Who Said Matrimony?

“How can you both marry the same man?!” Rowen asked with a clear look of shock on his face.

“Easy. It is done all the time here. Don’t tell me that you don’t have polygamy in your land?” Kitarra narrowed her eyes.

“No, we don’t, well not legally anyway.”

“So, one woman can monopolize one man? What about the other women?”
“Well, on average we’re pretty even of men and women. So, that means that there are usually no extras out there to be had.” He was getting very puzzled at the line of discussion.

Kitarra looked thoughtful and said, “Oh right, different world. Here on Twalling Cade, there are on average of five women for every man. Due to the effect magic has and the toll of casting, and all these years of war, men are in short supply.”

“The effect which magic has?”

“Yes, when men start puberty their mana crystal grows and becomes functional. Women’s mana crystals grow with them through their lives. Quite often this has a deleterious effect on men’s health.”

“That’s good to know.” He said out loud.

Libido: “Oooohhh yeah!!!”

Consciousness and Analytical, “Will you shut up!”

Rowen said to Kitarra, “So, that doesn’t explain why you think that I may become your husband, not that I’m not flattered mind you.”

She shrugged and said, “I just do. Do you have women’s intuition in your world?”

“Yes, we do.”

“Then chalk it up to that.”

He shrugged and said, “Well we still don’t know for sure. Right now, we have more important things to accomplish. Let me show you the bathroom and how to use it and then we can plan what to do next.”

Her ears perked up and her tail began to wag as she said, “Bath?!”

He showed her the bathing facilities and how to use them as well as how to use the toilet.

She decided that that would be a great time to have a bath since she and her sister were on their mission for the last two weeks and she hadn’t bathed in that time.

He left her to bathe and went outside to clean up the bodies laying around, so as to not draw any attention from predators, carrion creatures, and other unwelcomed visitors. He looked through the dead’s belongings and sorted out anything which may be useful. For instance, the Claymore which Mr. Tank was wielding just glowed with power.

He started to go through Black Robes’ possessions but there was a sickly feel to them which made him want to take a shower from just being in proximity to them, so he just left them alone.

He pushed all the enemy bodies off the cliff, so as to get them as far away as possible. He experimented with his telekinetic power and was able to easily push those huge bodies over the cliff. Which was once he figured out how they worked. He scolded himself for not trying them out earlier. It was still very hard to control. It was like trying to push a magnet along with another magnet. The bodies didn’t always go in the direction which he intended.

Ultimately it gave him a headache and he decided to stop.

“Maybe I’ll practice on small stuff and work back up to the bigger stuff.”

As for the Princesses’ party members, he lined them up and thought about making some makeshift coffins for them. He was thinking that if he kept things simple, he could make quite a few. But after focusing in and creating one, he felt a bit spent. So, he decided to create simple body bags with a very simple runic spell on it to ward off scavengers. He was thinking he would either put them in his ring in order to allow for them to be properly buried in their homeland or he would just build cairns around them once he talked to Kitarra about what she thinks should be done.

He did, as best he could, sort out the belongings for the escort’s bodies and placed them within their respective body bags.

The last of the Princesses’ party members was a woman which looked like a child. She couldn’t have been more than three foot tall and she had a childlike face, but her ears were pointed, and she had some gray hairs. She also had an old looking staff.

She had been shot in the back with an arrow and he had an anger well up within him. He decided to give her the one coffin which he was able to accomplish.

He turned and jumped because Kitarra was standing right next to him, “Damn it, I didn’t sense you again!”

“You need to work on your situational awareness. That could get you killed.”

He looked down and said, “Right.” Remembering he had not, for some reason, tell her about his immortality.

He noticed that she had put on her travel clothes that she had on before her bath. It was blood stained and had several rips and cuts on it.

He said, “I can make you some clean clothes that will repair themselves if you want. Of course, you’ll have to give me time.”

She smiled and said, “That would be nice!” and she grabbed his left hand with both of hers.

He felt his face warm. He had never had this kind of attention from a beautiful woman before.

He turned his head because he didn’t know if she could see him blush and said, “What do you want to do with their bodies?” motioning to the line of dead bodies, twelve in all.

“We can build them cairns, I think. I will take some appropriate belongings from them for their families.”

“Speaking of which, I found this broken bow that seems to radiate magical power and I couldn’t figure out who it belonged to.”

“Oh, that is mine. It was broken in the battle.” She had a sad look on her face.

“Well, I can make you a new bow if you’ll give me a little time.”

“If you would please, I would be most appreciative!” she said smiling, “It won’t fully replace ‘Piercer’ but it’ll be very useful.”

He nodded and said, “I’ll hold onto Piercer and use it as a model to work from.”

“If you would please. Piercer was made for me by one of the kingdom’s best weapon smiths.”

“If you don’t mind my asking, what kind of enchantments were on Piercer?”

“It increases my strength by quite a bit. It also improved my accuracy.”

“Good to know. Anything else you want added to your bow…”

They spent some time talking about what she wanted for a bow as he finished caring for the bodies of the fallen.

