A faint snore woke me up from a far too deep sleep. I felt exhausted, my whole body did, but I still tried to force my eyes open. Something was wrong, horribly even.

“Who the hell is sleeping next to me?”

My question was answered within mere seconds. When my vision cleared, after blinking several times, the fuzzy contours right in front of me gained clearer colors and forms. It was Mabel. I long since knew how her hair looked, honey blonde with faint strains of a brighter color, but her familiar emerald green eyes were nowhere to be seen. She was deep asleep.

“Why is she so close?! This is my tent!”
「You have no tent, silly~」
“That explains nothing! She is almost touching me! I can feel her breath!”
「Doesn't she look incredibly peaceful?」
“She does…”
「You shouldn't disturb her. It was you who exhausted her, after all!」
“Me?”
「You don't remember?」
“Remember? What? What did I-”

Something in my head suddenly broke loose. I started remembering the past day, everything that had led to me waking up next to Mabel, but no matter how hard I tried to remember more, there were many hours missing. What I saw before my inner eye, however, was far more than enough to send cold shivers over my body.

“She- she kissed me!!”
「You made her.」
“I never wanted for that to happen! Not like this!”
「What did you think would happen if you seduce her?」
“...”
「You really didn't think it through, did you?」

She was right. I hadn't thought it through. Not because I was too stupid to even think about my actions, but because I trusted her. I had trusted Mabel to somehow deal with the situation I had tossed her into. She had saved me from the Prinja-Boars, so it was more than easy to fully trust her with almost everything.

“... damn it.”
「Don't worry, I am sure she was into it as well~」
“She was into it?”

A cold shiver went over my body as I lifted up the blanket that protected our bodies. A decently sized, shapely chest awaited my gaze, together with a muscular body. Mabel was wearing just as much fabric on her body as I did. There wasn't even underwear. My mind went blank.

“This- this…”

My mind was long consumed by a maelstrom of chaos. I saw images of me talking to Mabel fly by, heard words she had said to me, saw her saving me over and over again, but also her lips that were closing in to steal a kiss. The pictures slowly changed into something entirely different, as I started imagining what had happened in the night.

A fiery heat conquered my cheeks.

Before I realized, I had already freed myself from the blanket that had protected our bodies from the cold grasp of the night. The air was still chilly, it sent goosebumps all over my skin, but I just couldn't pay it any heed. My chaotic mind only screamed one word: Run! Run! Run! It echoed through my mind, consuming any other thought.

My panicked hands tried to open the tent, but they were unable to. For seconds, they searched for the loops and buttons the bright red fabric held together with, but even when I finally held them between my fingers, I was shaking too much to even dream of escaping.

“Rika? Is that you?” A half-asleep voice asked.

I didn't need to turn around to see who it was that had discovered me.

“No, no, no, NOO!!”

Seconds later, she had already grabbed me. Mabel pulled me by the hand, forcing me to meet her eyes. When I stared at her like a deer in the headlights it didn’t take long for her to get the idea. A smile grew on her face as she let go of me and dragged the blanket around my shivering body.

“Don’t run away now,” she commanded.
“I- I won’t!” I promised, while already searching for a new way to escape.

A laugh escaped her beautiful lips as she sat down right in front of me, showing me her nude body without a single care in the world. And I? I grew even more restless. I felt as if I was sitting on a bomb that was ready to explode, only waiting its fuse to catch fire.

Mabel was beautiful and nice to talk to. She was the best friend material one could ask for and already family by now. But I didn’t feel more than that. I didn’t want more than that. I especially did not want to go the whole way with her before even falling in love!

Still, there was no way to escape this now. I had done something I could not take back, no matter how hard I tried. I had lost my virginity to Mabel, and for all I knew, it could very well be the same for her. And all of that because I seduced her - with magic of all things! I was the worst!

“Calm down a little,” she said, “You look like you've seen a ghost.”
“I- I- sorry!”
“Sorry?” She asked. “What are you sorry for?”
“I shouldn’t have done that on you!”
She leaned in closer. “What did you do to me?”
“I,” I gulped, “I seduced you!”
“And now here we are,” she answered. “Naked like the gods made us.”

It didn’t need that line to make me aware of that fact. I was painfully aware of how I looked to her, of how she looked to me and what we had done.

“I am sorry!” It shot out of me. “I am so sorry!”
“I’m listening,” was the only thing she answered.
“I should never have used it on you! I didn’t think straight! I didn’t know what I was doing. I-”
“You did it without thinking.”
“I am sorry! I was panicking!”
“So all the things we did…”
“I am sorry!”

Once again I searched for an escape route and once again I found myself trapped. Mabel stared at me, waiting for an answer, an explanation for what I did or at least a viable solution for our problem, then she suddenly burst out into laughter.

“What-”
“You should see your face!” She laughed even harder. “You looked like you saw a Monster!”

I could only stare at her in disbelief - an action that caused her to laugh even more at my expense. Mabel was having the time of her life. And I just sat there baffled, unable to even form a coherent thought. It was only after what felt like half an eternity that she chose to reveal her secret.

“Nothing happened,” she said. “Nothing at all happened.”
“But- but we are nude!”
“You didn’t have your clothes on when you transformed back.”
“But we kissed!”
This caused Mabel to think for a moment. “I had better.”
“Better…”
“Kissing a dog feels super weird,” she explained with just another laugh.
“I am a fox!”
“And what a fox you are! Falling asleep just like that! I am still waiting for my answer, though.”
“Your answer…”
“I think my love-struck self confessed to you…”
“You- you did confess to me…”
“And I meant it when I said it.”

She was right. Of course she was right. Mabel was enchanted by then, she probably couldn’t think clearly anymore, but I still had to give her an answer. At least that. But just as I wanted to speak out and tell her, Mabel placed her fingers on my lips.

“Not now.” She said. “At least think about it for some days.”
“I will...”