Newfound comfort

Part 1

"Turn left, right here!"

"Ok."

"This one is a dead-end, let's go right!"

"Right."

"All the turns on the left and right go nowhere, let's keep moving forward."

"Understood!"

Inside the middle right path, Daren and Lilith were navigating through the labyrinth. This place was a collection of incredibly huge walls under very heavy shadows which would make it hard for anyone to find out where to go without getting lost for hours.

"This way, come!"

"Coming!"

Lilith, while still on her bird-lady suit after fusing with the harpy, was guiding Daren across the maze using her future sight to know which direction to go.

"Wait... This way is filled with traps, take that route."

"Arf... Arf... Ok..."

Since Lilith was wearing her usual silver armor, as well as keeping the body of a monster, her stamina and speed were going through the roof right now as she kept dashing across the labyrinth with ease.

"Over here! Let's... Huh... Daren...?"

"Almost... There..."

On the other hand, Daren, who was the only one who didn't have a monster body, on top of having a regular extremely frail human body, was having a lot of trouble keeping up with Lilith right now.

"Jus... Need... A second... To catch my breath... Don't worry..."

"Ah, sorry!! Let's take a break!"

"No, it's ok... Don't need to slow down for-"

Before he could finish, his legs gave up and he fell on the ground.

"Ok... Maybe slow down... Just a bit..."

"I'm so sorry!! Here, let me help you!"

Lilith sit down by his side and placed his head on her lap to use as a pillow. Her legs were filled with feathers right now making Daren feel like he was resting on something extremely soft.

"Huuuuh..."

"Is that... Comfortable...?"

"... I think this is the most comfortable I ever felt in the last two hundred years..."

Daren said that as his face started to turn red like a tomato. Besides his wife, no woman ever gave him a lap pillow before.

"I'm so sorry... It seems like I'm still not over my bad habit..."

"Your bad habit...?"

"Sometimes when I use my future sight... I get so focused on it that I start forgetting everything around me... During our last mission to retrieve some silver metal... I got so lost while looking at the future that I completely forgot to tell Evlin what she should be careful about..."

"Eh... Don't worry... If it's her she probably would still not have been careful either way..."

"Hihi... Guess so..."

Lilith left out a small smile and made a gentle laugh.

At that moment Daren started to realize that he never looked at her face for such a long time before. He was getting extremely nervous for some reason. Lilith's appearance never bothered him before. From his point of view, she just looked like the definition of normal-looking, not too beautiful nor too ugly.

However, that started to change after he woke up from his two-century sleep. The more time he kept spending with Lilith and the more faces and expressions he would see her making the more he would start seeing her in another light.

Even if right now her body was a mix of a human and a harpy, he could still see the real Lilith inside of it somehow, and couldn't help but feel attracted.

He was starting to get uncomfortable with his thoughts and tried to talk to her to think about something else.

"Honestly... I should be apologizing..."

"...?"

"I always act like I'm invincible in my lion form... But I can't do a single thing when I'm in my regular body..."

"..."

"I'm always forcing someone to take care of me in times like this..."

"..."

Lilith started to raise her arm which was now also a wing and pressed her hand towards Daren's head and began to move it to feel his hair.

"I don't mind... Taking care of you..."

"... Eh...?"

Daren's heart started to beat at an absurd speed as her hand continued to mess with his hair.

"You would take care of everyone when you were the only one with power... But now... We all can take care of each other... Isn't that a good thing?"

"Oh... That's what you meant..."

"Huh...?"

"Sorry, for a second... I just imagined that you wanted to be the one to take care of me... You know... By yourself..."

Lilith noticed the way her hand was moving on top of his head and started to realize what he meant. She turned her face towards to other direction and began to blush.

"... Lilith...?"

"... W- Would that be bad...?"

"Eh... What would...?"

"If- If I wanted to take care of you by myself... Would that be bad...?"

"I- I guess not...? But it's like you said... We all have powers now... The whole group can take care of each other..."

"Y- Yes... But..."

"... But...?"

"What if I wanted only you to take care of me...? And I wanted only me to take care of you...?"

"... ... ..."

"..."

"Huh... I'm sorry... I think I'm starting to forget what 'taking care' of someone means..."

"It means..."

"..."

"It means I want..."

The two of them were thinking about the same thing a couldn't stop brightening up their faces like a traffic light going red. Both of them seemed to be frozen in time for a moment.

"It's just that... After watching the blessing ceremony of the west goddess... I began to have these thoughts lately..."

"The blessing ceremony...? You mean... the one where it looked like Ria and Auren were-"

"W- We should get going!! Come on!! L- Let's keep moving!!"

Lilith stood up in a jump and made Daren's head fall into the ground once she removed her legs from under him.

"Ouch!!"

"Ah!! Sorry!!"

"It's fine... Just give me a warning next time..."

"R- Right...!"

The two resumed their conversation and returned to traverse the maze. However, as she kept running, Lilith was hit by a sudden thought.

