Chronicles of Eden - Act VIII (4 page)

“Yes, be more like your sister, Falla,” Kroanette agreed.

Falla smirked at her sister as Luna nodded eagerly to that. After a moment Luna quickly looked over to the side, her antenna twitched, and then she bolted down the road with swiftly moving feet. Kroanette and Falla watched as Luna raced over towards where Daniel and the girls were returning from before tackling him down to the ground in a fierce pounce.

“I MISSED YOU! WELCOME BACK! HAHAHAHAHA!” Luna manically laughed like a deranged psycho, all while Daniel merely watched her with a blank expression as he was pinned down by the special butterfly. Triska and Clover shared similar reactions, finding the sight of Luna going insane once again not really all that surprising at this point.

“Hello, Luna,” Daniel calmly replied while Luna was giggling through her teeth with wide eyes down at him.

“It’s like having a puppy waiting for us at home,” Triska mused as she picked up the carrying bag and slung it over her shoulder.

“Um,” Kroanette said with a weak smile. “Perhaps you shouldn’t be
exactly
like your sister.”

“I’ll try to control myself like she said,” Falla dryly quipped.

Daniel got to his feet with Luna hanging onto his chest and dusted off his pants before holding the butterfly around her waist. From the touch alone she seemed to come back to her senses as she settled down and nuzzled her head against his shoulder while her wings fluttered behind her.

“Have you been waiting for us?” Daniel asked.

“Uh huh,” she answered with a nod. “And we’ve been finding some nice snacks to eat while we were out here. They were yummy.”

“Oh really? Smile for me, Luna,” Daniel politely requested.

Luna showed a wide smile, with Daniel chuckling amusedly at seeing a few insect carapaces between her front teeth. He gently picked them out and flicked them away before setting the girl down and caressing her cheek.

“I do enjoy kissing you, Luna, however I must insist you take care not to keep any of your ‘snacks’ between your teeth after you eat them.”

“Sorry, Daniel,” Luna squeaked with a hand over her mouth.

“That’s alright,” Daniel said before giving her a kiss. The girl shivered in delight while Triska watched them with an amused smile. Clover however looked back down while holding her bow and quiver close. After the kiss ended Luna giggled and hopped about before Falla and Kroanette walked over to them.

“Welcome back,” Kroanette kindly said. “Did you get everything we needed from the store?”

“Oh, you got a new bow,” Falla mentioned at seeing Clover holding one. “Looks nice.”

“Whatever,” Clover muttered as she walked on past them with her head hung low.

“I wasn’t being sarcastic, I was serious,” Falla called back to her. “What’s her deal? I was giving her a compliment.”

“What’s wrong with Clover?” Luna asked.

“It wasn’t the particular bow she was hoping to find,” Triska answered with a sympathetic eye on the elf.

“Did something happen?” Kroanette inquired. “I thought she would be excited to have a bow again.”

“We can talk about it all later,” Daniel said walking them towards the carriage. “Right now I think we should be on our way. The locales probably shouldn’t find out there are monsters nearby or else there could be trouble.”

“You wouldn’t let anything happen to us, would you, Daniel?” Falla sweetly asked as she quickly held onto his arm with a coy smile.

“No I wouldn’t, and that’s exactly why we’re going to be on our way now,” Daniel said glancing behind him.

“I love how protective you are of us,” Luna sighed happily as she held onto his other arm.

“He’s our own knight in glowing armor,” Falla purred. “Who needs Kitten around when we have you?”

“Well thank you,” Daniel replied with a weak chuckle. “But Kitten was the one who came through for us before, I would have been in trouble if she hadn’t stepped in to help.”

“No no, you had the situation under control. She just got in your way is all,” Falla insisted.

“Is that how it happened?” Triska mused with a smirk. “Maybe you and Daniel should talk about that with her together.”

“No!” Falla yelled out at her, arms tightening around Daniel’s as she stayed as close to him as possible. “Keep her inside, keep her inside!”

Kroanette giggled at seeing Falla shaking nervously then turned to Triska who was also finding amusement in Falla’s fright of her inner demon.

“How has she been doing, Triska? It seems like she’s finally been quieting down lately.”

“No, she hasn’t,” Triska flatly said glancing to the side, watching as Kitten was walking alongside them in her mind with a stubborn scowl at Falla.

