the window. You fly up you start to fly up, and you're having a hard time keeping, like you actually think maybe part of your wing might have been damaged in that last... So, like, as you start getting towards the the roofline, you start to lose lift.
Lysander (Jay):Man, do I have any sense of direction to a hive?
Guide (Chris):You do know of the one from the guys that chased you. So, I mean, that sense is overpowering to you. You don't really feel anything other than that hive and that scent in this area.
Lysander (Jay):Was there a flower box here?
Guide (Chris):Yeah. So there is a flower box here, and you're actually kind of near it. Yeah.
Lysander (Jay):Yeah. So I'm gonna fly to the flower box.
Guide (Chris):Okay.
Lysander (Jay):And I'm actually gonna see if I can get into a flower, and hopefully, there'll be some nectar to nourish myself. Maybe I could get a little nourishment from the nectar.
Guide (Chris):Okay. So you stop fighting the bee and, you know, it's not an enemy. It's just it's frightened. You know, you're you're overwhelmed. You're you're trying to survive.
Guide (Chris):So you spend some time getting some nectar, getting a little bit energy back, and and time passes and the night grows colder as your bee brain and your human brain go back and forth in this... I'm Lysander! Well, but I want some nectar. But I'm Lysander and my friends are near. Yeah. But these flowers are really yummy.
Lysander (Jay):They are flavored yummy.
Guide (Chris):And then you think you sleep for a moment, but, like, sleep is probably not the right word for what a bee does. So time passes and and first glimpses of light begin to creep over a nearby building, and the heat begins to warm your small body as it touches you. And, again, you've you've become many creatures many times. You know, the problem is not that you became a bee. The problem is more that you the change happened without you having an anchor.
Guide (Chris):You didn't choose the shape. You didn't touch a tattoo. You didn't focus before the change and kinda plan how you get back. So you don't really need to try to stop being a bee. You need to try to be Lysander.
Guide (Chris):So what memory or feeling or part of yourself do you try to use as, like, an anchor to pull yourself back?
Lysander (Jay):I'm going to use the image of the sap. Maybe as I'm walking, I see sap coming from a tree because it reminds me of my homeland, all the trees that had sap there, and it just...
Guide (Chris):Mhmm.
Lysander (Jay):There may be one that... Lysander wears a piece of amber or dried sap as a necklace pendant.
Guide (Chris):Yep.
Lysander (Jay):And there may be a piece that's dripping from a tree or had just solidified overnight in the shape of my pendant, and it triggers me back to that.
Guide (Chris):Yeah. So you remember, like, home and the and the heat of the day and the cool mist in the morning and the amber sap and the moon roses. And then you feel the the necklace. And while you don't really have the necklace on, you feel the weight on your neck. It's kinda like remembered, and it's like, wait a minute.
Guide (Chris):This is this is a human thing. And then the world stops being a thousand windows and becomes two points of light. You know, smells stop being direction and become fresh air and cooked food and heady drink. And the wall beneath your feet becomes a wall again. It's not a cliffside.
Guide (Chris):And your wings vanish and your hands feel the old wood and the stone of the building and your knees follow. And for one breath, you're just, like, too big, too large, and too heavy and too covered in pollen. But you're you.
Lysander (Jay):To be sitting in this flower box?
Guide (Chris):So you're you're you're you, and you're just sitting on the edge of this flower box and look down at your body, and it's like, hey.
Lysander (Jay):Look at that. I think I'm me again. That was weird. Weird.
Guide (Chris):So what do you do now?
Lysander (Jay):Well, I'm going to obviously get out of the flower box, stand with my two feet now firmly on the ground, and just straightened up a little bit, all the aches and pains from my friends battering me about the town here. That was crazy. I didn't realize the life of bees was so difficult. I have a new respect for them, but I need to sit down. So I'm gonna see if the door is open to the Inn.
Guide (Chris):So you you open the door and you make your way in, and you're you're shivering a little bit and blinking from the light.
Lysander (Jay):Is there a fire?
Guide (Chris):Yeah. There's a fire burning in the back, and a woman steps from the back room carrying the noise and the smells of breakfast. And with a soft gasp, she's like, oh, honey, you look like you had yourself a time. She steps over to you and kinda helps you at the table. My name is Mira.
Guide (Chris):Let me let me get you a blanket and something warm for your belly.
Lysander (Jay):Oh, you're the best. That would be great.
Guide (Chris):She offers you a smile, squeezes your shoulder, and says, I think your friends are gonna be really happy to see you.