I am woken in the morning by muttering across the room.

“-ke her up, I did it yesterday, and got an eye full of the cow's udders,” One whispers.

Another replies, “I did it the first day and it was even worse for me.”

“So what do we do then?” the first asks.

“Maybe we can go get your sister to wake her up,” maybe if I just ignore them I can get some more sleep.

“That’s a good idea. But first I am kind of curious…”

“About?”

“Is she soft?”

“WHAT?” The second voice says rather loudly, looks like I’m not going to get to go back to sleep this morning either.

“SHHHH… you’ll wake her up,” The other hisses. “I just want to know how her tails and ears feel, they look so soft and fluffy,” She continues on getting that dreamy voice people get when they fantasize.

“Am I going to need to keep an eye on you?” I accusingly ask the voice

“The, that’s absurd, how can you even consider that a possibility? Wouldn’t that be a grave violation of her space?” the second asks the first.

“Oh I’m sure she won’t mind…probably…”

Tired of listening to the noise around me I lift my tails up and away from me shoving my blankets towards the top of the bed and I sit up while rubbing my cheek and I am greeted by quite an interesting sight.

Melodiana and Iris are standing about four inches away from the side of my bed both just staring at me, in complete silence, with a look of shock and embarrassment on their faces. So I ask while yawning and stretching, “Iz somethin on my face?”

“No, no nothing is wrong,” Melodiana says putting her hands up and waving them back and forth.

“Yep a completely normal morning, absolutely nothing out of the ordinary,” Iris says in a high pitched voice before continuing on, “Oh would you look at the time I think Leyla needs some help in the kitchen, so I am going to go take care of that.” She quickly flees the room.

I laugh to myself and notice Melodiana is still looking at me, but now with a confused concentrating look. “Maybe not I might just be being paranoid,” I yawn and I get up and stretch before I walk over to our window, which has a large platform with cushions on it for sitting and I prop myself up in the morning sun. The entire way there I could feel Melodiana’s eyes on me “I suppose if she wants something she will speak up…”

Or so I thought she would…

“Could you not stare so hard,” I silently protest after a couple of minutes.

…

…

“I swear if you don’t say whatever you want to say I am going to punish you,” I tell her finally breaking under the pressure of her stare.

She blushes a little as if she just realized she had been staring at me before muttering, “Sorry…” She just stops, and she starts to look everywhere around the room but directly at me, but she is still glancing my way out of the corner of her eye.

I sigh and realize that I am running my finger over my brow and I mutter, “So many problem children in this house.” I stand up and head towards the dining room. As I pass Melodiana I flick my tails at her and tell her “I'll think of an appropriate punishment for you later.”

I look around as I step out into the dining room and I don’t see the sisters anywhere but I can hear a commotion from the kitchen and I continue on into or small sunroom. I sit down on the sofa while I wait for breakfast to be made. I look around the room and wonder to myself, “Why haven't I spent much time in here... “

It is a bit of a shame that I haven't actually spent any of my time here because this is a nice cozy little room. It could comfortably sit all the four of us and a couple of guest. The floors are a beautiful light soft wood, and there are colorful thick rugs spread out to provide a barrier in Solstheim.

One wall has a large window, much bigger than the windows in the bedrooms, looking out into the back yard, and on the wall opposite the seating there is a lovely red brick fireplace, and hung above its mantle is a painting depicting a wild cat peaking its head out of its den with a fine layer of snow on the ground all around it. “Probably where the name Cyriat Den came from,” I nod my head slightly “or maybe it was placed there as a result of the name.”

All around the room there are also little things that the others have brought in, like a stitching frame with a piece of fabric that might have the starting of a forest scene on it, a small book on sword techniques if the title is anything to go by, and a set of magnifying glasses. I yawn as I am suddenly hit by a wave of sleepiness, and I stretch out on the sofa, “Just a quick nap.”

I wake up to hunger pains as my stomach informs me that I have missed breakfast. The second thing I notice is that someone covered me up with a blanket, and the final thing I notice is that someone is sitting at my head on the couch.

“I am really letting my guard slip these days,” I scold myself. I try to roll over in the most natural still asleep way that I can manage to get a look at which of the sisters is on the couch with me, but halfway through my roll my stomach loudly protests the lack of nourishment, and I end up looking up at Leyla as she looks down to me. She is holding the stitching frame in one hand and a needle in her other and looking past her arm.

I sigh and my stomach rumbles again, which sends Leyla into a fit of giggles and I just glare at her which causes her to laugh more. She stops for a moment as she gets that look of I just remembered something important before she says, “There is some lunch for ya in the kitchen.”

