In the surrounding darkness, Lion continued to embrace me without a sound.
He nuzzled my hair, and told me gently that Puma told him some bits about what I shared to her as I seemed to have a nightmare while sleeping, shortly after our heartfelt conversation.
Puma told him that she cannot share the sensitive parts, only a brief description on the hurt I suffered back on earth.
Lion then magically made some floating lights appear and a some sort of thick mattress on the rugs and made me sit down on it. He kneeled in front of me and held my face gently with his hand, looking at me with such gentleness that I soon began to cry.
I felt shame but like Puma said, I should start forgiving myself.
I should be honest with him.
Lion sat down beside me and embraced me tightly.
After that, I stopped crying and hesitantly told him the things I shared to Puma.
I talked to him for a long time.
....
After I've done talking, he stayed silent.
I started to tremble, scared that I might have disgusted him.
I was about to stand up when I saw him crying.
He apologized for not being there to protect me back then.
He gave a sweet, gentle kiss on my forehead, then my nose and my lips. He lovingly looked at me, while he stroke my hair with his hand.
Then he took my hand and kissed it tenderly. He softly kissed my wrist, my arms and my cheeks then intertwined my fingers with his.
He placed his head on my shoulder, and stayed there for a while, silently squeezing my hand. His tail stroke my cheeks gently.
We stayed in that position for while until we heard Sly's voice calling us.
....
We went outside the tent and saw that the sea looks very peaceful. Ghost transformed to his other self and flew everywhere with excitement. Sly then transformed to his dragon self and flew towards the sea and landed on it, sending huge waves towards the seashore.
I laughed, enjoying at what I'm seeing. Orm challenged Lion into a mini magic duel in which Lion scoffed and threatened to bury him in the sand if he loses.
Orm winked at me and then started sending magic ice shards towards Lion. Lion activated some sort of a magic shield and with a wicked grin, sent a magic missile towards Orm, sending him flying to the air.
I laughed and laughed, enjoying at the sight.
Soon I felt hot and sticky so I excused my self and went inside the tent while Lion and Orm continued with their duel.
With a cunning smile, I changed into one of my latest design of clothes: a bikini.
Not just any bikini, a string bikini.
When I wore it, my breasts were barely covered by the fabric, same with my bottom end.
Sweet coconuts.
I made them too small.
Oh well. I decided with a naughty thought that I would tease Lion. I do not intend to tease the other males though. But Lion is here and all they could do is just look.
I let my hair flow freely and walked outside the tent barefoot.
I looked at the sea and felt a bit of nostalgia.
I closed my eyes and exhaled slowly.
I remembered my family and i visiting the sea for the first time. My sister and I were both fascinated at the sea. I remembered how I used to make sand castles with her and how we tried to negotiate with our mother when it is time to go home.
I slowly opened my eyes with sadness, accepting the fact that I can never see my sister again.
I walked towards the water silently while looking at the sky. The moons have a pretty glow tonight, I noticed.
The wet sand felt soft on my feet as I moved towards a deeper part of the water that reached to my waist. The sand below my feet is clean, no seaweeds of some sort, only pretty strange looking sea creatures that swam around near me.
A ray of moonlight glowed towards me, and I felt pretty in that moment. I happily splashed water around and tasted the sweet sea water. Yes, the sea water is sweet.
I took time to play with the pretty sea creatures, who somehow are not scared of me.
I splashed water towards my body, wetting myself and dove into the sea with my entire body, happily observing the pretty sea creatures under the water. I held out my hand as some tried to touch me before swimming away.
I soon ran out of air and I surfaced, water streaming down my skin as I arched my neck, flipping my hair back with a soft shake as droplets of water flew everywhere.
If only I could take a photo of myself. I felt like one of those sultry models that posted like that in one of the magazines I read.
Shaking my head, I slowly opened my eyes and looked towards the tents when I saw all four of them gazing at me.
Cuss word.
I felt myself blushing hard and I submerged myself in the water, trying to ignore them.
This is a bad idea. Or rather an idea that was much too effective for my own good.
I heard Sly and Ghost transforming back to their original self while I noticed Orm in the corner of my eye, gazing at me in a lingering way.
Lion suddenly appeared by my side, mesmerized at me.
Sly and Ghost soon joined us, while Orm continued to gaze at me from far away.
Ghost then pointed at the creatures and tried to tell me about them.
I looked at the creatures, fascinated by them. I happily tried to poke at one, giggling when it splashed water on my face.
I felt young and alive.
I felt happy.
And loved.
May this moment last for a long time.
....
I soon became hungry and we all went back to the shore. Orm somehow managed to make some sort of food for us and we all ate, while Sly took time cooking his own food.
Afterwards, Sly put some blankets on the sand and we all sat down on it on a circle, looking at the stars, the moons and the gigantic planet.
Orm asked me to point at where I'm from and I sadly told him that I'm not from this universe. Lion gave a brief explanation about it and Orm looked stunned at the revelation. Even he is aware on how unexpected my situation is.
We all had fun talking that night. It wasn't cold at all, in fact it is kind of warm. Sly was right, I thought.
I don't know how long we all sat down there but somehow, it seemed like it doesn't matter.
We had all kinds of conversations, deep conversations that seemed to improve our relationship with each other.
I learned more about them as they all shared all sorts of stories about them.
I learned that Orm had lived an unhappy life before in his old home. He was the youngest among his siblings and he was often bullied by them.
Sly left his old clan because he was shunned for being an illegitimate offspring of his mother. Females having different partners in intercourse is acceptable in this world but his clan doesn't accept an offspring having a father who was not a mate of his mother.
Ghost shared on how he was often alone due to his work and have never experienced having many companions and having fun.
Lion told us plenty of stories about his life at the forest, where he was taken in by a couple and trained by them to use basic magic.
When it was my turn, I told them stories about my family back on earth, about my sister and my memories with her. I shared to them some of my best memories I had in my life.
I missed my old home. But as I looked around the laughing faces of my companions, I suddenly felt comforted, knowing for a fact that I'm not alone this time.