Sky

I wake up in Lain’s arms and she gives me a smile. “Morning.”

I return her smile and give her a kiss. Nuzzling into her as I say, “Good Morning Lain. Did you stay in bed with me all night?”

She nods and kisses the top of my head, “Mhm, watching you sleep is really calming for me. Helps me relax and sort through my thoughts. You keep me grounded.”

I push myself deeper into her embrace to hide my blush. Her words piercing straight though my heart. She giggles at this and wraps me up tighter until there is hardly a space between us. I immerse myself in her scent, listening to the beat of her heart and the sound of her breaths. The desire to fall back asleep fills me, but I push it aside. I’ve slept enough and right now I want to snuggle. Besides, I’ve left Lain alone all night, it would be cruel to leave her again.

We remain there, snuggled up under the covers, for a long while. I don’t know for how long we stayed like that; I would have been perfectly content to remain there forever. But eventually, nature calls. “Mmm… Gotta pee…”

Lain giggles, “Me too… Don’t wanna get out of bed though…”

“Me neither…”

We manage to last for about ten more minutes until we eventually, and begrudgingly, decide to crawl out of bed. Lain lets me go first and once I finish, she goes in.

While she is in the bathroom, I head into the kitchen and get some tea and coffee going for us. I groggily wait for the water to boil as I hear Lain washing her hands in the other room. She eventually comes into the kitchen and starts to dig some stuff out for making breakfast. As the two of us work on getting everything ready, we will occasionally bump into each other or touch one another. A hand here, tails there, standing hip to hip by the stove. Anything for those little moments of contact and intimacy.

Eventually, the cooking is done, and we enjoy our food. The dishes are taken care of and put away, and then, with some fresh drinks, we settle down on the couch together. Lain and I have something important to talk about, and she has been very patient with me, waiting until we got in a good place for serious talks, rather than just diving straight into it first thing in the morning or right after the stress of yesterday.

She really is too sweet to me. Despite everything going on, she always focuses on trying to keep me happy. I’ll have to be sure to spoil her late. Let her know just how much I appreciate her~

The atmosphere right for an important talk, Lain takes her time to think and finally breaches the topic. “So, you had something to tell me? About the deal with the General?”

I nod, “I wanted to wait until after your birthday, give you some time to relax. I didn’t want to drop it on you just after getting home and having you worry about it.”

“But it must have been quite important for you to have met the General. What happened?” She asks, her concern clearly written on her face and caried by her voice.

“I had a vision. While you were away, I awoke in the middle of the night. A tide of hunger, fire, and death marching from the North. From beyond the city… I saw everything running from the tide. Animals, monsters, and even my people. They are fleeing from their villages and are coming here… To me.”

Lain thinks for a moment and asks, “The deal, you are trying to get the General to let the Kobolds into the base. Is that right?”

I nod my head, “You don’t think that my vision was nothing but a bad dream?”

She doesn’t doubt me for a second, “No, of course not. Not after what I have been going through. Even if it was just a bad dream, I would still take it seriously.”

The desire to jump on her and make love to her comes over me right there, but I push it aside for now. We are talking about something very important right now. I can ask her to sit on my face later…

I fight to talk through my blush and clear my throat, “Mhm, I wanted to ask for their protection. Also to warn of the coming danger so that we have time to prepare. Death is coming our way, and we will need to be ready for it.”

She looks curious and asks, “So what is the tide? You said that even monsters are running from it. Must be something incredibly dangerous.”

I grow a bit worried. “Promise me you won’t laugh?”

“Why would I laugh?”

“Just promise me, please...”

“Ok… I promise I won’t laugh. What is it?”

I hesitate for a moment and then tell her, “… Goblins.”

For a second, she looks like she is going to, but she quickly stops and thinks. With a serious face she asks, “How many? You called it a tide and if even monsters are fleeing…”

“Tens of thousands of them. They blotted out the land and wherever they move, fire and ash follow in their wake. Their numbers continue to grow with each passing day.”

Lain hides her face behind her hands and curses, “Fuuuuuck…! It’s actually happening. This is actually happening right now…”

“Hmm? Lain what is it? What’s wrong?” I ask, placing a hand on her shoulder.

She just drops her hands to her lap and collapses back into the couch. With a long breath, she explains it for me. “My people, humans… We like to make stories. I showed you some the other day with the movies. Well, back before monsters and Goblins and Kobolds came to Earth. We already had stories about them. We call Goblins, Goblins, because they resemble the little creatures from those stories. The same for your people. We call you Kobolds because you resemble the fictional creature that we imagined.”

