Everlasting Dream

Chapter 88: Those thighs

[Aster]

The gentle sound of water lapping against a rocky shore echoed through the quiet forest air, accompanied by chirping birds in nearby trees. The rustling grass filled with little insects added to the peaceful morning ambiance for the siblings who sat together by their campfire on a soft nest of blankets. A warm sun bathed their naked bodies in its gentle glow as it rose above distant hills, casting long shadows across the ground.

Lying on his sister's legs, Aster looked vulnerable and weak. His face was covered in sweat, and his cheeks were flushed red from fever. The boy's pale chest rose and fell erratically as he kept panting heavily through his nose. His eyes, as golden as his sister's, remained wide open. He gazed into hers with a gentle smile on his chapped lips.

Since Aster woke up yesterday evening after two long days of feverish slumber, he couldn't stop smiling. Back there, when he faced that creature, he really thought it was over. That he'd never see them again. But now, lying here, he felt so damn happy and grateful to be alive—even if it hurt like hell. He was just so damn happy to see them both alive and well, safe and sound, far away from that horrible place. It felt like now, their lives could finally return to normal. All they need is to find a quiet village in which to live, as simple as that. A dream they had been chasing was now closer than ever.

Speaking of pain... it never subsided. Not even for a little. His hands felt as if they were still burning, every single second of every minute. He could almost hear that bubbling, hissing sound whenever his eyes closed. Also, his neck... a dull throbbing that never went away, making it almost impossible to move his head without tears welling up in his eyes. But Aster didn't complain. Not once.

He kept quiet and just smiled up at his cute sister, her silver hair cascading down her delicate shoulders as she sat with her legs beneath her butt, providing her little brother with the softest pillow this world has ever seen—her pale, naked thighs. Silvia's petite figure basked in the warm light of the morning sun above, peeking in between her locks that kept swaying slightly from the gentle breeze. Her flat chest rose and fell ever so slightly as she breathed quietly.

"Say... ah..." Silvia giggled adorably while holding a piece of freshly cooked fish between her forefinger and thumb above her little brother's mouth. His lips glistened from all the leftover juice from that last bite she fed him just a moment before.

— "Ah," Aster replied weakly before accepting the little bite of food into his mouth, chewing slowly with some effort. Just like her, he was also naked, save for only a blanket covering his hips to hide his privates. His hands rested atop his chest, wrapped tightly in handmade bandages Nivalis made from his tunic. An overwhelming smell of that green pine paste came from them and his neck, but the boy tried to ignore it. "Mmm," he hummed in pleasure after struggling to swallow it. "It's nice to eat a normal meal again. It's been... quite some time," Aster mumbled, giving his chapped lips a gentle lick.

"Yeah, it's nice," Silvia nodded with a small smile. "Mom caught quite a few already. We will smoke what we can't eat later today, so you better eat as much as you can. Somehow, you're even skinnier than me..." she whispered, feeding him another piece of juicy fish, gently placing it inside his open mouth with her tiny fingers. His lips wrapped around them for a moment to suck the leftover juices off before letting them go with a soft pop. "You sure you are feeling alright?" She asked, caressing Aster's damp forehead with the back of her other hand, feeling the intense heat emanating from his skin.

Aster nodded in response, his eyes momentarily closing as he concentrated on chewing. It took him quite some time to finally swallow and open them again. "I just feel weirdly tired... that's all," he mumbled quietly. "Well, I used ALL my mana back then. Maybe this is why..." A weak smile appeared on his chapped lips. "I was quite the badass back there, huh?" he chuckled softly.

However, for Silvia, it wasn't a laughing matter at all... her worried golden gaze never left his eyes as she whispered, "Thank you... for what you did." Her glistening fingers broke off another small piece of fish and guided it into Aster's mouth. "It was cool and all... but don't do something like that ever again. You have no idea how scared we were, seeing you lying still next to that creature..." she sighed quietly, watching as he struggled to chew the tiny piece of food in his mouth.

After some effort, a loud gulp escaped Aster's throat, his face wincing briefly at the pain in his neck, but disappeared just as quickly. "You are welcome," he replied with a weak smile, adorably staring back into her golden, beautiful eyes. "I'd do it again in a heartbeat, though. It's my job to protect you and Mom."

"Stoopid little brother..." Silvia mumbled quietly, still gently caressing his damp forehead. Her golden eyes shifted to their mother in the distance; crouched on a nearby boulder by the water's edge, Nivalis tried to catch more fish with her bow in one hand and an arrow with a string attached to it in the other. Unlike the siblings, she wore her usual tunic and pants.

