Chapter 57: Just say ‘Fuck’

Chapter 57: Just say ‘Fuck’"Here," Professor Gilligan said as she handed Caius the cage of Fire-Cracking Lizards that he had seen she was very capable of stuffing into one of the many pouches she had on her belts. Lea Gilligan gave Caius the very same smile she had given him when he asked a question very much earlier in class and, still taken by the same amount of confusion he had been feeling back then, Caius barely noticed that she had turned away from him and was heading for the Forest up ahead. "Come on," she called back when there was about six feet of distance between them. Caius caught up with her and laughed a bit. "Professor, you don’t actually need me to carry a cage, do you?" "Well, of course I don’t. But while you’re here, you might as well give my hand, right?" Lea Gilligan said casually. "Fair enough. But why am I here?" Caius asked with a smile. "Well, for one, I heard you know about Mom’s smut reads," Lea said. Caius blinked. He had had a couple of ideas in his head and while they all had something to do with curiosity, this was not the direction he had at all expected the conversation to be taking. "What?" He said and his mouth fell open a bit. Lea Gilligan chuckled then, "You should have seen Mom’s face. I got home—we live together by the way—and there she was, looking all flustered. I asked her what was wrong and she just refused to say. She was ashamed, you see. Thought it was embarrassing that a student had caught on to her ’terrible habits’." Lea was looking at Caius now. The two were side by side. Caius stared right back, unblinking and completely stunned. "Professor..." "Oh, call me Lea. Class is over. Your fellow students aren’t here. It’s just you, me, the trees, the Lizards, and any other Beast that cares to pay attention. It’s fine." "Alright," Caius said immediately because being told he could call her name was very much too small on the list of pressing issues right now, "Lea, I’m not sure I understand what you mean." "Sure you do," Lea said with a little laugh. They were at the very entrance to the Lochxen Forest now. One more step and they would be within its boundaries. She stopped walking and Caius stopped with her. He shook his head. "No, I don’t." "’The Merry Man of Yore’? ’The Leg-spreader extraordinaire’? Of all the smut titles to mention, you chose those. You knew exactly what you were doing." Lea said and laughed a bit harder causing her boobs to jiggle enticingly as they always seemed to do. Caius even let himself gaze at them before returning his eyes to her face, "We were talking about Aklopis the Great. It just came up." ’Why am I trying so hard to deny this?’ Caius asked himself even as the words were leaving his lips. Lea didn’t seem at all upset with him. She also couldn’t actually hurt him by Academy rules and even if she could and wanted to hurt him, his denials wouldn’t do much other than annoy her. But she wasn’t annoyed so why not own up to it? After all, at the time, he had known exactly what he was doing. He just hadn’t thought far enough to realize he could get confronted by Anne Gilligan’s daughter. Lea shook her head and led the way into the Forest, taking a step over the boundary line. Caius followed her and felt something shimmer against his body. A kind of veil that seemed to consider keeping him out but ultimately decided to let him in. He knew the reason he had permission to enter was because of Lea and the subtle hand gesture she made as she walked deeper into the Forest. Speaking of Lea, her tone became slightly more annoyed as she said, "I expected more backbone from you. The least you could do is stick by what you did which was making a frustrated Mother of One feel ashamed for a day. It was the first time she felt she had been so clearly seen for the kind of carnal pleasure reads she likes. Mom kept repeating to herself over and over again; ’Is it really that obvious?’ ’Do I really just come off immediately as a pervert?’ ’Is that how everyone sees me?’ ’Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods...’ It was a bit pathetic, to be honest. I felt sorry for her. No woman should feel that self-conscious about her desires. It’s such a natural part of life, after all." Lea scoffed now and for a second, Caius was sure she was not talking to or about him at all but rather about a much larger issue she had long been frustrated with. "It’s us humans and humanoids that feel shame for mating or seeking pleasure. Magical Beasts don’t care. They go at it whenever and wherever they can because they understand that when you gotta get to it, you just gotta get to it." "Magical Beasts are also mostly unintelligent," Caius mumbled. Lea’s eyes were suddenly on him again as she raised an inquisitive brow. Caius shrugged. "What? You said it yourself during class. Most Magical Beasts aren’t intelligent. Should we really be taking tips from them on how and when to have sex?" "Just say ’Fuck’, Caius," Lea said with a smile and a peculiar look in her feline blue eyes, "I can tell you wanted to." "Well, I’m in the presence of a Lady. I’m trying not to be crass," Caius replied with a smile of his own. "Ah, a Lady. So many would disagree with you on that front. One of them would be me, of course. ’Lady’ comes with etiquette that binds with the rules of society. You can’t be free if you’re a ’Lady’. One of the many things Mom and I butt heads over. If she had embraced freedom, she wouldn’t have been so affected by you knowing her smut titles. It harkens to what I said about taking notes from Magical Beasts. You’re right about them lacking Intelligence but you are wrong in saying it like that’s a bad thing. Intelligence is like many things in the world; ’It’s a double-edged sword’. It comes with its pros and cons. For humans and humanoids, it allowed us to innovate, to evolve both as a species and as Mages/Mage-Knights but it also strips away our basal instincts. Once in a while, we should be able to say No to ’thinking’ and say yes to ’Doing’." "You mean, turn off our brains?" Caius asked. "Exactly," Lea Gilligan said, nodding, "There are some things you’ll do in life that require the least amount of thinking. Sex is the easiest example. It’s far more enjoyable with the least amount of thinking involved. You ask yourself if you want to do it or not and if the answer is yes, you get right to it. But because of our ’Intelligence’ as a race which has introduced the concept of shame, people tend to overthink things. They don’t let their instincts, their desires lead. It’s a sad state of the world." It’s a funny thing to hear someone say ’Intelligence’—which is the very reason for human/humanoid evolution and advancement—is what’s holding it back in favor of more basal and maybe even animalistic instincts and desires but Caius wasn’t ashamed to admit that he felt the the Study of Magical Beasts Professor made a couple of good points. To be fair, he was quite biased. After all, he did have sex in a classroom earlier this week knowing there was a chance his teacher would watch and catch him and his lover in the act. Clearly, he had a tendency to lose his mind and intelligence in favor of desires. Case in point.... "Talking about doing away with societal rules to a teenager is certainly a choice. For all you know, my raging hormones are causing me to take your words to be very suggestive, Professor," Caius said with a light smile and a deliberate inflection on the word ’Professor’. Lea chuckled. "What if that’s exactly what I want? Maybe I’m trying to tell you, in a not-so-subtle way that we would be much better off if we did away with arbitrary demarcations in stations like ’Professor and Student’." "Why, Lea Gilligan, are you trying to hump me?" Caius asked and laughed a little at how ridiculous he sounded. Lea Gilligan laughed as well before she stopped short and said in a voice that was suddenly husky with strange need, "Oh, honey. I’m trying to do much, much more than that."