“Oh c’mon, Triska,”
Kitten politely said through bared teeth.
“Let me out so me and her can talk about how I saved everyone here from being burned to a crisp! That ungrateful little motherfu-”

“I don’t think she’s too happy with you, Falla. Picking up a lot of negative chatter.”

Falla whimpered and hid beside Daniel from her, rather poorly due to her large wings, while Daniel and Kroanette watched Triska seeming to be having an internal conversation with Kitten again.

“Is she at least behaving?” Daniel asked.

“By the way, Triska,”
Kitten grunted with annoyance with a glance to the carrying bag.
“I couldn’t help but notice you didn’t pick up what I asked you to. They had it there, and you just walked right by it!”

‘Again, why would I get a collar and leash? We don’t have a dog.’

“For us, silly,”
Kitten purred with a seductive leer.
“It’s not for a dog, it’s for a kitten, get it? Meow. Get it? It’s for us, of course.”

‘I rephrase my statement. Why would I get a collar and leash? I’m not a dog.’

“Stop acting so innocent. You know the collar goes around your neck while the leash goes into my master’s hand. It’s basic foreplay, Triska. He can have us under his complete control, he can do whatever he wants to us, and we won’t be able to run away. Don’t you want to give him that power? Don’t you want him to fuck your brains out and to become his sex toy, completely subjugated by his will and throbbing manhood?”

‘You make it sound so degrading, kind of hard to agree with what you’re saying.’

“Just picture having that leash binding you to him, making you his bitch. I get the shivers just thinking about it, don’t you?”

“What’s she saying to you?” Luna asked.

“The same thing she does every day,” Triska sighed. “Sex, sex, sex, sex, and oh yeah, Daniel.”

“I thought she was learning to control herself,” Daniel said in disappointment. “Isn’t she making any progress?”

Triska glanced over to him then down to see Kitten now crawling next to him on all fours with her wings tucked in and her tail waving behind her, her body phasing through Luna’s in the teen’s imagination as she kept pace with Daniel while making cat scratching gestures at him.

“Meow! Meow! Meow! Pet me, master! Please!”

“At best, very slowly, Daniel,” Triska reasoned shaking her head.

They made their way over to the carriage where Alyssa was looking down at Clover beside the wagon, the elf just standing there in silence while she clutched the bow and quiver close to her chest.

“What’s with you?” Alyssa asked.

“Clover? Are you okay?” Pip said while leaning over the brim of the witch’s hat.

“Yeah, never better,” Clover muttered.

“Then why are you just standing there?” Alyssa questioned. “You can go inside if you want.”

“Hey, Alyssa?” Clover said glancing up to the witch. “I haven’t been busting your ass while you’ve been dealing with losing one of your own, so I’d thank you to give me the same kindness in return.”

“What do you mean?”

“Never mind,” Clover grunted, lowering her head again with a hand trembling on her bow.

Alyssa watched her with puzzlement while Daniel and the girls walked up behind the elf.

“Hey, what’s up with Clover?” Alyssa asked them while Pip flew over and landed down on Kroanette’s chest.

“We just need to get going,” Daniel answered with a wave of his hand. “Is everyone else inside?”

“Squeak walked off a little while ago,” Pip said while scanning the surrounding area. “She hasn’t come back yet.”

“Where did she go off to?” Triska wondered.

“I asked her where she was going, but I have no idea what she said,” Pip replied with a shrug.

“She’s never going to learn we can’t understand her,” Falla commented shaking her head.

The door to the carriage opened inward with a quiet creak, the group then seeing Specca walking out and drying off her hair with a white towel. Her scales appeared slick and moist while the blissful smile on her face was one they all recognized easily from the past few days in their new home.

“Another bath?” Triska asked amusedly.

“This one was especially enjoyable,” Specca sighed happily as she rested the towel over her shoulder and straightened out her tie. “I still can’t get over how wondrous our new living space is in Twilight’s study.”

“You’ve been spending all your time in that bathing room,” Kroanette mused with a smirk.

“That’s not true,” Luna mentioned. “I see her a lot in the library. I think she spends more time in there than she does taking a bath.”

“I see her taking a bath
while
reading a book more than anything,” Falla added with a raised eyebrow at the nixie.

“Don’t get those wet, Specca,” Daniel chuckled. “Twilight wouldn’t be happy to hear all her books ended up in the water.”

