Blood Queen Reborn

Arranging a situation to make sure Layla could eat her fifth human without any prying eyes was a bit of a tricky problem, but Vorden figured it out. By placing the stone box on the ground, Quinn was able to remove the bottom part, and partially bury the leg. Then, he replaced the contents of the box with Earth made dirt balls, and put the bottom back in the box.

They could finally have Layla and Fex stay together at the grassy plain area so the rest of the class could leave. As the class was moving to a new location, Vorden tripped and ’revealed’ the box’s contents. Several members of their class saw the rather unremarkable objects and forgot there ever was a mystery of the box’s contents. Thankfully it was just of Quinn’s magical circular rocks.

Layla and Fex lingered in the grassy plains area. Although she was struggling to keep her hunger down, she got momentarily distracted by a few maroon colored hanging flowers. Their beauty made her forget about her hunger for a short time.

"Hey Fex, look at these flowers! I wonder if they’d been scanned yet? They look so pretty," she whispered just loud enough for the stragglers in the back of the class to not care if the two were not following immediately.

One of the boys scoffed, "Are they seriously trying to bud a romance?"

"Who cares?" Another one shook his head, "We’re on an orange portal, pay attention."

Once the class proceeded and was absent minded of the little incident, Layla’s mouth salivated from the scent, before she had even fully retrieved it. She grabbed the leg and inhaled it quickly, like someone who had starved for a month. Fex could care less about it being a mess, but it was certainly juicey and delicious for Layla.

Once satisfied, Layla disposed of any remains and smiled tiredly at Fex, "Whew, I’m glad we dealt with that easily enough. Now we can catch up."

Fex looked at Layla’s dirtied face, "You should probably leave the rest of your meal here as well." He handed her a bottle of water, "I don’t think wearing blood is the new make-up trend."

Layla thought about thowing out a smart retort but she couldn’t think of one. Fex helped her with the water bottle and cleaned up her face for her. There wasn’t a mirror around and it’s not like she could see her own reflection.

Once she looked reasonably presentable in human terms, Fex sniffed the air while Layla used her connection to Erin. Within moments they agreed on which direction the class went and raced towards them. There were no threats in the area so it was easy to catch up and pretended they were never missing.

Layla even picked a few flowers just in case their absence was noticed.

Erin saw them returned and lagged behind so she could join them. Their quick-witted plan actually worked. Layla and Fex had no problems catching back up with the class. They could finally go back to the shelter with no worries of Layla going on a hunger-spree.

In fact, she didn’t want to see what that could result in given past experiences.

—

Before long, after a long arduous day dealing with Del’s behavior, Erin almost smiled at seeing the shelter as they approached. It looked like a higher tech version of a treehouse in an ancient text about a stranded family that they were forced to read in school.

In this case, they were able to enjoy the illusion of peace as they climbed the steps and crossed a bridge to the room they were temporarily staying in. Quinn and Vorden left the group to hang out elsewhere, and Fex left to do his own thing. Meanwhile, Erin sagged into her couch, relief washing over her as she looked back at Layla who joined her.

Without saying a word to one another they just sat in a rare moment of relaxation.

In another part of the shelter, Peter sagged into a bench near the exit, his body not wanting to go any further. The middle seat seemed to beckon to him and he refused to ignore its request for occupancy. Cia decided to sit next to him.

"It’d be nice to spend some time with you instead of as a group," she sighed while running his hand through his hair.

Peter leaned into it and softly smiled, "Yeah, alone time is always good."

Ever since yesterday, they constantly found themselves standing close to one another, and causally initially physical contact. Even now when the two were sitting next to each other, Cia leaned in, and Peter did the same, their lips mere seconds from touching.

The two started kissing, which then evolved into a full on makeout session. They each started to get sweaty and looked disheveled, especially with the jungle’s intense humidity. That was when they heard people walking in the area.

Peter quickly pulled away and Cia frowned.

"Really? You can’t just show you’re in a relationship with me?"

Peter looked away bashfully, "What if it’s a teacher or something? That’d be really weird..."

"Let them see! It’s fine, expected even for a pair of teens like us," Cia playfully rolled her eyes.

They heard voices talking and recognized them immediately.

"There you are!" Quinn said, "Where were you? I was looking for you everywhere!"

"Just doing some stuff with Cia," Peter said nervously, then turned to Vorden, "Who’s he?"

Vorden was tagging along with Quinn as he didn’t really know anyone he could spend time with. Erin and Layla seemed busy, and while he could hang out with Fex, the little one seemed to be more active when around Quinn. It was a bit of a risk to hang around Quinn more often, but Vorden did want him to get better.

Meanwhile, Raten laughed uncontrollably inside Vorden’s head. "Least someone here is getting action."

He was referring to the way Peter and Cia looked, and Vorden realized what he meant.

"Oh, that’s why they’re so sweaty and their hair looks like a hot mess," Vorden whispered.

Quinn heard his words, and took a moment to try to connect the dots, but he couldn’t. As far as he could guess, the humidity was just really bad for them.

"This is Vorden, he’s someone we recently added to the team, and what kind of stuff were you doing?"

"It wasn’t important stuff," Peter quickly said, embarrassed.

"So I’m not important and I’m just stuff? Thanks Peter..." Cia bitterly muttered, standing up and started to storm off.

"I didn’t mean it like that!" Peter cried out, but it was too late. She was already angry.

"...We should come back later," Vorden whispered to Quinn, "It looks like they have some stuff they need to sort out."

Quinn frowned, upset that he was yet again unable to hang out with Peter again. Still, the two walked away temporarily. They left them space to talk and were far enough away so they couldn’t hear them.

—

When Erin arrived at the shelter, she was noticed by a tall man with long flowing black hair. He decided to give her an hour. Exactly 60 minutes later, as he was preparing to pay her a visit when he watched her and Layla leave their room and head out. Of course Arthur had to follow them.

"Layla, have you decided on learning the shadow ability?" Erin asked as they walked to a field near the shelter that had a river running through it.

"Of course, I wouldn’t have done all of that training if I wasn’t. My mind is made up."

Just as Layla happily agreed to learn, Arthur appeared from his shadow right behind her.

"Hello ladies. Do I hear that I now have two shadow students?" he asked as he gazed on two shocked faces.

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