[Aster]
In the weeks that followed, Aster's newly discovered spell proved to be an absolute lifesaver for their small family, making their days and nights much more bearable. Even though the entire cave was
covered
in
a
thick layer of ice, inside their small bubble of golden-tinted fog, everything stayed nice and warm, no matter what. No longer did the biting cold
sneak
into their bones, no longer did their bodies shake uncontrollably, no longer did they fear that each night could be their last.
Long icicles hung from the ceiling in thick, jagged clusters, glistening menacingly in the dim glow of the blue crystals that managed to shine through the ice. Their numbers grew with each passing day, making the cave ceiling look more like an upside-down forest or the teeth of a massive predator, if one squints hard enough.
Not wanting any of that to fall on them while they were sleeping, they had their bed at the far end of the cave, away from the frozen hot spring, snugly positioned between two large rocks and close to their food storage. It was far from comfortable, as something always poked them in the butt or ribs no matter how much they tossed and turned, but they had to make do.
To make things even safer, as
some small icicles still loomed right above them
, Silvia
created an ice barrier between two rocks
above
their bed. It
resembled
a little dome
of
sorts, with a small opening to get inside, and it looked surprisingly sturdy.
Not from the first
try,
though
. Nor from the second. In fact, it took a couple of nights of experimentation,
as
the dome either melted or collapsed due to Aster's
fog
, but she eventually succeeded.
Inspired by her little brother's new spell, she actually figured out a way to make her ice much more resistant to his heat than it would normally be. It required quite a bit of mana to achieve that effect, and some more to maintain it as it still melted, albeit slowly. The
effort was well worth it in the end, as it
made them
feel much safer,
knowing
they had one less thing to worry about.
Sand
wiched between his mother and sister, their naked bodies pressing tightly against each other, Aster raised his scarred hand above his face into the darkness until he felt the rough dome of ice
under
his palm.
Both
his fog and the dim light made it hard to see anything around them, except for their huddled, sweaty bodies.
He gently traced his fingers along its cool surface,
trying to
feel
for
any cracks or
signs
of
melting
. 'Still holding. Good,' he thought, smiling weakly.
'No need to wake her, then.'
He let his arm fall back to his chest, sighing heavily. Words couldn't describe how glad he was to have it, not just because it protected them from potential falling icicles but also because his fog dissipated much more slowly than before. He was so tired of casting the spell over and over again,
being
drained of all his mana every day. Every little drop of it went into that damn spell
, leaving
him with a pounding headache.
And it still wasn't enough.
Every day or so
, the girls have no other choice but to cuddle him tightly, shivering and trembling as the cold seeped back into their little nest. Hours upon hours of cuddling, of his burning, exhausted body pressed against his family's, trying to warm them up as best as he could until he could gather enough mana to cast the spell once more.
It was a never-ending cycle,
a constant struggle to keep them warm and alive.
'I should be able to manage one more
cast
in a few hours, but after that...' Aster grimaced at the thought, bracing himself for the inevitable headache, the weakness, the nausea, and the fatigue he knew were coming. One time, he pushed himself so hard that his nose started to bleed. Nivalis almost had a heart attack
at
the sight.
With
his hand still
resting on his chest, he let out a soft, defeated sigh. 'It's such a shame that Silvia couldn't learn it as well. It would be so much easier,' he thought,
feeling his ribs
rise and fall slowly in time with his breaths, a thin layer of sweat coating his skin. For whatever reason, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make her mana do what his could. 'Must be the affinity thing,' he concluded.
For
cing ice to warm someone seemed even more absurd than making a blanket out of fire, so it wasn't much of a surprise.
Only by some
miracle
did
Aster manage to pull it off, and he still didn't understand exactly how or why. It was a strange spell, that was for sure
; it felt as if it was fighting him instead of doing what it was supposed to do.
His sister didn't stop trying, though.
Silvia
stubbornly kept trying to come up with something new, anything that could help them stay warm. Their
little
dome was the only thing she had succeeded at so far,
though,
but
even
that was a pretty impressive feat. It nearly halved the time they spent without warmth, which was more than nice.
