All in all, it felt like home

A calm, blue night filled with millions of stars and fireflies, and tiny singing mushrooms, greeted the weary group of companions who had taken a deep liking to each other.

From Hira to Laathi, everyone, no matter how grand or tiny, sat around the ever-burning fireplace and shared laughter and stories with each other. Their eyes spoke the words that were left unspoken in the tales.

Khadija and Isra sat snuggled up together in a comfy blanket the bees had recently learned to make. It was silky and extremely thin but kept them well insulated.

Aatish had come back and was sitting with the crow, Amawas by her side. Her second arm had returned as well.

Only Gimpi was missing, and by the looks of it, the preparations of the grand feast that he had dedicated his entire evening to were almost complete.

Gimpi walked through some bushes, cleared his throat, then bowed his head down and said, "Please, everyone, follow. The feast is ready!"

*****

Gimpi walked beside Queen Golden with a wide smile; he could not wait to see her reaction. They neared the Mushroom Giant, and the giant stood up and bowed his head down towards the Queen. She kept on walking straight.

The mushroom giant then gestured at Gimpi to ask whether he could join as well. Gimpi gestured with his arm that he could. The mushroom giant left his bubble-blowing stick aside, stood up, and waited until everyone passed by, joining the last of the line, walking with Haniya and Justuju.

"Oh hi!" said Haniya, trying to tease him.

The Mushroom giant waved hello at her, totally aloof.

Justuju and Haniya were getting closer these days; their academic interests and adventures were slowly becoming famous among the inhabitants of the entire grove.

Isra and Khadija walked beside Gimpi, followed by #212 who carried an embarrassed Amawas on his top, strapped tightly. Aatish and the crow were behind; they did not know each other, so there was a slight awkwardness between them. She felt a sense of familiarity coming from the crow though, but ignored it.

They finally reached a spot where Gimpi ran with his tiny legs and stopped everyone.

He then cleared his throat.

"We will proceed with order now," he clapped his hands, and from the top of the trees, a figure shrouded in diffused white light glided down, carrying a white carriage behind it. The figure looked like a giant regal lion with two sparkly white wings and a long tail.

The girls screamed just by looking at how beautiful it was.

Queen Golden then stepped aside as Gimpi walked to Isra and Khadija.

"Madam Isra, Madam Khadija, if you may please," he said.

Khadija gasped, then side-hugged Isra as they both walked to the carriage. It was completely white and held a rope at its helm. Their gazes landed at the rope at the same moment which made them rush upon the footrest and get on the carriage, totally ruining the sophisticated moment it was. Haniya snapped at them from behind the line, then Khadija got up, took the rope, and then Isra climbed up second, spanking at her shoulder.

Gimpi then walked to the carriage and jumped up to the footrest.

"Please strike the rope softly; Homal is very shy and gets scared easily."

Khadija nodded as Gimpi jumped off.

She then struck the rope softly, and Homal flapped his giant beautiful wings and took flight. He roared slightly, looked back at Khadija for a brief moment, and then flew onwards, carrying them both forward with the wind. Soon, a few more Homals took flight after them. One carried Haniya and Aatish; Amawas was laid by her side on one. The rest could fly, so they flew, rising up into the air.

Homals led them deeper and deeper into the seemingly never-ending grove. It stretched for miles and looked extremely mesmerizing under the blue night sky. They could spot various campfires here and there and tiny creatures warming by it. The air was filled with the delicious aroma of spices and sweets.

Eventually, the Homals turned and descended upon a long empty field that had a huge Dastarkhwaan set up upon it, flowing forward for a hundred meters upon the ground. Furnished with hundreds of hotpots of various foods and steaming delicacies. There were plenty of leaf cushions of different colors placed by its side. Two particularly huge ones that stood out from the rest were placed right before the dastarkhwaan started. They were specifically made for both Queens. There were also other leaf cushions made for birds of prey and creatures of all kinds.

Before everyone could absorb what was laid in front of them, scores of bulb-beaks, the flying little tweeties that managed the affairs of lightning in almost the entire Sehra, appeared in the sky. Ropes hung from their tarsi, carrying a huge transparent fabric-made canopy. They glowed bright yellow and orange and switched to various other colors, presenting a majestic light show in the sky.

Gimpi then rushed forward to the middle of the dastarkhwaan, surrounded by scores of tiny creatures of all sorts, all wearing their aprons. A few bees hovered about him as he whispered something to them; soon, they disappeared, and in the next few minutes.

