IDWTBTHQ Chapter 81 - Naked Socializing

The sun was about to set when Klara arrived in Stonebarrow.

The girl was in a terrible mood. Not only was she tired and dirty, but she had also failed to catch anything during her hunting expedition. And to make things worse, she doubted that she'd have any more luck in the future, since the border of the forest was basically empty of any possible prey, as most animals had fled deeper inside of the forest due to the presence of the Vex.

She sighed and shook her head. As annoying as that was, she couldn't really blame Marcus for wanting to secure the borders with the forest. And besides, she didn't really need to hunt anyway, since the Vex drones had provided them enough venison to last for a year, and she earned more as Marcus's maid than as a hunter anyway. The only thing that bugged her was that her main excuse for staying away from the village was now a pretty hollow one.

She traversed the village with a quick stride, heading straight for the inn, but she hesitated when she reached the door. Many conflicting feelings surged inside of her chest, slowing her hand as she reached for the door handle, but she forced herself to ignore them as she finally opened the door.

The main hall of the inn was dimly lit, as the only source of light was the fireplace, but Klara could clearly see that there was no one inside safe for Marcus's dog-thing, Cooper, who was sleeping on a carpet.

“Good.” The girl thought with relief as she closed the door behind her. “I don't have to talk to anyone then. Now, if I can grab something to eat and head to my room before anyone sees me...”

“Klara? Is that you?” An old, familiar voice said and Hoggs suddenly appeared from behind the kitchen's door, carrying a tray with a sandwich and a cup of coffee on it.

Klara felt a bit annoyed at having been interrupted on her way to her room, but still it would have been worse if Felix or Marcus had been the ones to see her, and maybe she could still avoid them if she managed to dismiss the telemancer quickly enough. That meant that she wouldn't have dinner, but she'd rather skip a meal rather than meeting her friends right now.

“Good evening, Hoggs!” She said while mimicking a stifled yawn. “Sorry if I don't stay here to talk, but I'm absolutely beat! I think I'll go directly to bed, if that's not a problem.”

“Oh, don't worry!” Hoggs nodded. “You're not the only one who's tired tonight! I had training with Marcus today, and we were both exhausted afterwards. He went to take a bath a few hours ago, and I've not seen him since, though to be fair I took a long nap, so he probably came back while I was sleeping. And as for young Felix, he trained on his own and was also pretty tired. I saw him about half an hour ago, when I woke up from my nap, and he also said he was going straight to bed.”

“Oh.” The girl said in a surprised tone. She also felt pretty hungry, so she quickly re-evaluated her plans. “Well, maybe I'll grab a bite before going to sleep then. Hunting all day in the forest is hard work!”

She walked to the kitchen, and Hoggs followed her to the door.

“So, did you manage to catch anything.” The old man asked.

“Not really.” Klara replied while making herself a sandwich. “There are no prey in the border of the forest right now. I think the Vex scared them all away.”

“Oh dear.” The telemancer said “I guess that's bad news for hunters like you.”

“Well, he's keeping his territories safe, so it's not like I can blame him.” The girl shrugged. “Besides, the forest is big. I could always hunt deeper in the woods, if need be.”

“Wouldn't that be dangerous?”

“Yeah, but I know what I'm doing.” Klara replied while cutting some ham. “I've been hunting in the forest ever since I was a kid, and I've got my grandpa's maps to show me the safe routes in the forest.”

“I don't doubt that.” Hoggs nodded. “Old Karl was a quite notorious guide and explorer, as far as I know. I'd love to consult his notes and maps in the future.”

“Well, if you ever come to Oakfell, you're welcome to come and give it a look whenever you want.” The girl said with a smile, before taking a bite out of her sandwich.

“That's very generous of you.” The telemancer said. “I'll certainly try to visit, if the occasion arises.”

“Good.” Klara replied, quickly finishing her sandwich before drinking a cup of water and some milk. She then grabbed an apple and started biting it while she got up from the table.

“Well, I think I'll go to bed now.” She announced. “Goodnight Hoggs.”

