(All characters are 18 years of age or older.)
The promised work, in which we meet two characters we hope to see more of in the future. Special shout out to Gigglingoblin who writes the best holstaurs around.
.o0o.
"I can't believe I'm doing this. Again!" Jax groaned, but nonetheless shimmied out of his leather pants, leaving him all but naked. He sighed, straightening. Slim but strong, the young man carefully folded his pants and had them join the rest of his piled attire. Only a pair of shorts still protected his modesty.
"Now remember," Gisele said as he worked. "You can't go inside a beembo hive clothed."
"I know what I'm doing."
"You sure?" his partner asked, cocking a brow. Sitting on a log, the impossibly busty woman watched him with undisguised interest as more of his tanned flesh came into view. He tried to ignore it, with mixed results. Long brown hair spilled from beneath Gisele's broad brown hat, a pair of stubby cow horns pushing out of special holes in the brim. The holstaur sat at ease, her breasts barely contained by the laces of a vest. A cow girl in every sense of the word.
"Of course!" Jax said. "I've done this sort of thing before."
"That you have," she said, her warm brown eyes twinkling in mirth that made him blush. "But you are insisting on going in alone. And you know how I worry about you."
"I'll be fine! I always am."
"Mmm, true. But we could still use my plan..."
"No. Absolutely not! I am not going through that again!"
Gisele sighed dramatically. "Oh, alright. Not like the result won't be the same." She reached into a pocket, a silver chain flashing as she swung out a pocket watch. She tipped forward her broad brimmed hat, shading her eyes as she checked the time. "Now. Just remember to be back in time for dinner."
"Stop mothering me."
"I just can't help it. After all, you're my pretty boy," Gisele giggled, reaching out and mussing his hair.
He swatted away her hand, burning with annoyance and embarrassment. He glared at Gisele as the shapely woman rose and made her way back through the woods and to a safer distance. He hadn't even wanted to take this job! But, he sighed, there was not point complaining now.
With as much dignity as he could muster, being near naked in the middle of the forest, he set his jaw and turned to look again through the thick canopy of the Wire Woods. The tangle of a forest grew riot. Tainted by the demons who had invaded the world, playing host to a variety of the creatures spawned from those dark days, few with any sanity braved the dense woods. Your life would be the least of the things you could lose in there.
But there were rewards for those who dared. And Jax's goal rose in the distance.
Despite the thickness of the brush, it couldn't mask the immensity of the hive. It swelled, growing into a cliff like some golden palace. Countless windows and doorways served it, opening out into the air.
Normally, Jax would be wary about getting undressed anywhere in the Wire Woods, but around him the forest was silent. Everyone knew better than to live near a beembo hive. Stay near one too long, and you started to listen to the hum. A sound that seemed to say it might not be so bad to go inside. It might not be so wrong to eat the honey. To drink it. To guzzle it. To just stay and never leave.
"Cannot believe this," Jax grumbled, bending down and picking up the metal censer. Built like a ball pocketed with holes, it was filled with Lightweed, the only thing known to dilute the scent of beembo honey. It would have been easy, really, to get regular beembo honey. Unlike many of the demon spawn that lurked across the world, beembos didn't need to seek out souls. People came to them, always to get their hands on that precious mead. Sometimes it was traded, sometimes stolen.
But the one thing the beembos never marketed was the royal honey.
A queen ruled her hive, many among her drones and thralls those who'd once invaded her kingdom seeking her golden treasures. Royal jelly was the rarest of honey. Normal beembo honey in its raw form was merely addicting, enthralling the poor fools who drank its sweetness. But royal jelly was more. Corruptive. Compelling. Transforming its victims into new thralls for the hive and their queen.
But, if properly used, royal jelly also made the finest mead in all the Lost Lands. A prize worth pursuing. The Duke of Gander thought so, at least. Worth it enough to hire both Jax and Gisele to get it.
As Jax approached he noted the hive's base stood unguarded. Little surprise. It had no need to be defended. Anyone was invited in.
Getting out was the trick.
Jax sighed as he ducked through one of the openings honeycombing the hive. It was dim within. Faint golden light spilled from hexagonal patterns in the walls. It was strange to walk through it. As if travelling through a cave of molten gold.
The sweet scent was the first to hit him. It lingered in the passage. A sugary sweetness of thick honey and something nameless. It was well known that beembos used the pollen of certain species of alraune for their honey. A fact which made it all the more valuable, and appealing. Jax hastily put a flame to the lightweed in the censer. Instantly, thick grey smoke began to seep from the holes. He lifted the burner a little higher, taking a deep breath, his head clearing.
"Much better," he murmured.
With incense burner in hand he moved forward again. Thanks to the smoke he didn't have to worry quite as much about the pheromones which filled the air. But he wasn't completely safe. He still felt stuffy, his thoughts growing warm and sluggish. He was panting soon. The heat within the hive was oppressive. If he hadn't stripped down, he'd be boiling alive right now. His head spinning, intoxicated by the sweet scents which wafted from all over the hive. But he came prepared. Well, as prepared as could be.
"Fucking hell," Jax grumbled as he pushed through. "Can't believe this. Why me? Just absolutely absurd."
Not for the first time, he wondered why he bothered working with Gisele. The holstaur was unusual for her kind, being rather more mercenary than most. Usually holstaurs just sought out a nice, malleable pet they could turn into their milk slaves and got themselves a warm home to stay. Sad to say, Jax had found himself more than once on the receiving end of such affections. To his frustration, Gisele frequently pulled him out of it.
"Not this time," Jax promised himself, creeping down a winding passage. "This time I've got it down pat..."