Descending Into A Novel

Chapter 188: 188:Hide and Seek

"Found you!"

"Kyaa!"

Erin let out a startled yelp as Raymond abruptly picked her up. Her tail swishing back and forth in excitement.

"You lost."

"Noo...!"

Who would have thought that scions would also enjoy hide and seek? It was reassuring to know that they were still kids at heart, even if they tried their hardest to act all refined and pretentious.

The moment Erin had returned home from school, she had immediately begged him to play. For Raymond, who didn’t have anything better to do anyways—he readily agreed. Erin was the only thing that brought him spark in these dull days.

It was also a walk in the park.

Erin could hide her body, but she seemed to not realize the copious amounts of noise she was making.

From the sounds of her tail or wings slapping against random objects, the constant giggling and the pitter-patter of her feet as she ran off to hide. Raymond could close his eyes walk blindly, and he would still be able to find her.

"No fair! Dad cheated!"

He raised an eyebrow at her, "How did I cheat?"

"You used magic!"

"Did not."

"Did so!"

"Did not."

"Then how did you find me?"

Unable to accept her defeat, she immediately jumped to conclusions of him cheating.

"My hiding spot was perfect!"

"...was it?"

She nodded her head up and down.

For reference, she was hiding in between the couch and the wall. Normally a pretty good hiding spot, basic and bland maybe. Except she neglected the fact that their furniture layout had the couch pushed up against the wall with no space.

So she had to push it ajar in order to squeeze behind it. This hiding spot didn’t even require Raymond to hear her, it would actually have been harder to ignore it since it slightly blocked the hallways.

She stuck her tongue at him.

"Cheater cheater!"

"What’s this about now?"

Just then, the front door opened. Revealing a slightly sweaty Ellen that had just returned from training.

Raymond used a hand to immobilize Erin as he explained, "She believes I’m cheating."

"He is! Dad is che—mmph!"

He used his other hand to cover her mouth. Just so Ellen wouldn’t misunderstand, he had gotten accusements of a different type of cheating way too many times already. Each time from this same little rascal.

"We’re playing hide and seek. Want to join?"

"...sure."

Despite having assignments and actual work to do(because Ellen was an actual good student who attended classes and did her work unlike Raymond). She readily gave it all up.

He said to her, "Don’t worry, it’ll end fast when she’s hiding."

"Me first!"

And Erin, greedy as ever—wanted to be the hider again.

It would all end fast anyways. The longest part about Erin hiding, was actually counting down and giving her enough time to find a hiding spot.

Covering his eyes, he turned to Ellen’s rough position. "No cheating."

"...who exactly do you think I am?"

She pursed her lips, she still had some pride and dignity left in her. Even if plenty of it had been washed away from spending so much time with him.

"Remind me of what you did during game night again?"

"That was four years ago."

"I never forget my grievances."

"We both know you were going to lose anyways."

"I’d rather lose fairly then lose unfairly."

"We were playing for three hours at that point. It was the best way to end it."

"What happened to your willpower? Don’t tell me you lost it just because of your new attunement."

The two of them bickered like that with their eyes closed. Only after they finished arguing did they uncover their eyes and loudly announce to Erin.

At least this time she wasn’t giggling to herself and giving away her position. Erin seemed determined to win this time. Raymond couldn’t even hear any sounds from her dragonic parts accidentally hitting another object.

Just from a casual look around, he couldn’t immediately spot anything out of the blue sticking out.

It might have actually taken a bit longer this time to find her, if it weren’t for the fact there were two seekers.

Ellen let out a small yawn, still tired after having just returned from training. Raising her head briefly as she did so.

In doing so, she immediately paused. Spotting a certain scaly tail sticking out from above the fridge.

"..."

She turned to Raymond, who had also spotted the same thing after following her gaze.

"..."

"Well, that was faster then I thought. I see what you mean now."

Raymond put a finger to his lip, signalling for her to stay quiet as the two approached her hiding location.

It was a mystery how Erin managed to get up there. But Raymond wasn’t going to let this opportunity slide by. Since she loved messing with the two of them, it was only fair to get a little payback every once in a while wasn’t it?

Her tail twitched slightly, likely a desperate attempt from Erin to keep it still. If she could do that, why couldn’t she properly hide it? Her red scales stuck out like a sore thumb in their mostly white apartment.

’One, two, three, four.’

Counting down the scales from the end of her tail, Raymond locked his eyes onto the fourth layer of scales from the tip. Quietly reaching a hand out, Raymond moved as slowly as possible in order to not alert her.

Tickle tickle~

BANG!

***

"I hate you dad."

Erin crossed her arms, angrily puffing her cheeks out at him.

In his defense, while he knew how sensitive dragon tails could be. He didn’t expect Erin to so abruptly twitch just from a little tickle, causing her tail to jerk and slam into the wall at full force.

As for how he knew of such info, let’s just say Flare had received more then his fair share of flirtatious touches from other dragons.

"I’m sorry Erin, how about I buy us ice cream as an apology?"

"Hmph, you just want ice cream for yourself."

Ellen smiled, seeing Erin catch onto his plan and call him out on it.

Raymond stuck a hand out to try and pet Erin to comfort her, only for her to swiftly dodge it. Running over to Ellen instead.

"No, dad is a very bad person."

She grinned, comforting Erin. "Dad is a very bad person isn’t he? Why don’t we go get ice cream without him?"

"Okay!"

She caught on immediately as well, sticking her tongue out at Raymond.

The look of distraught on his face was enough to make this moment into a core memory for Ellen. She didn’t even want to get ice cream right now, but she knew exactly how to press Raymond’s buttons to rile him up, and this was the easiest way to do so.

Hehe, playing around with Raymond was always so fun. Whether it was just provoking him, teasing him or just poking him. His reactions were always so cute, even if he glared at her. It was nothing she hadn’t experienced before.

Like a dog which had been wronged and would bark at her. Yet still run into her hands everytime she offered a treat.

Ahem, although it was a bit mean to call Raymond that...it was unfortunately, an image that constantly reappeared in her head everytime she looked at him. She couldn’t help it, ever since he had woken up from his coma and pleaded with her for ice cream. The image had been fully associated with Raymond.

"No..!"

With Raymond still kneeling as an apology to Erin, she put a hand on his head. Condescendingly petting him.

"Don’t worry, we’re planning on going to that new desert place that opened as well.

"!!!"

Just for good measure, Ellen leaned in briefly to whisper into his ear.

"Don’t try and follow us. "

Erin was weak, she might forgive and forget this incident within the next hour or so, and Ellen absolutely couldn’t have that!

Which was why she came up with the perfect plan. To hit two birds with one stone, to beat two dead horses at once.

She grinned, "If you appear like how you did during the mission. I might just let you join us~"

He clenched his fists, refusing to answer to her provocation.

Even now, after a fortnight had passed ever since that mission. She still brought it up, purely for the sake of teasing him. Like an embarrassing moment that a mom would bring up in front of friends, Raymond received no mental rest from the turbulence that was his own transformation.

Well, he wasn’t going to answer her no matter what!

Rubbing his head, she giggled. Watching him restrain his own emotions.

"There’s even a specialty item, a triple layer strawberry ice cream cake made with strawberries harvested from the Flipont region. It’s only going to be on the menu for one week."

"..."

"Today’s already the last day."

"!!!"