Reincarnated into a Snow Griffin-Chapter 93

The soothing chirp of birds waking me up is a calming yet welcomed surprise in the morning, and even as the flames in the fireplace have died out long ago the heating sun took its place in warming my surroundings, coming as a thin line over the openings on the walls, shinning bright behind my closed eyelids.

I yawn myself awake, blinking a few times and remembering last night before I stretch up and make Ethan fall down, stopping myself mid movement only to notice a lack of weight against my side, and when I look over he is indeed missing, and a single glance tells me is not only from my side but from this very room.

I shake myself awake as I stand, popping the bones on my wings and stretching my back up and my paws forward before closing them on my back, feeling the floor he was at, cold to the touch.

Long gone... could he just... just have left me? The thought brought bitterness to my heart as my claws came out into view to mark the wood beneath, rasping deep marks in it.

Left, he had just left, why did this fact bother me so much? Is the betrayal of having him leave first, perhaps to pock the prizes by himself after having me pinpoint the location of our target? Had he had utter motives to leave just like this?

Or, in the end, was just because of who I am? Perhaps he is out there, telling everyone about me already, perhaps trying to find someone to sell my location to and-

"Why do you seem so gloomy?" A voice brings me back from my thoughts as I stare at the cracked wooden floor where my claws dig their way in, only to look up and see the responsible for such behavior standing at the door and carrying a prey by its paws, worried for a moment but soon unfazed as he gives me a dimpled smile and says: "Brought you breakfast! Figure the apples wouldn’t be enough, especially since you eat mostly meat."

"...I can do with fruits and vegetables too." Something odd that most griffins had, being able to vary well food-wise, probably caused by some sort of common ancestral, like a horse or cow griffin or something, making so that all griffin-like creatures really liked apples and carrots too.

The image of a strange griffin horse that comes to mind almost makes me shuffle a laugh, but then, as my eyes follow Ethan as he puts his dead prey on the table and starts working on the meat, cleaning the fur and all, I try to understand the great relief I felt for seeing him back.

Worst of it all is that it felt quite normal, as it would only be natural that he would come back, that he would be bringing food, that he would return, but as much as he indeed always came back to the sect it was expected of him to do so since he is a disciple there.

But here he came back for me, I was the only thing linking him to this place this time around, and it should not feel so...perfect, it should not make sense but I did not expect anything else and... in my mind it did not make sense, no sense at all, but my heart was at ease and in peace like it had not been before, nor after losing mother, it felt like...

It felt like I was home.

And like they say, home is not where you are at, but where the people you want to stay with are, and the realization that his efforts were, after all, not in vain, and he somehow managed to make something blossom in my cold frozen heart is... terrifying.

"Really, are you ok? What are you spacing out for?" I had stopped for so long that he had already prepared the meat and was bringing the iron barbecue to the window to light up and have an exit for the smoke, and with a shake of his hand a fireball is formed and easily lighten up the charcoal left behind inside the structure.

Oh, I some times forget that his element is Fire, a core element, very strong and with high potential for destruction, even when he trained his martial arts instead, because it was ’cooler’, his words not mine, of course.

I sigh internally and decide to start the long day already once the smell of roasting meat reaches my nose, making the hunger stronger than my laziness and prompting my body to move.

I change back to my human form, reaching for an iron bowl, and as I feel the air in my fingers there is enough humidity for me to freeze in as if out of nowhere, cubes of ice appear and roll down into it.

"Here, let me take care of it." Ethan says before I can take the bowl to the fire myself to melt the ice, something that happens quickly on his hand as he heats the metal up with his bare hands. "I may not do fancy spells and runes like you but it has its uses too." He says with a smirk, happy to help although I have to wait for a while before being able to take it from him since he heated it too much, water included.

Afterward I separate a small amount to wash as the remaining would be used for drinking, and once I splash water on my face I can finally tell that I have woken up, repeating to process and freshening up.

Only to find Ethan staring at me.

"What?" I say, feeling the water trace my face since I had nothing to dry it with, and I would not stain my clothes with it.

"What?" I ask again when he only stares at me and doesn’t say anything, reaching out out of nowhere and making me stiffen in place, and yet I do not fall back nor brush him away when the tip of his finger flusters ever so gently my eyelashes, taking a drop of water that rested like a crystal drop there away with the soft movement.

"For someone so tidy, you can be very clumsy, is cute." He says and licks the drop from his finger, and that is enough to help me get really wide awake and with a racing heartbeat.

...Oh boy.