"So you line it with your eye, spread your legs a bit more, and then you shoot. Now go and practice. Shout if something happens." Aki explained to the boy, who nooded and drew the arrow in his bow.
Anna was waiting for him besides the makeshift arrow range.
"Need something?" He asked.
"Yes. Do you know what this is? Ela said it was somewhat magical but had no idea how to activate it." She showed him a small wax sealed box that didn't seem to have anything special in it.
"You got this from the hunters, didn't you?" He got a nod as response. "We're not oppening it. It's problably something to lauch a wide scale call to arms, an explosive, or something equally letal. SIRUP!" Aki took the box in his hands and screamed the nickname he'd given the driad.
"I can hear you." She said from behind him.
"Great, now please shove this box somewhere deep inside the earth, preferably where nothing tries to grow. It problably has something innocious, that may explode or that may magically call more humans." The driad noded after the explanation and took the box to a nearby tree, which swung a bit and passed it to another tree. "Done. Now, you sure you don't want to try and learn magic?" Aki imediatly turned to the prety werewolf withouth waiting for the driad to dissapear.
"Shouldn't we show more respect to the spirit of the forest?" Asked the woman who'd only been around for a day or so.
"Nonsense. We will sound disrepectfull no matter what we try to say, she's ancient, so you might as well be yourself and try and be her friend if the situation doesn't ask for formalities." He explained in a nonchalant way. "I will be doing some patrolling in earshot of the lake if you need me. Unless you want to come as well?" He asked, almost as if it was actually an after thought. Even then, the woman agreed.
Nevermind information gathering, Aki truthfully wanted to know more about her life.
By the time they'd walked the whole lake, Aki knew of her favorite flower, the story of her first kill, of her day to day, of raising her first child and of their death.
To each, he told her a story.
Narcisuss, Kratos and his son's first kill, his day to day, the first time he saw his little sister, and the recent separation from all he knows in his life.
"Aki, you said before you would not need many women for your plans. What did you mean them?" Getting back, Anna decided to finally ask. He'd already more than showed trust and interest in her, so being a bit proactive and geting involved was the least she could do. This was also for her children's well being, so even if it wasn't what she was used to, there would hardly be a reason to refuse.
"World domination. Paltry numbers will not make a diference in the scale i wish to obtain." I light shined in his eyes as he started talking. "In this world, if you have enough power, you can do anything. There are kingdoms and empires out there, but the none has made a take over or truly accended over the others. The is no one to truly rule over and create a golden age. I wish to make that. A place where people can say they are happy from the botom of their hearts. Somewhere with all that is needed. The term for that is utopy, roughly translated to innexistent place. With a wise enough ruler and enough power, it is possible. The amount of power nescessary would be ridiculous though. What i truly wish for is power for myself, to live as i want, and happines to all, that even those who make wrong choices can repent and become good and happy people." Aki looked into her pondering eyes and smiled softly, not having to force it at all. "I'm most definitly crazy. I don't even want need people to believe in me when it comes to my desires. That doesn't mean i don't want them to though." As he talked, he offered her a hand. "Would you come with me so i can make you believe?"
Anna thought for a bit, but in the end, she was already tempted to believe him. He'd be a good alpha. He'd be a good father too though. Maybe she'd find out how it was to love someone outside of family on the way.
Aki somehow maintained the same expression, but his happines skyrocketed as she held his hand. He wasn't going to be able to maintain that though. Imediatly, he hugged her, hard, and rested his chin on her shoulder. The she-wolf wasn't that much smaller than him, so such position wasn't a bother. The problem was mostly hidding his massive grin that would suggest he was about to mug, kill and/or rape someone in an unidentifiable order.
"I know it's kind of clingy of me, but can we just stay like this for a bit? I really like your smell." The cringe worthy words were quite the compliment for those with sharp noses, and Anna didn't dislike the contact, so she just hummed and answer.
*****
Coming back, Aki actually held Anna's hand and didn't let go for a while. The sensation was quite pleasent, but he actually only noticed his unwillingness when she needed to go to the bathroom, making him blush quite a bit. It's his first relationship, so Aki was practically walking on the clouds.
"Think it's a pretty good time to tell you guys, but actually, we live quite near a rabbit-kin village with a hundred or so individuals." That actually surprised Ela and caused Anna to think deeply.
They still had the human meat from before, even if only a small part, it was still enough good enough that they didn't actually need to hunt for a couple days, so...
"We're not eating or enslaving them. Directly. Anyways, I haven't gone there for almost a week, so I was thinking of showing you guys around. Elladan could make some friends his age, Ela will not rob them even if they keep throwing you mean looks or words, I can chat with the elderly and gossip around a bit, and Anna can learn some scrimshaw and cooking." Aki said with a nod.
"Wait, than what am I actually supposed to do?" Asked Ela.
