Getting to Know Bee

“So my best pally Tally,” said Brim when she took her aside a moment later, in as much as a mostly invisible ghost can take anyone aside. “There’s a little motto I try to live my life by. And that motto is ‘thou shalt not suffer a clamjam to live.’ Now the absolute last thing I want to be is your third wheel, so I’m going to make myself scarce while you make the magic happen. I’ll just be, I dunno, keeping watch or something. OK? Good talk. Use protection unless you really don’t want to!”

Say what you want about Brim, she kept her word. Not a peep escaped her lips for the next several hours, and Tally only saw her if she went out of her way to try. Sometimes she’d sense Brim floating above the forest floor, phasing through trunks and watching for intruders like a silent guardian that sometimes tried to peak at your cleavage.

Which led to her new companion.

"Hey Mistress!"

Mistress. The word set off a little electric jolt on the small of Tally's back. She wanted to - no, no. She had to be the good guy. It was very important to be the good guy. "You can just call me Tally."

"Oh, OK! Hey Tally! I've been thinking...and I would totally wreck you in a fight."

"Oh, is that a fact?" Tally looked up at the Bee-Girl (name pending). They had set up camp in an old, wooded hollow, and Tally had just finished setting up their only tent. The Bee-Girl was bobbing unsteadily in a lazy loop-de-loop, because no self-respecting Bee-Girl flies in a straight line if she can help it.

"You know it!" It seemed like nothing could stop the Bee-Girl's smirk, but then she realized she was mouthing off to a superior and her expression went from "oh-I'm-the-shit" to "oh-shit". "I - I mean...not that I would ever want to wreck you! Or hurt you! I'm just saying, you know, if we were talking hypothetically, and it was a fair fight and you couldn't jump me with that hand thing that made me feel so many feelings..."

Tally felt like she was with her fellow soldiers again back in the Queen's barracks, swapping friendly quips and barbs over the most pointless things. She couldn’t help it. She laughed for the first time in days. The sound of her Mistress' joy instinctively soothed something deep in the Bee-Girl's soul.

"I don't know," Tally said playfully, as she'd spent too long with Brim and was enjoying the conversational change of pace, "I just had to touch you and you went out like a light. So I'm feeling pretty good about my odds...tell you what, you show me any good moves of yours and I might just change my mind. Might."

The Bee-Girl stood at attention mid-flight and gave a sharp salute. "Aye-aye, boss!" She twirled around, giving Tally a good view of her plump backside. (Oh my wow, there are sacred temples that aren't as pretty as that, thought Tally.)

She quickly scanned the hollow and singled out a tree. Opening a worn leather pouch tied to her belt, the Bee-Girl pulled out what could be best described as a honeycomb-shaped throwing star, so small that it barely filled the palm of her hand. She let it fly, and with pinpoint aim it struck the tree, and the two-inch projectile exploded. Gleaming honey spread all over the tree, and rapidly hardened until it was strong enough to hold all but the strongest and the hungriest of enemies.

The Bee-Girl's stinger - a clean, needle-like spear - shot out from an opening in her wrist and landed in her waiting hand as a javelin. With practiced aim, she threw it hard enough to crack both the tree-bark and its new honey shell. She produced stinger after stinger and landed hit after hit until the tree began to resemble a new form of pincoushin.

Finally, the Bee-Girl made one last stinger, let out a war cry and charged. The average bee can lift 71 times their own body weight, and she was a hell of a lot stronger than that. So when her stinger pierced the tree one last time, the honey-covered oak decided it was best to die with dignity and exploded into a gooshy, delicious mess.

"...OK, you're tougher than me," conceded Tally a few minutes later after cleaning the debris off the campsite and out of her hair. "Next time we're in a fight, you take point."

The beaming Bee-Girl saluted again. "Wouldn't have it any other way, Tally!"

"Stripey...no. chomp Honey...nah, too obvious. munch Buzz Bomb? I'll put that with the maybes."

The sun was setting, casting shadows across their skin and the forest floor. They were sitting around a smokeless campfire, eating some roasted apples Tally had cooked. She wasn't exactly a seasoned chef, but the Bee-Girl didn't seem to care, if only because she'd never eaten anything that wasn't honey or flower-related.

"Still trying to think of a name?" Tally asked. "You need any help with that?"

