Chapter 8: Chapter 8 – Calm

I feel my consciousness being dragged out of the sort of meditative trance, because I seem to be doing that instead of sleeping now, and open my eyes to the sight of something fiery red and very floofy. At the same moment I feel that fluffy something in my face, on my arms, and on my neck, and I melt in happiness as it comes to me it's Ava I'm snuggling up to and her tails I'm hugging.

I sigh in contentment and indulge for a few minutes... and a few more, before I pull away and look at Ava's cute sleeping face. Now adorned with a pair of floofy ears. Gosh.

Hm. I look out of the window and notice it's bright outside. It would be time to wake up, I guess. I poke my girlfriend's cheek and watch her as her eyes groggily flutter open and I see her beautiful, bloody irises and aaaa damn it all I fukin love her so much I can't!

"Ves-." Ava begins in drowsy voice and I shut her up with a long, passionate kiss to her lips, and another when I separate and another and another and I hug her tight and I think I pull myself on top of her.

"Vesper!" My girlfriend cups my face in her hands and holds me in place, groaning in exasperation as I wrap myself around her. "Cut it out, furball! I'm not your doll!" She accuses me and I push against her strength and give her another kiss.

"I'd never love a doll as much as I love you." I reply quietly and trail my lips over her jaw to her neck.

"I, I see that." Ava gasps. "Can I please get up?"

"No." I shut the question down instantly and bury my face in Ava's neck, nibbling on her skin and worshipping it.

"Did you wake me up just to torment me?" She grumbles, wrapping her arms around my small figure and shifting her head to nibble on my ear and aaaah ow ow ow holy shit! That felt...

"Aaaah! Ava!" The second, significantly stronger bite comes and I shriek and twist my neck so fast it would have snapped if I wasn't Touched and whirl my ears around. "What was that?" I ask in a teary voice.

"I found your weak spot it seems." Ava purrs into my ear and I can almost taste the amusement and smugness oozing out of her.

"Meanie." I grumble and snuggle up to her again, hoping this time it won't be interrupted.

It is interrupted by a hand on the base of my ear that sends me into completely another heaven. The world disappears around me as I immerse myself in the feeling on my girlfriend's hand satiating the beast in me and making not very humane growls excape my throat.

"I was thinking a bit about what we talked before you fell asleep." I hear a voice above me as the scritches reduce their pace.

"Mrrrhm?" I let out in response.

"I will probably be feeding you each night before we sleep. You just have to make sure not to suck me dry." The voice continues and I intantly perk up. A bit, I mean. Not like I'd abandon this divine spot just because she said something.

"Mhhh, yesh. Though I'm not sure if it wouldn't be more effective to wait more time..." I mumble.

"No can do, I told you that." My girlfriend replies firmly. "We don't even know what exactly this does to you, so before we figure it out, we will only do that in small doses."

"Alright..." I say, well aware I won't be able to convince her otherwise.

Also, on topic of vitality, the cloud around her orb of vitality seems to have grown to around half the size, and I mean volume, of what I sucked out of her yesterday. It seems that its recovery is mostly linear, and increadibly fast. I can't judge properly with the vitalities being of different density and, uh, depth, but I'm pretty sure that the little of my vitality left... oh shit.

A real lot of it has been used to heal my soul it seems, because I've got like five percent remaining in the very center of my orb that seems more firmly embedded here. And I'm not healed yet. At all. There is barely any difference between my current state comparing to my state from yesterday night. Though, hm... I'm pretty sure what Ava has around her now would be enough to fill me up.

Which, as a side note, means that her regeration outpaces my usage enormously, and I can only see that as a good thing.

"Mmm, Ava, can you feed me...?" I ask and I almost feel her doing a double-take.

"What?" She asks in confusion. "I thought you don't need to eat?"

"Vitality..." I grumble at my slow on the uptake girlfriend, biting her lightly on her colarbone and making her muscles tense there. "I'm really low on it and I need to heal from the strain last night..."

"Ah. Hm." She hesitates. "Huh? You barely have anything left! And it flows weirdly... is that the damage?" She asks and I nod lightly. "Okay, alright. How long are you going to last?"

"No idea." I reply. "Defninitely not long, and I've no idea how long exactly and how low amount of vitality will affect me in long term."

"Ah. It's like food for you, isn't it?" She asks and I mumble an affirmation. "...Alright, but I'll try to make it as slow as I can so it won't overwhelm you, alright?"

"Mhm, okay." I reply and feel this sort of anticipation and need bubbling inside me.

And then it comes. I see the tiny streak of vitality coming from Ava's body as her cloud starts starts spinning like water in a drain, and watch it as it converges on her hand and flows into my head, now that I pay attention sort of spreading around my whole body and seeping inside my orb of vitality.

And it feels... soothing. Calming. Peaceful. Pleasant. Filling. Chaos damn it, I love it. I absolutely love this feeling.

