War and MG Chap 6

"Okay, all set." Casey said, snipping the end of some thread.

 

The centaur woman sighed and poked at the sutured lesion on her arm.

 

"Hey, don't poke at it or touch it. If it bothers you I can apply a bandage," Casey's tone becoming slightly patronizing.

 

"No, that's okay. I'll manage." The centaur smiled and began walking for the exit, but stopped to talk to Emrald briefly.

 

There was no one left in the infirmary aside from Casey and Emrald, and no one was scheduled to come in for the rest of the evening.

 

"Good job there. Very neat stitching; you learn quick." Emrald gave him a hearty smile, her tails swishing side to side.

 

"Well, I suppose you've taught me well." Casey avoided looking at her while he spoke, focusing on tidying up.

 

"Oho," Emrald giggled. "High praise coming from you."

 

Casey continued to avoid looking at her, even as she brushed up against him.

 

Since becoming her assistant, he'd been spending almost half a day with her. Perhaps her energetic attitude was beginning to rub off on him, he thought. Still, he did manage to learn quite a bit in a rather short amount of time. She left him to do basic sutures, bandaging, IVs, and drawing blood. During actual surgeries he was also permitted to watch - something he found oddly fascinating. The techniques and medicines they used were far beyond anything he knew of. He figured if he was ever seriously wounded, he'd rather be given care as a prisoner here than as a free man.

 

Now, practically draping herself across Casey in an attempt to get a reaction from him, she decided the blush rising to his cheeks would suffice.

 

"You don't react as much anymore," Emrald complained in a mock pout, "That's no fun."

 

Pulling herself off of him, she sighed and remained silent for a bit. Casey went on guard. Any silence from her for any length of time was usually an ill omen.

 

"Do you hate me?," she inquired.

 

Casey turned around, considering the possible consequences of his answers carefully.

 

"I hate being a prisoner, but no, I suppose, I do not hate you," stating his answer calmly. He knew better than to take anything she asked at face value by this point.

 

She immediately asked another question. Casey suspected she anticipated his answer before she even asked the first question.

 

"Then, do you dislike me?," she asked, a nervous quiver entering her voice.

 

Casey had some inkling of where this series of questions was headed, but he couldn't think of a way to stop the progression without risk. No telling what might happen if she upset her.

 

"No, I guess not." He thought about explaining further, but elected to withhold any details. The less said the better.

 

Emrald was quickly taking on the appearance of a shy and nervous schoolgirl. Casey hardened his heart for the next question.

 

"So, do you like me?" By now she had raised up one of her tails to her face, looking like she was trying to hide behind it. Her ears lay flat on her head, tails holding still and low. Despite attempting to prepare himself, Casey was somewhat staggered by the question. Before he could attempt to gather his wits and respond, Emrald continued.  

 

"Because I like you." She kept her voice quiet, then nervously looked away after speaking. Despite his best attempts otherwise, Casey felt his heartstrings being plucked. While he suspected that there was some embellishment in her words and actions, he couldn't determine to what extent.

 

"I... don't know." Casey looked around the room at everything but Emrald. He wasn't sure of what he felt.

"I guess, maybe?" he continued. At night in their quarters, Casey and the other men would often talk about this and that, often about which of the women around the base they found attractive. Seems they all had their eyes on a certain girl, though they didn't have nearly as much contact with them as Casey and Emrald had with each other. The others would often joke and call Emrald 'Casey's girl,' much to his embarrassment. Sometimes he thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

 

"But, it doesn't matter. You're an officer of an invading army, and I... I'm just a prisoner of that army." Casey wanted to speak more boldly and confidently, but his words tumbled out quiet and meek, weakened by his conflicted emotions. As Casey looked down, Emrald approached and crouched next to him.

 

"That wouldn't be a problem."

 

Casey turned to look at her, his face showing a kind of blank surprise.

 

"Maybe not for you. For you, it would simply be a conquerer's prize,' said Casey, attempting to strengthen his resolve. "For me, it would be willingly sleeping with the enemy. I would be a traitor, and who knows what treatment I'd receive when I returned home."

 

The nervous schoolgirl visage Emrald had been wearing moments ago was gone, now replaced by the cool and clever fox-woman he had become accustomed to.

