Page 164 of A Soul to Embrace

She giggled as she sprinted forward, her hands out to her sides so she could brush against the tips of the grass to disturb even more. A wave of tiny glowing red orbs sprung from everywhere she went before those furthest from her settled to blue as they looked for a new spot to rest. A spot they wouldn’t receive, as she changed direction and agitated them once more by going back through them.

His eyes crinkled with fondness as he watched her playfully run through them, his chest swelling as his gaze moved with her. The whispers grew louder, but her bubbly giggle was far brighter.

I knew she’d like them,he thought, as he covered the lower half of his face to hide the grin forming and the way his cheeks heated at her show.

He hadn’t known how she’d react, but he didn’t imagine she would have done this. He thought she may have tried to grab at them like he’d first done to inspect them in his palm.

This was much more endearing.

The swell in his chest deepened to an almost painful ache when she went to the very middle of this small section of meadow and spun. The skirt of her crimson dress flared out, just as the wisps were forced to cyclone around her due to the pressure of the wind gust she was causing.

She halted just to clamp her hands to her chest and drift her skull up to watch them spin around her, and her orbs flared into a bright pink as they did.

“Fuck. That’s too cute,” he muttered to himself, resisting the urge to cover his entire face to hide from the sight of her.

She dashed through the wisps to go to one of the orange bulbs, and she leaned forward to sniff at it, her little tail tuft wiggling as she did. The moment she gently touched the underside of one, it opened up to spray citrus-scented pollen into the air. She stepped back in surprise despite the fact that she’d already opened up many of the flowers by running through the grass.

Standing tall, she turned to him slightly. “Thank you, Jabez. This is really pretty.”

“You’re–” His words cut short when her orbs flashed white and her skull darted in the opposite direction.

Any festiveness and amusement instantly left him as he darted his ears up to listen. He heard nothing, and the strong citrus aroma in the air made it difficult to smell anyone approaching.

But he trusted her instincts and senses, as they were sharper than his own.

“Zylah,” he whispered, gaining her gaze as he waved his fingers for her to come to him. “Slowly.”

Directing her skull to where she heard movement, she slowly crept towards him. When she was almost to him, her fur puffed with alertness, and a subtle rustling of shrubbery reached his ears. It was quiet, as if those approaching were being careful of their steps.

Zylah growled beside him, just as three Demons cautiously stepped out of the tree line.

Jabez didn’t remove himself from his leaning spot, but he did slip his arm across her back to pull her to him. When he gripped the side of her hip and backside, she squeaked, and her hands flew up to her chest like she hadn’t expected his intimate hand placement.

All three Demons looked close to completion, each with varying brown skin tones and the minute Elven-grey undertone.Their Elven hue was useless, as he couldn’t sense any of the clary or sage scents of magic coming from them.

Each of them, like him, had red eyes and a different variation of horns. They all wore scraps of poorly made and revealing clothing.

Although he was annoyed they’d interrupted him and Zylah, he held not an ounce of worry. All three looked pleased, likely happy to find a food source that wasn’t each other.

“What have we found here?” the one on the right asked, his lips curling back to reveal humanoid teeth with a set of large canine fangs. “Looks like a couple of idiots playing. Are you searching for the town?”

Before they could come closer or say anything more, Jabez chuckled. He lifted his free hand to wiggle his fingers at them in a cheeky wave.

“Bye bye.”

Without warning, Zylah was teleported into a new environment. The suddenness of it made her gasp and shunt forward, but Jabez’s grip on her kept her securely on her feet.

Her fur remained puffed and agitated as she looked around before soothing once she sensed there was no danger anymore. She’d been expecting a battle, and she’d been rather nervous considering the size of the three Demons who had approached them.

All of them had been almost as tall as Jabez was.

“You okay?” Jabez asked, turning his face until it was barely an inch from her snout.

Her shoulders curved inwards in his grasp, and she was unsure as to why nervousness skittered beneath her flesh at his nearness. She’d been far closer to him in the recent past. After the wonderful experience she just had, which had been robbed from her, her emotions were all over the place.

She nodded, and he gingerly let her go.

“You looked like you were having fun,” he said with a small smile curling his lips, as if the ending was irrelevant to histhoughts.

---