Chapter 28: Early-Morning Surprises

"He gives another smile,
Tries to understand her side,
To show that he cares.
She can't stay in the room,
She's consumed,
With everything that's been goin' on.
She says, 'Whatever happens,
Don't let go of my hand.'"

I sing to myself as I lie on my back on top of a house in the village, my eyes closed.

"'Everything'll be alright.'
He assures her,
But she doesn't hear a word that he says.
Preoccupied,
She's afraid.
Afraid what they've been doing's not right.
He doesn't know what to say,
So he prays,
'Whatever, whatever, whatever,
Whatever happens,
Don't let go of my hand.
Whatever happens,
Don't let go of my hand.
Whatever happens,
Don't you let go of my hand."

I stop singing as I feel a presence approaching. Below me, I hear the crunching of gravel beneath someone's feet.

"This is just about where it was coming from." I hear the villager girl say. I really need to learn her name, but I'm going back home today so I guess at this it isn't really necessary anymore.

"Well the singing stopped now, so let's just get to work. Besides, we've also gotta find the outsider-given that he hasn't already left." I hear Elder Boyd's voice.

I roll over onto my stomach and crawl to the edge of roof I'm on. As I thought, down below are Boyd and the girl. I then switch back to my previous position lying on my back.

"You're not finding me," I say to the two below. "I'm long gone. Left last night, matter of fact."

I see the girl's face erupt in a vibrant red. Dear god, all I did was say two sentences.

I roll into my stomach again and slide my body over the edge, until I'm hanging onto it with just my hands. I then let go and land in the sand below. I could've jumped down and rolled, but I'd prefer not to get sandy. It's especially a bitch to get off sometimes.

"Was that supposed to be funny?"

"Not really, just not supposed to be taken seriously."

"You fix up the buildings?" she asks, referring to what I did in the early morning while everybody else was asleep.

"Somebody had to." I run a hand through my annoyingly thick head of hair before crossing my arms.

I turn my attention to the girl, who immediately looks away. The girl's behavior, what Boyd said about her being excited to meet me, and then her also asking if I believe in love at first sight all point to the girl being in love with me. I guess she saw me when I was last here, however long ago that was. I don't have time to get involved with her; I've got somewhere to be.

God, that probably made me sound like such an asshole.

"I made a house for Anubis, too. Speaking of, make sure her wounds get disinfected well while I'm gone."

"Will do." Boyd says.

"That being said, I'm off." I stick my hands in my pockets and start to walk in the other direction. The new house is even farther from the village as the old one was, so of course I won't be walking the entire distance. But it can't hurt to walk some of it.

"You're not saying goodbye to the dog?" Boyd asks.

"Nah, I'd love to, but that'd only make it hard to leave." I wouldn't be able to go back home after seeing her face. "Do me a favor and pass the message on." I look back at Boy'd.

"Mhm." she nods.

I start walking again, not even taking three more steps before the villager girl speaks up.

"W-wait!"

"Hm?" I stop mid-step, put my foot down, and spin around on it. By the time I'm done spinning, I'm already staring her in the face, hers mere inches away from mine. God, she's fast, and quiet.

Upon my eyes meeting hers and the realization of just how close we are, she flinches backwards and blushes.

I say nothing, just cock an eyebrow.

She quickly hugs me. "T-thank you. For saving me."

After a second of astonishment, I return the hug. "No problem."

I let go but she still holds on, her head pressed snugly against my chest. I put my hands on her shoulders and push her lightly, breaking the two of us apart. She smiles sweetly at me and I can feel my heart skip a beat for a second. I really need to get out of here.

I turn around again and take my leave from the village. Who knows when I'll even be back?

(Line)

I now lie on my back on top of the manor, this time actually looking up at the sky and not singing. I wouldn't have been able to do this with the other house because of Leon, but the manor's roof is more than big enough to hold him with plenty of extra space. I've been up here for about fifteen minutes and nobody's come up, so I'd assume nobody saw me land up here. Honestly I'm fine with that, I'll take a little alone time.

As I stare up at the sky, a voice brings me back to my senses. A voice I haven't heard in weeks. It's proper and imposes a sense royalty. It's...Blazette's voice!

