To Push Away

Lucille didn’t think that touching the girl’s cat ears would have consequences. The poor wolf couldn’t help herself; it was as if she had idle hands. As soon as the cat moved, the young girl jumped and tried to move away. Her attempts were to no avail; in mere seconds she was pulled onto the couch and was forced under the cat. “No. No. No. No. No……” She repeated her reluctance quickly. The wolf tried to push away the woman and left her. Nothing was working. It was as if the cat was getting heavier with every move the wolf made.

A sigh left Lucille’s lips; defeated. She wanted to get away but no matter what she did, nothing worked. Crossing her arms over her chest, she decided to wait until the girl woke up. It was the sudden voice that lifted her spirits. It almost sounded like Natsumi, but a bit off. Maybe it was because she just woke up? Curious, the wolf tried to look over her shoulder towards the voice. It was the cat that kept her from being able to see the white fox.

“I didn’t mean—” The wolf cut off her own words; she knew that she knew all too well what she was doing. At that moment, she saw that the woman was being lifted off of her. “Thank you.” She whispered before she stood up quickly from the couch. She brushed down her skirt, then looked over to where the voice was before. No one was there. “Of course.” She thought to herself with a sigh. Natsumi was gone.

Being left alone with the cat once more, her eyes looked down at the sleeping woman. She didn’t know why she would feel this way about a woman. She made her body heat up in places she never had before. It took a moment before the wolf finally walked out of the room.

When she walked down the stairs, a smile lit up her face. Her sister, Luella, stood on the last step and leaned against the railing. "Hey there, sister." She said with a smirk and a bit into her apple. " I never thought you were into girls," Luella said to her sister. "I don't know what the hell you are talking about." Lucille denied it. She wasn't into any girl.

"Come on. She is gorgeous. And… With pillows like those, you could sleep all night." Her younger sister words shocked her. "Luella! Go get your chores done." With a beat red face, Luella rushed past her eyes and walked the opposite way of the kitchen. She didn't know if she was angry at her sister's words being true or that she said it.

Turning around the corner, she didn't look up in time to see the man in front of her. She ran into him and a gasp left her lips. "Well, darlin'. Don't be in such a hurry!" He smiled at her and while he grabbed her shoulders. "What is wrong?" He asked after seeing her upset face. Lucille shook her head. "Just my sister." She said with a sigh.

"Want to go for a walk and you can tell me about it?" He asked. Lucille looked at him for a moment before she nodded in agreement. As they walked out of the castle, she let him lay his hand on her lower back. She would regret this later. 

Flour Power

Skipping through the garden, the little redhead smiled over her shoulders at Nikolaus. "Nik! I want to make a bouquet for mama!" She stopped on the patch of flowers to her left. The flowers were of all different colors. Even making their way up the wall bush behind them and their vines wrapping around the iron bench that was beside them.

A smile came to the man's lips as he nodded. "Alright. Which flowers?" He asked then suddenly the butler appeared behind him with a set of shears. "Sir." Emrick held the shears out to his fellow vampire. When he took them, Emrick disappeared in a blur. "Yay!" Called Guinevere as she clapped and pointed to her first flower. "This purple one. Then this white one. Oh! More purple and… Hmm…some pink!" Soon Nikolaus had cut every flower she wanted. "It's so pretty!" The child squealed as she took them and ran off towards the castle.

The child soon reached the kitchen. Guinevere was so excited to give her mother the flowers. She skipped through the halls until she got to the doors. Pushing open the door, she was about to run in. But a curious object caught her attention. It wasn't the object per se, but what the object was doing; floating. A biscuit floated in the air before the child. For a moment she thought that a creature was in the castle. "Mom!!!!" Yelled the girl as she started to step back.

Katerina had been making more bread for later when the daughter had screamed. Guinevere started the wolf. The bag of flower that was her hands burst in her grip sending flour everywhere. "Guinevere, what's wrong?!" Katerina ran over to her child in an instant.

The young girl was pointing in front of her. No longer scared but curious. "Who is that, Mom?" She asked as she tilted her head to the side at the figure covered in flour. Her mother slowly knelt down beside her daughter as she too looked at the figure. The scent coming from the figure was almost like her friend. “Natsumi? Is that you?” She asked as she started to reach forward. “How did you get so… small?” She asked, wondering what was going on with the white fox. She couldn’t be as small as her daughter beside her? Could she?

