HOME | DD

Description
“Let’s take a break,” the woman said. The noonday sun shone high in the sky, casting beams of twinkling light down through the forest’s canopy. She hoped that they would be back at Dewdale by the time the sun had set, another assignment completed, a well-deserved vacation earned. Work for the city’s Cartography Guild paid well, but was dangerous and thankless. Even just updating the trails and topography of the surrounding Neityl Forest, a task so close to home, bore the constant threat of mamono attack. A shudder ran down the woman’s spine when she thought about their last encounter with mamono on a southern assignment.

“Wait, there’s a stream up ahead,” her companion said. “We’ll stop there.”

Of course there was, how had she forgotten? Had the trip really taken such a toll on her? She turned back and saw that he was still walking behind her with his face buried in the scroll that would be the new map. Regardless of how little revisions needed to be made, the commissioned product would be as outstanding as any other piece he had done. Of the duo, Aidan was always the artistic one, better suited to the paperwork and precision of mapmaking.

“That should do it.”

The two sat by the edge of the stream and he showed her the map.

“It looks good. Very good,” she said as she studied the new bends and trails, marked against the ones that had already been found, and tried to ignore how closely over her shoulder Aidan was double-checking his work. Of the duo, Lani had the sharper eye and better sense for direction; it was this combination of talents that allowed them to excel in the guild.

Aidan nodded and released a weary breath. “With that done, we can take the quicker way back.” He put his hands on the small of his back and stretched out, then bowed low with his legs rigid. Lani watched as he took off his backpack and water skin. “I saw blueberries a step back,” he said, “I’ll grab us a snack before we set off again.”

When he was gone, she turned her face up to the canopy and closed her eyes. The warm breeze brushed strands of her hair against her cheeks; the light above flickered and cast dancing shapes over her eyelids; the soft babbling of the stream reminded her that despite the last six assignments being tedious revisions, there was nowhere else she would rather be. Lani looked down at the clear, glistening water and grabbed the water skin that Aidan left behind. When she dipped the water skin into the current, the coolness of the stream sent goose bumps up her arm.

Hiking for so long, in such humid weather… Lani tentatively bit her lip as an indulgent little thought entered her head. She was aware of the risks, very very aware of what could go wrong, but part of what had sparked the very thought was the thrill of those risks. And besides, she had been careful: there was no sign of any mamono in their entire expedition. Maybe just this one time, even with Aidan away, she could treat herself…Lani looked down at the laces that held together her sturdy, dark-leather boots and began to undo one.

The creature ran through the forest, silently and on all fours. She avoided twigs and bushes and any other flora that would make a noise under her tread, but the hammering of her own heart was so loud that she thought it would give her away anyway. A human! After so long since her last meal! In her excitement she didn’t notice that she was going so fast. She came close enough that she could smell the delicious scent was all around her in the warm wind. The creature slowed to a gentle pattering, but not smoothly enough. With a soft “mrrp!” she slipped over the looser soil and tumbled onto her back. But as quickly as she fell, she was on her feet again, still for a second to regain her composure, and then bounding up the trunk of a tall old oak.

She slowed her ascent and flattened her already slight frame against the tree to better hide against it. There! Just on the other side of the stream! She narrowed her eyes and the very tip of her tail flicked back and forth with excitement. The human was an exquisite study indeed, a tan woman with long black hair that fell straight over her shoulders and down her back. Her lightly-muscled body was dressed for travel in a sleeveless gray jerkin that was stained with dirt and damp with sweat, forest green shorts that were in a similar state, and boots made for hardship regardless of terrain.

The woman lifted her face, had she seen movement in the branches? The creature flinched back and then cautiously looked up from behind the wood. She purred with relief when she saw that her prey’s eyes were closed. Perfect! She could better study her soon-to-be meal. The woman’s face was like a gem in the rough, an oval with sharp angles and soft cheekbones. She was pretty, there was no denying that, but was she angry about something? The sharpness of her eyebrows and the curve of her shapely mouth gave her a stern expression that the creature suspected was a regular part of her prey’s countenance.

