In the morning of the next day, Craydon was feeding the horse, right after finishing his breakfast, together with Rusha Banei.
Meryda waved at him as she went to the Demi-Centaur siblings' farm, riding a Bone Boar, with all the male boars following her, together with the female boars that didn't have calves to take care of. The two Gigantic Spiders were the last ones in that morning group, and the two Sub-Demons were inside the house, cleaning the kitchen.
On the previous night, Craydon tried to contact his Human friend in the bathroom mirror, but he didn't appear. He was hoping to get a few advises because Rusha kept teasing him during dinner by threatening to invade his room and rip his clothes apart.
Surprisingly for him, he didn't think it was a bad idea, but that could lead to more trouble, and a serious relationship was not in his immediate plans.
There were a few things about Demi-Cats that he wasn't completely sure about, mostly about female Demi-Cats.
Rusha Banei looked like a normal woman from Earth if he forgot about her cat ears and tail. He also had similar ears and tails, but he didn't feel any different from how he was on Earth, besides the lack of patience and how easily he got angry. It could be because of some Demi-Cat quirk that he wasn't aware of. That was why he wanted to ask his friend, but since he couldn't, he focused on his work that morning.
The problem was that Rusha seemed to have other plans, judging by the way she was glancing at him while smiling.
After the tenth glance, Craydon sighed, turned around to face her, and asked, "Okay, I give up pretending I don't notice. What are you thinking? You keep staring or glancing at me with a weird grin."
"Oh, nothing. I just realised we are here all alone, and we will be all alone the entire day. I was just thinking about what we could do after taking care of the animals. Not that we have much to do, considering the female boars can take care of most stuff."
"We can put some bags of corn in the windmill to grind flour. After that, maybe take care of the garden? Or we could go to the forest to hunt?"
Rusha approached him with her hands behind her back and said with a cute smile, "Or… And this is just a thought: we could prepare a bag with food, bread, and something to drink and go for a picnic. The kids told me there is a pretty clearing near the river, and there is even a small waterfall there. We could stay there, enjoying each other's company, have lunch there, talk, relax, and do whatever we wanted to do all alone." Because Craydon started to frown, she quickly explained, "I am not going to attack you or force you to do anything! I will for sure tempt you, but not force you."
"It is a nice idea, as long as you don't annoy me by trying to grab me all the time or surprise me with a kiss like you are always doing!"
"I might do that, actually." She then took a slow, deep breath and said, "I already said this to you, but you seem to have forgotten. I like you. I used to have a lot of problems with Meryda because she always seemed to want you all for herself, but lately, she has been pretty busy with her Monsters and her friends, and she even agreed to let me live on this farm. She seems to enjoy my company, something that she didn't. And... you also seem to be enjoying my company. You used to avoid me all the time as if I was some sort of contagious disease!"
Craydon realised his friend, who was now on Earth, was the one who seemed to dislike Rusha Banei so much. As for him, he actually liked to be with her and talk and laugh with her. But if he said that so suddenly, Rusha would probably think the change in him was too strange, so he was pretending to get used to her little by little, when in fact, he enjoyed being with her.
Slowly, he reached his hand to her face, and while caressing her right cheek, he said, "What about if we went to the windmill to put some bags of corn in there, then we can go prepare a basket with food and drinks for a picnic? We better give some work for the Sub-Demons to do around here, and we can take with us the Slime, the Salamander, and a female Bone Boar, just to keep us safe in the forest. A day to relax in your company sounds like a very nice thing."
"I am glad you agree with me! Let's go already! I can't wait to lie on the ground and use your lap as a pillow while you caress my ears! We need to take a blanket with us to put on the floor! I don't want to get my dress dirty!"
While Rusha was pulling him to the barn to get the bags of corn, Craydon mumbled, "At least she didn't say she would take her dress off so that it didn't get dirty."
Rusha looked at him with a wicked grin and replied, "I heard that! I am counting on you to take my dress off! And my underwear! But if you don't do it today, that's okay as well. I am in no rush to get you like that! We have all the time in the world!"
With an embarrassed Craydon avoiding answering that direct provocation, Rusha entered the barn and put over her right shoulder one bag, exiting the barn before Craydon even grabbed one for him.
While Rusha Banei and Craydon were taking care of their work on the farm and getting ready for their picnic, Meryda and her friends were on the Demi-Centaur siblings' farm.
Arriving there with such a huge pack of Bone Boars and two Gigantic Spiders, was enough for the siblings' mother to scream in panic and faint, and their father froze in fear.
