There are rumors that the elves are enacting a plan that they call the retreat. There is no doubt to the fact that the elves have had an ever-decreasing presence on Althrá, though the idea that they have chosen to leave rather than that they are simply unable to reproduce at a rate to simply make up for those they lose to the demons and against those that invade their forest.

Bryan

I am reading one of the books on evocation after returning to our place having done some morning exercises and drills, when the front door opens without someone knocking on it.

I look up to see Ria and someone that looks like a taller version of Adrian with black hair. Both of them are dressed in new clothes and the guy I think might be Adrian is wearing the face I’ve seen him have when he is troubled.

“Something wrong, Adrian?” I ask and he turns to me before answering.

“I’ll be fine. It’s just. . .”

“You ran out of things to keep you from thinking didn’t you.”

He sighs and nods, but doesn’t say anything.

“So, what is bothering you?”

“I ran into Jeff and his furry sex slave fetish. Since the day we’ve arrived I’ve been stealing to get by. Over the last few weeks I’ve lost count of how many people I killed and more than a few of them have made me a murderer. . .”

My mind goes blank for several seconds as I had no idea just how far my friend was going in protecting Abagail and me. I immediately feel guilty, I’ve been doing almost nothing in comparison. I’m only slowly making any progress in training while my friend was suffering in silence.

Unfortunately, I do not come up with something to say back fast enough and Adrian's shoulders slump as he says, “I’ll just be in my room then.”

Ria follows him like a love-sick puppy until he stops her at his door saying, “I want to be alone for a while” before closing it.

She doesn’t say anything but as soon as the door closes her wagging tails droop and she glares at me. Even without that, I know I just fucked up but I can’t just go and apologize right now.

After a moment, she stops glaring at me and lays down next to the Adrian’s door. She isn’t quite curled into a ball but she looks like she could fall asleep just like that but at the same time she seems to be waiting for a door to open but I can’t tell if it is Adrian’s she is waiting for or the front door.

“Would you like a blanket or something to make yourself more comfortable?” I ask the fox girl.

She lifts her head up for a moment to look at me. The light in her eyes seems distant, with barely any of the emotion that I have seen her show up until now. She doesn’t even answer me, just stares at me.

“Are you okay?” I ask her and take a step forwards.

“Go away, Adrian doesn’t want to see you” she almost growls.

“I wasn’t going to enter his room. I was only asking if you wanted something to be more comfortable.”

“Why?”

“To be nice.”

“No.”

“Not even food?”

“No, I will wait for Adrian.”

“Why not? Why wait?”

“I am his good girl.”

“You’re nuts" I mutter as I begin to walk away shaking my head but she does hear me and respond.

“Doesn’t matter, he hasn’t met my pole sisters so I’m all he’s got to comfort him.”

Pole sisters? What does that even mean? How does Adrian even have this absolute loyalty from her? Its only been a bit over a day since she met him.

But she does have one thing right. Adrian needs someone there for him and I already botched my chance to help him anytime soon. He just closed himself off, did his whole choosing not to care or feel about something thing. He might be able to act like he’s not hurt but that doesn’t make the pain go away.

I let out a sigh, “just help him please.”

Ria does not respond, instead she just lies back down. She is done talking and I take a few more steps forwards to the door. This time Ria does not stop me. I knock on the door but I know Adrian won’t open it and I won’t even try; even if he didn’t have a crazy fox girl guarding the door.

After a second I say, “I’m sorry. You’re my friend, I just didn’t know what to say and still don’t. Whatever you have done doesn’t change that” just loud enough that he should hear me before walking back to my room just stopping to pick back up the book I was reading before I fucked up.

Adrian

Somehow, I manage to keep my face straight until the door is closed. Bryan just looked at me when I answered his question on what was bothering me. It wasn’t admitting what I’ve done that hurt so much but the look on my friend’s face that hurt so much. The disgust at the beginning I knew would happen but that it stayed trough to the end hurt.

I kick the bed, angry not at my friend for being disgusted with me but at myself for what I have had to do. The disgust that I myself have for my actions. My foot hurts from the impact but I ignore it and lash out with fire, destruction is the best way to work out what I feel. The best way to get rid of enough of these emotions to set them aside again.

. . .

Eventually I stand in the center of my room with all the furniture broken and partially burnt. My hands are swollen and bleeding but I don’t care. I deserve worse than this. Then I feel someone wrap their arms around me and pull me into their lap and just hold me.

