It was a slow day at the Honey Pot shop. There wasn’t a ton of business in the winter season, since all the honey wasn’t as fresh as in the summer, spring, or even fall. It was like this for a lot of seasonal sorts of shops, even ones that did have the distinction of being the only shop in town selling real Vespoid-produced honey, which was waaaay better than that slop produced by non-humanoid bees. Velda, the bee-type Vespoid shopkeeper, was getting a bit tired of all the foreign adventurers coming in thinking it was a bee themed brothel instead of a real honey shop. Sure, some of them turned out to buy stuff because yeah, the honey was good stuff, but it was getting irritating. It was also, admittedly, kinda nice that they thought she looked good enough for that role - vespoid women, at least her type, looked a lot like human women, but with yellow-and-black striped hair, a rather hefty stinger on their rear, and wings, and sharp feet. 

    Velda had been dozing off when the bell at the entrance chimed. She was started out of her nap and tried to look attentive, as the customer walked in. They were an elf boy, and had the look of an adventurer recently come into some cash on account of the sword on their hip. Being an elf, they were also a fairly pretty, young-looking man; short red hair, perfect clear skin and no freckles, an almost feminine facial structure. Well, time to go to work… Velda clapped her hands on her cheeks to wake herself up a bit, tried to rub her eyes so they wouldn’t look so sleepy, and buzzed her way over to them. “Welcome to the Honey Pot! The number one honey shop in the city of Estria, and the only one selling real Vespoid-produced honey! Others might be cheaper, but none are as high quality. I’m Velda, proprietor and also shopkeeper, how can I help you?” Gods the spiel bored her to tears, but she had to discreetly make sure they knew what kind of establishment it was, when it came to adventurers. Not a brothel or a weirdly named armory or whatever else. 

    Fortunately, from the happy look on the man’s face, he’d actually intended to come here. “Great! I’m Alex, from the renowned party of adventurers known as The Holy Swords!” Of which there were six, only one of which could be called renowned, and he obviously wasn’t in it, but Velda pretended to be interested as he continued, “And we have returned from a valiant quest to purge a barrow of the undead so the souls may rest in peace!” And they’d just completed a low ranking clear quest, sure. “To celebrate, we’re all getting some ingredients to make a cake, and I’ve decided to purchase some Vespoid Honey!” Oh, that was adorable. 

    “Well,” Velda said with her forced cheer, “Then you’ve come to the right place! I’ve got a few price ranges, for different qualities and freshness. There’s not too much fresh stuff out right now, unfortunately - winter and all that - but if you don’t mind…” 

    Alex took out a large pouch that jingled loudly with coin. “That will not be a problem! I’ll take your best stuff!” 

    Confident, wasn’t he? Well, Velda was fine with it as long as he had some gold to spend. “Right this way, sir!” she said, heading towards the back where the more expensive goods were kept. When she got to the proper storage room she asked him to wait, which he obliged. 

    The store room was about half full with jars of various qualities of honey from the home hive, kept fresh by some minor enchantments on the bottles. With the jingling of coins in her mind, Velda went up to the top shelf. Or reached up there, since she wasn’t tall enough to see the whole trays. She felt around; most of the best stuff was sold, but there should have been a jar of it right next to her seasonal donation of her own honey to be sent back to the hive… she grabbed a jar and pulled it off, before turning and heading back out. 

    “Only one jar?” Alex asked, raising an eyebrow.

    “You only need one. Vespoid honey is a whole lot stronger and more flavorful than normal honey!” And also she had to ration for the season until she and others could start producing again, but that was a side note. “Would you like to test? There’s a seat at the counter and there’s plenty for you to take a few licks of what you’re buying.” 

    Alex nodded vigorously - seemed the man had a sweet tooth - and followed her to the counter. He plonked his pouch of gold onto it, waving for her to take the payment, as he took a wooden spoon from her and opened the jar. “Let’s see how it is…” he said, taking a small scoop and putting it into his mouth. 

    The reaction was instant. His eyes widened for half a second, and then closed as he sagged in the chair. It wasn’t an abnormal reaction for people whose first experience with Vespoid honey was the high quality stuff; sometimes it was enough to ruin other honey for them. “Like it?” Velda said with a smirk. 

    “Gods above,” was all Alex could say, as he took another scoop, and then another, “Gods…” Yeah, must have been his first experience with the stuff. Velda quietly took enough from the pouch for a second jar, which seemed likely if this reaction was any indication. Over a minute or two, with pauses to savor each spoonful, he’d already worked through a third of the jar. 

    “I’ll go ahead and get you a second one.” Velda said, heading back into the stock room, bringing a stool with her this time to make it easier to reach the top shelf. Standing on the stool, she peered into the trays where she’d gotten the honey. Something was off, but she couldn’t put her finger on it… she shrugged and grabbed another of the high quality jars, and went back to the counter.

    Alex had gone from scooping to pouring the honey directly into his throat. “Wow, reactions are usually extreme, but this level…” Velda started… and then noticed something off. The young-looking man’s hair seemed to be lighter than it had been before, for one. And he seemed less… masculine, somehow, although she couldn’t tell why. “What’s…” she started. Then the first antenna poked out through his hair. “...Oh. Ohhhhhh gods damn my lack of sleep…” 

    The trays had looked weird because one of her personal stock was missing… the personal stock being the kind that had… effects on other races. 

    This… would be a problem.  

