Faye shot me down, saying she rather teach me and she didn't want to get more tangled up with these people and whatever they are up to. I tried to look around on my own, but she stopped me saying that she doesn't want me to either. 'Such a spoil sport.' I concede with her wishes, of course. I'm just a curious person is all. And I get a certain thrill out of doing things i'm not supposed to. Like going through people's stuff.
"Come over here and sit with me." Faye says going and siting on the floor putting her back to the bed. I walk over and she pulls me into her lap. ….
"Do I need to be sitting in your lap?" I ask her. I've never really been that comfortable with being touched... though with her it seems different. I know that I want to be, but the part of me that doesn't is always there in the back ground, yelling and screaming. But with her, its barely a whisper. Even so, it's still there, like the devil on my shoulder.
"Yes" she says changing my position so i'm sitting in-between her legs leaning back against her. "Okay, Now i'm going to feed a little bit of my mana into you so try and feel it, okay?." She said. "Yuna, why do you always have your tail tucked between your legs?" She suddenly asks.
"I-I do?" I didn't know that.
"Uh-huh" Faye confirms. "Even now with the dress on, you have it tucked inside of it and its between your legs." I check, and she's right. 'Weird.' I think about it before answering.
"Umm, I'm not really sure. I think maybe because I don't like being naked in front of everyone and I can use it to cover myself?" Its the only thing I can come up with. She stays silent for a minute.
"Okay." She says. "You know its not necessary when you have clothes on, so please don't." I guess it bothers her? "Lets get started. Close your eyes and concentrate on your body." I try to do as she says and soon lose track of time.
__
For what seemed like a long time I didn't feel anything. Maybe I was distracted because I was sitting between her legs.. but eventually I didn't so much as feel something as taste. It tasted like Caramel. Then it shifted to Jalapenos. Two flavors that have nothing to do with each other, but happen to be my favorite flavors, not mixed together. I thought I would never taste them again. Which wouldn't be too bad. I'm not really a picky eater, I wouldn't have survived if I was. Anyway, I try to figure out where the hell the taste is coming from. And I start to have a weird out-of-body experience.
I can "see" my body and Lines running throughout it that look like liquid gold flowing through them. There is a whole network of them from the tips of my toes to my head. There is a circular pool of gold in my head. It's very small though. Everything else looks the same, except there is some Dark Orange color mixing in here and there at different spots. One of the places happens to be my mouth. 'This is some trippy shit. I've never done acid or anything like it before, is this what its like?'
So if I had to guess, is the Gold stuff my Mana? Then wouldn't that make the Orange Faye's? Does she taste like Caramel and Jalapenos or something? That can't be, right? What are the chances? It has to be that it just stimulates my taste buds or something.
I decide to experiment and try and move the Orange Mana around towards my mouth. The rivers of gold start to flow towards my face, bringing the Dark Orange with it. Or maybe the gold isn't moving at all? The taste grows stronger at first then cuts off.
"Whew, that's all for now, Yuna." Faye says tiredly from behind me. "I've run out of mana. Did you feel anything?" She asks.
"I.. think so.." God that was weird. "Umm do you see your Mana "Veins" when you do that?" I ask her. She hugged me tight from behind.
"Yes! You saw them then?" I nod in response. "That's great! You'll be able to do it in no time!" She exclaims happily. But then I feel like maybe she is a little sad after a moment. 'Girls never change.'
I'm actually quite hungry now. I get up and take out an apple and give it to Faye. She takes it with a smile and I take one out for me. I sit on the bed to eat. I start to review what just happened. 'Did I just eat her Mana? or was it just a coincidence that she ran out at that moment?' I finish and dispose of the core by putting it in my inventory. I remember what she sad and fish my tail out through the slit in the back of my dress. 'That feels different.'
I finished eating before her and she is still sitting on the floor. I reach down to her head while thinking and start playing with her ears. She jumps a little when I touch her.
"Ahh, i'm sorry." I take back my hands. I don't know what I was doing. You just cant help but play with animal ears when you see them, I guess.
"I-it's okay.. You can keep doing it if you want." 'Oh..alright, why not?' I reach down and start massaging her ears. Soon I can hear her purring which brings a smile to my face. I lay down on the bed, but in a way that I can still play with her ears. I notice that she has eaten the entire apple, core and everything.
I can't believe i'm wearing a pink dress. How embarrassing..
Time began to pass by. I continued the lessons with Faye trying to move my Mana out of my body and into the stone. It was a lot easier to move her mana inside of me for some reason. Faye didn't seem upset about me not being able to do it yet. She seems like a very patient teacher.
It did occur to me that I've already cast spells like Heal and I brought this point up to Faye. How I can do that without even knowing how to do the first step. She seemed just as clueless to this as I was. But I came up with a theory. Maybe its because its a Racial Spell and not a learned one. Like maybe I just know how to do it through instinct or something. I would put my theory to the test with the other Racial Spell I have if its description didn't scare me from even trying it. Rip my soul out of my body? You crazy?