Oh well! The bitchy-looking ones are always the most fun, she thought as a hungry smile spread on her lips. But a problem then occurred to her: the method of attack. If she positioned herself incorrectly, they would both be thrown into the water, something the creature was not looking forward to dealing with. The woman’s partner was far enough that she could enjoy her meal in relative peace, but if she could find something to gag—

The creature’s heart began to pound even harder; it felt like it was going to burst out of her chest at any moment. She craned her neck forward, her nostrils twitching excitedly. The woman was beginning to undo the laces on her boots. Seconds hung in the air as one knot was undone, and then another, then at last the woman set her hands around the ankle of her boot. With some effort, she was able to pull it off relatively quickly, but the intensity with which the creature stared made the action seem to last a lifetime. Inch by inch the smooth bronze skin revealed itself until finally the woman’s bare toes were free to wiggle in the air, their caramel-colored tips and underneaths appearing and disappearing as they flexed and moved. The scent in the air was absolutely maddening now. She felt the muscles in her legs tighten, her butt rose in the air ever so slightly, enough to wiggle and match the motions of her tail. The woman was on her other boot now; one lace undone, and then another, then—

“Mine!”

Lani heard the rustling overhead too late. A flurry of leaves and movement blurred her vision and suddenly she was on her back, screaming with the half-naked mamono over her. A cute, heart-shaped face stared voraciously beneath a mess of chin-length, wavy, brown hair which could do nothing to hide the cat-like ears that rose on either side of the top of her head.

“Aidaaaan!” Lani squealed. She thumped her balled fists down on the creature’s head, but of course it did nothing. She had seen a dagger enter their bodies—to the hilt—and wrenched out without so much as a drop of blood on the blade or a wound on the creature. It was what made the mamono so dangerous: they were impervious to harm and nobody knew how to deal with them. The victim’s only options were to somehow immobilize the mamono and escape, or submit and pray that the tormentor would be merciful (which they rarely were).

Even if it was the smarter decision, submission was no option for Lani. She struggled and clawed as hard as she could—but she knew it was hopeless. How such a small creature was so strong was beyond her, but before she knew it, she was on her belly and the mamono was pulling off the boot that she herself would have been glad to remove a moment earlier.

“Aaaah! You’ve gotta be kidding me! Get off!” Lani howled. The mamono smiled as she savoured her prey’s musical shrieks. She must have not undone one of the laces all the way… why wouldn’t they—

“Nyan!” she cried triumphantly when the boot finally came off. The werecat tossed it aside and wrapped her entire body around the thrashing woman’s legs, her face a mere inches from the steaming moistness of her victim’s soles. The warmth of the pungent smell was unbearably delicious; she could see every drop of perspiration as it trickled from the shapely curves of the woman’s toes down to the succulent wrinkles of her honey-hued soles. The hot aching in the mamono’s loins was an absolute firestorm now. Her lips parted, her ravenous tongue emerged, and she pressed her face into the woman’s soles.

“Eeeeeeheehee! Hahaheeeeehahaha! Dohohon’t!”

They tasted better than she could have ever imagined. The mamono dragged the full length of her tongue from just where the woman’s heels met her soles up to where the balls of her feet began. The saltiness, the creaminess, the mamono couldn’t help but purr as she savoured every lick. The moment her tongue had made contact her prey was in squealing hysterics, shrieking with frantic laughter and trying to get away. It struck the werecat as odd that the woman had such soft feet, despite looking and dressing as though she had hiked the width of the world. Was it just for show? Had all the time her feet spent soaking in her boots somehow worked against making them tougher? Whatever the reason, it served the mamono just fine.The way her prey’s silky soft flesh quivered and moved with every drag of her tongue, she could almost perceive each nerve as it screamed with intolerable, ticklish agony under the rough bristles; it was unbelievably delectable.

