Chapter 221: Night on Tyl

Chapter 221: Night on Tyl

Chapter 221: Night on Tyl

“Oh.” Roka lowered the glass she had raised to take a sip.

“There he is!” The rest of the crewmates exclaimed, noticing the Paru right after their Commander’s reaction.

“That took a while. Done with what you had to do?”

“Yeah, not really...” The Paru scratched his cheek. “Kind of had to give up on it. Too troublesome.”

“I see-”

“Uwo!” Lith exclaimed as she ran past all of them before jumping with her arms wide, hugging the Paru tightly with her feet off the ground.

“Hey.” He chuckled. “I missed you too.” The Paru said, patting her head.

“Uwooo!”

The blood had been washed off, but Lith could still smell it.

She could tell that her mate had, once again, proven his superiority over all others.

The female Granilith felt a bit silly for her previous worrying. Whether it was the creatures that wandered during the day, or those that lurked through the darkness of the night, none could compare to her mate in terms of strength, or in anything else really.

‘Aren’t you making it a bit obvious, hugging like that?’ Liz thought to herself, looking away. ‘Hm... There’s no reason to hide it but...’ She fiddled with a lock of hair for a moment. ‘I don’t think I can leap at him like that in front of everybody... Yet...’

“They sure are close.” Roka grumbled, taking a seat next to Liz.

“Ha!” The Soldier chuckled. “If you think that’s close...”

Liz’s eyes widened. She stopped herself from finishing her sentence and buried her face into the half-finished glass of wine.

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Roka asked herself, intrigued.

The female Granilith made her jacket flutter as she giggled.

“They really look great on you.” The Paru said. “Those clothes suit you, really.”

“Uwo!”

“I’m surprised you’re still wearing them.” He chuckled. “Thought you would take them off right away. Although... Yeah, I’m proud of you for keeping them on. Wouldn’t want you to walk around naked once we get to places like Wor.”

The crewmates had raised their glasses at his appearance, and waited for him to get closer.

They were seated in a large circle around a hurriedly put-together bonfire.

The only one of the crewmates that walked closer was,

“Aren’t you going to praise me as well?” Rea asked, a cheeky smile on her face as positioned herself just beyond Lith. “I’ve been wearing clothes this whole time, you know?” Her voice was just low enough so that none other than him and Lith could hear her. “Why don’t you praise me about it?”

“Alright...” He took the glass into his hand, and Kris’ incessant gaze forced him to taste it right away. “Oh. I like it.”

“I know right? You did a great job picking those! I feared they would be bitter, but they were perfectly ripe!”

“I didn’t think about it much. Just picked whatever...” The Paru muttered, holding his glass closer to the female Granilith’s face.

She took a whiff but didn’t seem too thrilled by the smell.

“You’re lying, aren’t you? I can tell that you picked them carefully.” Kris grinned. “Thank you, really!”

“Not that carefully.” The Paru took another sip, before offering the glass to Lith again. Only then did she taste it.

“Well, thanks anyways! It’s great that we get to have this after... Well, everything that happened.”

“Yeah, you’re welcome.” The Paru nodded.

He turned around towards Rea as Kris started walking away.

“Can’t you be grateful like he is?”

“Will you hold a glass to my face the way you do for her?”

“Probably no... Not.”

“Uwooo!” Lith exclaimed.

She had taken a sip by the Paru’s hand, and was disgusted by the taste.

But as he turned around, she took hold of his wrist and took another sip.

The taste quickly grew on her, and by the time that he turned back towards the glass he held, it had been emptied.

***

As expected, the Paru remained away from Al and Jay, who seemed to enjoy the wine more than anyone else, despite saying that it only tasted “Okay-ish”.

The crewmates were seated on roughly cut tree logs, which he assumed had been cut using the mechanical machete that Liz had wielded on Serolia.

Upon the Paru’s sitting on one of them, Lith immediately took a seat on the ground next to him, letting her shoulder gently rest against his leg.

While Lith was to his right, Rea sat on the same log as him, to his left, leaving a dozen inches of space between them.

“Don’t want to get too close?”

“What do you mean? I’m just sitting...” Rea muttered before taking a sip. “Why? Did you expect me to stick to you or something? I’m not clingy, you know?”

“Your throat sure is.” The Paru whispered with a smile. He lowered his gaze towards her crotch for a moment. “More than your throat is clingy, actually.”