Trouble With Horns

Rora and I stumbled forward through the mists, the cloying atmosphere seeming to thicken and deepen with every step. We’d quickly decided that holding hands was a good idea to keep from being split up by the seemingly endless fog around us. I couldn’t deny that there was an element of wanting to be closer to her as well… but I was trying to ignore the little spikes of excited happiness shooting around in my heart whenever her hand tightened on mine.

My romantic turmoil was somewhat overshadowed by the fact that something was following us. We knew for sure a few minutes back when a shadow passed across what we could see of the sun above as it circled us like prey under the eye of a hungry eagle.

“I think the mist is fucking with us,” Rora said from beside me, her eyes searching fruitlessly into the white.

I gripped tighter to her hand, while I kept my own eyes watchful on the mist, “Definitely. My sense of direction isn’t this bad. I know for a fact where our party was when I leapt to you, and we walked in that direction. We should have at least found the bottom of the valley we were in.”

“Yeah, and now we’re lost on the side of a mountain somewhere. It’s like in fantasy books and shit where there’s a spell on the mist, I’m sure of it,” she said, turning to meet my eyes.

“Agreed. Honestly I think we just try and find our way out of here. I don’t like it here anymore,” I said, a slight edge of fear creeping into my voice.

This place was tailor made to fuck with me. I can’t punch the unknown, the shadow behind us, or the flash of movement fleetingly glimpsed in my peripheral vision. I wanted to scream into the crushing silence just to tell it to get fucked.

“Alright, but I don’t think it’s going to let us out until it’s done with us,” she said sympathetically.

“I won’t let it up from under my fists until I’m done with it,” I growled, my hands spontaneously bursting into flame.

“Alright there,” Rora laughed, squeezing my burning hand. “Stay calm so we can try to get through this, yeah?”

“Sorry. You’re right. I’m just nervous,” I apologised, putting my flaming hands out.

We continued onwards into the mist, each step treacherous as we found ourselves stepping on previously hidden and uneven terrain. It was slow going, and I was starting to think we might actually be moving further into the Bleaklands, rather than out.

When Rora’s footing failed and caused a landslide, I almost cried for joy at the enraged howl we heard from down the slope. Something was coming up, having been hit by the falling stones, and it was not happy. Scratch that, several somethings, and they were fast.

“Oh fuck I know those,” my companion exclaimed, dropping my hand and drawing her sword, while in the same breath she returned to her human pyre form.

“What are they?” I asked urgently, entering a defensive stance.

“Khail. Basically ghouls, or zombies with claws that run and are smart, or whatever you want to call them. They hunt in packs. I saw them on LipsAndShades’ stream when she was in an undead style area,” she told me quickly, already raising her sword to send a burst of flame at our charging attackers.

I wanted to ask why she watched my sister’s stream, but my words were forced to wait as I took the first Khail in the face with an explosive fist, throwing it back down the hill. My heart sank when I saw that it wasn’t dead, only parts of the rotting flesh having been ejected into the mist, while the skull remained intact. Fuck, they must be higher level than the animals we’d fought.

“My punch didn’t kill it!” I called, grabbing and twisting the arm of a Khail before it could rake its disgusting diseased claws up my stomach.

“My flame just cooked the flesh off! We need to break the skulls to kill them I think! I can’t remember for sure!” she said urgently, moving to place her back against mine.

“Your sword is better for that, but I think if I explode their faces with a punch it will weaken it for you?” I said thinking quickly.

“Good plan, here’s another one now!” she said, pointing out one that had decided to stop circling us and charge her.

It leapt at her with claws bared wide, attempting to slash first with one, then the other, but Rora ducked under it. I shifted to the side and caught its arm, swinging it like a sack of laundry into the ground, causing it to howl in rage as small chunks of bone snapped off and skittered into the mist.

Before it could recover from my slam, I pummelled one fist and then the other into its face like a blacksmith hammering steel on an anvil. Its writhing stopped momentarily, and that was when Rora’s sword snaked past me and drove into the skull of the creature. There was a strange echoing, relieved sigh, and the body that had once been so much more than the raging hateful creature we saw now went limp.

“One down!” I whooped happily.

“A shitload more to go,” my friend growled, blasting one we weren’t ready to deal with back with her fire.

“How does your teleport work?” I asked, eyeing our circling foes.

