Chronicles of Eden - Act VIII (38 page)

“Clover,” Doku gasped as she stepped back.

“I fucked up, so badly. It was horrible, it wasn’t at all how I thought it would happen. The entire time they were… and it felt… it was a nightmare. I thought if they just did it and got it over with I would be okay, I would have a daughter and everything would be normal again. But I was wrong.”

“Why would you do such a thing?” Doku worried.

“Because I didn’t want to admit the truth, I didn’t want to see it.”

“The truth?”

Clover slowly looked up to Doku with watery eyes, the harpy and jinx watching curiously as her mouth quivered.

“I love Dan,” she admitted. “I love him, and… I want him to love me.”

“You do?” Doku asked softly.

“I want what those other girls have, I want a man to love me and treat me well. I don’t want to endure a revenge fuck to get a daughter, I don’t want to feel that pain, I don’t want to go through that horror. I want someone who really loves me and wants to be with me.” She looked down to her hands as they trembled then held them over her face while trying not to break down.

“I didn’t want to admit that he was right, that I believed in what he was saying. I didn’t want to fall in love with him, to want to be with him like this. So I ran away. I ran away from everyone.”

“You stupid girl,” Doku huffed with a flustered stomp of her foot. “You had me worried sick about you. Don’t you ever run off like that again, do you hear me?”

Clover nodded then looked between the girls with a curious eye while wiping her tears away.

“Why did you two come after me anyway?”

“Because we care about you, how many times must I tell you this?” Doku demanded in exasperation.

“Even her?” Clover asked pointing to Star in puzzlement.

“She was the one who took after you when you left,” Doku explained. “It seems her sight in the dark isn’t as poor as mine. I followed her as she appeared to be trailing you quite well through the forest, she wouldn’t stop or slow down until she found you.”

“But why?” Clover wondered. “She doesn’t even know me.”

“I would have to reason that she was worried about you.”

“Worried about me?” Clover asked, with Star nodding with a meow. “But why would you worry about me?”

Star meowed and waved her arms around, mewing and pointing her fingers to Clover then back to the woods then to herself as she explained herself in words nobody else understood. After her long speech about whatever she was trying to say Clover merely raised an eyebrow at the jinx.

“Perfect, another girl we have no clue as to what she’s saying,” she flatly concluded.

Star rolled her eyes then quickly hugged Clover close. The elf stared over her shoulder in wonder as Doku smiled lightly and nodded.

“I think she was saying she was worried about you, Clover.”

Clover slowly held the jinx as she was rendered speechless, feeling the cat holding onto her and nuzzling her head against hers.

“Still think she’s a menace?” Doku questioned.

Shaking her head Clover hugged Star close as a few more tears came out, feeling something inside of her melting away as the jinx expressed her care towards the elf. Doku nodded then nervously looked around the battered campsite before clearing her throat to get the girls’ attention.

“Um, could we please continue this on our way back home? This doesn’t seem like the best place to talk.”

The girls nodded and helped Clover off the table, the elf stumbling in her footing as her legs felt drained of strength. She forced herself upright and began collecting her clothes that were lying about, dressing herself again while thinking carefully about something with a distant look on her face. After she was fully dressed again she grabbed her bow and quiver, eyeing the two remaining arrows with a quiet sigh before looking up at the tree that she had fallen through.

“Star?” Doku asked, with Clover then looking over to see the jinx rummaging around underneath a toppled tent. A muffled mew was heard as the moving bulge underneath the cloth which was the jinx shuffled about before she teleported out and over next to Clover. In her arms she was holding a leather quiver filled with arrows that she held out towards the elf.

“For me?” Clover wondered.

Star nodded with a meow while holding it towards the elf. Slowly Clover reached out and took the quiver, eyeing the bolts in it with awe then the jinx who warped over to the side of the clearing and picked up a satchel that she began searching through.

“What is she doing?” Doku asked curiously.

“She’s searching for anything valuable,” Clover realized as the jinx pulled out a leather pouch that jingled with gold coins inside. Star placed it in her tunic then turned the satchel upside down to empty its contents onto the ground.

