CH889

“Mora, sweetheart? I know it smells good but you’re drooling,” Sonya said as she reached out to wipe his lips as the plates came out, the boy letting it happen, even as his eyes locked onto the meal.

“I haven’t figured out how to stop that yet. Having a mortal body is harder than I expected.”

“Ha, the secret to that bit is to just be aware of it happening and swallow before any falls out,” Ben told him. “Which definitely felt weird to actually explain with words. Thinking about the finer details of all of these small things we do and trying to verbalize it comes off a lot stranger than I’d planned when I started talking.”

“Then stop so we can eat,” Abel said, already digging in and practically shining at the first taste as she gushed. “So good. And you know what would be great for washing it down?”

“A nice, refreshing glass of water because I’m not giving you more blood today.”

“Does that mean I can get one tomorrow?”

“If you’re good and work hard on the things I’m going to be assigning you.”

“And if you don’t talk so much with food in your mouth,” Thera added, imitating her aunt by wiping the girl’s face. “It’s a bad habit.”

“Can I talk with a different mouth then?” She asked, growing a new one along the side of her throat as she said it while continuing to shovel food into her first, leaving Thera’s brow to crinkle as she watched.

“That’s probably fine if you aren’t going to spit any food out of it while you’re talking. And Ben, aunty said it was fine so you wanna bring it up?”

“Yeah, sure. So Abel, I know I said before there’s not much room here but considering I should be done helping make Foast his armour in a day or two and the deal was you help out at the shop until he’s finished, you wanna crash on our couch here instead of sleeping outside? Comes with breakfast and dinner too if you’re interested.”

“Can I really!”

“Yeah, I mean, I know you said you enjoyed nature and all-”

“Screw nature, I’m in! Ooh, does that mean we can hang out all night?”

“Considering all of us and you need to sleep, no but we usually hang out for a bit after dinner.”

“Alright, alright, I guess but you have an empty yard out back, we could all have a good fight! You all seem pretty strong, even if I’m gonna come out on top, it could be fun.”

“Okay, we’re not all going to fight you. If you really want a contest then there’s a different option.”

“Yeah?”

“Board games, card games, video games, we’ve got plenty of leisure activities in this house we can do without drawing any blood and a few hours to go through some. Who knows, maybe you’ll find something among them that really clicks.”

Despite her chosen eyelessness, Abel still managed to be quite expressive. Her mouth and eyebrows played a big part in that, warping with any feeling she went through but her eyelids themselves would move too, scrunching up in that particular moment as Sonya hovered over one of her two remaining cards, deciding for herself if she was going to take mercy on her guest before settling against it, pulling the pair she’d needed and leaving the old maid in the young girl’s hands.

“And it looks like this one was my win,” She said while Abel pouted, even if she tried to soften the blow by reaching out and taking the young summoned’s hands in her own. “But you did very well for your first game, it was a lot of fun, wasn’t it?”

“Mmh, one more time!”

“Ha, I’m alright to play again if everyone else is.”

“Sure, I will,” Mora said, with Thera and Ben both nodding in agreement, Abel locking on to the last one’s face.

“How did you lose so badly anyway? You’re a mind reader, isn’t that kind of embarrassing?”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Mind reading would kind of defeat the purpose of playing a game,” He shrugged. “Why would I want to play something without being on an equal playing field?”

“If you want an equal playing field then maybe you really should be peeking in our heads occasionally,” Thera teased. “Mister eldritch mind over here has managed to lose thousands of times and won what? A few dozen after your mind got to the second tier?”

“I mean, who’s counting though?”

“Considering your perfect recall and crazy brain, I’m pretty sure the exact number of wins to losses immediately popped into your head the second I asked.”