"Hello, my warrior." I hear behind me.

My eyes widen, out of what exactly I don't know. I abruptly sit up and turn around as much as possible. When I do, I see her hovering just a little past the edge of the roof. As I stare at her in astonishment, I feel tears stream down my face. My face, however, shows no change. That is, not for a few seconds as I attempt to process what's happening.

"Are you not going to say anything?" she says, looking at me with kind, warm eyes.

She floats to the actual roof and lands on it. I get up and sprint towards her. When I reach her I practically jump onto her, sending the two of us flying off of the roof. We don't fall, though. Her superhuman strength that I remember from the Nether supports the two of us as we hover a few stories above the ground.

I hold her tightly, not wanting to let go, not wanting to lose her again after already having done it once. Considering how little we really even knew each other, I shouldn't be this attached to or emotional towards her. I guess that's survivor's guilt for you.

"How?" I ask.

"How what?" Blazette asks in return.

"How are you here? They said they couldn't bring you back." The two of us are still in the air, suspended thirteen or so blocks above the ground. "Actually, fuck it, I don't care!"

The two of us drift back to the rooftop where she lets me go. Once I reach touchdown, I fall to my knees in seconds and my head falls too.

"Blazette...I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean for what happened to happen."

"I understand that you are saddened by what happened, but you cannot blame yourself. What happened was not your fault, Jordan."

"But it was! You shouldn't have had to sacrifice yourself for me!"

"I did that because I wanted to. I was so concerned about your survival because it was my fault!"

"What?" I lift my head to see Blazette kneeling right before, her golden eyes looking right into mine.

"I brought you to the dugout; that's where you were attacked. If I had not taken you for my own selfish purposes, the two would not have gotten attacked."

"I mean, you can't blame yourself; you had no way of kn-" God dammit, that's the same thing everybody was telling me. I see where this is going. "I don't blame you; your intentions were innocent-to a certain extent."

"I suppose."

Blazette puts a gentle hand on my cheek. I can feel the warmth from it and see the caring in her eyes. I almost feel compelled to kiss her. Dear god, what's wrong with me?

"Listen, Jordan, if I cannot blame myself for what happened, neither can you. Do not feel obligated to make it up to me; you have no debt to repay to me."

I don't know what it is about her, but I feel tears start to make their way down my face again. God dammit, heart, get it together!

"This," she wipes the tears away from my face. "Is not who I knew you as, not the strange man I fell in love with on that balcony." Blazette smiles at me.

She's actually really sweet, despite her tough exterior and initially hostile actions.

As I look at her, I see her body starts to slowly deteriorate, disappearing ember by ember. The miniature fires drift through the air for a few seconds before dying. The deterioration started with her arms and quickly sped up, as opposed to the slowness of when it started, eating away at her swiftly.

Despite her arms currently disappearing, Blazette holds my face in her hands. "Jordan," she smiles at me. "If protecting people is what you do, do it because you actually want to. Not because it's what I did for you."

She leans in and gives me a moderately long-lasting kiss on the cheek. It burns my face, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy every second of it. Blazette leans back and offers me a cute smile as the remnants as her body breaks down and the embers float away and die out. It should hurt to lose her again, but, as she disappears, with her goes a burden I'd been hoistering up on my shoulders for the past few weeks. I remain there, kneeling, looking at the spot where she had been with more tears on my face.

I...I think I'm ready to move past this. A small smile finds itself on my face as I wipe the tears away, hopefully for the final time anytime soon.

"Thank you, figment-of-my-imagination-Blazette." I let out a sigh.

Behind me, I hear the trap door leading up here open. I turn around to face whoever's coming up. I see Neige climbing up onto the rooftop.

"Master, are you okay?" she asks, approaching me nervously.

"Fine." I respond. "You knew I was up here?" I change from my kneeling stance to sitting down.

"I saw you land up here a little bit ago. I got worried when you didn't come down."

So someone did see me. Eh, whatever.

"Don't you think they noticed you disappeared just now?"

"No, I don't think anybody in there even would've."

"Well, I definitely would've noticed."

Neige walks over to me.

"Master," she sits down next to me. "I've been thinking..."

Oh god, this won't be good for me, will it?

