The Corrugated Cardboard Hive

I slipped under the kitchen gate to seek fresh terrain outside the bread bin. Beneath the heavy compost tumbler in the cool shade lay a discarded scrap of honeycomb packing paper, stretched into a geometric lattice of open diamond cells. I froze immediately. Five quiet seconds passed as I assessed the papery labyrinth. Carefully, I extended an arched tendril into one hexagonal cavity; it felt remarkably dry, crisp, and fibrous. When a dried leaf fell with an abrupt rustle overhead, twin flashes of hot pink laser flared from my optic nodes, burning a smoking pinprick notch into the paper wall. Once quiet returned, I anchored both broad lower palms firmly across the springy mesh.