Guilty X Creatures

Chapter 10 : Night

The fading light of the waning evening found Anton sitting up against the headboard of his bed with his arms wrapped reassuringly around a sobbing Kianna's slender frame. After curling herself up in his lap, the devastated dark elf had hidden her face as she cried softly into Anton's chest.

Having recounted her life's story to her daughters, Olivia had taken her leave earlier in the afternoon.

And having been left alone at the table, Fiona and Kianna had sat silent and motionless for some time as they both seemed to be digesting everything that they had just been told.

Unsure of exactly how he should approach them, Anton had came into the kitchen after seeing Olivia off, and quietly sat down across from the unresponsive dark elves.

"...Girls, I'm so sorry." he had said softly "Truly, I am..."

Saying nothing, the two dark elves remained still as they left their unfocused eyes to stare at the table in front of them.

After nearly another hour of silence Fiona finally looked up at Anton.

"Yeah... I'm tired." she muttered in an emotionless tone "I'm gonna go lay down, I'll see you guys later..."

"...Alright." nodded Anton "...Just let us know if you need anything."

Nodding absently, Fiona rose from her chair and left the room.

Watching her go, Anton turned back to Kianna and found her gazing at her sister as well.

"...Kianna?" he said softly "...Are you alright?"

Slowly shifting her eyes to him, Kianna stared silently for a moment before finally speaking.

"...No." she whispered.

Her face twisting in anguish, Kianna dropped her head into her hands as she tried to hide the tears that were quickly forming in her eyes. Despite her efforts to keep her emotions in check, a garbled cry soon escaped from her as her body was rocked by a heavy sob.

With her eyes hidden, Kianna never actually saw Anton rise from his seat and approach her side. But as she felt his arms wrap around her in a familiar, comforting embrace she immediately leaned into him, let loose a grateful whimper and began to cry in earnest.

Lost in her sorrows, the dark elf had barely even registered that anything was happening when Anton had lifted her up from her seat and carried her to their room, where they remained for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening.

As the night began to grow later, both Anton and Kianna were surprised when the double doors of the master bedroom were suddenly thrown open wide.

"I am not a piece of shit!" declared Fiona as she burst into the room.

Shocked into silence by her sister's appearance, Kianna whipped her head around and blinked at her.

"It doesn't matter if both my parents were garbage!" continued Fiona as she began to pace back and forth "It doesn't matter if they were rapists! And if they wanted to kill me! It doesn't matter if they never loved me! Or ever, even wanted me at all... It doesn't matter if they were shit! It doesn't matter!"

Working herself up into a frenzy, Fiona would turn and point at Anton and Kianna as she made each of her points.

"It doesn't matter where I came from! Or why I was born! It doesn't matter if I was just a tool!" she exclaimed as she kept pacing and pointing "It doesn't matter which one he was! They were all shit! But I'm not! Just cause they were shit doesn't mean that I was born shit! I'm not shit! I'm not! They're shit! But I'm not!"

Stopping just in front of Anton and her sister, Fiona turned to fully faced them both.

"It doesn't matter. None of it matters. I am not shit." she declared in a soft tone as she clearly worked to convince herself of the truth of these statements, as well as her audience.

As the three of them stared at each other in silence, a heavy fatigue could clearly be seen forming in Fiona's eyes.

"...I, I got to go!" exclaimed the dark elf as her voice began to crack.

Twirling around in hast, Fiona's foot got caught on her other ankle and thus her attempt to leave the room as quickly as she could resulted in her tripping over her own feet and toppling to the ground.

Finding herself on the floor now, Fiona laid still for a moment before her pride fully broke and she curled herself up into the fetal position and began to softly cry.

Everything seemed to go still as her quiet whimpers filled the room.

"...No! Quit it!" whined Fiona as she felt a pair of arms begin to wrap themselves around her "Don't touch me!"

Ignoring her protests, Anton lifted her quivering form up as gently as he could.

"...I'm not a piece of shit!" waled Fiona as she kept her eyes closed while being carried across the room.

"No, you're not." said Anton softly "You're a strong, beautiful and very special woman. And you need to always remember that. No matter what..."

"...Shut up!" sobbed Fiona as she pressed the side of her head against his shoulder "...I hate you!"

"Yes, I know you do..." said Anton as he carefully set her down on the bed.