Ria

Adrian’s friend leaves to his own room and I sit before my to be mate’s door listening to what is happening inside. Waiting for when he needs me; for him to finish hitting and breaking things while I hide the sound from the outside world. He wouldn’t want the others to see his pain, not even his good girl but he needs me.

My ears twitch occasionally to the sounds of splintering wood. Minutes pass as my mana slowly diminishes but long before my reserves run dry the sounds from the room stop. I glance over at the doors to his friends’ rooms, confirming that they are closed before getting up. I open the door just enough to slip inside before closing it again.

The room is covered in broken pieces of wood, ash, torn pages and rent cloth. In the center of the destruction is the man who saved me. He sits there not quite crying and I walk up to him. I pull him into a hug as I sit next to him. Some tears begin to fall into my lap as I wrap my tails around him.

He grabs one of them and rubs it against his face as I start to rub his back.

“You’re not a monster and even if you were I’m here for you. Ria is your good girl” I whisper to him amongst other things.

Slowly, he relaxes and falls asleep. The dreams never showed me this, that he can suffer from pain too but he takes mine away so I’ll do anything to help him with his. I keep whispering in his ear until the sun sets through the holes in the walls of the building.

I look around the room. I can’t fix all of it with magic but I’ll get some of it before going to sleep myself. But first, there is a bit more I can do for him.

I take off my shirt and toss it to the side. Removing my pants, without waking Adrian, is only slightly more difficult as they are fitted for my tails. I then work on getting rid of his excess clothes. He should be comfortable and what he is wearing is not.

I smile as I wrap his arms around me as he sleeps. I get as close to him as I can before falling alseep.

The next morning, I wake up the same way as I did the previous, to my savior panicking out of my embrace. It makes me feel special as he turns red in embarrassment looking at me and then to himself.

“What did you do?” he asks, upset but not angry.

“Cuddles and helping you be comfortable. Was Ria a bad girl?” I ask.

“No but why are you naked? And why did you remove most of my clothes?”

I crawl over to him and lick his face before whispering in his ear, “because you like it” while brushing up against his underwear.

He then pushes me away and I pout as I continue, “and it made you more comfortable.”

“Ria, you shouldn’t be climbing into bed naked with me.”

My previously wagging tails droop for a moment before he grabs my arm and pulls me into a hug. I can feel him poking me as he says, “still, thank you for being there for me last night. You’re the best Ria. But can . . .”

. . . You’re the best. . .

. . . You’re the best. . .

. . . You’re the best. . .

Ria is the best, Adrian just said so. . .

Take that you bad doggie werewolf; I’m the best.

The feeling of my back hitting the floor breaks me out of my trance to find Adrian pinning me to the floor. Did he decide that he wanted to take me? I spread my legs a bit but he doesn’t move forward atop me.

“Ria! Stop it.”

I freeze in place, looking at him wondering why he is upset again. He just said I was the best. . .

“Why did you start humping me when I asked about petting your tails?” he asks.

I can’t keep my tails from thumping against the floor as the implications of the question runs through my mind.

“Uhh, I didn’t hear that question. I was happy you called me your best girl. But you can pet my tails all you want.”

“I’ll remember that. Now, please puts some clothes on” he says while getting off of me.

He then picks up the bucket of water used to wash and after a second of covering it with frostfire, he dumps it over himself. I stare at the water as it runs over his body.

I like the view so much I don’t even question how more water than what was in the bucket has been poured out or why the floor is not beginning to flood. I just keep staring as he tries to get over his arousal for me.

Eventually he says, “Ria, aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Clothes, right.”

Only once I start getting dressed does he look at me again. “Ria, I have a question” he says.

“Yes?” I ask just after finishing casting a Clean charm to make both the room and our clothing in an acceptable state.

“You know how to manipulate mana, right?”

“I do. Do you want to learn?”

“No, I don’t have any talent for it. I was wondering if you could help Abagail and Bryan.”

No talent for mana? But he’s a dragon. He naturally produces large amounts of mana, at least he always does in the visions. . .

“But he hurt you last night.”

He thinks for a second before answering, "he didn’t mean to. I just, probably didn’t give him enough time.”

“Do you want me to?”

“I would like you to help them.”

“Okay, but you have to sit and listen too.”

He nods and I smile. Maybe I should have asked for something more.