Alex had a dream when he went to his chamber to rest.
He can see in his dream. His hands were small, like a child's. When he looked around, he saw that everything was bright. He knows that it is always bright in here. Like the sun never sets in the west. But the air is cool. He loves it. He also saw that they were surrounded by ash trees and his friends and other gods are all sitting in front of him, eating and laughing merrily. He looked on his left and he saw his father, calmly drinking a wine. He was much taller than him and his face was clouded, he can't see his face. He only remembers his sweet, grape scent and his silver hair reaching the floor.
"My son." He called him.
Alex gave him his attention as he continued, "This is the last day of the banquet." He looked in his eyes as he touched his small cheeks. "I want you to come with me later on to greet the king and his son."
Son? The king and his son? Does Kal have a son?
He was about to ask his father if Kal has a son but when he looked on his left, everything went black. Like how his world has always been. The ash tree, the festive faces and laughter of other gods in front of him, the bright light of the place, all went black.
"You have met his son." A child's voice said behind him. He turned around and tried to see who it was but he cant see once more. Everything was covered in black. Then he felt a presence that is close at his back. He felt the warm breath that was coming from the child as it whispered, "You have met the king's son."
***
Alex was jolted awake from his dream.
It felt like his soul was slammed back to his body and he tried to remember his dream. He dreamed about the banquet of the gods.
He laid still on his back for a while before he felt a movement beside his bed. That is when he noticed that Kal was sleeping beside him, his arms are wrapped tightly around his torso and he is breathing steadily. Last night, after they had dinner and once he is sure that Asher is going to be okay, he went back to his own chamber to sleep. He never remembered the king getting inside his room. When did he snuck in? He never noticed it.
He wants to get up so he tried to pry his arms away from him slowly to avoid waking him up. But this little movement of his made the king awake and he pinned his hands on the bed while getting on top of him. Kal opened his eyes and stared at his dull, blue eyes, his usually unruly, silver hair is in more mess right now which made him appreciate how adorable he is in the morning. "Good morning." He said lazily to Alex.
Alex felt something hard pressed against his hip. It is the thing in between the legs of Kal. He is a man as well so he knows what is going on down there early in the morning. This thought caused him to blush furiously. "G--good morning..." He answered his greeting in a shy manner. 'What the hell am I getting shy for!' He asked himself.
The redness of his face didn't get past the king's eyes and for a moment, he thought that he is sick. So he pressed his forehead against Alex's to feel his temperature but this little action of the king made Alex feel more hot to the point that his skin is sensitive to his touch. "Are you sick? Why are you so red?"
Alex cant take it anymore so he tried to cover his face with his hands but then remembered that his hands were in king's grip. Instead, he tilted his head on the side and hoped that he will not notice further how red and sensitive he is right now. He didnt want to answer the king, nor let him see his face. 'Was he really clueless about the reason why he is so red?'
Kal let one of his hand go and grabbed his chin to look at his face properly, 'He is blushing.' He thought. That is when he noticed that his hardness was pressing against Alex's. He smirked with his reaction. He teased him further by slowly grinding against it. He is half naked while Alex was fully clothed and he is not satisfied with it.
His face is flushed and his eyes are showing pleasure and embarrassment at the same time. His pink lips are sightly parted while he breathes through it slowly. He cant resist his look anymore so he leaned down and gave Alex a deep kiss. He thrust his tongue inside which earned a moan escaping from him. He felt that he slightly tilted his hips upwards to meet his. 'Hmm...someone is in a hurry.' Kal thought with satisfaction. His hand went inside his shirt while he is kissing him and Alex felt his warm hand against his own skin. He feels the cool air is in contrast with his warm hand. Goosebumps started to rise on his skin only this time, it is because of the tingling sensation that he gets from Kal instead of the cool temperature of the room. He felt the king's lips going down his neck and to his chest, then finally, to his awaiting nipples. He arched his back further as he felt his tongue circling the sensitive bud and louder moans escaped from his lips.
Alex thought that someone might hear them so he covered his mouth and tried to suppress the sultry voice that was trying to escape from him, only for the king to remove his hands and said, "Don't stop yourself..." The king whispered to his ear as his hand are going further south of him, "Let me hear you." He continued. His hand went inside his pants and started caressing his hardness. The movement of his hand made Alex more hard and he felt that with a few more strokes, he is going to come. But every time he is about to release himself, Kal would suddenly stop his hands and went back to licking his nipples. This repeated multiple times until he heard himself pleading, "K--Kal....Please..." He panted, "Let me."