"I was going to suggest chaperoning the kids, but you can certainly find a good looking guy and seduce him for classes in survival. No offense to your skills, but I kind of doubt they are better than the ones from the people who live in a forest above what most of their people can naturally take after all." Said Aki, referring to the innate fragility of rabbit kin, plus their likebility to be turned into slaves by other races, which makes them known for being either good sex slaves or being good at hiding.
"Fair point." She said and licked her lips.
*****
A bit of introductions later.
"Laradadatata, i'm gonna burry you in the ground~. Laradadatata, i'm gonna burry you with my sound~..." As
Aki softly sang, he noticed he actually had a lover now, so singing a frustated vampire's song about a love story that didn't work too well was kind of very ominous. They also weren't on that part of the relationship were he could sing those overly sweet musics he heard all the time. Frowning a bit, Aki thought of a more suitable music.
"Sing to me baby, in your native tongue. Sing the words of the wise and the young. Show me the place where your words come from. Love's a language, love's a language, love's your native tongue!" He sang and gathered the attention of the other parents.
He was kind of embarrassed, but actually liked the attention. He was also trying to focus on the baby he held, his foster daughter. It was quite intriguing to him that he now, technically, had a daughter.
Both because she was a child of his pack, and dating her mom, but he was probably overthinking it. He actually liked the little ball of barf and teeth. She loved his singing voice and would always stare at him with sparkling eyes or just nap with a smile depending on the the ritim of the music. Though singing 'Bridge over troubled water' to a baby is rather questionable, he wasn't going to question her good taste in music.
While pondering if he should take some classes in sculpturing so he could make some toys and instruments, Anna suddenly appeared and tapped his shoulder.
"Uh?"
"You've been here for hours. Did you forget anything." Anna seemed a bit pissed, which made Aki's mind go on over drive, imediatly casting body reinforcement of all kinds so as to hasten his thinking and to soften whatever blow he might receive.
"But I only sang five or six..." Looking up, Aki saw the shining moon and decided his sense of time had been highly warped. "Status." He said, noticing his singing had reached level 6 and meditation level 7.
Mind you, level 6 at singing would put you around the level of competence of an international singer. Mostly because of the magical effects of your voice mind you, not your actual singing ability.
Not noticing any hunger or tiredness being one of said effects.
Deducting that and looking at the smiling baby reaching for its mother, Aki noticed he did something quite bad.
Anna immediately tried to feed her daughter, who was more interested in playing with her mother's new wooden collar. That made her look at Aki for an answer, who rapidly explained the baby would probably be back to normal in a bit.
"I've not had an audience that actually enjoyed hearing me since I've become better at talking." He tried to explain, but only got a confused look his way. "As you might have noticed, I'm a bit strange. Growing up, I was never timid, but I always had problems with words. As that started to show itself as a possible problem, I started doing some breathing and repetition exercises to better regulate my talking. There's also the fact that I normally swear a lot, but that is more of an incurable problem with available treatment." She looked at him weirdly and he pointed at the baby.
"She won't remember a thing." She said, understanding what he meant.
"Well, I better get fucking better at singing than, cuss I don't want to only leave shit behind for the children. Apparently, it is fucking hard for other people to practice magic, and that's one of the only other things I don't suck balls at. As reference, do I sound more or less likable?" It easily came out, and he was a lot more expressive with his body language.
"Meh, that depends of the situation. It's fine to swear every now and then though, not like we're at a human church." She said while rolling her eyes. "Just don't teach that to Elladan."
"Deal. Well, allow me to say than, you look fucking gorgeous." He said with a very serious air, which made the woman blush a bit.
The women of the village had quickly become friendly with her for some reason, taking to dolling her up.
Her hair was brushed, her claws were polished and she had some light pink 'Lipstick' the herbalist wanted to experiment with.
She still wore the same leather coverings, but she now looked like a proper and dignified elf.
"Can I kiss you?" Aki held the side of her face and asked, determination burning in his eyes. His enthusiasm was kind of contagious, and Anna could only nod with expectation. She was still a lady after all. "I don't have experience though, so you will have to kiss me more." He said with a grin, not waiting a bit more.
Softly biting and sucking on her lower lip, opening her mouth with his tongue while appreciating her warmth and the taste of strawberry, hugging her tongue and enjoying as she explored his mouth for a while, before sucking on it like he wanted to eat her whole and using his own to try and glean something from hers. He too wanted to try and take the lead, even if less succesfully.
It took a couple of minutes for them to finally stop. Aki had a mad grin and a red face, Anna had a less creepy face, but was overall the same.
"Am I a good kisser?" He asked while locking their foreheads and gazes.
"I couldn't tell, try doing it again." She told him while looking deeply into his eyes.
As if she had been waiting for it, Alma suddenly started to cry, getting both to remember her existence.
Anna immediately turned to her daughter and started to feed her, getting as response only a greedy little glutton trying to get the milk out and some giggles by the man on her side, who got a little closer and caressed the little girl's face.
"I think I might be in love, because I somehow am not bothered by this." He said while softly laughing.