I tried to ask Amicia more questions about Elves, but she didn't seem to want to talk to me about things like that. Like I was going to try and trick her into saying something she didn't want to. Which I was. I asked her about cooking and she was fine with teaching me that. It went okay... for the most part. But we were having communication problems. There is a thing called a Gravil that tastes just like an onion so that's what I called it. This happened with several other things, Including spices. There was some weird stuff like the salty pepper, or would it be spicy salt? After a few mistakes and ruining the food for the night, she eventually stopped letting me help. I've never been good at cooking anyway. I only ever cooked for myself. And I never really put any effort in it.
___
Because she barely ever leaves me alone, I've noticed that Faye smells different now since her body changed. Not in a bad way, in fact, actually better then before. I can't exactly describe the way she smells. It just smells pleasant is all I know. It makes me feel at ease. Amicia smells almost floral and Ivaldri smells like dirt and sweat. The guards are the strange ones. They all smell very similar to Amicia..
Faye is always in a dress like me now, only she is wearing a green dress. She makes me wear the pink one. I still don't have any underwear. I asked Amicia if I could have some and she said that its too high class of an item for them to sell. But at least this world has some. I don't want to always be going commando. I never even thought of asking for shoes even though Faye had a pair of leather boots. But she hardly ever were them either. Shoes here are weird anyway. Without access to rubber, they have some funky looking footwear. Faye's for example has a thick piece of leather for a sole. No laces, but has a singular buckle to hold it on her foot. I've seen another pair that had wooden soles. Like clogs, but only the sole was wooden with the rest being a soft leather. 'No thank you'
When we made camp at night everyone would look at me weirdly when I was eating. It must be because of the previous incident. Right?
Most of time I would go out for a run at night. I would stay in human form just like I promised Faye. If she was awake she would come with me. I never saw any monsters, but we did see some strange looking animals. Faye seemed to know what most of them were. There was a deer looking thing that had some wicked looking horns and a grey coat. She called it an Evistos, I call it a Devil-deer.
When I would go out and run alone I would always see something high up in the sky flying around. If the moons didn't highlight its shape when it passed under them and I happened to be looking up at the time, I wouldn't even know it was there. I told Faye, but she said it was probably nothing to worry about.
I tried to ask Ivaldri about Dwarves once, but he was even more warry of talking to me then Amicia. He pretty much only said hi and bye, then walked away. The guards didn't even do that. I came up with nicknames for them. The archer women is Legolas, just for fun. Another is Hawkeye because of his glaring brow. Then there is Mute and Casper. Mute because I haven't seen him talk to anyone and is so very quiet when he moves around. And Casper because he is sooo pale. He is almost translucent. Dude has to be a ghost.
We have come upon a few towns, but we always just passed right through them. I wanted to stop and look around, but I understand the urgency. We need to get to the Capital and get our seals removed before Mistress catch's up with us. I could hear all the sounds coming from outside as we passed through the towns though. Amicia always stayed with us in the wagon while we were. I don't know if it was to make sure we didn't try and leave the wagon or because she doesn't like people.
One night, while making camp, we met some people.
Me and Faye are sitting at the table eating with Amicia and Legolas. The others are brushing down and feeding the horses and oxen. When we hear galloping come up from the road behind us, from the way we came. It immediately puts everyone on edge. We are on the run after all. Casper, Mute and Ivaldri drop what they are doing and hurry over. Soon enough we see the riders come up the road. When they see our campfire they head over to us. Hawkeye has been gone a few days. They said that he went ahead to prepare things. Prepare what? idk.
As they approach, I look them over. There are five of them, all men of various ages. They all look like hard men. All scars and muscle. As they get to the edge of the light the camp fire emits, they all dismount and a middle aged man steps forward. There's some grey in his beard.
"Sorry to intrude folks. We just had a hard evening and were wondering if we can share your camp and fire tonight." The man says amicably. I trust nice people the least. I look at the other men and I see two of them looking at Faye in a unpleasant manner. Neither me or Faye have of Slave Seals covered right now.
Strangely the first thing that comes to my mind isn't disgust at the men, maybe because I was one before and even I look at Faye like that. But my first thought was the realization that she truly is very attractive and that no matter what, one day she is going to find some guy and I would be a third wheel. She may feel protective of me right now, but one day that won't matter. Plus I wouldn't want to drag her down anyway. I mean.. idk. What did I expect to happen? This is why I don't like to get close to people. They always leave.