Kal felt more hot and excited when he called his name, adding to the burning fire inside him, he saw his alluring and pleading face. He wants to put him in his mouth before he comes. So he lowered his head down and started licking his length and paid special attention to his tip for a while before he bobbed his head up and down, until he felt Alex's hand gripping his raven hair and he tasted the salty essence of his in his mouth. He swallowed all of him without a spill.
Kal lifted his face to look at him and he saw that he is covering his face with his hands. He smirked and laid beside him before removing his hand from his face, "How was it?" He asked.
"It's...satisfyingly...good." He answered honestly. Words are not enough to explain this. Alex felt good and relaxed that he wants to sleep once more. He thought that he would feel disgusted if he is touched by another man but it is not the case. If it is Kal who is going to do it, he has no problems and would rather enjoy it. He felt that Kal is staring at him while his hand are lazily going up and down his torso. 'Was he satisfied as well?' he asked himself. "Uhm...How about you?"
Kal gave him a kiss on the forehead and said, "I am fine. What's more important is your satisfaction. But if you are really worried about me..." He trailed off while his hand is going at his back side until he reached his butthole, "We can do a little training in here tonight." He whispered in his ear. Oh, the things that he can do to him. The king thought.
Alex understood what he meant and blushed furiously before answering, "Uhm...Sure...Tonight." He wondered what kind of training is he going to go through in his hands.
Kal's eyes grew wide in surprise for a while before he gave him a satisfying smile. "Yes, tonight."
***
Ned, the earth god was sitting on the porch of his temple that morning. The sky is gray and it seems that it is going to rain. Spring rain, was his favorite thing. The fields are growing anew and trees are growing new leaves from winter. It was a peaceful morning for him and he felt more delighted with the news that he heard from his fox familiar, Zenai.
"He was not in the forest by that time but I saw her, master. The woman of the death god was there." She said as her white fur grew thick and her bones started to shift in adult size. Her soft and innocent blue eyes turned into wise and sly.
"Are you certain of that?" Ned asked while he lazily stared at the gray, morning sky.
"Yes, master. She picked me up on my visit last night. It seems that they are looking for a demon hound as her companion was attacked by it." Zenai saw everything. How She was placed carefully in the bush by the girl of the death god and how her companion was eaten in half. "But I thought she was dead six years ago? She looked different but indeed, she smells the same."
"She was turned into a familiar." Ned answered her. "We could get in through her." He stared at his fox familiar directly and gave an absolute order: Tell the death god to come and visit me, I have some good news for him.
Zenai lowered her head and replied, "Yes, master." before vanishing into thin air.
"I am going to save you from him, Alex." Ned said to himself.
***
Alex had a hard time leaving Kal's side. That is because he keeps on clinging to him and wants to do the 'training' immediately instead of waiting for the night to fall. He just cant wait.
When he finally convinced him that they have to get up and start the day, they were both surprised to see Emily standing outside the room and she gave them a bored look.
"I'll go to my office. See you tonight." Kal said after leaving a kiss on his lips and giving Emily an intimidating look. He still cant forget the disrespectful attitude of hers last night. Alex missed the tensed air between the two as he blushed once more, remembering the thing that they did in his chamber.
When the king was far from them, she noticed that her master is still in the cloud-nine, smiling like a fool by himself. "Boo." She whispered in his ear.
Alex was startled and all of his senses came back at once, making his face flushed. "I know what you did in there." She continued to tease him.
Alex felt more embarrassed, 'am I too loud?' He asked himself.
Emily could read things on his face easily. "You were too loud!" She said before laughing hard.
"Emily!" He tried to reprimand her by showing authority in his voice but it is not working. She keeps on laughing for a while before she said, "No, just kidding. I cant hear anything in here. The room is perfectly sealed and sound proofed."
"Hmp. How is Asher by the way?" Alex asked, changing the topic.
Emily guided her master to the back garden, for today, they are going to tend the garden in the back. "He is still recuperating. He just stopped bleeding a while ago. Might take more than a week for him to regenerate his limbs. Or a month, I am not sure, I have never tried to have my body eaten in half... We are going to go down the stairs." She warned him. "On your left."
"Hmm. By the way, where are we going?" He asked.
"To the back garden, I heard young master is coming to celebrate his birthday party." Emily said nonchalantly while holding his hand and going down the stairs slowly. She watched him descend the stairs. He has no problem with going down, though this is the only way she could feel at ease. She knows that he hates being treated as vulnerable but she just wants to satisfy her self about how safe he is going to be, specially that Asher is not going to be around for a while, she needs to be more attentive and alert of her surroundings.
