Oakmoss remained quiet for most of the reception festivities. She was able to head off several potential errors by quickly intervening to cut off misguided remarks or unnecessary fibs.
The reason that it was hard for Oakmoss to make very much conversation was that her change into a female had made her very self-conscious. For one thing, the change had, for some reason, made her almost amazingly curvy, and she had an ass that would make a human woman blush. If it was possible, she was sexier than Anija...nevermind, that really was impossible, but Anija's sexiness was the "look, but don't touch" type that made you afraid of smudging it up. Oakmoss had a "come fondle me" type of attractiveness, and with every step she took, she knew it. With every step, her body parts fueled in others a desire to pet, grope, and fondle her.
For another thing, she was the only one in the entire group that hadn't had any tack or barding fitted to her, and this was a kingdom where most dragons had a sense of fashion sensibility. In fact, nudity was unusual for dragons, here, and that had left poor Oakmoss looking like a sort of hippie oddball.
"What sort of tack do you use on your dragons?" Alyssa asked once, during the conversation.
An attempt was made by Luka to avoid the issue. "We are not sure how we...uh..."
"I actually changed my sex recently," Oakmoss intervened smoothly, "and I will be needing some new. " She winked. "I may start asking for advice on tailors!"
Alyssa laughed gaily. "I was wondering what you were doing here nude," she said, "although I have always believed in sartorial choice."
Naturally, all of the other dragons were wearing their formal dress barding, including Karyu, who was dressed appropriately for a god. Karyu cleared his throat and stepped forward, realizing that this was a situation where he should speak for himself. "I will admit," he interjected, "that draconic fashions are very much behind, where we come from."
Oakmoss nearly fainted, but she nodded, admitting the truth: "I am afraid that, where dragons are not left to live as savages, they are virtually all garbed only in the clothing of mounts. Even Karyu typically just wears his tack."
Luka shot Oakmoss a quick aghast look as Oakmoss admitted so openly to the abysmal draconic rights situation in the other kingdoms, but Oakmoss waved off the glance with a motion of her forepaw. Lying about the matter would not help, Oakmoss realized.
At this, Alyssa nodded understandingly. "We do have a free body movement among dragons, here, so nudity is very much allowed. Good barding that fits is a divine right, not a divine obligation. That's our belief. Some of the other civilized kingdoms and republics confuse a right with an obligation. We have just found that, after they have been socialized to human customs, nearly all dragons make for quick fashion addicts. Nudism is practiced mostly at the height of summer, usually when they are sunning themselves, although an occasional hippie naturist will go naked as a spiritual observance, which is accepted."
Ravenna squealed, swishing about her fancy barding. "Yay! Secretary Oakmoss, I can't WAIT! Shopping! Woohoo!" she gushed, prancing in place. The queen's courtiers dodged quickly out of the way as bits of lava were flung by her behavior, which quickly solidified as they hit the throne room floor. A handful of them on crutches or in wheelchairs suggested that this was a frequent occurrence, and not all of them learned right away the one unspoken rule of Queen Alyssa's court: "thou shalt stand clear of the hot stuff."
Oakmoss flushed at that, and she was reduced again back into shy silence as the conversation continued further. She had a feeling that Ravenna would be party to feminizing the royal fuck out of her, and she had a sinking sensation in her gut that she was going to end up enjoying it. However, it again became necessary to speak up as forms of government came into discussion.
"Elections are underway this year," Alyssa said as everyone crowded around the table. "They really ought to be more respectful, though."
"I am sorry," Luka said sadly. "Our king also has rebellious parliamentarians coming forward with their signed petitions, trying to convince..."
Oakmoss waved her wing for Luka to shut up before she shot herself in the foot. "Oh, Alyssa, I am so glad that you have such well-developed democratic institutions, here," Oakmoss said. "Our kingdoms have much poorer relations with surrounding elected leaders, and we still have districts where the people are only organized as an unhappy rabble, rather than petitioning in an organized manner. We could learn many things from your people."
Luka nearly choked on this confession, but she bit her tongue until it bled. She knew she had to count on Oakmoss to know what she was doing.
