39 Covet My Hear (1/2)

Chapter 39:Covet My Heart

Somewhere on the outskirts of the Artiren region, the snow covered land was cloaked by an ongoing blizzard. Hige had taken off his scarf and wrapped it around Hitomi, along with his over shirt, as they pressed forward in search of shelter. The hare anxiously watched the skies, dreading the possibility of Templar swooping down upon them. His gaze shifted to Hitomi, feeling her body shivering, as he saw her breath visible in the frosty air. With a slight wince, the hare held his free hand to his side, cupping what appeared to be a fresh wound. Blood had stained his turtleneck, with tears near the entry wound. Peeking out from it was a broken arrow, that he had attempted to remove, but failed to pull it out.

Hitomi timidly gazed to Hige, with a concerned expression. ”Kyuu....” She still had the wounds she received before. The blood was finally clotting up, but the bruises had not yet healed.

Hige glanced back to her, struggling to smirk. ”Hey... I'll be fine... Don't worry...”

Pushing through the storm, the two reached what seemed to be an entry. This cave however, seemed to have served as a hideaway, with tons of crates and things stashed inside. This was definitely a smuggler's den, but Hige certainly was familiar with the place. He had brought Hitomi inside, having her sit down at what seemed to be an previously burned pile of wood. He stepped away from her briefly to grab some snow in a bucket, and then a cloth.

”Kyu...” She whimpered, looking to his injury, as Hige took care of her wounds.

”I'll fix myself up, I just wanna make sure you're alright first. Kay?” Hige reassured her, lighting the campfire with a forced smile. ”Finally I can get rid of these ugly Templar threads...” He muttered, before pulling off his shirt to toss it to the side.

The wound became clearer, where an arrow had made direct contact with his side. Hitomi watched with worry, as Hige finally tore the arrow out of his side. He winced as more blood came forth, but Hige quickly went over to some crates, to grab some supplies to bandage himself up. Afterwards, he went further into the cave,putting on a spare change of clothes that seemed more fitting to a smuggler, and returned to sit next to Hitomi.

”Kyu... Kyuu..?” Hitomi tilted her head with her foreign inquiry.

Hige shifted closer to her as he gazed into the burning flames. ”This used to be my home, before I started working undercover... My friend and I were smugglers...” Hige glanced off. ”...but my stupid ass got him killed...” He mentioned in a somber tone. ”I just somehow keep putting others in danger...”

”K-Kyu?” Hitomi's ears went backwards as she leaned her head against his shoulder.

Hige's eyes shifted her way, as he sighed softly. ”Well... It's kind of a long story.”

”Kyu.” Hitomi nudged him.

”I mean, if you really wanna know...” Hige glanced back to the flames. ”When I was younger, a pair of smugglers took me in, but I wasn't some pet. We trusted each other...” Hige recalled the first meeting with Shane and his mentor, before he continued to explain more to Hitomi. ”After the old man passed away, we started working with a man named Runfaust. The plan was to smuggle things away from the templar forces to help struggling races survive.” Hige smirked a bit, as shadows casted over his eyes with a soft chuckle. ”That's where I came in. We schemed a centaur templar into buying me as a pet, so that I could infiltrate their ranks.” Hige lowered his head with another sigh. ”But... Things went south after I got caught.” Hige explained, going silent.

Recalling a time since passed, Hige drifted into thought. Hige was speaking with Shane at Knothole, over a pint.Hige was already pretty messed up, with some bruises from his incident with Dimitri.

”Jeez, those Templar seriously did a number on ya... Well, you already managed to sneak off without them noticing. Could just forget about the whole thing and never go back.” Shane shrugged, leaning to his palm. ”There's other jobs we can do.”

”I know, but...” Hige closed his eyes with a sigh.

”You wanna save the girl, I get it. How bout this then... Discretely go back to your cell in Skyworld, and convince them you're one of them. Set up a meeting in Oakwood, as if it's a trap to lure me out. We'll put on a show, the templar try to catch me, I get away, you get the girl and we all make a clean get away.”

”So that's your plan then? What if it doesn't work?” Hige crossed his arms, with an unsure expression. ”This plan is stupid, Shane...”