"Young master?" Alex repeated her information. Then he remembered his dream just this morning. Is that... "You mean, the king's son?" They have reached the end of the stairs and were going outside. He felt the cold breeze of the morning and the faint smell of rain clouds.
"Huh? What king's son?" She paused and scratched her head. 'Is he talking about the previous king's son? Isn't that Kal? It is not his birthday though.' She asked her self. "Well, the king has only one son. By the way, the young master will celebrate his 5th birthday on the 27th of this month. That is five days from now."
Emily did not fully understand his question so she did not clarify it further. But Alex thought that Kal really had a son. This thought has dampened his mood.
***
Emily watches her master watering the flower beds in the back garden. The place looks magnificent and unreal. From the backdoor where they came from, sea of different flower beds greeted them, arranged in neat rows from the pathway. Not far from it is the pavilion with six, red pillars, surrounded by ash trees. That pavilion is her favorite spot of the castle-like mansion. It is cool and a little bit secluded. A few meters away from the pavilion are tall, vertical hedges that draws a line around the castle and acts as a border from the forest surrounding them. The hedges contains perfect spell barriers that prevents outsiders from getting in. The mansion itself is an absolute fortress for her master to live in. Only the humans can come and go freely and humans are so weak that they dont have enough power to let a supernatural being inside. So if he ever gets hurt, she can only blame the night creatures and no one else.
Though she can do something with his physical well being, she is not sure if there is anything else that she can do when it comes to his emotions. She can see right now that his mood is under the weather since they talked about the young master who is going to have a birthday party in here. Why would he feel down about a young boy's birthday party? Did he want to have his own birthday party as well? Come to think of it. She did not know when is his birthday! It could be today or a month from now!
"Sire!" Emily called while walking towards him. "When is your birthday?"
Alex turned his head in her direction and got confused. "Why did you suddenly ask for my birthday?"
Emily tilted her head on the side and said, "I thought you are sad because you wanted to celebrate your birthday. So when is your birthday?"
Alex sighed. "It was last 14th of February. Way past the date already so I dont need to celebrate it. Besides, I am not sad because of it." He is sad because he thought Kal had a son. He is fine with the child though. Not like he is going to make him suffer or what. He is sad because of fear and insecurity.
Fear because what if the child will not like him, and insecure because no matter what happens between them, he can never give birth to his child. He is a guy for gods sake. He needs to make love with a woman for him to have a son.
Emily did not want to pry further in his personal affairs so she let go of the urge to ask more questions to him. He will tell her his worries when he is ready anyway. So she said while beaming at him, "Sire, I know what will make you happy today."
"Huh? What?" Alex gave her a strange look.
She smiled widely. "There is a specific flower that was mentioned in the book of good and evil. It is called daemant'i flower. It is a rare, red flower that gleams like a diamond at any time of the day and smells like honey! I can find it in the forest."
Alex smiled. "You really dont have to find it for me. But how can you be so sure that you can find it in this forest? Also, it is rare that there is almost no chance that you might find it."
Emily wrapped her arms around his arm and said happily, "I can find it for you. Because I am your familiar as well. And as your familiar, it is my happiness to see you smile. So whatever your worries are and if you are not ready to share it with me, it is fine. I'll find a way to see you smile once more."
Alex ruffled her hair and said, "Go ahead, enough with your sweet talk." He smiled gently at her and gave her a kiss on top of her head, which she gladly received. "I'll stay later in the pavilion and wait for you. Be back at sunset."
***
"How can I be sure that you are not scheming?" The god of death asked Ned suspiciously. His glowing purple eyes are full of hope and doubt at the same time. When he heard from Zenai, his fox familiar that the earth god wants to meet him, he thought of multiple reasons, like kidnapping Alex, or plotting a secret assassination towards the god of destiny, or just plainly killing the king of the night creatures. But never in his endless lifetime would he hear this thing from him.
"I am certain." Ned gave him a reassuring smile. "Iwao was in the king's residence. I am not scheming like that god of destiny and why would I lie to you?" He stood up and face to face, he said to the death god, "In fact, I am here to help you. You've always wanted to see her, right?"
"What do you want me to do?"
Ned gave him a triumphant smile before saying seriously, "Have her invite you in the castle, that way, you can invite me in as well. Once we are successful, I am going to get him out of there. Remember, if Alex dies in that king's hand..." He whispered near his ear, "She is going to be gone---forever."