While the siblings were reassuring their father that everything was alright and were trying to wake up their mother, Meryda and the other kids went to the river, each of them riding a Bone Boar.
As soon as they got there, Meryda jumped to the floor and drew on the soil the plans for that day, dividing tasks among her Monsters and friends and checking with them if her father's initial drawing was followed by the letter.
With the spiders going to the forest to chop down trees and the Bone Boars carving the tree trunks to make the wooden canal, it was up to Meryda and her friends to mark a line on the soil and to put a stone marking the place that would need a pillar to keep the wooden canal at a proper height.
After all the markings were done, it was time to assign the remaining Bone Boars to the construction of the small house with a wheel of buckets that would be used to grab water from the river and place it at the beginning of the wooden canal.
With all that, the entire morning went by, and by lunchtime, Meryda and her friends returned to the sibling's farm to have lunch, leaving the spiders and boars to continue their work.
While the kids were eating and explaining to the Demi-Centaur parents what their plan for the entire day was, the Gigantic Spiders made a quick break to hunt a few snakes, which they ate together with the Bone Boars, setting aside the snake's skin so that Meryda or Craydon could use them for something, like that weird bag that dripped water, which one spider helped to make.
After lunch, the kids returned to their work near the river, finding the Bone Boars with the building and the wheel of buckets with a nice advance, and the spiders placing the carved tree trunks to make the wooden canal over the wooden pillars, which were firmly pierced in the soil with stones around them to hold the pillars, glued strongly with spider's web and earth to make a strong substance that resembled hard cement.
Meryda and her friends happily joined the work and spent the entire afternoon doing as much as they could, so that the wooden canal reached the limits of the farm.
It was obvious they would need to return the next day to make the last touches and to start the wheel of buckets, leaving the construction of the water canals on the soil for last, together with the sibling's parents.
When the first sun started to set, it was time to return home. The siblings went to their home, Meryda and the others returned to her farm, and when they were in front of the Emptiness, Meryda asked two Bone Boars to escort Pof Grinun and Tetil Stog to the City and to return as fast as they could, so that they didn't get into any kind of problem like someone thinking they were going to attack and trying to kill them.
A smiling Demi-Dog boy jumped to one boar's back, while an awkward Demi-Lamia girl had a lot of trouble slithering to get on the boar's back and to get herself comfortable.
Tetil almost didn't have time to grab the boar's fur before he darted at high speed towards the City.
Meryda waved her friends goodbye and gently taped the spider's head to make her go forward, while the dark fog that was working as a farm guard opened a space for them to pass.
A female Bone Boar was in front of the house with two small calves next to her, waiting for Meryda and her massive group of Monsters.
As soon as Meryda jumped down, she asked while looking around, "Where is my father? Do any of you know?"
One small calf snorted and walked to the corner of the house while looking back at Meryda and signalling with his head to make her follow him.
At the back, Craydon was seated on the large bench on the porch, with Rusha laying on the bench as well, and with her head on Craydon's lap. Meryda thought that sight was weird, and when Craydon stopped stroking Rusha's ear, she quickly sat on the bench and asked with an awkward smile, "Back already? How was work?"
"It was alright. What about you two? What did you do all day? And why do you have leaves on your wet hair, Miss Rusha?"
While quickly taking the small leaves from her hair, the red-faced Demi-Cat woman said, "We went to a clearing near the river; the one Pof said had a small waterfall. We had a picnic there and a bath in the river, and we stayed there most of the day."
Meryda sat on the bench as well and asked, "All day? Doing what?"
"Talking... relaxing... eating... enjoying each other's company and having a nap afterwards... stuff like that."
Noticing that Rusha was looking nervous, and her father was avoiding her stare, Meryda grinned and said, "So, you caught him, didn't you? Good for you! Now, I suppose I have to start calling you mom, no?"
"No... I think it's still too soon. Let's talk about that later. Maybe a few weeks or months from now, okay?"
"That's fine with me! Are you going to sleep in my father's room from now on? Since you look like a couple already."
Craydon scratched the back of his head while Rusha Banei looked at him in silence, and he said, "I suppose... We could do that occasionally. Just to see how we feel about it."
With an enormous smile and with her eyes shining, Rusha said, "That sounds like a marvellous idea! I wouldn't mind that!" She then stretched her arms up, with Craydon immediately looking away, the moment he noticed her breasts bouncing, and she asked, "What about if we went for a relaxing hot bath, Meryda? Can you start making dinner, Craydon? When we finish, I will continue, and you can go for a bath. Let's go, you cute Salamander! I have work for you!"