Epic of Bee

I could sense a single humanoid shape in the next carven, but it wasn\'t moving. The three of us and the cats floated forward until we reached the cave and then inside.

The humanoid was a regal-looking metal cat-man with a silver cape, and the moment we stepped in the room, his eyes lit up. I moved the girls behind me, but Sakura started to complain.

"What are you doing?! Let me down, and I will take care of that tin man! I have a score to settle with him!" Sakura raged, and I had half a mind to let her, but I waited.

"What have you done?! When have you freed the abomination?!" Once, emperor of the Meccat, Davo called out to me, but I floated until I was within arm\'s reach of him.

"She is one of my subjects, and now you can either stand aside, or I can let her do what she chooses with you. I do not have time to play games, and Kiliada spoke quite highly of you, so I would hate to find out that his estimation of your intelligence was wrong," I said with a plain and respectful voice.

Davo looked me over and then back to Sakura and Helaina, but his red eyes got big when he got to Helaina, and I rolled my eyes.

It might just be easier for me to introduce her to the people that I meet so I can stop getting the look of "Oh, you have that one with you" all the time.

"The Wasp Queen is with me as well, so don\'t bother asking," I said before Davo could finish opening his metal lion mouth, and then he closed it and paused before speaking.

"All right, looks like it would be a waste of both of our times, and if Kiliada has approved of you, then I will have to trust his judgment," Davo said as he fingered his strange metal dreadlock-like beard.

"If it makes you feel any better, Kiliada told Ashia not to deal with the Ninetails. The problem is that our Queen doesn\'t seem to listen very well when she gets an idea into her head," Helaina joked, and I rolled my eyes.

I thought it was adorable that she was already calling me Queen but less adorable that she was already well versed with my failings. Well, sometimes a person needs a reality check-up; I just wish they would do it more in private, and not to the people I am meeting for the first time!

"Yes, Yes, Yes, I have a hard head. I am here to wake up Rai Cait and don\'t have time to play around. Now, are you going to move out of this hard-headed woman\'s way, or do I need to show you just how hard it is?" I asked, and Davo let out a tubular laugh.

"Haha! Rai Cait you say? And wake him up nonetheless! Does that mean that I shall maybe get to finally rest in my final form?! Also, I need to warn you that there is a woman with a far harder head than yours up ahead!" Davo asked with growing anticipation.

"Yes, but what is your final form? And yes, I heard about Rai Cait\'s estranged wife, Shiva. I am hoping that I will be able to reason with her rather than start a big fight. I think that dealing with Rai Cait will be more than enough of a problem," I said with a sigh, which made Davo laugh again.

"You didn\'t tell her yet then?" Davo said, but he wasn\'t talking to me, and I turned around to see that Sakura was looking away from me, but she had an angry look on her face.

"Tell me what?" I asked Sakura, and then she tossed up her hands and tried to walk away from me, but I was holding her in the air, so nothing happened.

"The man is an idiot! And I will kill him once you have what you need from him!" Sakura said in a low growl, and I turned back to Davo.

"What is the meaning of this?" I asked the once emperor, and he gave a toothy metallic grin in response.

"Rai Cait was infatuated with her, and he didn\'t actually put her in the barrier! Ha! That idiot tried to get her out after!" Davo laughed, and I whirled around to Sakura.

"Excuse me? When were you going to tell me about this?" I said in a dangerous tone.

One of my least favorite things was to be left in the dark about important information. This is definitely what I would call significant, considering that I asked her to marry me!

"You didn\'t ask, and I didn\'t think it was important! Do you really want to hear about all my past lovers?!" Sakura asked, and I threw my hands into the air in frustration.

"LOVERS?! I just told you that we were going to wake him up and ask you to marry me, yet that didn\'t come up! I don\'t care how many lovers you have had, but the fact that one of them is the God that we are about to go wake up and ask for help seems important!" I raged.

"The man is an idiot! And I told you that I was going to kill him the first chance I got!" Sakura retorted back, but I returned it just as fiercely.

"Oh? And he knows this? Or is this just something that has built up over the last two hundred years?! Hmmm?" I said and whirled on Davo. "And you! Get out of my way before I turn you into scrap metal! You had better be ready to come with me when I get back, shit disturber!" I said and started moving forward without waiting for an answer.

Davo jumped out of the way, and I headed for the next tunnel as fast as my flight would let me. I was pissed now, and Shiva had better not give me any trouble; I wanted to save all this for that… MAN!