“I don’t know, I saw you in a vulnerable position and immediately took advantage, forgive my weakness, Husband.”
“It’s alright. But I actually meant Nina, what does she want her stone for?”
Volka wasn’t wearing her armour so he slid his hand over her rump and pinched her ass through her shorts just as hard as he could.
She yelped and flapped her wings to bring her tushy out of his reach, her feet off the ground and knees pulled to her breasts as both hands gripped her tender bottom.
She stuck her tongue out at him.
Milly ran her own tongue over his brow a few times to help him fix his hair before turning to the cottage.
“Should we go ask her?”
Even as Milly spoke they heard a crash from inside and a faint cry from Ophelia.
“Nina! What are you doing?!”
“Gimme.”
Milly and Nameless shared a worried look while Volka bit back a grin.
Several crashes later, Nina came out of the cottage and went to her forge, presumably with her heartstone in hand.
After recovering the spilled coins, they went inside to survey the damage.
The front room was more or less fine, though the recliner had been upended onto one of the love seats; evidently Nina thought it was easier than simply walking around it on her way deeper into the cottage.
The bedroom was a disaster: the bed was on its side and Ophelia was leaning against it looking slightly dazed, while the vanity and their dresser had both also been overturned in Nina’s search, clothes and knick-knacks from the various drawers scattered everywhere.
“I tried to tell her it was right there.”
The Flutterby’s voice was faint and she was clutching her teddy bear to her breast as she gestured vaguely at the toppled vanity.
Once she had recovered and they had cleaned up the wreckage from Nina’s search for her heartstone they settled down for a late lunch, while the giant was hard at work in her forge and Erica was… they didn’t know where she was actually.
It was a nervous meal until Volka finally took pity on the confused family and explained Nina’s strange behaviour.
“When Gigas have a project in mind, they become incredibly determined and focused. We’re lucky she bothered going through the door at all!”
Ophelia filled the Valkyrie’s plate with slices of roast sausage and shook her head in amazement, if nothing else, the tiny giant kept their lives interesting.
“Any idea what she’s making?” Nameless asked.
The Valkyrie smiled mysteriously and stroked her finger over the golden feather in his hair.
“Maybe, but it is her secret to tell.”
Partway through their meal, Nina came inside. Covered in soot, she marched up to the table and grabbed a handful of Ophelia’s ass, causing her to yelp and leaving a black handprint on her light coloured dress.
“Good smell.”
She then used Nameless as a ladder, clambering up him roughly and knocking his half-empty glass of Minotaur milk over, then reached across the table and snatched up the bulk of the roast sausages with one filthy hand.
Without another word, she started scarfing them on her way back outside.
Ophelia evaluated both her ruined dress and their ruined lunch before sitting down with a heavy groan.
Silence reigned for a few minutes, save for the munching of a happy Minotaur, her bag of oats safe from the Gigas and her appetite.
Fortunately Erica arrived home just then and distracted them when she flounced into the front room from outside, excitement writ across her features.
“Hey, we got a letter!”
Nameless blinked, their giant problem forgotten for the moment: he’d never received mail before, and as he thought about it, Erica probably hadn’t either.
“What is it?”
The meal essentially over, they all looked to the Katje as she slit the folded letter open with a deft flick of one of her claws, unfolded the paper and read.
“It’s from that Katje from Bramblewood! And from Mishka! Yeah, Grace and Mishka!”
The others watched while she beamed and skimmed the letter, but her smile faltered towards the end and she swallowed.
“What is it, what’s wrong?” Nameless fretted while Milly abandoned her oats and stood with a worried frown at the change in the Katje’s mood.
Erica finished reading and handed the letter to Ophelia, then wiped away her tears and offered him a quick, if weak, grin.
“They’re fine. They got a provisional adoption thing from the Aegis so that they can stay together. The Brael girls hooked Grace up with a job cleaning in the Bastion, Mishka is starting school. They’re fine.”
She swallowed again and shook her head as she was forced to wipe away more tears. Unable to speak anymore, she planted her face in Milly’s breasts as the surprised Minotaur wrapped her arms around her.
Ophelia’s hand lowered with the letter.
“It’s… about Kar. She was helping them get settled and they had grown close. I guess they were at the funeral, but couldn’t get through the crowd in the square. They wanted to tell us how sorry they were.”
Nameless had been distracted by work and small town drama for most of the day, but the sudden reminder caused it all to come back in a rush and he cleared his throat as sudden emotion choked him.
The thought of the innocent mouse girl learning of Kar’s death after everything else she had been through broke his heart.
“Th-they live in Garland now?”
He cleared his throat again, roughly this time, after stumbling over the words.
Ophelia nodded as Volka took the letter from her and Erica sniffled into Milly’s breasts.
“Forgive me.” The angel said with her brow furrowed as she read; “I know little of this pair.”
The Minotaur mooed as she rubbed Erica’s back to comfort her while Ophelia explained the relationship between Kar, Grace and Mishka, the little Dormaus child that they had rescued together.
Despite news of the happy ending for the unlikely duo, Kar’s death cast a shroud over everything.
