The Island of Wonder

After last three days of travel, the caravan left the forest. When the scenery behind the window shifted from tall jungle trees to an open sky, girls excitedly looked outside.

"Whoa~"

Nicole gasped as she saw fields and fields of flowers and plants right next to the roan they were going. The fields were hexagonal and every one was committed to a different plant and color, forming a breathtaking mosaic. On the fields, here and there were Bee people working, taking care of the plants.

"I wish I could fly high into air to look at this from above…" She tried to imagine the view.

"If they have such big fields, I am sure they have many herbs that I could learn more about!" Iloe smiled, almost shining. "I wonder if I could persuade them share their honey with me too…"

"Okay, okay, girls. Calm down." Only Soi seemed to keep cool head. "You both look like you will explode from excitement. Lets get to the hive first and firstly Nicole will have to talk to the Queen. Then maybe we could look around the place."

"Hm?" Nicole glanced at Soi suspiciously. "You sound strange… I didn’t expect you to stick to the plan and hold on to it." She chuckled. "Relax. I am sure I will find a way to get Queen on my side. An ally like her will strengthen us all. Plus Jathun said that Hive, especially around Queen’s palace, is really safe. No one will dare to attack us there."

Soi sighed but her tension decreased slightly. "It’s just… Maybe you don’t feel that way because of being human. But many feel nervous when entering other Tribe’s territory. Even if I am a daughter of travelers…"

Iloe grabbed Nicole’s hand and smiled. "Maybe you are scared, but I am not! Nicole will defend me if anything happens!" In response, Nicole petted Iloe’s head a little, making catgirl’s smile grow even wider and she started to purr.

They reached the Mother Hive gates at the evening and the caravan went inside without trouble after Jathun spoke to the guards. The Hive was a big castle surrounded by stone walls coated with enhanced red wax for protection. From every side, there were roads leading to big gates, four in total. When the carriages went into the castle itself, the vehicle shifted and Nicole realized they started riding down the slope. The floor, walls and ceilings were made out of stone blocks, making sure there is no danger of ground falling and blocking the road. Around the wagons, Bee people of different forms and builds were going down on the right side and up on the left side. Nicole noticed that many had dyed hair in various colors. The slope was wide enough to fit three carriages but currently they were the only one there.

Damn, this is actually pretty cool. I was wondering how such a big population could fit in just one castle, even if it was pretty impressive in size. An underground hive…

After a while, the carriage stopped. When they glanced through the window, Merik was right there. "Hey girls, get out. We are dropping you here. Jathun will explain everything right now."

As Nicole stepped out, she found herself on what seemed to be a normal street, if ignored the fact that the ceiling was made of stone and blue wax, leaving only about 20 meters of space. The buildings were mostly made out of wood and stone, with some additions of wax in different colors. Right now, four of them stood in front of a big building with three floors and white wax walls. Some windows had light in them, while other few were dark. It was so tall that it almost could reach the ceiling. As girls were ogling the surroundings, they didn’t notice when Jathun joined them.

"This place is indeed unique, hm? Tomorrow, I will escort you to the palace of her Majesty. Until then, please don’t leave the assigned room in this inn." He handed a small metal key to Nicole. "If you would happen to need anything, just ask personnel. I informed them to help you girls out." With those words, he turned around and left in a hurry.

"See you tomorrow!" Merik waved his hand and followed the bee man.

Nicole and girls, together with Mignon at her side, entered the building. They appeared in a big room filled with rows of tables and chairs. The back wall were stairs going up and on the left wall was a bar counter. There were few people in the inn, most being non-Bees. Nicole spotted a few Torakai and Druvokai, while other races were unknown to her.

As soon as they stepped in, they were approached by a Bee girl. She was wearing a white dress with blue flowers and had long, bright yellow hair with red tips. She held an empty wooden tray. She smiled at the newcomers. "Hello~! Welcome to the Restless Bee~, the best inn in the whooole Hive!" Two Torakais and a girl with orange hair… You were the ones Jathun was speaking about, right?" She looked at them with wide eyes and leaned close to Nicole, seemingly oblivious to the fact she was invading personal space.

"Y-yeah." Nicole nodded, sudden closeness of the girl throwing her off. She was still clutching the room key. "Right, he said we got a room to stay in for the night. I have this key. What room exactly?"

The Bee girl glanced at the key and then pointed at the stairs. "Hm, I think it was tenth…? Maybe eleventh? Go up on the third floor and try either one. If it’s taken, then try the other one!" She beamed. "In case either of you are hungry, we serve food for two more hours and then only in the morning, so on your place I wouldn’t wait too long! Also we have one or two dolls available right now, too!"

Dolls? Nicole looked at Soi and Iloe but they didn’t know what the girl meant. "Um, what are those… dolls?" She decided to ask just in case.

The waitress blinked a few times in surprise. "Oh, Jathun mentioned that you may be unfamiliar with some things. Dolls are those of us who were born to bring and care for new Bees. You pay and can have fun with her, and maybe even become a parent. Well, the dolls becomes, and you have no need to even think about it." She giggled. "Though you girls won’t be able to. So for you it’s just for the pleasure. So what, interested?"