He made some bleach and splashed it around on as much of the blood as he could. He didn’t want to attract anything. The process also made him tired but he felt that he had to push through.

Kitarra offered to help but he said, “That’s not necessary. I’ve got it handled.”

She looked at him with a fire in her eyes and said, “I’m not some kind of castle princess waiting for my valet to wait on me hand and foot. Not like the majority of the princesses and princes from the Five Kingdoms! I can pull my weight here!”

He nodded and said, “My apologies. Truth is you’re the first princess that I have ever met face to face. I have no idea how to act around you.”

“Well, here in the field you treat me like you would anyone else!”

He nodded and said, “Okay, good to know.”

“Okay? What is the meaning of Okay?”

“Oh, it’s a commonly used slang word from my world meaning…well it means alright, I think. We say okay to acknowledge that we agree, we say it to mean that things are right, etc.”

Their conversation turned light and they chatted comfortably as they finished bleaching up the blood.

After they finished, he went over to all approach points to their camp and he took out a piece of chalk and carefully marked the ground with some warning runes. The runes were designed to warn him if anyone or anything crosses over the runes. Or at least he hoped that they would. This was an experiment on his part.

He thought to himself sardonically, “I wish I had put these warning runes out before I ended up wolf chow.”

The sun was setting in the west which was on the other side of the mountain range, so it was getting dark early and quickly.

After they both finished outside, they went back into the cabin. Jade had turned on the lights in the living/kitchen area and was preparing to cook some of the prepared rations he had made earlier.

Kitarra went into the bedroom and checked on her sister.

Dinner was well received by Kitarra since she had only been eating hard tack and elven travel bread over the last few days.

She said, “Us Foxia get anxious if we don’t eat meat at least every other day. Same goes for Wolfen and Felineans. Dogua tend to not care and eat anything you put in front of them.” She also shared several other cultural points of interests as well as certain points of etiquette to be aware of around both Beastkins and elves.

Finally, Rowen couldn’t help but ask, “Why are two princesses of the realm traveling out here in the wilderness? I shared with you my mission; I hope you don’t mind if I ask you yours.”

She looked like she was considering how to answer the question. She finally shrugged and said, “In truth, the Kingdom of Tier is nearly out of wealth. We were sent to an abandoned keep once owned by a powerful wizard. We were looking for both artifacts of power and any gold or silver we could find.”

He thought about it for a moment then said, “That explains why you would send a party, but not why you would send a first princess and another princess.”

“You are right. Besides, I am also a first princess just so you know. Our aunt, the seer sent us along because she saw that we, my sister and I, are going to bring back something very valuable and powerful. Something that WILL save the kingdom.”

“Did you find what you needed?”

She looked at him like she was weighing out what to say then said, “I’m not sure. We didn’t find any gold, silver, or gems like we wanted. We ran into that sorcerer and his company of Woague when we first entered the keep. We left half our party dead at the keep. It was a running fight from there. It would seem that the sorcerer was sent there to stop us.”

He nodded and asked, “So what did you find? You said you weren’t sure, so you had to have found something.”

She just looked at him with a mischievous look in her eyes and said, “You have to allow a maiden to have some secrets.”

He got embarrassed and said, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.”

“No, that’s quite alright. Or as you say, that’s okay.” She winked.

The rest of their dinner went smoothly with light talk and the couple fell into a comfortable rhythm with each other. He heated up some hot apple pie for dessert and she appeared to be in sheer pleasure when eating it. It was almost seductive to watch her eat.

After dinner, he made her some simple but warm flannel pajamas. He also made a set for Princess Dana just in case she needed them.

After he saw her off to bed, he went into the bathroom and showered and dressed in his pajamas. When he left the bathroom, he noticed that Jade had unfolded the extra bed in the couch and laid down some sheets and blankets for him. He was glad to see that because he felt spent from the battle and mana use this day.

He smiled and said, “Thank you Jade. Please keep watch over us tonight. If something happens, prioritize protecting the princesses please.”

“As you wish, Master.”

He laid down. He thought about the people who lost their lives today. Especially those who died by his hand and he thought, “I don’t know why I don’t feel bad about killing them. I hope that I’m not becoming callus about death or killing.”

Then his thoughts turned to the wonderful conversation he had with Kitarra. Princess or not, she was a woman and a very beautiful one at that. He savored their time together and felt a warmth in his heart that he had never felt before.

He had never had a girlfriend. He wasn’t an ugly man, but he wasn’t outstandingly hansom either. He was never able to catch the eye of anyone, although several caught his eye.

Yet he just ate dinner and had a comfortable conversation with one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. Leave alone the exoticness of her fox ears and tail, she was the kind of woman who would stand out in any crowd even without them.

Sleep found him easy because of the fatigue from the busy day.

He didn’t know how long he was asleep when he felt someone slide under the covers with him. He rolled over to look at who it was, hoping that it wasn’t Jade acting out some program that his libido may have snuck in. That was when he saw in the darkness that his companion did indeed have fox ears and tail.

She nuzzled up to him and began kissing him passionately.

Libido, “What do I do, what do I do?!”

Instinct, “Relax. I’ll take over from here.”