Ironically and regrettably, the person who came through those doors at that moment was a young child of the same height. Guinevere had returned with flowers for her mother, but she stopped as soon as she saw that floating biscuit. I tried to eat the rest as quickly as possible before she could react in that state of shock, yet I was ultimately too late. The young child screamed for her mother, and Katerina, startled by the sound, accidentally burst a flour bag over my head.

My invisibility shattered by the advent of that white powder, and I, still trying to figure out how to get myself out of this mess, stood like a dumbfounded doe covered from head to toe and with chipmunk cheeks full of biscuit.

“Natsumi,” the flour bandit said to me in that state? She tried to reach out her hand while kneeling down to confirm her suspicions, but I instinctively retreated from her grasp without a moment’s notice. Wasting no time or thought, I animated the whole basket of biscuits that was still on the counter to my hand; used a magic pocket to stash the whole thing away; and then leapt over Guinevere’s head, out through the door, and into the dining hall in one fluid motion.

The flour on my body flew off in a dust cloud as I went, followed by the departure of my invisibility spell. Knowing that these two wolves would be following their noses instead of their eyes thanks to my blunder, I realized there was no longer any point in wasting mana on a spell of sight. Instead, I conjured up several replicants and had those versions of me make flour-covered footsteps out toward the staircases. The door was still closed behind us at the time, so the hope was that Kat and company would be fooled by the lack of a definitive scent trail as well as the flour footprints. Meanwhile, the real me hid underneath the dining room table, adhered to its wooden underside and waiting for my pursuers to leave so I could escape.

Alas, my trick proved futile in the end. As soon as Katerina and Guinevere had come out of the kitchen to chase after me, I felt the whole table shift as it was lifted into the air by a blanketed monstrosity. Robin – who had apparently dragged every last quilt from our bed down the stairs with her – had seen me in the act of hiding, and she wasted no time in lifting the whole table up single-handedly while Katerina and her daughter were still watching. She plucked me from its underside before I had a chance to react and then stuffed my childlike body into her quilted cloak so that my head rested just underneath her chin.

You could only see my face from the nose up after I was captured in such an unceremonious manner. My wife was also still half-asleep, so she didn’t say much of anything before setting the table back down and giving a bed-head-ridden salutation to our host.

“Ohayou gozaimasu,” she said with a yawn in her native language, and then she promptly found a chair to collapse into.

Katerina was uncertain as thoughts of doubt filled her mind. Was this child Natsumi? Even when the fox's name slipped through her lips, she was unsure. A part of her thought it was Nat, the other was skeptical. The last twenty-four hours had been very eventful; more than it had been in a long time.

The new guests filling the castle had excited the wolf, but, who else would come? “Did Natsumi have a child with Robin?” Katerina had thought in the split second while she reached for the girl.

In an instant, the fox girl jumped over Guinevere’s head and was running out of the kitchen. “What the bloody hell!?” Katerina gasped while her daughter giggled. “Let’s get her mom!” Her child yelled in excitement before she ran out the door. The Mother Wolf was on her tail. They followed the set of flour footprints that lead through the kitchen doors. “She’s fast. Hopefully, she doesn't run out of the castle.” The wolf said as they made their way toward the main hall. “We can catch her!” Guinevere excitedly cheered.

The two were about to head toward the doors of the dining room, instead, they stopped. A newcomer had caught their attention. “Robin..” Katerina was shocked as she saw the table being lifted in the air. “Robin!” Her face brightened up with her smile. “You're here!” Katerina was so excited to see the woman that she almost missed the child. The wolf demon knew at that moment who the child was. “Natsumi,” she smiled while shaking her head. “Always devious no matter the age,” Katerina said with a laugh as the mini-Nat was pulled into the covers that circled Robin.

“She is so strong, Mama!” Guinevere said cheerfully. The Mother Wolf looked down to her child with a smile. Her eyes moved back over to Robin, she was now sitting at the dining table with Natsumi peeking out from the covers. “Good Morning to you as well, Robin,” Katerina greeted the woman as she made her way towards the table. She took a seat across from the bunny. “It has been so long!” The wolf tried so hard not to run over and hug Robin but she knew that Natsumi’s family loved their space.