"... You said... Next time...?"

"Huh...?"

"... You... You would like to rest on my lap again...?"

"Huuuuuuuh..."

"..."

The two remained in silence as they kept running through the labyrinth.

Part 2

"You tricked me!!"

[Eh...?]

"You said this was a shortcut!! But look at this!!"

Ashley just finished exiting the shortcut her copilot advised to take only to encounter a huge wall on the other side.

"This is just a dead-end!! Why did you bring me here??"

[Would you just calm down!? Look up there.]

Ashley aimed towards the top of the wall and realized some kind of rock formation hanging from the ceiling. Among the formation, another hole could be found.

"What's that?"

[A secret passage to the garden. Just get there and we will reach our destination in no time.]

"How am I supposed to do that?? You want me to climb this wall?"

[No dummy, just throw your vines...]

"My... Vines...?"

[You are a dryad right now... Extend your arm towards your goal and release a few vines to push you upwards.]

"But... They are so far away... Will I even be able to reach it...?"

[Well, it is my body you're using... So you should be fine...]

"Should be...?"

[Yeah, I mean... Even if you fall, you won't get hurt... Much...]

"That's not what I want to hear..."

[What was it that you told your sister...? Something like "Don't worry!! We will be fine! Trust me! Humans suck and demons rule!". Something like that.]

"That last part was clearly made up... But sure... I'll trust you... My pain will be your pain after all."

[That's my girl. Now start dryading!!]

Ashley aimed at the rocky formation and tried to create vines from her arm. She kept trying to concentrate but nothing worked.

"Nothing is happening!!"

[I can see that... Just try to focus on your arms extending and growing. Stop thinking like a human and think like a plant!]

"What does that even mean?? How am I supposed to know what a plant thinks like??"

[Didn't you help your sister find her affinity with magic once? And isn't your brother some kind of really amazing mage? Why can't you of all people just let your mind flow and feel the power inside you?]

"Ah... So that's what's happening..."

[Huh...?]

"This is just like when I tried to learn magic..."

[Mmm...? Oh yeah... I forgot... You can't use magic can you...? Oh my...]

"Yeah..."

[Oh, so many memories of failed attempts are starting to appear now... Oh! You even tried to use your sister's crossbow while she was asleep once!!]

"..."

[Man... You really, really suck...]

"... Yeah... I know..."

Ashley bent down and started to hug her legs. She was feeling really depressed after being reminded of how much she failed to obtain something she desired.

"..."

[Are you... Crying...?]

"..."

[Ugh... What a pain... Humans are such a pain...]

"..."

[Can't be helped I guess... Let me give you a hand...]

"Huh...?"

[Just give me a little bit of control over my arm... I'll raise us both...]

"..."

[Come on!! I don't want to be here all day!! I want to see the sun again and hurry up to get my body back away from you!! Now stop crying and let me help you!]

"... Fine..."

[Finally!]

Ashley tried to focus and concentrated to let the dryad take over half of the control of her arm.

[Now, here is how you do it. Can you feel a surge of power flowing into your arm right now?]

"... Yeah... Yeah I can feel it... What's this?"

[I'm gathering my energy and trying to focus it on the tips of my fingers. Dryads have the power to channel the magic energy that covers our world and channel it to alter our bodies' structure.]

"Wait... What...? You mean... Dryads are made from the same material as the channeling tree?"

[Wrong! The tree is made from the same material as dryads. When we are born, our residual energy is absorbed by the ground and converts it into a tree that is able to imitate our abilities.]

"That's amazing!"

[Of course I'm amazing! Now, try again. Focus your energy with me!]

"OK!!"

Ashley tried again, this time with the help of the dryad guiding her and before she noticed, vines started to come out from her fingers until they reached the rock formation on the ceiling.

"I- I did it!!! I used magic energy!! I did magic!!!"

[Congratulations! Now start pulling us!!]

"R- Right!! Thank you so much... Miss..."

[... What...?]

"I... Don't know your name..."

[Demons don't have names... Just call me whatever...]

"Ok... How about... Drya...?"

[... Are... You serious...?]

"... You... Don't like it...?"

[Drya the dryad??? Took you... What? Three seconds to come up with that??]

"Huh... Sorry, sorry... I'll think of something else..."

[Ugh... It's fine... After this is over I'll never see you again, so who cares...]

"R- Right..."

[Come on!! Pull us already!!]

Drya seemed really annoyed and couldn't wait to get away from Ashley, who on the other hand, was feeling better than ever for finally being able to perform a small act of magic for the first time on her life.

"I can't wait until Evlin sees this!!"

[Hey... Don't get too used to it... After we separate, you will be on your own...]

"Oh... Right... That's right..."

[Yeah, so hurry up and get me out of here...]

"Right... Sorry..."

And suddenly, all of her joy disappeared once she realized that after she separated from Drya, she would go back to being her old self who couldn't perform magic.

"Don't get too used to it... Don't get too used too it..."