-
Kaata's genetics seems to be more of a gecko/lizard, which explains her being physically weaker than Hihiriwa and his dragon genetics. Her body is also rather delicate and thin. She's petite -, though her gecko face is a bit strange, even for me. Aoi is actually more "feminine" than she is.
Now that I think about it, Aoi must be the ultimate feminine dragon. Her body is completely smooth and lean, and her blue scales are all shiny and straight. Spikes, horns, and rough textures are male dragon characteristics, of which Aoi has basically none. Even her wings' webbing is smoother than Hana's. The only "male" characteristic of Aoi is probably the few spots without any scales, which exposes the usual rough and thick dragon skin, like on her feet, but these spots are normal for a dragon, making them gender-neutral.
As I think about Aoi, she gives me "the look," -. She grows until she's bigger than me, and Gify jumps off her head in search of another warm bed.
-
-
Hihiriwa pours some expensive alcohol into golden cups, then he goes back onto his bed and offers one to his wife.
"Thank you, husband," Kaata says with a warm smile.
He sits down beside her, and they slowly savor the alcohol.
"Today's battles worried me a little," she softly says.
"Oh, they're starting," I say, then I start relaying their words to the girls.
"The monster's leader is smart enough to test us, but he's not that smart since he was so quick to give away that he's much smarter than average," Hihiriwa responds.
Her voice is faint, and she seems very unsure of herself. "Nohopu and his albino Fay Leviathan worry me. What if he deserts his post to chase after it?"
Hihiriwa sighs and chuckles, then he lays a heavy hand on Kaata's head and pats her a few times. "We'll be fine, but I'm warning you now that some of the men will inevitably die. There are just too many rookies with us this time." He looks at her sternly, and she nods weakly. "But, Nohopu has Kurii to keep him in line, and I'll make sure that Oritiki and the Ryders support him."
"The Ryders are always very guarded. Especially that elven woman, I'm sure that she's a noble with [Acting]."
He nods repeatedly. "They're competent, at least, that we can be sure of."
"You seem to like their Azurite dragon quite a bit," she says in a disapproving tone.
He looks at her with a serious expression. "She's absolutely beautiful, is she not? At least, you have to admit that much. Also, I don't complain when you look at the other dragons," he calmly responds, but a hint of anxiety seeped into his voice.
"Hmph." She pouts for a moment. "Alright, she's beautiful, but keep your staring contained, she might think that you're challenging her."
"Muuh…! But he is challenging me!" Aoi groans in annoyance and exclaims.
"She's far too intelligent to take that as a challenge," he says in a dismissive tone.
"Hahahaha!" Hana laughs out loud and points at Aoi, who moos in frustration again.
Kaata caresses his cheek and looks him in the eye. "Don't make them angry. They're outsiders, and they're clearly hiding many secrets," she advises, with worry very noticeable in her voice.
He exhales loudly and replies, "Hmph, I know. But they're powerful, so I won't hesitate in using them to aid the expedition."
"If you keep the Celestial Horns around them, I'll feel much safer."
He caresses her head. "That's the plan."
She closes her eyes in happiness and rests her head against his gray chest.
They stop talking about anything important, eating a few sweets for dessert.
I release Yunia from [Bind], and she sighs tiredly, finally being free to let her emotions run wild again. She just barely managed to keep herself from flooding our connection with her insecurities.
I smile gently at her as she absentmindedly plays with Roxanne's thin tail, curling it around her fingers. She notices me watching her and returns a subtle smile, then I cast [Bind] on Lina again. My little angel was starting to feel anxious, so a strong sense of relief leaks through her [Bind] the very moment that our souls are connected again.
"Welcome back," Alissa says through [Bind], and Lina shyly nods while smiling.
"Well… their talk was… very innocuous, all things considered," Yunia admits.
"Quite a lot of risk for no gain," Ciel says and frowns slightly.
"It was our best option. If they were going to talk about us, it would be tonight," Lina says confidently.
Yunia shakes her head, making her long ears bob around. "That simply isn't true. They could've already talked about us a long time ago… I think we may have gotten ahead of ourselves," she says with an embarrassed expression.
"Hm?" I question her and frown.
"We didn't really have any evidence that he's dangerous to us, yet we're spying on him. Our behavior is not justifiable," she responds.