“Mama! She is so cute!! She is a bunny!” The wolf’s daughter had run up beside Robin with a huge smile on her face. “Can I touch your ears?” She asked while she jumped up and down. “Guinevere, no. You know how your cousins don’t like their ears touched.” The wolf demon said as she pointed to the chair next to her. “Come sit. Emrick. Food and Tea please.”

“Looks like I missed a new guest.”Nikolaus came in through the large doors of the dining room. He walked over to Katerina and took a seat next to her. “Hello, I am Nikolaus Metcalf.” He bowed his head slightly towards Robin. “Is… that..? “He paused, seeing Natsumi. Before Katerina could answer, the butler and the protector appeared through the kitchen doors with rolling trays. All the items that the wolf mother made were laid out across the table. The tea closest to Katerina and Robin.

The sound of steps moving across the marble hallway was heard through the dining room doors. When Katerina's daughters appeared in the room. The wolf demon smiled at them. "Morning girls." She greeted them. Her daughters were both dressed and presentable. Kiyomi wore a white loose-fitting dress that wrapped around the back of her neck with no sleeves and barefoot. Freya, in a white button-down shirt and a grey skirt that stopped a few inches below her knees. Also, she wore black flats with it.


Kiyomi and her sister Freya nodded with a smile then looked at the lady at the table wrapped in a blanket. "Hello! You must be a Robin." The brown-haired fox sat beside her little sister Guinevere and Freya took a seat beside Kiyomi. "Robin. This is Kiyomi and Freya, my daughters." Katerina motioned to the two sitting by her. When the older fox was introduced, Kiyomi waved with a smile. "Hello." The white fox voice was soft as she spoke, unlike Kiyomi's cheery one.

As they were introduced, Gwen was stuffing her face with pancakes; not paying attention.

"Aww. Did You two have a kid?…" Kiyomi asked, but paused after looking around the dining room. "Where did Natsumi go? Did she leave already?" Kiyomi asked while she poured a cup of jasmine tea for herself.

Kat smiled. "She's here." She started to fill her plate after that and she didn't have to look at Kiyomi to see her curious face.

Guinevere was in the mid-bite when she looked up to stare at the girl with Robin. Her head turned slightly to the side and spoke, "Mama… what's wrong with her eye?" The girl's word made her sisters stop mid-bit. Everyone at the table knew that pointing out someone's scar was impolite. "My sweet. It's just a scar. You know, like the ones I have." Katerina tried to explain this to her daughter as she set her fork down on the table. "But it's on her face…?" Guin asked curiously. "Your lucky you didn't die." The youngest said then took a bit of her food. Katerina sighed and put her hand on her brow; Her daughter had no filter. "That was impolite, my dear. We don't speak to guest like that. Yes. She has a scar, but maybe you shouldn't point it out so bluntly." The Mother Wolf scolded.

"Yes, Mama…" Guinevere frowned and started to eat once more.

Katerina turned to Nat with a sigh. "I'm sorry about my daughter…." She paused as she wondered. After a moment, she spoke about what she was thinking. "I understand if you don't want to answer …But I am curious about how that happened. Last time I saw you it wasn't there. And you pretty good at not getting hit." The wolf demon asked and then took a sip of tea.

Before then, the chase had gone as anticipated. Katerina, suspicious of the current circumstances, had correctly guessed my identity in the kitchen; but had failed to track me properly during the escape that followed. The woman and her daughter would have walked right out of the dining hall if not for Robin’s arrival. In fact, they were downright lucky to have someone like her arrive in a nick of time to save them inevitable defeat, because, otherwise, I would have fled back to my room the moment they turned their backs to the table.

Sadly, events did not proceed in this manner. Instead, Robin had briskly scooped me up and bound me to her bosom similar to how one grips a teddy bear, plush toy. Also similar to that particular analogy, she went right back to sleep the moment she hit the chair after securing my personage. Apparently, I was her “comfort charm" right now, but not in the sense of someone panicking at the thought of my loss. No, judging from the fact that I could so quickly feel my wife's breathing slow down once I was in close proximity to her, I was pretty sure that I had become the kind of "comfort charm" that awakens a moody, sleeping pharaoh when stolen from her tomb. In the end, there would apparently be no escape, because Robin would track me down no matter where I went. I was left to simmer in that collective body scarf knowing this, knowing that the slightest movement, the most minuscule hope of escape was futile.

