“Phew..”

I leaned back into the chair, holding my tummy.

“A delicious breakfast after a tiring night and a refreshing morning. Not even an ounce of pain anywhere. Is this what heaven feels like?”

A sudden surge of pain shot up in my chest, as if to defy my thoughts, as I remembered the past upto just a couple of days back. I looked towards Satoshi, the only way to keep myself sane under the torment that would occasionally creep up. I imagined him having enjoyed the meal and smiling under his hood, causing the pain to dissipate. It did not disappear completely, transitioning to a phantom linger across my limbs. But bearing this was inevitably child’s play compared to what I was used to, letting me smile across my savior and dwell upon other things.

While on the topic of dwelling upon other things, we had spent quite a bit more than what was the norm for breakfasts and uh, well.. it was totally worth it. Though we should really stop spending so much. Getting used to luxury is not a good idea.

“Table.”

I pointed to the table between us.

“Table.”

Like always, Satoshi replied back, doing his best in learning new words.

“Chair, plate, spoon, bowl.”

He even repeated all the words that I had told him before the meal. That really put a big smile on my face. I leaned forward suggestively, as best as I could manage, and pointed at him.

“Satoshi.”

He got up and walked away, having already paid.

“Wha..! Wait! You’re supposed to come back and call my name!”

I hurried after him.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We walked down the street and I openly pointed at things, telling Satoshi of its name.

“Shop.”

“Shop.”

"Meat."

"Meat."

“Fruits."

"Fruits."

"Coins."

"Coins."

I refrained from giving him the proper names of the commodities like the names of the fruits.

"Fruits."

"Fruits."

"Shop."

"Shop."

I repeated them to get the point across that these words referred to objects collectively. Then I pointed at things and had him tell me what they are called.

"Meat."

"Fruits."

He really had a good memory. People gave us weird looks but I didn't care and did my best to teach him.

"Eat."

"Eat."

"Walk."

"Walk."

I told him some action words to go with with the object words. Maybe we could move on to rudimentary sentences soon.

"Touch."

I said that while playfully touching his arm all over. I felt his presence wrap around my entire body.

"Touch."

It gave me pause but he didn't stop walking.

"Aww.. you meanie!"

"Youmeanie."

"Hahaha.."

I laughed as I reached him.

"No it's two different words."

I pointed at him.

"You."

Then I made a nasty face by crunching up my nose and narrowing my eyebrows.

"Meanie."

"You. Meanie."

He repeated, pointing at me as a bit of him blew through my hair. I imagined him crunching up his face under his hood.

"Hihihi.."

I grabbed his arms and interlinked his fingers with mine. I wish days like this could continue to be.

"Clothes."

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"Hmm?"

I looked up at him.

"Clothes."

He pulled on his clothes under the robe to show me. I nodded. It was right.

"Feriana. Clothes."

"Hmm?"

Okay. Maybe he was asking something. Maybe he was asking about the names of the individual things.

"Robe. Shirt. Pant."

I answered him in the broadest terminology I could think of.

"No. Feriana. Clothes. Shop."

I had already taught him 'yes' and 'no' as well. It was good that he remembered.

"Oh, you mean a clothes store?"

Then it hit me.

"Right! You don't have any other pair of clothing! I got too lost in teaching you to realise what you meant."

I nodded to him in understanding.

(I need to get him some clothes. Let me think. Where shall we go? I would like to buy him the best stuff but we shouldn't be spending so much money. And looking at his current clothes, I'm sure he would prefer comfortable and inconspicuous ones.)

"Let us try a few places."

I led him around to a bunch of stores where I picked up a few pairs of shirts and pants. The pants came with their inner cuppings so there was no need to wear anything underneath. I also looked for a robe. This one was well sturdy but it was starting to wear and more than anything, it was too big for Satoshi. I found a fitting one, another of black color; I think black goes well with his similarly black eyes and hair. I remembered the first night when I saw his face after he killed two men for me. I think I might get pregnant just thinking about it.

Shopping done, I led us back towards the house to drop the clothes. It had cost us quite a bit but it was a one time thing and it was important. And who am I to be frugal when getting stuff for my savior. Among the two pouched he had, he had given one of them to me and it had a sizable amount of coinage; more than any amount I’ve held at once.

