Heart of Bees

Once there was a wizard whom did not want his feelings and emotions to distract him from his art. So he took out his heart and replaced it with a satchel filled with a swarm of bees.

And, ever buzzing within, then wizard was able to focus on his magic to become a most powerful sorcerer.

Unfettered by his emotions, he led a long and productive life; using his magic he helped the world become a far better place. He healed those that were ill, solved the age old problems of energy and food shortage, and even quelled the warring nations of the world with his wisdom.

The world became peaceful because he had found a way to avoid the distractions of the heart.

And then one day, an old friend came to him with a question; she asked if he had been happy with his decision to live without his heart?

He replied logically by saying that had he not, the world would have been much worst off if he had. Having only a satchel of bees, he was neither happy nor sad about things, but he knew in his mind that it had been a good thing and that people were happy, and that is all that should matter.

But she said that she had not been happy. For she had loved him ever since they were young, and that it had weighed heavily upon her own heart all these years.

On this the old wizard thought for a long time; had he missed out on a happiness of his own?

Coming to a decision he then said to her that because the world was now at peace, he could return his heart back to its proper place and be happy once again.

So they went down to his cellar, where in a small oak box he had hidden his heart away in secret these many years. Through magic he had preserved is and when he unlocked the box there was his still beating heart, strong and healthy.

His friend smiled and looked on while he carefully opened his up chest to replace the bees with his heart.

But over the years, the swarm had become angry at being kept captive within a satchel within his chest. And when the wizard finally set them free, they turned against him and his old love, stinging them unmercifully until they lay dead on the dark cellar floor.

They then grew in numbers, gathering their strength until their buzzing swarm darkened the skies of the world.

With no magical magician to protect them, the people of the world were helpless against the swirling hordes. Within a matter of days, the world that had at last found peace was no more.

And at the heart of it all, as with most things, was a swarm of angry bees.