I woke up next to Apollinaris, who was sleeping softly next to me. Having her back like this feels so good; it’s a shame I must leave her. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared of her getting hurt whilst I was gone. But she’s right. I can't do it all alone. I’ll just have to trust in her ability to handle things here.
She said, slowly sitting up in bed.
She chuckled as she pulled on my hand and led me to the shower, where I had a closer, more hands-on look at Apollinaris' new anatomy. Sadly, she didn’t let me have too much fun with it.
< Fine, but next time here, I’m definitely having a piece of you, no ifs and or buts>
She grabbed my arm and pulled me low and close.
< There’s your motivation. Now, let’s get everything ready.>
I opened a window and sent out a bunch of flies.
The flies flew around the exterior and inside the house.
I pushed the door open, and suddenly, we were met with a rge swarm of insects.
The voices of hundreds of my children rang out.
I chuckled as I watched him try to get out of her grip.
< I'll leave you two here to get along.>
We left Apollinaris with the rest as Azuura and I went downtown the tunnel, which was Finally complete; No wax pilrs to be seen anywhere, just a nice perfectly round tunnel.
< Well done, Azuura. The tunnel is amazing>
< the main hive is the core of our home….I must, No, need to be there to ensure our core is strong and that I can support my future brothers. Please, mother.>
We continued to walk down the tunnel until we finally made it to our destination, the prison cell of our friendly neighbourhood assassin.
We entered the side room and into the prison cell where our man was waiting.
No response. Is he ignoring me?
“rise and shine, sleepy head. Long time no see.”
His head rose up in my direction. He looked like shit. His face was gaunt, and the life from his eyes was nearly gone. I guess over 2 weeks in a dark cave will do that, too ya.
“Please… I want to see the sun.”
“Well, good news. You're leaving this pce.”
“Really?”
“Of course, you can believe me. I'm not the sort to lie.”
He nodded and walked towards him. The assassin looked around the room, trying to figure out where he was. Azuura wrapped his arms around the wax that surrounded his body. With one easy pull, he easily shattered it into several pieces, allowing the man to fall to the ground.
Instantly, I shot towards him and caught the fist headed for the back of his head.
“you…..How naughty. I'll have to discipline you for that.”
He sent his other fist to me, which I easily caught again.
“let go!”
“Why would I when we are having so much fun.”
His leg flew up to hit me, but I quickly caught that as well. Honestly, I love having 4 arms.
“Okay, fun's over.”
Before he could react, I threw him against the wall, knocking the wind out of him, which was quickly followed up with a swift kick to his head, knocking him out.
My face twisted into a smile.
Using his arms, I pinned his legs and arms together as azuura started “preparing” him for transport, which involved me holding his arms and legs down his side as azuura covered his body in wax. It was quite a boring task, but it had to be done.
< Sally left quite early. She said there was something important she had to do. She didn’t eborate further.>
Azuura finished preparing him, and we went back to our hive. After that, it was a very uneventful day filled with packing clothes and food, and, most importantly, filling my body with as much biomass as possible. Doing that was a big part of the preparations. The rest was for the 3 girls and the man. I only have them for the time being so I have to look after them till more arrive. After that, well, I'll use them till their bodies break
Everyone shrugged.
I closed my eyes and got ready to access the weave when the sound of galloping horses suddenly hit my ears.
I opened my eyes, and there she was, grinning stupidly whilst holding the reigns to 4 rge bck stallions. We all took several steps back as the carriage swung round to a stop before us.
< I'M BACK! Sorry, I'm te.> She said as she jumped off from the driver's seat
< okay…But have you forgotten we can fly? I was pnning to use the workers to transport all this stuff.>
I see the logic in her theory, but. It seems like a hassle for a very minor issue. However, this looks like something she wants, Let's just go along with it for her sake.
She Gave me a smile and nodded.
I moved towards the carriage. It was rge very rge, if I had to guess, at least 24 feet long and wide as hell. No wonder it needed those 4 stallions to pull it. It was a mostly bck carriage split in half, the front being a pce for. sitting and the back for cargo.
< Sally... this looks expensive. How much did this cost>
<3….4.>
< I assure you, Mother, the investment was worth it.>
I let up an audible groan as I climbed inside it.
The inside was luxurious, made from bck leather with white and gold accents. There were several amenities, such as a tiny fridge and these tiny fold-out tables. What was the weirdest thing about the carriage was that it was surprisingly cool.
