29 Morning of the Attack (1/2)

Kalin felt a familiar sensation of soft breasts pressed against his chest, and legs around his own. In between the realms of dreams and reality, he was in a state where he was taking in the surroundings with his senses, but not quite oriented yet. At that moment, a certain thought struck him and the sleep scattered from his mind, the memory of his dreams scattering off like dust in the wind. He was camping in a tent on a quest. He shouldn't be feeling the squishiness of breasts on his chest, or the springiness of thighs around his own. Not to mention, it didn't feel like it was Liliana or Mei that was hugging him. Slowly and quietly, Kalin looked down at the heavily breathing body that was attached to his own.

Identifying the culprit as Yami, Kalin sighed in relief. Given the chilliness of the air and her posture, she probably unconsciously found her way under his covers while searching for warmth after her and Artemis's shift keeping watch the night prior. Yami's airheaded nature and quiet personality would have made it unlikely that she would have noticed that he was male. Even if she did, it's not like she'd tell anyone. Thankfully for Kalin, Ilene was laying on his lap, preventing Yami from accidently finding out.

In a skillful manner, Kalin softly peeled Yami off of him, and crawled out of his bed. Doing so awoke Ilene as she quickly climbed his body before wrapping herself around his neck. Noticing both Artemis and Yami were still asleep, Kalin quietly made his way out of the tent. After quickly shutting the 'door' of the tent, to avoid awakening the twins with the morning sunlight, Kalin arched his back while stretching his arms above his head. The sun wasn't out yet, but some of its rays were peeking from around the horizon in the west, giving the clouds in the sky a myriad of different colors, ranging from yellows, reds, and even some violets. Breathing in the fresh morning air, Kalin smiled to himself. While exhaling, his visible breath dissipated into the air.

Looking at the campfire, Kalin noticed Belinda stoking the small campfire as she smiled at him. Noticing nobody else around he couldn't help but ask, ”Are you the only one looking out right now? Shouldn't you have someone else helping?” He used hushed words to make sure not to wake any of the others.

Belinda shook her head, ”Rain is watching with me. She just needed to answer the call of nature.”

”Oh, I know what that one means.” replied Kalin with an understanding look on his face, ”That means she needed to go to the bathroom.”

Belinda couldn't help but giggle at Kalin's blunt words. Kalin's innocence was showing as he threw away her efforts to be discrete. This didn't upset her, she found it cute and charming.

Noticing that they were alone, and not sensing any movements from the surroundings, Kalin decided to pop a question that he had been dying to talk about since the day prior. ”Hey, Vin likes you, doesn't he?”

Belinda just sighed slightly, ”He doesn't even try to hide it, does he?” Defending herself, she started to complain, ”Seriously though, I wish he would just drop it. I've made it very obvious several times that I'm not interested.”

Kalin nodded his head. ”Yep, that's because you like Elric, right?”

Looking at the knowing, and slightly smug smile on Kalin's face, Belinda covered his mouth and snapped in a hushed, but sharp voice, ”Shh. Not so loud. Did Rain tell you this? Well I aught'a…”

Kalin just laughed himself, ”No, I just noticed yesterday when Vin was asking about making children.” Unwrapping his tail from around his waist, he pointed at it and said, ”I could smell how happy you were when Elric smiled because you rejected Vin.”

Blushing, Belinda released him, ”Sorry, I didn't mean to jump to conclusions. Please don't tell anybody else. Rain is the only person that knows about it.”

Kalin smiled, ”Of course! I'm really good at keeping secrets.”

Hearing his response, Belinda couldn't help but feel more nervous about it. Most people that had to make the distinction that they were good at keeping secrets were the worst. Changing the subject, she couldn't help but ask, ”Was I really that obvious?”

”Not really.” He replied, ”I could tell because I could smell your pheromones, but most people can't do that.”