***
Shadows and light, they were that which brought contrast and clarity to the world. It was shadows and light that allowed the human eye to see. Should a human eye bear witness to the soft shimmer of reflection bouncing from the surface of a certain small forest-enshrouded pond, that eye would also see a sight most glorious.
"Shall I wash your back, Ero?" asked Karsi in a sweet and motherly tone.
"Yes, please," said human form Ero as she stood naked in the water.
The equally nude elf maiden began her delicate work while Ero closed her eyes and smiled gently. The last two days had been absolute bliss. Surrounded by the natural world, but with no enemies to fight, she had enjoyed the gentle pampering of her fairy sisters and her new friend Karsi.
Karsi's fingers danced lightly along the soft curvature of Ero's back. She took special care to lather the muscles of her fairy patient's wings.
"I can feel the light within you, sister," said Karsi as her clever fingers slipped along Ero's lower back. "You must think well of the father?"
Ero nodded her head twice then smiled. "I love him. He's my best friend."
"That is good. Does he feel the same?" asked Karsi curiously.
"I believe that he does," said Ero.
"That is even better. Far too often I have seen the end result of a passionate love between human and fairy become nothing but misery."
Ero bit her lower lip. "It happens a lot, huh?"
"It's the most common outcome," said Karsi softly while lathering Ero's hips gently.
"Scott's not like that," said Ero.
Karsi did not answer immediately. Instead, she spent a moment lathering her patient's body in a gentle but overly sensual manner. Ero moaned softly as she felt many of her cares and worries begin to slip away. There was a magic in Karsi's hands that had nothing to do with mana.
"The other, she is jealous," said Karsi.
"The other? Do you mean Rhea?" asked Ero.
"Yes. She is unhappy with the situation," said Karsi.
"It's complicated," said Ero.
Karsi laughed softly. "No. It is quite simple. I do not know your story, sister. However, I could see the truth in the eyes of all involved."
"I suppose," said Ero with a sigh. "I can't help the way things turned out. I love him, too."
"Of course you cannot. Things are never that simple," said Karsi. "You have a difficult path ahead of you little one."
Ero closed her eyes then nodded. "I know. But is not like Rhea is cruel to me. She loves me, too."
"Ah, even worse," said Karsi as she finished her task. "People need a method of venting their frustrations in order to overcome them. If she cannot think of you as an evil man-stealing fairy whore, what else can she do?"
Ero laughed in surprise then turned to look at Karsi. "What?"
Karsi merely smiled at her in that motherly way of hers then asked, "Shall I wash your front as well?"
"No, no. I can do that," said Ero.
"Yes, but do you want to do everything by yourself just because you can?" asked the elf maiden.
Ero blushed cutely then opened her arms. "Well, you're the doctor ..." She had understood the true meaning behind Karsi's words. Take advantage of help when it is offered.
Bath time ended not long after Ero's front was properly washed. Ero had returned to her normal size since then, and prepared herself. Karsi had to perform her diagnostic scans once more. Ero was stretched out gently on an oversized toadstool while the fairy doctor ran her fingers along her delicate frame. A wave of warmth and a sense of peace washed over the tiny girl.
"Your little light is strong, sister. I can feel her growing." Karis smiled warmly at her little patient.
"How long do you think it will be?" asked Ero. She fidgeted a little, and looked up at Karsi with wide and curious eyes.
"At the current rate, I'd say five months before first manifestation. Coherency may take a few months longer."
"That soon?" asked Ero with a smile. Her nostrils flared slightly. "She is healthy?"
"Impressively so. She does not lack love," said Karsi with a smile of her own. "I do not foresee complications at this time, but we do still need to see how the tidal forces and celestial alignments will alter the situation."
"I'm so glad." Ero closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief.
"This is your first child." Karsi lightly stroked Ero's hair. "It is normal to be concerned."
Ero reached down and lightly stroked her abdomen. "I'm still glad."
Karsi tilted her head to the side for a moment then stood up. "You're doing well little mother. So far bathing in the sacred waters, and the occasional hot oil massage have done wonders for you."
"Thank you. I am glad that I came to you. I don't know much about how to deal with this sort of thing."
"You have not asked your mother?"
Ero shook her head. "I... My mother was lost to me long ago."
"I see. Well, I am here for you. Ask me anything that you like. I will teach you as much as I can in the time that we spend together, little one."
The fairy girl shared a small smile with Karsi. "Thank you."
Several giggles exploded throughout the air as a small cavalcade of fairies fluttered into the area. Now that Karsi was done, it was time for them to reclaim their big sister, Ero.
"Go, play with the others," said Karsi. Ero beamed a bright smile then fluttered up to join her new friends. The fairy cluster flew away to play among the trees and to buzz above the water like sexy little butterflies or the naughtiest of mosquitoes.
The elf maiden smiled at them as they played. Their musical laughter filled the forest and warmed the heart. While the fairies played, Karsi committed certain things to memory. Fairy births were hard, especially the first. Ero's little light shined brightly, but it was still quite fragile.