“Line of sight. It has a bit of a cast time too, and gets cancelled if something ends up blocking the destination I intended,” she said absently, her mind mostly occupied by blocking the probing strike of an angry Khail.

“Think you can get behind one and give it a kick in my direction? I can throw them all over the place if they are off balance,” I said.

“I can use my flame brambles again on the next one, and after that I’ll do the kicky thing,” she told me, already raising her hand to cast.

“Sweet! Go go!” I grinned. This was hella fun. It was exciting to be working and figuring out the solutions to our problems together.

She did as she’d said when the next one took a run at us, but as I readied myself to rush in and put my fists to work, Rora cried out in alarm. Hot pain scorched up my back as an unseen Khail clawed my back, and I stumbled forward instead of leaping.

“Fuck!” I cried out, feeling something within me rise up and take notice.

Whatever it was, it felt like anger, but deeper and more primal and I roared, taking another bleeding step forward until I was on the creature bound by the vines of fire. My fist was no match for it’s puny little fucking skull now, my skin pulsing with a dark red rage that fueled my strike like rocket fuel.

A second strike from my attacker burned a line down my side, and I growled in pain, but that didn’t stop me from reaching around and taking the wrist of the bastard behind me. It scrabbled at me, the claws of its other hand digging furrows down my leg. I just grinned, braced myself, and tore the fucker’s arm off at the shoulder.

I thought I might have seen shock for just a second in the lifeless dead eyes of the thing, but I didn’t stop to have a conversation. Gripping the freed arm by the fist, I pointed the claws at its stomach, and rammed it home with a laugh. Oh hey, my own claws were huge now, and I had red bone spurs on my knuckles and similarly coloured bone plates covering my forearms. Neat!

I began to beat the thing into the ground like a drummer in a metal band having the time of her life. My blows broke its body so thoroughly that regardless of the fact it was still alive, it would pose no threat. Before I was finished killing this one, my eyes sought another foe as though I needed to break it to sustain my existence, and I relished that feeling. I was here to rumble.

I dashed towards the next enemy, driving my claws up under its ribcage, then ripped out everything inside. It staggered under the blow, lurching drunkenly about as it trailed chunks of long useless organs. Bracing a hand on its collarbone, and the other around its neck, I tore savagely up, disconnecting the head from the body with a series of protesting cracks.

“Tami!” I heard from nearby, and I looked up to see Rora looking at me with awe and a little fear in her eyes.

“What’s up?” I asked, more than a little confused by her expression.

“You’ve gone like full demon! Please tell me you’re in control right now?” she asked, almost sounding like she was begging.

“Mostly! I’m feeling very satisfied right now, maybe a little angry, in a cocky I will fuck these things up sort of way, why?” I smiled.

“Look at yourself girl!” she said, a relieved smile spreading across her lips.

At some point I’d lost my shirt, it must have been when the Khail tore my back up. It didn’t really matter though, because my skin was black with dark red pulsing light coming from within. All across my body, bone plates the colour of arterial blood protected strategic areas.

“Oh damn, I look badass!” I said happily, looking up to smile at my friend.

“Your horns are huge too!” she grinned, clearly calming down when she realised it was still me in charge.

I reached up to my horns and found them to be thicker than my small hands could wrap around, and they curled outward for about a foot before veering sharply back inwards, almost meeting back behind my head.

“I think you should check your HP though… you are bleeding quite a lot. This pack of Khail might be dead, but I don’t like the idea of doing the rest of this solo if you know what I mean,” she advised me, stepping over dismembered corpses to get a better look at me.

I did as she told me, the UI springing into existence as it sensed my desire to see it. My hit points were indeed pretty damn low, and dropping too. I had bleeding and diseased status effects, and buff that read ‘Mk4 Berserker Rage’. Okay, so I was a berserker then. I didn’t feel like completely out of control like it implied, although it had felt particularly satisfying to tear those Khail things apart.

“I appear to be bleeding to death. Also I think I’m diseased,” I told her, unable to stop myself from finding the situation kind of funny.

Rora snorted, and rummaging around in her robes for something she laughed, “You’re like a puppy that’s just gone and jumped in a giant pool of mud. Hold still little puppy, while I clean you.”

She produced a few little vials, and handed one to me. “Drink it,” she urged.