“NOHOHOT THEHEHERE! GODS NAHAHAHAHAT THEHEHEHAHAHAHARE!”

“Nyaaaan” the werecat couldn’t help but shiver and moan. The intensity of her victim’s reaction was so right… so delicious… her hips were moving on their own, rubbing her swollen pussy against the woman’s ample bottom as waves of molten pleasure rocked her body. More—she needed more. Her rough tongue squeezed into the tender spaces between the woman’s toes again, caressing and wrapping around each stalk, feeling the softness of where those luscious digits met with the rest of her supple feet. The heated volume of the frenzied laughter, the feeling of her lips over each shuddering toe, and the taste, gods the taste. The mamono had never expected to come across such savoury morsels.

No matter how Lani’s toes fanned and twitched, there was nothing they could do to escape the mercilessly ticklish licking. She kicked with all her might, tried to squirm and wriggle, but it was no use. The werecat had wrapped herself around Lani’s thick legs in an impossibly fierce hug. The creature’s legs were tucked around and underneath her hips and—oh gods! Somewhere beyond the horrible sensation of hot, tickling electricity wreaking havoc upon her toes, Lani could feel the moisture pressing against her ass. She knew exactly what was happening: the mamono was feeding off of her ticklish energy. She pounded her fists into the earth amidst peals and peals of forced, helpless mirth. It was absolutely insufferable, not just the sensations themselves, but the nerve! How dare this savage turn her into a sex toy! Lani’s face burned with humiliation as tears of laughter and frustration trickled down her face.

“GEHEHHEHEHET THE FUHAHAHAHACK OFF! EEAAHAHAH! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

The mamono couldn’t let go now, even if she wanted to (and she definitely did not want to). Her tongue was in constant motion, tracing against the squishy rounds of her victim’s toes, wiggling between their spaces, and stroking their underneaths, savouring the depth of the flavour that had collected there. The air was heavy with her victim’s wild laughter; it filled her body with a feeling that was beyond contentment, beyond ecstasy. Even with how the mamono’s touch could render their prey horribly ticklish, the werecat relished in the fact that the woman was already so. Those little touches of infuriation that could be felt between bouts of her victim’s forced, screaming mirth made the meal all the better. That’s right, bitchy-face, the mamono couldn’t help but think with tremendous satisfaction, laugh for me!

But before she could indulge further, the werecat felt laughter bubbling in her own belly.

“Nyahahahaha!” Her victim’s toes popped out of her mouth, she let go of her hold on the woman’s legs—before the mamono could react, she was lifted into the air. The second presence she had sensed, the woman’s travelling partner!

Aidan grunted with effort as he hoisted the mamono off Lani. The werecat weighed practically nothing, but was thrashing enough to give him trouble keeping her still. He backed away, measuring his steps as carefully as he could while the mamono fought to escape his grip, twisting and kicking and… laughing?

“Lehehehet gohohoho! Yahahaha!``

Aidan had his arms wrapped around the mamono in a heaving bear hug from behind. He was aware that his fingers were pressing against something hard—or rather: somethings that were hard, with grooves in between, like rows of twigs or even… ribs? His heart hammered with the realization. The mamono couldn’t be hurt, but…

“She’s ticklish! Lani!”

“GOOD!” he heard his partner viciously scream, “HOLD HER DOWN!”

“Nohohooo!”

He didn’t need further instruction. Aidan threw the werecat down on her back and stretched her arms over her head, exposing the smooth hollows of her underarms. He looked down at her desperate, laughing face, almost as if fascinated by it. Their last two woodland assignments were ruined by a pair of werecats that had taken their time in toying with the explorers, making off with their equipment when they blacked out—all before they had the chance to progress with the expedition.

“THAT FUCKING BITCH! SHE THREW MY BOOT IN THE STREAM!”