“Why didn’t you mention that sooner,” I complain to her as I hurriedly stand up fighting off my dizzy spell, and head to the kitchen where I find a small plate covered with a towel. When I lift the towel I find a small meal of chicken even though I can smell pork and I catch myself sighing again, “I think I’m going to have to have a talk with these girls about how chicken is not a major staple of my diet.” I step over to the pantry and grab an apple, and a glass and pour myself a glass of wine that I bought.

I grab my plate and head back to the sun room where I sit back down next to Leyla and I begin to eat my food as she continues to stitch her pattern. “The chicken is actually very good, it was cooked so that it is still juicy and whoever cooked it used a nice selection of herbs,” I complement the whichever sister cooked it as I eat.

After I finish the main part of the meal I scoot closer to Leyla while holding my apple and moving my glass along the coffee table with me. She moves her hands quite smoothly back and forth in a single movement, bringing the thread through the fabric, occasionally switching the colors to paint her tiny world with.

She sighs and pauses before speaking, “If ya keep moving closer ya are going to be in my lap soon.”

I lean a little bit away from her mutter, “Sorry.” She nods her head indicating she heard me as she continues to work and I pick up my glass and taking a drink. “Ah wonderful,” I sigh contentedly, as the sweet flavor gently flows across my tongue, “I will have to remember to buy more from Crystal next time I go into the Market district. Maybe I will stop in and talk with Samura about changing my order on me as well…maybe.”

While I’ve been off in my own little world making plans I notice Leyla is watching me out of the corner of her eye while she stiches. Impressively she hasn’t missed any of her lines while doing this. “Hmm?” I question her while raising an eyebrow.

“Is it really that good?” she asks

Slightly confused by her question I ask her, “Is what really that good?”

She points to the glass in my hand while saying, “Whatever ya are drinking?”

“Well yes I think it is good, but why do you ask?”

“Because for the past minute or so, ya have been bumping your tails into my back, and I remembered hearing that if your people feel happy that ya will wag your tails, so I was just curious,” Registering what she just said takes a moment, but when it does I can feel my face growing warm, and she continues speaking, “Oh so the pervert gets embarrassed as well hmmm? Well don’t worry your secret is safe with me for now if...”

“If…,” I reply still warm.

“Ya let me have some,” She says while sitting her fabric down and reaching a hand out. Grudgingly I hand the half empty glass to her and she takes a drink of it before exclaiming, “Oh that is good.” “Ya will have to buy me a couple of bottles of this next time you go shopping,” She tells me finishing what is left in my cup before passing it back to me.

I sigh and stand up to go and pour myself more and she calls out to me, “Can ya pour me a glass of that as well please?” I wave my hand in acknowledgment of her, feeling my ears droop slightly at the same time. “That’s a cute gown by the way,” She calls to me as I am entering the kitchen which cheers me up some since no one else noticed this morning-

…

“I have been lying asleep in our sunroom, practically naked for how long?” I ask myself before I sigh, “It’s a wonder I have lived as long as I have with how I have kept my guard recently.”

 

“We will have three additional guests tonight,” Iris sticks her head in the door and hurries off before I can respond to her.

“Good thing I'm making stew then isn't it?” I shrug my shoulders to the empty door frame before I turn back to the pot, “A good meal anyway since the nights are getting colder.” This thought reminds me that I had a request, so I go over to the door and spot who I am looking for quickly since she is sitting at the table, so I stick my head out and ask, “Melodiana can you chop some firewood and bring it in?”

She looks up to me from her shield with her rag in hand and replies “As soon as I finish up here I will take care of it.”

I nod my thanks to her and I turn back to the pot and remove the lid to stir it and it is starting to smell good. I replace the lid and sit back down on the counter and pick my book back up and continue reading where I left off. After several minutes Melodiana walks in with a load of wood in her arms and she starts to stack them next to the pantry. “That was fast,” I comment.

“I cut some this afternoon after I was finished training in the yard,” She replies standing back up and turning to leave the room, “I am going to put some next to the fireplaces in the bedrooms and the one in the sitting room as.”

“Thank you,” I tell her since she is doing what I wanted her to do in the first place, “But I guess I wasn’t very clear where I wanted the logs to be placed so I can’t blame her for that misunderstanding.”

She nods to me before leaving the room and over the next several minutes I hear her going back and forth past the kitchen. After around twenty minutes she walks back into the kitchen and stands near me silently, but I notice that she is looking more towards the pot on the stove than to me and I can’t help but to laugh at her a little, “So you are hungry hmm?”