Doku watched the jinx sifting through the spilled belongings then turned to Clover as the elf was slowly taking the arrows out of the bandit’s quiver and placing them into her own. Clover kept her eyes on Star, seeing the jinx finding nothing of interest in the items on the ground before she warped into another tent and started shuffling around inside. A few excited mews were heard before she suddenly fell silent. Doku and Clover glanced to each other then the tent as the jinx had stopped abruptly.

“Star?” Doku called over.

“Find anything in there?” Clover asked.

After a pause Star suddenly appeared by the girls holding a basket full of apples and having one pushed into her mouth. The jinx looked from one girl to the other while having the apple held in place, the two girls staring at her in wonder as she stood before them with slowly waving tails.

“I think she found a few things,” Doku reasoned with a shrug.

Star nodded a few times then dropped the apple in her mouth into the basket, smiling happily and meowing at the girls with a hop as she seemed proud of her find. She quickly looked around a few times then set the basket down and warped over next to the bandits that had struck each other down earlier with their swords.

“Star, let’s go back already. Please,” Doku begged as she nervously looked around the campsite.

Clover finished putting all the arrows into her quiver then tossed the bandit one into the campfire. Holstering her bow and quiver behind her she turned to see Star sitting beside a thug with her tails remaining still behind her. The two girls walked over and saw the jinx looking down at something in her hands while remaining quiet.

“What is it, Star?” Doku asked as the girls knelt down beside her.

In the jinx’s hand they saw a pocket watch with a golden chain opened to show its slowly moving hands with quiet ticking sounds. Star gazed at the watch while appearing to tune the world around her out, focusing solely on the timepiece that captured her eye.

“Why do you like clocks so much anyway?” Clover wondered scratching her head.

“Star?” Doku softly spoke. “Are you alright?”

The girls saw Star watching the clock with a saddened look on her face. Her hand lightly shook as she meowed under her breath while keeping her eyes on the watch. Clover glanced to the jinx then back down to the clock as she began to see the bigger picture.

“It’s not the clocks that mean so much to you,” she speculated. “It’s the memory they hold, isn’t it?”

Star slowly nodded as her frown turned into a saddened smile.

“The memory they hold?” Doku wondered.

“It’s like Zoey’s cloak with me,” Clover reasoned as she gently touched her cape. “There are many others like this out there, but this one is special because it reminds me of her. It was a gift from her. Her memory is weaved into every stitch.”

“Star?” Doku said with concern. “Do these clocks remind you of someone special to you?”

Star nodded as she gently traced her fingers along the rim of the watch, her eyes conveying that she was thinking about something precious to her the entire time. Her hand was then gently closed by Clover’s with the watch held within, the jinx turning to the elf with a curious mew as Clover slowly nodded with a distant look on her face. The elf took the chain off the bandit’s belt then fastened it to Star’s tunic at the hip, the girls watching as she made sure it was attached securely before smiling lightly at the jinx.

“Then hold onto it. It looks good on you anyway.”

Star paused for a moment then quickly moved forward and hugged the elf around the waist, nuzzling her face into the girl’s tunic and meowing softly with her tails curling up behind. Clover held the girl with a sympathetic smile while Doku was surprised to see and hear such things from the elf like this.

“Clover, this isn’t like you. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’m better than alright,” Clover promised as she gently brushed Star’s hair. “For the first time in a long time, I feel lighter than ever. I know how I feel and what I want now.”

“What you want?” Doku repeated. “And what’s that?”

“To be Dan’s mate,” Clover declared, with both girls looking to her curiously. “I love that man, and I’m going to earn his love in return. I will, and I won’t rest until I do.”

“You wish to be Daniel’s mate?” Doku wondered with a small smile. “Clover, what happened to you out here? Last I saw you I heard some very different things out of your mouth.”

“Zoey slapped some sense into me,” Clover answered with a smirk. “I’m done hiding how I feel, I’m getting out of my shell and taking a chance at life again. Dan did this to me, he made me realize how much it sucks living the way we are and want something more in my life. Well, what I want is for him to be responsible and take care of me too for making me feel this way about him.”

