A cloudless sky stretched over the group's heads as night turned to day. The morning light causing the two beast women sleeping near Iris to wake up, their lethargic movements making the tall grass between the two pairs to rustle. A pair of olive hands appeared between the blades of grass and moved them aside before Nakatei's groggy face appeared beside Iris.

"Shiro's asking if any of you have a way of *Yawn* finding how far north we are." The fox rubbed her eye as she spoke, her face was showing a weird mix of exhaustion and pain before the curtain of grass sprung back upright and the elf heard the shaman grit her teeth massaging her sore back. The elf didn't envy the shaman, whose muscles must have been on fire at this moment because of her sudden increase in strength. She did have her doubts about Nakatei actually doubling her strength stat but if the woman did double her strength then good for her.

The undead elf turned her eyes from the grass back to her lap where her jacket moved up and down in a sort of rhythm. She knew a basic navigation technique of using the sun to find the four cardinal directions and keeping track of their journey inside her head. Of course, her simple method wouldn't work now as the underground made it impossible to keep track in which direction they had gone. She also knew that stars could be used for navigation but for the degree of accuracy the nekos required they needed an expensive set of equipment she had only seen twice in her life. In the hope of avoiding meandering aimlessly through the Demi-Human Territory, the elf had to wake up the girl who had earned every moment of rest she needed.

Iris grabbed the jacket and slowly began to raise it off the sleeping necromancer before throwing it over her shoulder upon seeing that the mage didn't react to the risen reclaiming her jacket. The sleeping ancient had burried her head in between the elf's thighs while the rest of her snow white body shoot out to the side at a right angle. The taller undead began to wonder how the kitten was maintaining the awkward angle her spine must have taken to strike such a pose but she decided to worry about that later.

"Kia?" The risen spoke with a soft yet acute voice letting the girl know there was no escape. "Kia~?" Seeing that her efforts were in vain Iris wrapped her hand around the kitten's nape.

She began to run her sharp pointed nails along Kia's back. The necromancer's body arched further as it shuddered away from the elf's strange feeling touch. Iris found Kia's sleepy purred-out groans irresistible causing her fingers to slowly make their way up, pressing the nail of her pointing finger at the base of Kia's skull, slowly brushing it against her sleeping kitten's spine leaving a tingling sensation behind its path.

"Purrrrrr~" The sleeping girl emitted soft, contented sounds from her throat, like a cat in the midst of experiencing true delight causing her lower body to arch upward while her face remained firmly glued to Iris's soft thighs.

The snow kitten's black dress with silver hem slid down her body as she continued to raise her backside into the air. The elf shook her head while smiling at the kitten's clumsy hopelessness. Her eyes were mesmerized by the wave of goose bumps washing over the girl's smooth pale skin as her finger continued to glide on her bare skin. At the end of Kia's spine, when her backside was raised high into the air the monster wearing elven skin raised her hand and slapped the girl's butt leaving a red hand print on her alabaster skin.

*Slap*

"Nya!" Kia's knees instantly hit the ground hiding her previously indecently exposed body.

"Did I hurt you?" The playful elf instantly regretted her action as she saw the girl massaging her butt while looking sad doing so.

"Nyo," The petite girl's face instantly shifted into a perplexed expression as she stopped massaging her backside and looked at her hand, blinking with utter confusion. "I don't feel anything now."

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Are you sure?" The risen saw that her delicate kitten shook her head up and down and felt a stone fall off her heart. "You are a weird yarn ball, you know that, my Knyaicu?" She said as she scratched the mage under her chin and ear causing her to let out a giggle before slipping out of Iris's reach.

The two differently coloured eyes frowned at the elf as the ancient began to snarl with displeasure, which suspiciously resembled a deep demanding purr. The wild and untamed feline straightened her back in an effort to appear bigger and more threatening to undead in front of her. Iris would have begun to quiver in her boots from terror if the fierce cat hadn't started to yawn in a middle of her roar. The fair doll resembling a princess plucked straight out from a minstrel's tale didn't even raise her hand to cover her mouth as she yawned, shamelessly barring her small pearly fangs at the elf.