The Bee-Girl gulped down her last bit of apple. "Nah, I'll be OK. I kinda want to come up with it on my own, anyway. Find that one magic word that perfectly captures my greatness, you know? Figure out who I'm going to be." She sat in the grass, fidgeting for a minute. "Hey Tally! Can I ask you something about the hand thing?"

"Shoot."

"So there's a whole bunch of new stuff in my brain," said the Bee-Girl, getting up to pace around the campfire. "Some of it's just basic stuff about me and who I am. Like I’m a bee. I’m a BAMF. And I love you. But some of it's more complicated stuff, like the walking and talking I'm doing right now. How'd you teach me that? Cause I'm pretty sure that should take way longer then it did."

"I asked Brim about that," said Tally. "The magic copied a lot of information from my brain and downloaded it into yours. You don't have any of my memories and your personality's completely different. But basically, you know everything I would know."

"Oh, neat! Also, who's Brim?"

Tally remembered what happened at Brookhaven. She decided that this was an explanation she wanted to put off for as long as possible. "...A headache I will share with you at another time," she said cautiously. "...so what kind of things do you know?"

"Well, let's see," the Bee-Girl sat down right beside Tally. "I know how to read. I know how to write. I know how to do calculus..."

Tally immediately perked up. "Oh, I love calculus! I don't even care if I never use it in my line of work, it's just so relaxing..." Then she saw the Bee-Girl's frown and realized that someone who'd gone by a number her whole life might not have the best appreciation for math. "Oh...sorry. You keep going."

"I know how to pitch a tent," she gestured at the tent nearby. "I know how to roast apples," she gestured at the campfire in front of them. "I know how to get good prices on scented candles..."

Tally nodded. Made sense so far.

"I know how to fight with a bent sword...I know what satin feels like around my eyes...I know eighteen ways you can use a banana..."

Wait. If she knew everything Tally knew, then wouldn’t that include…oh. Oh no. OH NO.

The Bee-Girl was also starting to grasp the implications here. Even the fading sunlight couldn't obscure her blush. "I know how to find a g-spot really fast. I-I know how to pace myself at an orgy..." Her voice got really quiet and she seemed to think the floor was now exceptionally interesting. "I know what makes a good substitute for lube..."

No one said anything.

Tally wondered if there was any chance she get amnesia in the next ten seconds.

Then she saw the Bee-Girl in the beginnings of a freak-out, as her virginal mind struggled to process knowledge she really, really shouldn't have right now. And her knight instincts kicked in as she got up, grabbed the Bee-Girl by the shoulders, looked her straight in the eyes and put on her best comfort voice. "Whoa whoa, hold on, stay with me. Focus on me right now."

The Bee-Girl, mind in the middle of a short-circuit, managed the impressive feat of looking at Tally and not looking at her at the same time. She'd spent the past while thinking of Tally as a sort of goddess figure and then she learned...that. It was sort of like figuring out Santa Claus was married and therefore probably had sex a few times.

This is exactly why I keep my sex life a secret, thought Tally. Well, aside from it being my sex life.

She was a knight. People looked to her for hope, guidance, and occasionally help with figuring out directions. If anyone realized what she liked to do in her spare time...that's why she had to compartmentalize. Be a hero on the streets and a harlot in the sheets. But then Brim showed up, and that might never be possible anymore. And the only thing keeping her from dying of embarrassment right now was knowing that someone needed her help.

(Be the Good Guy. Always Be the Good Guy.)

"I'm not going to lie to you," Tally said softly. "Yes. Sex can be great. And for a lot of people, it's the key to figuring out who they really are."

"But it can also be scary. Because sex changes you, and change is scary."

"You've been through a lot today. If you decide you're not ready for it, I understand completely. Just because you're bound to me or whatever doesn't mean you have to do anything you don't want. I'm never going to treat you like the Hive did. I promise."

"But if you're ready...if you really want to find out who you are," Tally swallowed. "I would be honored to help you find out. And whatever happens, I know you're strong enough to face it."

Well, it looked like the Bee-Girl wasn't hyperventilating anymore. That seemed like a cue to hide. "If you need me, I'll be in the tent." And she walked away.

Then she tripped on a small rock, hoped in vain the Bee-Girl hadn’t seen that, and stumbled through the tent flaps.