Despite her invitation, neither of us moved. Instead, we looked at each other. The queen was tall and close to my age, about 20 in local years. She had bronze skin and was showing almost all of it: Her only garment was a loincloth. And it was even smaller than my hand. Well, her breasts were Freya-sized, small and firm, and not in dire need of support. And although she was unclothed, she was not naked, she wore a great deal of jewellery: a large blue belly button diamond, fine silver chains wrapped around her body with diamonds dangling from them, a silver tiara, and six large gold earrings in each ear. Even on her legs, silver chains were wrapped twice around her thighs.

While the lack of proper clothing screamed of a less noble profession, the elegance and wealth befitted only a queen.

I was scrutinised too. But soon the queen's expression was more like looking at an adorable kitten found in a dirty pile of leaves. I smiled, deliberately bared my fangs and waved my tail more vigorously. I can be a kitten too, please adopt me.

Suddenly, the queen turned without a word, her expression barely changed, and walked towards the cliff. I followed a few steps behind her, curious where we were going, for the palace was far above and there were no visible stairs.

The queen entered a hidden cave. After a sharp turn, we passed a sentry and came to a waterfall inside the cliff. Next to it was a wooden platform suspended by ropes. We were going up in a lift! The queen pulled a rope and the waterfall beside us slowed to a trickle. The ropes tightened and just before we started, she pulled a second rope.

The ascent was smooth. I was still worried about the wet ropes and my weight. With the waterfall next to us, I was soon drenched from the spray. If the queen often rode this water-powered lift, her lack of clothing suddenly made a lot more sense.

We accelerated slightly all the time and came to a stop with a violent jerk, catapulting the heavy platform almost a metre upwards before coming to rest almost level with the plateau. The queen had been expecting it, and only her jewellery jingled on arrival and was a little entangled. I was shaking from an overdose of adrenaline and followed her unsteadily, despite having an extra two legs for support.

* * *

It was not until we entered a building that I regained enough composure to look around. The inside walls were painted white and the ceiling was high. Even if I stood on my hind legs I would not be able to touch it. Fine tapestries hung from the wall close to each other and showing portraits, probably of former queens, as they were all women. Instead of doors, beaded string curtains hung in the high doorways, allowing the breeze to pass through while still blocking the view. At the third doorway on the right, we entered through such a beaded curtain. There was no need to knock, passing through the curtain was noisy enough to announce us.

Two women in sparse attire came running towards me. They were younger than the queen. One was tall and dark-skinned and the other had the same bronze skin as the queen but was shorter and more feminine. They wore five silver earrings in each ear. I dropped to my palms, greeted them and told them my name. They giggled like teenagers.

The queen introduced them. "This is Kalt'al Saresch and Tetel'ets."

"Excuse me, Queen Hratl'its, what's kalt'al?"

She looked at me disapprovingly. "What a queen is to a king. But not queen." It took a moment to process this riddle. Ah, the queen had introduced me to the royal courtesans. What a blunder. So I was in the royal harem. I swallowed and nodded. "Thank you."

The two courtesans came closer and touched my matted wet fur, still giggling.

"Getting up," the queen said, "cleaning! Go!" And then added more detailed instructions to the courtesans.

The dark-skinned one, Tetel'ets, led me through several rooms to a shower room. Water gushed from holes in the ceiling and drained through a grate at the bottom. Tetel'ets did not speak Kren, so I could only say thanks and yes and no.

Just outside the shower, she took off her loincloth. I understood the wink, unbuckled my saddlebags and took off my jacket. Immediately a maid with two large silver earrings took my jacket. She was wearing a skirt and a jacket not longer than mine, exposing her midriff, still the most covered person in the palace. It seemed that less clothing indicated higher rank and more earrings. Maybe beggars would wear a veil.

The water was warmer than in the lift shaft but still refreshing. Soon the second courtesan, Saresch, joined us. She had brought a comb and two bottles of oil.

They asked me to get out of the shower. Then they massaged the contents of the first bottle, an oil, into my head hair and mane stubbles and then into my tail, still giggling all the time. Washing the oil off had the effect of a shampoo, including a nice scent. The second oil flask was rubbed into my body fur. There was not enough oil, so Saresch went to get another flask. The effect was less dramatic than with the head and tail hairs, probably because my fur had more natural oils to begin with.

I stood up on my hind legs to get the water splashing everywhere, which made them giggle again. They combed the oil out under the shower. The sound of the water drowned out my purring. But I was sure that they felt it.

When we came out of the shower room, four maids were waiting for us, naked but all wearing a single large silver earring. They had their towels ready. I greeted them and introduced myself. But they dried me from head to tail in silence. And they had to work very hard because there was so much wet fur to dry.

I felt strange, fur being that pampered again. And not only that. The fluffy head and tail fur was great, even Kendrick did not get it that soft. But for the first time, there was no cinnamon smell, just a faint citrus note. As if my nose was telling me that I was no longer in the room. A bit like seasickness, when the horizon and the gravity don't line up. But for the nose. Hard to put into words. But definitely strange.

Still naked, we walked through two smaller rooms to enter a large chamber under a purple tiled dome with a central opening for sunlight. Whereas the first chamber had been rather plain, this one had soft carpets covering every inch of the floor and even the walls. The queen was seated beside a low table with bowls of vegetables, fruit and some eggs. A menu for the clerics and for me.

"We eating," the queen commanded.

"Yes, thank you." I bowed and sat down beside the table. It was not a table, but a stone covered with a carpet, which I discovered when I tried to put my paws under it. But mostly I was uncomfortable being naked, even though every else was naked too.

The queen took a slice of a tiny lemon-like fruit, signalling that we could all eat. It was excellent, but that was to be expected in the royal palace.