Sally nudged me from behind into a seat. And I hate to admit it. But it was very comfortable. Still not happy about the price, though.
I pointed to her belly, which was still quite big. By my calcutions, it should be any second now.
< You are pretty much ready to pop.>
A quick birthing session and a short rest, we were FINALLY about to leave. Seriously, what is it with this town and trying its dammed hardest to keep me here! I shook my head. Whatever, it doesn’t matter. I'm going now.
Apollinaris smiled as she gave me a goodbye kiss.
< it sucks you have to leave so soon after I came back, Diva.>
One of my flies flew out and nded on her shoulder.
I hugged her one st time before climbing into the carriage, Where I was followed by azuura and the other girls. Who had been fitted with dark robes that covered their bodies?
The sounds of her moving and getting settled on her seat echoed through the cabin briefly before the carriage suddenly lurched forward. And with that, we were off. Apollinaris gave me a wave, as did The rest of them, though they probably couldn’t see me through the darkened gss.
“Misstress, you look sad; how could I be of service”
I rolled my eyes out of the 3; Theresa is the most touchy-feely, always trying to get close. Much to my annoyance.
“Be quiet and do nothing for the moment. Your body will get much use in the coming days. You should be getting rest because you won't be getting much of it.” Her body trembled with excitement. To think this one was a nun once.
I pushed her to the side and watched as my home disappeared. Soon, it started to get repced with the same buildings and towns I was familiar with. To think I'm finally leaving this pce. It feels like it's been a while since I st stepped out the walls. I can't wait to finally see my children back ho-”
I lurched forward with the force of a bullet as we suddenly came to a halt.
“I KNOW SHE'S IN THERE LET ME IN”
That voice... it couldn’t be... how did she know I was leaving.
“go away, crazy women; the person you're looking for isn’t in here!” Sally yelled back.
I opened the door, and she was three. Penn. I’d almost forgotten about this crazy person.
“Penn, how nice to meet you. What brings you to my carriage.”
She gave me a deadpan stare before climbing in.
“Don’t think you can just leave without telling me. I wanna see your actual home.”
“I figured that much, but how did you know I was here.”
“Ahhhh.”
She reached into her worn brown satchel bag and pulled out a small jar with my two children in it.
“These two seemed very eager to leave for some reason. I had a feeling something was up.”
She opened the jar, and the two of them instantly flew out.
They instantly flew back inside me as quickly as they could.
“What the hell did you do to them?”
“just some routine studies. I promise you they were fine and unharmed the whole time.”
I let out a deep sigh and signalled for Sally to leave
“Don’t be like that Diva. We'll be living with each other from now on. So it would do us well to get along.”
“Fine by me as long as you prove to be useful Penn.”
“Of course”
I gnced towards her as she tried to act all innocent.
“Really?”
“What? Oh, that. Well, i dont need that pce anymore, so I purged it all. And besides, it's not the first time I've started fresh.”
I let out a sigh as we escaped the scene.
“Seriously, Penn. I can't believe you torched your own home.”
“It’s fine; everything I need is fine. In this bag.including these.” She pulled out a set of two rings.
“What is that?”
“Something you will need very soon, diva.”
“What do you mean soon? What's going to happen? Also, what have you done with my mask!
Penn looked towards the new roaring fire.
“It’s seeing new pastures.”.
“Penn!”
“trust me! It was no good. The mask was a pile of poop that annoyed me.”
“So you burn it? Even though it wasn’t yours?!”
“Yes! Look Diva. It will all make sense soon. In about 5 minutes or so.”
I sat back in my seat.
“yes,yes,yes. Now, enough about this mask and more about this fine specimen next to you.”
Azuura shook at those words.
“You have to let me take a look at him. Diva. There is so much I could learn. Even now, his chitin is amazing. Both functional and somewhat stylish.”
“Leave him be, for now, pen. Azuura is pretty new to all this, so ter, maybe.”
Azuura folded his arms and sighed. Is he .... pouting? Where did he learn that from? Whatever, I'll ask him ter. For now, let's just enjoy the rest of the journey. And that’s what I did for about 10 minutes before the carriage started to slow down again. This must be divine intervention or something at this point. I JUST WANT TO LEAVE!
“Why are we stopping?”
“Diva, do you honestly believe you can leave without going through a checkpoint? They gotta check for anything illegal or out of the ordinary like, I don’t know, a 7ft tall, 4-armed bug monster.”
…….SHIT! Damnit sally!
