Ch. 2.38 | An Outing to Remember
PoV: Sanya
Sanya and Mai had woken up the next morning, and Mai had decided that Sanya needed a distraction. Mai had deemed a long afternoon of studying, cuddling, and reading fiction was not enough of a relaxing break.
Yes, Sanya actually got some sleep—applaud her and give her offerings fit for a queen. It would probably be an incentive to sleep more often.
It was a nice, peaceful sleep, where she may or may not have been cuddled up with Mai in Sanya's bed. Fortunately for Sanya, Mai had not mentioned doing anything freaky. She had held back any of her urges, and it had been an utterly pleasant time.
They may have kissed once or twice, too. Simple things, without too much tongue. Mai had enjoyed those a lot.
So, they were in the middle of the end of the world, and Sanya and Mai were going out on a bit of a date.
Sanya wore more of her clothes, different from the ripped ones of yesterday. If she was going to keep up with destroying her clothes every day, then she would probably run every tailor everywhere out of business.
Mai had almost pulled them to a dress shop right after breakfast to try and get Sanya into one.
That was too fast, too soon.
Much to Mai's dismay, Sanya had avoided the dress shop. Maybe with a little bit of regret and disappointment, not that she would admit that.
Mai was wearing her endearing color-vomit clothes as usual.
They had found themselves in south Calderae, a few blocks away from the destruction of yesterday.
Sanya tried not to think about that, or notice the utter devastation just a bit away.
They were here to pretend nothing was wrong!
Um.
“We're heeeeeere,” Mai sang, skipping up to their destination.
It was a large, fenced space all the way to the wall. A bunch of small buildings dotted around the place.
Some parents and their kids wandered around the place, as if this was just another day.
Sanya frowned.
She supposed that she actually had to be in the area, in case of . . . powerful monster attacks. These people should be fleeing for one of the areas outside the tempest influence.
Maybe they couldn't.
Maybe Aisha could pay for them?
Whatever.
Three months ago, tens of thousands of people had migrated to Aisha's new city. She had created safe bubbles around the old cities to, well, same them from the shenanigans of destroying the tempest. Unfortunately, many were in terrible spots for post-tempest conditions, and the spheres of safety had left the cities devoid of resources as during the tempest.
Aisha had settled this city in a place that had been under the massive time speeding-up of her spells, next to a lake with lots of water, thanks to the caldera.
Maybe three months was too soon for another exodus.
Anyway!
The place of Sanya and Mai's date smelled horrible! They walked through the gate, not needing to pay a thing—because Aisha was awesome and she paid for everything. Well, okay, people paid her lots and she and the Calderae government took care of mostly everything.
Aisha had become kind-of rich from the Adventurers’ Guild, slaying monsters for people and selling their harvested resources and training mages and all of that.
Where was Sanya?
Right, they walked into their destination. The morning air was a bit chilly, but only a bit. Mai was actually wearing more clothes than Sanya, for once, wearing a thicker coat instead of a cardigan. The thing was a few sizes too big, reaching almost as far as her skirt down her thighs.
Perhaps the cold bothered Sanya's eldritch flesh less? The outworld was often a place without heat, so, yeah, that checked out.
Mai's bad hand was entwined with one of Sanya's, while she smiled happily. Mai still had the bandages around her shortened fingers, and Sanya's touch against Mai's hand was a constant reminder of Sanya's darkest hour. Mai didn't need to bandage her hand anymore, but it was nicer for most people to look at than a hand with a few half-length fingers.
Sanya could not get herself to smile.
That was her. She had done that. Mai's own girlfriend.
Wow, Sanya was a terrible human being.
Well, uh, she wasn't human anymore? She was probably above average for an eldritch being, all things considered.
“What do you want to see first?” Mai asked, eyes sparkling.
Sanya shrugged. “I don't care. Whatever you want.”
“Let's . . . Let's just go in a circle. Let's start over there!” Mai pointed to the right.
Sanya nodded, and the two of them walked over.
“Aren't they cute?” Mai did not look Sanya's way, entirely enfixed on the animals in this fenced-off area, within the larger perimeter that marked this petting menagerie or farm or whatever.
There had once been things where you could feed the animals yourselves. Unfortunately, that would lead to all sorts of problems—feeding too much or too little, extorting citizens . . . If a person wanted to feed the animals, they would come when the farmers came to feed them, and ask to do it in their stead.
There was a gate if one wished to enter the pasture and pet the goats without needing to reach over or through the metal fence.
Sanya and Mai remained outside for the time being.
“Baaaa,” the animal closest to them bleated.
The little doofus had orange eyes with rectangular pupils. It had little horns on its head as if it were a minion of Diuskel. It had fluffy looking fur and four hooves.
A goat.
Some of them sat under the shade of a tree. Others just stood like statues. And the rest walked around aimlessly.
The one that had bleated bent its head down and began chewing the ground.
Stupid.
“Awww,” Mai pointed with her good hand.
The goat looked up, its eyes betrayed no thoughts, its expression perpetually bored.
It took a step closer, barely one leg moved.
Then, it bit down on Mai's finger, jaw opening and then snapping shut over the curious thing pointed its way.
“Ow!” Mai squeaked, withdrawing her hand with haste and shaking it.
Sanya looked over at Mai's hand.
It bled. Crimson leaked out of a bite mark near a joint.
Sanya's eyes furrowed and she clenched her free hand into a fist. “I'm going to show that . . . dumb oaf—!”
“Hey,” Mai looked up towards Sanya. “It's fine.”
“But—”
“It's just a little—actually wait yeah this could be horribly unsanitary,” Mai cut herself off. “[Pocket Repository]. [Fleshweaving - Flesh Memory].” Mai retrieved her staff, cast her spell, and then returned her staff to her pocket dimension.