"I've seen how you and Miss Skye are with each other."

"Normally, or how it is now? Because what's going on between us now doesn't happen often."

"I've seen you two under normal circumstances-how you are around each other, and how you feel about each other."

"M-hm?" I look out across the land surrounding the house.

"I love you."

Okay, that got my attention.

"W-what?!" I turn to her.

"I love you. That's what you two say to each other."

Oh, thank god. I let out a sigh of relief.

"Master, what does that mean? What is 'love'?"

"You...don't know...?" I ask, actually surprised at that.

Neige shakes her head.

"Well," I bring my knee up and rest my arm on it. "That really depends on context. Mainly who or what you're talking about. There's a few different kinds of love, but they all fall under the general definition of liking someone or something a lot." I shift my sitting position once more. "Take, for example, Skye and I. We have a romantic relationship; that's the kind of love we have. The other kind-platonic love-is for when you love someone in a familial sense instead of a romantic sense. In layman's terms, it's when you see someone as family. An easy way to distinguish the two is by thinking of having platonic love as just loving, and having romantic love as being in love."

"Wh...what exactly are romantic feelings?" Neige asks, turning away from me.

"Fuck," I start. "That...that right there is a tough question to answer. They're those little things that you feel towards a certain someone. There's the happiness and nervousness of being around them. Your heart may race, or at times it may skip a beat-which is when your heart feels like it stopped for a second and kickstarts again the next. You may get super nervous when you're around them and not know what to do with yourself. Hell, your brain might seem to shut down partially or entirely around the person. You might like certain aspects of the other person. You may like their kindness, or maybe it's how they act towards and around you. Maybe your heart skips a beat when they smile at you." Neige stiffens at that comment. "Or maybe," I quietly creep up behind Neige and extend my arm out. "It's their touch." I place my hand on her shoulder and she jumps out of her skin. I swear I feel her shudder when she's settled.

"Regardless," I scoot back to my previous position. "The happy feelings don't come without bad ones, painful ones. Along with the happiness of being with the person, there's also the longing, the pain, the heartache of when you aren't or can't be around them, and the painful wait until you can see them next. All these feelings get jumbled up inside you and probably won't know what to do with yourself. This is the phase that we call the crush. It's when you develop these feelings and-more importantly-when you don't know how the other person feels, and when you go about finding out. If they don't feel the same way, your feelings will fade away in due time; if they do, a good amount of those feelings I said will be replaced by the contentment of knowing the other person feels the same way and that you can advance your relationship, that you can be boyfriend and girlfriend."

"So, you and Miss Skye..."

"Are boyfriend and girlfriend, yes."

"Is...it okay if you have more than one?"

"More than one boy- or girlfriend? No, not at the same time. That's a sort of taboo in relationships." In some places at least. "Having more than one is a betrayal of the feelings, trust, and faith that the other person may have put into you." Neige's head sinks and her shoulders sulk at that. "It also makes you what we call a 'cheater.'" And I'm one of them. "It's not even limited to actually having another boy- or girlfriend. Doing any romantic, couple-type things with another person can count as cheating. Flirting, kissing, sex, the whole nine yards. So much as saying you love another person romantically shows that you aren't serious about your significant other. Cheating on someone can devastate their emotional, mental, and even physical health. It can destroy a person, and it's easy as all hell for some to do. Point is, if you really love someone, you should stay true to them and them only." I look out across the landscape. "Those feelings may not last forever, though."

"Master..." I feel Neige tugging at the back of my hoodie.

I start to turn around to face her.

"Don't look!" Neige stays quiet for a few seconds. "I can't say this to your face. If I look at you, I won't be able to." I feel Neige press herself against my back and wrap her arms around me, hugging me from behind.

And here it comes.

"I...Master, I...I..." she stammers.

I sigh.

"I know, Neige."

Neige tightens her embrace.

"Listen, Neige," I uncoil her arms from my torso and turn to face her. "You're an amazing girl; don't think I don't see you that way. And don't think I haven't noticed how you act around me." Neige looks at the ground-er-the roof. "I love you too, Neige."

