By the time the sun rises once more, the giant has been almost completely cleared of his parasitic infection, and I’m feeling a fair bit rejuvenated from last night. Ahhh, is there anything better than to stand in the morning sun, with a full belly and an organic, full-body moisturiser, rich in iron, water and red blood cells? Absolutely not.

Unfortunately, Simel might not like my current look, as trendy and modernist as it is, so before I go back inside I spend a while licking myself clean. Hm. Maybe I really am a prissy kitty after all…

Not a princess though. As far as I know, I haven’t got a single drop of royal blood in my body. Not that there hasn’t been royal blood in there at some point, but that wasn’t mine per se, so I don’t count it.

Happy and clean, I trudge up to the door. But I hesitate a little before entering. Maybe he’s leaning against the door again?

…Okay, honestly, if he was leaning against the door again, I would probably assume it was a goblin thing and not some illogical attempt at getting out of the crib, wherefore he would ever want to do that.

After a moment’s hesitation, I pull the door open. No Simel falls out. I breathe a sigh of relief and step inside, closing the door behind me to keep out the ever-mounting heat. But when I move inside the main room of the crib, I find a startling sight.

Simel isn’t awake yet.

He’s still asleep, softly breathing, curled up inside and on top of the bear skin. Well, isn’t that just precious? It’s almost such an adorable sight that I hesitate to enter lest my arrival might rouse him from his wonderful little dreams. Unfortunately, I’ve got a few appendages to regrow, and the sands and soot aren’t very good for meditating on top of.

So, moving as softly and quietly as a panther, I make my way inside the room. I get halfway across the floor before I realise something.

Simel is whimpering in his sleep.

He was doing that before, sure, but it feels more frantic now. He genuinely sounds terrified, and now that I’m looking at his face, he seems scared, too. Like scooby-doo levels of horror.

Maybe it would be best if I just ignored it. He hasn’t reacted to my being close too well during the past few hours, but watching him toss and turn like this is almost pure torture. Hrmm… Well, I’m sure it won’t hurt if I stand just a little bit closer? And—and maybe an inch or so closer. A little bit more…

I stare down at him where he lies, tossing and turning. I wonder if it’s comfortable sleeping in such a thick coat? If I was him, I’d probably be like a molten popsicle. Or a popsicle about to melt. Due to the heat, that is. Yeah.

Maybe the bear pelt was too much?

Bears are pretty big and need to keep really warm. How thick is that fur even? An inch? Two? No idea, but… Looking at the temperature in here, it’s far from cold. It’s kind of warm, actually. So if he’s sleeping not just in his entire outfit, but also beneath a thick bear blanket, then it would only be obvious he’d be way too warm. I’m sure he’s sweating buckets under there.

So, considering that I was the one who covered him in said blanket, it only makes sense that I should be the one to remove it. To absolve myself of the mistake, one might say.

Yup, that makes sense.

Leaning forwards, I reach out towards the blanket.

My fingers only barely have time to brush up against the hairs of the blanket before Simel’s eyes suddenly flare open in wide-eyed terror, darting back and forth only to quickly fall on me, and, more importantly; my claws, at this moment mere inches from his throat.

Ah, eh, um… This isn’t what it—

Leaping out of the bed like a cat startled awake, he’s somehow able to simultaneously get to his feet without stumbling while also keeping all fingers on his right hand aimed at me, in a clear stay-back-or-the-girl-gets-it pose. I’m actually genuinely impressed, like, he jumped out of bed and got to a battle-ready stance faster than the pop of a cork! Going by the look on his face, he’s absolutely ready, too. His hand is trembling, and so is his lower lip, but apart from that, he seems totally prepared to throw down.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

How silly! And all because I accidentally awoke him! What a simple misunderstanding!

I pull up my hands in a gesture of friendly surrender.

“Heh, uh, um,” I begin, but I can’t say anything else before he points at me again.

…Really? With this again? Gee, I almost want to roll my eyes.

“Look, Simel…” I shake my head.

I barely even have time to register the pop-up before the next one shows up.

My jaw snaps shut. Okay. Starting to get a bit annoying, now.

“Listen, I wasn’t trying to—” I take a step towards him.

He points at me again.

I purse my lips. “Simel, I don’t know if you know this, but I can see every time you do that, and it’s starting to get kind of irritating, so if you do that one more time—”

Not even a single heartbeat later,

I grit my teeth. “Okay, you know what? Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” I say, taking one big step towards him.