“Goodnight Klara.” The old man returned the salute, but then he asked: “Oh, and by the way, wouldn't you like to take a bath before going to bed? No offense, but you seem a little... ruffled, if I may.”

“None taken.” The girl replied. “But... well, Felix is asleep and I don't want to wake him up just to heat up some water.”

“Oh, he already heated up the pool this afternoon.” The telemancer said. “That's why he was so tired. Marcus went there to take a bath a few hours ago, but the water should still be warm.”

Klara thought about it for a moment. While she was tired and wanted to go to bed, she was also really dirty right now, and a bath was exactly what she needed.

“Well, I guess it'd be a shame to let that hot water go to waste.” She said. “I'll go grab a change of clothes and then I'll head to the pool. Thanks for the tip, Hoggs.”

“You're welcome.” The old man replied with a smile. “I'm also going to bed now, so I guess we'll see each other tomorrow. Goodnight, Klara.”

“Goodnight, Hoggs.” The girl said, and then she went upstairs to take some clean clothes and a towel, before heading out to the pool.

By then, the sun had completely set and only a faint glow on the horizon remained. Still, Klara was confident to find the way back even in complete darkness, so she quickly walked to the dome that housed the pool. As soon as she opened the door a wave of warmth and steam hit her face, suggesting that the water was indeed still hot, so she entered and descended the short staircase. The air was so filled with steam that it was kind of hard to see, even with the soft glow coming from the ceiling, but the atmosphere was rather relaxing, so she started taking off her clothes. She was down to her underwear when something suddenly emerged from the water of the pool, making her scream in surprise.

___________________________________

Marcus had made an interesting discovery. While he was floating and meditating at a certain point, for no reason at all, he let himself sink to the bottom of the pool and remained there for as long as he could hold his breath. Surprisingly, that took quite a long time and the feeling of being completely submerged was particularly pleasant, so he decided that he should stay underwater, resurfacing only for a moment in order to take a breath before going back.

It was during one of those moments that he heard a scream coming from behind him, something which caught him completely by surprise, causing him to lose balance and fall once again inside of the water. He immediately emerged, coughing and spitting water, and when he turned to the source of the scream he saw a half naked Klara looking at him with a startled expression on her face.

What followed was a deeply awkward silence, as the Vex Queen and the girl stared at each other, before Marcus managed to force himself to talk.

“Oh... ehm... Hi Klara.” He mumbled. “Sorry, I... did not hear you coming inside.”

“It's... fine.” Klara replied, trying to cover her body as best as she could. “Maybe I should have knocked or something.”

“Well, I probably wouldn't have heard it, since I was underwater.” Marcus said. “I guess you're here to take a bath, aren't you? I'll leave you the pool in that case. I've been in here long enough, I think.” He stopped for a moment and then asked: “By the way, which time is it?”

“It's night.” The girl answered cautiously. “The sun went down maybe half an hour ago. Oh, and if you still want to bath, you can continue. I will go back to the inn.”

“No no, don't worry.” The Vex Queen said while climbing out of the pool. “I've been in here for hours. It's only fair that I let you have your turn. Just give me a minute to get dressed.”

He then rose from the pool, dripping water everywhere, and walked right to the stool where his towel was waiting. As he started to wipe himself, Klara studied him and raised an eyebrow.

“Uhm... I think you should wait for your hair to dry a bit before going back to the inn.” She said. “It's pretty chilly outside.”

“Don't worry, I've never caught a cold ever since I've been born in this world! Literally!” Marcus smirked. “Besides, I don't want to make you wait for your bath.”

“I can wash myself while you get dry.” Klara replied.

That answer surprised the Vex Queen.

“Uh... are you sure?” He asked. “I mean, it's not a problem for me... but don't you mind my presence while you take a bath? I mean, you do know that I am... ehr, I was a man?”

“Yeah, I remember.” Klara shrugged. “But it's kind of hard for me to think of  you as a guy while you stroll around naked with your clearly female nether regions in plain sight.”