Neige's face becomes flushed with red. She looks down for a second before looking back up at me. Then, she leans in, her lips puckered. As she gets closer and closer, I reach my hand up, covering her mouth with it and stopping her.

"Neige, I do love you. But not in the way that you love me. You're like the little sister I never had back on Earth. In the little time that we've known each other, you've become extremely precious to me, and I enjoy every moment I spend with you. But I can't let myself get caught up with other girls; I already have Skye, and, in terms of having a girlfriend, she's all I really need right now." As much as I do enjoy the harem I'm building, I can't let myself get entangled in it.

Neige looks at me with tears in her eyes. Shit, now I gotta fix this.

"Sorry if that hurt; rejections tend to. You'll feel better given some time."

Neige smiles and shakes her head. "It's not that." She wipes the tears from her eyes. "Master..." she approaches me.

Neige looks at me and smiles before bringing her face close to mine again. I attempt to lean back, but the only thing behind me is a fifteen-or-so-meter drop. Her lips make contact with my cheek, the one that Blazette didn't get. Oh, thank god.

"You're so nice." Neige looks down and smiles.

I let out a sigh, take off my hat, and run my hand through my hair. I might cut it soon. I might. I check my watch. 10:56 AM.

"We should probably head down." I stand up. "I imagine the others are looking for you now and I need to take a shower." I didn't get to take one at the village and I feel gross.

As I climb down the ladder to the second floor of the manor, I notice Skye coming down the hall. I turn to her and see a mix of emotions on her face, mostly shock, some relief, maybe a little bit of happiness-and when I say happiness I mean the tears-of-joy level happiness, not just smiling happiness. I open my mouth to say something, but am cut off before I can get anything out. I fall to the ground as I'm smacked hard in the face by a foot, having specifically been hit around my left eye and my nose. Along with that a body falls on top of me, landing right on my stomach. Thank God I hadn't worn my glasses yesterday, or else they would've been broken just now.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!" Neige says frantically as she climbs off of me. "I lost my footing and didn't know you were under me!" She reaches out to help me.

Just barely in my field of vision, I see Skye slightly scowl at me as she turns around and walks away. Don't tell me she's pissed again just from me having been alone with Neige.

"I'm fine." I say holding my nose and with my eye clenched shut.

"You're hurt!" Neige says.

"I said I'm fine." I look at Neige's face and I can see pain. She's hurt for having hurt me. I climb to my feet and walk to the bathroom, shutting the door behind me and leaving Neige alone out in the hall.

I look at myself in the mirror, noticing that there's blood trickling down from my nose.

"God dammit." I say as I reach for the toilet paper. This is actually my first ever nosebleed; I've never had one for any reason leading up to this point. Just touching my nose makes me wince in pain. As I clean myself up, I also look at my eye, which feels extremely sensitive right now. I can see a little swelling and a little bit of bruising underneath it. Don't tell me this is my first black eye, too.


I didn't really spend the day doing anything, but before I knew it, the sun had started setting and evening had already crept its way across the world. I climb the stairs up to the hallway of the second floor. As I approach the double doors of me and Skye's room, I hear her scream from behind them. What the hell is this? I burst in through the doors to see Skye, in nothing but her panties and bra, along with Luna, wearing nothing but a pair of panties. Luna's embracing Skye from behind, one hand on one of her breasts and the other in her panties. Luna's tail wags furiously as she caresses Skye with both hands. Another scream billows from Skye. I stand there, dumbfounded, in the doorway, trying my damnedest to stop the stupidest fucking grin from spreading across my face.

"Am I interrupting something?" I ask, leaning against the door frame with my arms crossed.

"DON'T LOOK!" Skye screams at me.

I bring up my hand and cover my eyes, spreading my fingers apart just enough to see what's going on.

"I'M SERIOUS!" Skye says, as she collapses to the ground under the force Luna's forcing on her. That doesn't stop Luna from continuing, however. It doesn't even stall her.

I hear Skye let out a small moan and I almost burst out laughing. I'm trying my best to keep the dam from breaking, though.

"THIS ISN'T FUNNY!"

"I don't know, babe, It's kinda funny." I laugh.

"HELP ME, YOU ASS!"

"Yeah, yeah."

