When Cleo saw Winoa the next day, her friend could not help but laugh at her. “What’s wrong?” She asked, “Why are you laughing at me?”
“Because you’re walking like you rode a horse for a week”.
Immediately Cleo blushed and sat down. She could feel her head slowly becoming redder and redder at the thoughts of what she went through the night before. They had both been insatiable, nervous and awkward, but it quickly became something amazing for her. It was rapturous for them both, but was something neither of them had expected to enjoy so much.
“You mean you and Law... You finally..?”
“Yes...” She felt like she was squeaking. It was still hard to admit, even if it had been fun.
“Finally! I mean this year notwithstanding, it took you two long enough”. Winoa smirked at Cleo before standing up to grab them both some fruit from one of the bowls on a table at the side of the room. “I’m really happy for you both. Now just don’t let him do something stupid like that again”,
“I never intend to, believe me”. Cleo devoured the food in front of her. For the first time in a very long time she had an appetite. She was ravenous.
“Where’s your golden boy now then?”
“Out with Yun, fighting. He learned a lot while he was imprisoned about combat and wants to test it on someone who isn’t apparently a shadow possessing him to steal his body”.
“What”.
“I don’t know either,” she replied, momentarily stopping eating. “I heard what happened to him while he was in that prison cell, and I don’t know what to make of it, but he seems... He seems more complete now than he ever did before”.
“Well that’s got to be a good thing right?”
“I hope so”.
As the two girls finished eating their food, Law, Yun and Jim all walked in from the outside, their bodies covered in sweat from exercise in the summer sun that floated over the realm. Cleo blushed again after seeing Law covered in sweat. His body reminding her of all that went on the night before. They sat down and waited for Louisa to swan down, slightly later than everyone else, as she normally did.
Finally their group was complete, for the first time in what felt like far too long for all of them. At first they were quiet, no one seemed to want to break the silence, but finally Law spoke.
“So I hear that the Lupe are planning something on the next floor”.
“It’s why they even captured you. We think they are trying to resurrect, or free, the Fallen Morning,” said Jim, shuddering at the thought of a legend being released into the world. “I’ve heard stories about the events of the Fallen Morning, but I have no idea how much of those stories are true. If even half of them are true then there’s very little we can do about the world if the Morning is released, but we can at least try to bring the clans together to stop the Lupe from their insanity”.
“So let’s plan then,” Winoa said. “Unfortunately I’m the only person in the group who has had much contact with my clan, so... I guess I have to take the time to go back to my clan and see if they take me seriously”.
“Well that leaves the rest of us for reconnaissance. Unless anyone else has an idea,” said Law. Cleo moved over to him and laid her arms over his shoulder, just touching his skin and feeling him there. She still could not quite get over having him back, but the night before had eased things considerably.
“I think... I need to stay somewhere safe on the floor,” said Yun, clenching the table tightly in annoyance. “I am the curator of this world and the last few times I have fought with people I have come to realise that I mustn’t die for this place to stay intact. The lives of hundreds of our people require me to stay alive”.
“It’s understandable, brother. Just relax and focus on perfecting this place. There’s nothing shameful about that at all. It’s a necessity for you as much as it is for us. More so for us, we need this place as somewhere to retreat to. Just do what you need to and I will fight enough for both of us”.
“You’ll do the same for talking,” Yun replied to Law, chuckling at his own joke. Cleo could not help but stick her tongue out at the wolf man, but she knew he was right. Law did speak at least double what Yun said every time Yun even bothered to open his mouth.
“Well I want to see what caused the Lupe to be so obsessed in imprisoning me for. Why the hell did they catch me in the first place?” It was something that they had all thought about, but none of them could find the answer. There were a variety of seals that could have been used on the Fallen Morning, but none of them seemed to fit with what the group knew about the Lupe’s actions. It simply did not make sense to any of them.
“All we can do is travel and learn,” said Louisa. “We know that we need to go to the Valley of Kings on the fifteenth floor, wherever that is. We also need to find something concrete that shows the Lupe are acting crazy. Just travelling towards the place we know will contain the Lupe really does seem like the best course of action right now. It’ll be a pain to lose one more member of our group after just returning to our capacity, but I think as long as we can keep in contact with each other through the pointer ring then the Clans should soon follow”.
“We live in hope,” Cleo replied bitterly. “I’ve never had much faith in the Clans really. I don’t understand why you do either”.
“Because despite what you might think, the Clans are gods, only lower than Babel herself. It’s always been a bit insane for me to be sitting in the same room as so many godchildren, especially my Yun here”. She ruffled his hair and smiled with pride. There was no doubt in Cleo’s mind how the woman viewed her young lupine partner. She was as doe eyed as Cleo felt.
“Fine, tomorrow we leave, but today we relax! Let us drink and be merry!” Law laughed and pulled out a jug of wine from within his pointer ring. “I’ll have work to do later, but I will not pass up this time to drink with my friends once more. It is simply too rare a chance for me to pass up”.
“Not too rare anymore,” Cleo said, kissing his cheek.
No comments:
Post a Comment