Guilty x Creatures Ch. 29

"Hm... True, I could do that... But no, I'll hold on to the apartments for now." mused Anton "We do need to do something about money for you two though... But I'd rather do something more creative than just giving you the apartments back..."

"Oh, do you want us to use creative methods like yours?" mocked Kianna as she cocked an eyebrow "Whenever we need some money we should be like you, and just go out and enslave somebody so we can take all their stuff?"

"Hey, that's not exactly what happened! And that's not one of my normal methods. I've never even done this before now." chuckled Anton "Of course, I'm not saying that wouldn't work. Since it clearly did for me. But no, I don't think you two need to be doing that."

"Uh huh, so what do you mean then?" asked Kianna.

"Well, I don't know yet. We'll have to think about it..." mused Anton "I'm sure we'll figure something out though, eventually."

"...What were you talking about before then? When you said you use more creative ways?" asked Kianna "What do you normally do?"

"Uh, well, normally, whenever I find myself needing a bit of money, or a large amount of it really quickly, then I'll go and do an odd job or two." explained Anton.

"Odd job?" questioned Kianna "What does that mean?"

"It's, something like a temp job. They used to be called "quests" back in the day. Usually it's just a task that you complete for pay." explained Anton "There are several agencies that I've signed on with that offer odd jobs. Things like delivering valuable items, or recovering lost ones. Then there's surveying wild lands, collecting bounties, driving away hostile creatures, hunting manaraged animals, and so on and so forth. These type of things can pay pretty well depending on what the job is. And these agencies are always looking for people with magical talents. So I tend to get at least a few offers sent to me everyday. And if I think a job offer looks interesting, then I'll take it, and if not, then I won't. It's that easy."

"Oh, really!? So you're kinda like a mercenary then!" exclaimed Kianna "That's cool!...Do you think we could go with you whenever you do your next odd job!?"

"Well... we'll see about that." said Anton with a smile "It depends on what it is. And if it's something I think I can even take you with me on. So it may not be the very next one. But, I'm sure you'll get to come along at some point. So don't worry."

"Cool!" exclaimed Kianna as she began to wiggle back and forth in excitement "I can't wait!"

Chuckling, Anton went to speak again but was stopped short as a ringing buzz began to blare out from his phone which was sitting on the shaded table far off to his right and out of his reach.

"Uh oh." muttered Anton as he went to rise up from where he was lounging.

"I got it!" exclaimed Kianna as she slipped off of him and darted over to the table and back.

"Thank you." said Anton as he took his phone and immediately looked at the screen "...Hm, I'm not sure who this is?"

Anton patted his chest as an invitation for Kianna to lay back down as he put the phone to his ear.

"Hello!" grunted Anton as Kianna gleefully clambered back onto him "...Oh! Hello Salia. It's good to hear from you. I was starting to think you might have forgotten about me."

Both Kianna and Fiona pointed their ears straight upwards as they turned their attention to the phone.

"...Well I guess you're right, it hasn't quite been a week just yet." mused Anton as he moved the phone in front of his face for a second and glanced at the date "...Just a day off though, so close enough I guess....Ah! So your Master's planning to make his call tomorrow then. Well, I do appreciate the heads up on that."

Kianna's eyes were wide and probing as she rested her chin on Anton's sternum and stared up at him. Anton grinned as he noticed that her ears had been shifted forwards a bit and were tilted to the side so that she could focus them on his phone. Although her eyes remained on him, it was clear that she was listening intently to the shoggoth speaking on the other side of the line.

"...Oh no! No! I didn't kill them!" exclaimed Anton as he smiled at the sour look that spread across Kianna's face "No, no. Rather than kill them, I decided to enslave them and then turn them into my little pets instead."

Anton's smile broadened as he watched Kianna blink her eyes into an annoyed glare.

"...Oh no. You should see them now, I'm sure you'd be surprised!" boasted Anton as he raised his free hand and began to tap his thumb and index finger together in a crab-like pinching motion "They've both become just the sweetest of little things..."

Kianna shifted her glaring eyes over to Anton's hand as he began to slowly and menacingly move his pinching digits towards the tips of her ears. The annoyed look in her eyes deepened to true irritation as she flicked her ears away and then twitched them back and forth as she tried to both avoid Anton's grasp and continue to listen to the conversation taking place over the phone.

