Chapter 12: Journeying to the slime den

"I think it is high time I taught you some spells," Edward said, as they stopped to camp for the night. He wanted for Felix to be able to protect himself. Sure, slimes were not as dangerous as dragons, but accidents did happen, and Edward wanted to spare his soulmate from them.

"Sounds exciting," Felix scooted closer, until his knee brushed with Edward's tight. These past couple of days, he had taken to luxuriating in the closeness between them. The kisses they shared were just an added bonus.

Felix didn't know what he was feeling, but he wanted more of it. He wanted to wake up with Edward's arms around him, to play tag with the blonde in their shifter forms. Even to laze in the sun, during the morning hours.

He wanted for Edward to always be there, and the bunny shifter dreaded ever becoming separated from the cat shifter.

"Right. I will teach you something easy, but first, I have to know your affinity. Give me your hand," Edward said, and then waited for Felix to reach out. When Felix's palm was flush against Edward's, Edward poured some mana through their connected hands, and then waited. As Felix's hand became moist, Edward grinned.

"Your main affinity is water. But you don't seem to have a second affinity. Which means you won't be able to wield ice, until you learn how to train your core to manifest foreign affinities," Edward explained, and Felix bowed his head.

"It was so cool, when you used ice against the water goddess," Felix didn't know what he was meant to use if he could only wield water.

"Hey, chin up, dear bunny. These are not bad news. I mean, those who have only one affinity can control subclasses of it. You may never be able to wield ice, but you can control the very blood, which courses in people's veins."

"I can?" Felix thought about all the good he could do, during healing sessions, if he could control blood. Would he manage to stop internal bleeding, even? He grinned when Edward nodded.

"You will have to figure out how that works by yourself, but I bet that I can give you the building blocks," mostly because Edward had water affinity too, and knew how to bend the life-giving liquid to his whims. "Right, you have water all around you. In the soul, in the leaves of the plants, in people and animals. What you need, is to get a feel for it."

Edward tore out a cluster of grass from next to his feet, and handed them over to Felix.

"Now, I want you to soak up this grass with your mana, and take the water out," Edward commanded, as Felix took the grass from him.

"Do you think I can do this?" Felix asked, beginning to slowly feel for the water in the grass, and finding that his mana was circulating through pathways he had never known existed, before. Then again, he had never tried to get the water from a blade of grass before.

This could come in dead useful. If he could get water out of plants, then the danger of being without any water out in the field would become a thing of the past. He focused, letting his mana circulate in the pathways of the grass. When he finally felt that his hands were getting wet, he grinned in triumph.

"Right, now try to manifest droplets," Edward urged. Felix was taking to this training faster than what Edward supposed should be his speed. But then again, Felix was a healer, and he already had mana control down to an art.

"Right," Felix said, and then began to feel for the droplets. He closed his eyes, and then began to focus on the wetness on his palm. After five minutes of doing his best, but not knowing what else he could do, he opened his eyes, and then saw it.

Balancing on a blade of grass, was a single water droplet. No bigger than a morning dew, and just as pretty.

"Edward, I think I did it!" Felix exclaimed, and carefully made his way towards the cat shifter. Careful with the water droplet to not fall on the ground, and with it, his proof that he was improving.

"Good job, dear bunny," the endearment in Edward's voice was clear to be heard, and Felix felt his heart jump. He could smell the minty scent of Edward in the air, and it seemed as if it was coming out of him in waves. Felix blinked a couple of times, and then looked Edward in the eyes.

"You smell of mint. I love mint above all else," Felix told him, his breath hitching. He felt as the grass slipped from his grasp, and then fell to the ground. "Why do you smell so strongly of mint?"

"Why indeed?" Edward asked, wanting for Felix to come to his own conclusion.

"You smell of home," Felix scooted closer, and then sniffed Edward. "So nice."

"Do you want to learn a secret?" Edward closed the rest of the way, and Felix nodded, his eyes half-closed.

"You smell like catnip," Edward said, grinning. That seemed to break Felix out of the haze he was in because he blinked a couple of times, and then looked Edward in the eyes.

"What were you doing by the road, that night?" Felix wanted to ask if Edward had been pulled to him. The slight nagging feeling he had felt, the days before he got his results, didn't leave Felix any rest now. He wondered if Edward had felt it too. If Edward had been pulled to him.

"I was waiting for a special bunny," Edward closed the distance even more, and then gave Felix a lopsided smile. "And the bunny hopped in my arms, and was very respectful, at that."

Felix's eyes widened, and he lunged at Edward. He captured his lips in a kiss, which felt like molten flames. When they broke apart, Felix barked a laugh.

"You sly cat! Were you ever going to tell me we are soulmates, if I hadn't pressed the issue?" Felix asked, not letting go of Edward.

"I might have, if you took too long to figure it out. Felix, do you want to spend the rest of your days with me? In sickness, and in health. In joy, and sorrow?"

"Save these words for the wedding," Felix told him, giving him another kiss, this one more chaste.

"So, there will be a wedding?" Edward teased.

"When I get to know you better," after the claiming, Felix wanted to say, but his cheeks heated up. A claiming meant sex, and he wasn't ready for something like that yet. But kisses? Kisses he could get an endless supply out of.

And so, Felix turned into his bunny form, and then proceeded to give Edward bunny kisses. His fluffy body held securely in Edward's hands.

"Do you want me to turn into a cat?" Edward proposed, as Felix continued to nuzzle at his mouth. When the bunny nodded, Edward did turn into a cat, and then proceeded to rub himself over Felix's fluffy pelt. The only sound around them, being the musical of the crickets, and the merry fire.