Chapter 49: Lunch and practice
Felix Sythias’s POV:
I woke up feeling much better. The soreness from last night had mostly faded. Stars, I really hadn’t expected Alex to notice. Next time, perhaps I shouldn’t ride that toy as hard as I did. It’d been so worth it, though.
I did feel a little dirty from fantasizing about Alex. I knew it was healthy and normal to have fantasies, but it was difficult to look him in the eye yesterday, so shortly after imagining him pounding my ass. That hesitation and shame had been quickly overcome when I saw the state he was in, though. He’d been soaked to the bone and shivering.
After basically shoving him into the shower to warm up, I’d grabbed a towel and fresh pajamas for him. He was so enraptured by the shower, I don’t think he even noticed me putting them around the corner.
Shaking off the memories of yesterday, I climbed down the wall, ignoring the twinge of discomfort in my rear. Alex was still sleeping, and we had plenty of time before our friends got here, so I let him sleep. I kind of wanted to join him and just sleep in, but not only would it be creepy and wrong to just join him without asking, I had breakfast to make.
I put on my saddle, grabbed some ingredients and went to the kitchen. We had more than enough time for a large breakfast, so I went all out. Pancakes with bacon, a nice steak for both of us, and a few scrambled eggs for Alex. It felt more like lunch than breakfast, but that was fine. I’d eat anything Alex didn’t want.
The bacon sizzled nicely in the pan for a few moments before I poured the pancake batter in. The fatty, sweet, and savory smell of pancakes spread through the kitchen and I could see more than one person looking my way with hunger in their eyes. I glanced down at the bowl with pancake batter, then shrugged. I had more than enough to share. Putting a few pancakes on plates, I shoved them towards the three people currently in the kitchen. They thanked me and ate the pancakes with moans of pleasure. I smiled—it was always nice to see and hear people enjoy my food.
After finishing breakfast, I headed back to our room. Alex was still sleeping, but the combination of noises, light, and smells quickly woke him up. I made sure I was setting the table as he got up, but I could still see him stretching in the corner of my eye. It took most of my strength to not turn around and admire his body. And it was something to be admired. From his lean but powerful muscles hidden beneath his scales, to the ridges running down his back, to his slight belly and warm smile. Not to mention everything else. I’d gotten a few glimpses here and there, enough for me to decide that yes, Alex was hot.
These thoughts, combined with my memories of yesterday’s activities, made me want to climb back up the wall and grab my toys again. I suppressed the urge, though, and instead, waited for Alex to join me at the table.
We ate breakfast, and his moans of pleasure from eating the food didn’t help me with ignoring the dirty thoughts creeping around the edges of my mind. I tuned him out and focused on enjoying the food instead. The steak was great, and so were the pancakes. I ate what Alex couldn’t, which turned out to be more than half of his portion of the food. It seemed I’d overestimated the size of his stomach.
Alex pushed his plate towards me and leaned back in his chair. “So, you know how Viggi promised to ask his dad if they had any openings?” he asked.
I looked up from the plate I was licking clean. “Yeah. Did he finally get back to you about that?”
He nodded and pulled out an envelope from a nearby shelf. “Yeah. He said his dad had a few job openings.” He gestured with the envelope. “I haven’t had the chance to look at it, though. I was hoping you could help me. I only have a vague idea about what a normal pay-rate is, or anything like that. I asked around a little, but with what Viggi told us last Tuesday, I’m not sure I can trust the information I was told.”
I thought about that for a moment. Why was he asking me of all people? I was well aware I had a privileged background. Aside from ferrying people around, I hadn’t worked a day in my life. I did know somewhat what a fair rate was, but I was hardly the expert on the topic. Then again, who was he supposed to ask? Tiki was a princess and arguably more privileged than I was—dad was always careful to not spoil me—and Viggi was biased.
“I’m not sure I’ll be of much help, but sure. Come over here and we’ll read through it together.”
I quickly shoveled Alex’s remaining steak into my mouth, then cleared some space on the table and patted the ground between my front-legs. He came over and sat down in the space. I wrapped one arm around him and pulled him close, into a sort of sitting cuddle. He turned his head to look up at me, then smiled and pulled the arm in closer around him. After opening the envelope, he pulled out the contents. He placed them on the ground before us—the table ended up being too high while he sat on the ground—and spread them out so we could read them.
There were three openings. A waiter, a cook, and a kitchen help. After a moment, Alex turned the second offer upside down.
“I don’t meet the requirements. I suck at cooking.”
I shook my head. “You miss knowledge and experience, but you’re not bad. You’re probably right, though. You don’t meet the requirements—yet.”
