The Return - Part 1

As the new day started Olivia slowly opened her eyes as she awoke to the new day. The sun was peeking through the trees, which scattered rays of light over her face, almost blinding her as she sat up. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and trying to regain her sight, she looked around the camp for Lyrika.

As she searched, she found her sitting in the same spot, looking around the area checking for danger. The sighs every now and then, told Olivia she was not enjoying her duty of keeping watch. But then again, who would? Sitting in the same place for several hours looking at just darkness. The only excitement that could arise would be if something tries to attack you, which is not something you want, even if it would spice up the night.

Olivia looked around the area they were in as she tried to adjust the light of the day, and couldn't help but think that she needed a drink of water.

This thought, brought another to mind, where she recalled the first morning she had spent with Lyrika. It was not the best night as it involved her being threatened, but the bit before that had contained a lot of awkwardness. This thought, with the little knowledge she had, led to her wondering why she didn't and if she would end up experiencing morning wood.

She hardly knew much about the new anatomy she had, but this was one thing she had heard of, and how it affected many people with penises, experiencing an erection in the morning. Yet so far, she had not been included in that category.

She did however realise that since she came here, there was some sort of incident or emotional distress pretty much each night she had been here. Whether that had any effect on her state in the morning she did not know. For this morning, she had a feeling that either the weighted talk with the goddess or the small amount of sleep she managed to achieve could be the reason she didn't have it. If she would get it at all.

Not that she was complaining or anything. She had yet to actually deal with an erection, given that the first was pretty much scared out of her, so the longer it could be put off the better as she was clueless about what to do if she got one. But she knew that she would need to figure out how to deal with it sometime soon.

Pushing those thoughts aside, Olivia stood and shifted amongst the tattered tent cloth that was still being used for bedding. The noise was heard by Lyrika causing her to turn and face her.

"Good, you're awake. Keeping watch is so boring. Let's get out of here quickly and try to reach my village today. Would be nice to sleep in an actual bed after so long of having to rough it."

'She makes it sound like it's been months in the forest. She only ran away a couple of days ago.'

Olivia shook her head at Lyrika's greeting of the day and got started on her morning routine. In-between a few yawns, she worked with Lyrika's to put together a simple breakfast of the usual. Having an Effler in the morning was a bit much for breakfast, so they only ate hard tack and a small amount of jerky, which Lyrika absolutely enjoyed if the grimace on her face was an indication.

Once done, they got to work with packing and headed off through the forest towards Lyrika's village.

"Did you not get much sleep last night," Lyrika asked as Olivia yawned again.

'Can I tell her what happened? How is that going to go down? Oh, I had a long talk with a couple of goddesses about the state of the world. Because of that, I have to save the remaining Orcs and Goblins in the world. Not sure how much good will come of that. She will probably just think I'm crazy or something.'

And so she decided to go for the easy response.

"I think I stayed on watch for longer than I should have, so I didn't get much sleep after I woke you up."

"Really, you mean my time on watch was shorter than it should have been. But it was so long."

Lyrika sighed as she realised this and decided it was vital they reach her village in order to get a good night's sleep.

…

As they continued their trek, Lyrika looked over at Olivia and the bandage she still had on. She winced a little as she recalled what happened.

"How - how is your wound? Does it still hurt?"

"Oh, er no. I can hardly feel anything now. It might be possible to remove the bandage soon."

"I think it should stay on a little longer… to make sure there are no problems. We might also need to change it soon."

"Makes sense." It didn't really affect Olivia. It was decided they check later today the state of her wound and see if the bandage needed to be changed. Whether it was still bleeding or not, keeping it on for a little longer to be cautious wasn't a bad idea.

"I'm sorry that it happened to you. I mean, if I didn't make us go hunting then-"

"Hey, hey. There's no need for that. This is not your thought. It's that little rodent's fault. We could be attacked anywhere in this forest, so saying that going hunting was the reason for it is silly. You have no reason to be sorry."

