42  A picnic in the woods?

I feel like I am a pet! Yes, if I think about it, our relationship is like I am the pet and Celes is the owner. When I do a pleasing trick I get fed and otherwise I have to stand on guard. 

It's infuriating! I am the king of a country! Somehow I have to get the upper hand in our relationship. If I could just remember one weakness of hers from our past life. 

Just a single weakness would be enough, but nothing comes to my mind. I remember that she always jumped at every plea of our children. 

When I wanted her to do something, I always used our children as middlemen. Ugh, nothing like that available now... and I am not sure if having children in our current relationship would be a good idea. 

And we will get married in a few months! Our parents are already making preparations and are sending out invitations. It looks like they want to throw a party for the whole world! 

Huh, I guess they -are- throwing a party for the whole world! Stricc and Tirna will be officially one country after our marriage. 

Every weekend Celes drags me off to an event. She always chooses loud places with many people. I really hate those, you can't talk to each other and in the end you just sit side by side and watch the performance. Maybe I should try to go on the offensive? It would surely surprise her if I would take her out on a date by myself? 

If I would do something like that, it would surely catch her off guard and maybe I can find a weakness. But where should I bring her to? Hmmmm..... 

**** 

Where should I take him to? Maybe the national flower garden or the new theatre? I can't decide what I like better. No point in asking the hermit, he would surely visit a library if he could choose. 

I am in my room and planning our trip for today. There are still some points on my list, which have to be accomplished. 

Muahaha. I could do this and that. And afterwards.... I just have to make sure that he can't escape. 

"Celes." A voice behind me shocks me and I cover my list. 

"What are you hiding? It's that perverted list of yours isn't it? Have you thought up a few new idiotic points for it?" The hermit asks from behind me. 

"It's not perverted! It's a guide to a decent life! And what are you doing inside here? How did you even get in here? I was sure I locked the door!" I ask flabbergasted. 

"I just teleported here. Oh, and you locked the door? Where you about to release some urges?" He asks with a smirk on his face. 

"Noooo? And don't you have any common decency? Just waltzing inside a lady's room? At least knock first!" I am angry. He acts like this place belongs to him. 

"Hoh, Sorry. I didn't think that you would have anything to hide. But if you need some time for yourself first, then my surprise can wait." He looks at me with an interrogative expression. 

Since when did the stupid hermit do anything for me on his own? That's suspicious! On the other hand, he gave me the ring. So he has his generous moments..... 

"Umm. No I have nothing planned? Though we have a date today you know? Not a chance that you could distract me from it." -Me 

"Then we can take look at the surprise, care to join me?" He offers his arm to invite me. Something is definitely wrong. 

After wavering for a moment, I grab his arm and stand up. 

"Then let's go." 

The surroundings distort and are replaced by a wide grassy plateau. A valley stretches out in front of us and at the bottom is a forest with a lake. "Huh? Did you just teleport us?" 

"Geez, and there I thought the picnic would be a surprise." He sits down on the blanket under us and starts to unpack a huge basket with food. "I told Rose to prepare something really good after I found this place. We are in the southern area, which is mostly uninhabited. It took me a few days to clean this mountain valley from all the monsters, so we could have a nice evening here. It's really cool when the sun sets and the whole sky is painted in red. Why are you feeling my forehead?" 

"I just wanted to make sure you don't have a fever." I sit down beside him and help to unpack. "So if I understand it correctly you took care of today's date?" 

"Huh, why not? You are planning all the others. And you always bring us to noisy places with many people. So I thought I would take you somewhere quiet for once. Otherwise talking would be just a huge pain." -Angrod 

Huh? He wants to talk to me? The other places were too noisy? So he didn't like the dates I organized? I am not sure if I should hit or kiss him. 

"Here that stuff is really good, you have to try it." He holds a piece of meat into my face and I open my mouth, so he can feed it to me. 

"It's good did Rose make that?" I ask. "I think so, she is really talented with cold food." He smiles at me. 

What's up with this pink atmosphere? Is the hermit sick? Or could he really be trying on his own? Oh my, didn't I want this all the time? Why can't I just believe him? Um, I will just believe in his good intentions! Yes. That's the right choice! 

We sit down together to eat the wonderful food. 

"I chose this place because we will have a nice sunset soon." He continues to explain. 

"W... wait, does that mean you just teleported us to another time zone? How far can you teleport with two people? It's incredible hard to teleport short distances alone and you just took me with you like nothing!" I am shocked. 

"Huh? It's not that hard, really. Other magicians just teach that teleportation is an incredible complex and dangerous field. But it's not that hard to master if you have reincarnation. I trained long range teleportation before I became a god. It's a handy skill because many worlds don't have a good transportation system. I killed myself a few times in the process, but who cares if you just come back to life anyway. That was when I had a deep depression and concentrated just on honing my skills." -Angrod 

Ugh. So he killed himself while training teleportation alone. How did you learn to take someone with you? Did you just grab some innocent person from the street and started teleporting around the world? I don't want to think about it. 

It's okay! He may have some really dangerous impulses, but even he wouldn't just start to experiment on random people. Probably he took some guy, who really pissed him off. Yeah that's it. 

"Here, I have another present for you." He grabs a small box and gives it to me. I open it and there are two nice silver earrings inside. Their style matches my ring, which assists me in casting spells. 

"They are a set with your ring. The ring could only save up a few selected spells on his own. Those earrings supply additional memory, so you can save three times as many spells now. If you don't copy any overly complicated spells, it should be enough for thirty smaller spells. And you can activate the spells by a thought now. It will take some time to learn how to handle it, but it should be much more convenient to use the ring now." He explains to me in a happy and anticipating voice. 

I blush. Somehow my face feels hot. He really is thinking about me! He wouldn't develop something like that otherwise. He has no use for it. I smile and hug him. "That's such a nice present." 

He goes stiff when I hug him. Oh, he is still such an innocent boy! Maybe I should? Using the moment I give him a long kiss. He falls backwards and I sit on top of him. 

Then I smile at him. "Ohohoh, it's unfortunate. But we will have to wait with the aftermath until we are married." I inform him with a smug grin. 

Suddenly his face twists into a devilish grin. "Now I remember! Weren't you actually quite ticklish?" He grabs my belly and.. 

"HahaahAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHANOOOHAHAHSTOPPPHAHAHAHAHA" 

*WHACK!* 

Uugh. Stupid hermit! Why do you have to destroy the mood! I just struck him unconscious. Serves you right! If I wouldn't be somewhere in the woods because of you, I would just leave you here and walk home by myself! 

But that reminds me of another item on my list. I pull him upright and lean him against one of the stones. Then I sit on his lap and lean against him. 

Aaaah. That's a nice comfortable position. Much better than the stupid hard earth! I watch the sunset and eat the food until he wakes up. 

"You shouldn't have hit that hard!" He complains. 

"Serves you right! But I forgave you because the sunset is really beautiful." I answer. 

"I can't feel my feet...." -Angrod 

"Deal with it!" Men don't need feet. They should be happy to be a body pillow! 

"Hrm. If my queen is happy. And I remembered that you are quite ticklish, I guess today wasn't that bad." He hugs me from behind. 

"Fufufufu. It's true. Today is a really good day. A nice present and I found out that you can teleport me anywhere I want to go. That increases the amount of possible dating places by leaps and bounds!" 

"..."