Fiona sobbed loudly as she was immediately embraced by her sister the moment she was laid on the bed.

Clinging to each other, the two sobbing dark elves pressed their foreheads together and began to gibber incomprehensibly.

They each whimpered gratefully as from behind Kianna, Anton's arms wrapped themselves around them both and flooded them with a warm and comforting essence.

It was late into the night that the dark elves quietly cried, as all the while Anton worked to gently rock them to sleep.

Waking up that next morning, Anton had risen up to one elbow and found both of the dark elves looking up at him with their ears laid back submissively and their large eyes bloodshot with fatigue. Still in each others arms, they stared at him with a heartfelt but silent and aimless expectancy.

Smiling softly back at them, Anton had gently and wordlessly prompted both of the dark elves out of the bed and into the bathroom.

Following his lead without any resistance whatsoever, both Kianna and Fiona had allowed themselves to be undressed and then ushered into the shower where Anton would position them about as he helped them to get clean.

The only sounds that ever came from them were the quiet, grateful whimpers that Kianna made as Anton held her to his chest while he took a soft cloth and began to gently but thoroughly clean her long, twitching ears.

When it came time for her turn, Fiona's subdued expression made it clear that she wasn't quite as happy with getting such attention as her sister was. But she said nothing and offered no fight as Anton had her stand in front of him and hold still.

Though he didn't acknowledge it at the time, Anton was still keenly aware of what it meant for Fiona to willingly allow him to touch her ears in this way.

She was trusting him.

And while Anton knew that there was none of the romantic undercurrents that often accompanied this type of trust, Fiona was still trusting him in what was for her a very real way. And registering this, he couldn't help but to feel a grateful warmth begin to swell in his chest.

Once cleaned, dried and redressed, Anton led the dark elves downstairs and tried to make them a warm meal but he had to stop and bring them back upstairs when they both slipped into another crying session that lasted for the rest of the day and back into the night.

This pattern continued for the next three days.

During this time neither Kianna nor Fiona would hardly ever willingly leave Anton's side, as he cared for and comforted them. Eating little, if at all, the depressed, brooding dark elves had spent these days huddled in bed or sitting together outside with Anton while quietly taking in a bit of much needed sunlight.

There had barely been a single actual word ever spoken between any of the three of them throughout this time, as the mere presence of each other was enough satisfaction in of itself.

For their parts, Mica and Tessa kept their distance from the forlorn group, and instead focused on their own matters, such as Mica's training routines, and more or less fended for themselves during meal times.

Anton did work to provide for them as well by going out and getting take-out meals whenever he had the chance to slip away from the sporadically sleeping dark elves. And it was during these moments that he would also go and check in on Earlivi, who, thankfully, was beginning to heal much faster with each infusions of living mana.

It was during the return from one of these food gathering trips that Anton came back to find Fiona awake and sitting alone on the couch in Tessa's front room.

"Oh... Hey there..." said Anton softly as he came into the room and stood in front of her.

"...Hi." said Fiona as she gazed up at him.

"It's good to see you up and about..." said Anton as he took stock of the dark elf's clearly improved condition "How are you feeling?"

"...I'm, okay." said Fiona after a second of silence "I think... Yeah... I'm okay. I'm... I'm good..."

Staring at each other, a thin smile slowly formed on both Anton and Fiona's faces.

"Good, this is good." said Anton with a nod "Just, take it slow though, alright..."

"Yeah... Yeah, I am..." said Fiona as she looked away from him "Hey... Thanks, by the way... For... You know... For everything..."

"Of course..." nodded Anton "Remember, I'm still right here. If you ever need anything..."

"Yeah... Yeah, I know..." nodded Fiona "I'll, remember that..."

"Good." grinned Anton as he indicated the pizza boxes in his hands "You hungry?"

Catching the intoxicating scent of melted cheese, garlic and tomato sauce, Fiona's mouth immediately began to water in anticipation.

"...Yeah. Oh yeah, I am." she claimed as she rose up from her seat and eagerly bounded up to Anton.

Chuckling, Anton led the way to the kitchen.

"Go ahead and get started." he said as he set the stack of pizza boxes on the table "I'm going to go check on Kianna."

"She was still asleep when I left." said Fiona as she sat down "Guessing she's probably starving by now too though."

