Chapter 67 - Hot Bath

Eiro kept on continuosly trying to push his will into the seed however possible, until the sun rose from beyond the horizon, meaning that the Imp had been out here all night.

He didn't think he had to stay there constantly, after all, all of these trees around him also grew without anyone's help. For now, Eiro figured he should make his way back to the house, considering that he was actually pretty tired again. Of course, he would still check the traps and then bring whatever food he could to the house, but then Eiro thought that it was a good idea to go to sleep again.

However, as it seemed like nothing ended up in the Imp's traps this time around, the young Demon made his way through the forest empty-handedly and instead chose to pick up whatever edible plants he could find, although that still was fairly little.

And then, Eiro just opened the door up and stepped into the house again, his feet covered in rough, frozen snow that he had to quite literally break off by kicking his foot against the door, simply because he had been walking around bare-foot the whole time. For some reason, while the Imp was out there in that harsh, cold, uninviting environment he didn't mind the cold at all, but when he stepped inside here, it seemed like that was slowly catching up to him.

He still didn't feel those cold-burns that he got a couple times up until now on his skin, but it seemed like his whole body had cooled down to the temperature a dead body had, and that did make him actually feel slightly lethargic and probably even more tired than he usually would be. So, Eiro chose to just quickly make his way into the small shed adjacent to the house where he had his little slaughterhouse, library, and trophy-room in one, and then grabbed the bucket standing in the corner and started filling it up with snow outside before bringing it back inside and pouring the snow into a metal tub, underneath which Eiro lit a small fire made with wood that produced as little smoke as possible. Of course there was still a bit of a chimney at the top, though.

Because Sammy and Clementine both asked for it, they were using this place to bathe as well sometimes, because neither of them wanted to have Jura, Rudy or Arc there, although Avalin, Leon and the Imp were fine for them. Well, Eiro did take a bath seperately from them, usually, but he still helped them wash themselves properly when they needed it, although he mainly did so for Leon and Avalin to let Sammy relax a little for once.

But this time around, Eiro really just wanted to take a bath on his own to let his body heat up again, and to maybe distract himself from the aching he had been feeling all day. It seemed like he grew a couple fingers' width again throughout this night, after all.

And as the snow inside of the metal bathtub placed in this corner made from stone, so that the house wouldn't burn down somehow, despite it being made of pretty fire-resistant wood apparently, the Imp noticed that his horns also grew a little and his skin turned a little more pale as well.

His horns did change their color quite rapidly, though, as they turned from the Ruby-Red into a Sapphire-Blue. In the end they just became a little thicker and longer, and curled up a slight bit, but Eiro was still feeling a fair bit of stinging pain in his forehead next to where those horns already were.

With a slight sigh, Eiro just sat down inside of the water once it started to get a little warmer, sitting down on the pieces of wood placed onto the bottom of the tub so that he wouldn't burn himself on the hot metal, and then just submerged his whole body in there as far as he could.

Immediately, the temperature returned to Eiro's being, and while he did feel like he could move around a little easier again and that his limbs weren't just as stiff, he was still pretty tired, so he should really just get to sleep immediately after this bath.

Soon, the water picked up in temperature pretty quickly, although the Imp was just lost in thought about what he should do with his seed.

Maybe instead of sleeping, he should just return to it immediately and simply come back every couple hours to check up on the children and heat himself up like this? It did feel pretty nice out there underneath the moonshine, in that quiet, cold place, where the only thing that could be heard was the water flowing and the wind blowing across his body.

Although, this right now wasn't really bad either... The heat was comforting, just as comforting as the cold, and he couldn't bring himself to simply let go of this. He heard the water start to bubble around his skin as the wood cracked underneath him, the slight smoke rising up through the hole in the roof acting as a chimney.

He knew that Demons like him were supposed to be tightly connected to Fire, and in the back of his head, the Imp figured that he always was. But only now he acutally consciously thought about how nice heat was.