"We don't need a justification to act to protect ourselves," Alissa says.
"I'd rather suffer the consequences of my actions than regret my inaction," I say.
Yunia shakes her head and continues, "We didn't need to act today. Like we've just seen, there was a very good chance that they wouldn't say anything evidently damning."
"Then what should we have done?" I ask.
"Wait; talk to the crew tomorrow, be friendly with them, and listen to their rumors; probe Oritiki and Hukarere about his personality; get one of the officers drunk and make them spill their secrets. What we did tonight was just too aggressive, and I agreed to it because I was also eager to act. I failed to follow my own advice." She tiredly lays down on the bed and looks towards the roof of our tent.
Roxanne snuggles up to her perfectly shaped bosom and gives her puppy eyes. Yunia rolls her eyes and pats the needy succubus's head.
Lina lowers her head and goes into deep thought. Alissa pouts and looks away, being a bit stubborn in not admitting that she was wrong, but she slowly accepts it.
"I should've said something…" Ciel mutters, then looks at me and repeats herself, "I should've said something, and I will next time."
"Don't regret it," Aoi suddenly says, and we turn to her. She's staring intensely at Yunia. "This wasn't a mistake, so don't let it snuff out the fire inside you."
"It wasn't the best idea, either," Yunia says with a wry smile.
Aoi immediately responds with conviction, "Doesn't matter. It wasn't bad enough that you should regret it."
Yunia's tired expression regains some vigor, and she uses it to smile smugly at Aoi. "Hoh. You're far too young to give me advice."
Aoi's eyes burn with ferocity, and she smirks. "Then act like you don't need it."
Hana cringes and comments, "Oof, even Aoi got you there."
Yunia narrows her eyes dangerously but doesn't say anything.
It seems like Yunia is doubting herself a little.
I raise my hands in defeat and say, "Alright. I'll admit that it was a bit too soon to spy on Hihiriwa right now, but I'll remain pragmatic and use this situation to our advantage."
Aoi nods in agreement.
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Yunia holds Roxanne's head against her chest and sits up, then says, "And I'll remain cautious, making sure that we all understand very well the consequences of our actions."
I turn to Ciel and say, "I still want you to remain as our second-in-command."
She fidgets with her hair nervously. "Shouldn't Yunia have that position? She's more experienced than me."
"You're older than her," Alissa says. Hana smirks towards Roxanne, who shows her tongue in return.
I look inquisitively at Yunia, and she frowns, then looks down. "I don't think I deserve it…" She says in a quiet voice.
"You shouldn't think like that," I say to Yunia, then I turn to Ciel. "But I still want Yunia to advise us on how to achieve our goals, while I want you to be our second-in-command because I know that you can keep us all together."
We all look towards Ciel, waiting for her response. As a sign of her conviction, it doesn't take her long to answer.
She releases her hair and pats it to smooth it out, then she takes a deep breath and says with confidence, "Alright. I'll do it. I'll take your words seriously."
I smirk and the corner of her mouth twitches, holding back a grin.
"Group hug?" Alissa asks tentatively.
"Group hug," I answer with a nod.
Hana's strong arms pull us all together, and we form a circle, resting our heads against one another.
"Through adversity, unity," I say, and Ciel holds back a chuckle from the corniness of it.
Feeling all giddy from the cute moment we just had, we turn off the ship's lights and go to sleep while tightly hugging each other, though having to sleep in scale armor lowers our comfort.
Today is the 16th.
Gify wakes the girls right after sunrise.
-
Lina increased her [Throw] by 1 (now 1+3). Dragolites are so easy to kill that there was little opportunity to level anything in yesterday's fights.
The sun comes out in full force, shifting the starry sky into a beautiful sea of blue. If only we could have a naked breakfast, then today would start perfectly.
As we eat toast with butter under the warm morning sunlight, the Floater approaches us, and a winged soldier comes out, then he lands on our deck.
"Ryders," he greets us with a bow. "We'll begin the recharge of your ship. I assume that the crystal is in the hold below us?"
"Yes, it is. The stairs are over there," Alissa replies and points towards the stern of the ship. "Do you need our assistance with the recharging?"
He gently shakes his head and answers, "No need, thank you. This will be quick. I just ask that you don't fly the ship while we recharge."
