Kitsune of the Blue Sun

Chapter 226- A Slow Morning

[Keeno POV]

When I woke up again, last night’s events felt like a dream. I knew they happened due to my connection with Kay, she was still sleeping, her cloak turned blanket thrown to the side as she used Rafaela as a body pillow. The latter seemed to enjoy the closeness of her friend, or at least until Kay started nibbling on her hair.

“Cute.”

Early morning sun shot soft beams though shuttered windows. Huginn and Muninn popped their heads out of my tails before climbing out. They moved to where the sunbeams were landing and stretched, almost knocking the cauldron over due to the limited space, before basking in the sunlight. I couldn’t help but smile at my long-time companions.  Feeling my gaze on them, they turned to me in that quizzical way birds look at interesting things and walked over to me. Huginn tried lifting one of my tails to sit under it while Muninn moved my hand with its head, wanting me to give it some scritches.

“You two are so spoiled.”

The two made a sound reminiscent of purring to show their satisfaction.  It was then that Pram’s voice resounded in my head.

‘Keeno…morning…’

‘Morning, Pram.’

Freya turned in her sleep, wrapping a arm around Pram who purred, doing so through the telepathy as well due to her still being half asleep.

‘Pram!’

‘Eh?!? Ah, sorry.’ She blinked several times to adjust to the increasing light level in the room. ‘I’m awake now.’

The telepathy went silent again for a minute while Pram stretched while attempting to not disturb Freya.

‘Keeno, did something happen last night?  I woke up when Kay left and didn’t see you over there but by the time I was gonna check on you, you came back.’

‘It was just a nightmare that led to me making Kay a Valkyrie.’

‘What?! I thought you weren’t going to tell them yet!’

‘Kay would have probably figured it out by herself soon enough due to her weird powers. Plus, a bunch of Death Spirits showed up and spilled it. I figured I’d offer Kay the position since she’s practically the perfect candidate and well…I really wanted her to be by my side. She feels like a little sister.’

‘Hmm.  Just remember what we’ve talked about before.’

‘I’m not going to become complacent, Pram. I know I need to get my act together, but it’s going to take time. It’s just…that’s that, and this is this.’

‘If you say so.’

My ear twitched when I heard movement. Looking over, I saw Rafaela groggily sitting up.  Looking down she smiled as Kay was hugging her waist. She gently stroked her hair, her smile growing wider.

“Cutie.”

She kept stroking Kay’s hair while Kay herself snuggled into Rafaela’s hand. Rafaela looked away from Kay, a blush starting to color her cheeks only for her gaze to land on me. That blush became one of embarrassment as she panicked but was unable to move without waking Kay.  It was cute in its own way and I couldn’t stop myself from smirking.

“Morning friend.”

“Not a word to Kay.”

“She probably knows already, but fine.”

“…”

Rafaela tried to gently remove herself from Kay, but she couldn’t and this clearly confused her greatly.

“Why is Kay so strong? She’s never held me this tightly before.”

“Some things happened last night and I healed Kay’s soul.”

“…Eh?”

I didn’t say anything and just smiled, savoring the adorable face she was making.

“I thou…but she….didn’t yo…eh!?”

As Rafaela’s confusion deepened Kay moved pulling Rafaela with her. Kay was now laying on top of Rafaela and using her like a body pillow.

“Eheheh. Rafie smells good.”

“Mmmhh! Mm-mmmmm!!! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!”

Kay was smothering Rafaela to the point where her struggling became weaker and weaker. Deciding it was better she stay alive, I got up and picked Kay up, her grip releasing relatively easily.  She slept through my picking her up with an adorably goofy smile while Rafaela gasped for breath.

“I’ll explain when Kay wakes up, just know that I’d like you to keep this information to yourself.”

Rafaela could only nod as she studied Kay with an expression of mixed relief and worry.

It took Kay a surprisingly long time to wake up while Freya had during the whole commotion. Pram explained what happened to her through telepathy while we munched on some food from our storage. Rafaela was starting to worry since the smell of food didn’t wake Kay up, but once she started to groggily sit up with her eyes half open she relaxed again.

“Rafie…hungry…Keeno…food?”

Her head tilted to the side, her ears flipping over as she did so. She slowly crawled over to Rafaela and leaned on her. Rafaela held some of the food in front of Kay’s face and her eyes slowly opened all the way and sleep made way for a shining gaze as Kay grabbed the skewer and devoured the meat on it like she’d not eaten in several days.

That skewer and several more vanished in seconds before Kay seemed satisfied. She sat next to Rafaela, her tail waving excitedly behind her, while we finished our own meals. Once we were, Rafaela stared me in the eyes and asked for an explanation.

“First things first, I’d like you to keep everything to yourself. I’d rather not have stupid people come chasing after us with stupid ideas.”

Rafaela nodded her head.

“My full name is Keeno Farnir-Okami. I am the Goddess of the Blue Sun, Death, and Runes. Goddess Amaterasu is my Fated One, and Pram and Freya are aspiring Apostles. There is one more person in our group, but she’s on her own journey at the moment. Now-“

“Hold on, you’re a god!?”

“It’s complicated, if you’re curious I’ll tell you the whole story later. The reason I was able to heal Kay’s soul is because I made her a Valkyrie, which is what I call my Apostles of Death. There are several different conditions for someone to become one and there can be nine of them. Kay is now the fifth Valkyrie. Before you ask, I want to make you the sixth one so you and Kay won’t have to deal with one of you being mortal, but so far you don’t meet any of the conditions and I can’t make you one right now even if you did.”

“Why not?”

She had a tinge of anger in her voice which was totally understandable.

“Because I need to get my sixth tail first. And to get that, I need the Dead Zone, which brings us to our mission here in Tamist.”

This statement froze Rafaela solid. She looked over to Kay then she went pale as a sheet. This was my cue to tilt my head in confusion.

“Keeno is gonna save everyone Rafie. Then no one will have to scared of the water.”

“Kay…that’s not what I’m scared about…it’s the dragon that’s worrying me.”

Chaos Realm:

Luna: Pffft. Keeno is gonna make Rafaela catatonic.

Yeah.

Luna: By the way, what happened?

What do you mean?

Luna: Everything has been dark here. We haven’t been able to see anything for a while.

I’ve been too busy. Things keep popping up and it takes all my concentration to manage it.

Luna: I see…just don’t burn yourself out.

I’m trying my best.