Chapter 33: Chapter 33 All is fair in love

Kelcie PoV 

Kissing Azalea had been a dream that I never knew I had, until it had come true. Her lips were so soft and tender, her lavender eyes filled with such desire and love, that even now, days later, I could still feel her lips on mine. I knew I was blushing as I walked through the base the expedition had set up, the smell of the smoke from the campfires assaulting my nose briefly as I passed the ‘kitchen’. 

I had a happy grin on my face as my unarmoured dress swirled as I danced around a harried group of kitchen hands. I loved being able to wear a dress whenever I wanted to. Clearly it was getting closer to dinner, if how busy the kitchen hands were was any indication. 

Feeling my heart race as I thought about what I was going to ask Azalea, I briefly paused to take a deep breath so I could get myself back in check. I had hit level 36 by the end of the battle to retake West End, or at least what was left of it, and I had discovered that I had unlocked two new abilities. Opening up my character sheet, I read over the first one to try and distract myself from my runaway pulse. 

Pure Touch

The Magical Girl is a being of purity and a symbol of all that is good in the world. By placing her hand upon the object or person she wishes to purify, the Magical Girl can cleanse her target of any dark corruption. 

Blushing as I read the part about being pure, my heart soared and my breath quickened, while my mind flashed back to last night and the things that Azalea and I had gotten up to in private. Callie and Raya had taken Ryel outside for a few hours so we could have some alone time. Unfortunately, my pleasant recollection of last night was disturbed by an unpleasant interruption. 

McLaggen abruptly stood in front of me, blocking my way with his chest puffed out and a cocky smirk on his face. I could smell his sweaty body. “Hi there, beautiful. That smiles gotta be for me, right?”

I sighed, scowling at the obnoxious man. He didn’t seem to want to take the hint. “No, it’s not. Now, can you please get out of my way? I have things to do before I sleep for the night.”

Somehow the man’s smirk became even more obnoxious. “Speaking of sleeping… you, me, tonight? What do ya say?”

I barely suppressed making a reflexive gagging noise as he stepped closer, trying to crowd or intimidate me. Taking a step back, I shook my head. “No thanks, I’m not interested.”

McLaggen’s smile slipped for a moment, a cold expression crossing his face momentarily before his mask was back. “Oh, come on, beautiful. Surely you’re dying to find out what it’d be like with me. All women do.” He winked suggestively as his eyes ran up and down my body. “So… see you back here at 8pm? Wear something nice.” Before I could even respond, how could I while attempting to not throw up, the arrogant swine turned away and walked off with a swagger in his step. 

Shuddering, and tasting bile at the back of my throat, I quickly made my way towards our party’s cabin as I attempted to put McLaggen out of my mind. I smirked, too bad I wasn’t going to get to see the look on his face when I didn’t appear. It was his own fault, though, I had told him enough times that I wasn’t interested. 

The squelch of mud made me want to shudder. It had only been a few days, and already the ground was nearly ankle deep. Azalea was lucky that she flew everywhere. 

Speaking of the little fairy, I couldn’t help but have a soft smile when I stepped into our cabin and saw her excitedly talking about something Ryel was showing her. The glee on her face was almost maniacal as she gestured wildly. 

“… Bigger explosions are always better!” Azalea exclaimed with a serious expression and a nod. 

I felt the urge to facepalm. No matter that by her own customs she was an adult now, I still saw Ryel as the young girl she had been when I first met her, and I didn’t approve of Azalea encouraging Ryel to be reckless. Especially when it came to explosives, they were incredibly dangerous in the best of circumstances, and the way that Ryel made her explosives was not the best of circumstances. 

Shaking my head, I squashed my automatic desire to dampen Azalea and Ryel’s enthusiasm as I removed my boots by unsummoning them. The mud falling onto the ground in front of the cabin made a splattering noise as it suddenly had nowhere to cling to. 

I could see Callie and Raya laying together on one of the bunks, holding hands, Raya laying on Callie’s chest, purring, as they quietly chatted together, ignoring the troublemakers in our group. 

Azalea either somehow sensed my presence or heard me as she looked up and smiled. Her eyes lit up in pleasure, and the new colouration of the light she emitted grew stronger. 

Not long after our first kiss, Azalea had started glowing with a multicoloured luminescence. They reminded me of something called ‘The God’s Night Light’, colourful lights in the night sky up north. Azalea had said it reminded her of what her people from before she died had called ‘The Northern Lights’, or ‘Aurora’. When I had asked her why she was suddenly glowing a different colour, she blushed and thought it had something to do with being in love. 

The colours twirled and swirled around her in her excitement as she launched herself at me. At the possible last second, she enlarged herself, falling into my flailing outstretched arms with a giggle. “Kelce, you’re back!”