Gimpi clapped in the air, and a group of starfish-like creatures appeared from the bushes and funnily walked to the dastarkhwaan, carrying wide empty metal plates with them. They dodged various pots and plates, then settled themselves strategically across the entire dastarkhwaan, maintaining a consistent distance from each other.

Then they opened their tiny mouths and sucked in the air, slowly inflating until they were big blobby star balls. Each raised their fat arm up in perfect sync and gave a thumbs up. The last one raised his arm up and gave the thumbs up, and then Gimpi gave the thumbs up.

And then they started deflating very slowly, producing an extremely pleasing music that enveloped the entire scene in its comforting embrace. Their sync was top-notch, and the quality of music was simply too amazing; it was better than anything the girls had ever heard on Earth.

Gimpi graciously walked to everyone and bowed then.

"Please madams and sir, make yourselves comfortable." He gestured towards the dastarkhwaan.

Both the Queens graciously accepted and settled themselves together, before the majestic dastarkhwaan.

And then everyone else took their places. Soon the entire Nector#1 Squad also descended, settling upon the cushions. The last Jamun bee who had survived was also here; since the artefact had returned, they could remake the entire unit from scratch.

And just by looking, the entire dastarkhwaan was filled with birds of prey sitting side by side. #212 looked at them and almost teared up; he missed them on the last mission but it was too covert of a nature to take them along.

The mushroom giant then settled, putting the leaf pillow to an endurance test. He rubbed his butt upon it as the poor pillow squeaked but held on.

Sir Laathi had come too, accompanied by some tens of tiny sticks, all his younger relatives.

Scores of other creatures that none of the girls had seen before also took spots on their cushions, and when everyone had settled, #212 spoke.

"The Queen would like to make a statement."

Everyone's gazes lingered on the majestic Queen who was sitting comfortably on her giant golden cushion; the seamstress bees had really outdone themselves with the detailing upon it.

"This feast is dedicated to the valiant team of Insaaf, who heroically fought and retrieved not only our artefact but gave the whole Sehra a chance at freedom. Their bravery will echo through generations as those who started the avalanche of change that will occur in the upcoming months."

Queen Golden took a pause; Isra kept looking at her, expecting something else but got a bit disappointed when she spoke again,

"And one last thing, Tonight, we feast with family, tomorrow we will have friends formally dropping by, So treat this as a prelude to the grand feast that Gimpi has arranged for tomorrow. Now, let the feast begin," Said the Queen.

**********

The bees flew in coordination, lifting lids off the steamy hotpots and revealing delicious dumplings and donuts and tentacles filled with slimy juices that looked extremely unappetizing to the girls, but the mushroom giant and #212 were already drooled over it.

There were various other dishes of extreme alien nature, but some looked familiar, such as, to the surprise of the girls, there was biryani and samosey. Apparently, the bees had learned a few human dishes from Earth as well and added them to the menu.

They even went so far as to make yogurt chutney with it.

The music was setting the mood, calm and slow then upbeat suddenly, the blobby starfishes loved to experiment with the mood.

But the most eye-catching thing was beverages.

There were more than ten kinds of beverages, all glowing in different colors. Some glowed sapphire blue and some violet; some were totally transparent and had tiny minuscule fireworks happening inside them; some had tiny luminescent creatures doing acrobatics on the edges of the vessels.

There was a game hidden within them, although all of them looked extremely magical, one of them held a spell locked inside it, Aatish and Isra were taking turns, pouring them in their vessels and taking a sip, looking at each other with mischievous smiles, they tasted delicious, the spell did 'something funny' as Gimpi described to the one who drank the beverage but didn't elaborate further.

Isra also had her metal slab filled to the brim with biryani and with her free hand she was stuffing her mouth without a break, her ethereal white hair swaying freely in the air betrayed her animalistic nature.

Khadija and Amawas, on the other hand, were extremely sophisticated. Khadija was trying a dish called Poala; it was a tiny moving pink slime with two black dots for eyes, trying its best to dodge Khadija's elegant and sophisticated attempts to grab it and eat it.

Its tiny belly was rising up and down.

Amawas had been looking at her with a side eye, and after she failed to grab the slimy little blob for some tenth time, Amawas sighed and guided her hand just the slightest, and she grabbed it, then ate it.

It tasted heavenly.

#212 and rest of the nector#1 boys were slurping through the tentacles; a few hollowed-out shells were already placed by their slabs.

And the Queens were feasting on Gimpi's amazing soups.

There was loud chatter everywhere, stories flying, and jokes crackling. It all felt like a huge family gathering where no one spared anyone else, completely roasting them, and the conversation switched to the most random of topics in seconds.

All in all, It felt like home.