It was like the heat slightly growing in the center of his body was growing even bigger, as if he was supposed to just grasp it and hold it with him tightly.

Right now, the Imp was even able to ignore this notification that appeared above him completely. It just didn't bother him at all, so he didn't bother to read it either and just pushed it hand through it. He just wanted to... to sleep... In this comfortable warmth...

The next the Imp knew it, the amazing heat was replaced by incredible cold as he heard the snow underneath him give in. As steam around him rose, Eiro felt ice immediately close in around his limbs as a small mountain of it basically started to glue him to the ground.

"You bum, don't fall asleep in the bath!" Jura exclaimed loudly and annoyedly, before the young Imp actually realized what exactly happened. It seemed like... Jura emptied the bathtub with Eiro in it. And that wasn't impossible either, considering Jura's insane, hidden strength. He didn't really know why the water froze so quickly, but what mattered most right now was that he had to quickly get up before it actually froze completely.

And so, Eiro quickly jumped up and made his way into the small hut in front of him to dry his body and put on new clothes.

"Sorry." The Imp told the old man in front of him, although he really just sighed in response. "Well, let's move on... You did really plant your seed, didn't you?" Jura asked, and Eiro slowly nodded his head as he finally gave up trying to fit into his pants again and instead just pulled the cloak around his body. Luckily this still fit him properly.

"I did. I did the right thing, didn't I?" Eiro replied, slightly nervously, and Jura just slightly smirked. "In your case I would have waited for spring because plants grow more easily then, but you seem to be well-alligned with the Winter as a season anyway, so there should be no real need to worry. As long as you properly care for the seed, that is. If you remove it now, it should wither and crumble away, so you don't have much choice anyway." The old man explained, so Eiro looked back at him and nodded, incredibly relieved.

"Then I will finish my sleep in bed now." With a slight smile on his face, Eiro stepped out through the door with Jura behind him, although the old man was seemingly confused about something once they really left the room, but he wasn't able to actually be sure.

Either way, after properly greeting the children and eating a little bit of food together with them, the Imp dropped down into his bed and slept again.

After waking up from his sleep again, his body once more grew an inch or two in height, and his horns did also grow a little bit longer as well. It seemed like they would keep growing further as well, because the pain near them was still there.

With a deep groan, Eiro put his clothes on and sat down on his chair with all the things he needed in his bag already so that he could just set out after eating something. The sun just went down, seemingly.

"Good morning... Oh, good evening, I mean." Eiro told them as he pulled his chair back, and the children all looked at him surprised. They were already staring at him because of his physical change, but they really hadn't expected a change in that area as well.

"Your voice is deeper... Did you go through puberty last night?" Arc asked with a bit of a smirk, and Eiro just raised his brows at him confused. "Puber-what?" The Imp replied confused, although he did notice now as well that his voice sounded a little differently, but the young boy just shook his head in response.

"Nevermind. So you're going out every night instead of every day now?" He asked instead, before the Imp looked out the window and shrugged in response. "It seems so, yes. I don't think it matters whether or not it's day or night, I just want to spend as long as I can caring for the seed."

"B-But..." Clementine nearly interrupted with a bit of a sad expression as she was fiddling with her own fingers and looking down at the surface of the table in front of her. "That means we won't see you much anymore, right? If you sleep all day and are out all night..?" She asked, and with a slow nod, Eiro looked back at her.

"For now, yes. But don't worry, I will be here when you need me to be." The Imp replied, in response to which Clementine just quietly nodded. "Okie..." She said, and Eiro just placed his hand onto her head for a little while, because he noticed that it did relax especially her a fair bit when he did that, although just at that moment, something else crossed Eiro's mind as he held his real left hand, and fake right hand next to each other. Considering his growth over the last day or so, his hand grew as well, quite clearly. His right hand didn't however. He looked kind of ridiculous with a wooden babyhand, and the laughing Arc seemed to be just the confirmation for that.