After the sky was enlightened and darkened once, I was even tired of cursing myself. Maybe for the thousandth time, I wished I had been acting smart and keep one of the bandits alive for guidance. Or at least to have a stomach that can handle to eat whatever they're eating before leaving camp.
If you haven't eaten among the bleeding bodies before, please don't comment. I've been hungry before, but this time was different. I had been walking for more than half a day and the only thing that got into my stomach was water.
''Are these mushrooms edible?'' I had asked the fox once.
''How can I know? Do I look like a herbal encyclopedia or something?'' It said.
I was tired, hungry, and angry. I kept thinking about decisions that I could make differently to be in a better situation right now. I shouldn't have entered the teleport formation without knowing where to go. I should have made better use of my option, damn, I should have bought at least a shoe!
I collapsed where I was and I took my head in my hands. I had a headache and I was feeling sick from hunger. My feet were bleeding and my leg muscles were about to fail from walking for miles.
''It hasn't even been half an hour since you had a break,'' The fox said in my mind. ''Stand up.''
''Shut up!!'' I shouted out loud. I was aware that screaming was not the best thing to do with demonic creatures around, but I couldn't stop myself. I was both physically and mentally exhausted. Too much had happened and I didn't have time to digest.
Looking at the muddy road where I collapsed, a familiar shape caught my eye. Horseshoe tracks. I've never been this happy to see a horseshoe trail before. When I looked more carefully, I started to see traces that I had not seen before because it was dark. I had to be in a place where people passed by often.
A little hope was enough to erase all my negative thoughts. I straightened up and I started walking faster than before. What is in the past is in the past. I stopped thinking about which choice I made wrong and focused on the choices I would make from now on.
After a few minutes, I saw the lights of the human town. The town was too bright for this time of night when everyone should have been sleeping in their warm bed. As I got closer to the town, I realized why there was so much light.
In the interior of the town, there was a tall building from which I could only see its roof. A temple of light. I forgot how religious northerners are, I hoped it wouldn't make my job difficult. Even in shops that had been closed, there were candles and light talismans to pray to gods of light.
As I entered the town, I called out to the light and asked it to hide me from the eyes. The light fulfilled my request and stayed away from me, cast shadows on me but I soon realized it wasn't necessary. The streets were empty.
I thought it was a terrible mistake for them not to put night watchmen in every corner, especially for a town in such a location, but hey, it was not my problem. The surrounding buildings had one or two floors, or at most three floors. I stopped in front of a bakery.
Biting my lips in front of the shop window, I looked at the pastries from yesterday. I heard my stomach rumbling. A voice echoed inside my mind, ''A piece of advice,'' the fox said. ''Take care of your lust hunger first. Then you'll definitely be, hmm, more persuasive. If you feed on the owner of the bakery, you can enchant him more easily.''
''Do I have power over the people I feed on?'' I asked.
''Mmmh...'' The fox made a lazy confirming sound. I focused on my skill, followed the desire closest to me. The front of the building was a pastry shop and the back was a house. I guessed that the person running the bakery was the owner of the house.
I went to the back of the building and stopped in front of one of the windows. ''Taking over the bakery from my father... Proposing Lily...'' I could only feel one person's desire in the room, and when I looked in the window I could see no one but a young man lying in a bed.
''Can you materialize inside and open the window for me?'' I asked the fox.
''Why would I do that?''
''Isn't your job to help me?''
''In fact...'' The fox licked its paw in my mind, ''I will try to be as little involved as possible. I have no responsibility to help you, my job is to prevent you from revealing the secrets of the clan.''
I sighed, ''I see...'' Since the fox wasn't helping me, I had to find a way to open the window on my own. I first tried to call the air element to unlock the window, but it didn't answer my call. You could never guess what the air would do.
Then I stopped and studied the window a little bit more. It had two parts opening outwards and a quite simple hook lock. I took a thin twig off the ground and started to struggle. A few seconds later the window was unlocked.
After made sure the young man inside was still asleep, I climbed the waist-high window. There was nothing but a single bed and a wardrobe in the room. I couldn't feel anyone's desire on this floor but the young man. The building was two stories high with two more people upstairs.
''I suggest you not trust this too much, there are things that prevent you from feeling someone's desire,'' The fox said in my mind.
''Like what?'' I asked.
''Like a steel will or talismans.''
''Okay,'' I said. I didn't think I'd encounter someone with a steel-like will or a powerful talisman in a baker's family.
''You never know,'' The fox warned me.
I nodded and looked at my very first prey. He had calloused hands that looked strong, and his face was young and careless. Everything else was under a white sheet. He probably was having an enjoyable dream right now. ''Touch,'' The fox said. ''Skin contact increases your skill's effectiveness.''
