Jason, Rina, Xev, and a mass of be aliens moved through the forest. Some of the Crita flying ahead of them realized that the humans were having trouble with passing through the branches so they removed any branches that they felt hindered them, especially Rina who was stumbling along the forest floor while trying to watch out for low hanging branches, cutting a path through the woods. Many of the troop of Crita broke off and scouted out further and further out from the party leaving only Apisis and a handful of scouts to help clear the way.
It wasn’t long before the sun began to set. The day was tiring, particularly on poor Rina who had to bob and weave much more than anyone else just walking along the forest. They’d fought that battle with the wasps, only to then march for several hours. They were tire, but they could also see smoke looming over the trees which gave them hopes that they’d be able to get a good night’s rest at an inn tonight, but then Lady Apisis stopped, causing the others to be alerted. They didn’t know if she had detected a threat or if she had lead them into a trap of their own. Jason’s hand crept towards his sword’s hilt while Rina and Xev yawned.
“Lo… Jason, my scouts and I ought turn back. We do not do well in the night outside our hive. You should come with us. It is not far,” Apisis said.
“I’m tired~,” Rina whined as she stretched.
“Me too~,” Xev moaned sexily as she lazily draped herself across Jason making sure that her large fleshy mammaries came in as much contact with his flesh as she could manage in an attempt to seduce him.
“Isn’t that where we’re going?” Jason pointed to the smoke plumes rising into air in the distance, ignoring Xev, “We should be able to reach there tonight.”
“It is, but can you not see that your companions are tired? Entering a dungeon in your current state would be dangerous, do you not think?” Apisis replied.
“Why not get closer and camp for the night then?” Jason queried
“Camp? I do not know what the word ‘camp’ means.”
Jason was taken aback for a moment. “What culture doesn’t know what camping is,” he thought to himself before remembering that he was dealing with a swarm species that builds hives and has likely done so for as long as history has been recorded on their world. “It’s like making a temporary hive so that you can rest and have a base of operations away from your hive.”
“I would not be against trying this temporary hive of yours, but I can not ask my sisters to do the same.”
“Well alright then.” Jason said, before turning to Rina and patting her on the head, “Try to keep up for a little more and then we’ll build camp.”
Lady Apisis gathered her scouts and told them to return to the hive without her. She had to explain that she wished to stay with this group of aliens they had come across and try out this camping thing. She told them that it sounded useful and if mastered it would give them an advantage over their enemies. Her scouts were startled when they heard this and didn’t believe her, but they followed her order. In their world the commands from someone higher in the hierarchy were absolute. It was their way of life and doing things. If anyone attempted to rebel against it they would be quickly dealt with. They had gotten far with this way of doing things so there was no need to change things now if everything was going well. It was, all except that their commander was now ordering them to abandon her. They would feel uncomfortable following their orders in this situation, but they would get over it quickly. It would not have been the first time they would be abandoning one of their own.
After the Crita scouts took off the party continued on for about another two hours before they decided to break for camp. They found a clearing and cleared it of random debris. Then Jason made a few movements, with his hand, not able to get over this habit of controlling the VUI. Suddenly, four run down cabins seemed to start taking shape in front of them. It appeared as if the material was coming from nowhere, but if one were to look close they would find tiny nanites transfering material from the ARMS armor that Jason wore which was ultimately coming from the ARMS device on his chest. They were resized versions of the goblin houses that he had taken, each of them rebuilt to fit the members of the group.
Apisis flew around the structures, taking note their size, number, and quality before returning back to the group. There were 2 medium sized cabins, 1 large one, and 1 small one, obviously created so that each of them would have their own cabin to sleep in. She looked at Jason pondering what he was thinking, not wanting to be rude to him, after a moment she couldn’t figure it so she decided to just out and ask, “What kind of structures are these? You can’t really think you or your offspring is secure in them. How could you leave your offspring so open to danger?!” she started rattling off problems that she had, flustered at the situation.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Yeah! Why don’t you want to sleep with meee~?” Xev whined, trying to act cutely.
Rina for her part, too tired to care entered the cabin that was for her, found her bed, and fell into the bad, falling fastly to sleep. The others were drawn to watching her as the door to her cabin shut loudly. Normally, Jason would have tried to explain the situation, but he just didn’t care to deal with the situation at the moment. Before the two women surrounding him could make any more of a fuss Jason said, “I’m with her. Good night you two,” and went to his cabin, shutting the door behind him. The two left looked at each other, surprised by the Humans’ reactions.
