NOVEL SIMPLE 27. Dinner and Dancing
Night fell before Eloisss returned. She brought back a friend, both of them carrying bulging backpacks.
“Iss thiss the fox?” The two lamia stopped at the sight of identical bunnies next to a cat.
“Hi, welcome back, cutie.” One of the bunnies hopped up and ran over to Eloisss for a hug. “The fox joined us. Her name is Kanae.”
Eloisss gave Bonny a tight hug and kiss, then turned to the other bunny. “It is nisce to meet you, Kanae. I asssume you mean no harm to any of uss?”
Kanae shook her head, saying nothing. She shrank back slightly.
“Good. I am Bonny’s ssworn protector. Pleasse do not make my job difficult.” She smiled and turned back to Bonny, who was still holding onto her. “Hass your day been pleassant? I ssensse your aura is gone. That makess thingss eassier.”
“Yes, well, no. Kanae helped me work on my aura, but it popped and I’ve had a headache all day. Miu and Kanae have given me herbs for the pain and taken care of me. But I’m glad you’re here. Did everything go well?”
“Yess. The itemss were returned to the familiess of my squadmatess. They have provided uss with ssuppliess in return.” Eloisss motioned at her companion. “Thiss is my ssisster Lindisss. Sshe is a weaponssmith for our tribe, but I have asked her to work on some armor for you.”
Lindisss looked very similar to Eloisss, with almost identical scale and hair coloring, but her hair was worn short, styled in a pixie cut. Her only clothing was a half shirt, open down to a knot just under her double D sized breasts, displaying her impressive cleavage and narrow waist. She smiled and waved.
Bonny hopped over and reached up. “Do you like warm hugs?”
Eloisss laughed as Lindisss accepted the hug, leaning down and squeezing the bunny tightly. “I told you sshe would want a hug.”
“It’ss fine, but I never thought I would hug a rabbit-kin.” She smiled at Bonny. “Most prey-kin sstay away from uss. I am glad to find one as brave as you.”
“Even the goddess Courage thinks I’m brave, apparently. Did she tell you that I saved her?” Bonny turned and stuck her tongue out at Eloisss.
“Sshe did.” Lindisss looked around the clearing. “Can we sset thesse bagss down? We brought some ssuppliess you may want and I'll need to size the armor.”
Bonny and the two lamia moved to where Miu and Kanae were sitting and dropped the backpacks. They opened them to reveal food, blankets, and gear.
Eloisss pulled out a disk with a spiral carved into one side and set it on the ground, spiral side up. “Lindisss thinkss you would like thiss. It heatss thingss plasced on top of it, without fire or ssmoke.”
“Oh, like a hotplate.” Bonny blushed when everyone looked at her. “Oh, uh, it’s something from my world. We use electricity … which, umm, is something like chained lightning, to uhh. You know what, it doesn’t matter.”
Lindisss was pulling bits of armor from the other bag. “Not all of uss are barbarianss, like Eloisss. I prefer my food cooked. When sshe said you were an outworlder, I thought you might too. Thiss enchantment was invented by an outworlder many yearss ago.”
“Oh, thank you.” Bonny turned and smiled at Miu. “It’ll be easier than when we tried to cook by the waterfall, huh?”
Miu nodded.
Lindisss pulled out a pot and handed it to Bonny. “Eloisss said you have a water sspirit. Can you have it fill thiss?”
“Oh, uh. I don’t know how.”
“Don’t you have a skill or something?”
“Uhhhmm, no?” Bonny looked around. “Does anyone else know? I’ve only used the demonic spirit skills.”
Eloisss spoke up. “What did you do with your new sskillss?”
“Oh, uh, nothing. I thought I should wait till we see Grandmother Oak again.”
“They are changeable, nya.” Miu reached over and rubbed Bonny’s arm. “You can choose one now and switch if you don’t like it. You just can’t change them every day, but one or two is fine.”
“Ok. Uh, one minute. Skills!”
Class: Lesser Medic/Demonic (alternatives available)
Skills: (3 available)
Mending (lesser)
Panacea (lesser)
Sacrifice (demonic)
Triage (lesser)
Wound Transfer (demonic)
Skills Available: (alternatives available)
Bandage (divine)(lesser)
Pain Management (demonic)(divine)(lesser)
Ward (demonic)(divine)(elemental)(lesser)
Create Water (elemental)
“Oh, it’s there, the water skill. Is it because I was thinking about it? It wasn’t there last time, right after I absorbed the elemental.”
“Yess.” Eloisss answered, “The Ssystem iss very responssive. You can focuss on it to change asspectss ass needed.”
“Thank you.” She smiled at everyone. “Please remember I’m new here. I don’t know anything. You can give me all the help and advice you want.”
“Will try, nya.”
“Yess.”
“Ok. I’m choosing now. I get three skills, so Pain Management (divine), Ward (demonic), and Create Water (elemental). I’ll get stronger in each affinity I use, right?”
There was a chorus of yesses, with some hissing, ending in -nya.