“Phew.”

The sudden change in lifestyle had yet to completely catch up to me. The ghosts of the past would haunt me at times but just being near Satoshi was enough to exorcise them. And I had yet to clean up that big blood stain outside Father’s room. I didn’t have the time to do it with everything moving so fast recently but truthfully, I didn’t want to go near it. But I had to. I had to face my fears and more than that, clean up the house! I couldn’t have Satoshi live in a dirty house! Now that I have been thoroughly cleaned up by him, I had to be his extension and make it the same for his surroundings!

“House.”

He pointed towards our home as it came into our view.

“Right you are!”

I soooooo wanted to lick him but I had to restrain myself in public! I made do by rubbing my breasts on his thick robed arm. I had also secretly chosen his new robe to be quite thin so I could enjoy more skinship. Hehehehe.

-------------------------------------

Satoshi disappeared upstairs towards my room..ahem, our room.. with his clothes all floating behind him. I started making preparations to clean up the house but before I knew it, Satoshi descended naked with clothes of his choosing in tow. He had the clothes float next to me and stood with arms extended. Oh, the honors!

I delightedly grabbed the pieces of clothes off the air hanger and put them on him one by one. Unfortunately, it took only around two minutes to put everything on. I wanted to touch him more.

“Feriana. Walk.”

“Walk?”

I did the action of walking to make sure he got the word right and pointed towards the main door.

“Yes.”

He meant to go out again.

“Umm.. Okay.”

I could clean up later, I guess. Satoshi’s demand comes first obviously.

I put the cleaning equipment away and washed my hands. I had to keep myself sterilized if I wanted to let myself touch him all I could.

“Let’s go.”

I wrapped myself around his arm once more and we headed out.

(Good job with the thin robe, me!)

-----------------------------------

Satoshi had been behaving a bit weird since we got out. At first everything seemed normal as we went around, with me telling him more words and him diligently repeating them. Then he started to take unnatural turns and go through the back alleys. I couldn’t discern any pattern to it and neither any kind of destination. It almost seemed like…

I tried to look back but a force of wind prevented me from doing that. I looked at Satoshi and I could see his eyes on me from under the hood. He shook his head, just a little.

(We’re being followed!)

It made sense with how Satoshi was behaving. He was taking these eccentric paths to snuff out whoever it was that was following us. And I knew Satoshi had some way to see what was happening in the distance.

I gripped his arm tighter. Who could it be? Did someone figure out he is human? Or someone tracking the killer of those two thugs? What if my father’s body was found and they were actually after me?

All kinds of thoughts started to form into my head. Maybe Satoshi realised that as a steady stream of air forced into my lungs clearing up my head.

*deep breathe*

I took deep breaths with my own strength and tried to think more rationally.

(....)

I couldn’t really think of anything.

(I’m sure it’ll be fine as long as Satoshi’s here! I should pretend like there is nothing wrong and that we haven’t realised a thing.)

“Hats.”

“Hats.”

“Smithy.”

“Smithy.”

“Weapons.”

“Weapons.”

Then I pointed at a few things.

“Shop.”

“Weapons.”

“Table.”

He got all of them right.

We went into another back alley. There weren’t any things I could point at so we simply walked.

As we took a turn, preventing us from being seen from the main street, all of a sudden it became deathly quiet and Satoshi hugged me tight. We launched up into the air, landing on top of the next building. Though it was sudden, I wasn't surprised. Well, I was a little occupied with sniffing into my thinly robed man so I forgot to be surprised..

Following Satoshi, I peered down, catching sight of the stalker. It was a lone person, the gender hard for me to discern from the distance.

The person discreetly looked into the turn to locate us. Not finding us, the person started to look back and forth, for some reason he was able to tell that we hadn’t straight left the alley.

Suddenly, the cacophony of the outside world returned and our stalker immediately looked up at us. I barely made out the rabbit ears on their head.

(They’re following us using sound!)

Rabbit people were famous for their tracking capabilities using sound, after all!