”You love her, don't ya?” Shane smiled to the Hare, before Hige came back to reality, looking to Hitomi who carried tears in her eyes.

Elsewhere, the sun was beginning to come out around the campsite. Miles had fallen asleep by the campfire, but was now starting to wake up. He yawned, before rubbing his neck, as he glanced behind him to the tent. Through a small opening he could see the girls were all still sound asleep. From how early it was, Miles figured he was the first one up, until he realized that Ronan was absent from where he had fallen asleep.

”Ronan?” Miles tilted his head, glancing around. He paused for a moment, thinking about the night before.

Previously, Miles and Ronan were sitting in front of a campfire, while the girls had already gone off to bed.”I wonder if she's really still out there?...” Ronan muttered to himself.

”Hmm? What are you talking about?” Miles peered over to the other cat.

Ronan turned to Miles, with a soft shrug of shyness. ”Well... There's this beautiful woman I've been admiring from afar for some time now. Rocky keeps telling me to go talk to her... but I just haven't been able to work up the nerve to do so. Maybe I should just come out and tell her how I feel. What's the worst that can happen, right?”

The memory ceased, as Miles groaned a bit. ”Man, and I thought I was horny. I better go find that guy before he does something stupid...” He muttered, deciding to venture off into the trees around him.

Some distance from the camp, Miles came up to a clearing with flowers growing wildly around. He took notice of Ronan approaching a very attractive female Lugooz, this caused Miles to hide himself behind a tree trunk. The maiden was sitting amongst the flowers, with her pointed cat ears wriggling, from the sound of Ronan's pacing through the grassy field.

”Umm... Hello.” Ronan spoke up coyly.

The feral female turned around with a surprised expression to see him. ”Hi?” She replied, curiously, as she stood to her feet. This woman had a wonderful figure, with long blue hair and a scar through one of her golden eyes.

”I hope I'm not disturbing you, miss. I just can't help but notice how captivating you are.” Ronan bashfully admitted.

”Man, he's dense.” Miles rolled his eyes.

The catgirl tucked her hands behind her back as she innocently smiled to him. Petals from the flowers gently blew passed her in the wind, as Ronan's heart was beating out of his chest. ”Tee-hee.” She giggled. ”Aren't you supposed to introduce yourself first, silly?”

”Oh! Yes. Yes, my apologies. My name is Ronan Valdizan, and what might your name be?” Ronan stammered awkwardly, completely forgetting.

”You can just call me Seiko.” She replied, in a playful manner.

”What a beautiful name.” Ronan smiled. ”I admit, I've kinda fallen for you from afar, miss Seiko... I hope I'm not being too bold is saying so.” Ronan admitted, gazing to her with adoring eyes.

”What an idiot... This chick's so gonna reject him.” Miles muttered to himself, watching quietly. He was positive that this girl wasn't interested in Ronan, judging from his own experiences.

Seiko drew closer, as she came face to face with Ronan. Their noses nearly touched as the blue haired feline smiled to the nervous male. ”Not at all. I've noticed you watching me for some time now too. I was hoping we'd finally be able to meet.” She said, licking Ronan's cheek in acute manner, as her hand felt his exposed chest.

”What?” Miles gawked in utter shock, watching the bashful male fall into the flowers with Seiko. Flower petals rose up into the air, as Miles was completely speechless. ”How in the world did he-?”

Some soft footsteps were heard not to far from Miles, followed by another female's voice. ”Wonderful, she disappears on me yet again! I bet she's in that field again... Huh!? WAIT! SEIKO?! W-What is She doing?!... UGH!” The voice gasped in disgust.

Miles shifted his gaze over, seeing another female Lugooz. Just like Seiko, she too had blue hair, but with a beanie over her ears. This girl was wearing rather unusual white attire, and seemed to be a bit taller than Miles.

”(She's kinda cute.)” Miles thought, faintly blushing.

The she-cat was staring out at the two, completely flustered, but as she abruptly turned away, her eyes caught Miles staring at her. ”What are you gawking at, you creep?!” The startled cat girl gasped, in frustration. Miles' hair suddenly stood on end, as panic rushed in. The girl abruptly stomped up to Miles, grabbing him by his collar, as she leered at him. This girl definitely wasn't messing around.”You were spying on my sister and that man, weren't you!?” She snapped, flaring her teeth. ”You have some nerve staring like some-some PERVERT!”