The shadow of fear over the mamono’s face exploded into full-blown panic.

In a flash, Lani was on top of the werecat’s madly kicking legs, straddling her hips and completing the stretched out immobilization that Aidan had started.

“That was my favourite pair!” Lani’s face was a seething inferno, dirty from being pushed into the earth and tear-streaked from her ordeal. Aidan almost felt pity when he watched the werecat shrink back, whimpering low in her throat and staring up at his partner with enormous, pleading eyes. Lani looked down at the tight gray shorts that the werecat wore and turned around to study her legs; they ended in large twitching paws like the ones on her hands, covered in brown fur similar to the color of her hair. Lani frowned: no good for an even payback. She turned forward and raked her eyes over the mamono’s tiny torso, which told an entirely different story. It was bare, ripe for the tickling, clothed only in a lime-green cloth that covered her breasts.

“NYAHEEEEE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!STAHAHAHAHAP!”

The mamono exploded when Lani’s fingers made contact with her ribs. She couldn’t believe it; the little bitch actually was ticklish.

“Oh I am going to make you suffer,” Lani growled. She pressed harder into the werecat’s ribs, pleased that the way she and Aidan were sitting made it so that there was nowhere for the creature to go. Though Lani did not have much experience as a tickler, she carried with her years of ticklish abuse at the hands of various mamono. Her former prey teased the skin over each rib with swift strokes and maddening presses, forcing explosions of feral laughter. It was as if she were a kitten again, playing and learning how to attack with the rest of her litter—but infinitely worse. There was nothing playful about the murderous fire in the woman’s eyes, and here the mamono was now, trapped under her mercy, unable to wriggle her way out of the tight hold the pair had put on her. There was no way this could be happening. How did a simple meal go so wrong?

“PLEHEHEHEHEHEHEASE NYAHAHAHAHA LEHEHEHEHET GOHOHOHO EEEYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

“Not so fun when you’re the one getting it, is it?” Lani said as she bore down even harder on the werecat’s ribs, titillating the tender spaces between each rib, counting them and pressing all along their surface, all while the creature’s torso could only wiggle to and fro, twitching madly under the woman’s touch.

“I WAHAHAHAHAS JUHUHUHUST SOHOHOHO NYAHAHAHAHAHAHUNGRY!”

Lani stopped tickling.

“Nya... haahaa… Your feheet… so tasty… hee… Please… one more lick… nyan…”

Lani was absolutely livid now. Even helpless, completely under her mercy, the mamono still had one thought on her mind.

Aidan thought his eardrums were going to burst when Lani’s fingers descended again. This time they found their way into the hollows of the mamono’s underarms, where they had no trouble staying. The werecat was howling with laughter. Her ears flattened themselves back and she was shaking her head back and forth, struggling with newfound strength, desperately trying to get away from the torture. Lani slid higher up on the mamono with a devilish smirk. She made sure that there was nowhere to go.

“You’re going to learn some respect, you little slut.”

Lani raked her nails up and down the smooth, supple skin. She slid her fingers all around, allowing her digits to glide over every spare corner of the momono’s ticklish underarm hollows, as though she were trying to scoop every last bit of a saucy dessert from a bowl. No one technique worked better than any other, a faint fascination was present as Lani changed her method from stroking to pressing to scraping, her every touch eliciting screaming, helpless mirth from the creature.

“PLEHEHEHEHEHEHEASE STAHAHAHAHAP! JUHUHUST LEHEHEHET ME FIHIHIHINISH! THEHEHEHEN I’LL GOHOHOHOHOHOHO! EEYAHAHAHAHAAHAAHA!”

Unbelievable.

