Tales of the Pearly City (Pearly Tales Vol.1) [Completed]

21. Time to come clean

Once the room was emptied a small squeaky voice spoke up.

"Papa, did I do something bad, why is everyone leaving?" Ophelia asked nervously.

Cal relaxed a little and patted Ophelia's head, "no, you didn't do anything wrong. Papa, just wants to introduce you to your new family and talk about a few things. Now, eat. I know that you're still hungry after the picnic food." Cal dipped a spoon in her soup and held it out for her to eat. "Open wide, ahh."

"Ahh," when Ophelia's mouth closed around the spoon her eyes lit up. "It's so good!"

The table of girls sighed a cutsey "aw" and the tension was lifted as Ophelia and Cal ate their food.

"Shayley," Cal said while chewing a mouthful of bread and soup.

Shayley coughed and jumped when Cal said her name and dropped her spoon.

"Your manners are slipping," he said with his mouth full. "You never introduced us to you friends." He swallowed. He noticed that some of the soup was dripping from Ophelia's mouth, without a napkin in sight he used his sleeve to wipe the dribble from the girl's chin.

Wendy, Naomi, and Yvette all rolled their eyes at their master's impudence. They were finishing up their duties and were wiping done the tables until they were called.

"Excuse me, this is the light Sylvan knight, Clera." She motioned at the raven haired temptress.

Clera stood up and bowed, "It is an honor, might I say that your swordsmanship is truly remarkable."

"And this is Calico, handmaiden of the Crystal shrine." The teenager with fox ears also stood up and curtseyed.

"it a pleasure to see you again. The mistress sends her regards." She smiled warmly.

Cal did a spit-take and soup splattered half-way across the round table. His face paled, "Calico, you- but the Calico I met was a cute little fox!"

Ophelia hid under the table from the outburst, but Wendy and her daughters were mortified.

"You mean like this?" Calico responded with a popping sound turning into puff of smoke from which a fox with five tails emerged.

Ophelia gasped, "she's so pretty, Papa, can a pet her?"

Giving her consent, Calico hopped into Ophelia's lap and rubbing the top of her head against Ophelia's chin. Both Cal and Ophelia's eyes sparkled. Ophelia nuzzled the fox, then Cal lifted them both up and embraced the cuteness as he nuzzled them both.

"Calico!" Shayley coughed. Then checked her jealousy. In a mild tone, she said, "this is neither the time or place for that."

In an instant, there was a popping sound and through a puff of smoke the fox turned back into a teenager. Ophelia was pressing her check against her leg.

"I apologize, my lady." Calico apologized.

Cal found his face buried in the fluffy hair of a teenager with a hand full of-

"GIRL!" Cal jumped off the fox girl. His face had lost all color, in a city of long-lived beings the line of acceptable behavior between the ages often grew fuzzy. But for Cal, who was originally a full blood twenty-four-year-old human, Calico still had the appearance of a much younger underage teenage girl.

Luckily, he was saved by Wendy, who was reaching the depths of her patience. "Master, all the customers have left and we've closed up."

Cal coughed. "Yes, then let's get down to business." He opened the menu and summoned the guild's elementals. He then scooped Ophelia off the fox girl's leg and held her hand as he faced the room. He closed his eyes while addressing the fox girl, "Calico, I need this room sealed from prying eyes and ears."

"Of course," Calico summoned her magic, the edged of the room glowed five different colors then went back to normal. "It is done."

"Thank you. What we are about to discuss is not to leave this room, any who transgress will suffer consequences which does not exclude death or the painful torture of 10 hours of showtunes."

Cal started, Ophelia squeezed his hand.

Cal crouched down to look her in the eyes, "It's alright Ophelia, nobody is going to lay a finger on you as long as I can help it, I promise."

She nodded and he scooped her up into a hug and then stood back up.

"This is the Oracle, Ophelia. From this day onward I am adopting her as my daughter."

Cal pointed to everyone and introduced them to Ophelia, first the elementals, then Wendy's family, then Clera.

When he got to Shayley he paused, "This is... Princess Shayley O'heira, Van Dravenkin, she's my..." he felt the dull ache in his chest after what he'd done to the poor girl's heart.

He walked with her over to Shayley. He held out his hand. Shayley blushed and took it as he pulled her to her feet. He held her left and stroked the line where her ring used to be.

"She's..."

Cal gazed into Shayley's eyes, finally confronted with what she meant to him now that he was living in a video game world. She blushed wildly from the closeness, she waited on bated breath for her love's true feelings.

"She's... the single most beautiful women in the world, and the love of my life." He couldn't bring himself to kiss her on the lips yet, so he leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "I hope to redeem myself and reclaim my place by her side." 

Shayley felt faint, she had no words but she couldn't look at him anymore. She sat back down as quickly as she could an hid her face until her dopey smile went away and her face turned back to a normal color. That wasn't nearly as drastic as the reactions from Wendy and her girls.

Wendy held onto a chair like she was an old lady while her daughter pale and shaking forms helped themselves to the floor.

Cal put the girl down and walked back over to Calico.

"Aw, I've always wanted to meet the cursed witch girl," Calico cooed at Ophelia.

A tremendous presence suffocated the room. An unholy terrifying bloodlust came from none other than Ophelia's Papa.