Chapter 249 - Into The Dreaded Forest!

We'd arrived just outside the forest and as I remembered, it was full of bugs. Having the comfort of my alpha particles and knowing there were way too many bugs here wasn't a comfort.

Crawlers…spiders…leeches…centipedes….

The sound… the feeling… the sweat… Wasn't the snowy plains a whole lotta better?

"You can hold my hand if you're too scared," Raea said, spreading her hand my way.

She was wearing a sleeveless dress, so I could barely see her bra in that angle. 

I had a feeling that was intentional. 

"No thanks and I'm not scared." Barely. 

So- with Aria in the front, we all headed into the dreadful forest full of bugs. 

But I didn't need to resort to my barriers. 

Raea was right, no bug was coming our way with Aria in front. Aria was a proper dragon type. She looked mostly like Enira when she'd first come out of the saber, just with maybe a bit sharper horns and a smaller tail. Aria's tail was heavily armored while Enira's was kind of plain in comparison. But that was basically it. Their facial resemblance was kind of uncanny though. Enira was alive for quite a while so it was really possible this girl was just her descendant or something. 

Anyway- at least I didn't have to worry about bugs anymore. And I believed that too, until those critters started following us from behind. 

Sigh.

But it could be avoided if I matched my pace with Aria and just stayed about a meter behind her. 

"By the way-" Raea started. "I heard you were quite something last night."

I almost jumped. "Un- Whe-where did you hear that?"

Her grin took a very dirty turn. "I'd rather not expose my sources but-" She came close. "I can take a pounding too you know." She whispered while blowing on my ears. "And I'll be extra quiet."

I gulped and just moved, walked faster. I couldn't run away and I couldn't confront her either. Why the hell did I have to take this path?

'NO more forests… No more forests… NO MORE FORESTS!'

Raea giggled. "Still, you're something. I'm tempting you this much and yet, you're resisting. Sometimes it makes me think, maybe I'm not good enough." Oddly she started sulking. 

"No, it's quite the opposite. I'm not good enough for you. I already have Marg and even if I took you in the family, I'll never be able to satisfy all of you and keep you all happy."

Raea was technically the most beautiful girl in our house. She was perfectly proportioned. It was almost as though the gods had created her in their image or something- cause sometimes she even looked divine.

Raea looked at me with a bit of surprise. "Well, at least you're honest but since we're the only ones here, I'll tell you a secret." And she even disregarded the dragon girl with us. "My love isn't flimsy enough-" She spoke the individual words as she marched towards me with speed. "That I'd be unhappy with you. Who cares if you have more wives? I love you dude, and love is blind!" She stood in front of me, pointing her finger at my nose. She was serious. And then she pressed my nose. "All I have is looks. I can't do anything else. I can't cook, I can't fight, I can't even charm you. And that's why I'm trying so hard!" Her eyes teared up. "And it's still not working and you have the nerve to say you're not good enough? Well, screw you!" She hugged me, reached up, and kissed me. "But I love you."

There was a reason why I hadn't moved or even said a word till now even though she was hugging me this intensely. Apparently, Aria had moved about four meters away from us. 

Which meant-

Something had crawled inside my shirt. And a lot of other stuff were coming our way.

And it took all my frigging nerve just to stay put and not scream. "Alright- then how about you prove it by ridding a bug that's under my shirt?" It took a lot of concentration to not shiver and say those words cleanly. 

She looked at my face to see whether I was serious or not for a second and then slid her hand up my shirt like it was totally normal. She took out a centipede and just a second later and threw it in the distance. "Good enough?" Oh, my chocolate god, she was unnerved!

And in that moment, my heart skipped a beat seeing her not even batting an eyelash. Or was it that I was just too scared?

Okay, so she was at least a lot more courageous than me. "I'll give you an answer later."

Because my head was flaring and I couldn't think. And my heart was racing. I knew I was afraid of bugs, but I didn't know my fear ran this deep. 

'I'm never coming back to forests ever again.'

"AHEM!" all this time Aria was just standing there, staring at our drama. She couldn't understand us- but that didn't mean she couldn't understand the situation. 

She was not happy, no. 

Anyway- we moved ahead. 

Raea didn't complain or say anything for the rest of the way. 

***

We went past our house and went to the central town. We had a lot of stuff to buy. 

And we bought them fairly easily too. 

It actually went too easily thanks to this list. 

And I was done for the day. 

"I need to buy some stuff- so if you'd come along that'd be nice," Raea said, slightly nervous. 

"Sure." It wasn't like I had anything better to do anyway. 

And we headed to a clothing store.  But then shit happened. Or to be more precise, we went into a special clothing store- the underwear store and it was only for girls. 

I'd been to these stores before too- but even now, even after all this time, I felt embarrassed. I felt a weird shame when I looked at underwear on display like I was never meant to even be near this kind of place. Maybe I was just too sheltered. 

It actually wasn't that bad though. Raea and Aria were doing their own shopping and they didn't want any of my inputs. The staff here didn't really say much to me either. Students often visited these stores with their boyfriends, so I guess this much was natural. Sure, didn't mean I felt comfortable though.

So, all I had to do was stay put and let them finish shopping. Once we were done, we'd be going home. At this time, I didn't see a point of me being here though. 

"So," Raea walked over to me, hands behind her back, cheeks slightly red. "Would you mind coming this way?" Well, she sure was being bashful about this. 

"Yeah, I'd mind." Because I had a very bad feeling where this was going.

A staff member behind me cleared her throat. "Man up a little kid!" She whispered very vigorously.

I wanted to shout- "Yeah, I don't need you to tell me that!" but- yeah, I couldn't escape this.

I should have known it'd turn out like this and I should have declined before coming here, but I didn't and now there was no turning back.

So, with a gulp of courage, I took a step forward.