Volume 12 - Grand Opening, Chapter 87 - Prince Charming

As soon as Lethe stepped out of the bathroom, she realized why Pwess had been wandering around on her own. It was because Iormu had fallen asleep at the table, slumped next to her cup of coffee. Her tail was still curled into a basket shape and surprisingly, Pwess had climbed back into it and resumed watching her cartoons.

Wow, Iormu's more exhausted than I expected, Lethe thought as she watched Iormu's chest rise and fall with her steady breathing. An intense dream can be like getting no sleep at all, and I guess I really went overboard with that one. Lethe frowned and shook her head. Last time I was here, I jokingly promised Yuisu an orgy dream, but I never meant for it to be like this.

She looked over at Pwess, who was happily bobbing along to a song in her TV show. The cheerful music conflicted with Lethe's worried state of mind. Lethe thought, I guess I'll skip Iormu for now and start by apologizing to Quess, since this isn't a good subject to talk about with a kid in the room.

Lethe stepped over a length of Iormu's tail and slipped into Quess and Iormu's bedroom. Pwess didn't seem to notice, so Lethe closed the door and continued across the bedroom to the gigantic bed at the end. She supposed it needed to be that large to fit Iormu's massive length, but it looked surprisingly empty just then. In the center of the bed, on top of the sheets, there was a basketball-sized pink slime, fast asleep.

Lethe blinked. She'd never seen Quess in that adorable mini-form before. Aww, she's so cute! Then she shook the bed and asked, "Quess? Can I talk to you for a moment?"

Two big pink eyes appeared on the slime-blob and they blinked sleepily. "Bwuh? Whozzat?" Quess looked up at Lethe and said, "Ah, it's Lethey. Hiya Lethey!"

Lethe wasn't sure if Quess was acting cutesy and loopy because she was still in tiny form or still exhausted from the dream, or both. "Hi, Quess. I wanted to apologize. For last night, I mean."

Little Quess blinked some more and bobbled up and down. "Huh? Last night? Whatcha mean?"

"Um, can you go to your big form? It's, like, really weird to talk to a cute little blob about this."

"Sure," Quess said, then squinted her eyes in concentration and expanded to several times her size. She took on her normal feminine form, complete with a lacy set of slime-pajamas. She yawned, stretching her new arms in the air, then looked at Lethe. "Alright. What's up? Wanna sit down?" she said, patting the bed with a translucent hand.

Lethe took her up on the offer and sat on the edge of the bed. She put her head in her hands and said, "I messed up last night. It affected you and the other girls, and I need to apologize."

Quess shrugged her gelatinous shoulders and said, "I still don't know what you mean. What did you do? I don't remember you doing anything but going to bed after your visit to the hot spring."

Lethe sighed. "I got too relaxed, and I did something in my sleep without meaning to. I cast a dream spell on you." She swallowed hard and added, "On you and all the other women that live here."

Realization dawned on Quess. Her eyes went wide as she remembered all the deliciously sexy things they'd done in that dream. "So that's what that crazy dream was about! I thought it felt familiar."

Then a serious look fell across her features. "You really overdid it, by the way, Lethe. You're very lucky your power only affects dreams," she said sternly. "If I dosed people that strongly with pheromones, they'd screw themselves to exhaustion, and maybe even beyond. Death by sex is nothing to joke about."

Lethe cringed. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry."

"Well, you sought me out to apologize, so your heart's in the right place. Let's go visit the other girls and set this right," Quess said, already sliding off the bed and starting toward the door.

Lethe followed into the kitchen and stood quietly as Quess tried to give a wriggly Pwess a hug. The little girl was far more interested in her movie than motherly love.

Then Quess gently shook Iormu awake. "'Morning, love," Quess said. "Can you watch Pwess? I'll be at the main house with Lethe. I'll explain later."

Iormu blinked a few times, chugged her remaining lukewarm coffee to try to stay awake this time, and nodded. "Sure thing, honey."

Quess gave Iormu a quick kiss, patted the still distracted Pwess on the head, and slid to the door. "Ready, Lethe?"

Lethe swallowed the knot in her throat, then nodded emphatically. "As I'll ever be. Thanks for this, Quess."

