Reincarnated into a Snow Griffin-Chapter 89

There is a deadly silence before the storms hits in and my brain copes with more reasons to panic, and panic I do, for a moment forgetting where I stand and trying to push Ethan back to flee, only that such sudden move earns me another mouthful of water by falling down into the lagoon, but Ethan is fast and pulls me right back up, and this time my grip on him is thicker than iron, and I have no shame to stuck myself like a koala around him.

"Wow wow hey there, easy now I got you, you are safe, no need to be scared uhm?" He says at my clear fearful display, clinging to him like that, but I could not care less about my image at that moment if it meant being safer by grabbing him, but still I try to save some face by saying:

"Is just that I- I don’t know how to swim, that’s all." I blandly give him a haft truth and receive an hum back that clearly indicated he did not dig it, but at least he is kind enough not to question it any further.

But as a satisfied smile spreads on his face, covered by the fact that I was too worried about hugging him for my dear life, a warm feeling spreads in Ethan for having such close contact and experience with an unusual scared side of me and he does not seem inclined to let go of the sensation that easily, especially for been used as a safety anchor, for being trusted as so.

He does not know how much he wanted to act as my hero until the rare chance of acting like one for such a cold beauty came, and at that moment his heart is filled with joy and possessiveness.

So while licking his lips and hugging me tighter to avoid that I could glimpse at his reddening greedy eyes, he says tries to keep the subject up:

"I could always teach you you know..." He says in a velvet smooth voice, but still out of it as I am, and still inside such frightening waters, it takes me some time to realize he said anything at all.

"I- What?"

"Swimming, I can teach you, and you can help me with the height thing too..."

I’m in no condition to think much less make any decisions, so I stay quiet as he finally starts moving us to the shore, the way our bodies move and bend making me grip at him harder as my face comes closer to the water, and I can see my widen eyes stare back at me while being surrounded by the creeping darkness of the depths.

I shiver with the vision, but hopefully he takes it from being wet and cold and not scared like I am.

Freaking hell I hate this, being so weak against my own fears, and yet... exposing my uncertainties in front of Ethan does not seem to bother me as much as it should, only the fact that I was traumatized with water is getting under my skin, not the fact that he is there witnessing it, saving me even.

I frown at that, not knowing what to think of such lack of resistance.

Since when did his presence relax me this much to the point of letting my guard down? Nonsenses I tell you, but still...

He has been getting under my skin for quite some time, but it seems that his constant presence and warm displays he gave me have managed to ever so slowly penetrate his cold carapace over the years, and I find that I have grown used, even fond, of his company.

But such things may change now, for we finally get ashore and there is no point in trying to hide my animalistic features any longer, it would only look even more suspicious.

In the end I say nothing as we finally reach land, and holding myself from kissing the solid ground I stand and try to take back some of my dignity, twisting the wet fur of my long tail that looked pretty much like a soaked cat at that moment, and have to shake my wings in the air in an effort to dry them up a bit, but it would take a few minutes for them to dry at the upcoming chilly night, so I guess no flying for a while.

"Hey, you will get me wet!" Complains Ethan when my wings splash him, but I only raise an eyebrow at his remark since there was no way to get him wetter than he already was.

He intends to do the same thing I did with my tail with his clothes, but the moment he pulls his shirt over his head I avert my gaze, feeling very exposed without my veil to conceal my eyes.

I give a slight cough before saying: "Is the tower nearby? I cannot fly like this and night is approaching."

I try to ignore the immediate subject, being practical and all, but as he answers that is just up a few curves away I cannot help but feel unease, enough to not follow his footsteps once he starts walking and actually stay put to say:

"You, you don’t... Doesn’t it bother you?" He stops and takes a moment to turn, and if staring at his wet back was already bad as is, watching the drops of water draw my eyes down and trace his curves, but once he turns my brain goes dead for a moment.

And of course the rascal notices every detail and reaction he can get out of me, so he stops and slowly smirk, opening his arms and giving me a once over, only to say after a few moments:

"Had your fill? I can always take off the rest and give the full view."

"Please don’t." I say a little too fast, my heart would stop if he did that, and as he chuckles, amused by the situation, he comes to me and warps a warm arm around my waist, the almost skin to skin contact making my ears red and my cold snarky refute to get stuck in my throat as he says:

"Come, we will catch a cold if we stay out in the open like this, I already had the fireplace set for us to spend the night, we can always talk afterwards." And with that he pulls my wobbling legs along, but I did not know if I was weak on the knees from the scare of almost drowning or because of the presence of this devil so close to me.

Dear mother where have I put myself into.