Apparently, though, no one else around us seemed to notice that transition. A large portion of Katerina’s family filtered into the dining hall after I had been restrained, but not a single one of their greetings reached my wife’s attention. She was dead and would probably only awaken under the most serious of circumstances(like someone removing me from her arms): none of which current company presented. I didn’t even get a chance to respond edgewise either, because, by the time the inflow of people tapered off, I had only just freed my mouth from the fabric of Robin's newfound cloak-comforter.

“Strike one to Kiyomi for not recognizing the scar from last night," I said as I gasped from air in the aftermath of Guinevere's lecture. "And one brownie point to Guinevere because she noticed said scar, but did so in a rude way.” The conversation had drifted toward the scar on my eye by then; hence the first words out of my mouth. Unlike the others around me at that point, I took no food following my remarks. Instead, I gave some food for thought since I wasn’t exactly in a position to go anywhere anytime soon.“Everyone starts somewhere, Katerina. If you told me that you never got injured even as a child, I’d call you a god damned liar. My scar is actually older than anyone in this castle. I just developed a habit of hiding it along with all such blemishes as I got older because of the… well, frankly, the realities of being a woman was the original reason. Later on it was more that I got tired of seeing them every time I looked in the mirror; but recent events caused this particular one, the oldest scar I ever got, to resurface. Robin asked that I keep it once she saw it, and that’s the only reason it’s still here.”

I turned my attention to Guinevere then, ignoring the fact that I had technically lied about the age of my scar at least of Robin.

“You’re right, though, little hyper one. I am lucky I didn’t die from the sword that gave me this gash. I lost my eye from it, though, and I had to wear a patch for a long time until they could get me a fake eye that restored my sight. Now, the eye is real, but there was a long stretch of time where that was not true.”

Katerina remembered the first time she ever met the fox before her. Natsumi was like a wild child in the forest, now, she was proper in everything she did, and deadly. The wolf demon looked at the woman child, she didn’t recall the fox ever having a scar over her eye. There were few things Katerina knew about the woman before her, one being that Nat was a great fighter. Being skilled at combat, attackers were ineffective in hitting the fox. “Back then… Maybe not.” The wolf thought with a mental laugh. “Maybe…. So?” She near forgot that the woman was never as young as she looked; Nat was older than everyone put together in the dining room.

The fox before them finally spoke. Her words were directed at Katerina’s eldest daughter at first. Kiyomi’s eyes rose up to look at the fox; she was in mid-bite. Hearing the fox’s words, Kiyomi frowned. “In my defense, a lot was going on.” She thought to herself. She wanted to speak but decided against it. Holding back the urge of rolling her eyes, the Silverstein daughter went back to eating. Her eyes would take the occasional glance at the vampire beside the dining room entrance door.

As the fox continued, she turned her attention back to Katerina; answering the wolf’s question. Her answer was obscured. The Mother Wolf held back a sigh. Natsumi never told the whole truth when it came to her past; Kat understood that.

While Natumi spoke to Katerina, the vampire's lips tugged into a small smile. The past was flashing through his mind. After meeting his lover years ago, he had trained in close combat. Every time he hit her or knocked her to the ground, the wolf would get back to her feet. “She learned quick.” He thought as he took a sip of his drink.

Everyone’s pondering minds were brought back to reality when the littlest one squealed. “You lost your eye!!! And got a fake one! How cool! Do you still have it?! I would love to see it! Please! Please, Mommy!” Guinevere looked anxiously to her mother then back at the fox.


Katerina sighed with a smile. Her daughter was amusing when she was excited about something. “That is up to Natsumi, Sweetheart. And that is if she still has it.” Katerina laid a hand on the back of her child’s head. “Do you?! Do you Natsumi?!” Guinevere's large blue eyes looked at Natumi with curiosity shining through them.

The sound of light footsteps made the Silverstein family glance over to the door to the dining room. Eva skipped into the room, she stopped in her steps when she saw the two guests at the table. “Mama? Who are our guests?” She asked as she made her way towards the table and took a seat beside her eldest sister.

“Eva, this is Natsumi and her wife Robin.” Katerina smiled as she waved a hand towards the two. Eva looked at them with an expressionless look. “So, this is the one that took me?” She paused in her words, as she glanced at Nat. “You should have left a note, instead, you caused my mother pain… Don’t you think of other emotions before you act? You might be in a child's form, but you are far more than one. What a friend this one is..” Eva rolled her eyes at the woman child and wasn’t expecting what she heard next.