Goat saliva on her wound would probably not be healthy—not from one that ate dirt. These little clods were probably of decent health . . . but they were still animals.
She wiped the blood off on the clean bandages of her other hand.
She held the hand out for Sanya to look at. “See? Fine!”
Maybe Sanya could kill that goat and take its life force? Far from even one unit, if a mundane human was the definition for a single unit.
Wow, Sanya really was doomed if she was ever pressed for life force. How much livestock and forest had Esmat had to drain to take down that Glorestran eldritch scout?
“You wanna . . . move on? Maybe the sheep or the rabbits will be less bloodthirsty?” Mai asked.
Sanya and Mai were still outside of the pasture. Sanya wanted to keep it that way.
No way was she going to pet the assaulter of her girlfriend, nor its associates.
And, yeah, there was no point hedging it. Mai was her girlfriend again. Obviously.
Sanya nodded.
“Right!”
They moved onwards, to the next spawn of Diuskel.
“Baaaa,” the goat bleated again, now behind them.
Sanya flipped it off.
Maybe she should ask Rusul to come over later and abduct that goat, to turn it into dinner.
Maybe it didn't even deserve so much as to be eaten by Aisha and her inner circle. It would be a shame for any human to eat that disgraceful thing.
And so Mai pulled Sanya along to the sheep.
The wooly mammals were much more well-behaved than the goats. Mai stepped into the pasture to pet and scratch some of them. Mai was grinning, having the absolute time of her life. Sanya hadn't realized Mai liked animals so much. Sanya would smile again when the eldritch threat was dealt with.
Sanya watched from behind the fence. She was not too keen on petting the animals . . . Just yet.
Maybe she'd start small, like with the bunnies.
Sanya stood there, for a while, watching Mai pet the sheep.
Mai skipped back up to the gate and exited it after some time.
“You're cute,” Sanya blurted.
“Yeah?” Mai leaned forward, smiling. “You too.”
“Uh huh, sure,” Sanya wasn't convinced.
Mai rolled her eyes. “Bunnies?”
“Bunnies.”
They walked towards the bunny pen, hand-in-hand again. This was just a nice, peaceful date during a nice, peaceful time!
“Mom! Mom!” A kid exclaimed.
Sanya glanced over. There was a kid sitting down on a stone bench with his mom, in the shade of a building. Each of them was enjoying some kind of pastry, the kid grinned and pointed towards Sanya.
She sighed.
“Is that the Voidwitch?” the kid asked.
“Yes, honey,” the mom did not sound enthused.
“Woah! Can we go say hi?”
“No.”
Sanya felt a little relieved.
“Awww, why?”
“She's a dangerous freak. In fact, we probably should not get anywhere near her. Let's go look at the goats, yeah?”
Sanya winced. What did this lady think she was going to do? Eat her child? Beat them with her staff? Sanya literally wouldn't do anything to them.
Except she certainly wanted to do something to the mom—not that she would, of course.
“Didn't she save us?”
“She also brought this upon us all.”
Sanya's open fist clenched again. Why did people hate her? At least the mom was using “she” and “her.” Although that meant her disdain didn't come from Sanya's gender. Sanya didn't know if that was worse.
The kid groaned. “Mommm.”
The mom stood, sweating. “Come on, let's go.” She held her hand out for the kid. He reluctantly took it, and they headed towards the goats—opposite from the bunnies.
“Think about the bunnies, Sanya,” Mai whispered.
Sanya shook her head.
They soon found the bunnies. Mai immediately threw herself into their space and began petting them.
Sanya just leaned against the metal fence, on her crossed arms, and watched.
The bunny area was much smaller than for the sheep or goats. The fencing was more of a wire mesh than metal rods. Bunnies were much smaller than the other animals and could slip through that fencing.
The bunnies had little kennels or houses or whatever, with bowls of food and water near. There were hollowed out stones and other obstacles and things for the bunnies.
The dirt floor was covered in a layer of some kind of wheat or something.
“Come on. We didn't come out here just for you to look at me. That's what our bedroom is for—”
“Mai.”
“Sorry,” Mai averted Sanya's gaze, looking down.
“Our bedroom.” They still didn't even share a house. Still just neighbors. Not even roommates. Well, okay, that had slept cuddled together the previous night, so . . .
“Look at the white fluffy bunnies,” Mai goaded. “Don't you wanna see how soft they are? Aren't they the cutest? Irresistible?”
“They don't compare to you,” Sanya muttered.
Mai tilted her head. “Oh? I didn't hear that, can you repeat it?” She was grinning mischievously. “I may not have fur or big floppy ears, but I'll let you pet me. I'll even let you pet my—oops, sorry.”
What a little rascal . . .
Sanya rolled her eyes. She was tempted to just walk away.
Mai gently scooped up a bunny and held it out for Sanya. “Bunner . . .” There had to be a dozen or so of them, sniffing the ground and running around, or just being lazy. Mai had scooped up one of the lazy ones near her.
Sanya shook her head, then entered the space of floof, shutting the gate behind her and making sure no rabbits escaped. They would remain in this prison, every need attended to, mauhahaha!
Sanya reaches out slowly and pet the bunny with one finger. Barely more than a touch.
“See? Bunny.”
“Oh, huh. It looked like dinner to me.”
Mai choked on air. “You—you're a goof.”
“There are many words to describe me. Most unsavory. That is not one of them.”
“Whatever, cutie.”
“You're delusional.”
“I love you too.”
Could Mai be any more insufferable?
. . .
She was Sanya's . . . insufferable.
“I love you too,” Sanya muttered.
Mai beamed.