Hi all! Annabelle here with the next chapter of HFHM!
New to the story? Best to start at Chapter 1, otherwise you will have no idea what's going on.
Returning reader? Welcome back! When last we left off, Yuki had entered the house and Mike had been captured by centaurs. Ready to see what happens next?
I will warn you in advance, this is one of my rare chapters with no sex scene, so you can keep your pants on (don't want your legs getting cold). Despite the lack of monster boning, I still hope you like it!
Please don't forget to rate, comment or review! I do read them all (even if I don't respond) and use them to improve my craft, and I hope the events of this chapter clears up some of the plot confusion that occurred in the last.
Don't forget to follow me or check my bio, I always change it when I upload the next chapter. Special thanks to some of my readers who sent me super supportive messages last week. I had a rough week IRL, and I seriously turned off my Netflix when I read those and got back to writing :)
The Fool
The railing was smooth to the touch, as if it had been recently polished. She touched a knot in the wood, her fingers caressing the fractured ridges. Closing her eyes, she took in the smell of the place. The rich scent of oil, sawdust, and water from the fountain out back filled her with a swirl of nostalgia, causing her to inhale again, only deeper this time.
So many old scents and a few that were new. Behind them all was the faint, faded scent of sunflowers and rain.
Emily
. It was hard to think of her without love and hate at the same time. So many good times had been enjoyed in this house, many of those in her presence. Yet the taint of her eventual betrayal left a dark shadow standing in the corner of those memories, ready to tear her heart in two once more.
The steps creaked under her feet, each sound a familiar friend welcoming her back. She only made it three steps down before Emily's scent drifted her way once again. Her breath hitched, and she stopped.
It was hard to do, but she turned around and went back up. The master bedroom was at the end of the hall and she entered it quietly as if walking into a church service.
Oddly, it was largely as she remembered it. Other than some clothes scattered across the floor, it was decorated the same as it had been. The furniture was exactly as she remembered, except for an old rug lying in the corner.
That man's stench was everywhere, but beneath it was the scent of Emily. It grew stronger as she crossed the room, approaching the rug on the floor. When she lifted it up, she could tell that the wood underneath had been badly damaged, and the scent told her why.
Emily had died in this spot and rotted. Beneath the sweet scent of sunflowers and rains was the harsh scent of cloves and death. The room was a treasure trove of sensory information, but this spot was where her dear Emily had finally crossed over. She tossed the rug aside, contemplating the stained floor beneath.
Silent for several seconds, Yuki fought back the grief and anger that welled up inside of her. The memories in this room were suffocating, and she needed to leave before she forgot how to breathe. In a way, this had become Emily's grave.
She stuck her hand inside the neckline of her dress and pulled out a ring on a chain.
"It was never supposed to be like this. You promised me forever, and then broke my heart without ever telling me why." It was all she could say, her skin rippling with patches of fur that rode across her arms like waves. Emily had made her so many promises, but this was one that, in the end, she hadn't been able to keep.
The memory of that first day without Emily had been burned into her mind forever. She had woken up in the tower, surprised to find that Emily had disappeared. Days went by without any sign of her, and Yuki, convinced the centaurs had taken her, had rained terror down on the Herd. Lonely weeks wandering that tower had turned to months, and then years. The portal through the trees never opened once, and she had cried herself to sleep almost every night.
Until the night Emily had come back for some of the magic locked away in the tower. That one night had turned all of her grief to rage, and the two of them had fought for hours. Emily had grown powerful during their time apart, and Yuki ended up losing her eye. She would never forget that final defining moment in their relationship, the kitsune knocked flat on the floor and bleeding all over the cold tower floor. Emily stood just outside of a portal that had appeared in the tower, clutching a glowing emerald in her hand.
"I wish I could forget you," Emily had said, her face twisted into a sneer, then stepped through the portal. Yuki had cried in agony, watching the portal slowly shrink away to nothing and then vanish. It was the day her heart had been forever broken, and she realized that even true love could be corrupted by magic. Humans were too weak to be gifted with the house and its occupants, destined forever to pursue the power within.
On that day, Yuki had pulled the silver ring off her finger, keeping it only as a reminder of how cruel love could be, pledging to kill the next Caretaker she saw on sight. She could never allow another human to become corrupt inside her sanctuary, threatening those she loved.
She lowered the chain onto the floor, letting it form a spiral on the ground. The ring was last, lying atop the links like the cherry on a cupcake. She had worn that chain every day around her neck, never daring to put it back on her finger. Forgiveness would never come, and while Emily had wanted to forget the whole thing had ever happened, Yuki simply could not.
Standing, she walked out of the room, leaving the ring behind. The scent clung to her skin, Emily's shadow walking beside her when she left. It would probably always be a part of her, a painful memory to contemplate at night. She continued down the hall, past the stairs, and to her old room, then quietly pushed the door open.
This one had changed a bit. Someone had moved in recently, someone who smelled of lilacs and—she sniffed again—sulfur, apparently. The bed was a mess, and a blanket had been tossed over the mirror on the armoire. Yuki removed it, then spotted the dark briefcase under the bed in its reflection.
She knelt down to pull the briefcase out and was about to open it when she saw that the closet was open. It was an ordinary closet for now, but she couldn't help but close it and then twist the knob through a series of patterns. When she opened it again, she was looking into dark cavern within.
Just like that, a memory jumped from the shadows to claim her. its grip was surprisingly strong. She tried to fight it, but it ran like a flood through her mind, and she let it flow freely.
"The house is full of surprises, isn't it?" Emily said, holding up a flashlight up and clicking it on. It was now forty years ago and they were standing in the same room. Yuki sniffed the air and caught a whiff of water and dust somewhere deep in the depths of the cavern.
"How did you find this?" Yuki asked, summoning a ghostly sphere made of foxfire to hover in front of them. It wandered ahead ten feet and then stopped, waiting for them to catch up.
The Caretaker rolled her eyes. "Jenny got loose again and I caught her trying to run down here. I convinced her to tell me how to get in in exchange for a second chance."
Yuki snorted. "Don't you mean a ninth or tenth chance?"
"Yeah, well..." she took a few steps forward. "I figured it would be fun to explore something new with you. What do you say?" Emily held up her hand.
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.