Lani viciously scribbled all ten of her fingers, leaving angry red marks on the mamono’s skin that matched the hue that her face was steadily beginning to take. She ran them up and down the length of the werecat’s underarms, pleased that this covering of a larger area made the creature laugh her hardest yet. The only problem was that they kept snagging on the mamono’s breast-cloth. Without a word Lani grabbed a good handful of the material and yanked back hard. The cloth tore off almost instantly. She glanced back at the scrap and saw the faint outline of a short-sleeved opening. It was a shirt, worn wrong and probably stolen. How the mamono had figured out to put on the shorts was a mystery.

“So you attack a lot of people here?” Lani demanded as she resumed her assault on the werecat’s underarms.

“NOHOHOHOHOHO HEEEEYEEEHAAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAHA!”

“No as in you don’t attack a lot or no as in you want me to stop tickling?”

“NYAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA I DOHOHOHOHON’T KNOHOHOHOW HAHAHAAHA!”

Lani was having fun now. The mamono had cute little breasts that bounced just ever so slightly with each quiver and wriggle of her torso. Aidan’s heart skipped a beat when Lani set her fingertips on them, eagerly raking under and all around them, but the mamono’s laughter, while still agonizingly intense, seemed to ease up, enough for Lani to notice. She frowned. She tried the werecat’s belly, smirking to herself as she watched the taut, faint muscles twitch and dance under her fingertips. It was enjoyable to watch, but the werecat’s shrieks of laughter slackened even further.

“Oh well, your pits will just have to do.”

The werecat shook her head distraughtly when the woman’s fingers returned to her most sensitive spot. She didn’t know how much more she could take. She hated the feeling of being tickled, of being unable to move under what should have been her quick and filling meal. Food wasn’t supposed to fight back! Food was supposed to act like food: laugh and cry and then flop!

Lani wasn’t sure how much time had passed before she finally stopped. She silently rose from the puddle of exhausted giggles that was the mamono and walked over to where her one boot rested. Aidan got up as well, and as soon as released the werecat’s arms, she curled up into a little ball on her side, where the occasional hiccupping sob could be heard amidst the trickle of pants and giggles. He walked over to where Lani was fingering the boot in her hand, looking wistfully at the stream.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

She nodded, but didn’t take her eyes from the stream.

“If you want we can follow it down, you know, to the western bend? The bottom is rockier, with more protrusions; it’s probably caught there already.”

“I just want to go home.”

He understood, but didn’t know what else to do or say. He donned his travelling gear while Lani put on the one boot that she still possessed and wrapped her bare one with the cloth that the mamono used to wrap her breasts. In truth, he was only half with her; watching his partner exact ticklish vengeance had sprung an idea in his mind, one that stayed with him on their walk back to the city.

They arrived by nightfall, and instead of immediately handing in the new map, as they would have done on any other assignment, they went straight for their favourite tavern, the Silver Pixie. It was a relaxing post-trekking ritual that the two shared in their three years of work together.

“Gods, I need this,” Lani said when they arrived at their usual table. The inn was a rustic place touched with decorative elements of polished chrome and bronze, where a whimsical scheme of lighting that was somehow intimate as well, a thing that made conversation easy and enjoyable.

“Hi there.” A pretty, blonde serving maid materialized at their table. She smiled with recognition when her eyes met with Aidan’s, but when she looked over and saw Lani’s expression, she cocked her head sympathetically. “Crisp Apple, then?”

“Keep them coming,” Lani nodded. The maid disappeared and reappeared with their order in pewter tankards. When she left again, Lani looked down into the frothing, sweet-smelling ale, lifted the tankard to her face, and downed it all in one go. After any expedition, one mouthful was all it took to melt away the hardships of their rambles.

When she set down the tankard she looked up mournfully at Aidan.

“They were my favourite boots. They were insulated inside, and so comfortable… I’ve never had a blister in them. And I could take them anywhere, they were waterproof and they didn’t slip… I just loved them.”

“I know; you bought them with the money from our first assignment.”