I put my hand on the man's cheek, his beard was rough. I really felt like I could see inside his heart more easily. I could understand why a succubus always comes in dreams in stories. The minds of the sleeping people... were fragile.
The two things the young man wanted most in life were suppressing all other desires. ''Taking over the bakery from my father... Proposing Lily...'' Sometimes he was thinking something like eating a good dessert, then he wants, ''Having sweet desserts with Lily... Adding new desserts to your bakery's menu...''
Although it was more interesting to me, I let go of his desires about the pastry shop and focused on 'Lily'. I found information about the girl in the man's mind without having to search much. It wasn't difficult for me, as he was always thinking about her.
Lily, the girl next door, childhood lovers. The girl liked him too, and they were planning to get permission from their parents to marry soon. On the other hand, there wasn't even one single dirty idea about the girl in his mind. He hadn't even kissed the girl yet. The fox said I could only feed on lust, and I found such a gentleman among the men all over the world. Nice.
I didn't know if I should be sorry for lily or rejoice. There was a man who loved her so much, but he was too innocent to lust for her body. After some thought, I decided to give them a wedding gift. From my experience with bandit brothers, I learned that I could not only see desires but set desires in their hearts.
I wandered a little to see wedding traditions in the man's mind. White, long bridal dress. Classic. I found Lily's shy face, oh man what a perfect couple, and put her in a wedding dress. I decorated the room we were in with roses and candles, then put the images in the man's mind.
He was a kind and honest man, unfortunately, his mental defenses were not strong. Sure it was good for me. I grabbed the man's face with both hands and placed my forehead on his forehead, then I started making the dream.
His skin was warm and I felt his breath on my face, but in the dream, it was Lily who felt these things. In the dream, after giving their first kiss, the man and woman shyly moved away from each other.
I searched his heart well and found what I was looking for, ''Lily... I want to see you,'' He said. The woman put her hands on the man's neck and leaned on him as her breasts touched his chest under the fabric. The man ran his hands around the woman's back and began unraveling the corset's threads. I changed the man's greatest desire from ''I want to see Lily in the wedding dress,'' into ''Taking off Lily's wedding dress,'' carefully.
The white dress slipped off the girl's shoulders when the man unwound all the threads in the back. Right now, she was covering her breasts with her hands shyly. There was nothing but white panties and white lace-up knee-high socks on the girl. I had no idea how the bra disappeared, it was the man's dream and as it seems he wanted no bra.
''Lily, please. I want to see you,'' He said. His voice was more confident than before. He grabbed her hands covering her breasts and exposed her breasts. Her cheeks flushed but she did let him move her hands to see her breasts.
The man looked at his bride. He had never seen her like this before in reality so I had to imagine something to make a dream. I made the dream using the man's memories and desires but I had to add some parts myself.
He took a step back and sat on his bed. He was watching her and being happy as the bride flushing more. ''Come,'' He said, Lily took a few steps to the bed. The man made her sit on his lap and kissed her lips softly. He kept dropping kisses on her neck and collarbone until he reached her breasts.
He used his callused hands while kneading the dough, this time to knead her breasts. The girl exhaled, trembling in his hands. I felt a new desire build up in the man's heart, ''One day, I'll put her on the counter in the patisserie, I'll kiss all over her body and eat her pussy till she begs and cries.''
''Zane... please...'' Lily said in a shaky and whispering voice. Then I lost control of the dream completely. The man whose name I learned was Zane, put the woman in her arms to the bed and gently caressed her upper legs, her belly. He grabbed her pussy without taking off her panties.
I sighed and left the dream. ''Well,'' I said. ''What should I do to fed on his lust?''
''The room filled with lust. Don't you feel it?'' The fox answered. In fact, I was feeling it in every breath I take. It was like the smell you can taste.
''Sweet. This man's lust is sweet. The bandit wasn't like this.''
The fox nodded in my mind, ''Everyone's lust is different from each other. Absorb it as if it is Qi,'' It said.
I did as it said. I thought the lust in the air traveled my whole body with the breath I took, I stored it in my stomach. Then, I felt the soul seal tattoo on my belly started to burn.
''Touch him. You can be fed more if you touch him,'' The fox said.
I was confused, ''I'm touching him already.''
''Not his face, silly, touch his manhood,'' It said. I was speechless, touching his face was okay and everything that happened was a dream. Still, touching his thing... The fox chuckled, ''Didn't you understand? His dick, cock, penis, joystick, old fella, sausage...''
''Enough. Stop. I understood.''
''So do it,'' The fox said.
I gulped and looked at the man in the bed, dreaming of a woman in his arms. I slowly lifted the sheet not to wake him up and gazed at the boner.