"No, no, thanks." Nicole shook her head. "We will go to our room for now."

So dolls are basically whores. That also have a purpose of getting pregnant to make new bees… But how does that work between their races? And what she meant, ‘were born to’? Judging by what I saw for now, Bees have casts and depending on that they look different. All the caravan guards had four arms, while Jathun, this girl and those who were just passing us by had only two… Fuck, do some of them are really born to be whores? Nicole swallowed, trying hard to not imagine what life like that would look like.

As they climbed on the third floor, girls stood in a small corridor with three doors on each side. Nicole stopped between the ones with numbers 10 and 11 on them. "Great. Which one do we try first?"

Soi stepped closer and leaned, pressing her cat ear to the first door. After a few seconds, she shook her head. "Nothing." After repeating it with the second one, the result was the same.

"Fuck. I guess we just barge in and see." Nicole sighed.

As soon as the door opened, eye’s of all of them darted to the scene in front of them. A Narakai man was on top of a Bee girl, vigorously pounding into her.

"Ah, yes~! Harder darling!" The girl moaned. Neither of them even noticed the intruders.

Nicole immediately took a step back and shut the door. "Okay, now we learned two things. This is not our room and they have insane sound proof here."

In their own room, Nicole jumped on the bed. "Ah, a soft bed. An actual bed. With a mattress. I can feel comfort for the first time since getting on this damn island!" She rolled over from side to side, enjoying the firmness.

Iloe touched the mattress. "Wow. I never saw anything like that."

Poor natives. I was struggling here all the time with the makeshift beds, though I wasn’t there for long. And most people here live like that all their lives.

"Hm, I don’t think they will mind if we check what they made it out, right?" Nicole reached under the bed sheets to see the mattress. Using her knife, she made a cut and peeked inside. There was some green material, soft and spongy at the touch. It had a bit of natural, grassy smell. Interesting… Some kind of a plant? Nicole used a needle and a thread to quickly seal the cut. "Okay girls, no time to waste. Tomorrow we go to meet the Queen, and I don’t know when exactly. So just in case we will have to get up early, we should get all sleep we can."

Three of them snuggled into the bed and it didn’t took long for them to succumb to the sleep. In the meantime, Mignon snuggled in the corner of the room.

In the morning, Nicole felt the long forgotten feeling of not wanting to get up. Soi and Iloe were already up, while Nicole was still hugging a pillow.

"Hell no, it’s too comfy here. I don’t care, Queen should come here if she wants to talk." She mumbled in half sleep. It continued for the next half an hour before she gave up and sat up. Fuck… Old habits always came back at the first chance, hah. I hated it back then but now I miss Annie yelling at me every morning to get up.

As she stood up, instead of dressing into her usual clothing, Nicole grabbed her backpack. "Good thing I packed the dresses instead of leaving them in the wagon." She took out three dresses and threw them on the bed. "Get them on."

Catgirls studied the new clothes. Iloe traced the flowery patterns on one of them. "So that’s why you measured us few days ago, huh? Looks so pretty!"

Soi was more skeptical though. "Wouldn’t it be better to wear our normal clothes? We are going to ask for help in battle, no? We should look like warriors then."

Nicole smirked. "Yes. I didn’t say to leave your weapon. But by what Jathun said, I interest her because of being something new to her. To everyone on this island. I designed those dresses to be similar to the ones from my world, she never saw those. No one had. If we get lucky, she may ask me to make some for her. If I know something about royalty and nobles, it’s that they always like to show off and make everyone see their superiority. And clothes are perfect for that."

Soi hesitantly nodded and took one of the dresses. The girls needed a while to get them on, especially Iloe and Soi, as they got slightly confused and lost in the new, strange to them dresses. When they were done, Nicole was circling around the catgirls, checking out her work and how well it fitted her friends.

Iloe was wearing a yellow dress with green flowers. It was a cute sundress, with frills on the laces on her shoulders and a small cleavage, enough to make her rather cute than sexy. It was hugging her at the waist, while staying loose on her body. It had the longest skirt of the three, reaching slightly past the catgirl’s knees. Iloe spun in place, making it slightly flow. "It’s sooo cute! Thank you Nicole!" Excited Torakai seemed to have been injected with a load of energy, as she was pacing around the room.

Soi on the other side, stood still. Wearing something like that made her feel wrong. Not because it was the most scandalous and revealing of them all, but because she was used to at least some kind of defense. Yet her current clothes were soft, granting nothing from what she wore normally. It was a light purple dress with cleavage big that it left almost all the top half of her chest uncovered. All while her skirt had a cut to show glimpses of her right thigh whenever she made a step. Soi’s tail swung from side to side nervously. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Yes, yes, don’t worry. And you will have a crossbow with you, so it’s not like you will stay unarmed." Nicole patted the catgirl on the back.

Meanwhile Nicole made herself a red one, with straps looping around her neck to hold it on. The big V-cut granted an impossible to notice cleavage and reached almost to her waist, showing her toned midriff and trace of abs. Her back was left bare and from her waist down she had a knee-long skirt.

Looks perfect. Both sexy and modern. Plus I can hide some knives under the skirt, just in case.

Just as the girls finished, someone knocked on the door.

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