The Mother Wolf gasped at her child’s words. “Evangeline, Natsumi is a guest in this house, you will not speak to her that way. Get your plate and move to the kitchen. Do not come out until Natsumi leaves.”Katerina’s face turned sterned as she looked at her daughter. Eva pushed her chair out from the table and flashed an angry look at her mother. “I wasn’t hungry anyway.” The younger wolf almost growled as she rushed out of the room and to her room.

“Natsumi. I am sorry. Our uncle left… suddenly and she isn’t handling it well. But, that doesn't give her any reason to say those things to you.” Katerina bowed her head slightly. It had been a rough twenty-four hours, but she was thankful to see her friend again. “Please accept my apologies.”

The Dragon’s End

Although I had had many years to get over the novelty of eyepatches, I often still forgot on Revaliir how romanticized they could be. Losing an eye sounds great until you actually go through it. After all, the lost eye gives you an excuse to dress up in ways that would otherwise make you look quite ridiculous. Yet I had been so jaded by my own experiences with the realities of such a handicap that the enthusiasm I received for it came as quite the surprise; especially from the daughter of a woman who hated pirates as much as Katerina did.

Guinevere practically shattered the silence at the table with her squeals of delight when she heard me talk about the patch I had hated for so long, and I’m sure her sister was thankful for that given my lack of filter mere moments prior.

“Yeah, a lot of muscle oogling was going on between you and Mr. tall, dark and gruesome.” Distracted by everything that had happened recently, I made the unfortunate mishap of interpreting Kiyomi’s private thoughts as audible speech. So when she was mentally defending herself against my criticism for being unobservant, I rudely retorted on a matter she likely wished to keep secret: namely her crush on Constantine. At least I was fairly quiet about it, mumbling under my breath the entire time. Still, it was not my finest moment, and probably made Kiyomi most grateful for her sister’s interference.

Guinevere’s screams called all attention onto her, even though her joy was destined for disappointment.
 
“That eye is gone,” I told her from my perch across the table, “and I would never bring it to another world anyway. It is… was dangerous.” Breakfast continued as per usual once that interaction was over, but more participants were arriving by the moment. Eva was next to venture through the dining room archway, although the greeting she gave was far from the warmth of the others.

The rebellious teenager of the group sought to lecture me in an ironic twist of fate. She was most displeased with the story of her birth, but her displeasure did nothing to sway me. All she really succeeded in doing was eliciting a smile from my face, just as she got into a fight with her mother.

Eva was right in a way: I didn’t care. Katerina’s emotions would always be secondary to what I thought and knew was right; even in the case of kidnapping. That was why I would never call her a true friend, let alone a sister. Even if she were related to me by blood, that wouldn’t have stopped me from taking her original daughter; and, by extension, wouldn’t have stopped her from having the right to hate me. But feelings could not and would not ever be allowed to jeopardize my home ever again. Such was the price that came with my responsibilities.

Alas, I couldn’t voice any of that. Katerina, despite being a good mother and having my respect, was nothing short of a nuisance sometimes when it came to actually talking to her. The two of us held vastly different opinions on social etiquette and other fundamental values. I suppose that’s why I agreed with Eva when she called me, “some friend,” in a most sarcastic manner.

“She’s not wrong, you know,” I told Katerina once she sent that mouthy daughter away. “I never really made an effort to be friends with you after I regained my memory, so I’m surprised you still call me that when talking to your kids.” Eva was on her way back to her room without food then, but she didn’t get far from us following her outburst. In fact, she was still in earshot for my admission when a far worse “daughter” popped up: a big boob ditz that snatched up the brooding teenager the second she turned the corner.

“She’s so cute! Just like a spunky version of Lizzie!” Eden had appeared as silent as the dead and as loud as a festival. She scooped Eva up in an impromptu hug without warning, catching her off guard with surprising deftness as her voice brought visible displeasure to my face.

“Ugh… what are you doing here, Eden?” My resident sex fiend of an in-law stood there in the archway now, carrying Eva back into the dining hall from whence she came while dressed in a rather comfy sweater. There she stood, unrelenting with her constant, falsely innocent smile as she addressed me.