I blushed at Azalea’s nickname for me as I pulled her tight so I didn’t drop her. “Hey, Azzie.” I smiled at her before frowning. “Have you been teaching Ryel bad habits?”

Azalea smiled widely, unrepentant. “Of course! They’re the best kind.”

As I worked at suppressing a giggle at Azalea’s comment, I placed my forehead on her’s and looked into her warm lavender eyes. The corner of her eyes crinkled up as she smiled back at me, before pecking my lips with a soft kiss. 

A gagging noise drew both of our attention away from each other, only to see Ryel pretending to be sick. The aurora around Azalea shimmered and expanded to cover me momentarily, before it shrunk back to illuminate the enlarged fairies skin. I felt my face heat up from the memories that sparked in me, of our night together. Her aurora had covered both of us for most of the night. 

“Ha! Just you wait until I tease you when you meet someone,” Azalea cackled. 

Instead of responding with a bratty quip of some kind, like I expected her to, Ryel glanced at me anxiously for a moment, before looking away and shrugging. 

I didn’t know what was wrong with Ryel, I’d have to talk with her later when it was just the two of us. Azalea looked puzzled at Ryel’s behaviour momentarily, before she shrugged and nuzzled into my neck as I carried her, while I turned to look at our other party members. “Hey, Callie, Raya. Either of you going on the scouting mission tomorrow?” 

Raya shook her head, but Callie nodded. “Yeah, I’ve got that [Threads of Darkness] skill that I can use. Should help me find more undead if they’re around.” 

Nodding, I sat on my bunk, still holding my enlarged fairy in my arms. I noticed one of her wings was slightly bent out of shape, so I gently straightened it for her without thinking. Azalea let out a cute little ‘eep’ noise and shuddered. “Sorry.” I blushed. “I forgot that you said touching a fairy's wings is usually only reserved for family or partners,” I whispered. 

Azalea looked up at me, blushing but with a shy smile. “You’re welcome to touch them anytime, I was just not expecting it.”

My heart melted as she smiled at me. She had the cutest little dimple in her cheek. Brushing a stray bit of her light blue hair behind one of her pointed ears, I leaned down and kissed her lightly. “Thanks, love.” 

I noticed Callie and Raya looking at us fondly from where they lay, smiles on their faces. 

“You two have certainly gotten close lately,” Callie pointed out with a smirk. 

Azalea and I both blushed at that, but we didn’t let go of each other. I shrugged, holding Azalea tighter to me. 

Raya slapped her partner’s shoulder. “Don’t tease them, they’ve been good about not teasing us.”

Callie wrapped her arms around Raya and sighed. “You’re right. Sorry. I didn’t mean to come across as teasing. It was more of an observation than anything else.”

“You’re fine,” I said, smiling at the blonde half elf. Azalea just shrugged and snuggled into my lap further. 

I checked the timer for my transformation and relaxed when I saw it had three hours still before I had to renew it. Thankfully my transformation skill was high enough now that it lasted for most of the day. I was curious what would happen when I hit rank 10 in the skill. Maybe one day it’ll be permanent, and I won’t need to have Azalea distract everyone so I could go off and reapply my skill. 

“Hey, Azalea…” I started, quietly, nervous for the first time since we started dating. 

Azalea glanced up at my change in tone. “What’s the matter, Kelce?” She asked, her voice barely above a whisper. 

Suddenly losing my nerve, I shook my head, looking away from her. “Ah, don’t worry about it. It’s a silly idea anyway.”

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I felt Azalea’s hand cup my cheek and gently pull until I was looking into her eyes. “It’s okay, you can ask me anything you’d like to. I promise to hear you out.”

Staring into Azalea’s eyes, warmth filled my heart as I saw her love reflected in those lavender depths. How did I ever miss her feelings for me? 

I closed my eyes briefly before taking a deep breath and opening my eyes again. “I have an ability called [Familiar Bond]. It allows me to form a connection with a sentient or non sentient creature. I was wondering if you’d like to try it with me? It’s not permanent, and we canbreaktheconnectionatanytime…”

Giggling, Azalea kissed me, shutting off my nervous gush of words. I pouted as she pulled back from our kiss. Smiling, as she sat on my lap, Azalea looked up at me and kissed my cheek, her cheeks a light pink. “I’d love to be your familiar.”

My smile was almost painfully wide and I felt tears shimmering at the edges of my eyes as I stared at the fairy, my girlfriend. “Yeah?” I asked, clearing a lump in my throat with a quiet cough. 

“Yeah,” Azalea repeated, smiling back. “So, how do we do this?”

“You don’t want to know the details?”

“Nuh,” Azalea said, shaking her head. “I trust you.”