Aster's hand found its way to his sister's waist, gently tracing the curve of her
naked
hip up and down. She murmured something in her sleep, a quiet whimper, and snuggled even closer to him. Her ribs pressed firmly against his side, her thigh rested over his, and she buried her face in the crook of his neck, her soft, messy hair tickling his chin. The boy smiled, giving that cute little butt of hers a gentle squeeze,
a slow, loving
one only a brother could give
to his sister.
'Alright... back to breathing,' Aster thought with another heavy sigh, closing his golden eyes and taking a deep, slow breath through his nose. Then, after holding it for a second, he released it just as slowly, feeling the warm air leave his lips. Inhale. Hold. Exhale. Repeat.
A
steady rhythm, slow and controlled.
Even though it was the most basic of things, breathing, it had actually helped him quite a lot with his mana exhaustion. If he concentrated hard enough, he could feel how his lungs collected the small amount of raw, ambient mana from the cold air
, how it traveled
to his heart, where it ignited. And doing it in a controlled, deliberate manner somehow helped, even if only a little. But
every
little bit mattered when you were as desperate for mana as he was.
He had
plenty of
time to experiment and figure out the most optimal way to do it, as it was all he did every day. Lying in his bed, trying to gather just a drop more mana than he did yesterday, day after day. Peak of entertainment, really.
He counted the number of times he inhaled, exhaled, and held his breath until it became an automatic cycle, his body going into
some
sort of trance. Everything else faded away—the sharp rocks digging into his back and thighs, the weight of his mother's breasts pressed against his shoulder, the scent of sweat. All that remained was his breath and the gentle rise and fall of his mother's hand against his
skinny
chest, right above his heart.
"Sweetie..." A soft, sleepy voice snapped him out of his concentration, only gods know how many
dozens of minutes
later.
A gentle, warm hand came up to rest atop his head, fingers tangling themselves in his long, silver hair, tenderly brushing through his curls. "Are you still awake? I heard you stir earlier but thought you'd drift back to sleep..." Nival
is' warm, faint whisper reached the boy's ears, her warm, slightly sweaty breasts pressing against his
small
arm.
Aster blinked his golden eyes open, his thoughts sluggish and slow to return to reality. "Mmhm," he hummed quietly, meeting the blue shine of his mother's gaze in the dimness of his fog.
"
Did I wake you?" he asked, his voice a bit hoarse.
"Not at all." The mother shook her head, her lips curving into a gentle smile.
Given how sleepy she sounded
,
Aster
figured it was a lie
, but
he didn't press the matter, not wanting to ruin her smile. "You're doing that strange breathing of yours again?" she asked, brushing a few strands of silver hair from his flushed face, her gentle fingers gliding over his
youthful face.
Nod
ding, the boy let his eyes close again. "Yep.
Couldn't
sleep,"
he mumbled, placing his own, much smaller hand over his mother's, giving it a gentle
squeeze
before
letting
go
. He
felt
her finger trace lightly over the bridge of his pointy
nose
, then his plump lips
,
and his chin. It was a little ticklish, but he was used to her doing that when she couldn't sleep
either
.
Nivalis let out a soft,
sluggish
hum, her fingers gently tracing the delicate features of his face. She brushed his cheekbones, his temples, and the corners of his eyes, exploring them as if seeing them for the first time. "Anything I can do to help? I don't feel like sleeping again," she whispered, her breath
brushing
against
his
ear.
Aster thought about it for a moment, but his tired mind couldn't come up with anything. "I just need to keep breathing," he replied in a whisper, letting out a quiet exhale through his
pink lips
. "That's all."
Her
face scrunched up
in
a pout, and she let out a soft, sad sigh. "
Alright
..." she
mumbled back
as her fingers moved down her son's slender throat, gently tracing his collarbone. For a
while
, there was a pleasant silence between the two,
only interrupted by
Aster's steady, controlled breathing and the soft rustling of the blankets beneath
as Nivalis tried to find
that one most comfortable position
that didn't exist
. The cave outside was deadly quiet,
unn
aturally, eerily so. "You know what I just realized?" Nivalis
suddenly
broke the silence, giving her son a light nudge.
Aster raised his eyebrows, cracking one eye open. "Mm?"
Her blue eyes darted between his
golden
ones for a moment as if hoping he'd figure it out and beat her to saying it.
