Tales of Lerathian: The Puppet (Chapter Fourteen Excerpt)

Sorry for the lack of posts recently! I thought I would be able to squeeze in some small projects alongside my NaNoWriMo writing, but that unfortunately turned out not to be the case. I did manage to hit the 50,000 total though, so I'm hoping I'll be able to get at least the family tree for CMW and the short story I wanted to tell about Hunter and Eden out with my few extra free days. I've also decided to share with you this excerpt from Chapter Fourteen of my NaNo novel that I've been doing for the project for the past several years. I've finally almost finished it! It was difficult finding a passage to share that didn't really spoil anything, but I think this choice works rather well. It gives me a bit of a giggle. I hope it at least gives the rest of you a smile! Enjoy!

(I recommend reading the excerpts I've posted in the past so those unfamiliar with this story have at least a basic understanding of most of these characters.)

As marvelous as it felt to have her eyes closed, the worry that she would fall asleep and disturb everyone when things turned sour with crying, a fit, screaming, or something of that sort was too heavy. Elle pushed herself up despite her aching body protesting. With Riku and Aria deeply into their conversation, Elle timidly shuffled over to where Jân sat. He didn’t argue about her sitting down next to her, and he simply flashed her another soft smile when she did.

“I thought you were trying to get some sleep in?” he wondered, now working on separating the thin pieces of meat from the squirrel’s bone to place them in one of their small pans.

Elle could manage no other explanation besides a dismal shake of her head.

“Aria could make something to help you” Jân suggested.

“She barely has anything left. I’d rather she spend her time making medicine to help Nika, or have her save her ingredients for…the nights when we really need them,” Elle’s counter turned into an embarrassed mumble, forcing her to continue before the heat in her cheeks sunk in too deeply “I’d also much rather have a hot bath to relax in than sleep at this point anyway.”

“I hear that. I keep thinking I’m as sore as I’m going to get, but the next day comes and it gets just that much worse.” Jân agreed wryly.

Those words giving her a moment of inspiration, Jân watched her curiously when she suddenly moved to kneel behind him and brushed his hair out of the way. Another genuine smile found its way onto her lips when he heaved a massive sigh of relief and slunk his head forward as her hands massaged against his shoulders.

“This is the best idea any of us have had for a long time.” Jân said gratefully.

“It is also supposed to be an apology.” Elle admitted softly.

Jân turned his head to glance at her before he spoke.

“I shouldn’t have said what I said the way I did. You quite openly told us you weren’t in the mood for our taunting. I ignored that and pushed you despite the warning, and I really should have known better than to be so thoughtless to how you were feeling at the time.” he admitted himself.

“I truly wanted to throw that rock at you though.”

“But you didn’t.” Jân pointed out confidently with a practically proud grin that brought life back to the heat in her cheeks.

Smiling at herself for being so weird, Elle refocused her attention at loosening the tension in her brother’s muscles. The ministration was going perfectly fine until she moved below his shoulders.

“Not so hard!” he complained as he twisted away from her touch.

“I’m barely even pressing, you big baby.” she mocked in amused exasperation.

“It still hurts.” Jân pouted.

“That’s because you’re one big knot. It’s going to hurt a smidge until I start unraveling it.”

“That was way more than a ‘smidge’ of pain.” Jân merely pouted deeper.

“Shall I stop then?” Elle teased.

“No.”

She laughed, but did change her technique to lightly rubbing to prep the muscles before she began reapplying true pressure once more. Jân squirmed a few more times, yet he was able to return to his own task with the squirrel soon enough. He was about done when movement rustled from the east of camp. A calmed Dié had finally returned― mysteriously hiding something behind his back. He set his sword down by the rest of his things before sitting himself down next to them making sure whatever he was holding remained hidden. Elle, though curious, was still deciding how annoyed she was with him before he shifted a change in the mood that was wholly unexpected.

“That looks nice. Mind if I get a turn afterwards?” Dié requested in a lighthearted manner that was exactly like his typical self, a stark contrast from how he had been during training.

“I’m sort of mad at you.” Elle reminded him.

“Rough practice again?” Jân questioned suspiciously, looking at Dié disapprovingly.