Shaking my head, I squeezed her softly as my heart quickened at her trust in me. “It’ll give us both a boost to our magic, we’ll also share part of our health too, and luckily, it’s not permanent unless we want it to be.”

Azalea nodded, looking unexpectedly serious, before she cracked a smile as her eyes danced in amusement. “So, how do we do this?”

I glanced at my class skills, and quickly reread what it said. “Apparently I just have to touch you and form the familiar bond.”

Azalea wiggled her eyebrows while grinning at me. “Oh?”

My face flushed as I realised what I had said and what Azalea was implying. “N-not like that!” I exclaimed, stammering a little bit. 

The fairy wriggled on my lap, cackling at my discomfort and bright red face. 

“Brat,” I growled, trying and failing to suppress a smile at my girlfriend’s antics. Were we girlfriends? It feels like we should be by now. We’d have to have that conversation. I felt pretty good about it though, considering Azalea was happy to form a bond with me. 

I cupped her cheeks with my hands, leaning down, I kissed her passionately as I mentally triggered [Familiar Bond]. 

Do you wish to form a familiar bond with the fairy known as Azalea? This bond is not permanent and must be maintained, so remember to make sure your partner is happy! (Effects may vary depending on species and sentience of familiar)

Yes No

The bond settled into place as I clicked Yes, like a warm blanket bundling the two of us up together on a cold winter's night. Shivering, I opened my eyes, not remembering when I had closed them and looked at Azalea, my new Familiar/Probably girlfriend. 

Ding!

Congratulations! You have successfully formed a familiar bond with Azalea. 

A small bang went off nearby, startling us all and breaking my eye contact with Azalea. Looking over, I saw Ryel coughing and waving away a smoke cloud that had surrounded her. Her hair was standing up and her face was covered in soot. Thankfully she’d been wearing her new goggles. 

“Sorry,” she coughed, frantically waving the smoke from her face. 

Azalea giggled as I sighed. If the undead didn’t kill me, I think worrying about my fairy or Ryel just might. 

~

It was mid afternoon the day after I had asked Azalea to become my familiar, and I couldn’t help but worry. I alternated between standing still, staring off into the direction where I felt our bond pulling me, and pacing back and forth, trying to keep my racing heart from beating too hard. I had already tried to contact her via party chat, but neither of them had answered. Either they couldn’t reply, or they were too far away. 

“It’ll be okay, they’ll be fine,” Ryel said, hugging my side. 

Sighing, I hugged the little half orc girl back. “It’s just that Azalea doesn’t have the greatest track record when it comes to keeping herself safe. Out of the two of them, Callie is more likely to not hurt herself scouting for more undead.”

Raya was over at the infirmary, offering her healing skills again. The less potions and medical supplies people needed to use, the better. No doubt she was worried too, but I wasn’t scheduled to go on guard duty for another few hours. I shuddered, just thankful that McLaggen was too busy to bother me. 

“Hey, umm. Kelcie?” Ryel asked in a quiet, shy voice. 

“Mh-hmm,” I hummed. 

“Would you be okay-,” she started to ask before a loud noise echoed across the clearing. 

Crack! 

I heard the sound of gunfire, before I saw the person appear into the clearing, running out of the tree line. 

Crack! Crack! 

They’d spun around, firing several times in quick succession, before turning to flee once more. I started running to help them, Ryel close on my heels as I saw other adventurers making their way as well. 

As we got closer, I realised it was Callie, she was being chased by a group of various undead animals. Her rifle sounded out, as red lightning arced between her and the now fully dead bear that had gotten too close. 

I felt Azalea approaching rapidly through our bond, just before her purple lightning speared out from above and the earth, trees and undead exploding upon contact. Not to be outdone, Callie dropped to one knee, aimed her rifle and fired several times in quick succession. Red lightning splashed and arced between her targets after each shot. Moments later, their backup arrived and we quickly cleared out the rest of the undead. The familiar sensation of levelling washed over me as my level increased to 37. I couldn’t believe how quickly we were levelling, it was amazing. 

Panting, Callie walked up to me, brushing away some of her hair out of her face. “We’ve got a big problem,” she said, glancing at the other adventurers who had moved closer to listen. 

I raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

Azalea fluttered down, landing on my shoulder gently. “Better than what boulder sensei could do, ha!”

Ignoring the fairy, Callie looked me right in the eye, a serious expression on her face. “We discovered a Lich and their army hiding in an old abandoned mansion out in the wilds.” At the gasps and dismayed responses from the adventurers, Callie shook her head. “That’s not the worst of it. Azalea saw a massive horde of undead making their way towards Demon Pass, a hundred times the size of the horde we’ve already faced.”