"No problem. I messed up in a similar way once, so I know how it feels," Quess replied. She didn't mention that her mistake had been more selfish and sinister: trying to forcefully seduce Yuisu with pheromones.

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An hour of awkward apologies later, Lethe and Quess stood outside Chione's bedroom door. Lethe glanced back toward the kitchen, then whispered, "I didn't expect Yuisu to be so… receptive about all this."

Quess stifled a laugh and whispered back, "Then you just don't know Yuisu well enough. She acts all serious and in charge, but she's one hell of a pervert at heart. I bet that dream satisfied all kinds of guilty fantasies she'd been holding in for months."

As Lethe wondered how she'd missed a sex drive that impressive when it had been right under her nose, Quess knocked on Chione's door.

Quess's sweet, chime-like voice called out, "Hello, Chione? Are you awake? Lethe and I want to talk to you." She knocked again, but there was no response. She turned to Lethe and said, "Well, she is nocturnal, and she sleeps like a rock. I guess we can catch her at dinner."

Lethe nodded, but then she twirled her long blonde hair around a finger and wondered aloud, "If she's nocturnal, why was she in the dream? My magic only affects sleeping people."

"Huh, I hadn't thought about that. She was definitely in the dream though." Quess's cheeks turned a rosy red and she added, "And she was really good with her tongue…" She shook her head to clear it, then said, "Anyways, now that I think about it, she showed up in the dream later than the rest of us."

"So maybe she was awake when it started, but then got pulled in when she took a midday, er, midnight nap?" Lethe guessed.

Quess nodded, her yellow tendril bobbing. "Seems likely. Well, let's go fill Iormu in on all this, and then you probably have work to get to."

"You're totally right!" Lethe frantically checked her phone for the time, then said, "Phew, I'm not late yet, but I do need to hurry."

They ran back to the cabin and stepped inside to find Iormu and Pwess curled up together on the floor, watching the same tiny tablet. A princess in a light blue gown danced across the screen.

Quess giggled and said, "She's got you hooked too now, Iormu?"

Iormu turned toward the door, sending her long wavy hair sliding over her shoulders. "What can I say? Most Disney movies are actually good!"

Quess smiled. "I don't deny that, but you could watch it on the TV in the bedroom instead. It'd be a lot more comfortable."

Iormu just shrugged. "I'm flexible, so this is fine. And I think Pwess likes being in control of the TV."

Pwess poked the screen with a squishy hand to pause the movie, then nodded excitedly. "Yep! I can pause it any time I want, like when Prince Charming showed up. He's handsome!"

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"You like the handsome ones, huh?" Quess said with a grin. She and Iormu had wondered whether Pwess would end up bisexual like her mothers. Most pink slimes were bi, but then again, most pink slimes weren't raised with human culture and movies.

"Yeah!" Pwess cheered. Then her face drooped into a comically exaggerated frown. "But there's no handsome boys here at the Inn. I saw a man, but he was too old to be a prince!"

Iormu gently patted Pwess on the head and said, "I'm sure you'll meet a prince someday."

"Yay!" Pwess cheered, then unpaused her movie and was sucked back into a world of princes, princesses, and fairy guardians.

While her daughter was distracted, Iormu unraveled her upper body a bit and stretched across the table to Quess and Lethe. She whispered, "So, you said you'd explain something. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that it has to do with that dream."

Lethe nodded solemnly. "I'm sorry, Iormu. I put you through a terrible ordeal and cost you a night's sleep."

Iormu leaned closer, baring her massive cleavage. "Don't worry about it. I'm not happy that it was dropped on us unexpectedly like that, but it was worth losing a night's sleep for a special night like that one."

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Quess bobbed her head in fervent agreement. "Yeah, I guess I did really enjoy it."

Iormu glanced over her shoulder to make sure Pwess wasn't listening in, then whispered, "Having a little tyke around has made it difficult for Quess and I to find private time, and we've both got pretty high sex drives."

With a grin, Quess pitched in, "Yep. That's how we got our darling princess in the first place."

Suddenly, Iormu's copper eyes went wide and she grabbed Lethe by the shoulders. "Wait! Can you do another dream, just for me and Quess?"