Aster followed his sister's gaze—or tried to, as it hurt to turn his neck even a little bit—and noticed what she was looking at. Nivalis, with her silver hair tied back into a loose bun, held an unstrung bow over the crystal-clear water. Her blue eyes darted from side to side as she tried to spot any movement beneath that quiet surface.

— "Mom... She's a bit quiet, don't you think?" Aster asked hesitantly a moment later. "You think she's mad at me for what I did? Risking myself, I mean..."

Silvia shifted her gaze to him again, visibly unsure how to respond to that question. "Umm... No, I don't think so. She's mad at me for... reasons I won't say," she mumbled quietly after a brief pause, scratching her cheek awkwardly. "It was nothing serious, though. Don't worry about it," the girl added quickly.

Raising his eyebrow in response, Aster squinted his eyes at her. "Huh. What did you do?"

"It's... ehm... private, between me and Mom..." Silvia said, tapping his little nose with her finger and letting out a quiet boop sound. "You wouldn't understand even if I told you. It's girl stuff," she added, offering him another piece of cooked fish.

Aster pouted cutely at that answer. "Fine. I'll ask Mom," he huffed, opening his mouth to take the food.

"I-I'm quite sure she won't tell you either..." Silvia replied with an awkward smile, giving him her fingers to suck on to make them clean again. As an obedient little brother, Aster wrapped his soft lips around them and gave them a little suck, his wet tongue gently cleaning off any leftover juices.

With a soft, barely audible pop sound, Aster released Silvia's fingers from his mouth and smirked at her. "Oooh, something serious then. I see... I see..." he chuckled, his eyes darting between her golden orbs. "Now I'm even more curious. I'll give you an hour-long massage if you tell me."

"It's tempting, but no." Silvia shook her head, looking at his bandaged hands resting on his chest, "Besides, how would you even do that with... you know?" she quietly added. Her little hand gently caressed Aster's damp hair, brushing it to the side, sticky from his constant sweating. "How badly do they hurt right now?" the girl asked with a worried frown.

Aster's smile faded somewhat as he glanced at his hands; they still pulsated with that horrible, almost unbearable pain. He wanted to writhe in agony from it but tried his hardest to hide it. "It looks worse than it feels," he lied, not wanting to worry her. His fever was also pretty bad, but he hoped it would pass with a few more days of rest. Was it an overuse of magic that caused this, or did some nasty infection slip through the wound... he wasn't sure. All Aster could do was wait for his body to fight it, whatever it was.@@@@

"Hmm... Alright. Here, take one more bite," Silvia whispered, breaking off a little piece of fish and placing it into her brother's mouth. "I can chew it for you if you want."

Struggling with swallowing again, Aster took a few long moments to clear his throat. "Sure, that would be... nice, actually," he said weakly with a tired, sweet smile, looking up at his sister from between her pale thighs. There was no better place for a brother to rest his head than on the soft thighs of his loving, cute sister.

The silver-haired girl returned the sweet smile, taking a big piece of tasty, warm meat into her mouth. Sweet juices filled Silvia's mouth with each chomp, making her cheeks puff out slightly. She moved the food around inside her mouth with her tongue, checking for any bones or big chunks that could cause trouble. There were none.

"I'm not telling you what I did to deserve a spanking," Silvia replied firmly, looking up at him with narrowed golden eyes. She was still kneeling before him, with laces between her fingers. "End of discussion, young man."

Aster rolled his eyes at that. "Darn it. It was a good try," he chuckled, only to receive a tiny pinch from her on the thigh, making him flinch slightly. "I will get to know one day," he laughed.

"Not from me, that's for sure," Silvia said, giving one last tug on the shoelace before getting up and quickly putting on her things. She didn't feel like wearing a tunic and pants, so she just wore her cloak and boots in the same manner as Aster, hiding her well-beaten butt from his view. "Here, grab onto me," she whispered, embracing him around his waist again. "Let's go, my little doofus of a brother."

— "Mhm," Aster answered with an idiot-like smile plastered on his face. They started walking into the woods, with him leaning against her, holding her shoulder for support. Their hoods were down, so their hair fluttered freely in the gentle morning breeze.