"Kia, cover your mouth when you yawn," Iris instructed with a soft suggestive voice as she muffled the sleepy girl with her own hand. "Can you help me for a moment and then you can go to sleep for hover long you want?" She said after the long yawn finished.

"Now?" The spoiled mage whined a little bit but showed no sign of being about to drift right back into her dreams.

"Yes," Iris brushed Kia's long black hair behind her ear to see both of her glowing eyes. "Do you know a way of knowing how far north or south we are?"

With a held breath Iris awaited the ancient to pull out an incomprehensible and equally delicate instrument which would instantly tell them their exact location.

"Kia?"

The girl's eyes looked away in shame avoiding the elf's expecting gaze before she realised that Kia had been stuck deep underground and had never left the city her domain was inside of.

"I forgot that-"

"I don't think I can help you, b-but I can t-try!" Kia shook her fist up and down with eagerness which seemed to be absent from her sheepish tone.

"Don't force yourself, Kia." The risen tried to walk back her words as between the blades of grass she spotted a crimson eye peeking at what was happening.

"I'm not, you asked me to help and I will." Before Iris could speak the necromancer twisted her body away from her, swinging her arm in the air leaving a trail of blue mana which resembled a stroke of a brush hanging still in the air.

The loose soil began to lift from the ground as the grass bent toward the spot Kia was looking toward. In no time at all a dozen constructs resembling the one the girl had made while travelling with the masked nomads although shorter, barely managing to stick their faceless heads above the hip-high grass and lacking many of the intricate engravings Kia's constructs usually showed. When the elf thought the golems were finished the grass which was leaning heavily toward the golems began to tear away from their roots, creating a sort of skin for the constructs which perfectly camouflaged them in the vast expanse filled with nothing but grass.

"Phew." The undead mage fell backwards, onto the elf who didn't hide her irritation.

"Kia, you know how much I don't like when you exhaust yourself to the point of collapsing onto me." The frowning elf, appearing upside down in the reflection inside the girl's eyes.

"Sorry, I couldn't stop myself." The exhausted kitten shrank into a ball under the elf's stare trying to hide herself as much as possible while apologising serenely.

*Sigh*

"What will you do with these now?" Iris asked the silent undead while pointing at the dozen short constructs, figuring out that reprimanding the girl who just wanted to help, wouldn't changed anything nor brought anything good as a result. "I don't understand what are they for."

"They can report to me when they find something unusual," The dozen of earthen puppets began to move with careful and measured movements, seemingly in an attempt to figure out their bodies' capabilities. One of the puppets seemed to have some kind of problem as it began to limp toward Kia. The girl turned her body around and like a mother bandeging her child she touched the constructs leg, with one small and graceful motion magic left the tip of her finger and flowed toward the puppet.

The strangely endearing hunk of animated earth put its weight on the previously malfunctioning leg before joining its brethren in the small circle they had arranged themselves in before suddenly dashing off into the grass causing Nakatei's scream to erupt from behind the elf.

"They are very simplistic and only capable of completing the most basic of tasks but they should manage." Iris doubted the necromancer's words, no golem she had ever seen would have checked their bodies before following their orders. Normal golems would simply walk through any injury until the task was completed or their body was destroyed.

Kia's eyes were watching the area where one of her constructs disappeared, when she noticed that the elf was watching her, it caused her to hide her embarrassed face behind her hands. Seeing the girl not succumb to sleep even when the need for it was written all over her face and go beyond all expectations put upon her small shoulders making sure her plan worked, Iris gingerly picked up the powerless girl, bringing her face near her own.

"Would you like something before going to bed? Ask about anything."

"I-I would like you to k-kiss me," Kia shook her head from side to side trying to not look directly into the elf's amethyst eyes as her face got progressively more red. "Please."

"With pleasure~" The risen responded wearing a large smile as she gave the girl what she wanted. After separating from Kia's soft lips Iris wanted to steal a kiss for herself but found that the necromancer had fallen asleep, her body tightly tucked against the elf's warm body. "Sleep well." With these words, she pecked the mage's lips before reaching over toward the demis direction to talk about their next move.