“Oh pishposh, Nat,” the amazon began, “I know you love me. You wouldn’t let me live with you, otherwise!” Eden quickly turned her attention to Katerina without even waiting for my response to that somewhat irritating truth, and she waved at the woman with a bright expression on her face. “Hey mom! I’d ask how’s things, but I can’t stay long!” Then dropping Eva, the blonde woman walked briskly over to Robin and dragged the sleepy rabbit to her feet. “Come on, you! Your little sleeping beauty finally woke up, so it’s time to go home!”

Like an addict reacting to the smell of good coffee in the morning, Robin rapidly returned to the land of the living thanks to Eden’s words. She practically jolted to her feet and grabbed my in-law by the hand, finally allowing me to slip away from the dropped comforters whilst the bones in Eden’s palm crackled under white-knuckled pressure. “Okay, I get it,” the blonde woman groaned in brief agony from her friend’s strength, “You’re excited! But please don’t crush my hand! I kinda need that!”

It was good to see Robin finally awake and with some combination expression other than depression in those moments. It was even better to see that Eden would be immediately departing without giving me cause for more migraines. She gave a quick parting, shouting, “Bye~!” at everyone who was still seated, and then disappeared in a flash with my Robin in tow. Easy in, easy out.

“You lot have just witnessed the tornado known as Eden…” I told my hosts with a wide grin once the pair vanished before our eyes, then followed with a tongue-in-cheek comment. “I’ve been considering reclassifying her as a hurricane but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.”

While everyone was lost in her little sister’s silliness, Kiyomi was lost in her own mind. The night before was replaying repeatedly. She couldn’t help but re-feel the pull she felt towards the vampire. Her eyes floated towards the vampire at the entrance of the dining room. He was also staring at her but looked away quickly. This made Kiyomi’s lips tug in a smile. To prevent anyone from seeing, even the vampire, she took a sip of her tea. In mid-sip, the white fox spoke causing the dark fox to spit out her tea and start to cough.

“KiyomI! Careful!” Katerina gasped as she tossed her daughter a napkin. “She read my mind!??!?!”Kiyomi screamed in her mind as she coughed into the cloth her mother had tossed. Her eyes widened as she looked over at Natsumi; surprised. “Get out of my mind Nat!? And there is nothing going on! I swear!” The dark fox girl looked over to her mother hoping she hadn't noticed what Natsumi had just said.

The eldest daughter’s hopes were granted; only partly. A vampire in the room noticed, Nikolaus. Her mother’s lover hid a smirk under his cup of tea. He took a glance over at Kiyomi then at Constantine. “Well, Well.” He thought and kept the chuckle to himself. His eyes soon turned toward Katerina. Looking at her made his thoughts of the young two disappear. He knew even though she wasn’t showing how she felt on her face, he could tell the hurt Katerina felt. He wanted to put a hand on her but re-framed.

The hurt Katerina felt didn’t last long. She pushed them away as fast as they came. She understood why the fox wouldn’t let the wolf in yet. The Wolf Demon had pushed many people away over the years. It wasn’t until Kiyomi had came into her life, everything changed.

The Mother Wolf’s attention had turned back to her daughter, Eva. She was storming out of the room. Katerina sighed and apologized to Natsumi. Her mind started to drift off to her uncle. Why did he leave without a goodbye? Why didn’t he at least say goodbye to the one who cherished him most? The Wolf Demon’s eyes watched as her daughter walked towards the doors of the dining room. Evangeline was always a spirited girl and happy. The small wolf even had manners before. Now? It was as if she was looking at a completely different child.

The Wolf Demon was brought back to reality when her daughter was picked up by a large woman. “Eden!?!? You’re my sister!?!?! You don’t look like the painting mom has of you!” Eva gasped out but tried to struggle against her sister’s hold. “Let me down! Eden! Come on!” The elf wolf ended up failing; nothing she could do could release her.


Shock covered Katerina’s face as she watched the scene before her. Her daughter had changed so much since the last time she saw her. “Honey?” Nikolaus’ voice made the wolf blink a few times; she couldn’t believe her eyes. “Eden?” Katerina finally spoke and stood.“That’s my daughter?” She thought as she looked over the large woman. “That can’t be her…. Can it?..” She said aloud, mostly to herself.