Another winged soldier carries the end of a golden rope from the Floater and brings it to the stern of our ship. He pushes it through an opening at the back, and the first soldier grabs it, then pulls it to our crystal.
Just like how it went at the lighthouse, the Floater transfer mana to our Wind crystal, recharging it. This time, it's already converted Wind mana, making it much more efficient than the lighthouse's Light mana.
Jarn's artificial and metallic voice resounds across the deck, "Message: after your ship is recharged, Kaiia requests your presence at the Carrier's landing strip for your Gull training."
Hihiriwa hasn't even left his room yet, and Kaiia is already asking me to work. I guess that's the privilege of being a captain.
We finish our meal and start donning our wooden plates. The winged soldiers finish charging our ship and detach the golden cable, then they bow and leave. Paraaone then appears and lands on our deck, and Hana immediately strikes up a conversation with him.
The Carrier begins to bustle with activity as everyone gets ready to take their positions. The Wasps are flown from internal storage and landed on the strip for faster take-off. They leave a very obvious empty area for our ship to land on.
A winged soldier comes over to us and helps us land, but he barely has to do anything since I have my Hollys to give me a perfect view of the area.
I wave to the girls as I jump off the ship and float downwards with [Telekinesis]. Gify jumps, too, and glides in circles around me until she lands on my shoulder.
"I see that you don't want to make Alissa angry anymore," I comment and scratch her under her beak.
She closes her eyes and snobbishly looks away, then stretches her neck up so that I have better access.
I walk towards the Gull and see Kaatohe talking to a Wasp pilot. She pauses the conversation and follows me with her eyes. We share a respectful nod, and I feel my dragonator pulse, then she resumes her conversation. I really want to "get to know" that feisty little cat better.
I approach the Gull and get a good look at it. It looks like a large manta ray made of cloth and a steel framework, painted in black with white spots to camouflage it against the starry sky. It's about as wide as a house and around three meters tall. At the front here is a glass dome cockpit, and behind it, on the ship's body, are two small (but still bigger than me) floating tanks and an actual catapult, which has a huge, cuboidal green crystal already loaded. At the rear, there's a propeller with three blades, each of them almost as long as I am tall.
Hukarere and a winged soldier stand in front of the Gull's cockpit. The beautiful and sexy white wolf woman grins when she sees me, and I grin back at her, barely containing my happiness from being this close to her again.
-
"Wolf Ryder. It's a pleasure to work with you again," she says, and they both bow.
I return a respectful nod and grab her hand, then give it a kiss. A faint smell of perfume fills my nose, reminding me of the day I was inside her.
I stand on my tip toes and reach for her face. "May I have a greeting kiss?" I ask.
She grins instantly, and, instead of aiming for my mouth, she gives me a strong lick with her long tongue all over one side of my face, even wetting my hair with her saliva.
I stand still, stunned, then I wipe my face with my hand and lick it up. "Well, aren't you cheeky?" I ask rhetorically and chuckle.
With her free hand, she motions to the winged soldier beside her, a dog-headed man who seems to be a bit disappointed that he's not in on the fun. "This is Aihopu. He'll be responsible for fetching the Wind crystal after we launch it with the catapult."
The Border-collie-headed man smiles at me, revealing some not-so-impressive fangs. Not only is he smaller than Hukarere, but his air is much more "Ririmu" than the imposing air soldiers usually have.
"The irony of my job is not lost on me," he says and grins, letting the tip of his tongue peek from behind his small fangs, which makes him look very goofy.
We chuckle at him, then Hukarere points to the dome cockpit. "Shall we?" She asks with a slightly sultry voice. I think I know what we're going to do in there.
"Oh, right," Aihopu interrupts, and we turn to him. "Commander Kaiia said to not leave a stain, or you'll be spending your recreational time dicing tomafingers."
"I'm very good at swallowing, I certainly won't let a drop - go to waste," she calmly answers and lays her free hand heavily on my shoulder.
Aihopu snorts and shakes his head. "If you say so."
Hukarere gives my hand a squeeze and pulls me towards the cockpit. We climb up a small set of steps and enter it. It's about the size of a car's interior, with four seats and a small corridor to the rear that leads to the maintenance access of the floating tanks and the [Fly] crystal.