I did so, and my health began to restore rapidly. As it did so, my bleeding status effect blinked out, my wounds healed, and my demonic form waned. The bone armour faded into my skin as though it had not existed, and my skin returned to its natural soft pale tone.

“And this one,” Rora continued, shoving another one into my hands. She was keeping her eyes pointed away from me now, and I could see a little hint of red marking her cheeks. Right, I was topless right now.

I looked down and smiled at my boobs. Hello little friends! I enjoy your company! It seemed Rora’s hand enjoyed their company too, because her outstretched hand holding the vial bumped into one of them, gently grazing my tit. Oh. That felt interesting. Gasping, I reached for her rapidly retreating hand and took the potion from it, downing it in one gulp to distract from the hardening of my suddenly alert nipple.

The second potion cleared my diseased status, and I sighed in relief as my body began to feel normal again. Before my toplessness could cause any more awkward sensations, I pulled a spare shirt out of my inventory and put it on, thanking the Khail that had torn my shirt up for sparing my bra, even if it had slipped down my chest a bit. I needed to tighten the straps.

Once the shirt was on, I reached up under it and did just that, tightening the straps and fitting the cups back over my boobs. Doing the lift and settle, I made sure I was comfortable, then dropped my shirt again.

“Alright I’m decent again. Not that that really matters with you… that tongue…” I said, chuckling low. Oh wow! Had my transformation turned my libido up or what? I was feeling so damn thirsty right now!

Rora looked back and goggled at me for a moment like I’d just described what it was like to snort water or something. Right, turn it down Tami, turn it down. No need to scare off your new friend by reminding her about the time she gave you the most incredible orgasm of your life.

“Sorry… uh, I think the transformation made me horny as well as angry,” I said, smiling sheepishly.

“Right,” she coughed, making fleeting eye contact. Ahhh there it was, the eye contact. Dayum. Looks like she was a little excited too.

“So um, I guess we keep moving?” I asked, leaving the ‘before I jump you,’ unspoken.

“Right. Yes. Let’s goooo, thisaway!” she said, pretending innocent cheer. Her cheeks were definitely a little red. Cute.

We walked in silence for what felt like forever, occasionally speaking when it was needed, but otherwise trying to calm down. Our efforts to keep things calm was slightly hindered by the occasional rabid packs of undead animals that attacked out of nowhere from the mists. We didn’t encounter another pack of Khail thankfully, but they weren’t our greatest worry.

Above us, our hidden stalker continued to swoop through the mists, its presence only betrayed by the whisper of air over feathers. When it got just a little too close, my ears were able to pick out a wet rasping that gave me chills. It sounded disturbingly close to what had been outside the tree that night with Millie.

I was just picking my wait over a particularly craggy chunk of rock when I bumped into Rora’s back. She’d paused in front of me.

“Rora, are you okay?” I asked, moving up next to her, my arm moving across her shoulders to steady her.

“Look,” she whispered, nodding forward.

I followed her nod, and gasped as I took in the view. The mist was less dense here, but still very much obscuring most of what we could see, meaning we were only able to pick out glimpses of the vast shattered city that stood before us. It looked ancient and worn, but more than that it looked smashed and broken. Something had happened to this city, something cataclysmic. Towers that looked as though they had once soared into the sky for hundreds of feet now lay in broken heaps across the ground. Majestic plazas and parks that must have once contained a vibrant culture stood overgrown by the gnarled and diseased trees of the Bleaklands.

“Well shit I think we found the heart of the Bleaklands,” I murmured in awe, unconsciously holding tighter to my friend with my arm.

“Yeah, that looks incredible,” she breathed, finally tearing her eyes away from the scene to give me a wonder filled smile.

I found myself biting my lip as I looked into those beautiful orange eyes that were so filled with excitement. She was extremely pretty when she was excited, and I wanted to kiss her more than anything in the world right now.

I almost did. I was going to, but then the thing that had been following us made an attack. All the warning we had was that same soft flutter of feathers, accompanied by a rattling of chains, and I pulled Rora down to the ground just in time. Twin spiked flails whistled dangerously through the air where we’d been, and then back into the mists. What the fuck?

“Shit! That thing finally wants us!” Rora exclaimed, standing up first and dragging me with her.

We rushed over the rise and down the hill towards the city. I could see an outlying old tower that might give us some cover, and I was more than happy when we reached the entrance to it. I was entering the ruined tower when I had a text message from my Dad pop up in the corner of my screen.

