"So, how come you two have yet to mate?"
The flow of time ceased to move at this particular moment. The very second those words reached my mind, allowing the gears in my brain to process it…
And be left shocked, unable to utter a single word of response.
'Say what, again?' I thought, gritting my teeth to the point I felt like they were about to start cracking.
Searching for any semblance of sanity, I looked to the side… Only to see Fay wildly blushing and looking away, as if ashamed of her lack of ability to bring her mission to a success…
Or such was my understanding of the troubled, ashamed, and… embarrassed expression she gave off, not even aware I was actually looking.
'That was her reaction to her parent's question…' I gulped my saliva down, 'But what does that mean exactly?'
I was too scared, too uncertain, too worried about assuming something for my personal convenience to allow, even for a moment, this kind of reasoning.
Wasn't I trying to just fit the puzzle for the greater picture to align with my own desires?
The massive fox didn't seem to mind my consternation or Fay's extreme embarrassment. It simply alternated its huge eyes from the girl to me and then back to its child, before finally uttering a long sigh…
A long sigh that somehow made the time pick up the slack and start flowing again.
"Okay, I think I get the gist of things," the massive fox claimed before uttering another sigh. "Fay, dearest, it seems I need to talk with Peter on my lonesome. So, could you leave the two of us alone for some time?"
I didn't get to turn my eyes away in time, ending up staring at Fay's blushing cheeks when she turned her head to look back at her parent. And from how her eyes darted to the side and looked directly into mine…
Yeah, there was no denying it.
She blushed even harder while her eyes turned slightly moist. And she caught my stare at that… Or rather, did she react like that because she saw me look at her?
"Yes, Mother," Fay whispered softly in response, escaping with her eyes away from my scrutiny before turning on her heel. Yet, before she could actually leave…
"Hold on for a moment," the big fox… and apparently a mother of Fay requested before turning her huge eyes to me. "Those bags, do they have some clothes that could fit on a human slightly larger than this child?"
I gulped my saliva down.
"I g-guess so?"
My voice shook. And how could it not?
By coming to this world, I essentially put my life on the line of what this damned fox meant by entrusting its child to me. I risked my very life with hopes that it wouldn't mind the few moments where I took my time to gather my senses and free myself from the influence of Fay's charm. And now… it was suddenly asking about clothes?
"Good," Fay's mom summed up the entire situation with a single word. "Would you mind turning around for a while?"
I breathed out a sigh of relief when the request came through and I, nearly instantly, followed through on it.
For whatever reasons Fay's mom wanted me to turn away, this was the opportunity I really needed.
Not to pull my gun on the fox and threaten it for some unknown reason, but to turn around and use however long I had to gather and then sort my thoughts.
'So she wanted me to lay with Fay?' I thought, slowly starting to realize the ugly truth of the matter.
Was Fay forced to become my mate for some reason that only that big fox understood? Or was she going to lay with me from the very moment her mom sent her to my side?
Or maybe there was still something that I've failed to account for?
BANG!
A loud noise of something akin to an explosion appeared behind my back, but I managed to fight the desire to look back off. Since I was asked to turn away, I kind of expected something to happen, something that my eyes were not worthy enough to see…
Or maybe something that I was still too weak or stupid to understand, maybe?
"You can turn back now," Fay's mother spoke. And as I followed through on her next request… I was bestowed with another moment of gasping for air, unable to unsqueeze my chest to take a breath.
If Fay's beauty came from her youth, playfulness, and sensibility… Her mother was a beauty of the same level… but one that was refined through time to achieve its very peak.
Her long, white hair fell straight down her back and sides, her mature smile added her eyes some strange, mysterious charm, while her body was a literal work of art, a shape no legendary sculptor would be ashamed to produce.
And with all of that beauty, currently covered by some simple sweatpants and a plain shirt, I could have no doubts she was Fay's mother.
The likeness was simply too great, even if those two were actually nothing alike when it came to details.
Fay was cheerful, and her mother was dignified. Fay was youthful and full of energy, while her parent was toned and refined.
Gulp.
Feeling the saliva trickle down my throat, I took a deep breath and calmed down a little.
'She didn't turn just so I could adore one more beauty…' I thought, taking yet another moment to collect my thoughts before raising my eyes and looking at that massive fox, now in her human form, standing just a few meters away and appearing to pierce my soul with her deep, intensely blue eyes.
And now that I thought about it, Fay was no longer to be seen, following through on her mother's request from before.
"First off, do you understand what it means for my kind to go into heat?" the now-human fox asked as she crossed her hands on her chest and looked down at me.
It was a pose I knew too well to misunderstand its meaning. A stance a teacher would take when they were about to scold and lecture an unruly or stupid student of theirs.
