Chapter 69 - Sixty-Seven

As I keep walking I can see the house coming to view, the beautiful structure with sharp yet curvy roofs, and the gorgeous way it intertwined with the nature around it as the sun shined bright over it all.

I get closer only to see Leo standing beside the wall, his back on it with his legs stretched out and arms curved in front of him.

I approach, hesitant, thinking if he was mad at me for being impulsive and almost fighting for real with Isa, if he was about to scowl me, making me a little guilty inside, even though Isa provoked me, I should not have exploded that way.

All was for naught, I soon realize, as I get close to him, Shu by my feet, only to see that Leo's eyes were closed and his breath even.

Wait, what? He, did he fell asleep standing like this. Has he been… waiting for me?

The same sensation that I had this morning after seeing him waking up returned, the image of his serene relaxed expression, with his head slightly turned, his blond hair falling sideways, his strong jaw, his eyelashes, thin lips, pointy ears.

I wanted to touch it, touch it all, to engrave it in my memory, had almost the urge to do it, I realized gulping down, and with a frown I realized, why should I not cave in? We were a couple now, so I did, hesitantly at first; started with the tip of the finger over his eyes, still slowly as not to wake him up, then to his lips, pushing slightly and feeling the plumps parts of it.

He shudders awake when I reach for his pointy ear, staring at me as I, caught by surprise, take my hand off and hide it behind me, stuttering an answer:

"T-there as a l-leaf there, y-yeah, hi."

He gives me a crooked smile. "Hi."

"So, uhm… What were you doing out here?"

"Saving your breakfast from the hungry beasts inside." He says, taking a packaged out from his bag on the ground and giving it to me. I look at it, stunned for a second. I-is not like that makes me happy or anything you know…"Though it should be cold now, at least I have some warm tea with me. How about eating here, outside?"

"Oh, s-sure." I said, hiding my smile and grabbing the food, unaware of my tail wiggling behind me and the blush creeping over my cheeks.

We don't go far, following a stone path over a calmer part of the garden, overlooking an open green area with a bamboo fountain on the side, hitting down rhythmically as it got filled with water over and over again, giving the place a rather calming ambiance.

We ate in silence as the morning went by, enjoying the moment only until Leo has to stand to go to the bathroom, leaving me alone to watch out the greenery.

I quickly got bored though. I lay back, watching the clouds pass by as I see my brother, in his hound form, hopping and jumping over the grass and hunting some insects and butterflies, but not catching any as they pass right in front of his snout, making him bite air.

Haha, silly him.

Shu, who had gone inside, came back out and immediately saw Hunthor, raising his little butt and jumping on him, just forgetting how tiny he was as he simply head-butts him, falling back down with his belly up and wiggling up his paws, looking like a turtle trying to raise.

My brother poked him, helping him out, and was very happy to have a new playmate, enjoying the sunny day by barking and playing with the little white-green fluffy thing. I was watching them on the shadow of a tree by now, grabbing a book to read from my Shadow Dimension, something talking about the bringers of magic, on how they were all woman, and how that affected the ideology of perfection being the image of a woman, on how many contradictory understandings rouse, and blab bla bla.

Just a bunch of people fighting for something that happened so long ago that nobody knows what really happened anymore. Geez, what's the point in that?

The interesting part was talking about the creatures they fought back in the day, that no physical attack could harm them, only magic, especially elemental. Well, these types of creatures would bring hell on earth to those unable to use magic uhm…

As I was getting very into the reading and enjoying the so hard to get yet so worthy rest when both hounds start to roll around the grass and jump on muddy water puddles.

Wait.

"Oi, you two! You will dirty the place all up! And I'm not going to clean it up for you you hear me?!"

"Oh, come on brother, don't be such a dork, come play with us too!" He says, lowering his front and wiggling his tail high in the air in a playful manner.

"Humf, as if, I'm not a kid any-aght!"

My brother comes closer with his muddy filled body and starts to shake like a wet dog, almost dirtying my book!

"Goddamnit it almost went to my mouth!" He laughs, hopping back. "You little…"

I secure my book in my Shadow Dimension only to quickly change to my hound form and run towards both as my brother speeds up and Shu trips, falling behind, making me jump up on him and nuzzle his neck, having him squeak and wiggle his way out of my embrace.

We play like that for a while until Shu is kidnaped by Leo to take a bath as he yawned on his arms, blinking slowly and sleepily.

That was the cue I needed to speed run at my brother, bringing dirt and grass up with the strength of my paws while we tired ourselves in a playful manner like in the old days, pulling each other's tail only to run in the other direction, rolling on the grass and paw pawing each other, bumping together and only stopping to drink some water from the pond.

Tired, with our tongues hanging out, we go back to the house and towards the shadow that it provided only to find Leo and Aeglos chatting while watching us play.

My brother trots to Aeglos and rubs his head on his side, bringing their attention back to us as Aeglos chuckles and strokes my brother's ears and face, making him lay his head down on his lap.

I scowl and look away only for my eyes to fall on a pair of golden orbs, making me raise my chin and say:

"What?"

He smirks then, moving a little only to pet his lap.

"Come here."

"Pff, dream on brat."

"Back with the brat I see… I wonder for how long you can keep that facade on…" I snort at that, my tail slightly wiggling behind me.

I go up towards them only to find that Shu was sleeping on Leo's lap, so tiny that I almost could not see him over Leo's strong big thighs. Oww, he looked so cute sleeping, his little pinky nose twitching on his sleep as he curved his paws in front of his body.

"Keep looking too much at my crotch that I may think you are interested in it."

"I'm not looking at your crotch!"