“I’m sorry girls. I need to get some air.” Nameless whispered as he stood up and went outside in a rush.
“How long before this shit stops sucking so much?” Erica groused into Milly’s breasts.
Ophelia’s eyes tracked Nameless as he left the cottage.
“It takes as long as it takes dearheart.”
Chapter 7:
Joyous Flight
Nameless set out from the cottage in search of more work to do.
The morning chores had kept his mind busy, so it made sense that the best way to get past the painful emotions Grace and Mishka’s letter brought out in him was to keep working.
It was as he was crossing the field that inspiration struck.
Shortly after he and Milly had bonded, Paul had shown them the cottage and the pond, and afterwards the old farmer had talked at length about fencing in his land. And it was a job that did need to get done eventually, so why not now?
Nameless didn’t know the first thing about how to go about building a fence, so his feet had him walking towards Paul’s almost without his conscious decision.
But when he came off of the trail onto the farmer’s drive, Paul was nowhere to be found.
So he settled on to the old man’s porch to wait next to a pile of wood shavings from whatever he had been whittling last.
They would pay for the fence of course, they had only been back a few days, but even with groceries for the six of them, Milly’s milk had them swimming in coins. So all he needed from Paul was some help figuring out where it should go and some general information on where to get the materials and such.
Not to mention his permission to build the damned thing.
Nameless’s mind was swimming, puzzling at things he had never had any interest in before, anything to keep from thinking about his real problems.
Fortunately before he ran out o
f things to think on, Paul came out of his barley field, unsurprisingly accompanied by several cockatrices.
For the first time it occurred to Nameless that he had no idea how many of the feathered girls were in the farmer’s flock.
Paul caught sight of him and offered a broad smile by way of greeting.
“Hullo Nameless! Saw Erica earlier, she was pretty excited when I gave her that letter, good news I hope?”
And just like that Paul had brought his mind to the one place it didn’t want to be.
“F-fine. Hey you remember before when we talked about building a fence?”
Paul scratched his chin, thrown for a moment.
“Maybe. Sure, yeah, we were talking about fencing in the field right?”
Nameless answering nod was emphatic.
“Yeah, I’d like to do that, if that’s alright, give me a project to work on. You, know, don’t want to be idle.”
His earnest smile was more than a little forced.
Paul took out his second favorite pipe, as Helena still had his first, and struck a match with his thumb to light the tobacco.
“Alright. Might as well get it over with I suppose.”
He took a couple of hearty puffs to make sure the bowl caught, watching his young friend all the while.
He didn’t miss the rapid way that Nameless was speaking, or the desperation behind his eyes.
Whatever had been in that letter had upset the young man greatly and it was plain as day he was trying to distract himself from it.
Paul wasn’t sure whether keeping busy would hurt the kid or hinder him, but ultimately he wanted to help however he could so he nodded towards his front door.
“Come on inside, I’ll pull out the property map and we’ll figure out how long the fence needs to be, then we’ll know how much wood we’ll need.”
They stepped into Paul’s kitchen and Nameless felt a jolt of nostalgia from the familiar smell of the place, his frantic need to get to work suddenly dwindled as he looked at the table where he had seen Milly with her head stuffed into a bag of oats.
It had only been a few months ago but it honestly felt like another life.
Giving his head a shake he followed Paul towards the den, his desire to find some work to do returning three-fold, and in his urgency he nearly bowled over one of the Cockatrices in the hall, the feathered girl giving him an indignant squawk and a glare.
“S-sorry.” He mumbled.
“What’s that boy?” Paul came out of the den with a roll of paper in his arm and Nameless had to turn back around as they went into the kitchen again to use the table.
“Nothing, so um. Where do you want the fence?”
Paul gave him a raised eyebrow, but otherwise ignored his odd behaviour as he unrolled the property map.
“Pretty obvious really, that field is surrounded on two sides by trees, one side by the pond and the other by Janet’s property. There’s a reason I wasn’t getting any use out of it.”
Nameless felt a little foolish but didn’t say anything, so Paul continued.
“To do it right you’ll need two lines, one to the pond and the other to link up with Skinner’s fence. People have said I was mad for keeping all those trees standing, but the truth is I had no interest in clearing them, too much work for too little gain was my thinking. But who knows, I might change my mind someday.”
Paul was almost talking more to himself than Nameless as he ran one gnarled digit down the map, smoothing out the crinkles.
“We’ll just need to build it far enough back from the trees to make sure the roots don’t mess with the posts. Easy enough, just gotta line up the fence with the branches above your head, roots usually don’t spread much further.”
Nameless watched as Paul took out a piece of string that was knotted at regular intervals for measuring and started figuring out how long the actual fence would be.
Unfortunately, standing in Paul’s kitchen and waiting on him to do his figuring, Nameless’s mind inevitably circled back to the letter and the innocent Dormaus that Erica and Kar had saved.
__________
Though concerned for Nameless, ultimately Ophelia knew he would recover, and she needed to shake off her own mood from the disastrous luncheon.
