25. Cinis

This is perfect. For the first time, I think I am experiencing true warmth.

Serena and I lay in the aftermath of our lovemaking, surrounded by the remains of the destroyed hovel.

I think she is asleep, until she stirs in my arms, and groans sleepily.

"This isn't very comfortable." She says, though there is a smile in her voice.

Serena sits up and looks around, and I do not miss the way she shivers slightly. Prazh is still frigid, and the cold seems to seep into Serena's skin, despite the warmth that comes from me.

I place my hand lightly on the middle of her back and stroke the soft, supple skin there with my thumb.

It is dark, with only the moonlight, and the low burn of my fire to light up what is left of the hovel.

Serena's skin, pale and smooth, seems to glow almost translucently in the darkness.

"We should rebuild." I drag my attention away from Serena's shape and focus on her words instead.

"Are you sure?" I ask her quietly before I sit up.

"Do you want to stay here? Maybe we can find something else, somewhere else. Somewhere more sheltered, somewhere safer?"

I am not thinking of my own safety in this case. But in the case that Serena is ever alone, I do not want to leave her vulnerable.

Serena cocks her head to the side, and bites her lip, frowning slightly.

After a moment, she shakes her head decisively and speaks with a firm tone to her voice.

"No. We'll rebuild here. This is our place. The little forest critters do not even come here anymore because they know that this is our place. We can rebuild a new place, a house, one that is even better than before."

"Well," I lean forward and place a loving kiss on her shoulder. "I am sure you know what you want. So I'll follow your lead."

A bright, dazzling smile stretches across her face, and she pushes me onto my back. She straddles me and leans down to kiss me.

"But first," she whispers as I feel myself harden beneath her. "We need to eat."

Then, with a quickness that surprises me, Serena jumps up and pulls her clothes on.

I'll have to go hunting. I need to get animal skins for her so that she can make new clothes. Or maybe we should trade with one of the human settlements.

My thoughts are reflective as Serena and I walk into the forest. I walk in ahead of her, and she falls back as I break into a sprint, darting here and there, until I capture an animal – one that Serena calls a dripir.

It is quite large, so it should keep us supplied with meat for a few days, and it dies quickly enough.

Serena has gathered wood for a fire, and we walk back to the destroyed hovel where she dumps the firewood in a pit. I summon a ball of fire and light the wood quickly, while Serena skins the cleans the dripir.

She carves up some of the meat with a knife that she produces from thin air, and soon the smell of roasting meat fills the air.

"What did you think Aldris meant?" When Serena speaks, her voice is soft and timid. In fact, I have never heard her sound like this before.

I have never heard her sound anything but brave, I think to myself as she turns the meat.

"It was an empty threat." I shrug and try to keep my voice light. I do not need to worry her.

You might be right. Aldris did not have time to alert his cronies before he died. He thought he would win the fight.

And if it wasn't an empty threat then… I'll deal with it when the time comes.

"You know dark elves," I tell her and help her take some of the meat off the fire so that she doesn't burn her hands.

"They're full of bluster and talk. Aldris couldn't keep his mouth shut, and in the end, we won. You won."

Her face lightens, and some of the tension clears from it.

We eat quickly, as the sun starts coming up. When the first light leaps over the horizon, Serena and I are ready to start building.

She explains exactly what she wants, and after I visualize it for a few moments, I am ready.

I pull the elements around me towards me, and with a loud, creaking groan, I pull rock and wood directly from the ground.

Serena is quite particular about what she wants. Soon, four large, tall walls are standing in the clearing.

I use some of the remains from the hovel to fortify the walls and strengthen the foundation of the house.

We walk inside, and Serena inspects the place with a wide smile on her face.

"Once we're finished, we can go over to one of the camps and trade for some furniture. It"s quite large, so we'll need to make it very comfortable, otherwise it will be cold."

The concept of furniture is still baffling to me, although I know that humans and dark elves use them daily.

You'll get used to it in the end.

Serena continues to instruct me, and I add more walls on the inside, with archways in some of the walls so that we can walk between rooms.

I add a stone staircase, which we walk up, and then I add another layer of rock and wood, to create a floor for the second story.

By the time I finish, the sun is hanging high and fat in the sky, although the sky itself is hazy and gray with cold.

I finish off with a triangular roof, and a chimney, which connects to a fireplace in the main room on the ground floor.

"If you tell me what kind of… furniture you need." I roll the word ‘furniture' around in my mouth, the word still foreign to me. "Maybe I can try and craft it for you."

Serena pauses, cocking her head to the side again, her lips pursed.

"I suppose we could do it if we have enough wood." She says, her kaleidoscope eyes bright.

I let out a loud guffaw at the joke. I turn and gesture towards the huge forest that we're right on the edge of.

"I don't think we'll have a problem there," I tell her, and Serena snickers wickedly.

Soon, my magic burns in me, warm and smooth, as I drag piles of wood from the forest, strip them of their bark, and carve them up.

The sun has set when Serena starts a fire again. She places some of the leftover raw dripir meat on the flames.

She is cooking the meat in a new firepit, inside the tall wooden gate that surrounds the house.

Some of the ground inside the gate has been sectioned off for a garden that Serena insists that we need, and the other side of the ground serves as the firepit.

"This is the most luxurious house in all of Prazh," Serena says, her voice cheerful and filled with laughter. "Not even the dark elves could boast that they live in such a house."

The air also feels warmer tonight, though I am never really aware of the temperature. But I can tell by Serena's happiness that Prazh isn't as cold as it usually is.

Songbirds in the forest burst into song as the sun sets further.

It is close to midnight when we're completely finished with the inside of the house.

Inside the house, on the ground floor, there is a small kitchen and an area to eat. There is what Serena calls a "living room," right off the kitchen. Several chairs – for which Serena will make cushions – stand facing the fireplace.

There is a bathroom on the ground floor, underneath the staircase, and upstairs there is another bathroom and three rooms.

Two of the rooms aren't furnished yet, but the room we will be using faces the East.

"This way, we will be woken every morning as soon as the sun rises," Serena says happily as she slips an arm around my waist.

She leans her head against my arm as we stare out of the window into the darkness.

"Can you believe this? Just last night we had nothing. Now we have…all of this." She exclaims. "We have everything we could ever want."

I cannot help but look down at her indulgently.

"Yes," my voice is a soft growl. "Yes, we do."

"I want to fill the second room with books. Books on Prazh are rare, but I'm sure that if we scavenge hard enough at the human settlements, we'll be able to find some. We'll find copies at any rate."

I resolve, at that moment, to travel all over Protheka if I need to, to find whatever books Serena wants.

"I'm sure that the entire room will be filled with books before the month is over." I tell her without revealing my new plan to her.

"I doubt that," she says, laughingly, completely unaware of my intentions. "But we'll need to build a few shelves before we even start collecting."

"Anything you need." I lean down and kiss her full on the lips. "Anything for you, Serena."