Alyssa again smiled, though. "Not everybody believes that a monarchy and a republic can exist in the same place," she said. "The functions pertaining to the crown and those pertaining to the republic are just so very different, I just don't see them as being the same thing, except that both need to collect a tax. Don't be fooled by this palace, which is listed as a national park for taxation purposes: I only pay myself according to reasonable wages for a senior official, and I pay taxes on it like anybody. I also need to follow the rules of parliament, in regard to collections. They allow me to use force when I am dealing with a very wealthy person, since they have had negative experiences, in the past, with a person that has no regard for the welfare of the rest of the kingdom and hoards wealth for themselves: such people always make attempts to influence elections with their hoarded wealth and ultimately become despots, in their own right. When I come for them, they always claim, loudly, that I am impeding their personal freedoms, but there they are, with their goose-stepping boots on the necks of everyone else around them, acting as bullies. I, on the other hand, may be descended from successful bullies, but reigning monarchs have, since getting established, had a long history of respecting and defending democracy, which is a part of why our beautiful constitutional monarchy has also been preserved. Pure republics, unfortunately, often lapse into despotism without a respectful monarchy there to defend their democratic institutions. A wise monarch takes deep pride in her kingdom's democratic institutions."
"I never looked at it that way," Luka said. "I am going to be passing these ideas back to His Majesty, King Adam. Again, Queen Alyssa, you have enriched us with the wisdom of your people. I will have you know that both my own king and his friend and fellow monarch, Queen Elisa, are both desiring to learn such things from your kingdom."
Alyssa nodded. "I am sorry for the previous misunderstandings, then," she said sadly. "Previous diplomatic endeavors have, unfortunately, led to me forming some very different impressions. The first ones were downright insulting toward our way of life, one of them even behaving with contempt and going off on a condemnatory rant and talking to me as if I were a mentally ill child. That one was deported immediately. Later ones attempted to mislead me about how things really were where you come from: my kingdom has a large intelligence force, and we know exactly what is really going on. I thank you now for both your graciousness and your honesty."
From there, the conversation drifted off into several different topics unrelated to politics, including the details of draconic fashion, politics, and also sport. Karyu was actually quite pleased to find out that dragons, flying Kilins, and Longma loved to play an aerial sport involving a very heavy but soft ball, called a "thunderball," which involved gamboling among the clouds. It produced artificial thunder and lightning, thanks to the magic of the thunderball, and Karyu quickly found himself shedding his barding and going out to play with one of the palace guards.
Oakmoss found herself being abducted by Ravenna. Their first stop was a trip to the spa, where Oakmoss got her first ever massage. It felt good! The smells of the place were also wonderful. A few hours of hot yoga were quickly followed by some conversation and lounging in the steam sauna, where Ravenna indulged her slight bisexuality by spending a while kissing a hen she knew there, and after they had dried, Oakmoss got rubbed down with some fragrant oils that made her skin feel so healthy and soft and nourished. After that, they went on a wild shopping trip, with Ravenna squealing with delight as Oakmoss tried on the local draconic fashion trends, and Oakmoss quickly decided that she was definitely going to end up being a hippie bitch. She ended up getting a ladies’ yarmulke strung with lots of beads, among other things.
As Oakmoss and Ravenna retired to lounge next to a swimming pool, where they sunned themselves for a while, Karyu interrupted their sunning by splashing rudely into the water, having dived in from high altitude while shouting something akin to "Cowabunga!" Fortunately, for the intactness of his skull, the pool had been dug deep enough to account for how deep into the water a dragon could potentially dive, which made it more like a deep flooded mineshaft than a pool if you got right down to it. "Karyu, damn it!" Oakmoss shouted in annoyance, as she and Ravenna got splashed.
"Wow!" Karyu shouted as he eventually came back up from his dive, looking exhausted but happy. "Thunderball is the most amazing sport, right? So I told these drakes, 'hey, I'm a god, that gives me an advantage, right?' and they said, 'dude, it's partly mental, not just about power.' Well, they were right at first, but once I got the hang of it, my team ended up tying regularly. FINALLY, we won a few rounds. I am so psyched to come back here!"