He
wasn't a mind reader, though, so
after
a
moment of
hesitation, she
sighed
softly, a small, sad smile tugging at the corners of her
lips
. "Your birthday must have already passed by now, hasn't it? It was... gods, how long ago?
Could be an
entire month or more by now," Nivalis said quietly, gently playing with a few locks of the boy's messy
,
silver hair. "We never celebrated it," she
mumbled
, her lips pressing together in a tight line.
— "Must have," Aster agreed after a brief pause, a slight frown appearing on his otherwise
delicate
features. But a moment later, he just shrugged dismissively, whispering back a highly philosophical, "Meh."
Nivalis gave him a light smack on the arm, rolling her blue eyes at him. "Don't you meh me! It's
your
..." Nivalis
suddenly
stopped mid-sentence, her brows furrowing as she tried to remember his age. With so
much
happening to them
lately
and their minds preoccupied with more important, life-threatening things, she couldn't even recall what year they were in.
When the silence started to stretch,
she cleared her throat, her cheeks flushing slightly. "Anyway," she continued, her voice a bit softer, "It's important that we celebrate it! I have only so many years left before some lass sweeps you off your feet and takes you away from me," she added, letting out another soft
, slightly dramatic sigh.
The boy snorted softly, his golden eyes rolling. "Oh, please," Aster said, giving his mother a playful glare. "I have my very own dragon protecting me from
that, over
here." He tilted his head towards the still-sleeping girl cuddling against his side, who had one leg thrown over his thighs, with her knee close to his crotch. Her head rested on his shoulder, mouth slightly agape, a tiny line of drool
escaping her pink lips
. "Besides," he continued, "I have high standards, you know," the boy finished,
raising
his
chin slightly
, his eyes glinting mischievously in the dim light.
Giggling like a young girl, Nivalis moved closer, pressing her body
tighter
against her son's warm, slender frame. "Oh? Is that so?" she asked in a hushed, amused tone, poking the boy's cheek with her finger. "Tell me, then. What would make a girl pass your trials and win the heart of Aster Silverfrost,
the
prince of Winter?"
Aster tried to suppress the smile that threatened to form on his lips, but his mother's ticklish touch made it impossible
for him to do so
. "Well..." he began, taking a dramatic pause for effect. "She'd have to be at least half as beautiful and smart as
my mom
, which is
basically
impossible," he said, looking away and sighing in
defeat
, "So
,
I'm afraid that no one will ever pass
,
and I'll just have to stay with you two forever and ever..." he added, his voice dropping to a whisper by the end, followed by a defeated sigh.
It took Nivalis all of her willpower to hold in her laughter, managing to turn it into a quiet snort. "You little... rascal," she said through the toothy, affectionate smile that graced her
pretty
face, giving her
pale
boy's thigh a gentle pinch. "You set the whole thing up just to say that, didn't you?"
He grinned and gave his mother an innocent look. "Nope," Aster replied, shaking his head
from
side to side.
Yeah,
he absolutely did
.
With a soft chuckle, Nivalis leaned in, pressing a quick kiss on the boy's forehead, then his nose, and then his soft, flushed cheeks, making him giggle and squirm under her loving assault. "What a charmer you've become. Someone will surely steal you away from me if you go around saying such things to girls," she whispered, finally pulling away and looking down at her blushing, shy son.
Aster simply stared back at her, blinking those big, pretty golden eyes of his, the smile never leaving his plump lips
.
"Meh," he muttered again, making his mother's blue eyes roll once more
.
Stroking the soft, delicate skin of his cheek with the back of her finger, Nivalis sighed softly, her gaze growing more thoughtful. "Gods, I wish we could get you something, but we have nothing..." she whispered, her
smile fading
as she brushed her thumb gently over his
bottom
lip. "I suppose I could embroider something nice for you, maybe a sword or a
wolf
? Although I'll have to take it apart
eventually
so Silvia can
use
the fabric for her practice..." Nivalis continued, grimacing slightly at how terrible of a gift that sounded. "Would you like that?" she asked quietly, her blue eyes studying his golden ones,
hoping not to
see disappointment or sadness in them.
