Drool and morning breath.
When I opened my eyes Jashen and I were face to face. I pushed her away and rolled out of bed.
Jashen curled into a ball and pulled the blanket tighter around herself. "Five more… just five more rice balls and I'm done."
I gripped my face.
— — —
After getting dressed and taking care of my hygiene I headed outside.
The sun was rising and I decided to sit on the cliffside and watch the ocean. The waves smashed against the rocks and created a thick foam.
This was a rare thing for me as of late.
Not having anything to do. No monsters to hunt and kill, no merchants to rip me off, no race to beat sundown.
I sighed and picked at the grass.
I'm closer than ever to fighting Lilith.
And yet I feel I've never been further from her.
Maybe I could train for the week, but it would be pointless. The gap between Lilith and me is so vast that a week of training is nothing but a drop in the bucket.
The worst part is I can't even leave this place, especially if those Royal Blades are anything like Julian.
Plus the dwarves. They'd try to kill me too if I ruined their plans for sanctuary.
The more I pondered my situation the more frustrated I became.
I calmed down with a long breath and reclined in the grass. My hands were resting beneath my head.
When I looked up I was greeted by the sky, but rather a pair of white panties and a long orange tail.
I blinked as the wind blew through her white dress.
How long was she behind me?
Actually, I don't wanna know.
"Hey, Lafayette," Jashen began. Her voice was muffled with the sound of chewing. "I got us a snack while they're cooking breakfast."
I sat up and looked over my shoulder to see Jashen with a half-eaten piece of toast in either hand.
One was covered in honey and the other in jam. She reached down to hand me both halves. "At first I got the honey one for you and jam for myself. It's because you liked honey in your porridge."
I took the sticky, half-eaten pieces of toast.
"But I got curious about how your toast tasted." She started licking her fingers. "I only meant to eat a little piece, but it was so good I couldn't help myself."
She sat beside me as I stared at the toast.
Then I looked at her. "Why even bother if you were just going to eat it?"
"I know! I'm sorry! But that's why I gave you my other half so you'd have a full piece."
I examined the two pieces. Both had Jashen's bite marks and spit all over them. I wanted to refuse out of principle alone.
But I couldn't deny that I was hungry. And I had eaten worse. I pressed both halves of the toast together in a sandwich and took a bite.
It was overly sweet but the satisfaction of having food in my mouth was nice.
Jashen watched me eat for a moment, then moved closer.
"Hey, can you wash my hands?"
"Wash your own hands."
Jashen puffed her cheeks and crossed her arms. "You're being mean, I don't want to go back in the house to wash my hands." Her tail swished back and forth. "I need your water."
"No you don't."
Her cheeks turned red with frustration.
"Yes, I do!"
I smirked and took another bite of my sandwich. "No, ya don't."
"Please!"
"No."
"Lafayette, don't be cruel!"
I finished the last of my sandwich and licked my fingers. I then gave her a sharp side eye.
"Cruel? You mean like this?" I summed a water ball and pushed both my hands into it.
"Wow, what a convenient ability I have. You know I think I'm a little thirsty too." I raised my water ball to my lips and took a long drawn-out slurp.
Jashen's pout had been replaced by a genuine and disappointed frown. "How can you be so mean? Aren't I nice to you?"
I shrugged. "I didn't ask you to be nice to be."
"You shouldn't have to ask. You don't ask to breathe do you?" She gestured her head wildly. "Imagine if you had to ask to breathe? The world would be a suffocating mess."
I dispelled my waterball.
"It's too late for that, the world has been suffocating since the dawn of man."
"That's not true, you just have to stop focusing on the bad parts of life. It's not all bad."
I scoffed. "And you need to get out more. Because there's no way you'd believe that if you saw what I saw."
"Okay then answer this. If you had six cookies and you dropped one, what do you still have?"
I took a moment and pretended to think.
"Dirty hands and a dirty cookie?"
Jashen stared at me, her expression softened as she leaned close and chopped the top of my head.
"Bad."
"Ouch."
"You have five very delicious cookies." Jashen scratched my scalp. "Don't let the spoil of one spoil the others. Life gets really bleak that way, you know?"
I closed my eyes as I unintentionally leaned into the scratches. "I'm just being realistic, that's all I can be these days."
Jashen hummed softly. "Realism is living in the moment, what you do is live in the past."
"Past?"
"Mhm. You think that was bad so this will be bad. But every situation isn't the same. Like sometimes a good can make you really sick, but you can't stop eating."
I peeked one eye open. "What is it, with you and food? Every analogy you give is somehow always related to food."
Jashen chuckled. "I'm hungry… and a little thirsty."
I closed my one eye and sighed, before I raised my palm and summoned a waterball.
"Here."
Jashen's eyes lit up as she shoved both her hands into it and giggled.
Once her hands were clean she began to lap up the water like an actual animal.
I was disgusted…
Okay, maybe it was a little adorable but still.
Ah, what am I saying?
I just met this girl and I'm already calling her adorable? My relationship with her is developing faster than the one I had with Meridian.
But I mean, it's not my fault. I try to resist her and she won't listen. Sure I could blast her to kingdom come but that feels wrong.
Wait, why am I making excuses?
Lick.
Lost in thought, I was completely caught off guard by Jashen. She licked my cheek with a smile. "Thank you, Lafayette."
I touched my damp cheek as I stared into Jashen's eyes. "Why? Why would you do that?"
Jashen tilted her head with a curious expression, like I was asking about something mundane.
Like why the sky is blue.
"It's a sincere way to thank a close friend or partner. Back in my homeland mama would always lick us when we did something good."
She paused. "Dad would give them out too, well I didn't get them, but I understood what they meant."
She then smiled. "I used to lick my other humans all the time but it took them a minute to get used to it."
Yeah, I bet. "There's no other way to thank someone in your culture? I don't know, like a bow?"
Jashen perked up when I asked about her homeland.
"Oooh! There are three ways. So if an older stranger does something nice you squeeze their hand and say, Xir-Xir. Which means thank you kindly."
She continued.
"If you have someone close in age you can touch noses if you know them. And if not, you can briefly shake their hand."
She then grinned. "And you know, if you have children, a close friend or mate, you can lick them or touch them nose to nose."
I blinked.
"Really? Are all beast people like that?"
She shook her head.
"No, just in my homeland. I hear the wolf tribe of the Western archipelago is very mean and competitive. And there are other dynasties, but they mostly stay to themselves."
That's kinda interesting.
So humans and elves dominate the West. In the center, you have the dwarves, and in the far east, you have the beast people.
"Do you ever want to go back home?"
Jashen's ears flopped as her expression fell. "I've been trying for three years." She answered. "I would hop from train to train but they would always bring me to another city."
She turned her gaze to the sea.
"That's how I met Julian. I was hiding on the same train as him. We got caught because I was startled by his presence."
She chuckled dryly as she turned to me. "Do you think I'll ever see my home again?"
I hesitated.
"Honestly? Probably not, I doubt anyone would sail to the far east just to drop off one girl." I crossed my arms. "You'd be better off trying your luck in the federation again."
Jashen shook her head. "No, I'll get home one day but not like that."
She smiled softly. "Besides, I don't have to go home immediately. We can wait until we're older, then we can get blessed."
"By mother Lora? Lotus?" I couldn't remember the name.
"Lateshi." She corrected me with a giggle and a finger press to the nose.