Everlasting dream (18+)
Chapter 117 — So unfair!

[Aster]

The lack of bubbles on the water's surface was a clear sign that winter was well underway above the surface. The water's temperature was noticeably lower than usual, not quite uncomfortable yet, but certainly cooler than it had been. Even the steam that once filled the cave and lazily swirled about for hours on end had begun to thin out, vanishing before it had a chance to reach the ceiling.

The harsh northern winter was truly upon them. A small family of three, an elven mother and her two half-elven children, were huddled inside a cave deep within the rocks, trying to keep themselves busy. Trying to forget about the cold and the dangers that lurked just outside their home.

Silvia was lying on her stomach, her feet kicking lazily in the air behind her as she concentrated on her needlework, her delicate, pale fingers holding a small piece of cloth that she was struggling to embroider with a simple flower. Her creation was far from perfect... so far that Doctor Frankenstein would have been jealous of the ugly network of knots she had created on it.

"Is this enough? Please tell me it's enough! My fingers are going to fall off," she complained, her high-pitched, soft voice echoing off the cold stone walls as she held up her work and looked at her mother, who was lying next to her, watching her.

"Better than the last one," Nivalis tried to find the words to praise her daughter's effort, but couldn't hide a wince at the ugly sight in front of her eyes. "Just... try one more time, okay? You are an elf. It's in your blood," she said quietly with a sigh, resting her head in the palm of her hand. Her curves were on full display as she lay on the soft nest they called a bed, her silver hair cascading over her shoulder and down her chest, partially covering her big, heavy breasts that were squished against the soft bedding.

Silvia groaned loudly, her head falling back onto the bed. "Ugh, I don't wanna..." she mumbled under her breath before looking over her shoulder at her brother, who was busy eating strips of frozen meat. His head rested comfortably in the warmth of his mother's thighs, his golden eyes staring blankly at the ceiling, not paying much attention to what was happening around him. Not a single care graced his youthful face. "Mom, he gets to do nothing, and I have to suffer with this thing? That's not fair..." she whined, glaring at him with her big, golden eyes. Her long eyelashes, much like her mother's, fluttered softly as she narrowed her gaze.

Aster blinked a few times upon hearing her words, finally snapping out of his thoughts. "Huh?" Aster muttered, chewing on a piece of meat, his right cheek bulging slightly with the food inside it. Looking at his naked sister, who was pouting at him with the cutest of faces, he gave her a sheepish smile. "I think it looks beautiful. I like it," he lied, squinting at the tangled mess of knots and threads she had created. "Did you make it yourself? Very cute dragon," he pointed out at the thing, not having a clue what it was even supposed to be.

"Flower... it's a flower, you butt!" Silvia groaned, her pout turning into an angry scowl. She moved her delicate foot in his face, poking her toes against his cheek in retaliation. The boy merely chuckled and tried to catch them with his lips, but she pulled them away before he could, letting out a cute giggle before remembering that she was supposed to be angry. "Stupid," she muttered under her breath, her foot returning behind her to kick lazily in the air once more.

"Now, now... no fighting, please. Asty can't because of his hands, and besides, it's more like mother-daughter tradition anyway," Nivalis explained, running her hand over the girl's bare back in a soothing gesture before giving her cute, round bottom a gentle slap; little waves spread through her soft flesh, for just a brief moment. "Untangle the thread. Let's give it one more try, with my help this time. You seem to have forgotten everything I taught you, so I'll walk you through the whole process once more," she said, making Silvia groan in despair, her neck arching backwards as she threw her head up in the air in an exaggerated fashion. Like a moody teen, the half-elf girl turned her back on her brother and went back to her needlework.

Without looking back at her son, Nivalis reached behind her, her hand finding Aster's head that rested against the back of her thighs, tightly pressed together to hide her pink folds from his curious eyes. Her long, elegant fingers ran through his messy silver hair, gently combing and playing with it, earning her a contented sigh from the boy. She didn't pay him much mind, as her attention returned to her daughter, reminding her of how she must be careful not to cut the precious thread she was working with by accident, as they only had so much of it.

A soft smile appeared on the boy's lips as he looked up at the ceiling from the softness of his mother's thighs as she continued to stroke his head. Taking another bite of the meat, he chewed on it slowly, his sharp teeth biting into the slightly frozen flesh that tasted like someone had already eaten it at least once. 'Still better than hospital food, even frozen,' he chuckled to himself, his mind slipping away into thoughts once more, ignoring the girls talking about the cultural importance of needles and threads next to him.

Aster couldn't help but wonder, 'How much colder is this going to get...?' He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, his eyes following the rising steam that came from the hot spring, just a step away from their bed. 'If it gets as cold as it was in the tunnels...' the boy frowned, his gaze shifting to the far corners of the cave, where small ice crystals had begun to form on the walls. 'Maybe if we put our legs into the water? Ugh, that would be super uncomfortable...'