For a moment, Aster considered it before shaking his head. "Nah, no need," he whispered back, giving his mother a small, yet genuine smile. "We'd get sad when we have to tear it apart, and I don't want that," he explained,
shr
ugging weakly.
"Yeah..." Nivalis agreed with a nod, letting her hand trail down her son's slender, pale body towards his belly, where she began to rub it gently. "Sweetie
?"
she asked hesitantly,
pa
using for a moment. "Is there anything else you'd like
?"
Her voice was barely louder than a whisper as she carefully watched the boy's expression. "Perhaps a little massage to help you relax while you do your breathing thing?"
Her
soft, warm hand glided
up and
down his
flat
chest and over his tummy, causing Aster to squirm slightly from her tender touch. "What would you say, my love?" she asked, leaning in, her warm, heavy breasts pressing against his small arm, a small, loving smile
returning
to her face.
Aster hummed under his breath, his smile mirroring his mother's as he looked back at her. "That would be very nice," he mumbled, stretching his legs out, his toes wiggling
happily
from her belly rub. "
Please do."
Carefully and very quietly, Nivalis helped the boy maneuver himself out of his sister's embrace
without waking her
. Silvia grunted something in her sleep, but otherwise, she stayed asleep, her arm falling limply to the side. "Come, climb on top of me. There's not enough room for us to do it by lying side by side," Nivalis whispered, pulling him gently on top of her soft, curvy body until his small, light, and naked frame rested upon her.
Aster let
her handle him without complaint, wiggling around a bit until he found the best place to settle down,
right
between his mother's big, heavy breasts. Her warm, bare skin felt amazing against his, her familiar scent and the comforting sounds of her
heartbeat
and breathing putting his mind at ease. 'So nice...' he thought,
a happy
wig
gle going through his body.
"Comfy?" Nivalis whispered, stroking his long hair lovingly while her son
adjusted
his position
on
top of her
. The
feeling of his
flaccid
boyhood squishing against her
flat
stomach, right below her belly button, didn't escape her notice, but she pretended that it did
.
Burrying
his face into her neck, he nodded,
slipping his arms under her armp
its
to
press
himself
as tightly against her as possible.
In
haling deeply, he filled his nostrils with her familiar, feminine scent, letting his entire body go limp on top of hers. "Very," he murmured, letting out a quiet, contented sigh.
"I'm not
too heavy, am I?" he asked, his voice muffled by her warm neck.
"No, you're not. Don't worry," Nivalis whispered back, wrapping her arms
protect
ively around the boy's tiny waist,
letting
her palms
slide
lower, settling on his soft, little butt. Squeezing gently, she began to slowly knead his delicate, round ass cheeks, her
fingertips sinking
into his smooth, hairless skin. "
Just
relax and breathe," she told him, her breath tickling his ear. "
And
tell me if there's anything else you'd like, my sweet bun," Nivalis added, her voice low and gentle, her lips curving into a warm smile.
Aster didn't reply, just humming in a pleased manner in response, too relaxed and comfortable to talk anymore. He let his mother continue her soothing touch, her fingers gliding gently up and down his
b
ody in
a slow, rhythmic motion,
his
eyes closing slowly. Inhale. Hold. Exhale. It was the only thing going through his mind as he focused solely on his breathing and the mana flowing in and out of his lungs, not wanting to think about anything else.
His entire
world narrowed down to
just
the two of them, their warm, naked bodies pressed tightly against each other, the sounds of their breathing and heartbeat, and the warmth radiating from her soft, loving curves. Nothing else existed, nothing else mattered.
Their chests heaved against
one another
,
ribs
expanding and contracting in a slow, steady rhythm, her soft breasts squishing against his flat chest, his head rising and falling along with her breaths.
Nivalis' gentle hands continued to
glide
all over his
sweaty
, naked body, caressing his delicate, youthful skin.
Shoulders and
back, arms and
sides
, thighs and butt. No part of him remained unloved
under
her touch.
And Aster loved every second of it, feeling more and more weightless and relaxed by the minute, his body sinking deeper and deeper into her softness with each passing moment. 'I wonder... would mom allow me to...?' he suddenly found himself thinking, his mind conjuring an idea that made his soft boyhood twitch ever so slightly against his mother's warm stomach, which she felt all too well.