"More than likely." said Anton as he headed towards the stairway.

Left to own devices now, Fiona began to dig through the boxes of pizza until she found an extra large meat lovers combo and, picking off the larger chucks of ham as she went, she quickly began to devour one hefty piece after another.

Preoccupied with her meal as she was, Fiona didn't notice the thin, ominously lurking form as it silently entered the room by crawling across the ceiling. And it wasn't until Molly gave a short, excited bark that the dark elf realized that she was no longer alone at the table.

Fiona's ears pointed themselves straight upwards in surprise as she suddenly found Tessa sitting in her modified chair with her antennae perked up and alert.

Clearly intrigued by the prospect of food, the mantis had a bright, excited, expectancy about her that could easily be felt, despite her otherwise blank expression.

Annoyed at being startled by the alien-like creature and in no mood to share her food, Fiona pointed her ears straight back and sent a clear message to her unwanted guest by forcefully slamming shut the pizza box and glaring at the mantis.

Looking at the closed box for a second, Tessa shifted her eyes to Fiona and gazed at her for a moment before silently opening her seemingly tiny mouth and spreading her sharp, serrated mandibles out as wide as they would go.

Staring, unblinkingly, at the solid black, vicious looking vice that was Tessa's mouth, and fully registering the mantis' wordless warning, Fiona slowly turned the reopened pizza box towards the mantis as she silently offered her a slice.

Without hesitation, Tessa leaned forward and clamped her mandibles shut around two slices of pizza before quickly pulling them back into her mouth.

Watching as the eager mantis made to devour what had moments ago been her own food, Fiona began to maliciously grin.

With "teeth" that were originally designed to crush and rip apart the hard bodies of armored arthropods, Tessa's mouth was not exactly equipped to deal with soft, mushy or sticky substances. And so, just like a dog with peanut butter stuck to the roof of its mouth, the hapless mantis began to struggle with chewing up the melted cheese that was now slathered across and stuck in between the jagged points of her mandibles.

Chuckling to herself, Fiona's evil smile brightened as she picked up another slice of pizza and settled in to enjoy the show.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Anton slowly opened the inner door to the master bedroom and peeked inside.

With the shades pulled shut over the windows, the room was cast in a gloomy, gray darkness that left it with just barely enough light for him to vaguely see with.

"Kianna? Are you awake?" he called softly into the stillness.

Peering through the shadows, he was just able to register a bit of movement on the dark mass that was his bed, and as he watched, a pair of red, faintly glowing eyes turned back to look at him. As his own eyes adjusted to the darkness, Anton smiled softly as Kianna's pouting face formed out of the gloom.

Wearing nothing but a pair of pink panties and a ruffled, sleep worn t-shirt that she had borrowed from him, the dark elf was laying haphazardly across the top of the bedspread. With a tiny huff, she rose up on her hands and knees and began to crawl towards Anton.

"Master..." she breathed as reached the edge of the bed and sat back on her folded legs.

Leaving the door open behind him, Anton entered the room and quickly made his way over to the bed.

As he approached her, Kianna laid her ears back submissively and began to whimper softly when Anton wrapped his arms gently around her in greeting.

"Hey there, my sleepy little dark elf..." whispered Anton as he began to run his hand up and down her back "How are you feeling?"

"Argh..." grumbled Kianna as she rubbed her face against his shoulder and then nuzzled herself up against him "I'm tired... But I'm also tired of being tired..."

Chuckling, Anton gave her a squeeze and then used one arm to hold her against his chest as he began to play with the length of her hair.

Letting herself lay limp against him, Kianna began to hum appreciatively as Anton slowly ran his fingers through her hair.

Laying there, listening to the familiar, comforting sounds of Anton's heartbeat, Kianna couldn't help but to feel a growing sense of guilt and a tightness in her chest. And so, with a garbled, unhappy whine, she reached up and gripped the sleeves of Anton's shirt as she looked up at him.

"Master... I'm sorry..." she whimpered as she tightened her ears together behind her head "I'm so sorry... I really am..."

"...You? What?" questioned Anton in genuine surprise "What do you mean? What are you sorry for?"

Biting her lower lip in anguish, Kianna lowered her eyes and made to hide her face before she spoke again.