“Does this mean you want us as your family now?”

“You
are
my family,” Clover corrected her. “And Dan’s my
mate
. That’s the way it’s going to be. He’s going to know how much I love him and I’m going to earn his love in return, nothing in the whole fucking world is going to stop me.”

Doku giggled as she stood up, looking down at seeing the determined expression on Clover’s face while Star was watching the elf with a curious mew.

“Well then, I’m glad to hear it.”

*****

Walking back through the forest Star was leading the way, holding the basket of apples with one once again stuck in her mouth. She looked around at the passing woods with curious eyes while her tails waved around behind, her new watch safely tucked into her pocket and fastened to her tunic at her side as she walked with a light hop in her step.

Behind her Clover was walking along while holding Doku’s wing, guiding the harpy back through the darkened forest since she was the only one of them who couldn’t see well at night.

“So what is your plan for gaining Daniel’s love?” Doku asked curiously.

“I’m not sure yet. I only know I’m really far behind in getting it. Fuck, I’ve pushed myself so far away from them all, I hope it’s not too late for me.”

“It’s never too late, Clover,” Doku assured shaking her head.

“Dammit,” Clover cursed as she lowered her head and held in her growls of frustration. “How am I going to convince him with how I really feel? He’ll never believe me, and I know the other girls won’t let me get anywhere near him if I tell them the truth. What am I supposed to do now?”

“Clover, it’ll be alright,” Doku promised. “Just do as we all do. Be a good girl, be helpful, be supportive, be kind. If you do that Daniel will see you for who you are. I’m sure he can forgive your behavior in the past, he’s forgiven all the others with what they did in their past.”

Clover muttered something to herself as they made their way back to their campsite, fearing that she set the bar pretty high for troublesome monsters that Daniel had met in the world. Coming out into the clearing they saw Lucky sleeping peacefully in his bedding near the carriage under the moonlight. Star hopped over next to the ride and set the basket of apples down before warping onto the driver’s seat of the wagon. She bit off part of the apple and enjoyed the snack while taking out her pocket watch and opening it to once again stare at the moving hands with focused eyes of curiosity.

“I wonder why she didn’t try to rape those men in the woods,” Clover asked as the two girls watched the jinx once again tuning the world around her out as she enjoyed staring at her timepiece. “She went nuts when she saw Dan, but she didn’t even glance to those other guys’ pants when she came after me.”

“I believe it was for the same reason you didn’t find them to be what you wanted,” Doku reasoned knowingly. “She wants better than some lowly bandits or thugs for her mate. I think Daniel’s beliefs may have reached her after all, she wants someone who will love her for who she is.”

Clover watched the jinx curiously for a while then shook her head.

“Nah, I’m betting Kitten scared the rapist out of her entirely.”

“You could be right about that,” Doku agreed with a shrug.

While Star quietly mewed in rhythm to the ticking timepiece and ate her apple Clover and Doku approached the carriage doors together, the elf gulping silently as she felt her heartbeat picking up at the thought of confronting and confessing her feelings to Daniel.

“We shouldn’t disturb them now,” Doku warned as Clover reached out for the handle. “They’re all likely enjoying their time together, I feel as though if we interrupt them we’ll be punished for it.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Clover reluctantly admitted withdrawing her hand. “I think Alyssa would actually enjoy doing that to us.”

The two girls walked over to a fallen tree log near the edge of the clearing and sat down together, both gazing at the sight of their home along with Lucky and Star as it was bathed in the moonlight from above. Looking up at the sky the two girls remained quiet as they thought about their future with Daniel and his harem, both wondering when they too could be a part of it and what it would be like.

“Hey,” Clover mentioned glancing to the harpy. “Don’t tell Dan and the others about what happened tonight, okay?”

“If that’s what you want, I won’t breathe a word,” Doku promised. “And I’m quite certain Star won’t be telling any tales about tonight.”

“I won’t say a word either,”
Twilight added in their heads.