    Alex, swordsman of the Grand Holy Swords party which was, in fact, world renowned, and had just ended the threat to the city of a rather strong necromancer, was eager as Velda led him further into the shop. It was something of a tradition for the party whenever they finished a quest to (after the also traditional guild hall boozing) make something together, and this town was one of few with a Vespoid hive near enough to get the real stuff instead of importing from so far that it tasted like normal honey when it made it to the shops. He’d never had any of the stuff before, but his party members who had made it sound like the stuff of the gods. 

    When Velda gave him a spoon to sample the goods with, he was expecting it to be great, if not the sort of thing that his friends had told him it was. And it wasn’t what they’d told him - it was better! The flavor exploded in his mouth, filling it with a perfect level of sweetness that was omnipresent yet somehow not overpowering as it filled his mouth and left a trail down his throat. Thoughts of what he’d actually bought this for fled his mind, and he had to have more, right now. So he did, taking spoonful after spoonful from the jar into his mouth.

    He was so occupied with the literally perfect honey that he didn’t notice a single thing changing. He didn’t notice how his short hair was growing longer, or changing in color. He didn’t notice the slow feminization of his face, the hard lines that managed to keep it vaguely masculine looking softening. He heard Velda return, but he really couldn’t have cared less, so focused he was on the honey. 

    He was pouring it into his mouth directly, feeling it go into his stomach, feeling the warmth across his whole body as antennae poked out through his hair, as his hips grew out and his waist narrowed. He’d never been a super buff guy - elves didn’t tend to get much visible definition - but those muscles he did have seemed to fade. His chest seemed to swell, rapidly going from flat to large enough to catch bits of honey that he accidentally spilled; even those he only noticed in their capacity to make sure he got all of the honey. 

    Someone was shaking him but he waved them off. Whatever the problem was, it would wait until he- no until she, as her equipment down below and inside changed - was done. Her hair had grown out to around the middle of her back, the last traces of red fading into the bee-vespoid yellow and black, and something was now growing out of her bottom. The chairs in the establishment, thanks to it’s owner, were specially made to accomodate stingers, which turned out to be quite convenient for Alex as she grew one. 

    As she drank down the last quarter of the bottle, the changes kept coming. A large amount of some sort of fluff seemed to grow out around her neck, not dissimilar to Velda’s, while her legs turned spindly and pointed at the bottom. Her clothes had already been damaged by the change, so they easily tore open as a set of insect wings came out of her back. Physically, she was pretty much a complete vespoid, now… but there was still quite a bit of honey in the jar, maybe a sixth of it. 

    Now, at this point, Alex was aware of what happened. She was pretty sure it had been an accident, from Velda’s panicked reaction. Which meant she could really relax and let it go. The next part would probably be the mental changes, right? Well, if it meant she might be able to get more of the honey she just had to go for it, she’d never been attached to being an elf anyway. And besides that, it wasn’t like she could stop drinking if she wanted to. So she looked right at the panicking vespoid besides her, and winked as she downed the last of the bottle. 

    The transformation had been pleasurable sort of in the background at this point - the ability to convert people with honey produced in a certain way was an evolutionary adaptation from millenia in the past and it was meant to keep them placid - but as Alex downed the last of the bottle it grew dramatically more so. She moaned with pleasure as she it reworked her mind to fit her new body, wings buzzing rapidly enough to lift her off the seat a bit as she came. She wasn’t an elf anymore, though she remembered being one, she was definitely a vespoid and all that came with it. She’d had blue eyes when she closed them, and honey-yellow when she opened them again. She knew all about working the hive, making honey. All her duties as a worker bee. And she knew that she had a queen - which was whatever bee the transforming honey had come from...

    After what felt like eternity she came down from the pleasurable high, finding another vespoid shaking her. She looked up with a dazed expression on her face.

    “A-Alex, are you alright? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” 

    Alex gave her a dopey grin. “I’m feeling great, my queen~” she trilled. 

    “Alex, you know what I keep telling you about raiding my stash…” Velda said tiredly. 

    “I knowwwww,” said a slightly embarrassed but obviously pleased with herself vespoid worker. “But you always seem so tired, and I’ve still got my adventurer job on top of this…” 

    “That doesn’t mean you should bring my honey with you to turn brigands into bees!” 

    The two new bees that had sparked this conversation, for their part, were busy buzzing happily as they pressed themselves against their Queen. They didn’t much care that she hadn’t intended their transformation, at this point; and being that they had been… less strong willed than Alex, they’d not really kept all that much of the ‘vicious murderer’ mindset, now just cute vespoid drones eager to assist. 

    It had been about two months since the… incident. Alex had taken her transformation in stride, and managed to convince her party members that it was an accident. She was a real adventurer, able to keep her identity and most of her independence - she’d initially thought she’d turned into a worker bee, but really she’d turned into a warrior bee. So for the most part, not much had changed, besides the city becoming something of a home base for her party due to the presence of the Honey Pot. 

    And also… as a soldier bee, she’d instinctively started to grow her Queen’s hive. Without permission. Which was why in addition to Velda, the Honey Pot now had four other vespoid employees, and was getting so much honey that it was starting to actually export some. Sure, it had helped the shop grow, but having girls calling her queen all the time, along with the imperious instincts that were coming up from being made a queen, were kinda exasperating… 

    But Alex was so darn cute about it, that it was hard to stay mad. “...I mean it this time, Alex… you can’t just turn people into vespoids without my permission.”

    Alex saluted. “Yes, queen! Does that mean I can if I do have your permission?” 

    Velda cursed her slip of the tongue… but… “...Yeah, if I give you the ok then sure. But please slow down a bit? I’m going to need to get a second location for all the bees you keep making.” 

    Alex grinned widely. “Yes, my queen~ I’ve already gone ahead and put a bid on a good location, actually…”