She just nods while continuing to watch the pot so I go over and check the vegetables in the pot. “Well it will take them a bit longer” I tell her and she gets this disappointed look, like that of a child told they have to wait to go out and play, and sighs before sitting down in the stool next to mine. I walk back over to my stool and sit down and pick my book back up and go back to waiting.

…

…

…

After several minutes of silence I hear a chair slide across the floor in the dining room, and a few moments later Iris goes by the door towards the front of the house. I shrug it off and check the pot again and this time the vegetables are done so I quench the flames in the oven.

I pick up a cutting board and go into the dining room and set it in the middle of the table, and on my way back into the kitchen I can here Iris chatting with someone at the front door. I walk back into the kitchen and I pick up the pot and Melodiana instantly stands up and is right behind me, so I look over my shoulder and instruct her “Grab some bowls and spoons from the cabinet, and some glasses as well.”

As I walk back into the dining room Leyla is rearranging the chairs around the table to make room for three more. I set the pot on the board and Melodiana goes around setting dishes in front of each spot. I grab a couple of cheap bottles of wine from the cabinet, open them, and place them on the table next to the pot.

“So we have guest?” I ask Leyla as she puts the last chair into place.

“Yes, the Priminade has finished going over evaluations to place us, so they sent out representatives to inform us where we will be working during our stay here, and a couple of the representatives are family friends and they let Iris and myself know that they were coming to give us our placements and we invited them over for dinner,” She pauses and sighs slightly, “And apparently they ended up with a tag along because she was coming to this building anyway… or so that’s what I heard.”

“So we can start working after tonight then?” I ask her and she nods her head while sitting down. Melodiana sits down at the table growing paler as she listens to Leyla talk, so I reach across the table and place the back of my hand against her forehead and she jumps back in shock from the contact, so I ask, “Are you feeling alright?”

“It’s just nerves,” She says rubbing the hem of her shirt between her fingers and gazing back towards the front of the house.

“I’m sure it will be fine,” I tell her as I walk back to the kitchen to grab some bread. When I walk back into the dining area Iris is walking back in with some surprising guests. Lady Ledoux and Alice are chatting with Iris about how she likes house and they are followed by the woman that woke me and directed me where to go for the evaluation. When they catch sight of me they both freeze and just stare at me like I grew a second head.

“What are you doing here?” Lady Ledoux hisses to me, as Alice quickly ducks behind her.

“Well last time I checked I live here,” I tell here while taking my seat at the end of the table with Melodiana on my right, and an empty chair on my left. The other woman quickly grabs the chair at the other end of the table with a sly smile on her face, as it will force one of the other women to sit next to me since Iris has just sat down across from Leyla.

“I didn’t realize that you kept such…unfavorable company,” Lady Ledoux says to the sisters to which they both get even more perplexed looks to their faces.

“What do ya mean unfavorable company?” Leyla asks, “I mean sure she’s a lecherous pervert, lazy, and sarcastic, but she doesn’t seem to be that bad of a person.”

“She is an evil, conniving, little, b-,” Lady Ledoux begins to say but is cut off as Alice digs an elbow into her side.

She then begins to lecture the other woman with a hand on her hip, “You shouldn’t insult our hosts like that, no matter how much you dislike her because she tricked all of us, and she has an amazing Magik potential, and the sisters say she isn’t bad and I think we should trust their judgment on that, even if it has only been a couple of days.”

All the while the other woman at the end of the table is trying hard to not laugh. I go ahead and stand up and lean forward to uncover the pot of stew and take this opportunity to look at the third guest without outright staring across the table at her.

Looking at her closer it’s easy to tell that she is a Succubus. She has soft features, a rounded face with full lips, a tiny button nose, and two horns protruding from behind her hair line. Her hair is long, black and also covers up her ears making it hard to determine her lineage but I wouldn’t be surprised if she is full blooded.

While I am making these observations I notice on the corners of my vision that Leyla and Iris are motioning back and forth trying to figure out my connection to the Ledouxs’, and Melodiana has regained some color back to her face since I uncovered the pot, apparently hunger outweighs nerves.

“Now you are going to sit down, and be civil, and we are going to talk with the sisters and the other young women here, and we are going to provide them with the information we came to give them, after we enjoy a lovely dinner. Am I making myself clear?” Alice finishes and takes the seat next to me before even hearing the other woman’s response. I am honestly impressed I don’t think I have ever heard an Undine ever tell anyone off. “It smells delicious,” She says to no one in particular, and Lady Ledoux sits down next to her angling herself away from me bringing a smile to the face of the woman at the end of the table.

We all sit around for a few moments looking back and forth between each other before I sigh and reach forward and serve myself which everyone else takes cue from and follows suit, and then they all sit eating quietly other the occasional mummer of its good, which makes me happy.