So she took to the skies to stretch her wings, luxuriating in the simple joy of flight, something she hadn’t really done in some time.
Milly had discreetly asked to be alone with Erica, who was still upset over the letter, and Volka had slipped back into her armour before ducking out to check on Nina in her forge.
The armour seemed to help the Valkyrie in coping with stress, and Ophelia almost wished she had a set herself.
The Flutterby wisely stayed around the field, as she spotted several Hornets flying a perimeter around the area and certainly didn’t need another stressful mid-air encounter with them.
The butterfly girl was in the air for twenty minutes or so when she was joined by a much stronger flyer.
“It’s good to see you enjoying yourself Ophelia!”
She was hovering around the great oak tree when Volka swooped near her; the Valkyrie was likewise smiling from the pleasure of the wind in her feathers and the cold air on her face.
“You as well, dearheart!”
The angel extended her wings to slow herself and hold her position in front of the Flutterby, both girls’ wings flapping in a far different manner to hold themselves aloft: Volka’s took big powerful strokes, while Ophelia’s were an almost clumsy flutter.
“Yes, I admit, one of the things I dearly missed while in my shield was the sky’s gift to us!”
The Valkyrie drew in a deep breath through her nose while her elegant bond-sister landed daintily on one of the thickest branches in the tree, her bare feet barely disturbing the leaves as she settled her negligible weight onto the sturdy limb.
A moment later the Valkyrie landed beside her, though her armoured form had a far greater impact on the foliage.
Ophelia smiled at the contrast between the two now sitting side by side in the mighty oak.
“You’ve been a bit absent the last few days. It seems I only see you at meals and training with Erica.”
The angel’s wings extended to their full length behind her for a moment as she arched her back and stretched her arms with a sigh, her naked belly drawing inwards.
“I believe it was a mistake to have allowed myself to be seen in town. I thought it best that I stay out of sight for awhile. So I have been learning the lay of the land, as it were. Spreading my wings after so long is ecstasy. And seeing a world untainted by war… you cannot know the joy it brings me.”
When Ophelia didn’t respond right away, Volka looked to meet her pensive face.
“What ails you sister?”
It was a couple more seconds before she got a reply.
“I suppose… it just feels odd to me to enjoy the day knowing what is out there, or rather, knowing who is out there.”
Volka’s face twisted into a frown as she pointed at a spot below Ophelia’s chin, waiting for the Flutterby to look down before flicking her finger over her nose.
“Oh for- and I raised children!” Ophelia rolled her eyes at the timeless gag.
Volka leaned in and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, the shift in weight causing the Flutterby’s wings to flap a few times to maintain her balance.
“You are a kind soul, but you are not naïve I think. Ever has there been evil in this world. While we should remain vigilant, there is no reason not to enjoy the little things, such as a joyful flight-” Her arm lifted off of Ophelia’s shoulder just long enough to tug on the Flutterby’s earlobe; “-or the pranks of children.”
While Volka smirked, Ophelia shifted the Valkyrie’s hand to her cheek, her eyes closed as she enjoyed the angel’s soothing presence.
“On the road before… Milly suggested that you were trying to figure out your place in the world now. I guess they make that easier for you?”
“Evadn
e and Jonathan.” Volka said while stroking her thumb across the butterfly’s lips.
“What?”
Her expression puzzled, Ophelia turned to face the magnificent blonde.
“Their names. Don’t be afraid to speak them. I have noticed this with some of the others. Evadne is dangerous and we would be foolish not to be wary of her, but fear can be caustic, don’t let their reputation make them more terrible than they are.”
The Flutterby blinked, and then tilted her head to one side as she considered the warrior angel before her.
“Aren’t you afraid? Afraid of Evadne I mean?”
Volka shook her head.
“I fear what she may do with the power she toys with, but no, I do not fear the Chimera. She is gripped with rage and grief. Truthfully, I pity her.”
“Really?”
Volka’s response was quiet.
“I know her pain all too well.”
Ophelia fluttered into the air for a second to turn and land in the Valkyrie’s lap, hiking her dress up to place her thighs on either side of Volka’s, her violet eyes looking long into the angel’s radiant golds.
“You miss the other Valkyrie.”
“Every waking moment.” The reply was unflinching.
“You hide it well.”
Volka smiled a sad smile.
“Not well enough it seems. Our husband has intimate knowledge of my sorrow, with his gift it would be impossible not to, but you have a gift of your own. Such intuition will serve you well in the days to come.”
The angel stroked the back of her hand over the Flutterby’s cheek again.
Ophelia leaned her face into the caress, and then entwined her fingers with the angel’s.
“For one who has lost so much… perhaps the best thing is to celebrate what you have now?”
Volka’s heart quickened at the invitation in the other woman’s tone and she offered her a wry look.
“That is what I keep saying. What do you have in mind?”
Ophelia turned Volka’s hand and pressed a lingering kiss into her palm.
“Months ago, both Nina and I expressed a desire to reward you. For saving her, and for saving our master.”
Volka swallowed as Ophelia’s tongue shot out and ran over her hand and up to her wrist.
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