Chapter 190

Charlene woke up to a bad case of a dry mouth. In her groggy state, she couldn't place what had caused this. After all, she did not smoke at all the night before, nor did she forget to keep hydrated. As she moved her tongue around to try and moisten her mouth, she felt as if her mouth was full of hair. Opening her eyes slowly so as to shield them from the light of the morning sun, she found that Sheera was sprawled across her and Matis, with the cougar's tail ending up inside her mouth. She spit it out as fast as she could once she noticed, rubbing her mouth to clear out the fur that remained there. Though no matter what she did, she could still feel the lingering sensation of the fur rubbing all along her cheeks and tongue. She knew that she would have to drink a fair amount of water or tea before the feeling would go away. And that would currently require waking the culprit.

That was easily worth the risk to her, the large feline waking up as soon as she tried to maneuver herself out from underneath. That was entirely due to how normal of an occurrence it was. Sheera had always woken up with the slightest bit of movement, not seeming to want to miss a single moment of when Charlene was awake. Not that she minded, as that meant she got giant cat cuddles while waiting for Matis to finally acknowledge the sun's presence. Most days he tried to ignore it and stay in bed. Something about how warm, comfy, and inviting it felt. She didn't understand what he meant by that, but those were generally the words he used when defending himself from the light teasing.

Charlene nimbly climbed down from the hanging tent, followed closely by Sheera. They went around getting ready for the day in tandem, getting their shit either together or out. A quick morning fire was set up, only due to Char's desire for toast this morning. They had some homemade rhubarb jam that some of the people of the Dene Th'a had made and gifted them, and she was feeling a massive craving for it. Sure, she could have used the bread that was toasted from Sheera's bacon sandwich, but she did not feel in the mood for the residual taste and grease that the bacon would bring with it.

Meanwhile, the crackling and smell of the fire got Matis to finally rouse from bed. He had woken up when Sheera had started moving, but he tried to get a few more minutes of comfort. He was not able to get back to sleep though, not before his wife started up the fire to get breakfast going. He clawed his way out of bed and got changed, before hopping back down to earth. He saw that Charlene was just starting on the food, so he knew he would have a few minutes before it was time to eat. Quickly relieving himself of the overnight pressure in a bush, Matis came back and instantly started working on the tent. They still had a fair amount of distance to travel today, and wanted to make full use of the daylight they would have. Since as far as he could tell, they didn't even make it halfway back home. Though they had taken their time moving through Chateh, but that was entirely due to the fact that monsters were a now present danger. Not something he would hear his wife geeking out about after a series had a new installment, either written or visual.

As he took down the camp, he thought on the killing of the goblins in Chateh. Sure, he had gotten one of them with a spear thrust, but his wife and Sheera had taken care of most of them. His wife was fascinated by everything fantasy and medieval, which had led to her training with a variety of weapons in her free time. It kept her in wonderful shape, but the manner that she kept in shape both terrified him and turned him on massively. She was very used to the spear, as that was one of the many weapons that she had sitting at home in their arsenal. In fact, as far as he could remember, the spear they had was one of the first weapons she had bought and practiced with. He knew that he hadn't been much help in the fighting, as he was not familiar with the movements or stances that went with controlling such a weapon, but he had tried nonetheless.

All of that had caused him to miss his favourite implements, all of which sat at home. They had a room in their house dedicated to the weapons they owned. While hers were all spears, swords, and other martial style weapons, his were all about keeping distance between him and his opponent. Throwing knives, bows, and guns lined his half of the room, among other similar items. Just as she had always practiced with hers, he had kept up maintenance and practice with his. They would spend the same amount of time training each day, almost as if they were training together, yet apart. Though his preferred type of practice did not have him move around nearly as much, causing his frame to be a fair bit stockier than hers, not that he ever heard any complaints. He couldn't wait to get home, as once he got his tools, he would be able to provide far more help then he had been. At least when it came to any conflict they came across. He didn't want to leave all the fighting to his wife, capable as she may be.

As he was thinking through all of this, the tent came down and was dragged over to his wife. Just in time for the toast to finish. Together they put their choice of spreads over top the hot bread before digging in. They missed the taste of peanut butter, there not having been any back in town. Regardless, they enjoyed the jam and margarine covered toast, eating with relish. Sheera just brought back out her bacon sandwich, curling up next to her partner while she dug into the meaty mess.

Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Viktor, Saganatsu, Eeleater, John, Hades, Sir Hellington, Onean, Sebastian, Adam, and Kevin for supporting me and my writing! Remember that I keep Patreon ten chapters ahead at all times. Our next goal on Patreon will be getting up to 50 patrons, which I will then spend more time each month writing some side stories and shorts that show other perspectives throughout my stories!

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