Chapter 100: Shield

FieryKathy

We take off our clothes and get cozy underneath the covers. I nestle myself against my girlfriend’s body. Her arms enclosing me slowly. I can’t help but to start purring at this ultimate feeling of coziness.

“Love you, Ami.” My girlfriend whispers into my ear, sending chills down my body all the way to the tip of my tail. 

“Love you too, Sam.” 

She kisses me on the back of my head before she starts nuzzling her nose behind my ear. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of you purring against me.” She softly speaks as her body starts purring as well. “My little kitty girlfriend.” 

“I like it when you purr too.” I smile. 

“Mhmm. It’s a really nice feeling. I wouldn’t mind your tail not tickling my boobs as much though.” Sam laughs. 

“Eeeh!? I can’t help that!” I look back to see my girlfriend smiling at me. 

“I know, I was mainly joking anyway.” She takes the opportunity to kiss me on my cheek and then on my lips. “Such a cutie.” She then boops me on my nose with her own tail. 

“No you.” I kiss her back.

“Did you really just do that to me?” She giggles and squeezes me against her. 

“Yeah.” I kiss her again. 

“I see how it is.” She squeezes me again and goes in for a long and passionate kiss which takes away my breath. Sam looks incredibly smug with herself.

I smile and just relax against her, listening to her breathing and heartbeat.

“It’s really calm here, isn’t it?” Sam starts running her hand through my hair.

“Mhmm.” I nod. 

“It’s surprising since we are just next to the inn itself.” 

“They did say it was a fancy inn though. So maybe it has insulation or something.” 

“I guess it also helps that it wasn't that noisy downstairs either.” Sam gives me another kiss on the head.

“Yeah…” 

“Are you tired?” She wipes away a couple of strands of hair from in front of my face. 

“A little bit. It was a pretty long day.” 

“Mhmm. Why don’t you get some sleep already? Tomorrow is going to be pretty busy too.”

“But I want to stay awake with you a little bit longer…” A yawn escapes me. 

“Hmmm, what should we do about that?” She laughs softly. 

“I dunno…” 

“How about a lullaby?” 

I look up at her. “Are you going to sing for me?” 

“Mhmm. If you want to. I found out this body is actually quite adept at singing and playing instruments.” She gives me a kiss on my forehead. 

“I’d love to hear you sing.” 

“Alright then.” She smiles. “Let me think for a second.” 

I patiently wait for her to start singing. 

“A kitty played all day long…” The tone of her voice works incredibly calming on my mind as my consciousness starts drifting along the beautiful melody. Before she can even start her second verse my eyes close and I start drifting away. The last thing I hear in this wave of coziness is a ‘goodnight sweetie.’

I wake up naturally as the sun falls on my face, making me stretch out my limbs. My incredibly hot girlfriend is still asleep behind me and luckily I didn’t disturb her with my stretching. I look at the other bed and see Hilda is also still snoozing. 

A little knock on the door pulls my attention after which my sister peeks in. “Ah, Ami.” She sees I am already awake. “Want to come with me to get some breakfast?” 

I nod and slowly get out of my girlfriend’s embrace, after giving her a soft kiss on the cheek. And then I quickly but silently put on my clothes. 

Within a couple of minutes I’m standing next to my sister in the hallway. She’s just in her gambeson although she does have her new sword strapped to her side. 

“Good morning, sis.” She gives me a hug. 

“Good morning.” I hug her back. 

“Did you sleep well?”

“Mhmm!” I nod. “Sam, sang a beautiful song for me so I fell asleep very easily.” 

“Oh, I didn’t know she could sing?”

“Apparently it’s related to her character or something.”

“Ah, I guess that makes sense.” 

We start walking towards the inn. “Did you stay up late yesterday?” 

“Hmm, I went to bed a little bit earlier than Nikki and Hilda but it was still quite late. Got a bit too enthusiastic talking about our wild adventures. But Harold and Amanda looked like they were very entertained. Now they got some stories to tell too.” 

“They are going to tell those stories to others?” 

“Well, yes, that’s a way for inns to pull customers, if the inkeep has interesting stories to tell, it creates a pull factor.”