"Doesn't that mean your breeding instincts are activated? Awoken?" I tried to answer to the best of my ability and by basing my answer on what little I knew about animals back on earth.
"That's partially true, but it doesn't even hint the whole picture…" Fay's mom shook her head to the sides before allowing her hands to fall freely down her sides as she started to move towards me.
She didn't approach me to scold me from a closer distance or to slap me for some imaginary sins. She approached me… to rest her hand on my shoulder instead.
"Listen and listen well, kid. Our kind goes into heat only once we are sure our potential partner is… well, qualified for our attention," the elegant woman in sweatpants explained before removing her hand and showing me had back while she locked her hands behind her back. "In other words, Fay wouldn't go in heat around you if she didn't like you. And that should strike down the first of your worries."
I gulped my saliva down again.
'Fay… likes me?'
Well, I already considered this possibility, many times over at that. But all the small things that I saw and that hinted Fay was still hesitant to go through with the act, especially earlier on…
"Stop overthinking it. She wouldn't go into heat if she didn't like you," Fay's mother repeated her lessons.
"But she clearly wasn't in heat when we happened to…"
"Then she grew to like you with time," the dignified woman cut my words short before heaving yet another sigh.
"But…" That was… That was too much for me to accept. It was too good to be true… While also too bad for me to willingly accept it. Because, if Fay actually liked me and was happy to go through with what lay at the end of every real like…
Then didn't I shame her greatly when I escaped from her affection, a mere few hours prior?!
My body tensed up as my eyes darted around, instantly moving on to search for Fay.
'I have to apologize,' a singular desire exploded in my soul.
Nothing else mattered. I had to apologize. And only once Fay would smile with favor at me again, could I allow myself to think about anything else.
Still, if Fay actually liked me, if that really was the case… Then I still had one question I needed an answer to.
"You couldn't tell what kind of a man I was back when you first met me. And don't tell me that just feeding a stray animal I found was enough for you to gauge who I am and thus entrust your child to me."
This was the one inconsistency that threw a wrench into my attempts at understanding Fay's mother, as proved by how shocking her revelation was for me.
"You want to know why I was willing to entrust my child to you, right?"
Fay's mother smiled.
"It's fairly simple, really, but you are not going to like the answer at all."
For some reason, this elegant and dignified woman… giggled. And that only served as fodder for my worries.
"And that's because," Fay's mom continued, "I knew I could entrust my child to you just because you were happy to feed a stray animal you chanced upon."
The woman calmed her giggles down and now simply smiled while looking out into the distance.
"I assume you are aware of the existence of auras by now, aren't you?" The mother fox finally started to speak about things that I could make some sense of.
"Yeah. Fay taught me how to perceive them… but that's pretty much what I understand about them."
"Fay…?" the woman turned around and cast a quick, sideways glance at me before smirking a little and looking back to the nature she appeared to be adoring. "So you've named her too…"
Fay's mother shook her head before starting to pace around a small area of just a few feet square, more to just move around rather than to get to some kind of place in particular.
"You see, auras are a reflection of one's soul. That's why I could tell you guys didn't mate with a single look, as your auras didn't mix."
That was some nice information, a piece of news that could help me figure out what those damned auras were all about! Or so, I could only hope so while I prickled my ears, ready to snatch any snippet of knowledge this woman was willing to spare.
"That's also how I can somehow figure out your worries even before asking. I don't need to stare at your face to read you, I only need to take a look at your aura," as if reading into my desires, Fay's mom continued to explain.
"But when I first saw you…" for the first time since starting her lecture… The big fox's mother hesitated. She paced around some more in complete silence, only to finally stand down in one place and turn to look directly at my face.
"Back when I first saw you, your aura was pitch black. It was so dark and heavy, the only reason I didn't snap right at you was how… Fay didn't seem to mind your presence at all."
The woman looked into my face a little bit more, before heaving a sigh and relaxing a little.
"When I saw the look of concern on your face, how desperate you were to help me out, even though I had to appear pretty scary to you back then…" the woman smiled slightly at her own thoughts.
"Peter, listen," Fay's mom turned to face me directly again. "Someone with the kind of aura you had when I first met you could only be the incarnation of the dark god himself… Or someone whose aura was affected by foreign interference. And for someone bound by such a heavy burden…" she shook her head in silent exasperation. "Someone with a burden like that yet still capable and perfectly willing to put himself in harm's way for the sake of a complete and dangerous-looking stranger… And one of a different kind at that…"
Fay's mom stopped again, only to turn straight towards me and pick up her pace. Before I could even guess what could be her reason for closing the distance… she reached out and brought me into a gentle, soothing hug.