She nodded and it lightened her heart a little. Of course Aidan remembered. Since their first meeting she felt that she had gained not only a trusted workmate but also a good friend. Lani sighed and gazed into his crystal blue eyes. What she didn’t like was how distantly he spoke to her, or how his mind seemed to be infinitely occupied with work. Not that she was any different as the months since their first assignment went by. The strict rules against romantic involvement between members of the guild kept them at a platonic length, despite what the two had learned about themselves in their time in the wilderness.

“I just…” she sighed and reached for Aidan’s tankard. It was half-empty from what sips he had stolen, but she drank it all the same. “I just thought that after three years of this, there would be some improvements, you know? Like some fucking guards, so we wouldn’t have to deal with shit like this or… Or us signing our names on the maps! Gods, Silas wouldn’t like that would he? His little minions getting the credit they deserve, maybe enough to be recognized for private commissions…”

“But we can’t argue with the pay, right?”

Lani frowned. She had put away enough gold to buy a sizeable townhouse in the prestigious corners of the city.

“Fuck the pay,” she finally said after some thought. “It’s just not worth it if we have to deal with mamono.”

Aidan scratched the back of his head. He knew that she absolutely hated to be tickled, and hell, who didn’t? Personally, he could have done without that little career risk as well—but it pleased him that her reaction was taking his train of thought in the desired direction. The maid came over to their table again to replace their empty tankards with full, foaming ones.

“I mean, people disappear all the time! Remember Sethil?”

“Of course I remember him.” This time it was Aidan who downed the tankard in one gulp. Sethil was someone he enjoyed speaking to in their off time at the guild, a slightly older cartographer who one day was sent out on a commission assignment to the west and was never seen again.

“Well what if it’s us next time?” She leaned in and Aidan could see the honest anxiety in her glazed, amber eyes. “People disappear all the time! Everyone knows some mamono prefer one person to torture for the rest of their lives! What if next time we aren’t as lucky? What if next time there’s two? Three? More?”

She finished her tankard and belched without excusing herself.

“I mean…” she leaned in again, a small blush warming her cheeks, “It’s not the danger I mind… I just don’t want to be another number on the guild’s missing list… It’s like we don’t matter until we’re taken away!”

Aidan grinned. Lani sat back up and cocked her head at him.

“What?” she asked, unable to hold back her own lips from curling up. Her face really did change when she smiled; she became so much less businesslike and unapproachable.

“Well, on our way back, I was thinking a lot.”

“You’re always thinking a lot.”

“I know,” he blushed, which further widened his partner’s smile. The serving maid came again and replaced their ales, this time with two tankards for each of them. Lani reached for hers and hid her face behind the upturned pewter immediately while Aidan continued.

“How many people do you think figured out what we did?”

She set her empty tankard down and narrowed her eyes in thought.

“Not a lot,” she remarked. “Otherwise someone would have done something about it, right? Like, there would be instructional pamphlets or… I dunno, something that would bring this to other travellers’ attention.”

“Exactly,” he said as he reached for his own tankard. He took a few eager gulps and set it down again. “If people knew about this, it would be everywhere, but it’s not!”

Lani drummed her fingers on the table.

“You’re suggesting something.”

“Just that we know what practically no one else knows!”

She raised her eyebrows. Aidan could see that she understood.

“You’re saying… you want to be making those pamphlets and manuals… and things.”

“Well, think about it.” He finished his ale. “For the longest time we’ve been told that the right thing to do was to run away or take the tickling and hope they go away. And we’re cornered so damn much of the time that running doesn’t even become an option. If we were cornered by any other animal—wolves or bears, would the right thing to do be to take their mauling and hope they go away?”

“Of course not.”

“And well, now there’s a third option! Fight back! And nobody else is aware of it! We could publish catalogues on different mamono and like… where they’re ticklish, we could simplify larger encyclopaedia entries into handy pocket guides and, and, and then nobody will disappear again! We won’t have to fear mamono anymore!”