That remark made Marcus instinctively look down at his naked lower torso, and he felt... Well, surprisingly, he felt little to no shame. At this point, he had gotten used enough to Klara that he didn't really care if she saw him naked.

“Suit yourself, then.” He said, shrugging as well.

However, even then he made a point of turning around, in order not to stare at the girl. Instead, he sat on the stool facing the wall and started wiping his hair with the towel while she finished undressing and slid inside of the pool.

There was another long and awkward silence, broken only by the sound of Klara washing herself. Marcus would have liked to talk a bit with his friend, but he could clearly feel that the girl wasn't in the mood for chatting. In fact he could feel her surface emotions as clear as the day right now and he consequently wondered why he hadn't sensed her while he was on the bottom of the pool.

“That's probably a side effect of the training.” He thought. “If I'm restraining my Aura, then it's kind of logical that my psychic powers would be restrained as well.”

He mused about this for a minute, and then he decided that it was probably a good thing. After all, being able to control his powers was kind of the point of the training he was doing. He still had a long way to go though, as right now he couldn't seem to exert any control over his aura. Information from his drones flowed right into his mind, and he was painfully aware of Klara's presence behind him.

The girl was basically a walking cloud of frustration, worry and depression and had been this way ever since Felix had recovered from his Djinni awakening. This had made things quite awkward for Marcus, who could clearly sense her emotions thanks to his powers but didn't know whether or not to talk to her about it. After all, he kinda felt like eavesdropping on people's thoughts, even though he didn't do it on purpose, and he wasn't really comfortable addressing this issue.

But right now it was the perfect occasion to have a conversation with the girl, since they were alone and he felt relaxed and refreshed enough to endure whatever emotion she would throw at him.

“Sooo...” He said in a cautious tone. “Do you mind if we talk a bit, Klara?”

“Sure.” She replied in a neutral voice, but the Vex Queen could clearly sense a hint of annoyance coming from her. “Do you have something in particular you want to talk about?”

“Wellll...” Marcus said, taking a breath through his teeth. “It's just... you know I can sense emotions, right? I don't do that on purpose, it just happens, but I can sense what everyone around me feels most of the time.”

“Yeah, I know that.” Klara answered in the same neutral voice. “And your point is?”

“Well, I can sense your emotions as well.” He paused for a second and then asked: “Do you want to talk about it?”

The girl didn't reply right away. Instead she took a deep breath, and Marcus could clearly feel a surge of frustration coming from her.

“Yes, I know you can sense my emotions, Marcus.” She finally said. “That's actually the reason why I've been trying to avoid you lately. I didn't really want to talk about it.”

“Then I won't pry further.” The Vex Queen promptly said.

“No, it's fine... I mean, I've been brooding and running away for weeks, and it's not like that solved anything.” The girl sighed. “So maybe it’s time to talk about it. At least you know exactly what I'm feeling thanks to your powers, so maybe you could give me some tips on how to get better.”

“Well, I'll do what I can.” Marcus replied. “But I can't promise you anything. After all I'm not a... a...” He stopped, trying to think of the Imperial word for therapist before giving up and expressing the concept in a different way. “Well, I am not someone whose job is to give advice to help people. I can only use my own experience as a reference for giving you advice, and it's not as if I'm much older than you.” He paused and then added with a smirk: “Mentally, at least. Physically, I'm barely one year old.”

“Ah!” Klara said in a sarcastic tone. “Guess that makes me really pathetic, asking for advice from a little girl!”

“Well, you take what you can get.” Marcus replied, and then grimaced and added: “Also, please don't call me little girl ever again. I could stand being called ma'am from time to time, but little girl literally makes my skin crawl.”

“Ok, fine!” Klara chuckled. “I won't call you like that again.”

“Good.” The Vex Queen nodded. “Now, getting back to the point, do you have any problem with Felix? I can sense that you get particularly...” He paused for a moment, trying to find a suitable word. “Agitated whenever you and him are together.”

The girl remained silent for a few seconds and Marcus could clearly feel a whole maelstrom of emotions coming from her after being asked that question.

