Chapter 8: Discoveries

The manor that his parents had commissioned was a rather large structure, not quite as large as the house he had just moved out of, but that was to be expected seeing as this was for all intents and purposes, a starter home. Nath fully realized that this house was not really his own, they might say it was his but in all actuality, it was his parents and they owned not only the land that it sat on but also the house itself. Nath was generally unfamiliar with the way familial inheritance was handled here in Vinlaas but he was pretty sure it was not that strange for the person in medieval Europe to inherit the lands and holdings of his parents and then to live in them after they had passed, or at least that was how it went with keeps and castles and the like he was pretty sure.

Still, who owned the house really had no immediate effect on him so he decided to set it out of his mind. And if he was being honest it was nice to be out from under his parent’s thumb, he had spent the past thirty or so years living on his own, handling his own affairs and making his own decisions so, to awake in this world and to be so young was much like having to move back in with his parents, which was not a fun feeling to have, sure they were not making him do the dishes or something, they had maids for that after all, but it was hard to go from such freedom to such restriction on activities.

“Well, that's fine,” he said with a shrug as he used the drying cloth to remove the excess water from his long hair and face. He tossed the towel over his shoulder and walked out of the attached bathroom and into his room, and was instantly glad he had taken the time to put on a pair of breaches before exiting the bath. Elianora was sitting there on the edge of the bed, her dress traded in for what he could only describe as a white sleeping shift of sorts, it went down to mid-calf in length and was long sleeve and not particularly low cut. She had a brush in her hands and was combing her hair over her right shoulder, and only briefly paused when he stepped out of the shower before continuing her ministrations. Nath for his part paused a little longer, but only for a heartbeat or two as he stepped into the room and saw her there, but then giving himself a mental shrug he stepped fully into the room and walked over to the bed, finishing his drying with the towel before tossing it into a corner of the room.

He sat down on the side of the bed, not looking at her but rather at the room in general, which only lasted a few moments before his general curiosity caused him to turn around and look at her fully. Had he actually been sixteen he doubted he would have had the courage to do that, but this was not the first time he had been in a situation that involved a woman in what could be called his bed. “I have to ask,” he said, and watched as her shoulders stiffen slightly, “how far up does that go?” he asked, pointing at her foot, which he could see was really a paw of sorts.

“What?” she asked, turning towards him her cheeks slightly burning, no doubt from the general proximity and lack of experience in this area, he couldn't be sure of that, but she seemed to have that sort of vibe.

“Your legs,” Nath said, looking at the showing paws. “Are they digitigrade like a cat’s or more like human legs, just with fur and paws?” she opened her mouth to say something but then decided against it and simply pulled the hem of the nightgown up to her knee. The leg exposed was completely covered in fur, and much to his surprise, even though he had considered it a possibility it really was double-jointed so as to look like that of a feline, and from what he could see the soft golden fur extended past the knee, though how far up that went he was unsure. “Wow,” he said, slipping off the bed and down to the ground beside her, he reached out to touch it but before he did he looked up at her. “May I?” he asked, and she nodded, slowly, her cheeks going a shade darker red, with careful hands he touched the fur on her leg and found that it was indeed much like the pelt of a cat of some sorts, then he moved the leg in and out, watching how the secondary joint moved and the muscles rippled under the skin and fur.

Her paws, which, paws was all he could really call them were also interesting, they had the same rough grey paw pads that cats had, with small tufts of fur that stuck out between the pads. He felt along the bone structure of the paw and when he pressed on them he was able to make actual claws come out and retract simply by pressing them and applying pressure to different areas of the paw, just like you could with a housecat, though these claws were much more dangerous looking due to the size. And the fur was not simply golden as he had assumed, sure the gold color covered the majority of it, but there was also a lighter colored, almost white area of fur that covered the tips of her toes, and ran along the inside of her leg. She made a noise as he ran his hand along that white fur on the inside of her leg along her calf and he looked up at her, eyebrows raised.

The face that looked back down at him was flushed, her lips parted and instantly he felt a sort of burning heat in his chest, as well as a stirring between his legs. All of that changed when he saw the look in her eyes, they looked, scared, and sad. As quickly as the fire has sprung up it died down, there was something about those eyes the sadness in them seemed deep, and strangely if Nath had to guess it was not just the pain of being hurt, there was something more, something deeper, something hidden away from him. Taking a deep breath he decided to speak again as he let go of her leg. “So, does this go up much further than the knee?” he asked, and she nodded breathing deeply and looking a little relieved and also disappointed at the same time.

“It goes up to mid-thigh,” she said.

“Was that hard?” he asked, and when she gave him one of those adorable tilts of her head.

“Learning to walk again, the way your legs bend and move is not the same way a persons does,” she laughed as he said this, some of the tension going out of her as he pulled himself to sit up at her side on the edge of the bed instead of down below her on the floor.

“You were actually one of the people who helped me when I first became deviant, it took several months before I felt comfortable enough to walk on my own,”

That brought up an interesting point, she was a deviant, which would indicate she was over sixteen, which in turn meant she was older than he was, the question was exactly how much older was she. When he had first seen her he would have guessed her to be mid-teens, but then he had been in the mindset of a man nearing his middle ages, as such it wasn't exactly surprising that he would have more trouble pinpointing the age of a younger person. “So, I don't want you to take this wrong but I really don’t remember anything, so exactly how old are you?”