“Oh… I think I understand. But why does that make you upset?”

“Because, in those stories about Goblins, no matter how different the Goblins may be between stories, there is always one constant. Never let them grow their numbers. If they do, they will destroy everything and nothing short of slaughtering all of them will stop them.”

I get excited, “So you do understand! Oh, thank goodness. So many humans never seem to worry about those stinky little things. They just disregard them and scare them off instead of killing them all on sight!”

Lain seems a bit startled at seeing me so heated over this, but she thinks for a second and asks me, “I remember you teaching me that Kobold villages would go to war with nests of Goblins. Exterminate them down to their last member. I figured that was just a fight for territory or something though.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I shake my head, “No, no, no. We don’t want Goblin territory. Everything they touch is ruined and should be burned. Any land they lived on must be cleansed. Their scent will just draw more of them to reclaim the land. They’re a plague…”

“You guys have a lot of history? From before coming to Earth, I mean.”

I nod, “Yes. We don’t know when they came exactly, the history has probably been lost. All we do know is that they were there with the other monsters that would attack the //World Tree after my people fled our world. While the Titans from beyond the fold fought, my people hid between the bark and made our villages in places where the monsters could not reach us. We fed off of what meager scraps we could find and the few edible plants that grew for us. For generations we lived in hiding, shying away from the surface lest we get picked off by prowling beasts… The goblins too lived in the cracks. They would often try to steal from us or attack our villages. If their numbers grew too great though…” I shake my head sadly.

I try not to think about the fates that many of my people had suffered; the remains of villages that the warriors would tell us of after returning from their outings. Memories of the attacks that would plague my own village when I was young. Of the attack that took my mother from me…

I continue, “My people learned quickly. The goblins are weak when they are few in number. So, we kill them before they can kill us. When we came to this world and the //World Tree sent us away from its body, we had hoped that we would finally be free from those filthy things. But they followed us… That damn tree cared little for us. Its deal to the Empress fulfilled, it sent us away with no care for our safety and has probably forgotten us by now, wherever it is!” I finish, angry and slapping my tail against the floor.

Lain is quick to wrap me up in a hug, rubbing my back. “I’m sorry that your people had to go through that. I can only imagine what it would have been like for you back then.”

I return her hug, “Thank you Lain, but I am much better now. I have you now.”

We hold each other for a long while until Lain eventually pulls away. Getting up from the couch, she heads over to the bookshelf and grabs a large book that I haven’t read yet.

“Lain?” I ask, curious about what it is she is doing.

Sitting down next to me, she opens the large book and flips the pages until it shows a large map.

“This is a map of our world, Earth. Our world is actually a sphere, but if you unfold it and make it flat, then it looks like this.” She points to a spot on the map. “We are on this land mass, the continent of North America, specifically in Kentucky, right about here. A little bit further north-east is the southern border of Ohio, that where we met. Compared to the rest of the Earth, its honestly not that far away; practically nothing.” Sliding her finger across the map, she points out a tiny line of islands, “And this, this is where Hawaii used to be. This is where the //World Tree planted itself. Over four thousand miles away, right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.”

“Oh…” I think back to how long it took for us to walk here and compare the distance between the three points that Lain marked. It’s massive. To think that the world, Earth, is so big. It shocks me a bit when I realize just how far that tree had sent my village and I away.

Are my people scattered all over the Earth now?

Looking to the map, I want to ask her about the other areas on the map, but stop myself because we are still having an important discussion.

Lain places the book, still open, onto the coffee table and turns to me. “Sorry, I figured that I should let you know where it is. Seeing as it is a tree though, I doubt it will be moving anywhere anytime soon. You probably won’t ever see it again.” She says reassuringly.

I smile and give her a hug, “Thank you Lain.”