Oakmoss shook herself off, and luckily, she found that the oils she had been rubbed in helped her shed water quickly. "Well, give us some warning, next time," she said, "and we will make a point of bringing along some rain ponchos and umbrellas."
Karyu looked a little guilt-stricken. "Oh, you mean you hadn't been swimming?"
Ravenna giggled gaily. "Silly drake! You come to a pool for many reasons! Watching hot guys doing laps is one. Guys always have so much ridiculous body-shame, but the tight-fitting stuff they do laps in makes them look sexy. Another reason is sipping cocktails with friends in a friendly place, and yet another reason is to even out your tan! Swimming happens sometimes, too, especially if there is a wild pool party." For the first time, Ravenna was presenting herself in full nudity, and Karyu whistled appreciatively. While not much in the world was as sexy as Oakmoss, Ravenna was glamorous, and her feathers were rainbow-black, being that sort of black that showed rainbow highlights when the sun hit them. She was very tall, too, and she was definitely a queen, in spite of her girlish affectations.
"Well, I think we'll need another trip to the spa," Oakmoss said. "That pool water, I don't know about what it does to the skin."
Ravenna giggled. "Yeah, I could use another rubdown," she said. "After that, though, we're going to get a mani-pedi, and THEN we're going to hit the salon. You haven't LIVED until you've seen yourself dolled-up!"
Karyu shook his head and rolled his eyes as the girls took their share of enjoyment out of being...girls. "Okay, you guys," he said. "Well, I'm going to take a quick shower, and after that, I'm going to join the rest of the boys back at the palace. They have open bar and some drugged-up hooka tonight, and I'm getting in early to get myself baked. If I say or do something weird, note that I am not likely to be in a mood to give a fuck, and I refuse to give a fuck later because I've decided that I am going to either live or die trying."
Oakmoss rolled her eyes as she strutted off with Ravenna to get herself dressed again, putting on her sparkly gold barding, a colorful beaded girl's yarlmulke, and some sexy chocolate suede pawgloves and hind-boots. The hindboots were structured in such a way as to make her posture look "in heat and ready to breed" anytime she wore them, the gloves allowed her plenty of paw-movement but protected her digits from the dirt and were quite strong, and the barding only made her look sexier. "Fine," Oakmoss said dismissively. "They're not my brain-cells." With that, she followed Ravenna off to finish getting feminized beyond belief.
Later, the Group and the queen's entourage were lounging together late during the evening's festivities. Celestia and Ravenna were finally making friends, and it was turning out that Ravenna, besides her other talents, was an avid self-taught chemist and a bit of an inventor. Luka and Queen Alyssa were talking about some affairs of state, and now that introductions were out-of-the-way and there were no more secrets, Oakmoss' supervision was no longer needed. Naturally, Astrid and Hilda were involved in an orgy in an adjacent room, and their Riders were gambling with some other local kilin. Karyu was very drunk and very high, and he was openly letting himself get fucked by a hot chocolate-colored drake with an almost amazingly big dick, and some drunken revelers were hooting and encouraging the spectacle. Other late party shenanigans were going on. After a few drinks, Oakmoss was finally coaxed into her first lesbian kiss, to much applause, and she realized that it wasn't so bad to swap spit with another hen, just as long as she had some boys watching. Everyone was either dressed down or undressed, and all formalities had been cast completely aside.
To be clear, Queen Alyssa can throw one hell of a party.
After everyone had gotten over their hangovers, the next morning, The Group reluctantly bid their farewells, and they filed back into their airship. Oakmoss was wearing some fashionable but practical tack, including a nicely tailored saddle, and Celestia was riding on her properly for the first time. Celestia was carrying a large stack of books she had bought and borrowed. Karyu was waving a forepaw in front of his eyes and mumbling something about "mushroom hangover." Oliver and Ethel were both carrying large sacks of winnings over their shoulders, both of them having made a killing in their gambling ventures. Luka was leafing through a large stack of notes she had taken. Astrid and Hilda brought up the rear, their pack-saddles burdened with some cooking equipment that a member of their orgy had given them.
Soon, they were on their way back to Aquaria, where the rest of their respective parties were waiting.