Ero Skill Tree

Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Eight: Shelter

The vampire woman got to her feet and walked in front of the group. She stopped after a few paces and turned back to face us. Serin waved for the rest of us to follow on and headed after her. Altria, Liz, Celine and I started after them.

"Are we really just going to follow her?" Asked Beth who hadn't moved from the spot.

"Yes. We need somewhere to sleep. Come on." Answered Serin.

Beth looked reluctant, but seeing that everyone else was going and that there didn't seem to be any room for argument, she followed the rest of the group. We were led up the road, just a short way past the junction we stopped outside a large house. It was probably the local lord's or one of the nobles that used to live here. It was built to a better standard than most of the other buildings in the village and while most of them weren't entirely derelict, this was in a better condition. The vampire walked up to the front door, pulled a key from her pocket and opened the door.

"Please, come in." She said standing just out of the doorway.

Serin glanced back for a moment before heading inside. The rest of us followed closely behind her. Once everyone was inside the woman closed the door behind us.

"Follow me." She said heading into the next room.

This was a large living room. It had an open fire at the far end and was still furnished like its previous owners left it. It felt lived in.

"Have you been living here?" I asked as I followed her inside.

"Yes, this is my home for now."

"You know you didn't have to take us into your home."

"This is the most suitable building here."

"Thanks... By the way, what is your name? I'd like to know what to call you."

"You can call me Aetherin."

"My name is Theo."

"Theo."

"Yes, the other human here is Serin. The catkin girl there is Altria. The wolfkin is Beth. The half elf is Liz, and the succubus with us is Celine. Thank you for taking us in for the night."

"I wouldn't want you sleeping outside here. The area isn't safe for your kind, as you have already found out. Don't worry though, you will be safe here. Feel free to light the fire and make yourselves at home, I'm going to prepare the guest rooms."

Aetherin showed me where the woodstore was and then left the five of us alone in the living room. We soon had a fire going and were relaxing on the sofa and chairs while we waited for her to return. It was already late. Tomorrow was going to be a hard day if we set off at a time that was remotely normal.

"Shouldn't we organise a watch? At least one of us should be awake at a time." Asked Beth.

"Do we need a watch? We're inside and Aetherin said we would be safe here. You saw how powerful she is. I doubt that we're likely to run into any trouble here." I answered.

"Even if you trust her, I won't be able to sleep easy unless we have some kind of watch."

"We'll set a watch. Even if Aetherin says it's safe here, we are in enemy held territory. We need to be able to react quickly if something happens." Serin said while shuffling some small twigs she found in the woodstore.

It seemed like a waste of effort, but I could see why Beth felt nervous about staying here with someone that was an enemy only a few minutes ago. The only experience she had with that skill being used was with Celine, and she was still cautious around her. Liz on the other hand seemed to be taking it all in her stride apart from her initial surprise. She already had a good understanding of how most of my skills worked and she seemed happy to assume that this would work on Aetherin just like it had on everyone else before. Serin and Altria had seen it in action enough for them not to be worried and I knew Serin was only agreeing to set a watch to keep Beth happy. We quickly organised the watch order, before we were joined by Aetherin again.