He chuckles, knowingly teasing me back for the brat I said before. In the end I simply lay down beside him, no before he asking if I need him to bath me too, earning him a tongue out as now I was really feeling the amount of exercise taking their toll on my body, making me tired as well as heaving down my muscles.

We end up just like that for the rest of the day, nothing going on as we were only waiting for time to pass by so we could leave this place; what sounded like a great idea back when I wasn't stuck in this place with nothing to do.

Beyond the boredom, and the task of searching something useful to do; or just anything really; the foxy Leo used every opportunity he had to do just what he promised he would, to make me easy up around him, something that at first did not occur to me as being his touch.

So every opportunity he had he would come close to me, lingering his finger over my hand, brushing pass too close to me in the halls, probably doing this as his own way to get rid of the boredom that this place brought forward, definitely having a lot of time in his hands to plan his next attack.

I roll my eyes at that, though I won't deny that the attention was… welcomed with a fuzzy warm sensation in my chest.

So, after friendly talks, meals, plays and the like, we close up for the night, all of that without Isa who apparently was avoiding me, or just too scared to get out of his room.

Humf, I don't care, still back up my opinion on having him leave the group, no point in keeping him around.

But that was a talk for later, when I wasn't so annoyed by him, though if it would depend on me not being annoyed by his presence then we would never talk about it.

At the table, as we were talking, the younger twin, Seiroe, finally wasn't able to contain his excitement as he fidgets with all his hands, hoping to my side without standing up, sitting directly beside as I was drinking a cup of tea, making me raised an eyebrow over the tea-cup.

"So, so, Terror~~" He starts, making me put down the cup, turning slowly in his direction and catching a glimpse of the older brother sighing to the side, a piece of wood in one hand and a knife on the other.

Was he crafting something?

"…What?"

"Oh, you were going to tell me about yourself right? Your adventures? For… for my music?"

"Was I now?"

"Yes!"

Something told me it was beyond professional bard interest… But I found it interesting, to have some kind of fan.

"Well, if you want so much it can't be helped then…What do you want to know?" A bright smile spreads over his face as he claps his three pair of hands together, startling Rangur who almost dropped his mug. Was he always drunk or about to?

"And don't you dare say everything." His smiles drop into a pout as the higher pair of hands hold his chin up and the others close in front of him.

"Hm… Oh! How about how are you able to break the contract between magical creatures and humans? It was said to be impossible before you started doing it left and right!"

"Haha, that? Well… I cannot tell you that."

"Ehhh, how so? You said you would answer my questions…"

"Never said all of them. Plus everybody needs some cards up their sleeves…"

"Oh, I see! As expected from the Terror, so cleaver!"

Oh boy this kid makes wonder to my prideful self.

"Uhm uhm, of course of course."

But I really could not say some parts of it… As even Leo told me before that he did not know, it made me more certain to retain this information to myself.

After all, is not every day that you find a hidden temple underneath the desert filled with the knowledge and riches of the ancients elves; beyond containing dangerous detailed information over magic and the creation of some even, including the bounding magic which ironically the "protectors of magical creatures and nature" created for some unknown reason; plus there was a lot more written in different languages, so much knowledge that it was impossible to know everything in one go.

And for now, this dangerous knowledge is safely kept… in my Shadow Dimension, and behind my closed lips.

Hopefully my brother would do the same…

We chatted until sunset as the chilly breeze of the night made its way throughout the halls, giving the place a cozy sleepy atmosphere, bringing yawns to our faces as we stand to get ready to sleep.

We just had one problem before wrapping the day up…

"No, Leo, you can keep the room, I will stay here in the leaving room. And you too brother!" I say as I catch him fleeing away with Aelgos, making me puff and grab his arm, pulling him to the place around the fireplace.

Because you see…There were fewer rooms than people, so some would have to share and, as nobody wanted to share with a snoring Ragnur, the twins and Isa already took two more, we were obligated to share with these two elves.

But not on my watch.

"No, is alright, we are used to sleeping like this, is fine, right brother?" I say, hardening my grip on his arm, staring Aeglos down as he gives me an innocent smile.

Now we're is all that "we are from the same place we should help each other" went uhm? You are just a prying fox waiting to steal my chicks right?

Not on my watch I said!

And just like that I forced my brother- I mean, I kept my brother under my watchful eye and made him sleep with me on the living room.

Thought that proved not to be enough…

****

Hey oh Beautiful people! I have a special Halloween event going on for the next three weeks!

It is… Merch! ｡ﾟ+.(･∀･)ﾟ+.ﾟ

That's right, I made three badasses (humble me) T-shirts stamps that will be up for selling for 3 weeks on Bonfire!

But of course, that's not all of it… if we reach the mark of selling 50 T-shirts I will post an extra hallowed chapter with a lot of action! (if you know what I mean….*wink wink*)

Well… not enough convincing? How about this, *cough cough*, I'm actually doing this to help out my nephew (as half the gains will go for him) for he has Autism, has being going to doctors nonstop since he was 4 months old and next year he will start school, and fearing that he doesn't like it or gets bully we want to have him on a good school, which of course requires a little more money than the rest.

So really, any buy or even donation would be really, really appreciated.

I wanted to make a surprise for my sister, but as I'm kind of exposing him I thought better to ask for permission, but it still a surprise for her husband!

And at the end who gains with all of this is actually you guys! By having a badass T-shirt, and kinky extra chapter, and some double updates! (Which I won't promise to keep up for three weeks, but will promise to try my best to do so)

Anyway, thank you in advance ╭( ･ㅂ･)و

And see ya~~~

PS. They will only deliver the T-shirts once the campaign finishes, which means that they will ship only three weeks from now (October 18), plus minium of 5 sells to print.