After checking on her after a short while to find she was truly asleep, Orpheus had felt comfortable enough to seek his own sleep and recovery. Even though he was nocturnal, like Demons, he would now begin to force himself to sleep late into the night while in the future he would attempt to force his human, Reia, to do same. Hopefully their sleeping patterns could align, both compromising until they slept through dawn and most of the morning.
He sighed when he continued to hear the slow creep of just the pads of a human’s toes touching the ground. She was sneaking around his home. What is she up to?
Forcing himself to his hands and knees, Orpheus rose, scratching at his back and chest, itching due to sleeping in the constriction of his clothing. He didn’t mind the pants too much, but he always found it uncomfortable to sleep in his button-down shirt.
He would have to endure since he couldn’t show Reia his body. She would most likely panic, like many others had. He’d learnt a long time ago that his flesh distressed the humans.
Quietly, he placed his boots on and left his room, not bothering to grab his jacket, to make his way to the living area.
The woman was at the door, trying her hardest to be silent as she yanked on the handle only to find it locked. Of course, he’d locked it. He couldn’t have her going outside by herself.
Coming up behind her, he placed his hand on the corner of the door to keep it in place and stop it from rattling at her attempts of opening it.
“Do you wish to die?” He almost sighed at her in irritation.
Sometimes he wondered if the humans were stupid. They always did this, always tried to leave while they thought he was unsuspecting. They are all the same.
She flinched before quickly turning around to face him with her back pressed against the door and her arms behind her.
“No,” she squeaked as her eyes fell to the side, avoiding his gaze while he towered over her and looked down. “I just wanted to peek outside.”
He wondered if that was a lie.
“If you wanted to see what outside was like, you could have looked through the windows.”
He gestured to the room to point to the one in the cooking area, then the one near the fireplace.
When she turned her head back to him, he knew by the deep narrow of her eyes that she was giving him a glare. Cute, he thought. He found the fiery personality of this little, tiny woman, adorable.
He heard something hard scraping against the wooden door and knew she must have something in her hand. He sent his vision to the table to find one of the three daggers upon it was missing, specifically, the one in particular she’d been inspecting the previous day.
“And where were you planning to go with that?” His voice was laced with both anger and curiosity.
She’d been wise enough to grab a weapon to protect herself, although it would have done very little against a Demon.
“I just wanted to have a quick look outside, okay?” she snapped at him, refusing to bring her hands forward. “I wasn’t planning to run away or anything.” Once more, he wasn’t sure if that was a lie or not, however it almost sounded sincere. “I-I thought I could see the sun through the windows.”
Now that sounded like the truth.
He bent away from her to give her space before stepping back.
“I have something for you.” He walked away to go to his room to retrieve something precious to him.
As he was leaving, he heard footsteps before the dull sound of the dagger being placed onto the table.
When he returned, he was wearing his jacket to hide his body better and held a special piece of jewellery in his hand. He led Reia to one of the chairs in the living area covered in fur skins and got her to sit on the smaller one, although it was still large in comparison to her, before kneeling on one knee with his other foot placed against the ground.
She was complying, for whatever reason, to his wishes.
“This is a protection amulet,” he explained as he began to slip a diadem circlet tiara over her forehead. “It will help to keep you safe.”
The metal was silver in colour but was joined together at the front by swirling links and appeared delicate, as though it might be easy to unlink and destroy. Orpheus knew from experience it was very sturdy. Small, clear, sparkling diamonds were threaded through the swirling links with metal twine and adhesive.
The circling arms were straight as he pushed them underneath her hair, so it was buried inside it, before he hooked the thin chain together at the back of her head to keep it in place. A blue sapphire gem in the shape of a teardrop dangled from the V-shaped point of the circlet tiara. It tapped against her forehead just above the centre of her creased brows when she frowned after he placed it on her.