 

"So you are saying you expect to return to your home country one day?" Emrald tilted her head as she spoke.

 

Her words hit Casey like ice water as he considered what she said. Would he be here forever? Would they kill him? His heartbeat began to increase. He had never really thought about it. He and the other men would often use the phrases 'When I get out of here...' 'When I get back home...' and others like them. Prisoners were returned after the war ended, after all. Weren't they?

 

Casey looked at Emrald with panic in his eyes. She slowly stood.

 

"Come with me, I want to show you something." Her voice had a pitying tone to it.

 

Casey nodded, then followed her. She walked quickly to one of the large conference rooms, then checked for anyone inside it. Seeing it empty, she motioned for Casey to enter. She walked over to a large board that was covered behind a screen. Lifting the screen up, a map of Europe was revealed underneath. She pointed to a location inside Germany, near the border of Belgium.

 

"We are here." The location she pointed to was inside an area colored blue.

 

Casey searched the map, following the extent of the blue coloring. He already knew before she said the next part.

 

"And these," she said, motioning to all the blue-shaded lands, "Are the areas we've taken control of."

France, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal - they were all completely blue. Most of England, except for parts of Ireland, were blue. Roughly half of Italy was blue. Surprisingly they had not extended far to the east yet; the base was still situated close to the front lines. Casey figured that would explain the constantly flow of troops through the base.  

 

Casey had been a prisoner for not even two months, and yet almost all of western Europe had been taken. He suddenly felt sick and slumped to the floor, but he kept his eyes on Emrald and the map.

 

Emrald kept talking, her voice quiet and calm.

 

"The pockets of resistance here," she pointed to Ireland, "are expected to be pacified within the next few days."

 

She then waved to Italy.

 

"From what I've been told, there's are almost no forces left here. We expect to sweep through with little resistance within two weeks."

 

She turned towards Casey.

 

"And once we complete that, we will begin our expansion to the East, though, as you can see..." She again pointed at the map, her hand falling on Russia. "They have already agreed to lay down their arms and allow us to take control of their capital when we arrive."

 

"What... what about the US?" Casey asked, his voice hoarse.

 

"The you-ess? Who is that?" Emrald furrowed her eyebrows.

 

"A country on another continent... to the west."

 

"Oh, them. They withdrew all their forces not long after you were captured, though our attempts to contact them have been met with silence. I'm sure others around here know what's going on, but I do not."

 

Western Europe was gone in less than two months. The rest of the continent would probably fall inside another month. Casey shook his head, then looked at Emrald. In three months they will have done what empires had attempted over hundreds of years but never could.

 

Emrald sat down next to Casey, leaning up against him.

 

"If it makes you feel any better, most of the hard fighting was within the first month. After that most people surrendered without bloodshed." She curled her tails around Casey from behind.

 

"We allow a good deal of autonomy in captured regions. We're not terribly interested in looting and pillaging and slave taking. After we disarm an army we release any prisoners we took into that area to help with any rebuilding and such that needs to be done."

 

Casey looked at her, too busy with his own thoughts to try and push her off. Besides, right now, her warmth was rather comforting.

 

"Then why not release us?"

 

"You guys are special, you see." Emrald looked around, as if searching for someone secretly listening, then leaned in close to Casey, dropping her voice to a hushed whisper.

 

"You're kind of an experiment to see if we can co-exist." She pulled back slightly, giving Casey a smile.

 

Before he could answer, she darted in and gave him a quick kiss.

 

"So," she began, still leaning against Casey. "Do you think we can?"

 

Casey's mind was a roiling tempest of emotion. He was deep in the middle of enemy territory. Territory that was ever expanding at a frightening pace. The US had left the fight. There would be no rescue, nor would he seem that he was to be released any time soon. Then he had this dainty fox-girl that had just professed that she fancied him, and was essentially asking him to become involved with her. Time spent away from home had left him feeling deeply lonely, and now he desired comfort more than ever. The last of his objections were crumbling away.

 

His arm reached up to hold her by the shoulder. Emrald giggled.

 

"Is that your response then?"

 

Casey didn't say anything, though he pulled her in closer. After a moment Emrald then squirmed from his grip and stood up. She lowered her hand to him.

