Chapter 31 Past failures

  I stood on the edge of the building, peering down below to judge if it would be safe to jump. As I pondered this for a few seconds small flakes of snow began to fall. A light snow storm began as the sun started to set, Derek's large form made a shadow that stretched across a few buildings as I decided on our course of action.

  “Alright, we're gonna jump.”

  “WHAT!?”

  Nearly everyone says in unison, Jean doing the near opposite, pumping his fist into the air.

  “Dont worry about anything guys, I have gravity magic remember?”

  I use dual mind and lower everyone's gravity a fair bit. Glancing at everyone hesitating I decide to lead by example and step off the building, slowly floating downwards. With a laugh of glee Jean jumps off too, slowly floating beside me after a moment. The other girls jump leaving only Derek to peer at us slowly floating downwards. With a gulp he jumps too, he yelps as he falls for a moment only for my magic to have him float beside us as we slowly and safely make it to the ground.

  After checking his body to make sure he was in one piece Derek went on all fours and began to kiss the ground. We all wait for a moment, staring at him as a group. After a few more seconds he gets up and completely ignores our stares. I roll my eyes and some of the others do the same. After we get back to the main road my danger sense flares again. Truth be told, every time we were on a main street it had gone off. After returning to the inn I breathed a sigh of relief as my danger sense finally quieted down.

  We all sat at a round table ready to order some food. It was a bit of a squeeze but all of us managed to fit. A waitress came by and took our orders, I personally ordered a sandwich. Thank the goddess this world had sandwiches, in my past life I loved a good sandwich for meals. The others ordered stew, bread and some meat to share. Alice clears her throat as we wait.

  “So, how's the two lover foxes doing? I'm so glad you guys finally got together after all, it was frustrating as hell watching you two look at each other like that for the better part of a decade.”

  Sarah blushes and I look to the side, heat rising in my face too. Ever since we were young I had indeed wondered if she felt the same, I think my crush developed when I was 11 or 12.

  “How, uh, how long did you have a crush on me anyway Sarah?”

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  “....Since I was 10…”

  Sarah speaks so quietly that we can barely hear her. Her face was red as a tomato and her tail swished back and forth erratically, nervously. I shouldn't be surprised, we spent the better part of all our childhood together, our houses right next to each other as well. We trained together, relaxed together and sometimes we even ate dinner together. We slept over at least once a week, sharing a futon since she always went for my tail and slept on it like she was in heaven. I decided to hug her right then and there. I whisper into her ear-

  “I've always felt the same Sarah, I love you.”

  And I end it with a kiss on the lips, just a peck really. After a moment Sarah faints, her mouth had the biggest smile I'd ever seen on anyone. After a few minutes the food arrives, the smell of meat waking Sarah. After a moment we all tuck in and quickly demolish the roast pheasant. While it could be considered a bit racist coming from other races, beast-kin typically preferred meat, hell Derek could have easily eaten the whole thing himself. After a few more minutes I moved onto my sandwich only to see Sarah giving me puppy eyes as I ate. I sighed and held out my sandwich for her to have a bite. Sarah immediately chomped half of it in one bite. I look at my mostly eaten sandwich with a bit of sadness. Oh well, it's not like I was starving anyway. We finish our meals and afterwards lounge a bit at our table.

  “Never knew Derek was so scared of heights.”

  Jean says while picking at his teeth. Derrick speaks up after a moment.

  “I hate heights. I sometimes have nightmares about falling.”

  After a brief silence we all decide to head to bed. Me and Sarah snuggle together as Alice lays down in her own bed and quickly falls asleep. As soon as we hear Alice lightly snoring we immediately begin to gently kiss each other, our tails wrapped around the other's tail. With Sarah laying on top of me we kiss for a few minutes, eventually it becomes a hungry kiss where we begin to pant a bit. After a few more seconds I break away from it and pat her head.

  “We don't want to wake anybody so lets get some sleep.”

  Sarah pouts a bit and immediately cuddles with my tail, I'm the big spoon as we lay together and get some sleep. I dream of my past as I sleep. I was the lead of a team for a while, our goal was to make prosthetics that could replace failing organic ones. However before we could complete an artificial liver our funding ran out, leaving us unemployed. As we all went our separate ways I told my girlfriend the news. Not even 5 minutes later she sent me a text telling me that we were done.

  I'm not proud to say I spent a fair amount of time crying. Afterwards I decided to drive to get some liquor, I knew it was a bad idea because of all the meds I took but I didn't care. On the way a car cut off a freight truck, where it slammed into me. The airbags deployed and glass cut into me as the windshield shattered. After a few moments the airbag deflated, only for me to see the front half of my car crumpled like a piece of paper. After everything was said and done I lounged about at home for a week, barely tending to my needs. Eventually I ran out of food and decided to treat myself. As I was ordering the stress caught up to me and my heart finally failed.

  I wake in a cold sweat, my body remembering the cold grasp of death. At that moment I felt like I was screaming at the void that was taking me, I simply wasn't ready for the end. Sarah rustled awake and noticed me breathing hard. She didn't say a word and simply hugged me. After a few minutes I calmed down and held her back.

  “I'm sorry Sarah, I had a nightmare.”

  She doesn't say a word and just holds me a bit tighter, this wasn't the first time my memories haunted my dreams and truth be told with Sarah at my side they rarely happened, she was sweet every time. After a few more minutes of this the sun finally rose and we broke the hug and got ready for our day, armor being strapped on and our weapons at our sides. We walked down the steps to see the others nursing tea. I quickly ordered breakfast for me and Sarah as we sat at the round table, a few minutes later we ate in silence as the others sipped their tea.

  “So, what's the plan?”

  Alice asks as we finish our breakfast.

  “Well, I was thinking we get some raw meat from a butcher and lay a trap, then after we look for their den and make sure we didn't miss any.”

  I see nods from all around as they agree to my plan.