“I don't know for sure.” She finally answered, her voice tense. “I... I don't think that I actually have a problem with Felix. I mean, he's my friend and I care about him. It's just...” She took a deep breath. “It's just that I don't feel comfortable anymore when I'm near him.”

“Eh, that doesn't really surprise me Considering just how much you're attracted to him.” Marcus said with a smirk. “Especially if this is your first crush.”

“What!?!” Klara cried. “No! I mean... Felix is my friend! I... I'm not attracted to him or anything!”

“Klara, please.” The Vex Queen interrupted her. “Even if you deny it to yourself, I can feel it clearly. You literally radiate...” He paused for a moment in order to find a way to delicately put it. “Amorous feelings when you are with him. And to be fair, that's understandable. I mean, I can tell that he's handsome even though I'm not into guys myself!”

“Please, stop.” Klara begged him. “It's already hard for me to talk without you teasing me about it.”

“Ok, sorry.” Marcus replied. “It wasn't my intention to tease you, but I'll try to choose my words more carefully.”

“Thanks.” The girl said, and then she let out another long, tired sigh. “Anyway, I admit that I may have had some... thoughts about Felix. But that's not the problem. Or at least, not the whole problem.”

“And what is it then?” The Vex Queen asked.

“The real problem is that everything in my life is changing too fast, and I can't keep up with it.” Klara said, her voice broken as if she was on the verge of crying. “First my grandpa went mad and disappeared into the forest. Then all of my friends and neighbours except for Felix turned against me while I was about to lose my home to a loan shark. Then there has been this whole thing with the goblins. And now, as the icing of the cake, Felix has changed as well. It's just that... I can't take this anymore. I want things to go back how they were. I want Felix to keep being my friend. I want to see my grandpa. I... I just want my life back.”

She broke down into sobbing, leaving Marcus in a very awkward situation. On one hand, his first instinct was to go to the girl and hug her to try and console her, but on the other hand he was painfully aware that they were both naked and that physical contact in these conditions would be rather inappropriate. In the end, he decided to just try to talk to her.

“I'm sorry to hear about this, Klara.” He said. “If it's of any consolation, I've been through something similar in my previous life... a few years after losing my dad. I couldn't keep a job for more than a month or two and without a steady job I couldn't pay for my taxes, which in turn meant that I had to take pauses from studying. As a result, everyone else passed me over, and I felt as if I was left behind by life itself.” He made a sad smirk. “I tried to catch up as best as I could by giving up everything else in my life.” He sighed. “And then I was killed, and all of my sacrifices were for naught.”

He looked over his shoulders, just enough to barely see Klara's silhouette behind him.

“You could say that I was so focused on the future that I lost sight of the present. And I think you're making a similar mistake... you're so focused on what you've lost that you're forgetting what you have. You are still alive. Felix is still alive. And you two still care a lot about each other. I'd say that this is enough to be a little positive about the future, isn't it? And besides, you've also solved your money problems, didn't you? So it's not as if everything is going bad.”

There was a moment of silence, as Klara slowly processed what Marcus had told her.

“Well, if you put it like this, I guess you're right.” She replied after a while. “But...”

“But knowing this doesn't automatically make everything alright, I know.” The Vex Queen completed the phrase for her. “That's also normal. You need time to adjust to any change, and the greater it is, the harder it is to accept it.” He pointed at himself. “Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. No matter how much my own current situation will get, I doubt I'll manage to completely accept the changes in my life any time soon.” He turned and smirked sarcastically towards the girl. “But then again, what else would you expect from a man who lost his penis?”

These words made Klara chuckle. Then she looked at him and the chuckles turned into a veritable burst of laughter. Marcus soon joined her in that explosion of hilarity, and the two of them kept laughing almost hysterically for a good minute.

“Oh heavens, I haven't laughed this hard in months.” Klara said, still giggling. “Thanks Marcus. I needed it.”

“You're welcome.” The Vex Queen replied. “Besides, this is what friends are for. Talk with you about your worries and still make you laugh somehow.”