Miles sweated, as he quickly held his hands up anxiously. ”I think you have the wrong idea!”

However, seeing the missing digits on Miles' had received a strange reaction, causing the girl make a repulsed face. She abruptly shoved Miles away from her with urgently. ”W-Why are you missing fingers like that? You're a marauder, aren't you! Don't come any closer!” She hissed, pulling to a sword at her hip.

”Seriously, chill out.” Miles tried to reason with her. ”I was just trying to find my friend, and happened to notice how cute you were. Is there something wrong with that?”

The girl relaxed a bit, as she briefly looked Miles over with a suspicious expression. ”Hmm. I suppose you ARE way too short to be a threat, so I'll take your word on that.” She scoffed. ”Wait. Did you just call me 'cute'?” She seemed confused, before growing irritated. ”Don't try to be flirty with me, mister! You're way too petite for my tastes. Besides that, you're kind of creepy and gross!” She made a face, sticking out her tongue in disgust.

He immediately felt a sharp sting from those comments. ”(... What am I doing wrong? Am I seriously this vile?)” Miles thought, behind shadow casted eyes, as he quickly turned away. With his manly pride wounded, he stormed off in the direction of camp.

Behind him, the girl somewhat stared at Miles disappear from view, with her arms crossed. ”Hmph. What a weirdo. I better keep an eye on that one so he doesn't find the clan...” She muttered.

Miles made his way in the direction of the camp, infuriated by having his feelings hurt. He contemplated his failures to why he kept failing,while trying to hold back the tears that flew from his eyes.

However, before he could make it back to camp, a sound quickly caught his attention. He halted, with his ears shifting in the direction of some trees. Behind them was a dirt road on the opposite side. He crept up to peer passed the bushes, seeing a horse driven cart proceeding by. He had no idea why he was so curious about this cart, but before he could ponder more upon it, arrows came flying to the ground in the horse's path. The startled mare reared backwards, knocking the cart off the road, flinging the coach driver to the ground in the process. Miles quickly looked up into the trees above, to notice yet another feral Lugooz. This female was different than the other two, being much taller, as well as carrying leopard patterns in her snow white fur. Her green eyes were like aventurine, and she dressed pretty efficiently to her surroundings. Something about her drew Miles in, and wouldn't allow his eyes to trail away from her. He watched her descend from her treetop position, and maneuver over to the back of the cart to pilfer through the goods, while the driver tried to calm down his horse.

”Easy. Easy, girl.” The driver patted the restless mare.

Without being noticed, the woman pulled a burlap sack over her shoulder, and darted back in Miles' direction. Seeing this, he quickly ducked behind the bush he was now peering from behind. As soon as the she-cat leapt over the bush, everything went black...

Some time must have passed with Miles' knocked unconscious. When he came back to his senses, he found himself bound to a tree, some distance into the woods. He tried to move, but it wouldn't budge, which lead to his eyes shifting forward. Sitting in front of him was that snow leopard Lugooz staring his way. Behind her was a handful of make-shift huts and structures made of natural resources. One of the wooden structures behind her, had the sack of food she swiped leaned up against it.

”Seems you're finally waking up. Hopefully I didn't hurt you too bad.” She teased, leaning to her palm.

Miles' ears perked up, somewhat surprised by her reaction. Growing curious, his expression changed to a seductive smirk. ”Ya'know, if you wanted me that bad, you didn't have to knock me out and tie me up.” He flirted.

”Is that so? You wouldn't be here otherwise, seeing we don't normally bring in outsiders to our village” The lady cat replied, almost as if she was flirting back. ”I had no choice but to tie you up.” She went on, as she playfully poked his nose with her index finger

This action made Miles smile, maybe there was hope for him yet he thought. ”You could have always hid me someplace secret.” He continued the dance, as he winked to her.

She seemed intrigued by Miles's reply. ”You would have me keep you tucked away like some forbidden treasure?”

”A beautiful woman like you, could have me anyway she likes.” He answered back, with alluring eyes.