Ch 34 - part Violette

I hauled a large wicker basket up a mountain, following the fluffy black and pink tail of my favorite fox girl.

She had our biggest blanket rolled up and slung over her shoulders. We weren’t technically allowed to take it out of our room at Bayloft. But worst case scenario was getting fined some Loftys. And that risk was more than worth it.

We’d stayed the night in Mirrolin at a little bed and breakfast. It had been lovely to have a bed big enough for all five of us, though with other guests on either side of some rather thin walls, we hadn’t been able to get in any spicy times. Still, curling up and snuggling with everyone at once was a rare treat. Falling asleep under Serenity’s massive wing after chatting together in the soft light of her halo had been worth the stay, all on its own.

Violette had dragged me out of bed before the crack of dawn, our usual wake up time, ready for her chosen date. She was a creature of habit, in many ways, and bedtimes and wake up times were absolutely one of those ways. If I slept in too much, I was liable to wake up to a fox girl pouncing on me.

There was about a half chance of that anyways. She liked to pounce on me, unexpectedly. And I had come to see it as the sign of affection that it was. She enjoyed a little rough housing more than most of the others in our lovely polycule. Both seriously, in the form of all the martial training that we did every day, and the sillier kind that she would instigate in our downtime. She loved nothing more than to provoke me into wrestling her into submission.

My ears heated up, imagining how things usually went after that, and I directed myself back to the present.

“How far, Vi?” I asked, curiously.

Instinctively, I spoke quietly. The symphony of the mountain forest coming awake had always felt sacred, in a way. I knew if we were loud, the sounds would change, as animals moved away from potential danger. And I didn’t want to miss it.

We’d been walking for maybe half an hour. Chatting a little, but mostly just enjoying the cool morning, and each other’s company, and the soft forest sounds.

She tilted her head back and forth a few times. “Ten minutes? Fifteen. You’re very slow.”

I suppressed a snort. “You’ve made us quite the feast.” I said, hefting the heavy basket.

She turned. “Huh?”

I lifted the basket again. A carefully tied ribbon held the wicker lid shut, and I hadn’t investigated. Violette had spent a lot of time preparing it, so I wanted to let her surprise me.

“That’s not food?” She said, tilting her head. Adorably. The way that left one fox ear flat against her head.

I blinked in mild alarm. “It's not? But…? Picnic? What’s in here?”

She grinned, fangs flashing. “We’re going to hunt and forage for breakfast! You know. A date!”

I nodded. I was already fairly hungry, and dawn was already starting to burn the sky.

“Gotcha. That sounds cool. But umm… What are we…Ok. What am I hauling, though?” I asked.

“Dirt.” Violette said, turning back around and nimbly hopping onto a log that led us over a pretty deep, soily valley that a stream had cut into the forest.

“Right. Basket full of dirt. Date stuff.” I nodded.

Of the two of my girls who had never been Familiars before, Violette had come with the most preexisting conceptions about how things should be done, by far. Sometimes they lined up with concepts I was semi-familiar with, like her love of sneaking up and pouncing upon us, or her commitment to regularly rubbing her tail on each of us so that we would smell like her.

Then there were things like this. Bringing a huge basket of dirt on a date.

I jostled the basket by accident as I balanced across the log bridge, and heard a chorus of muffled clinking, like a bunch of glass.

That…was not a sound that I associated with dirt, particularly. But. You know. When your blisteringly hot fox girl asks you to carry a huge basket of dirt that sounds like a bunch of jars a couple miles up a mountain, through the woods, so that you can find a picnic spot, so that you can then hunt up a picnic…

You do it.

“Shhh.” Violette instructed me, as I jostled the basket again, hopping off the log. “You’ll scare away breakfast.”

“My bad.” I said.

“It’s ok.” She said, fluffing my face with her tail. “I’m a good hunter. I will feed you no matter what.”

She got on her tip-toes to chomp my shoulder, and then kept leading me up the mountain.

As we wound our way up into the mountain, she would carefully pick her way off the ‘path’ and pick something up and stuff it into her pocket, and then meander back. When I asked, on the fourth or fifth time she did it, she just shrugged and showed me a weird rock with a purple stripe.

“How did you spot that under the leaves??” I asked, bewildered.

“Good eyes.” She tapped the side of her head, knowingly. “Big ol’ scary seeing eyes.”

She opened her already large eyes as wide as she possibly could, giving herself a slightly bug like appearance.

I laughed, and batted her away from my face.

“Admit it!” She barked. “I am terrible! I am fearsome!”

“You are the most dangerous thing in the woods today.” I said, wrapping my arm securely around her shoulders. “I am grateful to be under your protection.”

She puffed herself up proudly. “Yeah. I’m humongous.”

I looked down at the fox girl, who was a good six or seven inches shorter than me, and of a smaller build.

“Yeah. You’re vast.” I said, fondly.

She squinted suspiciously.

“Vast of spirit. Vast of heart.” I clarified.

She blinked for a second, then averted her gaze, shaking her head like she was getting rid of water.

She snuggled into my side so hard I nearly fell sideways down a slope.

“Don’t fall off the mountain, you’ll scare away breakfast.” She instructed, still trying to burrow into my side and squeeze the life out of my lungs.

By the time we made it, I was deeply grateful that I had done nothing but train since I got to Bayloft. My past self would have had to be rescued from this mountain. Now? Pleasantly sweaty. Ready to sit down for a bit. But I was fine.

And the spot Violette had scouted out for us??

The stream that we had crossed before came down in a lovely little waterfall, splashing down onto bare pastel colored stones and surrounded by mossy boulders. The water was deliciously cold on our bare feet, as we sat beside the bank to cool them from our hike. We were surrounded by foliage, and singing birds, and dappled green light glinting through the trees.

“I did good.” Violette said, proudly indicating the clearing.

“You did very good.” I praised, ruffling her pink hair affectionately.

She leaned in, purring, pressing her shoulder hard into mine.

“You’re a fox….” I started, listening to the rumbling purr emitting from her chest.

“Yes.”

“Do foxes purr?”

Offended snort. “No.”

An insistent nuzzle into my hand, more scritches, more loud purring.

“So… the noise you are making right now…is not purring.”

“Of course not. Ew.” Violette said, purring for all she was worth.

“What would you call it?” I asked, suppressing a chuckle.

“Friendly growling.” She murmured, nestling even more tightly against me.

I smiled, switching hands, so that I could wrap my arm around her wiry shoulders. “I’m honored.”

“Yes.”

SukiSays

Beloveds, I am putting together a lil glossary of terms mostly to do with the magic system, perhaps some name pronunciation. (Eir= air). 

Drop anything you think should be/that you want to see in there! 

More Violette next week!

Patreon is ten full chapter (ten weeks of scribblehub releases) ahead, just sayin'! Could be cute!