A Tale of One Deviant (Book One)

Chapter 163: Follow Me, de Libellules...

It was nighttime when I woke up. There were notifications up the wazoo flashing in my face when I finally awakened.

     "What the..."

     Where am I...

     A bed, clearly, but I'd not even once slept in my own bed after making it in my dungeon. I just went straight to my desk to work on something, or teleported off somewhere to work around Tasega.

     "Nnnn..."

     A small person was at my side, clinging loosely. The covers and pillows were tossed around as if there'd been a fight, and I did wince when I saw there had been a fight - a sleep fight, as I was prone to when having bad dreams. Most of the drapes at the top of the bed's structure were sagging and torn, some pieces burned. Chord herself was holding onto my arms, as if to be a bodily chain and lock for my actions.

     "Dang brightness," I hissed, pulling my head away from those screens. "When did I set it that high?"

     I pushed them away mentally so I wasn't as blinded. I'd been out for a good eight hours or so, which was completely unexpected. There was a heavy weight on my chest - besides Chord's head - as if I'd had a bad dream, but I couldn't remember anything of it.

     Feeling completely demotivated, I shifted and freed my arms, just putting one on her side before noticing that there was something to my back as well. A warm thing there. Then, I noticed it had turned off its presence, as if to sneak up on me.

     "Oh, you," I reached out my free arm and scooped Adri up into my side. Being in my adult form, I was much longer than them, and able to manhandle them at will-

     ...

     "Hera," I finally noticed that there was a weight on my stomach. She crawled up when I'd turned away, half-awake, not saying a word when coming up to the prime position of laying her face down on my chest. She couldn't even keep her eyes on me, dragging her body covered in a frilly nightgown. "You..."

     Adri was the same, when I turned over to look at him in his pajamas. Clearly, I'd been there for a while for them to notice I was there and go and get changed for bed. They'd made spells to shut off their presences, though I didn't know why they'd do that...

     "Sissy," one of them muttered. I couldn't tell since it was such a whisper. "Stay."

     Whether the voice saying that was awake or sleep talking, I couldn't tell either.

     "Hai, hai..."

     I breathed out onto Hera's face, since she'd insisted upon being extra close. All I could see were the dark brown strands flopping out of her scalp and splaying across my collar bones, giving just a small bit of warmth. It was certainly quite a change compared to the thick collar on my neck being cold all the time. While I certainly loved having my siblings being so close, I felt the slightest bit pained because of Hera's weight pressing down on the Orix, but it was worth the sacrifice of my comfort.

     Somewhere around midnight, I found the time to be, when checking it. We really had been there for a while. The children would no doubt have their sleep schedules messed up, but that wasn't my fault...probably. Well, they probably still wouldn't wake up for a while, since all of them were heavy sleepers. I went to work checking my notifications like a good...whatever I was, sighing at all of them. Opening them up and reading the contents one by one.

     Hoh...a Demon summoning? That's the first time in how long now?

     It was in the western region, along the mountain range.