'If only we had some wood for the fireplace...' Aster sighed, a small, bittersweet smile spreading across his lips as he recalled the winters spent by the crackling flames, in their very first cave, near the river. It was always so warm and cozy. Cuddling next to a fireplace, having a bunch of blankets to wrap yourselves in, and watching as the flames danced on the wood that never quite managed to rid the air of its chill completely. His spells just weren't the same, not as cozy.

But here, in their new cave, there was no wood to burn. Nothing but rocks and darkness surrounded them. 'I guess it's up to me to keep them warm then. It's gonna be exhausting to ignite mana constantly to get myself warm... but doable, I guess,' the boy nodded his head in determination, not allowing his worries to get the best of him. If his family needed heat, then heat they would get. He will be their fireplace, even if it means spending every second of the day in pain, burning through all his mana.

'Well, at least we are good on food. That's one less thing to worry about,' Aster thought, taking a moment to look at the strip of meat he twirled between his scarred fingers. He couldn't imagine having to go out and hunt for their meals in their current situation. That would not have ended well for them. They are not equipped for this kind of cold. 'And who knows what kind of creatures roam around these tunnels during winter?' he shivered at the thought.

Another bite of meat, another grimace at its awful taste. It was like a mixture of rot, old spoiled cheese, and... earth, somehow? The boy swallowed it anyway, licking his pink lips clean. 'Why does life have to be so hard? Why does it have to be like this...' It was a question that plagued his mind a lot these days, as he had too much time to spend on his own thoughts.

Once promised a happy life by the goddess, Aster couldn't help but feel betrayed, tricked. Given how things had been for them over the last few years, it was hard not to feel that way. Goblins, starvation, a dark forest, wooden creatures, and morally questionable humans—each encounter should have ended them. Each time, they barely managed to escape the grasp of death. Now, trapped in a dark maze filled with unimaginable creatures, he was starting to lose hope that things would get better.

'They deserve better,' he sighed, turning his gaze back to his mother, his golden eyes admiring her plump, round butt, so close to his face. With his cheek resting on the softness of her thigh, he watched the beauty of her buttocks and thighs for a few minutes, studying their shape and how they moved. Her skin was pale, almost like milk, thanks to the lack of sunlight, without a single freckle or tan line. Every breath she took, every little shift of her hips, made them jiggle softly, ever so slightly. The boy's eyes traveled from the round, full moons of her bottom to the gentle curves of her waist, to the delicate, soft arch of her back.

'Maybe it's just that gods are not that powerful... or have a bunch of rules that limit them. Otherwise... how can she let things get this bad? I don't get it at all...' he frowned, shifting his gaze to his sister, who was still busy working on her needlework.

The boy studied the gentle, petite curves of his sister's body, her cute, round butt that was smaller than her mother's but just as perfect, with its own charm. His gaze lingered on her pink slit peeking out from between her buttocks every time she kicked her leg lazily into the air, her inner thighs glistening slightly with wetness. 'Are we ever going to get out of this place?' Aster wondered, sighing heavily and closing his eyes for a moment.

He was no hero. No big, strong warrior. He was a small, weak, frail boy. A failed musician and an artist, not some chosen one destined to defeat evil or save the world. His mind was not filled with heroic thoughts and noble deeds, and he had nothing to prove. No aura farming, no power leveling, no epic adventures.

Yet life treated him like one, constantly throwing him into situations where he had to fight, kill, or die. Where he had to be someone he was not. 'If you're listening... I hope you know what you are doing,' the boy sighed, his mind addressing the goddess somewhere out there, wherever she might be. 'Maybe it's the world being like, "You're not supposed to be here, you weirdo-otherworlder. I'm gonna be as shitty as I can." or something? Like a defensive reaction. Who knows...'

With a heavy sigh, Aster opened his eyes and took a deep breath, his gaze returning to his mother's beautiful buttcheeks right in front of him. 'I mean, I guess we are happy. No one died or anything... and for once, things got calmer despite how scary it can get around here.'

Aster chewed on the frozen meat, feeling it crunch against his teeth with each bite. 'And I got to enjoy a proper childhood that I never had in my first life. A proper one, I mean...' he thought, his lips curling into a shy smile that soon turned into a grimace as unpleasant memories flashed through his mind. Memories he so desperately tried to forget, as if they were nothing more than a bad dream. His life as Alex... it was a miserable existence, to say the least.

Only now did he start to realize just how much. Ever since he caught a glimpse of Elysia while creating his first piece of music, it had messed him up quite seriously. It was more than just an illness that slowly but surely left him bedridden and in such agony that he had no other choice but to end his own life. It was a slow descent into madness that started from the first moment he saw her.

People... they shouldn't look at gods the way he did. Something broke inside him that day, as if his mind stayed forever at five, even when his body grew into that of an adult. All he cared about was getting better at music and art; he didn't care about the rest, no matter how important it was for a normal human being. Friends, relationships, hobbies, even his health... he didn't care. Nothing else mattered. He only pretended to be normal so he could fit in. But inside, beneath the mask of a sane person, was something utterly broken.