[POV Faye]
Everyday that goes by i'm starting to realize my odd feelings towards Yuna. Do I want her to be safe and happy, yes, but I want it to be me that makes her happy. And I know that I am, it's just that sometimes she'll suddenly push me away and seems lost in thought and very sad. It doesn't last long because I find a way to distract her, but i'm worried. Worried that she doesn't like me. As bad as this is of me, I hope its just lingering side effects of what Mistress did and not that. I mean she has to like me. The way she looks at me sometimes, I know she does. I just don't understand why she pulls away.
__
One time we camped near the walls of a Town and they had people hanging outside of the gate as a warning to others. When Yuna saw it her hands shot up to her throat and her tan complexion paled to white as a ghost and tears poured out of her eyes. Then she said in a breathy whisper "How could I have forgotten? Did I bury what happened already?" I had to pick her up and bring her into the wagon and hold her while telling her everything was alright. It took awhile, but she eventually came back around. She seemed fine after that. Like nothing happened.
__
I know it's not really the time to be thinking about things like this though, but I can't help how I feel. When she touches my ears and tail she drives me crazy. Soon she is going to be able to cast Clean and I won't have an excuse to anymore. I have an idea, but i'm afraid to propose it to her. Afraid of what it may lead to, and what it won't. Amicia is also starting to look at me strangely. I need to do something soon.
_
It's been a few weeks and we are getting near the Capital. Yuna make me wear a dress everyday. She says its because I make her wear one, but I always catch her looking at my legs when I sit down. 'She has to like me, right?' I get the feeling that Amicia may know what is going on with her, but I've yet been able to bring myself to ask her. I think I should. Yuna also never puts on the boots I have set aside for her, always choosing to go barefoot. I don't like wearing them either, but its proper to cover our feet. Maybe it has something to do with that crazy class of hers. Could footwear be considered as armor?
This night was the same as any other when a group of adventures came upon our camp. I could tell that Yuna was super tense at first, but then she suddenly did that thing where she got very quiet and sad again. 'What happened this time?' I look at each of the men in turn.
Two are looking at me with disgusting eyes. I ignore them. One seems to be warry of us and is watching for any hostile movement on our part. The one who talked is just looking around with an easy going smile on his face. His eyes lingering on our food. The last one is looking at Yuna with a lecherous gaze. He must be the reason. I glare at him, ignoring everyone else. 'Gods! Who does he think he is? Scum!'
"Is there a reason that you can't just set up your own camp somewhere else?" Ivaldri asks the man gruffly.
"Now don't be like that." The man says keeping the smile on his face. "We just got done with a request to hunt down some bandits preying on fine people such as yourselves along this stretch of the King's road. We used all of our supplies hunting them down and they used all of theirs runnin' from us. We've got nothin' left." The man claims. The man i'm glaring at is smiling now too. It just makes me glare harder. I lean forward to block his vision of Yuna. Now that he is looking at me his smile falters when he see's my glare.
"Not to seem ungrateful, but we are not the ones that put up the request. We owe you nothing. We can spare you some supplies at a price, but I believe it would be unwise for us to camp together." Amicia chimes in. I can feel everyone tense at her words. I'm just mad at myself now for leaving my Bow in the wagon. I've gotten too comfortable. I remember what Yuna said about her Class and I look over at her. She is still out of it. I have to stop myself from picking her up. I hate it when she looks like that. Like she is all alone in the world. 'Doesn't she know she has me?'
"Is that right? And why might that be?" The man asks. "You wouldn't be bandits yourselves would ya?" The man asked looking around at us in a different light. 'So he's an imbecile.'
"Ughh what?" Ivaldri coughs out.
"No, were not" Amicia answers. "I believe it would be unwise because of the way your friends are looking at my slaves." The man seems a little taken aback and looks at the men around him. He sees one of the ones looking at me lustfully and smacks the back of his head, hard. (SMACK)
"Gods! What the hell is wrong with ya'll!" He yells out. "I know we've been out here awhile, but come on!" He yells looking around at them and raising his hand like he is going to smack another one, but stops and sighs. "At least you had enough sense to not look at the Lady like that, you damned fools!" Of all the things I thought may happen, that wasn't one. "My apologizes Miss. If we could buy some supplies, please. After, we'll head off a ways before making camp." He said to Amicia. "You damn goblins apologize too!" The man said threatening them with his fist. They all did. Even the one that was only watching us warily and didn't actually do anything.
Ivaldri goes into the wagon and brings out some items. They discuss prices for a while and then settle on one by clasping arms. The man says his farewell then heads off with his friends in tow.
Yuna still isn't responding. Now that they are gone I move over and wrap her up in my arms.
"Yuna? Its alright. No one is going to hurt you. I promise. Okay?"
[POV Yuna]
Why is she telling me no one is going to hurt me? What in the world is she talking about?
"Huh?" I ask looking over at her. 'Where did those guys go?' Why does it seem like everyone is trying to avoid looking at me?