That was the end of the conversation. Silence reigned once again as they walked. Lyrika had her head facing downwards a short while after Olivia spoke, likely coming to terms with what she said, but not long later she blushed, smiled and then got back to walking like before.

…

A few hours later they stopped for lunch, having another Effler. As they came to a halt, they were lucky enough to see some fruit in a few of the nearby trees, which Lyrika said was fine to eat and that it meant they were close to exiting the bulk of the forest. So they decided to grab some for the rest of the journey

The problem though was getting the fruit which took some trial and error. This included trying to shake the tree and throwing things at the fruit before Olivia decided to just try and climb it.

As she went to grab hold of the tree, Lyrika immediately shot her down quoting her injury. When Olivia tried to brush it off, the response from Lyrika managed to knock her down completely. The only thing she could do was watch as Lyrika climbed up the tree. She ended up falling off of it three times, without injury thankfully, before she reached them. After the first, Olivia did try to jump in and help, but the stare from Lyrika, like before, made her stop very quickly.

…

Lunch was a very nice ordeal where they were able to dine on the Effler meat like before, but now they had themselves dessert thanks to Lyrika's efforts.

The fruit was an odd shape, looking similar to a courgette. This though, was offset by the bumps and groves along it, and that it was a fruit and not a vegetable. The flavour was also quite strange, where it started out as how a strawberry would, but once you swallowed it, an incredibly sharp note hit you. Really, if you were half asleep and needed to wake up fast, this was the fruit to eat, as the sharp note really shocks you.

Once done, it was time to check out her injury. As Olivia reached for the bandage, Lyrika jumped at the chance to help her with it. Why she did this, Olivia didn't know. She could only think she was still trying to make amends in some way for her having gotten injured, even though she had told her not to worry. What was odd was the blush that she saw on Lyrika's cheeks as she slowly removed the bandage.

'Is she…enjoying this.'

Olivia could only watch as she slowly took off the bandage and practically caressed her abs as she inspected the wound, which as far as Olivia could see, was pretty much non-existent now.

'It was odd when the goddesses were doing it, but if feels really nice with Lyrika. Does she…like it? Like me? No, can't be. It must just be the abs. Even I had to look twice when I got a good look at them.'

Chalking it up to her physic as being the cause, as why would she like an Orc Goblin monster, she continued to watch Lyrika enjoy her fill. It would seem that after a while, Lyrika realised what she was doing and quickly stopped, removing the bandage completely.

"They err. They look good- I mean it looks. The injury…the injury looks good." She stammered out as the blush on her face intensified.

Olivia's face turned to a bit of a cocky grin as she decided to have a bit of fun of her own.

"I figured. You can have another check if you want to. Better to be safe than sorry. Right?"

The conflict on Lyrika's face was clear to see, but she managed to get passed it. "No, no. Its- they. I mean I already checked and it's almost completely healed." Which was followed by Lyrika quickly standing and moving away from the situation.

…

With the moment over, they pressed onwards and eventually came to the edge of the dense forest. While there were still trees past this point, it was no longer the case where just sticking out your arm meant you hit a tree no matter where you were. There was much more space between them past this point and it was much easier to see what was in the distance, which in this case was Lyrika's village.

They still had a good distance to go to reach it but being out of the dense forest took a lot of weight off their shoulders and allowed them to relax a bit more. But, with Lyrika's eagerness to get home and put their plan in motion, relaxing was not what happened as she took off for her home with Olivia following behind her.

"We are almost there. It feels like it has been ages. I can't wait to see my father again."

"Wait, wait, wait. Stop." Olivia called out to her. She thankfully heard and stayed where she was. "You know you can't see your father right? You have been exiled, remember? We have to do things secretly. How we do that, I'm not sure as if I go there I'll be killed and unless you sneak in they won't let you in. What happens if you get caught inside I don't know, but we need to figure out how to do this."

Lyrika's smile dropped as she realised this was the case, and Olivia almost regretted saying it.

But it had to be done, which meant they now had to truly figure out how to put their plan into action.

And get Lyrika an actual bed to sleep on.