External Message from Contact: “Daddy”: Remember to stay hydrated sweetheart.

What the fuck Dad? That was the most bizzare thing to see in the middle of being attacked by some crazy thing with a pair of flails… also, sweetheart? What?

“Tami! Watch out!” Rora called from inside, reaching out and yanking me in by my arm.

Again I heard the rattle of chains and then a crash as the flails impacted the doorway where I had just been, sending splinters of stone whipping through the air around us.

“Fuck! I got a text message and it distracted me, sorry!” I said, looking around frantically for anything to help us.

Rora was doing the same, and we both spotted an old but intact trap door in the floor. We went for it, and unspoken, we both hauled at the rusted iron handles. It took a lot of straining, but eventually we got it open, all while our attacker smashed randomly at the tower with its flails.

“I don’t like jumping down a random hole without knowing what’s in it first,” Rora said, staring down.

“I jump down random holes all the time! Generally I like to know they are safe though yeah,” I winked, hopping down the hole feet first.

My feet hit the cold stone of the cellar floor, and I lit my hands on fire to light the room, expecting an attack at any second. No attack was forthcoming however, and I found that the cellar was rather small and had nothing but an old broken barrel and a lot of dust.

“It’s safe!” I called up, then moved out of the way so she could drop down.

She followed behind me, allowing the trap door to slam shut behind her and cutting off all light sources but my fists and her hair, which she put out after a moment. It was a rather intimate space if I was honest, sound seemed heavily dampened by the thick stone the place was made out of, and it was only a modest five yards wide. It would be perfect to wait out the attacker above, but other than that we’d eventually have to leave.

“I guess this works for us staying the night in safety,” she sighed, looking back up to the trap door where our mysterious attacker was still taking out its rage on the structure above.

“I uh, guess so yeah,” I agreed, suddenly very aware we were alone together with no one to interrupt anything that might happen between us.

Rora gave me a small smile, then summoned her bedroll and placed it on the ground and lay down on top of it with a weary sigh. It was about this moment I realised how much my body ached, and I quickly followed suit, placing my own bedroll down a few feet from hers. The feeling of relief I felt when I lay down was just incredible, and I moaned quietly in satisfaction.

“Damn what a hectic day,” I groaned, staring into the blackness of the room now that my hands had been put out. Couldn’t lay down with them alight after all, I’d set my bedroll on fire.

“Yeah you can say that again,” she laughed softly.

“Distracts me from real life though,” I said softly to myself.

We lay in silence for a while after that, just allowing our bodies to rest and our minds to wander.

“Same here,” Rora said quietly, breaking the silence.

“Hmm?” I asked.

“Distracting from real life,” she sighed, shifting position on her bedroll.

I wonder what Rora had going on in her life that was stressing her out. I wonder if I could help in some way. Not that I wanted to broach the subject of who I was irl, not at all.

Rolling onto my side to face her in the dark I asked, “Oh?”

“Just dumbass lesbian things,” she said, “Don’t worry about it.”

“Alright,” I said, then decided to change the subject and probe for answers about her watching my sister, “So you watch LipsAndShades, when did you start following her?”

I was wondering if she’d recognised my sister in the call earlier. I thought Rora’d had her eyes closed, but maybe she’d gotten a peek. Or recognised her voice possibly?

“Ahh, a while back. I was curious about… some things. I don’t watch her often but she’s good at playing games, and she’s a chick, and she’s cute… so you know,” she said, trailing off.

“Ah okay. She’s cool, I like her,” I said, unable to tell her that Taylor was my twin without also revealing that I was a man in real life. It was pretty common knowledge she had a twin brother. It didn’t seem like she had made the connection, which was a huge relief.

“Yeah she’s okay, I don’t like— Whoa did you feel that?” she asked, bolting upright and lighting the room with a flame from her hand.

I had indeed felt it, the little twinge of pain that signified one of our party members dying. I checked my hud quickly, finding that Xethu had just been killed.

“Shit Xethu died,” I swore, feeling terrible for not being there to help.

There was another twinge as Florence died, and we both stared at each other, waiting for the last shoe to drop. It didn’t take long, we felt Grerum go down just five seconds after Florence.

