I spend my night mostly watching Ki'rai sleeping like a baby in the bed. The light from an olive lamp was outlining her little body, at least until the fuel didn't end. Then I finally fell asleep, and woke, just like usual. I sneaked out to not wake her up, and took a bath, then swung by the cafeteria, to get a bowl of something warm and nice. Gulash, to be precise. I shadow walked back to my room, to share it with her.
She was already awake, waiting for me, which I only noticed after opening the shutters a little bit to get some light inside. The food picked her attention. I Could see her nostrils moving as she was sniffing.
- Wanna try?
- Yes - she replied with a smile, showing off her teeth.
I gave her the bowl, and after a careful inspection, she finally tasted the food. Her eyes almost fell out of the socket when she tried it for the first time. Then she quickly devoured everything, only at the end realizing what she just did.
Sie slowly rose her head and looked at me with a completely frozen expression of shock. She knew that she just messed up. We were supposed t share that food.
- It's fine. - I said, smiling slightly.
She, embarrassed, lowered her gaze.
- I'll grab myself a snack, don't worry. Give me the bowl, I need to return it.
She gave me the bowl, and I left to do what I just said. Upon returning I saw her peeking through the slightly opened shutters at the outside. I watched her for a moment, before she realized I was there, and jumped back like she just got burned.
- You ready to go?
- Yes - she said, avoiding my eyes.
I grabbed my weapon and moved closer, to touch her shoulder, so I could take us back where I left the anchor. I did just that, and we started making our way towards the swamp. We both were too full to run, so we just casually walked.
- Did you sleep well?- I asked her after few steps.
- Yes. I like your bed. It's better than the ground, and the capsules back home.
- Capsules?
- You don't know the proper word?
- Yes.
- Well... Maybe one day you will show me, so I can then tell you the right one.
She immediately became silent. I noticed that what I just said was bothering her.
- Did something happen? - I asked.
She shook her head, but that was a lie. I clearly touched on something she was not allowed to talk about. I could try to push a bit harder by using written language, still doubled she would tell me anything, but there was no reason to try. I stopped and wrote the question in the air using void essence.
She read it, but there was no answer. I noticed that I'm actually making her upset, so the right move was to change the subject to something more pleasant to her.
- Back in my word - I started while resuming walking - we have a type of food that's called chocolate. I don't know if we can make it here yet, but I want you to try it one day. Also, I would love you to try ice cream. They have different flavors. For example, there are fruit-flavored ones. Imagine cream made out of fruits, and then frozen. Perfect for such warm weather like we have here.
She didn't look at me, but I noticed her licking her lips and swallowing. Her imagination was already on it.
- We also have many other types of food. Like lasagna, spaghetti, pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, and many more. I want you to try all of it.
She briefly looked at me, with her sparkly eyes.
- Would you like to try?
- Yes - she replied immediately, nodding a lot.
It made me chuckle a bit.
- I bet you would love candy... And cookies... And cake. Oh, yea. You would love those for sure.
- H-how does it taste?
- It's sweet, but a little bit different than fruits. Depends on what it is made of, but I'm sure you would like all of it. It's great... To be honest, I miss it a lot.
- I want to try it. I want to try it all - she said, and something unexpected happened next, as she started to skipping instead of walking normally.
The cuteness took me off guard. I couldn't help but smile. I started to describe to her all the different flavors I had in my mind. The conversation made her so hungry, she started to bit her lip, even though we ate not too long ago, and technically she was still full. I found it so funny, that I continued to talk about the food for quite a while.
Eventually, we reached the swamp, so I dropped the anchor, and we took a break. The dark trees with twisted branches looked as creepy as the last time. The area in front of us had really high grass that was obscuring the land. Even with the sun shining above us it was an unpleasant view.
There was still more or less half of the day left, so I jumped back to the city, to bring us some food, and then, while we ate. I made an attempt to explain to her the rules of tic tac toe to kill some time. I cleared a bit of relatively dry ground and started drawing. She understood the rules pretty quickly, and we had a few games.
I did it to bond more with her. Not only because I wanted to get more information about Xuvi, but also because I really liked her. She felt to me more and more like a daughter. Then we finally returned back to the city. As she hid in my room, I brought her some food from the cafeteria. This time we shared the bowl. It was not enough for both of us, so I actually had to bring more, which I did while returning technically stolen property from the cafeteria.
The day came to an end with 23 440 850 points remaining on my account.
Follow current nov𝒆ls on freew(𝒆)bnov𝒆l.(c)om