After some thinking and talking, he also turned the waiter-offer upside down. After Viggi’s explanation of the biases people held against lizardkin, he understandably wasn’t looking forward to experiencing that every time he worked. It also had a requirement of being available every evening and he simply didn’t have that much time. This only left the option for kitchen help. We looked it over thoroughly, and the pay was above average and was only a weekend job, plus Wednesday evening. It wasn’t perfect, but he was dead-set on getting a job, so I didn’t try to stop him. He filled out the offer and put it back in the envelope.
Being done with that, he leaned back into me and I hugged him tighter. I couldn’t quite see his face from this angle, but from the contented sigh he let out, I was sure he was smiling. While we cuddled like that, we talked about what we were going to do with the rest of the morning. Our friends would arrive just before lunch, but that wouldn’t be for several hours at the least. We still had to make food for said lunch, though. It would be our contribution to the picnic.
Alex spent his time until we had to cook by reading. He insisted on reading alone, though. It didn’t take much thinking to figure out he was going to read the smutty book we’d gotten him last Wednesday. I couldn’t really blame him. I’d waited to be alone, too, before reading my smutty book yesterday. I decided to give him some space and went to the student shopping district to get some more cheese. We didn’t really need more cheese, but it was a nice excuse.
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Alex and I had made sandwiches and other snacks together and were now waiting for our friends to arrive. It would be quite the group with all six of us: Alex, Viggi, Tiki, Sekara, her girlfriend who’s name I forgot, and myself. That was good. The more the merrier. At least, that’s what people said. I’d never been out with such a large group before and I had no idea if that was actually true. Everyone said it, though, so it had to be, right?
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I didn’t know a third of the group, however, and that worried me. Alex and Viggi had both assured me Sekara and her girlfriend—I really had to ask her name—were friendly and nice, though I’d noticed Alex had been a lot less enthusiastic about the girlfriend than Viggi had been. Considering the cold goodbye he’d gotten the first time they’d met, I understood. He had it coming for asking such rude questions, though, even if he had apologized after.
Tiki was the first to show up and had a bunch of blankets and large towels with her, which was her contribution to our get-together. I didn’t mind the grass, but the others preferred to sit on something soft. Viggi arrived a few minutes later and carried drinks. I spotted mostly juices, but also a few canteens of water. He had a single bottle of wine, too. I didn’t think anyone was going to open it, though.
Sekara and Zhalia—that was her name!—arrived ten minutes later and had some games with them, such as a large inflated ball. The one that I recognized as Sekara from Alex’s description didn’t look very happy to be here. A bad night of sleep, perhaps?
After we all greeted and introduced each other, they helped me load a table onto my back—the kind with benches on either side—so we could take it with us to the spot. It was heavy, but manageable. Mostly it was just unwieldy, and I had to lower my neck awkwardly to get it to stay on. I must have looked like the worlds’ weirdest turtle.
I led us all to the little forest with the artificial river. There were a few other people, but they were all further upstream from where we’d go swimming. That was good. The forest was close to the dorms, and I’d feared more people would’ve either discovered the place or heard about it from someone else. Or maybe they had and just didn’t want to come; the weather wasn’t the best, so it made sense. It was warm and sunny, but not as much as last week. There were some clouds, too, but none as threatening as the ones from yesterday. It probably wouldn’t rain. But just in case, I’d packed a few umbrellas.
It took a bit of searching, but we managed to find the perfect spot. There was a nice open patch of short grass next to a shallow part in the river. There were a few rocks placed in such a way that you could easily hop between them from one side of the river to the other. They didn’t even look slippery.
We put the table down in a spot that was half in the sun, and half in the shade. Then we unrolled Tiki’s blankets and large towels so people could lie down if they wanted to. After we were done, the clearing looked more like a patchwork blanket than a grass field. The sight made me chuckle, and we stored a few blankets away again, not needing so many.
It was around lunch-time, so I got the food out and we all settled in to enjoy the meal. I’d made a large chunk of meat for myself, and a bunch of sandwiches and the like for everyone else. I did cut off a small piece for Alex to try, though, which made Viggi ask for one as well. With some reluctance, I cut off a few more small pieces for everyone who wanted one. At least it was nice to see them enjoy the food.
We couldn’t go swimming right after lunch, so Tiki, Alex, and I practiced for our combat class. For Tiki that meant shooting increasingly distant and difficult targets, with which Viggi offered to help. Sekara and Zhalia were talking back by the bench-table, while Alex and I practiced Alex’s ability to remain seated during wild movements.