"They've left. Everything is okay." Ummm
"Okay..." I'm not following along here. "Did something happen?" I ask
"No, nothing happened." Faye continues. "Can you go in the wagon for me? I'll follow you in a minute." Faye suddenly asks. This is some weird shit going on, but I have no reason not too. Plus i'm tired as it is.
"Sure." She lets go of me so I can get up. I head into the wagon and lay down on the bed. Now that i'm alone my dark thoughts are returning. Why is this happening all of the sudden? I told myself I was going to try and live in this life. 'Fuck off you shitty thoughts!' Why can't I just enjoy the moment? Why do I have to think about what will happen down the road? I hate this.
As I fight with myself, I drift off into sleep..
[POV Faye]
I watch Yuna walk off into the wagon, looking at the ground as she walked. I head over to Amicia.
"Amicia. Do you know what's wrong with Yuna?" I push back my shyness and ask.
"Which thing are you asking about?" Amicia asks with a exasperated tone. "I mean what doesn't seem wrong with her?" This raises my hackles.
"Don't talk about her like that!" I warn her. She raises her eyebrows at me.
"Okay, okay. Sorry. What was your question concerning?" She try's to move away from it. 'Grrrr.. fine.'
"Why does she keep pulling away from me? Sometimes she seems like she wants to be closer, but then others it feels like the opposite is true. I don't know what to do.." I confess and feel my desperation slip into my voice.
"Well, if I had to guess, It's because you are a girl." 'Huh?'
"What do you mean?" I ask
"You're both girls..." She draws out. When I don't respond and just stare at her she (sighs) "She's older then you, isn't she?"
"She doesn't remember how old she is." I answer her.
"What?? Nevermind, forget I asked." She said exasperated while shaking her head.
"Girls "Liking" girls isn't normal, Faye. She must know this." She gives me a hard look, then she continues "And from the way she acts with you i'm sure she is just worried about your future if you chose to go along this path, even if she wants to. So she has conflicting emotions concerning you. She wants to be with you, but also doesn't want your relationship with her to cause you harm. But this is just speculation." Then she adds "She also seems uncomfortable with her body. I would suggest putting off any "Romantic" behavior until she gets bigger, ..maybe. I can't really say what that is about. What I do know is that when I was around her age my body and mind were all over the place. You skipped all of that from what you told me. I would level her up until she was your level or higher to give her some stabilization first. But then again, I'm not an expert on Beast-kin anatomy." She added smiling at me.
This is a lot to take in. I didn't think it would be so.. complicated.
"This is just me guessing from what I've observed, Faye. Don't take it to heart." Amicia tells me.
"Do you think it is wrong?" I question her a little worridly. I don't want to add to our problems even more. I can see now why Yuna would be struggling with this.
"No. In fact, most Elves wouldn't." Amcica claims. "Strange, I know. Of all the races, we have the closest ties to Nature. Well, maybe, thats debated, but anyway. We once did view those that enjoyed the company of the same gender as Abominations" I wince when she says that word. 'Is it that bad?' "But... That was a long time ago. Our views changed with time. We've come to view that it is as natural as opposite genders being together. How could it not be? There is nothing unnatural about loving someone." She concluded. "Haven't you noticed i've been trying to get her to admit the way she feels?" I nod my head at her.
"Then why do Elves hate Beast-kin the same as everyone else?" I can't help but ask. She sighs deeply before looking me in the eye. "Couldn't we be considered closer to nature then you? I thought that as one of the reasons everyone hates us, because we are so much like animals."
"That's not a simple thing to explain." She said slowly playing with her hands. "In much the same way, we viewed Beast-kin as abominations. Half-man half-animal. We couldn't accept them in the beginning. Or so its said. What is not said is that we did eventually accept them and even viewed you as equals, but then there was a great war. A war that changed everything. A war between the Vampires and every other living being. After we finally beat the Vampires back, there was a falling out between the Beast-kin and almost every other race. I don't know the details, I don't think anyone alive does."
"You didn't answer me, you know." I point out. She looks down still playing with her hands.
"That's because I don't know. I have lived along side Beast-kin for years. I know the things we believe, what our history says, isn't true." She looks at me. "I've even met the descendants of your last Queen before." She says quietly. She seems to be waiting for me to respond.
"Thank you, Amicia. I have a lot to think about. Please excuse me." I excuse myself possibly a little rudely and head off to the wagon. Amicia seems disappointed by my response. When I get in I see Yuna sleeping on the bed. I can see half dried tears on her face. I wish she would have just told me what was wrong. I get into bed with her and wrap her up in my arms. Her arms snake around me hugging me back tightly. 'Conflicting emotions huh?' I put my chin on top of her head and breath her scent. I can see her tail trying to sway back and forth on the bed.
"I know what you want" I whisper "I won't let you run from it."
Thanks for chapter