Now that he has experienced what it means to be an actual, normal—or at least normal-ish—kid, he couldn't help but feel sorry for the person who was once called Alex. He recalled the weekends spent with his grandpa, where even those few precious moments got marred by his thoughts of how much he wanted to see her again. How much he needed to see her again. In his relentless pursuit, he forgot to... live. And it was just sad. Tragic, even. 'No wonder the goddess wanted to fix all that... why didn't she allow me to stay with her. I was a lunatic. She saw it.'

Covering his eyes with his hands, he took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, trying to stop the sudden tears from flowing down his cheeks. 'It's over. That's not me anymore. It's not me anymore...' Aster reassured himself, blinking away the tears in his eyes, and took another bite of the meat. He chewed on it slowly and swallowed, feeling the salty taste of his tears on his pink lips. 'I'm not sick here. I'm... good. Happy. Well, save for when some yet another monstrosity tries to kill us,' he let out a quiet, bitter chuckle and wiped his youthful face clean.

Once he managed to calm down, Aster looked around again. His mother's thighs were still cushioning his head, while his sister was right next to him, muttering under her breath like a cute, grumpy old lady as she worked on a piece of cloth with her needle. 'Yeah, things could be worse. Much worse,' Aster thought, his eyes flicking up to the ceiling, watching the small crystals that hung from it, their faint blue light shimmering gently in the dim cave, making it almost look as if they were stars twinkling in the night sky above them. 'Maybe that's all she promised... just a family that loves me. A lot of people never get something like that,' he thought, gently patting his mother's soft buttock and feeling its plump flesh jiggle gently against his small hand.

For a brief moment, a thought crossed his mind. A rather silly, almost childish idea that perhaps the goddess put them here because something terrible was happening on the surface, and this was her way of keeping them safe. 'No... that's just stupid. Literally the worst situation anyone could ever end up in. No way.' Aster shook his head at such a naive notion, pushing it aside. He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, and continued to play with his mother's beautiful behind, patting it gently, enjoying how its soft flesh jiggled each time he gave it a little smack.

For a long moment, Nivalis continued talking to Silvia, guiding her on how to properly hold the needle, how to prevent the thread from tangling, and other important tips that Aster had completely forgotten as soon as they were mentioned. But as the boy kept playing with her butt, she eventually glanced back at him over her shoulder, a delicate eyebrow raised in question. "Hmm? What is it, honey?" she hummed curiously, her hand reaching out to brush the silver hair away from his forehead.

Aster smiled up at her as sweetly as he could, momentarily losing himself in the blue depths of her irises. "I love you, Mom. So, so much. You know that, right?" he whispered ever so softly, his small fingers squeezing her pale flesh gently, giving it a soft smack to see the way it jiggled, his palm leaving a pink imprint that quickly faded back to normal.

Nivalis's gaze studied the innocent-looking golden eyes of her son, looking for any signs of guilt or mischief. "What did you do this time?" she asked suspiciously, knowing her boy far too well. He rarely said such things out of the blue, and usually only when he did something he shouldn't. Her long eyelashes fluttered slightly as she watched him with narrowed eyes, waiting for his response.

Aster chuckled, shaking his head slightly. "Nothing... I'm just happy to have you," he said honestly, his smile still on his lips. He mouthed a quiet 'boop' as he poked her soft flesh once more, enjoying the view of her plump bottom, so soft and inviting. "And your butt, too..." he added without thinking, a little giggle escaping his lips.

Rolling her eyes at his words, Nivalis reached out and caught his finger in her hand, squeezing it gently in her fist. She moved it away from her bottom. "My butt and I love you too, my silly boy..." she said softly, her lips curling into a small smile. Despite how silly and awkward they might have sounded, she enjoyed hearing his sweet words.

When her gaze shifted down his pale, skinny body, she couldn't help but notice his stiff little erection poking up into the air from between his thighs, his manhood twitching with anticipation, a small bead of precum forming at the pink tip. A long sigh escaped her lips, her hand releasing the boy's finger. "I see now what's got you so affectionate all of a sudden," she mumbled quietly, shaking her head at him. "Not now, sweetie. After practice, I'll take care of it," she said with a sigh, turning her attention back to the half-elven girl and her struggles, who groaned loudly in frustration once more.

— "Huh?" Aster hummed in confusion, looking at himself, at the stiff, pink erection standing proudly between his legs, throbbing with need. "Oh. It wasn't like that at all," he muttered quietly, gently grabbing his little, swollen cock in his scarred, small fingers, giving it a gentle squeeze, hoping it would calm down. It didn't work. It never did. "How long until you two are finished?" he asked a few moments later, looking between Nivalis and Silvia's cute butts pressed side by side, a mother and daughter in all their pale, naked glory. "Completely unrelated question," he added quickly, smiling innocently.

"A while," Silvia mumbled under her breath, focused intently on her work, struggling with every knot she had to undo. Nivalis only hummed softly, nodding in agreement without even bothering to glance at her son.

Aster nodded back and sighed, letting his head sink deeper into the softness of his mother's thighs. 'Back to complaining about how unfair life is, I guess...' he mumbled in his mind, his hand returning to the beautiful, plump flesh of her bottom, squeezing and smacking it gently, enjoying the occasional wiggle of her hips.

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