酷视

To sum it all up, it would be best to say that when my feet finally touched the solid ground back at  Leinei\'s garden, I breathed out what had to be the biggest sigh of relief in my whole damn life!

I powerlessly fell down to my knees, fighting off the desire to bow down and kiss the ground. Doing so would be outright disrespectful to the one that carried all three of us back here.

"Nothing beats being home," Leinei muttered, stretching her arms out as soon as she dropped down and inhaled one heck of a big breath.

"That I can easily agree on," I muttered, turning around to catch Fay as she jumped down, helping her to land safely.  A meaningless gesture at its core, given how I expected Fay to be several leagues more agile than I could ever hope to be.

And something at the very depth of my soul told me, that even maxing out my agility attribute wouldn\'t be enough to catch up with her.

"Now that we are back, isn\'t it about time you start talking?" Madam was the only one who didn\'t show any hints of stiffness, as if carrying us all here on her own back was lesser of an issue than it was for us to hold on to her.

But, quite noticeably, she didn\'t change back into her human form, once again resorting to some sort of telepathy to communicate.

"Sure thing," I smiled at my future mother-in-law, before grabbing Fay at her waist and sitting down, pulling her on top of my lap.

This was going to be a long talk. And given how we didn\'t really have the time to mingle all that much, I was reaching dangerously low levels of Fay cuddle levels. Just a bit more without her touch and I could potentially start balding!

"First, let me talk about what I think about this entire thing," I started, wiggling around to make sure Fay had a comfortable seat before letting her rest her side on my chest.

Given how I was supposed to focus on the topic, I couldn\'t really go all in with my cuddles. Limiting myself to just keeping her close was the ultimate yet necessary prize I had to pay to keep my thoughts clear for as long as this talk could take.

I closed my eyes and calmed down my breathing, using this time to sort the last few of my thoughts and ideas out. Then, I took a short glance at my audience, the bus-sized fox currently lying down just a few steps away and the wood-based dryad in the form of a mature beauty leisurely resting her back against the fox\'s side, using it as for both its seat and a back cushion.

"To my understanding, the part of the forest facing the starlight plains is dominated by celestial beasts, while the other part, the one facing the misty valley, belongs generally to the divine protectors. Am I right?"

This was one of the guesses I extended to establish the foundation for my theory. And as long as even just one of them would turn out wrong, it would save me the time of explaining now ridiculous ideas.

"Use either beasts or protectors, but refer to both celestials and divines with the same term," Madam pointed out with a glint of displeasure flashing in her big, pitch-black eyes. "Small differences like this were the root cause behind the unrest that led to our conflict."

Taking a look at the massive fox\'s head and looking into her eyes, I\'ve got an impression as if she… As if rather than just talking about history, she was actually reminiscing the things that she saw with her very own eyes, the ones I was looking into right now.

"But yeah, otherwise you are right," Madam added, prying her mouth open in a casual yawn before resting her long chin on the front paws that she crossed in front of her.

I allowed a small smile to grow and decorate my face.

"Back when you told me that it was not possible to cross the starlight plains or the misty valley, you appeared extremely sure about it. But tell me, have you ever tried to cross the misty plain?" I asked, leaning my head slightly to the side. Then, I turned my eyes to the dryad.

"On the other hand, while I\'m sure you tried to penetrate the misty valley, you failed and simply assumed you would achieve the same results by trying to cross the starlight plains."

Even though I spoke in an accusatory tone, it wasn\'t my aim to call them out on the mistake in their way of thinking.

No, I wanted to draw their attention to it instead, because it wasn\'t such rocket science that only an outsider like me could notice it. The fact that they didn\'t observe it on their own was what actually puzzled and alerted me!

Leinei looked back at me with her eyes wide open… indicating nothing but confusion. Rather than staring at me in shock, she was trying her best to read the answer to this puzzle from my face.

Contrary to her dryad-friend, Madam lowered her eyes and looked on the ground, as she slowly processed all that I\'d said. Still, from her expression, as much as I could read Fox\'s expressions, she was starting to get it.

And out of the three women on the scene, it was Fay\'s reaction that surprisingly exceeded my expectations.

Already on my lap, she seemingly couldn\'t get any closer to me…

Foolish, naive thought!

This damned foxy proved to me how little I knew about the world, resting her hands on my shoulders as she leaned slightly towards my face, her eyes firmly locked on my lips while her face fully tensed in perfect focus and attention.

It felt as if she was readying herself to pounce at the next word that would come out of my mouth! And to top it all off, by shifting her body forward like that, her hips slid down on my leg\'s bone, now pressing down slightly closer towards the middle of my lap…

\'Just calm down and relax,\' I told myself while taking a shallow breath. \'Just consider it a distant version of grooming!\'

Gathering my thoughts again, I raised my eyes and decided I gave the three of them enough time to think over my words on their own.

"Wait…" Fay spoke out just as I was about to pick up the talking. "Do you intend to say mom can enter the misty valley while Leinei can traverse the starlight plain?"

Hearing Fay\'s all-serious tone… I simply couldn\'t help but smile.

This serious, focused, and observant side of her was new to me… but equally as adorable as all the sides of her I\'ve already experienced and claimed for myself.

"That\'s my girl," I openly smiled and reached out to rustle the soft hair on the top of her head. And from how her all-serious look quickly melted into one of satisfaction and pure, innocent pleasure…

\'My heart…\' I clenched my teeth and my butt, struggling to hold back the desire to pounce on this lovely girl right this very moment.

"Why didn\'t you bring it up while we were back at the valley, then?" Leinei asked out loud, giving me a way out from the lovely torture of Fay\'s attention. As my eyes turned towards the dryad, my smile vanished, replaced by a much more serious, grim, and calculated look.

This discussion just moved from theory to its practical application. And from the things I could speak lightly off, to stuff that could bring the sword of ruin down this forest Fay, Madam, and Leinei called home.