The person having realised that their cover was blown turned around to escape but slammed back into the wall instead. No sound reached us telling me that Satoshi had done something similar to them as he had just done to us.

He didn’t hug me this time and I let him carry me down to face our follower. It didn’t require me to reach all the way down to determine the gender of the person. The thick breasts ready to spill out of her leather armour were more than enough.

“Why is a rabbitkin after us….?”

I didn't recognise her. Rabbitkins were known to be some of the best trackers because of their incredible hearing. But even with that, it didn’t seem like my words reached her. Whatever Satoshi did was certainly strong.

As we landed on the ground, the sounds from the outside world disappeared again and now I could hear the struggles of the rabbit woman. She was stuck to the wall and the way her hair blew around rapidly, told me that it was the wind keeping her body in place, leaving only her head.

She had brown hair like my own but much lighter. She had big breasts and large rabbit ears. Being an adventurer, the rest of her body was also shaped perfectly. She was the kind of woman any man would spend more than a few minutes starting at. 

But right now, she looked at Satoshi as if she’d seen a ghost. I looked at him to realise he’d removed his hood and his human ears were in plain sight.

“Why are you following us?”

I asked her. But she was too lost in her horror to even realise I had spoken.

“Do you know each other? Are you.. friends?”

I was a little self-conscious because of her big breasts and great figure so ended up blurting that out. What if this was an old lover of his? Stalking behind Satoshi and touching herself imagining things!? I wouldn't put it past someone as amazing as Satoshi to have a ex-lover or two, or a hundred..

“Friends!? Are you crazy!?”

She snapped at me.

“Friends with an elemental!?”

She looked towards Satoshi.

“I know what you are. Ever since you ‘found’ us, there was something off about you! The way you blew away the balaboor with your amateurish movements. Then you had no footsteps and then again at the slums.”

She turned towards me again. As soon as she mentioned balaboor, I understood she was from Mr. Meste's and Mr. Rovango's party.

“No one else noticed, but I did! These ears are not for show, ferret!”

She spat at the ground. 

“And now this? I know we’ve somehow been cut off from the outside world. That’s how you managed to escape me as well!”

She grit her teeth as she ceased her struggles. Maybe she realised it was pointless.

“Meste knew something. He was afraid back in the woods and he was afraid when this fucker showed up in the guild. He knew he was human… With that chantless magic like those of the spirits…. It’s the only explanation.. He’s the wind elemental.. You know what that means, don’t you?”

She asked me. I knew what it meant. I had my doubts when I saw the kind of power Satoshi used. According to the legends, no one except the spirits themselves, who represented the elements, could use chantless magic. There was only one explanation, as the rabbitwoman said. We were all told stories about them. Every 300 years or so, five humans representing the five elements would bring destruction to the world for a year before disappearing as suddenly as they had arrived.

“You knew…”

She looked at me wide-eyed.

“..I had my doubts.”

“Do you even understand the consequences!?”

“..I don’t care.”

She turned red with anger.

“You! You! Don’t you understand?! He will kill everyone here! Only destruction awaits for….”

Suddenly, her mouth stopped producing any sounds. Rather, I couldn’t hear anything. I could see her shouting at me trying to make me understand but it didn’t reach me anymore.

I looked at the only possible cause of her sudden quiet. Satoshi looked at her with annoyance.

(I do understand.)

I directed that thought towards her.

Satoshi looked at me and did a swipe with his hand at his neck, and then he pointed at the rabbitwoman. Often I would get confused with his signs, but this was easy to understand. He asked me whether he should behead her. I did not know where he kept a sword on him but I dared not doubt him for a single second.

I nodded.

Then with the most gleeful smile I had ever seen on his face, he pointed his finger at the rabbitwoman. Her restrains released, she fell to the ground. Then Satoshi pointed up.

Before I could even blink, the rabbitwoman launched in the air so fast that I’m sure most of her bones should have shattered right then. Even if she was alive there was absolutely no way she could survive the fall that was coming for her, wherever she landed. Okay, so maybe I didn't understand his signs once again.

He stretched, unbothered by the life he had just claimed. Maybe she was right in that he will bring destruction.

(I do understand.)

I looked at his leaving back and hurried after him.

(But I don’t care.)