17 17 - Tell Me What To Do!

"So," Ari said. "Do you want to stay this way?"

"This way?"

"I can make your transformation permanent. Grace's too, if she wants."

The other bee-girl had recovered by this point—Ari and Claire's indulgent second go-around hadn't been a quick-winded thing—and so she was sitting cross legged with a blush, looking at them.

Ari admitted she'd created an awkward situation for Lori and Grace, who weren't nearly as interested in 'a second round' as they had been. But Ari hadn't been able to help herself. Grace and Lori had sat through the loud, sweaty debacle with their attentions turned pointedly to the side, shifting in place and pretending to ignore the noises Ari and Claire were making—the moans and slapping of flesh.

Despite her desperate want for a third round, Ari had forced herself to get control of herself. Even a second had been against her 'rules' for today. She had been supposed to be treating this one-hundred percent strictly as an adventuring expedition, and allocating zero of her time and effort to 'indulgence'.

"Permanent?" Grace huffed. "Why would I want to stay in this … this perverted form?"

She sounded like she meant it, which reaffirmed in Ari's mind that she should always ask beforehand.

Ari looked at Claire, who was wrapped in her arms. They were still sharing warmth, cuddled in and basking in afterglow. The smaller girl shifted in place, seeming conflicted. "Could I still help the Hive?"

"Sure," Ari said. "You'd just be part of my—my group, too." She still didn't like the phrasing of 'Menagerie', as the skill put it. Could hardly change their descriptions, though.

"Then … I guess I like being this way?" She shot a glance at Grace, as if looking for assurance.

"Why would I care?" Grace said. She frowned. "But I don't think the Queen would let you stay in the Royal Guard."

Claire hesitated. "I guess she wouldn't … not with divided loyalties." Her eyes flicked between Grace and Ari. "But I still think I want to?"

Grace shrugged, again.

"It's up to you," Ari reassured Claire.

She nodded, her determination settling. "Then, sure. I wouldn't mind joining you. I'd like to explore this … form … more."

"And how it feels?" Ari teased, squeezing Claire's cock, something she couldn't help herself from doing. Claire gasped and squirmed next to her.

Why was teasing these girls so fun? Kind of a stupid question … Ari knew exactly why.

"A-And how it feels," Claire admitted, surprising Ari with her frankness. "Being inside you feels so good. I want to do it over and over."

Well, if that was a quick way to turn things around; now Ari lay there, her face blazing. How could Claire say that with such eager innocence? Like she didn't even realize the pervertedness of what she'd just said.

She was flattered, she guessed? Her earlier resolve to keep things to two rounds faltered. She wanted to pounce on Claire for a third time.

Fortunately, Lori came to the rescue.

"Great," Lori huffed. "Don't we have a forest to explore? You two haven't paid up."

Paid up. Loot, Lori meant.

Loot didn't work the same way with monster girls as it did monsters. Normally, drops would coalesce after slaying their target. Now, it seemed to happen whenever the defeated monster girls chose to pay out.

The necklace Lori had given her, for example, had materialized from thin air. She hadn't had a choice behind what it would be; she'd simply had an ingrained instinct to let the thing summon into her hand, then she'd given it to Ari.

Likewise, that was what happened with Claire and Grace. Claire leaned up, breaking their warm embrace—which Ari pouted at, however much she shouldn't have—and cupped her hands together. Slowly, blue ribbons gathered and took shape. Soon enough, a fully materialized item was in her hands.

===

Honey Lubricant

—Provides a pleasurable warming effect. Increases sensitivity.

===

Huh. Not the kind of loot Ari would normally expect … but because of that, something she'd expected. Her class clearly didn't work on standard principles.

And honestly, useful. Lubricant, especially one that was pleasurable to apply, and increased her opponent's sensitivity, would be a great item to use on close fights—or even to make easy ones faster.

The jar wasn't very big, so Ari doubted it would last too long, but making the next few dozen encounters easier was definitely, in her book, a 'good' drop.

Grace, for her part, summoned a pointy black needle.

===

Royal Guard's Injector

Single use. Apply a potent aphrodisiac.

===

Also useful. Something Ari would have to ration out carefully … presumably on an encounter that turned out especially difficult. It could maybe allow her and Lori to team up on a level five or six—to hunt 'beyond their means', so to say.

She couldn't say how powerful the aphrodisiac would be, but item descriptions were usually accurate. If it said 'potent', it meant potent.

Grace huffed. "Okay. Well. You two won—congratulations. I'm reporting back to the Hive. You're staying with them, Claire?"

"For now. I'll be back eventually." She still seemed hesitant over her decision, but not because it wasn't what she wanted, but because she cared what Grace thought. Or maybe she felt like she wasn't performing her duties to the Hive.

Grace walked off, heading deeper into the forest. She walked with a bit of a wobble. She had been, after all, thoroughly fucked by her and Lori.

And so it was just Ari, her first Menagerie member, and her newest.

Lori scrutinized the bee-girl, which Claire quailed under, antennae twitching.

Ari narrowed her eyes. "We're going to treat our newest party member right, aren't we, Lori? Welcome her with open arms?"

Lori sniffed. "If she carries her weight."

The words seemed to energize Claire. "I will," she said effusively, leaning forward and putting her hands on her knees. "I'm, um—I won't let you down. I know how to be productive. What is it I'm supposed to do?"

Ari was, to be honest, a bit off-put by how eager her reassurances were.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to," Ari said. "And we won't boss you around."

Claire paled. "You won't?"

"Huh?" Ari said.

"How am I supposed to know what to do?" Claire's eyes widened, quickly growing panicked. She shuffled forward, antennae twitching, closing the gap between her and Ari. Her big, gold eyes looked up pleadingly at Ari. "I, I don't know how to be independent! Tell me what to do!"

"You want that?"

Claire nodded rapidly. "I'm yours! Please." She shot a look at Lori. "I'll do whatever you two ask. Just tell me. Don't make me figure it out myself."

Ari was disoriented at the pleading requests, but when offered in the way Claire had, Ari couldn't hardly reject the girl. If Claire wanted to be ordered around by everybody, then that was her choice.

Ari reminded herself that just because the monsters she was transforming had taken human-like forms, they weren't humans in the way Ari knew them. As a diligent worker bee, Claire wanted—needed, even—a clear authority structure, and to have a constant supply of goals to be working toward. Independence stressed her out. As demonstrated.

"Okay, okay," Ari assured her. "We'll keep you occupied, don't worry."

Her shoulders sagged in relief, and her drooping antennas shot back up. "Great! Anything. I'm yours to use, however you want."

That was a compromising way to phrase it … and despite Claire's radiating innocence, Ari didn't think it unintentional.

[ Author's Note: If you're enjoying the story, consider checking me out on P.atreon! You can read twenty chapters ahead, there. My username is blakebalatron. ]