I walk over to the two and grab Luna, pulling her off of Skye. Only on problem with that, though. As I grab and pull her, I hear a loud moan come from the wolf-girl and it dawns on me just where I just grabbed. I immediately let her go, dropping her to the ground, and put my hands in the air.

"Nope!" So much nope!

I step over her body, now in between her and Skye.

"Master," I hear Luna say. Something about her voice is different. I don't even finish turning around to face her before she immediately pounces on me, rubbing herself against me. "Mate with me!" she yells as she tackles me to the ground.

Okay, I was not prepared for that!

I manage to roll over, despite Luna being on top of me. When I do so, however, she just presses down on me harder, rubbing her breast and vagina on whatever part of my body they may be touching. I don't know if I should be enjoying this right now, because it's a little hard to force myself not to. Oh, the opportunities I sacrifice for my relationship. I reach around for anything I can get ahold of, but there's nothing on the ground. Then, I see Luna's frantically waving tail. That could work. I reach out and grab the tail just as it swings to my right, gripping it strongly and giving it a good pull, not enough to hurt Luna though.

Luna moans loudly and her back arches when I pull her tail. Definitely not the intended effect, but it gets the job done. I recognize my opening and kick the wolf-girl-in-heat off of me. I grab the red fleece off of the bed and quickly toss it over her, encompassing her in it, before grabbing her and holding her tightly. She writhes around for a while before settling down. Once she's calmed down, I finally let her go, and she collapses to the ground, still awake but out of energy.

"Well, that was a thing." I say as I rise to my feet, scratching my head.

"I saw that." Skye says.

"Where you grabbed her."

"Oh, fuck you." I say as I collapse onto my back on the me and Skye's double-bed.

"I just got outta the shower; I was putting on my 'pajamas' and she just jumped me. It was horrible."

"Then how do you explain that wet spot?" I say, sitting up for a few seconds as I point to the crotch of her panties.

"Th-that's water!" Skye yells as I start laughing my ass off.

Bullshit.

"Master..." I hear Luna say, her tone of voice back to normal now. "I need a new shirt to wear; Skye's is too tight."

"How the hell is her shirt too tight? You're smaller than her!"

"Around the chest..."

Now, the dam really breaks as I bust out laughing so hard that, by the end of it, I'm gasping for oxygen.

"Fuck you." Skye says to me.

"Love you, too, babe."

I stand up and walk to the closet next to my bed.

"Here," I toss one of my smaller button-downs at Luna. "I rarely wear it anymore, 'cause it's getting too small for me." I lie back down on the bed. "I'm going to sleep."

"Nuh-uh," Skye says. "Not in here. Tonight you're on the couch. I'm still mad at you. In fact, why am I even talking to you right now?"

Really? Fucking really? Okay, this would've passed on Earth, but-given the circumstances of living in this world-the situation is changed entirely.

"Are you fucking kidding me right now?" I sit up. "Are you seriously still being that petty, here especially?"

"Oh, so I'm petty now?!"

"You know what? Yes, Skye. Yes the fuck you are." Skye looks at me, offended and angry. I stand up from the bed. "Skye, what you don't realize about this life is that this is a world where you're gonna be afraid to walk out of your front door because you don't know whether or not you'll walk back in it at the end of the day! God knows how much time either of us have left in this world with every other goddamn creature we encounter trying to fucking kill us! Hell, I-and an entire village along with me-got attacked yesterday while I out; that's why I didn't come back until today, because I was lucky to have come back at fucking all! I could've left yesterday, and never have come back, disappeared from the face of the Earth without a trace, with no way to track me, no way for you to know what happened or where to even start looking for me, and-here's the kicker-no certainty of whether I was even dead or not. So tell me, Skye, is this really how you want to spend whatever time the two of us may have left together, being caught up on petty grudges?! Is that the life you want to live? Is that the last memory that you want to have with me, bitching at me for some small shit?! Because, if you keep going on like this, that's exactly how it'll end between the two of us."

Skye has tears in her eyes. And for good reason; I've never exploded on her like this. God knows what she's feeling right now.

"You know what? I'll give you what you want tonight," I craft another bed and place it, taking the fleece blanket and pillow off of it. "In hopes that this blows over tomorrow."

