“Y-you should give someone warning before you slip a finger in their ass,” she grumbled, as she pushed his hand away.
“Oh.” He bent forward so he could scoop her into his arms as he laid down. His orbs turned a reddish pink. “I am sorry,” he apologised, nuzzling the side of his beak against her sweat-dotted temple.
Well… at least she didn’t say it wasn’t a place he could touch. He just needed to give warning?
“I’m only letting you get away with that because you didn’t know,” she said before she relaxed and snuggled into him.
I will play there next time, Ingram thought with a contented hum.
Just more of Emerie for him to discover.
Bringing the aromatic, hot tea to her lips, Emerie took a light sip from the ceramic cup. The hints of mint, ginger, and honey sang against her pallet. The fact she was drinking this in the Veil was as weird as it was to be casually sitting in a log cabin home surrounded by two Duskwalkers and another human.
She eyed Delora from across the table, who was letting Magnar bump his fox skull against her cheek and even fondly bumped back with her hand on his long jaw. The affection was one of deep love, and the more time Emerie spent with them, the less it ate at her. Delora was happy, and after hearing how terrible the woman’s story was before she met Magnar, it was hard to feel any jealousy or envy.
She was literally thrown into the Veil to die for murdering her cheating ex-husband. And Delora had been so depressed that she wanted to stop existing, only to fall from the canyon ledge to land on top of Magnar and tie herself to him instead.
Emerie had learned of this by asking how the woman came to be here.
“Fyodor really frightened me at first,” Delora admitted while averting her caring brown eyes to the tea in her hands. “They bit me and chased me around while letting out this shrill noise. I was just so afraid of the pain, and my own child eating me, that I couldn’t help it.” Then, the corner of her lips twitched like she wanted to smile. “Magnar showed me that if I stopped being scared, they just wanted to be with me, like how you saw with Mayumi. They just wanted to cling to me because they were anxious about the outside world since they couldn’t see or navigate it well and they knew I was safe. I made a lot of mistakes.”
As if he could tell his bride needed comforting, Magnar wrapped his hand around the crook of her shoulder and neck, while his long, fluffy tail moved to cuddle around her waist.
“We made a lot of mistakes, my pretty raven,” Magnar reassured.
“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” she responded with a small smile.
Just as Delora lifted her eyes away from her tea to Emerie, a massive sneeze made their gazes duck to the left, where Ingram was sitting by the fire. They laughed as they watched him shiver.
Ingram had a cold, and wasn’t taking well to having a fever, sniffly nose, and body aches. Well, in truth, Emerie was the one who had been sick when she woke up this morning. It may have had to do with the fact she’d cried, was worn out emotionally, then had a pretty intense intimacy session, in which Ingram covered her in his seed and let it go cold and then dry.
She’d woken up ill, since a human could only take so much.
Although she explained she’d be fine in a couple of days, Ingram had wanted to heal her of her illness. He’d been odd about it, as if he thought she would suddenly pass out and die. So, he was now sick in her stead – at least until tomorrow morning and his own healing capabilities took over.
Her lips curled, and she had to stifle her giggle.
He was cranky and didn’t want to be anywhere but near the fire – even at the cost of losing his ever-constant touch against her. It was kind of adorable to think of a big, scary, tall Duskwalker being frazzled by a wittle itty bitty cold.
Ingram spun his head around to look at her, his orbs flaring red as he growled because she’d laughed at him. She quickly lifted her gaze up to the ceiling and almost whistled.
He didn’t like being made fun of while sick.
She dropped her stare to Delora.
“It’s nice that you found happiness here,” Emerie said, while offering a sincere smile. “All of you seemed to have.”
Delora shrugged. “We do what we can. Life isn’t perfect here. I can’t just walk outside and go to the markets, and a lot of what we have is self-made. We all work together and each of our gardens have different foods and vegetables so we can trade.”
“We Mavka help to cut down trees and build. I am not the best at it,” Magnar said while scratching at the side of his snout bashfully. “But Orpheus has taught me much.”
“It’s just… it was better when we could move freely between all our houses. Now, with the Demons scouting and lurking around our homes, waiting for us to slip in our defences or catch us while we move in between, it’s becoming more dangerous by the day.”
“Yeah. I was pretty nervous coming here today,” Emerie mumbled as she rubbed her neck.
However, nothing would have stopped Emerie from visiting Delora. After so many days of being with Mayumi, she felt like she was imposing on their family too much. She wanted to give them a break, so she came here for the day.
Visiting Reia wasn’t possible for now, as Mayumi had suggested leaving her and Orpheus alone until he willingly brought her around again.
“It just makes me worried for Fyodor,” Delora said as she bit her lip, her eyes quickly welling with tears. “It’s really hard not knowing if our child is out there alive or not. They are alone, and I had no idea that if they fully grew, they would want to leave.”
“It was an accident, Delora,” Magnar argued. “Orpheus and Reia didn’t know bringing the deer here would make them form their antlers. They remained small when they obtained their rabbit skull. No one knew what would happen.”
“I know,” she eventually sighed. “I just can’t help but constantly worry. I think about them all the time.”
Look at the way he reassures her. He’s so kind to her, even when she’s beating herself up. She couldn’t help warmly smiling towards Magnar. All the Duskwalkers are really sweet to their brides.
Because she was just admiring them, it took Emerie a few moments for what they’d said to truly register. Her brows eventually drew together tightly.
“Did… did you say a rabbit skull and antlers?” Emerie asked shyly.
“Yeah,” Delora answered, turning her exasperated gaze from Magnar to her. “The Duskwalkers become what they eat. Fyodor ate a rabbit skull first, and then a deer head. After that, they suddenly became a full-sized Duskwalker. They even obtained their orbs.”
“She,” Ingram randomly threw in while staring at the flames, his skull tilted. He spun his head back around and found all their eyes on him. “The Mavka you speak of. Not they, she.”
Delora’s lips parted as she pressed her hand against the table to stand. “What are you saying, Ingram?”
“I… I think we met Fyodor,” Emerie chimed in, causing Delora’s bewildered expression and Magnar’s dark-yellow orbs to spin to her instead. Talk about awkward. She rubbed at her arm. “We came across a female Duskwalker with a rabbit skull and antlers on our way here. She didn’t have a lot of humanity, so it was hard to speak with her, but Ingram said she was definitely a female.”