Strangely enough, in spite of being pressed into the most beautiful body I've ever seen in my entire life thus far, I didn't feel a single iota of lust.
None. Null. Nada.
It was quite different from how Fay could take over my rationality just by giving me a small hint of a smile.
"Oh poor you…" Fay's mom whispered as she gently shook the frozen me in her arms. "I cannot even begin to imagine how hard your life had to be in your world, for your aura to turn so dark…"
A moment of silent, soothing cuddling followed.
"That's how I knew I could entrust my child to you, kid," the answer that I was looking for, the one piece of the puzzle that was missing, finally fell into place. "How could I not trust someone who, despite that awfully dark and heavy aura, still retained their natural kindness, purity, and affection for the world?"
Fay's mom finally let me out of her arms and took two steps to put some distance between the two of us. The gentle, welcoming smile that she had on her lips didn't change, though.
Strangely enough, all the determination, drive, and burning desire for revenge that I used to hold the pieces of broken me together… seemed to melt when basked in the simple, motherly affection hidden in that smile.
"To be honest, to see you resist Fay's charms when she's the literal embodiment of your desires…" Fay's mom shook her head, as exasperation once again flashed in her eyes. "That took me off guard, but in a positive sense. And now I know that I made the right choice, entrusting that naive child in your care."
The woman's words sounded out, leaving the area in relative silence. Silence that prolonged as I took my time to process everything that this woman shared with me.
"Oh right, before I forget, there is one more thing you need to know about what happens when my kind goes in heat and actually mates," Fay's mother smiled, this time with some tones of mischief, mischief that I was already pretty familiar with, sparking in her eyes.
"Yes?" I asked, sensing that what I was about to hear would be the last nail to the coffin of my sanity.
"When our kind mates with someone that managed to put them in heat, they seal their fate with their mate," Fay's mother explained, only to cross her arms on her chest and stare right into my face. "In other words, once you do it, she will never wish to do it with anyone else other than you."
I stood in silence, finally realizing the full depth of what I did back on earth when I escaped from Fay's attempts at making out that would obviously lead down the path of the least resistance.
'If I didn't escape back then… Fay would be all mine? Forever and ever? Like in those stupid stories for children?!'
Something strange exploded deep at the bottom of my soul as my eyes instantly darted around in search of the girl.
'She couldn't have moved far!' was the only thing that came to my mind, with my brain overtaken by the simple idea of claiming Fay.
If fucking her was all it took to make sure she would forever remain by my side… Then I was willing to bite the bullet and suffer the unsufferable pleasure that was bound to come with our first, full union!
Or, jokes aside, when the perspective of having Fay forever accompany me by my side, I was simply too damn charmed by the idea I could feel no lust.
Only desire to make Fay mine.
"Where is she…?" I asked, struggling to get the words out of my mouth, now that every last muscle of my body was tensing up in preparation for the great effort I was going to infuse into the moment I would find that silly girl who spoke no word of all the things I just learned.
Was she shy? Or maybe she didn't want to put pressure on me? Could it be, that the very same concerns I had regarding her free will and ability to choose her own path was what she had in mind when she didn't pursue me any harder than she did?
"Calm down, she isn't going to run away from you just because of this small hiccup," Fay's mom laughed before squinting her eyes and lowering them to the ground.
'Is she searching for her aura or something…?' I thought, trying to distract myself from my burning desire by analyzing the situation. And by doing so, the fact that Fay's mom's face started to relax… and then turned cold, didn't escape my attention.
"She isn't anywhere around," Fay's mom rapidly turned on her heel, opening her eyes wide as she stared off into the distance. "I can sense she went that way…" she muttered while looking at the path we took during my previous visit when she led the way for where I could find some coins…
And to where I ended up offering mercy to the dying adventures and then giving them a proper burial.
'Wait, what the hell is going on?' I thought, suddenly all tense when I saw Fay's mom's face suddenly turn white as her body tensed up… Only for the woman to suddenly leap forth, in the direction she was staring at.
And her face…
Her face was struck by genuine terror, an emotion I never expected to see on the face of such a mighty and dignified being like her.
Fay was missing. She went in the direction of where those adventurers breathed their last. And now her mom was freaking out.
All the blood flew out of my face.
Terror gripped my soul, for it would take an idiot not to connect the dots.
'Please…' Suddenly, all of my heart and soul united in a single desire.
My body sprung into action, making me follow and somehow even keep up with the woman, even though her attributes were bound to be heavens above mine.
'Please, I beg of you, whatever is happening to you right now…'
I gulped my saliva as, by some miracle, I managed to speed up even further, even managing to get ahead of my mother-in-law.
'Fay, I will do everything, so I beg you, be safe!'