"For being, broken..." she whimpered quietly around a sob "And not being a real dark elf..."

"...What?" asked Anton as he blinked at her "What in the world are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about being, defective... And how now it makes sense why..." she whined "I'm not really a dark elf..."

Raising her head back up to look at him, Kianna fought to hold back tears as she explained herself.

"I know you want to study dark elves... That's why you enslaved us... But now you can't study me anymore... Cause I'm not really a real dark elf... I'm half human..." she whimpered sadly "And I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

Without a word, Anton tightened his arms around the quivering dark elf and pulled her into a caring embrace.

"Oh, Kianna... My sweet, sweet little dark elf..." he sighed as he hugged her "That's not how it works. It doesn't matter what your Father was, you are and will always be, a real dark elf..."

"But... I'm not though..." sobbed Kianna "I'm not like other dark elves... I'm broken..."

Shaking his head, Anton eased back a bit so he could look down at the dark elf.

"No. You're not like other dark elves, but that doesn't mean that you're broken. Just different. That's all..." he said as he smiled softly "And you being different doesn't mean that you aren't a dark elf, you are."

"But I'm not, not really... I'm only half..." whimpered Kianna.

"No, no, no. That's just not how it works." said Anton softly "Babies who are conceived through a soul-link have their genetics blended in such a way that they are only ever one species, Kianna. They're never hybrids, because hybrids don't need a soul-link to form, they can be conceived naturally. But humans and elves, they don't make a hybrid naturally. Any babies born between them have to form through a soul-link, and so they are only ever one species or the other. And that means that you are a dark elf, Kianna, and there's no question about that."

"...But I'm not pure." whined Kianna "I'm not a pure dark elf. I have human genes..."

"That... That doesn't matter though. Not being pure doesn't change anything." reassured Anton "You're carrying human genetics, yes. But they're going to be dormant, and they're not going to affect you. They can't, because they're turned off, and they no longer work. It's no different than how humans carry primitive primate genes that are turned off and don't work. It's basically the same thing. So just because you have these human genes, it really doesn't mean anything. You're still a dark elf, Kianna. Through and through."

Doubt still clear in her eyes, Kianna said nothing as she looked away and scrunched her face up in sadness.

"Listen to me, Kianna..." said Anton in a soft tone as he gently took hold of Kianna's chin and made her look him in the eyes "You are a dark elf. And you're not just any dark elf. You are my dark elf. And whether or not you're a pure dark elf means nothing to me. Nothing at all. You are my sweet, strong, beautiful and very, very special little dark elf... And I think that you are perfect, just the way you are."

Kianna stared at him in silence for a moment before fresh tears began to form in her eyes.

"Do you really mean that? Do you really think I'm perfect?" she sobbed as she tightened her ears together behind her head "Or, or do you want to trade me for a better dark elf instead, one that's pure..."

"Wha? No! Of course not, Kianna..." sighed Anton as he wrapped his arms back around the quaking dark elf "How could you ever even think that!?"

Garbling incoherently, Kianna hid her face against him as she sobbed loudly.

"Kianna I would never, ever trade you for any other dark elf." reassured Anton as he hugged her tightly "Never!"

"Really!?" whined Kianna as she hugged him back "You promise!? You promise you won't trade me away!?"

"Of course I promise..." soothed Anton "I promise you, I would never trade you away, Kianna. Not for anything. Not for the world."

Whimpering in relief, Kianna tightened her hold on him as her body was racked with a series of heavy, grateful sobs.

Not quite satisfied with merely hugging, the suddenly ecstatic dark elf began to frantically clamber up Anton's chest until she could wrap both her arms around his neck and her legs around his middle.

Chuckling, Anton shimmied his arms down Kianna's slender frame so he could slide his hands beneath her thighs and better hold her in place.

"Oh, Kianna... My poor little dark elf..." he sighed as he shook his head "You should have known better than to think that I would ever trade you away... You know I would never do that to you..."

"I'm sorry..." whined Kianna as she nuzzled her face against the side of his head and began to enthusiastically kiss him along his jawline "I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

"Hm... My sweet little dark elf..." breathed Anton "What am I going to do with you..."

Laying her head on his shoulder in such a way that her face was aimed away from him, Kianna began to lightly squirm a bit in Anton's arms while mumbling incoherently.