Chapter 712

Despite starting off talking about Lily, this is a chapter from Kat’s perspective.

For those who have forgotten [These are Lily’s thoughts]

——

Lily found herself coming out of a long sleep. Part of her mind wanted to just go back to the quiet darkness, to find more chances to rest. The more human part of her though was panicking. She could tell she had been asleep for quite some time now. [Urgh... Kat what happened?]

Lily waited for a few moments, eyes closed, but she didn’t hear any response. Slight panic rising up within her Lily poked the link between them and found it was bursting with colours and sights and sounds. It was all mangled together though blue and purple featured prominently within the odd mix she could taste.

The fact that she was tasting colours was, to Lily anyway, a sign that something wasn’t quite right. Hackles rising, Lily let a single eye open only to find herself in an unfamiliar room and it was dark. The only light the slightest touch of silver from the moon. Enough for a Memphis, to see, but not to see all that much. Lily was started to get agitated and took a reflexive sniff, an instinct ingrained into her new body, to try and find more information.

What she found caused her to instantly relax. The scent of Kat filled her, it was everywhere and Lily felt herself calming back down. Her puffed-out fur relaxing back against her body, her tense muscles relaxing completely and Lily flopped back down onto something soft. Taking slightly better stock of her body now, Lily guessed she was on a pillow or a bed of some kind. She was leaning towards bed because she could feel herself being hugged... and now she was paying attention there was also a faint pressure on her back. Likely Kat’s wing resting over her.

.....

Another sniff, this time focused on the more immediate surroundings revealed it was certainly Kat that was holding her... but there was someone else here. A slight twinge of jealousy rose within her before she crushed it back down. [Don’t be stupid Lily. Kat wouldn’t cheat on you. Even if she did, she certainly wouldn’t do it while snuggled up against you. Just find out what’s going on, and move.]

Lily wiggled out from Kat’s hold, slipping forward with considerable grace she knew was all the bodies. Lily wouldn’t have called herself clumsy but she certainly wasn’t graceful, or silent when walking. Once freed from the warm embrace Lily could stop the wave of sadness that radiated through her before she slammed down on it. [What are you, five? Kat’s right there. You just aren’t being held by her and YOU did that to yourself. Why are you being such a baby about it?]

What Lily didn’t notice, was that projecting multiple negative thoughts about herself down the link, even if unintentionally, was starting to register in Kat’s sleeping mind. She wasn’t awake just yet, but she could feel something wasn’t quite right and was slowly creeping towards the waking world. If Lily continued distress herself, Kat would likely awaken in response.

Lily, not realising how close she was to waking Kat, for if she knew, she would have done anything to keep Kat in peaceful slumber. Waking her girlfriend up was not on her to-do list. What was on the list, was figuring out what was going on. Looking around, Lily didn’t see anything noteworthy around. It looked just like a normal room.

Eventually, her gaze turned towards the area she suspected she’d find something distasteful, and Lily was only very technically correct. There was a brief tinge of annoyance when she spotted the fae sleeping near Kat, that was vastly overshadowed by the surprise and joy that followed. Kat could see that whoever this Fae was, and the blue hair made it unlikely to be Green, they weren’t touching Kat at all. Which clearly took a bit of effort.

Kat was currently face down on the bed with both of her wings stretched out. Now, this bed was larger then a normal king-sized affair, more a bed fit for a king then a king sized bed as she knew it. Even still, Blue wasn’t exactly provided with a lot of room to stretch out. If it was Nell in her place there wouldn’t have been room at all. As it was though, Blue was a rather thin and managed to have her own oasis on the bed. This was helped by the fact that neither of them seemed to move at all in their sleep.

Lily sniffed the room again looking for anything else that might tell her what was going on when she found the strangest scent. It was like smelling the open woods, surrounded by trees and nature... except it was all concentrated to the area just in front of the table. Hopping off the bed, Lily sniffed at the area Thyme has appeared to explain things to Kat and Blue.

Lily couldn’t quite work out what it was. This was because she’d never smelled anything like Thyme before and it just didn’t occur to her that it could be a person. The smell of nature was just that strong. Sadly for Lily, the annoyance that came with being unable to figure out the answer to a puzzle, while very natural, was enough to set Kat’s consciousness over the edge. This alone would never be enough... but the third strum on the strings of their link. Well, that certainly was.

Kat sat up, not really needing to wake herself up. She just was awake, let herself sit up slowly. Something was wrong, and she knew that... but Thyme would keep things safe. They had explicitly stated they weren’t in a round right now and that it was time to relax. Thyme was many things, but a liar they were not. So Kat was trying to figure out where the unease was coming from.

The steady stream of annoyance she felt couldn’t possible be the answer though. *But why am I annoyed? I was having a nice dream and I got to sleep cuddled up with Lily.* That’s when Kat felt her thought process crack. She’d just sat up. She’d just sat up without any extra weight in her arms. She’d just sat up and she didn’t know WHERE Lily was. Panic started to build, bleeding into the link, and it was only a confused, [Kat?] that halted things from escalating.

*Lily... where are you exactly?*

[Kat, I’m just at the foot of the bed. I didn’t know where I was or what was going on so I was investigating a little bit,] thought Lily as she launched herself back onto the bed. When the little Memphis came into Kat’s view, she was very tempted to just dive onto Lily and hug her into oblivion but she held back, letting Lily come to her.

She was swiftly rewarded with Lily crawling up onto her lap and curling up. Kat decided that everything was right with the world and started to calm down. She didn’t notice it, but her eyes had been glowing and her demonic energy was itching to be used just moments ago. Once Lily was in position Kat started to carefully run her fingers through Lily’s fur, making sure to get underneath her wings and around her horns, eliciting soft purrs from the Memphis.

*I’m glad you’re ok. You’ve been asleep for quite a while.*n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

[Yeah... I could sort of tell. Sorry. I didn’t realise I wasn’t getting enough sleep so... yeah sorry for worrying you,]

*I’ll live. Thyme has been looking after you so I haven’t been constantly worried about your safety or that you might wake up randomly.*

[Wait what? Why did you have Thyme look after me? I was kind of hoping to be able to actually help a bit while I was here...]

*Well, there hasn’t been too much for you to do honestly. That combined with the fact that well... it was just nice for you to be safe. I trust you to watch my back, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you took an attack or two for me in an attempt to keep me safe... but Lily I don’t really need that. I’m very tough, and I regenerate. What I actually need is ranged support.

I can’t throw my flames far without loosing control over them. My dream ability isn’t really useful because trying to use just the fog is horribly draining and potentially deadly if I was to reform in something. My true sight seems to have been accounted for... I can’t really do much other than rely on my strength. If there was a way to spread my fire around... well it still wouldn’t be useful right now because I promised not to use it but... hmm...

The best way to spread them accurately would be to set a stone on fire and throwing that at people or something. Hmm... actually considering I can summon my fans back to me... Lily make a note of that. I think there is testing to be done once we get back to Earth. Or... maybe wait till the next adventure. Don’t want to start a magical fire in someone’s house. Especially one not even I can really put out.*