Chapter 6 - The Following Morning

Morning light shimmered through the opened glass windows lining the wall of Noah's room. The wave like radiance pelting down and over the sleeping Liora's body. The curtains fluttering in the winds causing the light to strike against Liora's shut eyelids, slowly and abruptly rousing her from her sleep with her eyes scrunching up irately.

Soon they began to flutter open alongside the noises of the wind and the sound of glass clanging against glass coming from outside.

As Liora's eyes opened to stare up at the familiar ceiling above, she felt a blend of light-headedness and nausea. The nausea being something she was much to used to over the passing months since her husbands passing. The light headedness, not so much.

"Ohhh…" she groaned raising a hand to shield her eyes from the irritating sun. Her other hand helping push herself up until she was seated on the bed with the blanket that she had been under falling from her body. "What happened?" Normally she would feel at least a bit perkier even with a hangover, but today she just felt more exhausted than ever before.

Lowering her hand from her face once she became used to the beams of light, she looked around her surroundings. Confusion crossing her when she saw not her own chaos incarnate of a bedroom, but one neatly organized with many a furniture lining it.

"Why am I in Ellie's room-!? Ah!" Liora winced as a sudden surge of pain ricocheted through her right arm, knocking against every nerve in her arm before blending in with her hangover headache. "Ow-ow-ow," she whimpered racing her left to hold her painful right. Feeling not flesh nor the soft fabric of the nightgown she had gone to bed with.

No, what she felt was a roughness of fabric she would never find herself wearing. A roughness only Harv could ever deal with. But there was something else, it wasn't just a rough fabric, there was a dampness to it. Though she wouldn't think about the dampness for long as the moment her hand pressed onto the fabric she cried out in pain and pulled her hand away.

Liora's eyes trembled while her expression soured looking down to the green fabric tied around her arm. It didn't take her long to see the dark red splotch saturating the fabric. "W-what?" she gulped noticing that the red stain had also leaked through onto the bedcover she was atop, it even stuck to her hand where she had touched the bandage.

"D-did I?" her nausea took a back seat in place of her fear. "I-I-no nonono. I-I wouldn't. I-I-I'm not-" she clenched her hands into balls, bringing them close to her chest, whimpering fearfully to herself.

Of all the ways to find yourself upon the Old Crook Road, taking your own life was the worst. It was tantamount to falling into an abyss of pitch-black darkness for all eternity, never touching the ground, never seeing the light. It was a crime that rended you from the path you were to tread on the Crook Road. Leading to an eternity of loneliness where not even you family on the other side would be able to come to your aide, nor would one find themselves ever seeing their loved ones again.

Such a crime was it that even the true monsters of humanity, locked up in the ferrous prisons would find themselves forced to live through their self-inflicted wounds. No matter the crimes one commits, a cruelty in the abyss was not something one deserved.

Tinkling of glass against glass from outside woke Liora from her hyperventilation. Dragging her eyes to the billowing curtains and sunstained windowsill. It was an unnatural sound, not something she would hear within this farm. No bird crafted noises of crashing glass. So what was it?

No… who was it? Her saviour perhaps?

Liora lifted a hand to her head and groaned, she felt she was forgetting something, someone. But who? Her mind was so addled in pain and nauseous dizziness that formulating a coherent memory was proving taxing for her.

Placing her hands onto the bed, Liora slowly shifted herself until she could let her legs hang over the side of the bed and plant her bare feet on the ground, letting her blanket fully come off herself before she attempted to push herself up.

"AH!"

Liora screamed at the top of her lungs, collapsing back onto the bed, her left-hand racing to grab her injured right while her body curled into a shivering ball from the agony of her having strained the muscles in her arm.

From outside she heard a loud crash of glass and hard stomps soon followed by the slamming of a door and even more stomping noises that grew closer and louder as their originator stormed up the stairs towards her room.

"Liora!" Through the door burst a brown haired and scraggly bearded boy. Panic in his tired eyes that hung with many a dark sack.

"N-No…ah?" Liora mumbled through heaved breaths just barely able to look up from her hunched position to see his bare-chested form quickly racing to and sliding onto his knees before her.

"Are you okay? Does it hurt? Wait no, of course it does." Noah worriedly sped through his words, placing his hands on Liora's shoulders to gently push her back down onto the bed, "Lie down, you shouldn't be up." He didn't give Liora much of an option as she just ended up wordlessly listening to him and soon found herself back with her head on the pillow and legs thrown back onto the bed.

Liora's watery eyes looked to Noah as he pulled the blanket back over her. "D-did I… Did I try to?"

Noah solemnly nodded his head, a soft saddened smile taking to his lips, "yeah." He wasn't one to beat around the bush and letting her fester with the hazy uncertainty of what happened last night would just be cruel. So he may as well be as gentle as he could be while telling her what happened.

"No-why? I-no, I-I wouldn't? Would I? I…" Liora's hands sn.a.k.e.d out from beneath the blanket to cover her eyes, her hands shivering as tears began to stream down in trails down her cheeks.

"Liora," Noah softly reached out to her, being as gentle as he could be as he lowered her hands down to get them back below the warm confines of the blanket. A few small red fingerprints stuck to Liora's face from where blood had stuck to her fingers when she touched her bandage.

