Her eyes slowly creep open, accosted by the cold light of a winter morning. Yet, despite the frightfully frigid weather of last night, she feels so wonderfully warm. Groggy, she lifts her head from a firm pillow to scan her surroundings, quickly realizing that she is not in her normal bedroom. Instead, she finds a much smaller room of meager, wooden construction with little more furniture than a dresser, a desk, and the bed upon which she lies. Interestingly, at the foot of the bed, she finds feet sticking out from a blanket, and they are certainly not her own, being far too masculine in their appearance. Her mind sharpening at this revelation, she turns her attention to what she had believed to be a pillow, finding it to instead be an awake young man.
“Good morning! Did you sleep well, miss?” he asks warmly once her gaze meets his green eyes.
Almost instantly, in a fit of pure instinct, she pounces upon him, grabbing his throat with – in his mind – unexpected strength. Tightening her grip, she examines his face intensely. Though he is obviously uncomfortable being strangled, she does not feel him to be afraid, his eyes maintaining contact with hers, a still calm within them, and that calm reminds her of the night prior, of the tenderness he had shown her, of the sniveling mess she had become in his arms. This causes her to recoil, releasing him from her grip and turning around, not wanting this strange young man to see the blush appearing on her face. For one such as her to show such visual embarrassment to a random human – which to her is tantamount to an apple in an orchard – would be dreadfully shameful.
“I’ll take that as a yes, I guess…” he chuckles, grasping his neck. “Ow…”
“I apologize. That was terribly rude of me,” she responds, collecting herself and turning back around to face him. “State your name so that I may thank you properly for the kindness you have shown to me.”
“My name? Well, it’s Gideon, miss, but you really don’t need to thank me for anything,” he replies, sincerity pervading his words. “You just seemed so distraught, so naturally I figured I ought to try and console you.”
“How did you know…?” she asks quietly yet intensely, her head bowing, hiding her face.
“I’m sorry?”
“How did you know how empty… how hungry I am?!” she shouts, tears beginning to drip from her eyes onto the bed. Suddenly, she is once again met with the same tender hand on her cheek from last night, causing her to look up at the man longingly.
“Your eyes gave it away. There’s no life in them, and I know that look all too well,” he intimates, suddenly serious, looking directly into her tearful purple irises.
Nearly losing her composure like last night, she holds herself together well enough to ask a simple question.
“May I please hug you, Gideon?”
“S-sure,” he allows, being met with a tight embrace a mere second after his response. A bit embarrassed by the feeling of her slender body and small, perky mounds pressing against him, he awkwardly returns the hug, enveloping the woman as her tears begin to make wet his nightshirt. After perhaps a minute, he hears her speak once more into his chest.
“Lilim. You may call me Lilim,” she mumbles, tightening her embrace.
“Nice to meet you, Lilim,” he replies, smiling, still unsure how to proceed.
After only a few more seconds, Lilim disengages from Gideon and deftly begins to head towards the window through which she had entered, dexterously getting up from the bed with one fluid motion.
“I have stolen too much of your time, Gideon. I should depart before I selfishly embezzle any more of it,” she states, wiping her eyes as she walks.
“Stolen? You haven’t stolen anything. There’s really nothing better I could be doing right now,” he assures. He means it, although he is risking being late for an important meeting right now.
“I must ask you to silence yourself before you convince me,” she pensively snickers, reaching the window and opening it further. “But… if I may be so bold… may I ask your permission to return here tonight?” she coyly inquires, turning back to look at Gideon. Taken aback initially, he soon warmly responds.
“Of course! I’ll be sure to leave the window open for you. I mean, unless you’d prefer the front door,” he rambles.
“Hehe, the window will do quite nicely. Take care until then, Gideon, and thank you,” she says, taking flight out the window, at the same time ensuring she is not seen by any villagers.
Left lying on his bed, Gideon flops onto his back in a state of disbelief.
“Did I really just invite a succubus back into my house?” he questions himself, blushing deeply at the thought of the beautiful Lilim returning come nightfall.
He never would have imagined that something like this could ever happen to him, yet his good nature seems to have sealed his fate. This troubles him deeply because, after all, the reason for his being stationed at this village is to kill things like her.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