“Right.” Klara nodded. “That helped me. I feel... well, not exactly better, but a little less burdened now.” She stopped for a moment, and then started climbing out of the pool. “Anyway, I'm done bathing. I'll dry myself up as well and then we can get back to the inn.”

“Good.” Marcus said. “I can't wait to go to bed. It's been a very tiring day, and a good night of sleep is exactly what I need!”

“I bet.” The girl replied. Then, as she grabbed a comb, she shot the Vex Queen a critical look. “Uhm... Marcus? Aren't you going to comb your hair?”

“Nah, it's already late, so I can do that tomorrow.” He shrugged. “No one is going to notice that I have messy hair while I sleep, anyway.”

“Oh good heavens, you are still a boy on the inside, aren't you?” She said in an exasperated voice. “Only a boy would say something like that! Combing your hair tomorrow! As if! Just sit there, I'll do your hair for you.”

“Uh... it's really not a problem, Klara.” Marcus said, a bit taken aback by that reaction. “You don't have to do that for me...”

“Technically I'm here as your maid, so that's exactly my duty!” She said in a tone that made it clear she wouldn't take a no for an answer. “Besides, you have such pretty hair, and it's a terrible waste to not take care of them! Now, sit tight. I'll comb them for you.”

She marched across the room, and sure enough she started combing Marcus's hair as soon as she reached him. Truth be told, she was actually quite skilled at it, managing to disentangle the knots in his hair without too much trouble, and after a while it actually became rather pleasant, almost like having his head massaged.

“Uh... you're good at this.” Marcus observed while getting combed.

“One of my neighbours taught me.” She replied. “I was the only girl in my family, so I had to learn how to do my own hair. After a while, I started doing my grandpa's and Felix's hair as well.”

She kept combing and straightening the Vex Queen's hair for a bit, and then she took a step back to observe the result of her work.

“It's nothing fancy, but it should do for now.” She said. “At least your head doesn't look like a bird nest anymore. Now I'll take care of my own hair, and then we can go back to the inn.” She paused and then added: “Of course, you can go now if you don't want to wait.”

“Nah, I'll wait for you to be done as well.” Marcus replied. “Then we can go back together.”

“Fine then. I'll try to be quick.”

Marcus started dressing himself, while the girl was now busy doing her own hair. After a while, he asked:

“Uhm... Can I ask you one thing?”

“Shoot.” Klara replied, still combing her hair.

“So, what are you going to do with Felix now?”

That question clearly took the girl by surprise, as she accidentally pulled her hair.

“Ouch!” She cried, before turning to Marcus. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you're clearly attracted to him.” The Vex Queen explained. “And judging by his emotions, he's head over heels for you.” He smirked. “I could cut the romantic tension between you two with a knife. It's very distracting for someone who can feel other people's emotions like me, so I wondered if you’re going to do anything about it.”

Klara blushed violently at those words. Marcus could feel her embarrassment radiating from her like heat from a stove, but for once he found this sensation amusing rather than annoying.

“I... I don't know.” Klara said. “I still need some time to put some order in my head.” She paused, and then asked: “Oh... and you said that Felix also feels something for me... is that true? Are you sure about it?”

“If he was even a tiny bit more smitten with you he'd spontaneously catch fire everytime he looks at you.” He replied. “Which actually happened a couple of times. So yeah, I'm pretty sure about it.”

Klara didn't answer. She instead bit her lips, lost in her thought.

“Well, you've certainly given me a lot to think about.” She finally said after a minute. “I don't know what I'm going to do, to be honest, and I'm too tired to think about it for now. It's been a long day, so it's probably better if I take a good night of sleep before making an important decision.”

“That's probably for the best.” Marcus agreed.

“Anyway, speaking of sleep, I'm done here.” She said. “I just  have to get dressed and then we can go to bed.”

“That's good.” The Vex Queen said. “Honestly, I'm quite tired as well. A good night of sleep is exactly what I need right now.”

The girl quickly wore her clean clothes, gathered the dirty clothes in a basket and then she and Marcus headed out, going back to the inn and most importantly to their beds.