"It's alright, you're alright," he patted the blanket down, straightening the creases Liora had made with her awakening. "You're still here," he gave her a soft, warm smile marred only by his unkempt facial hair. But that didn't seem to affect Liora as just the softness to his expression was enough to calm her down enough that her breathing calmed to just a low hyperventilation.

"you-you saved me?" she whined out.

"Mm, yeah, I did," he nodded.

"Why? Why help me? I'm… I tried to do that… you-you didn't h-"

"Yes I did." He interrupted her, "and I'll do it again and again until you stop trying." He watched amusedly as Liora's eyes widened slightly. A chuckle escaping his lips, "if you want to know why. It's because you don't deserve such a sad ending. You've still got a few chapters ahead of you Liora, they just haven't been written yet. Any good story needs a happy ending." While not the most apt comparison, he hoped that Liora got what he was trying to convey. And by the way her lips trembled and her eyes shook with tears, she did.

"I-I don't I don't have anym-"

"You do. And I'm going to make sure of it," Noah stroked a finger over Liora's cheek bringing a stray hair back over her ear. "So stop saying that, else I'm going to get annoyed." Noah began to rub away the red dots on her cheek where her bloodied fingers left their prints.

"Bu-"

"Ah!" Noah hissed to stop her.

"I don-"

"Nah! Zip. It." He popped the p and accentuated the t. "You do. Stop arguing." Noah placed his hands on his knees, forcing himself to his feet.

Liora's mouth hung open but Noah's slitted eyes thoroughly silenced any form of complaint from her.

Huffing through his nose, Noah gave a single large nod. "Now, before I let you get some rest. Could you tell me which way to the nearest healer?" Doctor seemed much to advanced a word for this world, and healer seemed to be the generic fantasy term for them from his memories.

Liora's eyes widened once again. A healer? She couldn't afford one. Not anymore. "I-I don't have any money. I-I can't afford one."

"Did I ask if you could afford one?" Noah rolled his eyes, "that's not something for you to worry about, Liora. I'll figure something out. Now which way to the nearest healer?"

She wanted to retort once again, yet once again unable to do so. She could tell Noah was being unrelenting and would refuse any words she had that would so much as denote even a slightest inkling of not wanting to be properly healed.

"In…" Liora whined a whine that made Noah think of a hurt puppy, "in the village… forty minute walk down the road." She relented with watery eyes like Noah had kicked her. Making him feel an inexplicable sense of guilt.

"Good. I'll be back as soon as possible then. So you just rest. Okay?" Noah took small backwards steps to the door way, keeping his eyes on Liora, who's lips were wiggling as she was still not too pleased with him going out to get a healer she couldn't pay for. "Okay?" he repeated to get a quicker response out of her.

"I'll… I'll try…" she whimpered.

Noah grinned brightly and nodded his head, "right. I'll be on my way then. He turned pointing his skeletal back to her, his head tilting back to her, "Oh, and Liora…" He got her attention, "I'll follow you down to hell and drag you back whether you like it or not. So don't go trying that again." He didn't wait for her response as he turned back towards the hall, hand raising to grab the door and pull it closed behind him. Only to not pull his hand away fast enough and squish his fingers between the door and its frame.

"MOTHER F.U.C.KER! OH YOU F.U.C.K.I.N.G BITCH!"

Liora winced hearing him cuss out the world hearing hard thumps from beyond the now shut door likely due to Noah stomping down in pain.

"Goddammit," she heard a final irate grumble and softer foot falls that halted not long later, "right… I need a new shirt… ow… f.u.c.k."

Liora snorted, lower lip trembling soon falling into a loud laughter, "There's some in the bathroom, top drawer! Harv always forgot to take a clean pair with him!" Liora called out to him through her own laughter.

"Thanks!" She heard not five minutes later after a set of thumps came from Noah descending the stairwell.

When she heard the front door shut and rhythmical whistling, she knew Noah had left the house and was making his way to the village.

She tried to stay in the bed, she really did. 'I need to tend the crops…' she thought, frowning as finally the first memory of the previous day resurfaced. 'there… there's no point…'

Liora's head sunk deeper into her pillow, just blankly staring to the ceiling of her daughters room.

"Why'd he take me to his room?" she mumbled to herself, feeling a sudden breeze wash against her that pierced even the thin blanket. Now that she thought about it, why was her nightgown so fluffy?

Liora raised her hand up, lifting the blanket up so she could peer down at her n.a.k.e.d as the day it was born body. "I'm… n.a.k.e.d…" she mumbled lacking any comprehension behind her own words. At least, until she lowered the blanket back onto herself and drew her left arm up to her face, chomping down on it while screaming as her entire face burst into a scarlet hue and steam began to rise from her.

"He saw me n.a.k.e.d…" she wasn't sure how to feel. He saw her n.a.k.e.d, yes that was embarrassing to her and made her want to scream even more. But he didn't even react when her b.r.e.a.s.ts were hanging free. "I'm really not beautiful anymore…" Liora curled herself into a tight ball as if to comfort herself and keep her body warm.

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I'll probably be releasing these chapters around once a week every Tuesday while I build up a decent backlog, say I get to around 30/40 chapters I'll probably start doing an every other day, every 3 days release. And once I have book 1 finished It'll definitely be every two days.

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Also, feel free to suggest some types of monstergirls and whatever resource they could produce (not completely necessary but I can use it for like, a theme each book which in this books is primarily revolving around forest monsters.)