Lethe nodded, which was just about all the movement should could manage within Iormu's powerful grip. "I'd be happy to, if it'll make up for my mistake."

Quess was definitely on board with the plan. Her eyes lit up and she got right up in Lethe's face as well. "That'd be amazing! How about tonight?" After a second, she added, "Though maybe not all night long. We need some sleep too."

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Later that day, after Lethe and many of the other guests had departed to their work at the resort construction site, a little green hatchback car pulled into the resort parking lot. It hadn't even come to a stop before the passenger-side door was flung open. A small woman with a long black ponytail and dressed in a bright orange kimono leapt out of the car. Or tried to.

She hadn't remembered to unbuckle her seatbelt first, so she was unceremoniously jerked backwards. She flopped back into the seat, her black-feathered wings flailing in the air. To add injury to insult, the car door swung back closed and banged right across her ankle.

"Oweeee!" she cried out in her light raspy voice.

From the driver's seat, a young man's voice called back, "Are you okay, Misaki? What happened?" He was already pulling the parking brake and taking off his own seatbelt.

"The seatbelt grabbed me and the door bit me, Yamato!" she whined. The little crow-harpy unbuckled her seatbelt, then flailed her wings around some more, partially for dramatic effect and partially from real pain. "And now my ankle really hurts."

The young man, his brown hair slicked down more neatly than normal, sprinted around the car to her aid. He was wearing a crisp blue jacket and jeans, along with some good winter boots which gripped the snow-speckled gravel driveway. "Oh no, I'm so sorry, Misaki! Let me carry you inside so we can tend to it properly."

Misaki tried to say she could just fly to the door, but Yamato had already scooped her up in a bridal carry, with one arm around her back and the other behind her knees. She wrapped her wings around his neck to help, but it wasn't needed: as a petite harpy, she barely weighed anything.

"Oh, I guess this works too," she said with a giddy smile. Yamato had treated Misaki like a princess ever since that awful night that she'd been kidnapped. He protected and doted on her whenever he wasn't at work. At first she didn't like being shielded and confined even more than normal, but she'd grown to like all the attention.

He carried her up to the front door and stopped for a second. He was wondering whether to open the door, since Yuisu's house was a business now, or ring the doorbell and wait. Finally, he decided to use the doorbell and shifted Misaki's weight a little so he could reach it with one finger.

They could hear the bell ring out inside the house, and the door opened shortly after. It looked like the door had opened on its own, since no one was in sight. Then Yamato peered over Misaki's fluffy wings and saw a three-foot tall slimegirl standing there with wide eyes and a wider smile.

"Oh, hello. You must be Pwess," Yamato said in the soft, friendly voice he always used with the kids he encountered during work at the grocery store.

Without a word, Pwess turned on the spot and slithered away at top speed. She left only a faint trail of moisture behind.

Yamato and Misaki shared a glance that said, 'What was that all about?', then Yamato stepped inside and bumped the front door shut with his leg.

Misaki looked around the entry room, then started wiggling and said, "Let me down. I can walk."

Yamato raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. "I'm pretty sure you just want to mess with those shiny tools over there," he said, nodding in the direction of a pile of tools and supplies.

Her copper eyes flicked side to side suspiciously. "…No. I didn't even notice them," she lied.

Yamato knew her too well to fall for it. He chuckled and said, "Pwess zipped off toward the living room, so I bet that's where the others are. Let me at least carry you there."

Misaki smiled and said, "Fiiiine." She snuggled against his chest as he kicked off his shoes and carried her into the living room. As expected, Pwess was there, along with Iormu and Yuisu.

Yuisu stood to greet the guests, but her face went pale when she saw how Misaki was being carried. Flashbacks of the little crow-harpy being drugged and kidnapped ran through Yuisu's mind and she darted forward. "Oh god, is Misaki alright? What happened?!"

Misaki noticed Yuisu's panic and quickly waved a wing dismissively. "I'm fine! My ankle just got hurt, is all."

Yamato set Misaki gently on the couch, then addressed Yuisu. "The car door slammed on it just as we got here."

Yuisu let out a sigh of relief, then ran to the kitchen, calling back, "I'll get some ice and something to wrap it in!"