“You’ve grown so much, Eden. You’re so beautiful!” Katerina smiled while she spoke; it warmed her heart to see Eden so happy. She wished she could talk to Eden more but she was gone as fast as she came.

“Thank you for taking care of my girl. She seems happy. And yes.” Katerina said to the fox. She chuckled a bit at the fox’s comment. Taking a seat, she looked at the door her daughter exited out of. “I think we should have her over for supper one day, and the rest of your family.”

Eva growled as she stood up rubbing her behind. “Could of let me down softer!” she grumbled as she headed out of the room.

Kiyomi was surprised to see her sister she had grown up with. She was the first sister she ever had. Now, she was completely different than what she was used to. Taking one last sip of her tea, the dark fox stood from her chair. “Thanks for breakfast, mom. I’m going to go read in the garden.” Turning toward Natsumi, she bowed slightly. “Good seeing you, Natsumi. I hope to see you again soon.” With her final words, she excused herself and walked out of the dining room.

The last twenty-four hours were very eventful for the fox, and she just wanted some alone time. A book appeared in her hand and she walked out of the castle doors and into the courtyard.

The jovial atmosphere brought about by these events, these jokes, was something my tired brain clung to that morning. Sadly, it was also cursory environment. Whilst Katerina commented on sweet nothings that could never be - particularly the permanent and deep relationship she craved from me - , my mind wandered to a nearby presence: one I had not felt in quite some time. A familiar dragon was there, just on the other side of the mountain, and he was dying. There was not much time left before the breath of life would depart from his body; and, although I did not wish to leave the comfort of that castle that Katerina had allowed me into, I knew I had to go see my former companion before he expired.

Up until that point, I had entertained my host; and, for a time, my family had played at being normal. I teased a young woman about her love life, played hide and seek with a mother and daughter, and watched my girls flirt with their first taste of love. In the end, none of us could stay despite how much fun we were having but did not admit.

The first two to leave were Eden and Robin, whisked off to care for our dearest Nea now that she had emerged from her fever. Next was Anabelle, sneaking back into the castle after digesting her meal of morning buck. She collected her sister, Elizabeth, from the couch where she was sleeping after slipping past everyone in the lobby, and then ran off back home with the well-endowed kitten in tow. Ultimately, only I was left: stuck in a child’s body and surrounded by adults as I tried to explain Eden’s changes to her mother.

“Happy, certainly,” I remarked on the blonde’s state of mind. “Me, less so; since her and Adel don’t know the meaning of ‘quiet sex’. Those two are pretty much an item now, and her changes are due to Adel’s interference. But it would be better for you to hear the full explanation from her. I’ll make sure she comes back to visit soon for just that reason, but without me.”

The dark fox, Kiyomi, stood up at that moment to go for a little garden reading: a move that eased the next step in my itinerary. The dragon whose life was fading on a nearby hill had known her in the past, and the two of them had shared a frivolous crush during that brief interaction. I felt it was only just that he had at least one friend that he could remember at his passing. But since I could not fulfil that role thanks to my own decisions, I decided to take Kiyomi with me to do so in my stead. Her march toward the exit made that desire easier to accomplish, but, before I went chasing after her, I had one last piece of information to share with her mother.

“Forgive me for not being a more polite guest,” I began while walking toward the dining hall’s entrance, “but I must take my leave now. There’s somewhere else I need to be and it cannot wait.” Kiyomi had passed into the courtyard by then, so she didn’t hear the next bit. “By the way,” was how I began to say it, but the rest came as a rapid procession of word vomit exhaled in a single breath. “Congratulationsonyourpregnancy.It’stwosons.Kaynowbye.”

Yep! Katerina Silverstein was pregnant; with twins, no less! My deep-rooted tokophobia along with maybe some magical nonsense had allowed me to detect this, and I wanted nothing to do with it. Visceral horror mounted in me from saying the word alone, so much so I think it actually accelerated the speed at which I vanished from the dining hall. I literally caught up to Kiyomi in the garden before anyone had a chance to say another syllable, hopping onto her shoulders like she was a horse and I was a damnable thief raiding the stables of beautiful fox women.

“Not so fast, you,” I told her in a hurry without missing a beat. “We have somewhere else to be right about now; and trust me, you’re gonna want to come with me.” So it was that, without waiting for a response, I transported myself and my “steed” to another area of the highlands: a place that would be both the grave of Jack and the birthplace of Minerva.