"I was also wondering if I would be able to do this to myself, but it didn't work for some reason." Ava muses.

"Mmmh? Maybe that's... hrm." I begin and end without giving a good answer with Ava's hand and vitality winning the battle with my mind trying to form coherent thoughts.

"So we're going to Percula as we agreed?" Ava asks and I think I nod my head. I get that impression, at least.

"Can you... um, get off me, furball? Cause... you know." She continues in very suggestive voice, receiving only a content purr in reponse. "...Alright."

I barely stop a surprised squeak when I feel the air rushing around my ears and the direction I'm pulled down to changing, and I'm suddenly being lifted in the air. I feel Ava adjusting her hold of me and I hug her tighter and she sets out to the tiny kitchen in the apartment.

And I start giggling happily. I mean, damn. For any normal human pairs, save for very rare cases, something like that would be straight out impossible.

And here we are, Ava carrying me like a baby and starting to prepare a bit of food for herself.

"Hm, how much do you need to eat?" I ask lazily, having my own meal of Ava's smooth skin as I nibble on her neck, only now noticing that when I do that a little bit of the vitality coursing through her body is sucked out into my mouth.

And it tastes! It's bright, sweet, kinda like... I don't know actually, but absolutely amazing.

"I've no idea." Ava replies to my question with a small shrug that jostles me up and down slighlty. "I haven't actually been hungry after being Touched, but I'm eating out of habit, I guess. You don't want anything?"

"Neeeh." I reply in disgust. Blergh. Just remembering that taste from before makes my face scrunch up. Ava is much better, and more than enough for me.

"Alright. Do you want to do anything before we go? I'd shower first, but it would take years to dry our tails, so I'll wait till we are in Percula with that."

"Hmm, no, I don't think so." I shake my head lightly. "I hope there will be a rifter available."

...

"I'm sorry, all the rifters are unavailable currently. I'm sure you understand, considering the Storm in Venus." The woman in front of us says and I deflate a bit.

"I don't hope you know when someone will be available?" Ava asks the receptionist.

"No, unfortunately not." She shakes her head in response. "Right now any shedules are null and most rifters are helping in the affairs surrounding the Storm. They will available as soon as that's finished, but I can't tell you when it will be apart from that it won't be soon. The rest is also unavailable for various personal reasons."

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"I see, thanks." My girlfrinend nods her head and we walk away to a bench on the side of the large hall on the first floor of Chaos Towers. It is where General Chaos Management has their offices and where rifters operate from, among other things.

Ava sits down heavily, waving her tails and putting them on her lap, and I plop down next to her and lean on her shoulder. I wonder where did Violet go when we need her. Hmph.

"It's around sixty miles to Percula. Do you want to go on foot?" Ava asks in the silence between us.

"Hm? Wouldn't it take too long? Ah, right, we're Touched." I answer my own question. Hm. "Do you know how fast you are and how much endurance you have?" I look up at her face and she shrugs lightly.

"No idea. Didn't have a chance to check. But I'm definitely much stronger than before. Dunno how it would compare to a Beast if we paid one to carry us though."

Hm. Yeah. Her soul is pretty large, which somehow translates to strength, though I'm not sure how. Mine is larger, and that most likely means I'm stronger. Or at least I have a larger boost to my strength, however it is calculated.

"Hm, I'm probably still faster than you." I mumble and glance at my legs. "No, with those legs I'm pretty sure I'll leave you in the dust. Are you sure you want to do that?"

"Well, it's not like we have better alternatives." She shrugs. "We could wait for a rifter, but that might take days unless we pay to drag one here, which would be a fuckton of money I don't want to waste. And paying a Beast to carry us will be either totally useless or way too expensive, depending how strong a Beast it would be."

"And with our new bodies we might even arrive in Percula in a single day." I finish and she nods lighlty, reaching up to my head with her hand.

She scritches me lightly behind my ear and I purr softly into her shoulder.

"Do you... do you need to pack anything?" I ask.

"Nah. We have more than enough money, and we can buy something on the way if we need." Ava replies. "If you're asking about food, then I probably don't need it. Much less than before, at least, so it won't be a problem."

"Mhm. So when do we go?"

"Now, I guess. No point in delaying." Ava stands up, lifting me with her. "Let's get to the outskirts first, then we can run."

"Okay." I nod my head, following her lead out of the building. "Hm, I really hope they will build trams from one city to another soon, not only within the largest cities."

We briskly set out to the edge of the city, which is half an hour away at leisurely pace and around twenty if we walk as we do now. We observe the city on the way, and I especially listen to the city. It's almost overwhelming with my sensitive ears, but I can recognize some words and sounds.

They don't really give my any insight on anything though, which is a bummer. I'll need to learn to filter out sounds better, mainly conversations, because right now I'm having trouble fishing full single suntences out of the noise in the less filled streets, not to mention what it was in the centre. There it was hard to understand a single word if it wasn't unusually loud.