“Well, what do we do? If they see me or Azuura. We are screwed.”
“oh no. If only there was a person with a mastery of magical artefacts which could help.”
Penn went through the rings to Azuura and me.
“Put this on, and quickly. I see a guard approaching.”
I gave azuura a gnce before I quickly slid on the ring. He did the same. Soon, dark smoke covered our bodies, smothering us from view, but just as quick as it came, it disappeared, revealing us to the world.
“It worked perfectly!” Penn excimed. Just what does she mean? Was there a chance these things wouldn’t have worked? And what the hell are these massive pair of orbs on my chest!
“what the...why do I have boobs?! And Hair? Are they disguises?”
“It’s a little bit more complex than that, but yeah. Ill give you the deets ter.”
“Mother...help.”
I looked to the side, and my jaw dropped to the ground at the sight of him. Azuura was..... Hot. He had dark skin, a six-pack abs, and toned muscles that any girl would want. Coupled with his dark brown eyes and Short blonde hair, my son was a Lady killer. Why am I weirdly proud of this?
*knock* *knock* *knock*
We both gnced out the window. It was a guard.
“open up, security check”
Shit, what do we do....ermmm ahh.
“Open up now! Or I'll do it myself.”
I looked around for something to cover ourselves, but there was nothing. Shit how the heck do I.
“OPEN UP NOW!”
Before I could move, the door swung open.
“What are you hiding? Oh my God!”
Shit! Improvise!
“HOW RUDE. YOU AWFUL MAN. EXPOSING A WOMAN WHEN SHE IS NAKED.”
“GAHHHHAAA IM SORRY! But... why are you nak-“
“DOES IT MATTER WHAT ME AND MY HUSBAND IN OUR CARRIAGE? TELL ME IS IT A CRIME TO BE NAKED?”
The guard shrunk away a little bit. Good, I have the advantage. Push harder.
“WELL!”
“no, ma’am I just need to check you i-“
“AND NOW YOU WISH TO MOLEST ME. DO YOU HAVE NO SHAME YOU DEGENERATE FILTH”
“Please ma’am! I just need to see your ID!”
“FINE!” I looked around me when suddenly Penn passed me several silver pieces of metal with inscriptions carved onto them.”
Without questioning it, I took them and threw them at the man
“LET ME PASS THIS INSTANT OR ELSE I REPORT THIS TO YOUR SUPERIOR.”
The man scrambled to pick them up and quickly check them before instantly giving them back.
“Everything seems fine. You can go ma'am, and sorry!”
“HMMPH!” I Smmed the door shut, and a few moments ter, the carriage lurched forward.
“Well, that worked a lot better than expected!”
“you know you could have me what the rings do penn”
“ I could, but this is a lot easier. They are the repcement for your mask. The whole point of the stupid mask was to hide your identity. So there you go.”
I let out a deep sigh and pulled off the ring, returning myself to normal. Azuura did the same. Creating a small dark cloud that filled the cabin
“And the pieces of metal?”
“ahh, those the inscriptions morph the metal pte into what the person seeing them expects to see. In this case, id.”
“That sounds… incredibly busted.”
“ha! I wish. It’s a novelty, really. It’s only good for quick gnces like that; if he had inspected them properly, he would have noticed many discrepancies, such as spelling mistakes, nonsensical information and so on. And if he was like a wizard or something, that shit wouldn’t have even worked. So no, it's not as powerful as it sounds.”
“Well, that’s disappointing.” I let out a sigh as we finally left Doonvatel. Finally
......
Penn’s log:
Summary of research on Alvearix Royal fly.
The royal flies are quite interesting on the surface. They look simir to regur house flies, but they are so much more. They are predators, for starters. One of the tests conducted involved leaving them in a vivarium with other much weaker insects. Within 3 hours, these 2 flies had systematically devoured every other insect. I was tempted to put them in a vivarium with something much stronger, but decided not to 1 because their mother would kill me if something happened, and 2 I think the result would be the same. Their strength does not come from their physiology, even though that in itself is impressive. The venom they produce is something I've never seen before.
(Side note: Attempts to synthesise a potent anti-venom were unsuccessful. Most test subjects would die before I could harvest a viable sample)
The true strength of the royal fly comes from their coordination, the way they seamlessly work together like one organism is… Beautiful and terrifying. I’m excited to see what else Diva has to offer me.
Announcement wooh and that's done. WE HAVE FINALLY LEFT DOONVATEL LESGOOOOO!!!!!!