As I open the door to leave the room, I hear behind me a small, "Jordan..."

"Good night, Skye." I shut the door behind me.


I hit a button on my watch and the numbers on it light up blue, the only light in the darkness of the living room. 2:17 AM. I haven't even gotten remotely close to falling asleep yet. In all honesty, I feel bad for just shitting on Skye like that, but it was something that had to be done. At some point, she had to to just move past the small shit that may happen between us, because you never know when one of us may lose the other, and I'd prefer to be on good terms if something like that were to happen. I can't imagine what it'd be like if one of us died while we were mad at each other. I imagine it'd just eat away at you. You'd regret everyday how you acted in your final moments with the other person, and you'd never forgive yourself for it. I don't think a day would go by where you wouldn't think of it.

"Fucking hell." I sit up, resting my head in my hands.


"Why didn't you tell me about Luna being in heat?" I ask.

"We saw that you'd find out in your own way." Notch says. "And frankly, it was fun to watch." When I first showed up here, Notch was the more serious type, always about business. As time's passed, he's become more and more loose and informal.

"Was it fun to watch my relationship problems, too?" I cross my arms.

"Not so much." Jeb says. "You two are really on and off with each other. Was it like that before?" he asks.

"No-I mean, yeah, we had our differences, but we'd never actually have a heated argument, or is this case one wouldn't just give the other shit like this. We never had any problems like we do here, and, honestly I'm scared. I'm scared of what this world is doing to us-to our relationship. At this rate, Skye and I as a couple won't last, 'cause it's already going straight down the shitter. I-I just don't know what to do here!"

"Hey, first off, you need to calm down. You won't get anywhere riled up like this."

"I...I don't know. Honestly, I think we both need some time off, away from each other. I think we've both gotta just chill out and just take some time to actually evaluate our relationship before we get into some more serious shit and do something we might regret."

"And what if taking a break is what you regret?" Jeb says.

"Don't rush your thoughts, you'll jump headfirst into something stupid that way." Notch says.

"Maybe..."


I awaken to a weight pressing down on my midsection.

"What...the hell...?" I think out loud, before my eyes are even fully open

"Good morning, Master." I hear Luna's voice, the same voice I heard last night when I walked in on her and Skye.

Oh fuck!

My eyes snap open. Straddling my waist is Luna, breathing heavily, clad in nothing but the panties and button-down from last night. The button down isn't even buttoned; it's resting on her large bust, exposing a good amount of her bare breasts.

"Lun-" I start, but Luna immediately covers my mouth. "Sshhh...you wouldn't want to wake the others up."

What the hell is happening?!

I start to scream as loud as possible behind her hand and squirm under her, but she's putting an amazing amount of force down. Force that-given her size in comparison to mine-shouldn't even be possible for her to exert.

"Master, you have to be quieter than that..." Luna says as she starts to grind and gyrate her crotch against mine. I can see and even slightly feel the wetness of her panties.

WHAT THE FUCK IS EVEN GOING ON RIGHT NOW?!

Luna lets go of my mouth, but before I can even say anything, she immediately presses her lips against mine, forcing her tongue into my mouth, exploring every part of my mouth with it.

I try to move my arms, but they're pinned behind my back, tied together by something that I can't break or slip out of. FUCK, FUCK, FUCK! If we get walked in on...

WAIT, FANG!

I invoke the silver dragon, but not his sword form, I just animate him. I can feel the small, silver, Chinese dragon struggling to find a way out from under me. I can feel him as he reaches and tugs away at whatever bindings are holding me hostage, but he's too slow! No, this can't be happening!

Throughout all of this, Luna continues her one-sided, tongue-wrestling match in my mouth. Jesus Christ, when does she find time to breathe?!

Wait, that's it! Her tongue!

I'm sorry, Luna, but this is gonna probably hurt a lot. Just as I part my teeth, ready to chomp down on the wolf-girl's tongue, I hear the sound of glass shattering. Luna hears it too, and quickly pulls herself off of my face and looks in the direction of the sound. Past her, I can see the source of the noise. At the bottom of the staircase, looking directly at us, stands Skye, water and what remains of a glass bottle at her feet.

NO! FUCK!