Even though his head was spinning like crazy with each step, and the pain that throbbed dully in his hands and neck made Aster bite on his lower lip to hide how much it hurt, he still tried his best not to show any of it, keeping that big dumb smile on his face. However, there were things in this world that even he, the man of the family, couldn't endure for too long. "Umm... I need to pee," he admitted quietly, giving her an apologetic look. "I've been holding it since yesterday..."

Silvia stopped in her tracks and sighed deeply, looking at him with a frown. "Can't you hold it for a little bit? So Mom can help you instead?" They barely made one-third of the way to their mother's location, so it might take at least ten minutes more before they got there.

Aster shook his head, giving her puppy eyes again. "Nope... I can't," he said, wincing at how tight his bladder was getting by the second. "I'm about to burst. Sorry."

"Ugh, fine... Let's go into those bushes over there," Silvia huffed and motioned toward a dense thicket of shrubbery nearby with her chin, to which Aster simply nodded. With her hands wrapped around his body, they slowly moved through the thick underbrush together.

...

[Valther]

— "You're fucking with us, Wayne. Just admit it," Valther, the black-haired man, mumbled as he looked at Wayne with an annoyed frown creasing his forehead. Clad in iron armor from head to toe, he carried a large two-handed sword behind his back.

"I'm not," Wayne replied, glancing over his shoulder at Valther and others. "I told you already. When I was looking for our next landmark, I saw them. I swear I saw them—an elven woman and two kids, just like in those songs. Eyes and hair, everything matches. I almost soiled myself when I did. Thought they would eat me if I made a sound..." he explained again, nervously clutching his sword.

Valther rolled his eyes and shook his head before looking at Linnea and Hela. "What do you girls think?"

"Well, if there's even a hint of them being there, it's definitely worth checking out," Linnea said, slightly panting as they followed the young man through the dense forest. She wore simple but well-made traveling clothes that did not restrict her movements, nor did they protect her much. Her long auburn hair was tied back into a loose ponytail that swayed with each step she took. Deep blue eyes carefully looked around them for possible threats hidden in these woods. "And the lake is our last landmark, meaning the Breach is close... quite a coincidence, don't you think? They might have come from it, just like any monster," Linnea added.

Hela sighed quietly, clutching her bow tightly as she walked behind them. "I don't know..." she frowned, her blonde hair barely reaching her shoulders. Leather armor covered most of her petite body except her face and hands. "Have you heard what the songs are about? They hunt and eat people! Who knows what kind of beasts they can be and what they're capable of? We might be walking into a death trap..." she said nervously.

— "Shh... we are near. Worst case, we just run away," Wayne whispered, slowly crouching between the trees and bushes, his blade shaking; the group followed his example. Everyone tried to be utterly quiet as they sneaked through the undergrowth.

A gentle splashing sound of water filled their ears, getting louder as they approached the lake. Valther peeked from behind a large tree, his eyes going wide with disbelief. "Holy fucking shit," he muttered quietly. A pale, elven woman sat by the shore on a boulder, strands of her silver hair fluttering in the gentle breeze while the rest were tied into a loose bun. She wore ragged clothes—straps and pieces of fabric barely holding together to resemble a tunic and pants. Her blue gaze was fixed upon a spot in the water where ripples spread across its calm surface.

Valther swallowed loudly as he watched her, his heart beating faster with each passing second. This woman looked exactly like the ones from the stories—beautiful and dangerous at once. "It's her... Just like in those damn songs..." he whispered back to Wayne. "I thought those were just to scare the younglings away from the woods..."

"See?" Wayne whispered back, looking at him with an I-told-you-so look.

"Where are the kids? I don't see them," Hela spoke up from behind her companions.

"They are not visible from here but will once we get closer to the shore. On the other side of the lake, a bit to the left," Wayne replied quietly, pointing in that direction. "Believe it or not... they were both naked. I think they were... doing it," he grimaced.

Everyone winced at those words, even Linnea. "Ew. Brother and sister... gross..."

"Yeah," Wayne agreed, shaking his head before adding, "But they are separated. It's a good opportunity. We can deal with her, the most dangerous one, while the kids are... busy. We might catch them all off guard if we are quiet enough."

Valther ran his hand through his long, dark hair before saying, "Alright... I think we should try. It's damn risky, but the reward is more than worth it. Maybe the guild will give us a blessing stone for this... who knows," he grinned slightly. "Linnea, can you blind her? If we do everything smoothly, maybe we could even catch her alive. The kids would surrender if she's our hostage."

Linnea let out a long, shaky breath. "Yeah, I-I can try," she whispered back.