I would pretend to fight an enemy, and he would try to remain in the saddle. We’d considered strapping him in, but if something went wrong, like me falling over or a fireball heading his way, he'd need to be able to jump off quickly. Though, maybe we could get an enchanted set of gear that would keep his butt in my saddle unless he tried to get out himself. Actually, that wasn’t a bad idea at all. It would be expensive, though, and I didn’t have the money right now. I suppose I could sell the head start potion, but I didn’t want to. I wanted it to go to good use, not to some noble’s daughter. I’d considered giving it to Alex so he would feel and be safer during the excursion, but I wasn’t sure if he would take it.
“Nice daydreams?” Alex asked, interrupting my thoughts. I’d gotten lost in them and had stopped moving.
“In a way,” I said. “Hey Alex, would having more Attributes help you feel safer about the excursion?”
“Probably, but there’s not really a good way to level up here on campus—unless I missed something, which is entirely possible.”
“No, there isn’t, but I might have another way. I’ll need to think about it.”
“Alright,” he said, not sounding particularly convinced. “Shall we continue practice in the meantime?”
We continued practicing for a while until Alex had enough of falling off and hitting the ground. Sure, the ground was covered in soft grass, but that still had to hurt.
He climbed out of my saddle and laid down on the ground with a heavy sigh. “As much fun as riding you is, this part of training sucks. I think even my bruises have bruises.”
I laid down next to him, and he moved to lie on my wing instead; that way there didn’t need to be several meters between us. I nodded, which he didn’t see, so I hummed my agreement. “It’s important, though. If you fall off during a battle, you might get skewered before you can get back up.”
“I know, but it still sucks, though.”
I heard someone sitting down next to Alex. I looked over and saw Sekara. “Need some healing?” she asked.
Alex blinked. “You can heal?”
She nodded. “I’ve got some ability to heal. It’s low-power, though. It should however be enough to ease the pain of your bruises.”
I interjected before Alex could agree. “Is it directed or undirected healing?”
She didn’t seem too bothered by my question. That was good, since it was a very reasonable question.
“Undirected. I don’t have any directed healing Skills—yet.”
“Um, sorry, I’m a little confused,” Alex said. “What’s the difference and why does it matter?”
I took it on myself to explain. “Undirected healing Skills let the System figure out how to heal you up. It’s great for cuts and bruises and some broken bones, but it will just clot over any stumps or will heal around a broken bone piercing your skin. Directed healing can do everything, but is, as the name says, directed by the healer. It’s used for missing limbs and such, but is incredibly dangerous. If the healer doesn’t direct it right, you might get cancer, or a very deformed limb—if the mistake doesn’t kill you outright.”
Sekara grimaced. “What he said, though most healers have Skills to help them with knowledge and to help guide them while healing and to correct minor mistakes. That’s all second-year stuff, though. I only have a weak undirected healing Skill.”
I nodded, then turned to Alex. “There’s no risk involved, then. So it’s up to you.”
He agreed, so Sekara put a hand on his chest and one on his stomach. Her snout scrunched up in concentration and her hands glowed slightly with yellow-ish white light. It lasted for all of half a second, and then she ran out of mana. Healing Skills were expensive.
Alex sat up and stretched. His movements seemed a little smoother than before, but might have just been me expecting a change. “Oh, that does feel better,” he said, smiling at her. “Thanks.”
Sekara was smiling too. “That’s good. I also got a level out of it, so thank you!”
Alex held out a hand, and Sekara high-fived it. It was really nice to see Alex making friends wherever he went. If only I could do the same. As much as I hated thinking this way, I still didn’t really have many friends aside from Alex. There was Tiki sort of, and Viggi. And I hadn’t exactly spent much time with either. Really, I mostly just spent time with Alex, while he spent time with all his friends. I should set some time apart to do the same. Maybe Viggi would want to go flying together sometime—after my wing was healed, anyway.
I looked over to the clock in the tree—really, who put all these clocks in these trees?—and saw that we’d spent more than enough time practicing, so we could swim safely now. I wasn’t sure why you needed to wait right after eating, but I figured it didn’t hurt to be safe. Drowning didn’t sound like a pleasant way to go.
I turned to Alex “If you’re feeling better, do you want to try swimming, then?”
He looked at the water. It was calm, and only a meter deep at its deepest point. Perfect for learning to swim. Well, almost perfect. Still water like in the pool or a lake would have been better. I froze. Why didn’t we just practice in the pool first? I’m such an idiot. Before I could berate myself further, though, Alex interrupted my thoughts. “Yeah, alright. It should be interesting, and hopefully fun.”
He climbed to his feet and stepped off my wing. I rolled over and stood up as well. I shook off the dirt Alex’s feet had left behind and walked into the river. Standing just past the edge, I waited for him to wade in after me.