Chapter 83 - Day's End 2

Come the day's end, Noah had been contemplative as he stared through the window of his tavern room. The city outside, bathed in dusk, coddled within midnight embrace was faintly lit by the odd flaming lanterns on poles put up to guide the midnight wanderers home. Here and there he'd see forms, women mostly, though it was only women who were around. The war was draining the supply of men from these parts, their steps were hasty, unwanting to remain within mother nights hold for long without four walls and a roof.

At that thought, Noah turned his gaze over his board room. There were two beds, one for himself and Jaffa, the pseudo guardsman of their little convoy during their trip to Tallmire… A trip that would soon be drawing to a close come the morning rays.

Jaffa sat on his bed, the one closest to the door where the blonde proclaimed a foe was most likely to infiltrate from. Odd, Noah considered. Odd in that he'd met a s.u.c.c.u.b.u.s and they prefered the window to the door. Even assassins, doubtful they'd have the courtesy to knock and stab before running off. The man was polishing his blades, he had two of them this time, unlike the one he had during the incident in Alder with the demonized Mora Rodis and her sister thrall, Gracia.

The man lifted his long sword and main weapon and held its blade side perpendicular to the ground. One hand grasped lightly the metal while the other straightened the handle, letting him peer over its razor-thin edge in search of any warps or ch.i.p.s. When he saw none, he flipped it over and did the same with the other side. Repeating it for his slightly shorter and aptly named short sword.

They were so different, Noah realized as he watched the man. He was at home with this world. Accustomed to its creatures and capable of surviving for days on months in the wild. While he… Noah doubted he'd last even an hour.

Such thoughts ached him, as he looked down at his gaunt hands that were steadily gaining fat after Liora's generous feeding. He knew something had to change. After his encounter with Ilsa and especially with Meira and those other monster girls, he was tired of being kicked in the face repeatedly and treated like a fool. And yet… he was a fool. Naive and latched to idealistic worldviews of a planet that to him simply didn't exist anymore.

Turning back to the world outside his glass-less windows, Noah leaned his head against the wall and watched as two girls, a mother and daughter from the looks of their sizes, hastened through the streets. His mind focused on the things the girls had told him, how parents taught their children more than any earth-based family was ever comfortable with even knowing. S.e.x… it was supposed to be a private thing. Don't ask. Don't tell. Here though, on Minas, it was shifted and twisted into Do ask. Do tell. Do S.e.x. No two ways about it.

It was jarring how sudden a shift something like that could be. For a boy who'd fantasized about such a situation, a world of monster shaped girls of the basis of things like Monster Girl Quest and Monster Girl Encyclopaedia, it was a dream world where morals were tossed to the wind. Just about anything on this world was looking for a lay, for seed and Ethos, the energy that fed their manos.

Shutting his eyes, Noah slid and flumped to his back before opening them once more to stare with little focus to the log struts overhead. The day's events, no, perhaps this short part of a week had been eye-opening to him. More so than the hunt for Gracia and Mora, more so than the hatred of the villagers and the encounters with Serris and the Kanyon wolf.

Tilting his head to the side, Noah eyed up the canvas sack of buckles by his bedside. A few of the pieces, silvers and bronzes were strewn out letting him inspect them and memorize their shapes and whatnot. "Money…" he muttered loathsomely.

"Hmm?" Jaffa hummed turning to look over his shoulder to Noah.

"Nothing, just… talking to myself." Noah smiled and focused back on the ceiling.

"What about?" the boy asked curiously sheathing his blades and tossing the rag he'd been cleaning them with to the bedside table.

Noah mulled, unsure what to say or focus on. "A few things… more things than I've ever thought about at once, really."

Jaffa twisted on his bed and slid to the other side before landing and resting hunched with elbows on his knees. "I know how that feels." Jaffa chuckled, "most days I think, I think about many things. Mostly women and weapons, but otherwise I think about many things other than women and weapons."

Quirking a brow, Noah shook his head with a helpless smile plastering his lips. "Somehow that sounds like you."

"I would hope so. Makes a good manner to make sure I've not been replaced with a doppler. Those beasts are good with body-snatching, not so with memories and personalities."

"I'll keep that in mind." Noah wet his lips and sighed.