“I’m careful not to get the pages wet,” Specca huffed, and then looked at Daniel curiously. “Say, has she spoken to you at all yet, Daniel? I had questions about some of the books in the library, they’re written in a language I’ve never seen before and I was wondering if she could help me make sense of them.”

“No, I haven’t heard from her at all since that day,” Daniel said looking up at the sky. “I suppose she’s still resting. She’ll speak to us again soon, I’m sure of it. In the meantime the least we could do for her is take good care of the home she’s given us.”

“Specca!” Doku called out from inside. The group watched the harpy quickly fluttering over behind the nixie and hopping about in distress. “I just mopped the floor, you trailed wet footprints all across the hall. Please dry off completely before leaving the bathing room.”

“Oops. Sorry, Doku,” Specca apologized with a weak smile.

“Now I’ll have to mop all over again, oh dear,” Doku fretted before scurrying back inside.

“Doku, wait!” Specca called out after her. “Please stop cleaning already, you’ve been at it all day.”

“All day?” Alyssa repeated with a raised eyebrow. “She hasn’t stopped cleaning our home since we got it. We can’t get her to stop at all.”

“Doku, please stop! Come back here!”

“Oh, where are my manners?” Doku exclaimed. She quickly raced out of the carriage and rushed over into a hug with Daniel, the other girls jumping back a bit as she nuzzled close to him with a happy sigh. “I missed you, my dear husband. Welcome home. I’ll have lunch prepared just as soon as I clean up the place a bit more. I hope you enjoy it.”

“Doku!” Triska shouted out.

“Right! Sorry, I’ll have the hall cleaned up right away! Sorry again!” Doku squeaked before rushing back into the carriage. Daniel and the girls remained silent as the sounds of the harpy reassuring herself that she was going to be a good wife to Daniel echoed from inside the ride. After a while Triska sighed and held a hand to her head.

“Dammit, she’s killing us with kindness. That’s not fair.”

“Every time we try to call her out on saying Daniel’s her husband she does that,” Alyssa groaned. “Yesterday before I could open my mouth to set her straight she gave me a plate of cookies and apologized deeply that she burned two of them earlier.”

“Did you set her straight afterwards?” Kroanette asked her.

“I couldn’t, they were too delicious,” Alyssa whined. “I didn’t have the heart to say anything after I tasted those.”

“I keep trying to tell her Daniel isn’t her husband as well,” Specca added with remorse. “Before I can she either prepares one of my favorite books next to the bath or even washes my tail with a wet towel. I just can’t say anything to upset her.”

“Why don’t you just tell her you’re not her husband?” Falla asked Daniel.

“I’ve been trying to all this time,” he explained in defeat. “Every time I start to talk about it she looks like she’s ready to burst into tears for failing me. I don’t think I can stand to tell her the truth, I fear how she would take it.”

“I actually wish she would try to take Daniel’s pants off against his will,” Triska admitted. “It would make it a lot easier to tell her off if she acted like a lustful monster. Instead she’s… she’s…”

“She’s too nice,” Specca finished. “There isn’t anything wrong with her, and that’s the problem.”

“So is she going to join the harem too?” Luna asked curiously.

“I like her boobies,” Pip giggled. “I wouldn’t mind sharing Daniel with her.”

“I fear she’s already joined the harem without anyone’s permission,” Kroanette reasoned shaking her head.

Daniel sighed and rubbed a hand down his face tiredly then looked around the area while the girls exchanged troubled glances with each other.

“We’ll deal with her, somehow. It’s not like she’s going to be sleeping with me or anything.”

“We already are sleeping with you, Dan,” Clover pointed out. The group turned to her as she was now watching Daniel out of the corner of her eye from under her hood. “There’s only one bed in there. Doku and I are sleeping with all of you now, remember? We don’t have a choice.”

“She sleeps on her feet at the edge of the bed in a little nest of the blanket,” Triska reminded her. “She doesn’t sleep under the covers with us. And you wear a shirt and underwear while sleeping nowhere near our mate in the bed.”

“And earplugs too,” Clover added with a raised eyebrow at Daniel. “I still don’t get how any of you can sleep next to him at night, his snoring is actually worse with the acoustics echoing about in there.”

“Sorry about that,” Daniel apologized with a weak smile.