“Well, to bed I go,” Xev said going to her cabin.
“What is wrong with these Human creatures and how am I supposed to sleep with so much room?!” Apisis flew into the cabin made for her, frustrated with the situation, knowing that she would likely not be able to get any sleep tonight.
The next morning, Jason woke up and attempted to stretch out before opening his eyes, but found that he couldn’t move. He soon discovered that he was pinned to the bed on by a naked xev on his right, her voluptuous chest centimeters from his face while his arm was held in place so that a single move of his hand could end in an even more inappropriate situation, and Apisis huddled against him on his left, her stinger resting on his leg. One mistake and he could easily be pierced by it.
“Get off of me!” Jason shouted as loud as he could, awakening his three traveling companions.
In her own cabin, Rina stirred from her wonderfully restful night’s sleep to the sound of Jason’s yell. She sat up, rubbed her eyes and stretched, before going to change her clothes, which was only a matter of activating her ARMS device. She had gotten used to similar wake up callings in the morning since coming on this trip with Jason and Xev. Making her way out of the cabin she began a fire, set up a place to cook, and began cooking. She didn’t know what Crita ate, but she could at least prepare something for the other 2 while she waited for them to come eat breakfast.
The door to Jason’s cabin burst open and out ran Xev and Apisis, both unclothed and unarmored screaming. Xev was laughing while Apisis didn’t know how to react. It was the first time that she had woken up in a bed that she was not welcome, let alone the bed of a male or alien. She simply followed Xev as she escaped the clutches of her seemingly crazed pursuer. Jason had not dressed yet so when he reached the door he stopped, grabbed it and slammed it shut. Rina just blinked for a moment. She had not expected that Apisis was like Xev, but after a moment of surprise she quickly returned to her cooking. She wasn’t unaware of the birds and the bees, but she was still innocent and thought nothing much of the activities of her companions. Once the door closed Xev stopped and turned back. She called out for Apisis to come back. Apisis glided to a halt and began to float back to the center of the camp where Rina was preparing breakfast.
“What are you doing Lady Rina? Why do you char the flesh of this animal?” Apisis asked.
“I’m making breakfast… You know, to eat when you wake up,” she replied.
“You eat charred animal flesh?” she asked aghast, “Why char it?”
“I dunno. It tastes good. What do you eat?”
“Oh, she eats nectar from stamen, just like me,” Xev grinned as she sat down ready to eat.
“Ohhhh. I get it, but Miss Xev, you eat meat too,” Rina said.
“I absolutely love meat of all proportions…”
Jason approached the party from behind Xev, now dressed for the days adventure, “Can’t you restrain yourself even around Rina? Neither of them even get what you’re saying,” he sighed taking a seat near the campfire.
“What did she…,” Apisis began, but was cut off by Jason.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t think that you’d understand. It has to do with reproduction,” Jason said.
Apisis blushed, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I would never have asked if I knew.”
“it’s ok. She just doesn’t know the meaning of boundaries,” Jason glanced fiercely at Xev as she scoots over to him and hugs him to her, “As you can see.”
“I’m not sure I understand, but we don’t talk of our... that with other hives,” Apisis replied.
Xev reached for a piece of meat from the plate of meat that Rina was making, as she reached, stretching for a long, slender piece, she kneeled and bent forward giving Jason the perfect view off her bottom. She then fell back pretending to accidentally fall into Jason’s lap, before sucking on the meat, holding it up in the air between her thick lips. “Mmmm that’s sooo nice,” she moaned.
“Would you go get dressed,” Jason growled at her, pushing her off him.
“Will you be ready to go after this breakfast?” Apisis asked, trying to change the subject.
“Should be, unless something comes up”
“I know something that I’d like to come up,” Xev added.
The three ignored Xev’s comments and ate their meal. Apisis watched them consume the meat feeling a bit queasy and curious at just why they had charred it. She decided not to ask why they did that so that she would not make it any more awkward. Rina offered her a piece to taste, but she firmly rejected it despite not wanting to be rude and knowing that such an action could be taken as extremely such. Before long everyone was finished and ready to go. Xev checked all their equipment, even though some pieces had no intention of letting her. Apisis collected her gear, struggling to put it on, being her first time to have to put it on herself. Jason absorbed the cabins back into his ARMS device storage setting out for the dungeon, hoping that they would soon be upon it.
“On ward hoooooo~!” Rina shouted as the party marched out towards their destination at the smoke plumes coming from the shadowy looming structure that the could be seen on horizon over the tree line.