CHAPTER#82

Yuki grinned and took Emily's hand in her own.

They jogged through the cave together. Yuki's senses were sharp enough that she didn't worry about coming across any surprises, and she knew that Emily was well equipped to tackle almost any problem that came their way. Back in the house, it was a frozen afternoon in the dead of winter. Tink and the fairies were huddled up by the fireplace making s'mores with each other. Tink had handed out chopsticks they had gotten from their Chinese food delivery for the fairies to use. Each one of them had taken turns flying close to the fire to toast their marshmallow while Tink drank a mug of hot cocoa.

Yuki had never been certain what to think of the little goblin. Her speech was vulgar, yet she had a brilliant mind. Emily treated Tink with an immense amount of respect but always stopped short of explaining why.

"Oh, wow!" Emily stared in amazement at the giant subterranean space that unfolded before them. Large crystalline stalactites hung above an ancient complex below. Luminescent moss revealed that the structure was a giant maze.

"Indeed." Yuki sniffed the air. There were no immediate signs of danger, but she didn't want a repeat of the troll incident. Winking at Emily, she held out her elbow. "If I may escort you?"

"You may." Emily linked her arm through Yuki's and they walked the long, winding path together. So close to Emily, Yuki was overwhelmed not only by her scent, but also by her magic. It crept across her body like the warmth of a sunbeam, igniting a different sort of fire within. As Yuki understood it, Emily's exposure to Naia over the years had slowly converted her innate magical talents to be extremely similar. Emily rarely traveled these days, but when she did, men and women couldn't help but stare at her in wonderment.

These days, Yuki was having the same problem.

They reached the bottom, and Yuki looked back up the hillside they had just come down. "You could build stairs to get back up if you wanted."

"Sounds like a lot of work. Oh, wow, look at that!" Emily pointed at a large reflecting pool that was close to a set of doors that led into the Labyrinth. When they got close, Emily was already stripping off her shirt, her exposed breasts defying gravity and bouncing upward once freed of their confines.

"Fancy a dip?" She looked back at the fox, her hands on the hips of her jeans.

Yuki swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. She couldn't take her eyes off of Emily's golden areola. It was the first time she had seen the Caretaker's bare breasts and was surprised to see that they glittered in the light of the cave.

"You okay?" Emily asked, concern on her face. She walked closer to Yuki, her prominent nipples waving back and forth like a fisherman's lure.

Yuki was old enough to have been with both men and women sexually, but this was different. The nymph magic running through Emily's blood was polarizing, and Yuki wondered what she would risk if she were to act on the sudden hot feelings running through her hips and along her tails.

"Earth to Yuki." Emily waved a hand in front of Yuki's face. This made her breasts wobble even more.

"Um, I'm good." Yuki shook her head, chasing away the thoughts that had been racing through her mind. Casting her eyes down at the reflecting pool, she grabbed Emily before she could jump in. "Don't jump in there?"

"Why not? Is there a shark?"

"Ha Ha, very funny." Yuki cleared her throat, trying once more to forget that shark movie that Emily had taken her to see at the discount cinema. She was able to pass for an ordinary human, so would go into town with Emily for rare meals and movies.

Emily thought it was a funny joke, but in reality, Yuki was now terrified of swimming in the ocean as a result.

Not that I couldn't fuck up a shark, she thought to herself. Well, once she grew her third tail anyway. With each tail, she was able to master another domain of magic, and in a couple of decades, she planned to learn some powerful water magic. Sharks couldn't bite her if she controlled the medium they swam in, and Emily had already mentioned how useful it would be if she knew someone who could breathe underwater.

That, and being able to summon rain and then freeze it would make her ice magic far more powerful.

"It's a portal." Yuki told her, kneeling down at the edge. To the kitsune, the outline of the reflecting pool glowed intensely. It was the same glow that illuminated the trees that Emily walked through, the ones that allowed her to traverse entire continents. She had been fascinated by the process when she had first been brought here, stepping through a glowing portal to be greeted by the cool, clean air of Emily's backyard. Since then, they had traveled many places, places where Emily had planted her magical trees so that she could walk across the globe.

"Can you see where it goes?" When Emily bent over the pool, Yuki's eyes flicked to the sway of her reflection's pendulous breasts. She burned that image deep into her mind, fighting the urge to lick her lips.

"Not really." Her hand hovered over the water, and she interpreted the shifting magical currents beneath her. "It activates once you are inside, but I can't tell where it—"

Emily wrapped her hands around Yuki's waist and pushed, both of them falling into the pool. The world twisted around them both and they burst through a door, spilling across the wooden floor. Yuki stood up and growled, her body more fox than human. She shook off the water, her fur poofing up in response.

Emily, however, was laughing. It was the tinkling of bells, the singing of birds; it was a sound that resonated deep inside of Yuki's heart, calling forth memories of her own childhood chasing butterflies through the forest with her litter mates.