“Ahhh.” 

My sis pats my head. “Our stories were the price to stay over for the night after all.”

When we enter the inn room we are practically alone. Amanda is just making sure everything in the room looks as tidy as it can be. She smiles at us when she sees us enter. 

“Good morning, I hope you had a good sleep.” 

“We slept wonderfully, thanks. Your mattresses are really great.” 

Amanda smiles and gives a nod. “Would you like something to eat and drink?” She points us at a table which is close to the fire. We gladly follow her lead. 

“Some water and beans, eggs and sausages please.” Lise sits down and I sit down next to her. 

“For me it's the same but with milk instead of water please.” 

“Would you like to try our vanilla milk? It’s something new we have on the menu.” 

“That sounds nice, yes please.” I smile. 

“I’ll be bringing it to you shortly.” She bows slightly and heads to the kitchen. 

“Ohoh, vanilla milk, ain’t you a fancy kitten.” My sister smirks once Amanda is gone. 

“She offered it and I simply couldn’t refuse.” I pout. 

“I understand that.” She laughs. “Want to know about the sword and shield I got?” 

“Oh yeah! And you said your armour had special things too, right?” 

“Yes!” Lise smiles and rubs her hands. It was fun seeing her so giddy about something like armour and swords. “So, my armour is loaded with stat enhancements when I’m close to you. So extra defence, hp and strength bonuses as long as you are within 100 meters of me.” She then hands her sword to me in it’s scabbard. “My sword and shield, however, have a couple more tricks. Apart from damage and stat boosts, when we are in combat together, those stat boosts go up and, on top of that, it apparently starts burning like on that heraldic crest I showed you.” 

“Wow! Really?” 

“Yeah, that’s what it says in the description at least. I really want to test it out.” 

I look at the sword in my hands. “Can I take it out?” 

“Of course.” 

I slowly slide the sword out of its scabbard and inspect the blade closely. It has the same rose gold accents as her armour set had. The accents look like roses and other kinds of flowers which wind themselves around to the tip of the sword. The hilt of the sword looks like a lioness. “It looks really great.” 

“It does, doesn’t it?” 

I hand the sword back over to my sister who swiftly hangs it by her side again. 

“And your shield?” 

My sister smirks, gets up from her seat and raises her left arm as she starts chanting: “For my Sister, My Goddess, I’ll come to Her defense.” 

“Wha~!?” 

As soon as she is done a long kite shield materializes on her arm. Again with the same rose gold theme and with the big heraldic crest prominently in the middle. 

“I can summon the shield from wherever I am, it’s pretty useful actually. The only thing is that I need to chant that line for it to appear.”

“Did it really need to be so awkward?” I blush. 

“I think it’s pretty cute.” She smiles and undons her shield so I can inspect it more closely as well. “It actually looks heavier than it is. It’s about the same weight as my last shield, probably because the metals used in it are way rarer.” 

“Oh.” I take the shield in my hands. And just like she said I didn’t really expect it to be this light. 

“Makes it easy to shield bash people against trees if I want to. And if I recall correctly it actually has a bonus for shield bashing as well.” 

“You’re going to make everyone jealous with all the things you got.” 

“Yeah, Nikki was very jealous, but that actually was pretty hot.” Lise smirks. 

“Sis! No! Why?”

She laughs and pats my head, taking back her shield afterwards and hanging it on the back of her chair. “In all seriousness, I think the others might get some more stuff in time too. We’re the Goddess’ vanguard after all.” 

“Hmmmm… I still can’t get used to that…”

“That’s perfectly fine.” She pats my head again, just in time for Amanda to arrive with our food and drinks. 

“Have a nice meal.” She smiles. 

“Thank you!” My sister and I reply. 

Amanda nods and walks away. 

The smell of the food was once more incredible. 

“Let’s start eating before you stare a hole through your plate.”  My sister laughs and starts digging in. 

I just nod in agreement and start eating as well. The first bite almost makes me start crying. 

“So dewiciouws.” 

“Amen, sis. Amen.” Lise laughs.

FieryKathy