“Well, we’re definitely on our own now,” Rora murmured, staring apprehensively up at the trap door.

“Yeah… we are,” I replied, and then my stomach rumbled.

She looked down at my noisy stomach for a moment, then smiled, “Do you have food? All I saw you snacking on was that jerky, and I doubt that was enough.”

“Uh, I don’t have food no… this race doesn’t seem to need too much though, I think I draw some of the energy I need to move from the ambient magic or something. That’s all I can think of to explain how terribly I’ve been maintaining it while staying upright,” I said sheepishly.

“Alright, let’s eat then,” she laughed, “I’ll give you some of my food.”

“Thanks!” I said, enthusiastically sitting up.

She produced some dried meat, a pot, some water, some vegetables and two bowls. With all of that she got to work making a little stew, using her flame to boil the water. I opened the trapdoor for us just a crack so we’d have fresh air as her flame burned the oxygen away, but otherwise I let her cook. I could cook pretty well in real life, but I also knew not to boast or try to step in without invitation.

Once the food was ready, we sat down to eat, chatting about the game as we did so. She was pretty knowledgeable about the game despite her relatively new character. She’d started two days before me. She was in Uni like me, also on the same weekly rotation and we shared a bitterness about how they had started the rotation practice in the first place.

It had happened before either of us were born, when the universities were running out of trained staff and space in their facilities. They had decided that because the human life span had extended so much, they could justify starting a week on, week off study program. It essentially doubled the time it took to get your qualifications, but it allowed them to have twice as many students going through at the same time. Those with money could pay to go full time.

Rora had displayed another cute trick with her fire, leaving a little flame no larger than a torch floating in the middle of the room. With that to light our dinner we’d been sitting against the wall as we ate, having moved our bedrolls, and once we were both done, Rora put everything away into her inventory again. I smiled over at her gratefully, happy for both the conversation and the food. The way the warm light from the little flame played across her face was gorgeous. She was gorgeous.

She smiled warmly back, and I don’t know if it was consciously or not, but she leaned slightly over in my direction. I did the same, just an inch or two, but she followed again, and so did I. Then we were shoulder to shoulder, searching each other’s eyes with happy little smiles. I was glad that my transformation back to human form has gotten rid of all the undead gunk from the fight earlier, because it allowed me to slip my hand carefully into her hair.

I watched for some sign she was going to pull away, but she didn’t. Instead, she hummed happily and leaned into the caress, while a broader smile lit her lips. Her hair was as soft and thick as I remembered it to be, and the feel of my fingers running through it sent little skipping sparks of sensation tingling up my arm. This girl. This woman… I needed to be closer.

I was about to lean in to kiss her when she slid down to lay on her bedroll, an inviting little smirk twinkling up at me. Oh gosh. I followed her, leaning my body against her side, but she wasn’t content with that. She pushed me down a little more until she could get her arm around me from underneath, using it to press me closer against her.

I breathed her in for a moment, relishing the closeness of her body, the way my soft curves were moulding to hers, bringing delightful warmth at every line of contact. Seizing my chance to finally, finally do what I wanted, I leaned up and kissed her, and oh was it a kiss. I’d been yearning to kiss her ever since I’d seen her again, and even before that.

As soon as our lips were pressed together, I felt her giggle through the contact, her arms wrapping tighter around me. She started humming after that, I didn’t know the tune, maybe it was nothing more than spur of the moment, but with it rumbling through her body and into my own, I couldn’t help but feel a warm stirring in my stomach.

Our kiss was slow and languid. Unhurried. This wasn’t the wall of the stables behind Darb’s place, this was our own little sanctuary, and we took full advantage of that fact. Something I hadn’t realised until this moment, was just how much I loved it when you could feel the other person smile into a kiss. It made me feel like I would float away on a soft warm breeze. I might actually get to experience that sensation now that I could summon wings. I’d have to compare later.

We stayed like that for a long time, just kissing each other to the slow happy cadence of her humming, but I wanted more of her. I wanted to give her what she had given me the night of our first meeting. My hands snaked into one of the slits of her robes, the strange garment that seemed almost shredded, but which was actually meant to conceal and obfuscate her movements. One other advantage it held, was that it allowed my questing hand access.

I found her tank top underneath and gently coaxed it up until I was able to dance my fingers across her stomach. That got a chuckle, and a little wriggle from her.