On the other side of the living room, Iormu was coiled in a spiral. She'd been watching TV, but had muted it when Misaki and Yamato arrived. "Hello again, Yamato, Misaki! It's nice to see you again."

Misaki smiled and waved a wing at Iormu. "Hi! It's nice to see you too, and Pwess." She leaned from side to side, peering around the room with her wide, ever-curious eyes. "Where'd she go, anyway?"

A small purple-pink slimegirl peeked out from behind Iormu's spiral tail. She stared at Yamato with a look of awe on her face. Without taking her eyes off him, Pwess slithered and crept forward, like a sneaking predator, except that she was in plain sight.

Iormu, Yamato and Misaki were all watching her, wondering what she was up to. Iormu was the first to speak, raising an eyebrow and asking, "Little Princess, why are you sneaking over to Yamato?"

Her cover blown, Pwess zoomed forward and latched onto Yamato's leg, wrapping her body around him up to the knee. "Run, Prince Charming! Queen Maleficent's after us!"

Iormu's raised eyebrow turned into a bit of a scowl. It seemed Pwess was taking her Disney movies quite seriously, and she'd also decided that 'Momma' was now 'Queen Maleficent'. Other than the black and purple color scheme, the shape of our horns, and the claws and scales, I look nothing like that villain! Iormu thought.

Misaki cast a jealous glare at Pwess, but it seemed petty to be jealous of a little kid. It's not like she'd ever take my Yamato from, me… right?

Yamato couldn't help but chuckle and the bizarre situation unfolding around him. He smiled down at Pwess and softly said, "I'm not Prince Charming, Pwess. Maybe you were too young to remember, but we met back at Mara's birthday party. My name's Yamato."

Pwess looked up at him with glistening magenta eyes. "But you carried her like a princess! And you're so handsome! You're Prince Charming, yep," she said definitively, as if the discussion was now settled and done.

Yamato kneeled down and carefully peeled Pwess from his leg. "I'm sorry Pwess. If I'm a prince, then Misaki is my princess. I'm in love with her."

Pwess blinked several times while her fast-learning but still childlike mind processed this new revelation. Then she shot a surprisingly venomous glare at Misaki and spun around so her back was to Yamato. "Well I didn't love you anyway. I'll find a new Prince Charming!" With that, she fled back to Iormu and climbed up her body until she was nestled under Iormu's breasts.

Iormu let out a deep breath and said, "Sorry about that, Yamato. You handled that very well, though."

Yamato sat down next to where Misaki was laying on the couch and gently cradled her leg. "I get a lot of practice with kids at my work. You'd be surprised how many parents let their kids roam all over the grocery store by themselves."

Misaki was smiling broadly at Yamato. She also thought he'd handled it well, and when he'd called her his princess, it made her heart skip a beat. Once they were alone together, she was gonna be all over him, hurt ankle or not.

Then Yuisu jogged into the room and handed Yamato a plastic bag of ice and a roll of gauze bandage. She blushed and scratched at her cheek, her green eyes looking down at the ground. "Sorry about the delay. I had a terrible time finding the bandages. Tsuen would've known where they were, but she's at work." Yuisu looked around at the strange mix of facial expressions in the room, then asked, "Did I miss something?"

While Yamato worked on wrapping Misaki's bruised ankle, he said, "Nothing much, just Pwess being adorable. Though I guess Misaki and I missed the chance to tell you why we're here." He smiled up at Yuisu and said, "We wanted to congratulate you on the inn, and check out the final result for ourselves."

"Oh, thanks so much, guys!" Yuisu said, "I'd give you a tour of the place, but it's probably better not to, with Misaki's ankle like that.

Misaki shook her head vehemently. "No, I can manage! I can fly, and stand on one foot just fine." As soon as Yamato finished wrapping her ankle in bandages, she jumped up and twirled on her good foot, sending her orange kimono swirling. "See?"

Yuisu giggled at Misaki's ever-present eagerness. "Alright. I believe you. Do you two want to go now?"

"Sure," Yamato said as he stood up next to Misaki and put an arm around her waist.

After a quick goodbye to Iormu and the now-shy Pwess, the couple followed Yuisu toward the front door. Once their backs were turned, Pwess peeked out from behind Iormu's huge chest and stuck out her tongue with a quiet "Bleh!"