"Why don't you tell me what your thinking?" Jaffa spoke softly, with a bit of concern and understanding even. "May not be the best to offer you life advice, but I've certainly got an ear to me."

Turning to the calm man and his sharp eyes, Noah felt his thoughts escaping him as he lifted himself to a seated position against the backboard. One leg pulled up with arm atop, while the other hooked beneath.

"Just thinking about my life right now. Just, this morning I met with Meira, that uh, Merchant woman you met when I came back? Well, I went with her to her friends store and we ended up looking through a whole bunch of things. Farming equipment, ranching stuff for Holstaurs and a harpy as well. It's just sorta… a lot to take in at once. Everythings just gone, y'know, zero to a hundred real quick." Noah looked to Jaffa for confirmation though got only an understanding nod and little comprehension of the phrase.

"I can get that. When my village was raided by the orcs, I was left to fend for myself suddenly. Had much to deal with at once, so much that I barely remember the things I did back then." Jaffa laughed and Noah's brows rose.

"I didn't know that." He said concernedly.

"I don't go around espousing my history. It makes sense you wouldn't." Jaffa swept his hand through his hair, flattening it to his scalp. "But it's not my turn to talk." He went still, smiling at Noah in a way he could only guess was to stop him from furthering the topic. "You are unsure of how you're going to make this ranching work, is that right?"

Noah bit his tongue and nodded slightly. "I don't know how I'm going to make any of this work. There's so much to do, so much work and things to learn and so little time to do it all in." Noah clasped his hands to his forehead and trailed them over his head until he was resting on his hands like they were his pillows. "Harpy's, Holstaurs, a Dry—a cherry tree and a giant a.s.s field of wheat. Barely know how to work with wheat and I've never touched a harpy or a holstaur let alone pruned a tree" though Serris was likely doing that herself.

"Take it one piece after the other." Jaffa gripped his left wrist and twisted his left around it, massaging his hand. "Divide up the things you have to learn and focus on them one after the other. Set up priorities. What needs to be done and what can be done. You are starting quite small, for a ranch that is. I can't say what that is as raising monsters has never been my focus," he nodded to his swords, "so I can't rightly say what those priorities should be. But I can tell you that if you take it in small chunks, focus on one aspect and learn it to perfection before moving onto the next, it can help lighten the load tremendously. Though, a caveat I can see is that you deal with living creatures. Not inanimate blades. So perhaps you won't be able to focus exclusively on one thing and may need to put some time to the others, say milking or cleaning or whatever it is you rancher types have to do."

"That…" Noah was lost for words. For a man who'd creamed himself because of a demons attack, he somehow made knowledgable sense. Exactly how, Noah wasn't sure, "...is actually good advice. Huh."

"I may not be the smartest soul on the march, but I do have my moments." A yawn soon followed his chuckle as man and he blinked away a tear the uncontrollable action produced. He peeked past Noah's shoulder and saw the midnight beyond. "We should rest now," the candles lighting up the room with a dozy atmosphere twisted as a gust came by. "We are to leave early from what I've heard." Meira had been the one to decide that, telling him that her carpenter friend would meet them just outside the walls come morning before heading back to Alder and the farm soon-to-be ranch.

Jaffa flipped on his bed, nimbly climbing beneath the thing blanket to rest on his back with legs straight and arms flat to his sides like a soldier. "You should latch the shutters. Wouldn't want a vampire thinking we're offering entry."

Noah nodded and quickly latched the shutters. A vampire was the last thing he wanted to deal with, With them shut, the room became a shade darker as the moonlight tried to squeeze through the thin gaps between the various wood planks. Sinking into his bed, Noah curled beneath his blanket, his back to the wall and stared out over the room.

"Rest easy, Noah." Jaffa leaned over and blew out both candles.

"Rest easy," he replied, once more wetting his lips and attempted to fall to sleep atop the crunchy, hay-filled pillow he rested on.

Sleep would not come easy to Noah as each time his thoughts fell to darkness, dreams would erupt. Meira and Ilsa, nude before him, their noises and cries as he tainted their bodies with his seed. It was too debauched for him to forget, added with the fact that they had been watched, that in escaping the building he'd been offered a womans daughters first time… it was all so odd to him. Odd and licentious… And steadily, albeit slowly, he was beginning to accept it.