“That tickles,” she murmured into our kiss through another smile.

“Mhm, I imagine this will too,” I grinned, my hands rising until they hit the band of her bra.

Deftly, I slipped my fingers underneath, tracing little lines across the underside of her boobs until she growled for me to get to the point. So I did. My fingers found her nipples standing somewhere between the warm resting and hard attention. I played with them, teased them and enjoyed the way she reacted with each flick and pinch. Not one to be outdone, her hand slipped up the back of my shirt and she began to draw shapes across the soft muscles of my back with her fingernails.

I had to stop and gasp for a moment at the sheer sensitivity of my skin while I was turned on. This was still just as wild as it had felt the last time.

Deciding I’d given her nipples enough attention, I trailed my fingers slowly back down her stomach. Pausing there for a moment, I waited, unsure if I should go further. Would she push me away if I tried? Her breathing was slow and expectant, but what was she expecting?

That question was answered when her hand came down to meet mine, giving it a gentle nudge in the direction she wanted. Right, permission granted! I slipped my fingers under the waistband of her pants and slowly inched further down. My hand met the soft warm curls above her center, and I brushed my hand through them as I had her hair. I was rewarded with a little gasp into our still moving lips, and I pulled back to get a look at her.

She was flushed and smiling up at me, her eyes seeming to drink my gaze in with an excited caring happiness that took my breath away. Wow! This was the closest I’d seen her to glowing without her hair literally setting on fire. I wondered idly if the hair downstairs would light up also. Food for thought?

I sent my hand further down, finally reaching the destination I had been seeking and slipping between the warm wetness I found there. My gosh was she wet, and my fingers had no trouble beginning to figure out what she liked. I watched her face intently, a stroke here, did she like that? Oh yes she did. A circling finger there? No, too much and too soon, but maybe when she was closer.

I went slowly, testing the waters and giving her time to let me know if something I was doing wasn’t what she liked, but I seemed to be finding the right spots more often than not. When I thought I’d figured her out just a little, I began to bring her to where I wanted her. Working my fingers through her, watching as her smile grew and her back arched when I hit particularly sensitive areas. Her hand had forgotten its task behind me, but that was just another way I knew she was definitely enjoying herself.

I shifted slightly in our embrace in order to give my hand more leverage, then slipped a single finger inside her. It was only an inch or so, because my objective was the inside wall of the entrance, and when she took in a sharp breath and pulled my face to hers for another kiss, I giggled and slid my finger across the wall again.

It seemed I had been just a tad too mischievous in my fingerwork, because she growled and flipped us over, bringing me onto my back and her above me, our mouths still working at a kiss that was growing hungrier and happier by the moment. I couldn’t stop giggling, the way she was trying to stay in charge, but every time I brushed my thumb across her clit she halted and shuddered breathlessly.

I could feel her getting close by the way the muscles inside her were dancing, and she confirmed my suspicions when she begged into our kiss, “Please Tami, oh my god please.”

So I did as she bid, swirling my thumb across and around her nub even as my fingers went just a little deeper, and that was apparently all she needed. She gasped and chuckled at the same time, breaking the kiss to bury her face in my hair. She shook on top of me as the orgasm swept through her, and my fingers did the same as her tongue had did for mine, coaxing it out, lengthening the pleasure she felt.

My cue to stop came when her teeth bit down lightly on my earlobe and she growled, “Enough, oh fuck, enough. I’m done you little demon, I’m done.”

“Uh huh?” I teased in a sultry tone, giving her entrance one last flirting brush with my fingertips as I pulled them out.

“Oh yes,” she sighed happily, collapsing fully on top of me, “Wow.”

I hummed happily, raising my hand into the air for a second and lighting it on fire to evaporate her wetness off my fingers. Once I was relatively clean, I pulled her close with my arms and cradled her against me. It felt wonderful, holding her as she recovered from the pleasure I had given her.

It had probably been a bad idea to go ahead with all of that I realised, when my heart swelled and fell in time with our joined breathing, but I couldn’t really bring myself to care. I was falling for this woman, that was for damn sure.

I thought we might end up sleeping like that, but as I was beginning to doze off, she growled suddenly and sat up, giving me an evil grin, “Nope, we’re not falling asleep until I get to watch you fall apart like I just did.”

“Oh,” I said, grinning back at her and biting my lip eagerly.