“Uh, wow. Ok.” Bonny turned to check with Kanae, who had been very quiet, only to realize the fox had disappeared. “Did, anyone, see Kanae leave?”
Everyone shook their heads and looked at where the other bunny had been sitting.
“Oh, well, she’s shy. I hope she’ll be back.” Bonny picked up the pot and imagined water rising inside it. “Here goes nothing. Create Water!”
A small dark cloud appeared over the pot. A small drizzle fell, the water slowly forming small puddles in the pot as the tiny drops settled.
“This will take forever. Is it because I’m only a novice?”
“Probably. If you keep ussing it, you will get better.” Lindisss took the pot and put it over the heating disk.
The tiny rain cloud moved with the pot.
“Bonny, sstand up and come over here.” Lindisss waved in front of her, near the pile of metal armor pieces. “Eloisss wantss to make ssure you’re protected the next time you meet goblinss.”
Bonny moved over and picked up some pieces to look at them. They had writing on them, using symbols she didn’t know. Lindisss started picking them up and fastening them onto Bonny, adding notes with a charcoal pencil when the pieces didn’t quite seem to fit correctly.
“Do I really need all this? It looks really complicated.”
“To be fully protected, yess.”
“But, the goddess rewarded me for not being protected. Can’t I just have a shield or something?”
“Hmmm.” Lindisss looked over at Eloisss. “What do you think? If sshe doessn’t like it or it’ss difficult to put on, sshe won't wear it.”
“Wait.” Bonny turned to Eloisss. “Didn’t you tell me not to wear clothes this morning?”
Eloisss blushed and glanced at Lindisss who smirked at the reaction.
“Yesssss, but there wass very little chansce of meeting goblinss today.”
“How did you know that?”
“We patrol near the cat village. We are insside our perimeter, which is why I ssaid you were ssafe today while I left.”
“Ok. Are you happy I’m still naked?” Bonny twirled in place. She stopped facing Eloisss and squeezed her breasts together, smirking. “Do you like what you see?”
Eloisss blushed and glanced at her sister again, who started laughing.
“Ok, how about I dance for you. If you like it, I get less complicated armor and a shield?”
Eloisss nodded and Bonny moved across the cooking pot from her three companions. “Eloisss and Lindesss, can you both shake your rattles in this pattern?” She clapped a simple beat that they quickly emulated.
“Good, thank you.” Bonny shivered at the dry rustling rattle, then started humming along with the beat, a tune no one else knew.
She danced. She started by stepping slowly forward, gyrating her hips in time with the beat, then bent to stretch a leg and snapped back upright. She strutted, commanding attention, twirled and thrust, drawing eyes to her assets, and periodically slid down slowly into splits before spinning around and rising back to her feet, demanding desire. Her movements were timed with the lamia’s rattles, one of which had quickly moved out of sync with the other.
The sun was down and the moon overhead, waxing gibbous, but not yet full. They all had excellent night vision, but the moonlit shadows were deep, with hidden depths and enticing secrets. Bonny wore the lunar shadows like a cloak, her hands raised, their shadows covering her as needed, promising everything, but displaying nothing.
She stopped when the cooking pot was full of boiling water. Panting slightly. She looked around and smiled at the lecherous gazes from all four companions.
“Oh, hi Foxxy. I’m glad you came back.” She smiled. “Did I succeed, Eloisss?”
Eloisss was blushing again, very pointedly not looking at her sister.
Lindisss spoke up, “I have never been with a woman, but I … if I did, it would be you.”
“Why thank you, Lindisss. You are gorgeous and I would be happy to have you come along. If no one objects, of course.”
She sighed, “No. Maybe if you ssettle down ssomewhere. But I need a sstable plasce to work my craft.”
“That’s fine.” Bonny headed over to Eloisss and motioned Miu to join them. She hugged them both tight to her. “That was what I did in my world. What did you think?”
Miu hugged back and leaned in for a quick kiss. “Didn’t think I could want you more, nya. Now I do. You still declining tonight?”
“Well, if Lindisss is staying, it would be rude to have sex in front of her. Wouldn’t it, Eloisss?"
Eloisss nodded in agreement and smiled. “You win. I will ssuffer tonight and find ssimple armor for you.”
Bonny pulled her hands back and clapped. “Great. Now what are we cooking? I’m really hungry after all that.”
They made a stew, heavy on meat for the carnivores, but with plenty of vegetables that Bonny could fish out for herself. They discussed Bonny’s armor and their plans for tomorrow while waiting on the stew to cook and be eaten.
Lindisss and Eloisss would head back first thing in the morning. Lindesss would fix what she could and trade for the rest, while Eloisss would attend the memorial for her fallen companions. Bonny and Kanae would work on training. Miu said she would look for more herbs and some seasonings to use for future meals.
They cuddled together, Eloisss and Lindisss wrapping their tails around the other three, one of the blankets large enough to cover everyone. They all jostled to be near Bonny, but she held tight to Miu, and slept to the deep vibrations of a very happy kitten.