Eating was a good distraction from my nakedness. I concentrated mainly on the vegetables. There was something like a radish, but most of the others were unknown to me. Their taste ranged from slightly bitter to spicy. For that, there were the fruits.

"No meat like clerics?" I asked the queen, who had already finished.

"We hearing you sheb'ets same food eating clerics."

"I liking, thank you."

The queen smiled, at least a little.

* * *

When I was finally finished eating, the queen gave a sign and turned to me. "You is noble woman?"

I nodded, "Countess of Earth and Litra. Only Litra is a domain. Very small domain."

"Can I touching ears?"

I sat on my legs and bowed to her. She touched my left ear gently, but it tickled and I moved it out of her hand by reflex.

"Please telling me if hurting."

"Yes, I will."

She grabbed the ear again and pinched it with her fingers. "Ouch." I jerked back.

"You needing two ear hole for earring. Where is good?"

Earrings? So it was a status thing. Understanding was dawning. The maids had a single silver earring, but the courtesans had five silver rings. And the queen even had six gold ones, so silver for the commoners and gold for the nobility? "Countess is two gold rings?"

The queen just nodded. "No ring is not good for countess. No good for meeting king."

Getting those earrings seemed important to them. But to me? I hesitated, not sure how well these earrings would work with my moving ears. The earring from Count Radel (sigh) had been small and its weight uncomfortable. And a real piercing was something more.

"Please, important," the queen almost begged.

Hm, if there was a right place to get a piercing, it was certainly here. They would take the utmost care in piercing nobility. Perhaps I should give it a try. I stretched out a claw and probed several places in my left ear. The least sensitive area was on the outside, halfway up the ear. Still, "Really needing? Then here."

Theoretically, I could probably pinch the hole with my claws. But not this timid squirrel.

The queen smiled for the second time. Moments later, an elderly woman with three gold earrings in each ear entered, carrying a box with two needles on top. She was obviously going to do the piercing. "Both ears?" I asked.

"If you want," said the queen.

Honestly, I was not sold on getting one at all. But I had already agreed. "One ear."

This would be my first piercing, I had chickened out in my old life too. So I was curious too. I bowed my head in front of the old woman and pointed to the area. My left ear twitched as if it knew there was something coming at it. The queen gave a few instructions to the old woman.

She smiled at me, her hand already holding a needle. She must have used fire magic, because the tip of the needle was glowing red hot and I smelled the metal. She quickly grabbed my left ear, pinched it twice and pulled the needle back. Moments later I screamed, it hurt so much. Even with immediate cauterisation. I backed up, crying, trembling, even tumbling, holding my left ear with my hand as it hurt when it moved on its own.

I had passed out for a short while, because next Saresch and Tetel'ets were hugging me. It took a moment until I was somewhere coherent. "Queen, sorry, hurting too big. No more please." And then broke into tears again, moaning.

The queen looked at me critically, then did what was probably the local equivalent of a shrug. She gave a brief command to the old woman, who produced two gold wires and approached me.

I sat down, the courtesans were still hugging me. I closed my eyes, still shivering.

The old woman was quick. I only felt the slightest touch of the wound as she fused the gold wires into earrings by summoning fire magic again. It was over in an instant.

Saresch held up a mirror. The left ear now had two thin but large golden earrings in the middle. I wiped the tears from my eyes and bowed to the old woman in the local style.

The woman also knelt, her head resting on her palms, before she retreated with her toolbox.

The courtesans wiped my face and embraced me, the pain numbed a little. Moving my left and right ear felt the same, apart from the pain of the piercing. The two rings must have been made of very thin wires. They were lighter than the earring from the count. And just as importantly, the earrings did not tingle, not a sound. I looked again in the mirror. These golden earrings made me look even more strange.

The queen returned with a finger-wide band of white silk with a broad white hem. My suspicion was soon confirmed: It was for my breasts. Saresch tied it on behind my back.

The band barely covered the nipples and aureoles and provided minimal lateral support, but that was all. Technically, I was no longer naked and probably wearing as little as was appropriate for a countess at this court. I began to wonder if the prince would wear only a loincloth. And how Count Radel would look in one...

Saresch handed me the mirror again. I looked, er, well, yes, like a streetwalker. Sorry, not very noble at all. By the Republic's standards, and by my own. With the tan lines above and below from my already skimpy jacket, the band gave the impression of wearing actually three bands across the chest. But Saresch and Tetel'ets nodded in agreement. The courtesans were enjoying every bit of my transformation. I was not sure if they saw their role as helping to present the visiting countess or as dressing up your teddy. My bet was on the latter.

Next came more jewellery. First a belly button diamond. After much discussion, they chose a red one. Since my belly button area was all muscle, I had no problem keeping the big stone there. It felt strange, but it distracted me from the ear piercing. And that stone alone elevated me from streetwalker to exclusive call girl.

Of course, they were not finished yet. Next came the golden chains, similar to theirs. And I learned how they were held in place: The gold chains were attached with fine silk threads in a rather complicated pattern. So, technically, they were wearing clothes, albeit made of single silk threads. They even covered my lower body with every golden chain that was in the box. With so many golden chains crisscrossing on my lower body, I was getting closer to looking like a tiger although I was tingling like a Christmas reindeer when walking.

And yet not finished. They produced a loincloth for the area under my tail, using two chains for support and said silk threads with a counterpart under my underbelly. Although it would only be needed when I was standing on my hind legs. Now I felt like I had been a savage, wandering around my private parts exposed in the heat from the constant wagging of my tail.

One last gold chain and I was done, wearing as much gold as in the coffers of some lesser kingdom.