"Stay strong little one," said Karsi as she watched Ero flutter among the branches of the ancient forest. Her jubilant laughter was quite endearing. As far as Karsi was concerned, Ero was a sweet and innocent girl who needed a mother's love. It was one reason why she had taken up the task of becoming a fairy doctor. They were sweet girls, but often discarded by those who claimed to love them.
Flighty and mischievous by nature, they were also universally naive and tended to believe someone when they said that they loved them. Many broken hearted fairies had lost their little lights because of their sorrow. It would be a tragedy if a child as sweet as Ero lost her light due to the vagaries of mere human emotion.
Chapter 4
Earth was a place that Scott no longer thought of as home, but he could not completely abolish from his life. What was it that drew him back to the place? It was not like he had to accept anyone's demands. He had little in the way of unfinished business save for the work he had taken up out of a sense of duty. Even one of the primary reasons for his return, Sarah's most recent actions, was something that he did not actually have to deal with beyond a courtesy call.
There were things on Earth that he liked, but beyond television and gaming, there was little left of interest to do. When Rhea and Ero were with him, it was fun to be on Earth. The entire event felt like a vacation.
Scott looked around his bedroom and sighed. "It's like coming home and finding out that your house is nothing but a tomb." The various artifacts of his former life were left were they had fallen. His room was now like a forgotten memorial to a life that he no longer lived.
Herbert hopped from the bed down to the floor then began to explore the area. It was his first time on Earth. For him it was a whole new world to explore.
Scott decided to check his messages to see if he had received anything interesting. Rhea would have told him if he'd had any previously. But it was possible that a new one had arrived and she had simply not had the chance to tell him.
Checking through his messages he discovered a few dozen of them were from Sarah. Scott could not help but snort at that. "Couldn't be bothered to answer my calls for w
eeks on end, but texts me non-stop now. I'd say the thirst is real, but I doubt she actually gives a damn."
No. Scott was certain that Sarah wanted something desperately, but it was not him. Given the time-dilation, it had probably been a few weeks since his initial return. None of her messages were from before his return save for a scant handful of them that asked about how he was doing.
However, not long after his return those texts came far more frequently and started to become quite desperate to get his attention. Never once was he mentioned as being the possible father of her child. It was not even hinted at.
Scott rubbed his chin. "Rhea would have come through here, what a week or so ago?" Time-dilation was a funny thing. It was hard to recall that several days would now pass on ARS for every day that passed here. "Not even... Probably not even a week here."
More to the point, Rhea had also fiddled with the time-line a little to make certain that a paradox had not occurred. It had not been worth asking about before, but there were periods of time where things had run at different lengths of time in comparison to his training time in the tutorial dungeon. The actual flow of events could be considerably disjointed. There was no way to know for certain, but it also did not seem to be terribly important at the moment.
He checked the date and noted that a month had actually passed since the last time that he was here. "I'll never understand non-linear time." muttered Scott. If the calendar could be believed, he had only lost a few extra days. However, during that time he had been bombarded by texts from Sarah. The voicemails were almost as common. He decided to listen to a few of them.
"Hey, Scott... It's Sarah. Look, I know we didn't end things well..." began Sarah in a tone of voice that made Scott start to turn a little green. It was her perky for daddy voice, the one she used when she wanted to get her way. "Delete," said Scott as he deleted the voicemail. He had no desire to hear her traitorous lips speak in that tone of voice. It was the one she had used when they had first met at the strip club nearly four years prior.
Most of her voicemails were in that tone of voice. Unfortunately for her, after the way things had ended her perky voice sounded like cheerful diarrhea. He spent quite some time deleting sweet-talking voicemails without bothering to listen to them for more than a few words into the call.
Herbert came running into the living room. He did not stop to chitter at Scott. Instead, he continued to run around checking everything in sight.
Scott smiled at the hyperactive rodent for a moment then continued checking messages. Sarah's were the most common, but he did receive a few from Captain Johnson. One notable older message caught his attention.
[Message]
Hey, just got back from... out of town. Look. I'm having a hard time convincing the higher-ups, but I'm definitely convinced. It'll take a while before I develop my abilities enough to convince them completely, so would you mind if I just choose a few people in my command to test the waters? If there are several of us then it would be easier to convince people.
[--]
Scott would have replied to that, but he read other texts and realized that Rhea had already authorized it. "Good girl." he said lightly as he read the new messages.
The last message from Captain Johnson was one citing the fact that the higher ups had agreed to a test to see if people outside of his immediate command could achieve similar results. The news had gone out to various post commands across the country and people were informed about a special project that guaranteed an officer's commission after selection.
Scott sent the captain a message citing the fact that he was in town for a few hours. He then messaged a simple text to Sarah, "What do you want?"
It might seem brusque, even rude. However, Scott did not concern himself with that fact. Sarah had done something inexcusable to him. It was one thing to break off an engagement. It was another to do so without bothering to tell the fiancé about the end of the relationship. She had left him hanging for weeks on end, and had lied to him when she had finally contacted him. He had been forced to call her mother to get any sort of closure since Sarah would not even provide that for his sake.