Lani reached for the last, filled tankard, steadied her hand, and then drew it back, deciding better against it. Time was already beginning to feel strange to her. Had they been talking for an hour? Two?

“You’re drunk. We’re drunk.”

“Just think about it!” Lani saw the imploring in his eyes and felt tingling waves warm her heart.

“But then that means we’ll have to do hands-on research…” she muttered, and as if almost overhearing the conversation, her toes scrunched defensively.

“Exactly,” he leaned in with a conspiratorial smile.

Lani blushed a deep crimson.

“Well… I really liked tickling her back… Gods, it felt so good to be feared for once.” She wrinkled her nose and turned back to him with a bright, toothy smile. Aidan’s heart hammered in his chest. He had never seen her smile in such a way; it practically transformed her face into something so adorably playful (the word ‘kinky’ came to mind, and he unsuccessfully tried to push it out.)

“So what do you think?” he asked, hopefully.

“We’ll have to have storage for materials… buy a small commercial house… deal with people to hire, people to commission for, taxes will change completely, and we’ll have to start budgeting a lot. Like, a huge lot. I’m not even sure when we’ll start seeing real gold come in.”

Aidan locked eyes with her and for a moment he wanted nothing more than to forget everything else and keep gazing.

“We’ll be making a real difference. We will. Us—not us under the guild’s name—really us, me and you.”

He swallowed hard. His words felt strange, but he knew why. There was a subtext that he, with all his heart, was hoping she would understand.

“I’ll definitely regret this tomorrow… hell, we might not even follow through with it tomorrow,” she sighed and leaned back. “Alright. Let’s do it.”

“Perfect!” Aidan’s triumphant laughter was loud enough to turn heads. “I’ll make adjustments to what maps I have saved up and we can highlight some areas as danger zones and, and…”

Lani giggled and propped up her elbow on the table to lean into her hand. She rarely got the chance to hear him go off on his rants anymore. Once an idea was in motion for him, it was hard to stop him from working out every last detail. Lani admired Aidan’s artistry, his seemingly eidetic memory, the enthusiasm that she prayed the guild wouldn’t rob him of. She let her eyes glaze over the rough tumbles of his almost auburn blonde hair to the pleasing shape of his mouth as he continued to speak and laugh, eagerly awaiting its return when it disappeared behind the pleasing ale. But she thought again of the guild. Was how platonically their friendship had progressed over the years entirely the guild’s fault? Had she no say in the matter? To be her own person, to explore the regions of the world under her own contract…

“Let’s do it,” she said again, to herself this time, her voice barely a whisper.

“We’ll have to figure out how to categorize each mamono, what qualities they have...”

“Ticklish spots,” she proposed and ran her finger around the rim of the tankard.

“Cass!” Aidan guzzled down his ale and leaned back with the three empty tankards dangling from his right hand’s fingers.

The maid appeared, somehow with the knowledge that they would have three empty tankards ready for her.

“Here you are,” she said engagingly and set down a trinity of foaming ales.

“Do you have a parchment?

“Not the larger ones.”

“I’ll take whatever, thank you.”

She smiled and left their table.

“Just one sheet will do!” Aidan called after her. He brought a coal stylus out from somewhere in his faded blue shirt’s pocket and toyed with it in his hands.

“We’ll have to actively seek out mamono now… Mamono hunting! Sounds prettier than it’s likely going to be. I wonder how we’ll collect data…”

“Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s focus on what we already learned,” Lani interrupted him. Aidan set his stylus down and pursed his lips in thought.

“I think that was a werecat. Locally, people use ‘were’ to mean a human/animal hybrid. Werecat. Werecat. Where cat? What cat?”

He nearly jumped when the maid returned with his parchment.

“Thank you,” he said after her and took a sip of one of the tankards. He muttered to himself as he scribbled down his thoughts on the parchment. Lani tried to peek over but her vision was far too blurred to try and make out whatever upside-down text her partner had written. The two sat in a comfortable silence while he worked. Time inched by, but she truly didn’t mind. She never took her eyes off Aidan as he worked.