"And actually, on that note." smiled Anton as he teased Kianna into blinking by pinching the air in front of her face "I was wondering if you would be available to hire as a tutor?...Yes....Well you see, I have a fledgling maid here that could use some lessons. And who better to teach her than a professional like you."

Going completely still with surprise, Kianna's ears pointed themselves straight upwards and her eyes went wide as she locked her gaze with Anton's. Seizing the opportunity, Anton grabbed hold of the tip of her ear and gave it a playful tug before letting it go to flick wildly.

"...Ah, well, that's too bad." Anton mumbled around a grin "Well if things don't work out there, and you find yourself available again, just let me know. I'm sure I'll still be interested in utilizing your services....That's right....No, it's just one of them....No, I wouldn't say that it's necessarily a hopeless case. It's close enough though, and I could still use all the help I can get."

Kianna blinked and pointed her ears straight back as she narrowed her eyes back into an irritated glare.

Anton did his best to hold back a chuckle as she huffed through her nose in indignation.

"...Excuse me?...Well that's a bit of a private matter." stated Anton as creased his brow and shifted his eyes in the direction of the phone "...Oh! No! No, I'm afraid I haven't shown her the joys of being a woman yet!"

Anton smiled broadly as he turned and locked eyes with Fiona.

"...Oh yes, she is quite the stubborn one. I'd say it's easily her strongest trait!" laughed Anton as Fiona crossed her arms and began to fume in obvious anger "We're trying to work on that though. Aren't we, Fiona?...Salia says "Hi" by the way."

"Tell that bitch to fuck off!" snarled Fiona.

"She says "Hello" to you too..." said Anton as he went back to absently grabbing at Kianna's twitching ears "And so does Kianna, by the way... Salia says "Hi" Kianna."

Kianna said nothing as she stuck her tongue out at the phone.

"Kianna says she misses you, but is happy to hear that you're back with your Master now." said Anton as the incensed dark elf shifted her glare back to him "And she wishes you nothing but the best..."

Kianna's eyes began to faintly glow as she slowly shook her head.

"...Mm hm....No, I'm serious. I've got them both right here." mumbled Anton as he laid his hand down on top of Kianna's head and began to gently massage his fingers into her hair "...No, no, I understand. You can tell their Mother exactly what happened, don't worry about me....Well it's something that will have to be dealt with eventually anyway. So we might as well get it out of the way now....No, I'm not concerned with that....I wouldn't know....No, we're still here....Well this is where they wanted to stay, and it was important to them so, here we still are....More than likely. But like I said, it's a problem that isn't going to go away, so we might as well deal with it sooner rather than later....No, I agree. Go ahead and tell him that I'm fine with it....Alright then, that sounds good....Sounds good....You take care as well, Salia. And thank you for the call. It was good to hear from you....You as well. Take care, bye."

Anton moved the phone away from his head as he ended the call. He let a playful grin remain on his face as he took in Kianna's annoyed expression.

"So, "pets", huh!?" grumbled the dark elf as she narrowed her eyes into thin slits.

"No, you weren't paying attention!" teased Anton "I said you were "little pets" not just pets. Big difference there."

"Oh shut up! No there isn't!" snapped Kianna as she rolled her eyes and pressed her chin into his chest in protest.

Chuckling, Anton continued to softly massage her head until her eyes eventually softened.

"...So I guess Salia's gonna call our Mom?" mumbled Kianna.

"Sounds like it." nodded Anton.

"...I guess we should call her first then, right?" questioned Kianna.

"Do you think it'll make a difference? Because I'm not so sure that it will." stated Anton "Aside from what you've told me, I don't actually know her at all. But based off of what you've said about her. I'm guessing she's going to be angry and react violently?"

"Yeah... She probably will..." mumbled Kianna as she lowered her ears.

"Do you think she'll come here herself?" asked Anton.

"Yeah, more than likely..." answered Kianna.

"Well if that's the case then it might be better for us to just let things play out out as they will." reasoned Anton "We'll have more time to prepare if we let Salia do all the contacting for us."

"How are we going to prepare?" questioned Kianna as her ears pointed themselves straight upwards.

"Well... I don't think we need anything too fancy..." mused Anton "We can set a simple ward that'll let us know when she's here. That way we won't be surprised... And that should probably be enough."