Herbert wriggled out from under the couch then ran off to the kitchen to see what else he could find. He chittered happily as he rambled around.
"Pretty happy for a guy seeing the exact same stuff he has seen before," said Scott with a smile. Herbert was a fun fellow.
The sudden outcry from his cellphone caught Scott's attention. Crazy Bitch by Buck Cherry played loudly and allowed him to know whom it was who now called. "Sarah... damn." muttered Scott. She had wasted no time.
He answered then put it on speaker to hear more clearly. "Yeah? What do you want Sarah?"
"Scott! Hey..." she began excitedly. Soon, however, her voice deepened slightly and began a perky and sultry tone. "How have you been...?"
Scott closed his eyes tight for a moment. "Sarah, would you cut the crap and speak normally please. Why do you keep texting me?"
"Oh... Uhm," she said. Her voice became slightly higher pitched and she started to fumble for her words. "Maybe—Maybe I should come over so we can talk about it in person?"
"No," said Scott. "I'm busy. I only called because you keep leaving messages. If it's that important, you can just tell me now."
She made a slightly gurgling noise then coughed once. "Scott... I, I know I hurt you..."
"I got over it. If all you want to talk about is how you threw me aside, we don't need to discuss it. I moved on," said Scott in a calmer tone than he actually felt.
"Yeah. I know." she muttered. "Already engaged." she said in an accusatory tone.
Scott's eyebrow rose angrily. "Yes. Yes, I am."
"She's awfully young isn't she?" asked Sarah with a hint of venom in her voice.
"In some ways. Though, she also has a certain maturity about her that I have found lacking in other people who I've been in relationships with."
Sarah made an angry gurgling noise. It was obvious that she had caught his meaning. Scott could literally hear her trying to calm herself as she continued the conversation. "Ah, I see..." She coughed once then tried her perky voice once more. "Scott... I need to talk to you about something."
"Go ahead." He wished that she would. The woman knew how to drag out a conversation. That much had not changed.
"Uh, well... You see." she coughed once more then said words that infuriated Scott. "We have a son..."
Scott took a deep breath. She had really said it. After everything that had happened between them, she was pulling this.
"Scott..." she said, honey in her voice. "Are you there?"
"Did your mother raise you to be this way?" asked Scott as gently as he could. "She didn't seem to be that type of woman."
"What do you mean by that?" asked Sarah angrily.
"We both know that I'm not the father. What were you really calling me about all those times?"
"You... Scott, how dare you! You haven't been around for the entire pregnancy and now you're just dismissing your child!"
Scott blinked. "Damn. Woman, do you hear yourself?" Blaming him for not being around was about the most asinine thing he had ever heard her say to date.
"Fuck you!" she snapped.
"Stay classy, Sarah," said Scott with a snort before he hung up on her. There was no use talking to her. The more they spoke, the better he felt for not being with her any longer.
She sent him a text message that said that she could not believe that he was being such an asshole. He did not respond. Sarah texted again a few minutes later, this time it was with a series of question marks. Scott snorted once more then spoke aloud as he typed his response. "You tossed me aside like a used condom the moment your old boyfriend showed up. You didn't contact me for a long time, and when you did it was basically to get me to stop calling you. You then pop up months later and try to ruin my relationship with my fiancé by telling a stupid lie. Yeah. I'm going to be an asshole right now."
Sarah did not re
spond for a while. When she did, it was to say. "I'm sorry."
Scott forced himself not to respond back by agreeing that she was definitely sorry. Instead, he took the slightly higher road. "I know." he said, as he sent back his response.
He sent another message a few minutes later. This one asked what she really wanted to talk to him about.
Another few minutes passed and then the phone rang. Scott answered. "Yeah?"
Sarah's voice cracked a little as she said "I missed you."
Scott sighed loudly. "Did you?"
"Yeah." she said softly.
It took everything Scott had inside of himself not to immediately respond by saying, "Good." Instead, he took a deep breath and said, "Why?"
"We... Well, we were together for years and... I just missed you."
"So, you left me dozens of voice messages and texts because you suddenly missed me?" asked Scott, his voice laced with his sincere disbelief.
"No, that was the reason at first." she said.
"And now?" he asked.
"Jake... He, well..."
"Did he hit you?" asked Scott calmly.
"No, nothing like that... Not really. He just... He keeps pestering me to talk to you about a program that you're running for the army," said Sarah.
Scott blinked. He felt it begin to bubble up from deep inside, a low vibrating sensation that rumbled up from the depths. For a moment, Scott thought that he might be about to laugh. Somewhere between his gut and his mouth the sensation took a darker turn and headed south. A loud wet fart erupted from his perplexed anus. "You... have got to be shitting me." His words continued to hang in the air for a moment, much like his recent flatulence.
***
The soft skrtch of a straw broom sweeping stone tiles echoed through the air. A novitiate of the Blizrum War College went merrily about his task. One might think that a man of thirty should not be so happy as to actively smile and hum while he swept a stone walkway. That individual would be wrong. For you see, the man in question was living the dream.
Origin ARS 6 Page 7