 

"Come then."

 

He looked up at her for a minute, then grabbed her hand and stood up. Leaving the room, she lead him to her quarters.

 

 

----

 

Casey sighed and hugged Emrald tightly. He enjoyed the warmth of her skin against his, and the warmth of her tails that were partially wrapped around the two of them.

 

"I imagine you feel a bit better now," said Emrald, smiling brightly.

 

As much as he hated to admit it, she was right. He felt much better, happy even, but he still felt like a line had been crossed that should not have been.

 

"I still don't understand, why me? Why not one of your own kind?"

 

It was a question Casey often asked her, though usually worded differently. She always declined to answer however, leaving things a mystery. She also never answered why there were only women here, but he was beginning to suspect the answer to the two was the same.

 

Emrald sighed.

 

"You sure know how to ruin the mood."

 

She pulled away from him and sat up, leaning against the wall her bunk was situated against.

 

Exhaling another deep sigh through her nose, "I suppose I could fill you in on some of the details now..." She grinned. "Now that we're together."

 

Casey recognized her grin. It was usually something she flashed when she felt she had been the victor in something. He wondered if he was indeed a conquest of hers.

 

"How many like me have you seen while you've been here?," she asked.

 

Now that he thought about it, Emrald had been the only kitsune he had seen the entire time.

 

"Just you, I suppose," came his response.

 

Emrald nodded her head.

 

"I am what you might call rare, you see. There are probably less than a thousand of my kind left."

 

"What? You're going extinct or something?" Casey clearly let the surprise show on his face.

 

Nodding again, "Something like that." She brought a tail up to her face, absentmindedly rubbing it on her cheek, looking down.

 

"We were the first to lose the last of our males. The only reason there are any of us left is due to our rather long lives."

 

Casey was shocked. They had no men at all?

 

"How old are you then?," he asked.

 

Some energy returned to Emralds face and she smiled.

 

"I've never told you? Why, I'm a rather young 112 years old. I still have another few hundred years until I'm considered elderly."

 

Casey's mouth hung open.

 

"I know what you're thinking, and no, our day is the same length as yours," she chuckled.

 

Her smile slowly dwindling after a short pause, "No one knows the reason for the male decline. Most pregnancies that would result in a male child result in miscarriage or stillbirth - that's something that's applicable across all races, not just kitsunes, you see. The problem of male infant mortality was first noticed long ago. It's been steadily progressing since then, though races with more magical powers have suffered the fastest declines. We kitsunes are amongst the worst off as a result. The chance of a male infant surviving was around one in seven-thousand, and that was several hundred years ago."

 

Emrald paused and breathed deep. Pain was clear on her face. Casey hesitated for a moment, but sat up and leaned against her. She gave a weak smile and continued.

 

"So, genetic diversity quickly declined, leading to a rapid increase in hereditary diseases. Fortunately I appear to be free from most diseases, but many have not been so lucky. So, our race has all but died out. It won't be long until others are in equally critical condition."

 

Casey was floored. Suddenly all her actions and questions made sense. She wasn't simply being playful; she was trying to seduce him.

 

"So how do you know our... love will result in children?"

 

"Because it's happened before, you see."

 

"While we may be rather strange looking, I'm sure you recognized several of our races, yes? Like the centaur? Small numbers of us came to your world in the past."

 

He remained quiet. Suddenly he was feeling like he had been tempted into a trap, like he was used.

 

"So you just wanted to use us.. me, to reproduce?" Casey's voice rose and quivered.

 

Emrald sighed, acknowledging the betrayal that shown clearly on his face.

 

Hugging him, "We could have just made you slaves, you see. We chose this method for a reason." She then shifted and gave him a long kiss, then pulled back slightly and winked.

 

"It has been equally difficult for us, you see. Many of us, myself included, seek romance just like anyone else."

 

Emrald's tails were thumping lightly on the bed.

 

"Sounds like a lonely life," Casey said, returning Emrald's embrace.

 

Emrald sat quiet for a long while.

 

"It was," she smiled lightly. Then she gave Casey a light push to the bed, and rolled on top of him.

 

"It was." she said again, kissing Casey.