“I figured that would be the case,” Dié said, completely ignoring him, “Which is why I brought these.”

He revealed a small bouquet of vibrantly colored wildflowers and another expertly made crown of them. His smile beamed so brightly that Elle didn’t have the heart to keep up her upset front when he carefully positioned the crown on her head. The summer heat was good for filling the flowers with life. Their light scent easily wafted down to delight her senses. Elle fixed her stare on Jân’s back as she massaged, but Dié saw through the poker face she was failing to keep.

“That did the trick, didn’t it?” he guessed correctly with satisfaction, “Flowers are the way to a girl’s heart, huh?”

Elle found herself suppressing laughter, and Jân’s unwavering stare of suspicious disapproval at Dié deepened.

“Was the crown done well enough to earn me a turn?” Dié wondered again, still not acknowledging her brother.

“I will promise a quick one, but I guarantee nothing after that.” Elle acquiesced.

“That’s fine with me.”

That was when a brief silence had her curiously glancing to see a most peculiar kind of grin spread across Dié’s face. Experience earned over the past months told her she was about to hear something ridiculous, but Elle was unprepared for just how bold his words were going to be.

“I’m thinking I don’t want a shoulder rub though.” he started.

“Oh?”

“Nah, that’s not really the part of me that’s aching for a girl’s touch,” his voice changed to a smooth, slow, cool tone startlingly similar to how he had spoken when the two of them first met “I’m thinking of a more specific area. Nothing like the broad back. It’s, well, let’s say long, and…more below the waist, if you get what I mean.”

“Shut your mouth before I cut out your tongue!” Jân snapped.

He gave Dié’s chest a good shove before his gaze nervously turned Nika’s way, but she was out light a like and hearing nothing. Elle herself made no sound. Merely dropped her jaw open in shock. Honestly though, she was amused than anything else. It certainly wasn’t the first time Dié had made a lewd joke. Her surprise came more from the fact that she couldn’t believe he had had the gall to speak in such a manner in front of Jân. Dié rolled with her brother’s push with grace.

“I was just asking for a foot rub, Pointy. I don’t know what you’re getting so riled up about,” he taunted with mock innocence that didn’t last more than the brief second it took for him to lean in closer to Elle and whisper in a much more seductive way that made her cheeks truly feel as if they were on fire now, “I hope you do know the body part that everyone always correlates a man’s feet to though.”

“AWAY! Get! Away!” Jân cried, swatting Dié back from the two of them like he was a fly.

Elle couldn’t help herself. Her hopeless giggles matched the victorious chuckles of Dié. Covering her mouth made no difference, and placing her hands back on Jân’s shoulders didn’t help either as Jân was still leaning over as he tried to get a proper swat in at their inappropriate group member. Dié scooted back until he was out of Jân’s reach, and he showed few signs of stopping the mood he had sparked.

“Please. There’s no reason to act like Food is some pure, innocent flower. She was the one who was casually spewing out the word ‘sex’ this one time like it was nothing. She was the one who was all like ‘I know about my body and how it feels’ and whatnot.” Dié revealed, humorously making his tone high-pitched and sweet when he friendly mocked her previous words.

“So I feel like I’m old enough to start talking about more mature topics. What’s wrong with that?” Elle said in lighthearted defense when Jân’s frown of disapproval fell on her.

“No. I suppose I don’t fault you for having objective discussions about natural productive urges when they’re brought up at the right time,” he relented, “But, you, Dié, I do not approve of you requesting implied sexual favors from my younger sister who has not even reached courting age.”

“You’re considerably more open-minded about the subject than I thought, Pointy, but don’t even bore me with that ‘courting age’ crap. I’ve mingled with plenty of youths respectively Food’s age during my time as a vagabond, and I’ve found that most get some sort of experimentation in long before the wedding night. I’ve actually seen more problems from those who have to suffocate and suppress those oh so natural urges due to overbearing and stuffy adults who think the mere mentioning of the deed will have youth and adult alike running amok naked on the streets in one giant orgy.”

“I definitely think we’re part of the wrong conversation,” Aria chimed in, looking up at Riku who Elle swore was fighting back a twitching smile like the one his companion wore, “What they’re talking about sounds incredibly more interesting than medical properties of foreign weeds.”