"...You don't think it might be better for you to just leave when she gets here? At least for a little while? Just so we can talk to her first?" questioned Kianna.

"What!? No! Absolutely not!" declared Anton "I'm not leaving you alone with that woman for even a moment! No! That is out of the question!"

"...Huh? Why not?" asked Kianna.

"Because she's dangerous, Kianna! Deranged! Look at what's she's done!" declared Anton "No, I am not going to leave you alone with her, ever."

"...She's not going to do anything to us though! We're her daughters!" stated Kianna.

"We don't know that for sure. And I'm not going to risk it." said Anton as he shook his head "No, there's no reason to do that. None at all."

"...But what about you!? You're still taking a risk!" cried Kianna as a pained grimaced spread across her face "...Maybe we should all just leave then. That might be better..."

Anton paused the movement of his fingers for a moment as he assessed the unhappy looking dark elf.

"No, that's not what you want." he said as he shook his head and disregarded the idea "And that's not going to solve anything. We'll still have to deal with your Mother at some point. So we might as well do it now."

"But what if she tries to kill you!?" cried Kianna.

"I'm assuming that she's going to." stated Anton "If everything you've said about her is true then I don't see any reason to think that she wouldn't."

"So what are you going to do!?" cried Kianna.

"Be prepared." said Anton with a shrug "That's all I can do."

"...Why aren't you worried about this!?" exclaimed Kianna as her voice became laced with emotion "This is bad! Really bad!"

"Hey now." soothed Anton as he let his calming aura seep into her through his palm "Everything is going to be okay, Kianna. This isn't something that I haven't been giving some thought to. It's just like with the dark elves. When I decided to enslave you these were some of the potential problems I had to take into consideration. They're all things I've been thinking about since I first had the idea to keep you. And I do have some plans for them. So there's no reason for you to worry yourself, everything's going to be fine."

"Wait, you really thought about all this!? Even before...!?" questioned Kianna.

"Of course." said Anton "That's why I took so long to decide whether or not this was something I really wanted to do. And why I wanted to get to know you two a little better before I made my final decision. I wanted to make sure you were worth the trouble."

Kianna lowered her ears as Anton ran his hand down the back of her head and through her hair.

"And you are..." he said with a smile.

Kianna was still for a moment as she stared back at him.

"But I don't want you to be in danger!" she whined as she frantically wrapped her arms around his sides and hugged herself to him "What are we gonna do!?"

"We're going to take things as they come, and we're going to deal with them one at a time..." soothed Anton "We know what's coming, Kianna. And trust me. We can handle this."

Unable to resist the soothing warmth that was permeating throughout her body, Kianna hid her face against Anton's chest and flattened her ears back completely as she let out an unhappy sigh.

"...I know you think there's nothing you can do, Kianna... But that isn't true..." breathed Anton as he again ran his hand down the back of her head and stroked her hair "You feel helpless... But you really shouldn't... Because you're not. Not anymore... We might be facing dark elves, Kianna. But I think you've forgotten, that so are they..."

Kianna was still for a second until her ears suddenly flicked upwards and became alert. Without a word she raised her face up just enough for her large eyes to peek out from the shadow of her head and become locked to Anton's.

"People have been scared of you for years now, Kianna..." said Anton as he took in the look of her eyes "Don't you think it's about time that you gave them a reason to be afraid?"

Anton couldn't help but to grin as he watched the dark elf's eyes widen.

"Enemies want to drive you away from your home, Kianna... They're going to try and take away everything that you care about..." whispered Anton "Now are you going to just let them do this?"

The shadow created by Kianna tilted head was suddenly filled with an eerie red light as her irises began to faintly glow.

"...No." she whispered menacingly as she pointed her ears straight back behind her head.

"I didn't think so." chuckled Anton "My brave little dark elf..."

"...You have to show me what to do!" declared Kianna "Show me what I can do!"

"Of course." smiled Anton "You've seen a few things already. So you should have some ideas of what your abilities are like....This is a good one for you though. Have you seen this done before?"

Kianna's head popped up in surprise as Anton instantly concentrated his aura into a circle around them. Looking upwards, she was shocked to find that a large, transparent, glowing orange bubble had suddenly winked into existence and was now surrounding her, Anton and the lounge chair that they were both laying on.