She clears her throat, and we get back to it, “So, we have a massive army of thousands of Goblins coming and even monsters are running away from them. It’s almost like a swarm of fire ants… I could probably go up there and kill a bunch of them -they can’t hurt me- but I doubt that I could stop tens of thousands of them. They would just keep moving around me as I slaughter them… Hmm… The army’s artillery could probably wipe out quite a lot of them, but the question is if we could keep them from flowing over the walls…”

I finish for her, “And once they get into the base, they would be able to attack the people. The walls aren’t tall enough, they’ll just climb over…”

Lain gets a sad look on her face, “Which is why the general wants me to make more demons… By myself, I could easily slaughter a bunch of them, but I can’t stop them all. If there was more of me though, we might be able to stop them before they reach the walls. Or at the very least thin their numbers and keep them distracted while the army bombs them… Fuck…”

I grab her hand, “Lain…”

For a long while, she simply says nothing. She just holds my hand. Eventually, she speaks. “Originally, I was all for the idea of making more people like me. I would have happily done it even. It would have meant that I wasn’t alone anymore.” She stops and gives me smile. “Not that I am lonely anymore of course.” She says, petting my hand with her thumb.

“Now I know that anyone that I turn will be bound to me… I could make them my slaves if I wanted and they would happily do as I say, their will pushed aside and their bodies robed…” She says, shaking a bit.

“You won’t do that to them. I know that you won’t. Just because you can, it doesn’t mean that you would.”

She nods, “Mhm. I wouldn’t do that. But what about in the future? Ten years, fifty, a hundred, a thousand? What if I change again and I suddenly lose my reason to care. To not be worried about it. And by then, it would be even worse. My people would have time to increase their numbers. It wouldn’t just be a couple of people suffering under me, but also their children and their children’s children. Generations of people that I could turn into slaves with a single order!”

By the time she finishes she is shaking badly. I pull her close and hold her. It’s in moments like these that I remember just how small she is. That even with all her power, she is still just a small woman. A vulnerability that she will only show to me as her lover.

Mmmm… My big strong mate. So powerful and fierce yet reduced to such a fragile state in my arms. Haaa, holding her like this. It makes me so happy. Give me all your sadness Lain. I will gladly take it all… Oh, I really do love you. My precious little Imp~

“Lain, you won’t do that.” I whisper.

“How do you know that?” She asks sadly.

I just laugh a little bit and tell her, “Because, even after you changed, you were still you. You still came home and loved me. Even if you change again, you will always still be you. And I know that you aren’t the kind of person to do something like that. You’re not a monster.”

Leaning in closer, I giggle and whisper into her ear. “And even if you did. Even if you became a monster and decided to do horrible things. So long as you continue to love me -hell, even if you stopped loving me - I will happily stay by your side through it all. No matter what happens, you will always have me~” I finish with a giggle and kiss her ear.

She leans against me, our horns knocking against each other, and lets out a little laugh. “Gods… You have no idea how much I love you. Thank you, Sky… I seriously have no idea what I would do without you.”

I tighten my grip around her and fight down the desire to rip her clothes off and ask for some fun. Part of me tells me that it would ruin the mood and I should save it for later. I just find it so hard to resist when she is like this. The desire to give her myself in my entirety and smother her with my love, to accept her with my whole body and embrace her in ways that only lovers can. I’ll certainly have to be sure to spoil her later.

We spend the rest of the morning holding each other until she calms down. Once she does, I ask her to show me the world map and tell me about the different places around Earth. We spend our time cuddling as Lain shows me pictures in the book about interesting places all over the world. A lot of it is probably destroyed and overtaken by nature by now. But even then, maybe we can travel together to go see the world someday. Even if we don’t, I would be perfectly happy so long as I get to stay by her side.

The morning comes to an end and eventually a soldier comes knocking at the door. Lain has an appointment to meet with a psychologist today. Some kind of mind doctor from how she described it.

I offer to come along, but apparently this is something that is typically done privately. Sharing a kiss, I tell her goodbye and watch her as she leaves.

Hugging the doorway and digging my claws into the wall a bit, I watch as she walks away, I can’t help but notice that she is wearing a tight pair of jeans that is really showing off her figure from behind. I smile as I watch her move, right up until she disappears from view.

Next to me, our guard looks to me and asks, “Should I go for a smoke break when she gets back?”

“Mhm. Make it a long one. I’m going to help her forget alllllll about her troubles~”

He simply lets out a short laugh, “Yes ma’am. Wish my lady was as loving as you are.”

I giggle, “Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Rodgers.”

He nods his head from where he stands by the wall and I head back inside, a little skip in my step.

“Now, what to wear for when Lain gets back…? There was that one outfit the tailor gave me. I wonder if Lain would like it?” I ask myself.

Happily humming a little tune, I had heard from somewhere; I head into my room to get changed.