“Okay, so we’ll have biomes here—and we know they hang out in forests and plains, but, we’ll ask around too, if anyone’s had run-ins with them elsewhere.”

“Oh interviews! Those’ll be fun!”

Aidan beamed broadly.

“I was thinking the same thing! We’ll need to interview a few people before we finalize any data—like here—here, no… here!” His finger slipped over the paper; with an exasperated huff, he finally pointed to where he had originally intended. “Temperament.”

After three run-ins with this type of mamono, Lani felt as though she had a unique and unbiased grasp of their disposition.

“Cunty.”

Aidan shook his head.

“No, we have to make it professional.”

Lani put a hand to her face and furrowed her brow in thought.

“Professionally cunty?” she offered.

Aidan snorted.

“I’ll put down ‘mischievous’.”

“Mine is more accurate.”

“As far as cat-things go, she was greedy too.”

“Cunty’s not allowed, but greedy is fine?”

“I’ll think of a better word, maybe self-centered—or avaricious. That’s a strong word.”

He looked over the list.

“Ticklish spots, do you think they vary, like with people?”

“Maybe.”

“That means we’ll have to test them all over, belly, feet—”

“I couldn’t touch her feet!” Lani moaned. “They were like a cat’s!”

“Well she was a cat thing.”

She grumbled into her ale as she lifted it to her face.

“I’m sorry,” Aidan blurted out before he even knew what he was doing. The flash of memory, when he was running back, whatever he had originally set out to do long forgotten, to the source of angry and frustrated (but not altogether unattractive) laughter that filled the forest’s air, suddenly struck his heart with honest regret.

“I’m not mad at you… It’s her fault,” she huffed and slammed the tankard down on the table. “And it’s always on my feet! And it’s always with licking!”

“There’s probably a reason for that,” he posited. Lani narrowed her pretty eyes at him.

“What are you trying to say?”

“Well, sometimes when… you’re on the road for a while… your feet are stuck in heavy boots all day and…”

“You’re trying to say they stink!”

“No! No, no, no, it’s just that—well yeah—they’ll start to sweat and… well mamono have strong noses…”

“Listen to you! Mr. Answers!”

With a violent bump of the table Lani’s foot was out of its wrappings and knocking aside empty tankards. Her toes fanned as she tried to lift it high enough to push into his face, laughing all the while as he tried to avoid it. Chortling himself, Aidan tried to push her bare foot away—though he did make sure to steal a glance at her sole. On more than one occasion he had the pleasure of rubbing them when they were sore on their travels. Of course, it did lead to the majority of their predicaments, but somehow Lani never let it stop them. Those precious few minutes not only eased her physical tension but also helped fight a deeper ache that the two shared and hid away for fear of losing both their careers and contact with each other.

“I’m sorry!” he laughed one last time as she took her foot away.

“You better be,” she said with a melodramatic sulk. Her face brightened suddenly, and she bit her lip, but couldn’t hold onto the gesture for long without her face breaking out into a silly grin. “And I know how you can make it up to me. My feet are still sore from all that walking; let’s go to your place so you can give me one of your amazing foot massages.”

The hammering in his heart was deafening.

“We can finish talking about how we’re going to fuck over the guild too. The lights here are starting to bother me too,” She closed her eyes with a coy giggle. “But gods I could really use that rub.”

Aidan didn’t know how he found the breath to say what he did next.

“I’ll rub whatever you want.”

She looked up at him, for a moment unsure if she heard him correctly. Then she smiled. How her mouth lifted her features, Aidan didn’t know if he would be able to tear his eyes from her striking face.

Her voice was barely a whisper, heavy with desire.

“That’s what I wanted to hear.”

The two paid for their drinks and left the tavern, to a nearby place where, in one night, they secured a future together outside of the Cartographer’s Guild.