Erlea groaned as she woke up. There was an empty feeling inside her womb; she must have given birth while unconscious. Reaching out, she fumbled around until she caught a branch. She pulled herself into a sitting position. “It would be nice if I stopped passing out every time.”
“Combat Pregnancy was probably the second best talent to take for that. You still get knocked up, but you can fight up until the bastards are coming out.” It was the breeder she rescued. The woman was sitting on the skull of a red goblin, one leg dangling back and forth as she combed blood out of her short, fluffy hair.
“Though,” she continued, “I recommend you seriously working your Endurance first. If you plan on taking on goblin armies, you need to be able to pull off five or six of those attacks before getting raped.”
Erlea frowned as her head cleared. “Sorry.”
Then she remembered how Saroia had said the same thing. The frown darkened as sadness seeped through her thoughts.
The woman smiled and fluttered her wing. They were very large and blew air in all directions. She looked like a moth with her short, squat body. “You are a baby bee, it's expected. You'll get stronger and wiser.”
Her lips curled up into a grin. “Though without you, I'd be still scooping baby goblins out of my pussy. Once you get a dozen into you, it starts to get really uncomfortable.”
She patted her stomach. “Don't worry, you'll get stronger the more you kill them.”
Shaking her head, Erlea looked around. “I can't. I'm goblin affinity, I'm not going to get any more powers.”
It was a carnage around them. She could see baby goblins skewered and smashed everywhere among the bodies of the other goblins. Many of the corpses were already rotting away. In a few hours, they would be completely gone and there wouldn't be a hint that there was a battle.
“I'm Tira, if you are curious.”
“Erlea.”
Tira grinned and gestured over to Miere who was healing one of the other breeders. “I guessed when your bee girl screamed out your name when she saw you unconscious. I take the beetle bitch is Billie?”
Not seeing a reason to not answer, Erlea nodded.
“You don't see Honningbies with Kevers very often. Most of us breeders have a tendency to stick to our kind.” She glanced back at Miere and Erlea wondered if she knew about Miere's affinity.
Tira stood up. “I just wanted to thank you for the assistance. Those goblins managed to surprise even me and I wasn't able to save my girls from a proper raping.”
“A-Are they going to be okay?” Erlea managed to push herself to her feet. She looked at the ground for signs of her own pregnancy. When she spotted a wet trail of juices, she followed it only a few yards before it ended with a crushed body and Billie's footprint.
“Unlike the Honningbies, we Falene don't let virgins out in the wild. Half of these girls already had an affinity for goblins, I just thought they were cleared out before we practiced.”
“Practiced what?” Erlea looked up but she was talking to empty air.
“Illusions,” came a whisper next to her.
She spun around but there was no one.
Erlea gasped as she spun around again but Tira was gone. She looked around worriedly before she spotted the moth girl a few yards away, talking to some other moths.
Tira glanced at her and waved.
Bemused, Erlea waved back before she headed to Miere.
Billie walked up before Erlea reached her lover. The beetle woman looked calmer and there was a smile on her lips. She also had a couple streaks of blood across her face. “These moths are from the Mohiran Branches. They asked if we can join them and guard on the way back home. Are you okay with this?”
Erlea looked into her friend's eyes. “Are you?”
Billie started to look at Miere but then didn't. She sighed. “It was a stupid thing to do. There are only two of you left and she doomed herself to a life of disappointment and pain. She should have just waited. Even….” She gestured to the bloodbath around her, “Even these would have been better than you.”
She looked frustrated. “Just once. Just one cock and then we would have been fine.”
Erlea's wings fluttered with her fear and anxiety. It took her a moment to settle down and bring them tight against her buttocks.
“I….” Billie sighed. “I don't blame you for what happened.”
It was only a small relief but Erlea had other concerns. “What about Miere?”
“I shouldn't blame her, she was scared. I should have asked, I saw the signs that she was unreasonably in love with you and knew it was a risk. I just… I shouldn't have assumed she had already been taken.”
Billie grunted and scratched her head at the base of one of her antenna. “Damn it, I'm supposed to be the adult here. The hive defense was my responsibility.”
Her arm formed into a sword and then relaxed.
“You did what you could.”
Billie glared at her. “Let the entire hive get raped, murdered, or kidnapped? I didn't do that great of a job, did I?”
Erlea held up her arm for a moment.
The beetle girl looked at it and then sighed. She stepped into a hug and leaned her head against Erlea's shoulder. “It's just… I'm just so angry. At… her, me… everyone.”
And then a sob. “And… my Saroia.”
Erlea hugged her tightly. “I'm sorry.”
“I moved to the hive for her. We fought together so many times. She was… going to be my third time with a bee.”
Erlea kissed the top of Billie's head. It was a bittersweet gesture but there wasn't anything else she could do.