"What the fuck!?" cried Fiona as she jumped up out of her own chair and slowly approached the bubble "...These are a real thing too!?"

"Hm, so you've never seen this one either?" questioned Anton as he cocked an eyebrow at her "Did your Mother ever use any magic at all while around you?"

Both of the dark elves failed to register what had been said as they were too focused on their examinations of the glowing bubble.

Reaching out her hand, Fiona tentatively poked at the thin sheen of glowing orange and discovered it to be hard to the touch. Pressing her palm against the side, she found it to be smooth, warm and unyielding. Her mind immediately came to the realization that Anton had somehow caused the light of his aura to solidify into what was essentially, a shield of glass-like material.

Kianna's eyes darted all around as she took in the sight of the world that now been coated with a hazy overlay of orange light. She stopped when her eyes landed on her sister's hand, now pressed against the side of the bubble.

"...You can't get through it!?" she questioned as she eyes jumped to her sister's.

Fiona said nothing as she pushed against the unmoving bubble and shook her head.

Kianna stared at her for a moment before suddenly turning to Anton.

"What is this!?" she cried.

"It's called an "aura field" and as its name implies, it's a force field made from your aura." explained Anton "It's normally used as a shield, but it's also technically a trap."

"A trap?" questioned Kianna.

"Mm hm. You see Fiona isn't able to get in here. And that's the shield part. You however..." smiled Anton as he tapped Kianna on the nose "Can't get out. And that's the trap part!"

Kianna stared at him for a moment before looking straight up at the dome of the bubble above her.

"Can you do it again!?" she cried "Please!?"

"...Um, sure." stammered Anton as he released his aura.

Fiona jumped back as the bubble disappeared from right in front of her and reappeared just a moment later.

"...Again! Please!" exclaimed Kianna as she watched the bubble vanish and then pop back into place "...Slower, please!"

After watching the bubble wink in and out of existence several more times, Kianna bought her eyes down to meet Anton's.

"Leave it down, please." she whispered.

Anton nodded as he dropped the bubble for the last time.

Taking a deep breath, Kianna's eyes narrowed with determination as she kept them focused on Anton's and let her own aura flare outwards around them.

Both Anton and Fiona remained silent for several minutes as Kianna's ears slowly pointed themselves straight back and her face became more and more strained from her efforts.

"...Concentrate it in closer. Focus it until it feels like a ball around you." whispered Anton "And when you know it's ready. Take a hold of your mana, and ignite it. You just have to touch one little point, and then let it spread out on its own as it follows the shape of your aura..."

Taking quick breaths through her nose, Kianna nodded and kept her eyes locked to his as she followed his instructions and continued her efforts. For some time there was nothing, then, without a sound of warning, Kianna's breath got caught in her throat as a pink colored bubble that was identical to Anton's suddenly appeared around them.

"I did it!" cried Kianna as her ears pointed themselves straight upwards and her eyes widened to their fullest "I did it! I did it!"

"Yes you did!" laughed Anton as he looked up at the now pink colored sky.

"Holy shit!" exclaimed Fiona as she stepped forward and pressed her hands against the side of the new bubble "Kianna! This is fucking amazing!"

"I did it! I did it!" repeated Kianna as she let her eyes rove over the bubble she had created "...I did it!"

She stopped short as she locked gazes with her smiling sister who was still on the other side of the bubble.

"...Wait! Wait, how do I turn it off!?" she exclaimed as she whorled back onto a now confused looking Anton.

"Uh, you, just, let it go." stammered Anton "The mana you have linked to it. Just let it go."

Kianna blinked and turned back to face her sister. Within a moment the pink wall between them disappeared and then less than a second later it suddenly reappeared behind Fiona.

"Whoa!" cried Fiona as she spun around and found herself trapped within her sister's newly formed and now much larger bubble "...You can make it bigger!?"

"Yes!" cried Kianna as she excitedly turned back to face Anton "I did it! I did it! Look! I can protect you! Both of you!"

Anton stopped short as his face softened.

"Yes, yes you can..." he smiled as he cupped her cheek in his hand "Great job, Kianna."

"Yes!" giggled the dark elf as she grasped his hand with her own and nuzzled her cheek into his palm "Okay! Next I need to know how to make people terrified of me! No! I need to know how to make fire! That has to be next! How do I do that!?"