Chapter 575: Simple Requests
I didn’t know what to expect pacing the dark of the upstairs hallways. I should be out of these fancy garments by now, streaking across the kitchen hoping that pungent smell wasn’t me scorching the sausages.
The other end of the second floor always felt like an entirely separate locale to me with its own unique atmosphere, its own distinct fragrance – an entirely new world... despite being like fifteen or fourteen paces from my bedroom door.
Sharing the same roof with an Elf would do that, I suppose. It’s as if Ash’s very presence invited a more ethereal ambiance wherever she goes, and out of everyone I know, from literal beings of flame to silent channelers of the dead, I felt this feeling the strongest only with her.
After a hop and a skip, I crossed the fifteen-step boundary, and there’s that feeling, that aroma, surging stronger and stronger with every step closer to her bedroom door.
When I reached, I gave her door a gentle rap, and then another, stronger one a few moments passed... but knocking didn’t elicit an answer from the other side for some reason.
I tried the door handle – unlocked – so I slowly pulled, heard the creak of swung hinges, and then through the dark, narrow gap leading deeper within, I called out in a whisper, “Ash?”
There was breathing, the soft quiet of long, heavy breathes amidst the wrinkle of bedsheets, the squeak of the mattress, all culminating into a single spoken word, “Master...”
.....
Weakly, yet so eagerly... the sound of her voice answering me. I was a little caught off guard by just how frail she sounded. If anything, she sounded worse than yesterday.
“Oh, not another dream? Ah, you’re here, you’re real...” She spoke again with a slight hint of a lisp. “Master has finally returned to me, I see. Hours upon hours lamenting your absence, the turmoil... paling to the joy I feel hearing your voice once more... truly, this must be the peak of contentment. Ah, Master ~”
Alright, maybe there’s also a little bit more than just a lisp that’s wrong with her at the moment...
I parted the door a little more, raising a concerned brow. “Are you okay?”
“Just fine, Master...” spoke the darkness back, as whimsical as it was assuring. “I’m merely a little fatigued, is all... no harm, no encumbrance... especially now that you’re here with me...”
“I see.”
My ears were hearing deja-vu, and my eyes were blinking snapshots of a not-so-distant past of Ash in a drunken stupor, and just how clingy and affectionate she had become for those short few hours.
“Why, you’re very amusingly dressed today, aren’t you, Master?” She giggled. “I adore your hat. It’s an adorable hat.”
Now this here definitely wasn’t that, but it was close, very close.
No alcoholic beverages here. Just a burning fever and a very woozy, very half-asleep Elf in our midst. I didn’t see any danger, at least not any physical ones anyway ... so I fully traversed through the doorway, letting her bedroom door slowly click shut behind me.
It was stuffy inside, musty too... with the blinds closed and the windows shut, there really wasn’t much for ventilation, thus allowing this almost sharp, sweetish smell to permeate everywhere. It smelled like lavenders kinda, not unpleasant.
As for Ash herself, the only thing I could see of her was a messy bundle of matted hair, strands everywhere, as well as a faint glimmer of green peeking above a thick blanket under which the rest of her had completely disappeared into.
Yep, definitely worse.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked again just to be sure.
The blanket moved slightly, almost resembling a nod if I looked closely. “Fine,” she muttered again, blinking once in assurance.
“You sure you don’t need anything?”
“No.”
“Some water?”
“No.”
“Want me to make dinner?”
“No,” but she corrected herself right after. “Perhaps later, if it appears adequate enough.”
Adequate enough, huh?
Whatever – that’s enough playing Mom for the evening. Time to address what I’m really doing here standing around with a funny hat for.
“Sera mentioned you needed to see me for something?”
At that, Ash paused, entering into a small world of her own – one where logic and sense clearly did not belong.
“Mmm, I don’t recall ever saying that. Not out loud, at the very least...” She answered after a while, her eyes glazed. “But, yes, I did want to see you...”
“Why?”
She made a peculiar noise, a smile glimmering within her distant gaze, “Just to see you,” batting slowly in contentment. “And now I have, now I’m happy...”
Right, she’s clearly out of it... too deep in a stupor to engage in any sort of normal conversation. I played along for the time being, creeping to the bedside, gently brushing a hand against her blazing cheek.
“Glad I could be of service,” I whispered, shifting my hand and swiping the bangs from her drooping stare. “Satisfied now, right? Keep resting. I’ll make some soup, be back soon...”
I spun around towards the door, but only made it barely half a step before I felt
a tug on my sleeve, abruptly stopping me dead in my tracks.
“Not yet...” a harder tug, and I could feel the curl of fingers pulling me back. “Master, not yet... don’t go... no...”
She had leaned forward, the blanket slipping, the rest of her expression exposed – her dry lips agape, her pointed ears dangling lifelessly – the unwavering Knight so compromisingly vulnerable.
I repeated her words. “Not yet?”
“Not... satisfied yet...” Ash clarified, muttering between breaths. “I only just recalled... I actually do have another request of you, after all...”
For that one brief moment, she almost seemed almost aware, almost present, the dull green glow of her eyes staring so tender.
Again, just kept playing along, “I’m listening.”
Immediately, she broke her grip on my sleeve, and her arm began to sway elsewhere, slowly, lethargically, resting it atop her blanket... then just as slowly, lethargically, she began pulling away at it.
“Rest with me here...” She pleaded quietly. “If it is no bother...”
Ash lifted the covers, revealing a large empty surface just barely enough for one more, and going beyond that... I finally could see the rest of her too, and more than I really ought to, honestly.
A velvet red nightgown, she wore... her bare body separated only by a thin meager layer of silk that left nothing to the imagination. It was melding to her curves, to the rounded shape of her hips, barely reaching to her thighs, and when it came to covering up her chest, it only was just an inch short of a failing grade.
One of the clothes Ria bought for her from way back when, I presume... and of course, it had to be almost see-through too.
Thanks, Ria.
I swallowed, fighting, wrenching back my eyes to focus on hers again, only a single word in mind, “Why?”
“Why? Where? Who? How?” Ash feebly smiled, the side of her plopping against a pillow. “Would you really force an answer out of me, Master? Unfit as I am?”
“Hmm,” alright, she got me in a snag there. “I suppose not.”
“You’ve been gone a long time...” She said, speaking muffled into her pillow. “At the very least, I wish to spend what little left there is left of the day together with you,” then, sneaking peeking over at me, she said. “Unless, of course, Master has another matter to tend to... again...”
Is that a pout I hear? Ash pouting? Hmm, maybe falling sick isn’t all bad, after all.
I conceded, not as if I stood a chance against a pouting Ash in the first place. I don’t think anyone can.
“I’ll go get changed first,” I told her, turning back again.
“No!” She interjected, both hands this time pulling me back, blurred eyes staring intensely at me. “Now... I only have time with Master now... I dare not waste even a single second of it, okay?”
One of her shoulder straps slipped loose... almost revealing one of her – I blinked.... pulling it back up for her, smiling all the while.
“And what about dinner?” I asked, swallowing.
Her arms tugged at me again, forcing me down onto the empty spot on the bed.
“Dinner can wait,” Ash slurred and muttered, enveloping me with her arms, and slowly laying me down beside her, smothered in her warmth, her scent, her ambiance, the breath of words hot and heavy in my ear. “But I cannot.”
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