He points at me again but I’m faster—much faster—so before he has time to do any useless magic stuff, I grab his hand, squeezing the tiny appendage within my large palm. Compared to mine, his hand is almost like that of a child. Tiny. Small. Brittle. In my grip, it trembles meekly. Thankfully for Simel, I’m not actually trying to hurt him. In fact, I’m trying to do just the opposite.

Among his fingers, I dig out his index. And, just as I remember it, he’s wearing a little ring with a little gemstone on it. Using my sharp claws, I’m able to carefully remove the gemstone. It shines grey in the light.

With my prize gained, I let go of him. For a second, he doesn’t move at all. He just stares at me, and at the gem in my hand. And then he looks up at me, his big, fawn-like eyes shimmering.

“You can have it back once you promise to use it properly,” I say as I stab my finger inside my shoulder. Once I’ve got a nice, deep hole made, I push the gemstone inside. I kind of wanted to eat it, but that’d be a bit too mean, right? Besides, if Simel can afford to have one of these on each finger, they can’t be too expensive, so I should be able to have a taste at some point or another.

“As I was trying to explain,” I say, looking down at him, “this was all a silly misunderstanding! I didn’t really mean to wake you up. That was a mistake, okay?” I smile. He doesn’t smile back, as usual. “But your reaction was completely unwarranted. Need I remind you that we’re trying to cooperate here? I’m not trying to accuse you of anything, but if we’re going to share this crib, I need to be able to wake you up without getting a fistful of magic and spells. Is that so much to ask for?”

I would’ve liked to receive an agreeing shake of the head, but silence works just as well, I suppose.

“Yeah, exactly. How would you like it if I went all claws-first whenever you startled me? Wouldn’t be very fun, would it?” Honestly, I’d like to say a few more words, but I think he’s learned his lesson. And I didn’t need to use any physical punishment whatsoever! I am rocking this assignment. As I’m mentally praising myself, a short bit of silence falls over the crib. Considering that we’re standing less than a metre away from each other, the silence turns awkward remarkably fast.

“Good, good, uh…” I start, but I’m not sure where to take it after that, so I fall silent again. Now that I think about it, since we’re anyways standing like this, I might as well explain what the day holds in store. “Okay, so, uh… How should I explain this, um…” I wave a little in the air. “Remember when we last met? After I… uh… defeated the king, I just sort of disappeared, right? Specifically, I guess it was five minutes after defeating him, but… I went poof. Right? You remember that?”

He doesn’t nod, or make any other show that he isn’t both mute and deaf, but this is basically his standard emote by now, so I continue.

“Right. See, tonight, at midnight, in around twelve hours, I’ll be doing that again.” His eyes widen by a hair’s breadth. “But I’ll only be gone for twenty-four hours! And then I’ll be right back here again, and we can figure out how to make this all work.” For some inexplicable reason, this makes his ears fall a little. They’ve been hanging weirdly low ever since I saw him, kind of like a scared dog, but now they’re even lower than that.

Maybe he’s hungry? He did wake up like a minute ago, so maybe he needs some grub to get his brain going. That might not be a bad idea.

I smile at him. He flinches. “How about I explain a bit over breakfast? You still have some cactus left, so…” For some reason, the mention of the cactus makes him visibly pale. “Or do you not want—”

And then the most peculiar thing happens. Forget nodding or shaking his head, he actually starts communicating! Non-verbally, sure, but by God does he do it.

He gestures towards the hallway and the door, and makes a movement like trying to open a door. I stare at him. Wow. I have never felt prouder of someone in my life. Can I take screenshots through the system? I really want to immortalise this moment.

His face twists in desperation and an orange blush spreads across his cheeks. He repeats the gesture again for my viewing pleasure. Maybe I should try drawing it? Or maybe if I describe it in a post on the forums, I can keep the memory alive for longer? Ah, that’d be quite something.

While I’m still thinking about such things, he grits his teeth, repeats the gesture, and then adds another one as a final addendum. He gestures down, at the front of his pants. What, did he get them dirty? Or what is he—

Oh. Oh.

“Ah. Uh, um… Y—yeah, okay, I’ll open it, just give me a minute, okay? Yeah,” I stammer. Moving hurriedly, I go and open the front door and hold it open for him as he quietly jumps out. I almost want to follow him outside, but… N—no. “Come right back after you’re done, okay? Otherwise, I’ll be a bit upset!”

I have no idea if he listened, but he waddles off somewhere I can’t see and… Yeah.

For some reason, I keep forgetting my body’s weird. Simel’s a normal creature. He needs to eat, and drink, and sleep, and… Yeah. All that stuff.

This might be a bit more difficult than I originally thought.