"Ava?" I ask her at some point. "Can you hear a lot?"

"Depends what's a lot." She looks down at me with raised eyebrows. "If you're asking if I can understand what people are talking about, then no. Though I catch some things every now and then."

"Similar to me, then." I mumble and we lapse into silence again till I realize sometihng in our surroundings. "Is it just me, or there are very few Beasts here? Certainly much less than in Venus."

"Yeah, there are much less." Ava nods her head. "I'm pretty sure Raphlesia was built before they were generally accepted, and the streets here are not suited for them."

Hm. Yeah, they are pretty narrow, so majority of Beasts would have trouble walking through there. Well, maybe not trouble walking through, but if there were a lot of them, then they would start blocking each other. Not like all of them are large, but their average size is definitely way higher than that of ordinary humans.

"There is also much less Touched, I'm not sure if you noticed." Ava says from my side and I nod my head after a moment.

"Mhm. I sense a few of them."

For some reason there are no distinct differences in the orbs of normal people and Touched, but I'm pretty sure that normal humans have very small orbs of vitality without exceptions. Also, now that I focus on it, I relize there is a seventh level of the orb of vitality.

Or rather zeroth, even lower then the first. It's sort of... bleak? Hm. I'm not sure how to describe it properly, but it feels somehow lacking, and the difference between this level and the first is much higher than it is between any other. When people walk around us, another detail I notice is that those somewhat underdeveloped orbs all belong to kids, or at least teenagers. If there are any adults with those, then I've yet to meet them.

And that is much larger of a discovery than you would have thought. That's because it makes me practically certain that everyone's orbs of vitality, and by that souls, grow with time. I obviously don't have proof for that, but I don't think you can explain it in any other way.

Another important thing is that they don't teach that in school, and even in the Academy. So it's either something kept in wraps by the Touched or known to very few people, and I'm more inclined to believe the former, because I don't believe ability to sense vitality is that rare.

On the topic of sensing vitality...

"Ava, how is your, uh, life sense, or however we call it?" I ask curiously.

"Hm? I can sort of see the orb if I'm touching the person. And I can see it in great detail, I think." Ava answers. "How about you?"

"I'm not sure actually... it's a bit weird. I think I can sense every orb close to me, and I can see a lot further if I have someone in my sight." I squint in the distance where new orbs pop up. "I think it's around... six meters around me, and fifty if I see the person with my eyes?"

"Hm, that's a bit weird." My girlfriend comments. "What about the detail?"

"The further away, the less. But it's pretty sharp if someone is very close." I look at her and instantly can see a lot more details. Seems both those sights work independently, but my sight overrides the base sense since it offers more details. "And in my own orb, come to think of it."

"Mhm." Ava nods her head. "Did you notice how many stares we attract?"

"Huh? Um, a bit. I paid more attention to my hearing, but I don't have anything to compare." I reply with a slight blush. I can't say I like being stared at, but I like what it means. That I am good enough or pretty enough for people to pay attention.

Though... "Can't say two Vulpes in one place is a common sight." I add after a while. "And we are both quite unusual."

"Yeah, I have seven tails, and you have your colors." Ava nods with a grin. "Vulpes are usually with one tail and in more subdued colors."

"Mhm." I mumble. "Though Nia is different."

"Nia? Ah, her. Yeah, she's something else." Ava nods with a giggle. "But she's not your usual Vulpes. She's a Mythical after all."

I mumble out an affirmation and we continue through the streets in silence.

Nia, eh? She's the only known Mythical Vulpes, and she's widely recognized for her not very decent behavior and nine tails in deep, ethereal blue color, combined with soft pinkish skin. Can't say that's how you would imagine a Vulpes to look, considering that foxes, however rare they are nowadays, are mostly somewhere between red and orange and have only one tail.

A pity Nia's powers are not known, because we could really use some pointers. Depending on the kind, your powers will mostly fit into certain spectrum, and it is somewhat visible by the fact that I and Ava both have abilities related to vitality. But, well, not like we can do anything about Nia.

We go past another street and arrive at the end of that part of the city where you have houses sticking to each other like people in a line to a shop. There are more lawns and less houses now, and the number of people has reduced to the point we pass only one person hurrying somewhere every a minute or two.

"Do you wanna run now?" Ava asks me and I turn to her with an eager nod and with a sort of excitement starting to bubble inside me. I'm going to test my limits as a Touched! I don't know how powerful I am exactly, and that's exactly what I'm going to find out in a while. At least in regards to my speed.

"Then let's start with a jog. You'll probably be faster than me, so for now I'll see how fast I am." Or so she says, but I'm already speeding forward along the road, and I laugh joyfully when I turn around and see her just accelereting to catch up to me.

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