She opened her mouth and then closed it, looking over at Nath, “I am seventeen, and in five more months I will be eighteen,” she said, not looking at him, “I turned deviant on my actual hunt, which is of itself an extreme rarity, and before you ask, yes I did hunt it myself, I know the common practice for many great families is to allow a huntmaster for their daughters but I wanted to do it myself,”

“I actually did not know that was a thing,” Nath said with a shrug, “I just assumed you had hunted it yourself as I had,” she opened her mouth and closed it again, apparently the retort she was going to say dying in her throat as she heard what he said. “That does sound like something nobles would do,” he said with a laugh. “Still, it had not crossed my mind until you said it.” he shrugged, “Ok, so you are a year older than me, and have already had a full year in order to get used to this essence, I’m going to be asking you a lot of questions,” he smiled at her.

“I have only consumed it the once, and have not used it as I have not been properly trained, ” she said with a shrug.

“You have had essence for a full year and you haven't actually used it?”

“No,” she said simply, and seeing the confused look on Nath’s face she explained, “I have had basic tutoring to teach me to understand what it is and how it is used so that I can prevent myself from accidentally using it, but I was waiting so that the two of us can go to the academy together, that was something we agreed to when I first became a deviant,” she shrugged.

“That is awfully kind of you, especially seeing as the two of us apparently didn't get along together very well,”

“That only happened around a year ago, before that we had a very good relationship, but after-” she broke off and looked at Nath, who raised one eyebrow at the unfinished thought she had broken off. There was a pause that Nath took as her not really wanting to continue down that path, and seeing as it was something that clearly had stressed the former Nath and her relationship.

“And the ears?” He asked, and she blinked a few times, confused by the topic change. “Your ears, do you have two or four?” he asked, he was actually quite curious about that, he had never been an anime watcher himself, but he had like he was sure everyone had, seen a number of anime catgirls, and while Ellie had the ears and tail she also had a few more animalistic features than those catgirls had, what with the paws on her feet and the way her legs were structured.

“Oh,” she said, and brushed aside the hair that covered the section of her head where here human ears should be, and Nath was able to see that, indeed, they were there, which meant that Ellie had four ears, and while that was weird to think about that also was less strange in his opinion than a blank spot where her ears would have been. “Both sets are functional, in fact,” she said with a slight smile and Nath’s eyebrows rose as she moved her cat ears, swiveling them as if to listen in different directions. “The Fellosian ears hear things different from normal ears, I can hear more sounds, lower sounds that a human ear can not really pick up, and it also makes it easier to locate something directionally by sound alone,” she said, “and before you ask, I have been told my tail is an extension of my spinal cord, which to my understanding is how a real fellosian’s tail works.”

“I see,” Nath said, leaning back and laying down on the bed, legs hanging off the edge of the bed and his hands entwined behind his head, his eyes going down her back and towards the base of her spine where the tail was sticking out, twitching back and forth exactly like that of normal cats', and like the fur on her legs there was a lighter white section on the underside of the tail.

“What are you looking at?” she asked, she hadn’t looked at him when he had laid back, but rather had gone back to brushing her hair, but Nath was pretty sure that she had brushed out that one section a few more times than it actually needed.

“Nothing,” he said with a laugh, “I am going to get to bed, are you going to stay up for long?” He asked scooting himself up towards the headboard and flipping the covers back, he watched her grow even tenser and chuckled, to which she snapped her head around to look at him with angry eyes.

“This might not be the first time sharing your bed with a woman, but this is a new experience for me,” she snapped, her chin raised as she glared a challenge at him.

“No memories remember?” he asked, and while technically not true it was a lie that he deemed would set her at ease. “And besides, we are just going to be sleeping tonight, I am too sore for any, shall we say, extraneous activities at the moment, and even if I were, you are not,” she opened her mouth to speak but he simply flipped the coverup, so that it landed on her head, with a rather quick movement she pulled it off her head, which effectively ruined her carefully combed hair.

“I will do my duty as-”

“This isn't about duty,” Nath said, laying back against the backboard and settling himself in, “this is about you and me, and I will not fulfill any duty if you are not comfortable with the idea, and that is the end of that topic, now, if you are quite done fussing over hair that will no doubt only need to be combed again in the morning then could you please shudder the light and come lay down?”

“Fine,” she said, but it was a little resigned sounding. And after the lights were put out she pulled herself into the bed laying on the other side as physically far from Nath as she could get without falling off the side of the bed. He let her lay there like that for a few minutes before he reached over and wrapping an arm around her midriff pulled her bodily over to tuck her up against his side, coming up to curl around her and spoon her from behind. Her hair tickled him in the face and he could feel the rough texture of her paw pads against the top of his bare feet. He breathed deeply, the fresh smell of her hair causing a smile to form on his lips, one that was only enhanced when he felt her body relax slightly in his arms.

“There we go,” he whispered softly, and giving her a squeeze around the middle he promptly fell asleep.