We put on our seat belts, and Aihopu climbs up onto the back of the Gull. He spreads his brown-feathered wings wide and gets ready to fly at any moment.
Hukarere explains the controls of the Gull to me. This ship… I mean, plane, was designed to carry sensitive cargo. It has terrible roll and pitch control, but it has nearly perfect stability, being capable of staying level, even inside storms. It's maneuvered mainly by yaw to turn towards the desired direction, the propeller to move forward, and the floating tanks for vertical movement.
"Rather simple," I comment.
"Your ship should have better control options, but that just means that you have to be more delicate with this plane," she says in a calm, instructive tone.
I put my hand over hers and give it a gentle squeeze. "I'm impressed with your knowledge, though. You seem to have worked in a lot of different places," I say with a warm smile.
She laughs once and shakes her head. "Hah. I'm not that special, I've just been serving in the Defense Force for most of my life. You get to choose your path, so you can explore them all if you serve long enough."
"I can definitely say that 'serving for most of your life' is quite the achievement."
She smiles wryly. "It'd sound more impressive if I was older, though."
"Oh? I see. Indeed, you do look pretty young." I put all of my charm into a smile and pull her hand towards me, then I give it a gentle kiss.
"Yeah. I'm barely twenty-five…" Her wide smile suddenly fades from her face. "Wait… how long ago was the Calamity?" She looks to the distance, then her eyes lose focus as her mind is "reset."
I kiss her hand again, and that gets her attention. She turns to me and smiles, then asks, "Sorry, I got distracted. What were we doing again?"
"We were about to take-off," I say and release her hand.
She nods, and her face becomes serious. "Right… start the [Fly] gem by pushing that lever over there."
While Hukarere explains things, Alissa, Yunia, and Ciel leave the ship and walk through the Carrier. They search for familiar crewmates or members of the Celestial Horns that are currently resting, then they strike up a conversation with them. They'll try to gather as much information or rumors about Hihiriwa that they can.
Alissa translates for Yunia, but it becomes unnecessary once they meet up with Kaatohe, who seems to have a good enough grasp of Andraste for casual conversation. She and Yunia begin by showing some degree of respect for each other, but they soon realize that they have a reasonably good affinity since they share an appreciation for the finer things in life. Even Alissa gets to contribute to their conversation since she has her short time as the daughter of the Chiefs to give her the background of a noble.
Ciel goes to the infirmary again and starts talking about medicine with the doctor. A few crewmates who look up to her come to join their conversation, giving my chocolate angel the chance to shine and show them how lovely she truly is.
I can't get distracted while piloting, so I tune them out when I see that everything's going fine.
The Gull is sluggish as fuck when I try to do anything, but when I engage the propeller, it's frighteningly fast. Its vertical movement is quite good, too, but it was designed to carry much heavier things, so it could be said that we're severely underloaded right now.
The fleet returns to the Looping Winds while we practice, so we follow them. The Carrier is slightly slower with our ship landed on it, so it's not that hard to follow the fleet. It's also good practice for me.
The Chimera engineers modified this Gull so that I can fire the catapult from the cockpit. We try it out while we're flying in the Looping Winds, and I'm surprised by how far the crystal can be thrown.
This catapult is magically enhanced, allowing the tension in the frame to reach a ridiculous level. Hukarere says that it could easily snap a person in two if it suddenly broke apart, which is why they're always operated from a distance. Even Aihopu hides beside the cockpit before we fire it.
After launching it a few times to get a grasp on the catapult's range, Aihopu feeds the Wind crystal some mana. Like this, it'll use the provided mana to stop its flight and float in place after it's launched, making it much easier for him to fetch the crystal.
-
We spend most of the morning having fun, and it technically counts as practice since I'm still piloting.
We eventually end our session and land back on the Carrier when her clothes get dangerously wet -. I exit the Gull and return to my ship, leaving her completely satisfied -.
The girls return soon after. I give my foxy wife a deep thank you kiss (which also forces me to give one to the others too), not because of her information gathering, but because she pimped me very well to Kaatohe.
"In a few days from now, she'll have some time off to rest. That's when we should invite her to our ship," Alissa says, feeling very proud of herself.
"Perfect, absolutely perfect…" I say to her, then Yunia's impatient eyes pull me back to reality. "Oh, right. How did the information gathering go?" I ask them with a cheeky grin.