All five of our guards tensed up as the other group approached, the girl didn't seem bothered by the slight hostility being sent her way.

  "Can I please sit with you?" She asked once she was close enough, her voice soft like silk. She had her own tray of food and two of her guards had simir while the other two were focusing on their job.

  I looked at Tayatt trying to gage her reaction to the question. She was not happy but still put on the fakest smile I've ever seen. "Of course you can."

  I must be missing some rule of etiquette because I'd have said no.

  "Thank you."

  Taking a seat with two of her guards the new woman y some utensils down in a methodical pattern than seemed to have been practiced before. Her guards took up seats on either side of her and unlike with Tayatt and myself they actively positioned themselves as a barrier between Acolytes.

  "I would like to introduce myself to you John. I'm Penatra of the Silverrings family."

  Tayatt scoffed and muttered something I couldn't hear under her breath, Penatra tried to ignore her but I noticed her mouth twitch slightly.

  "I see my family's legacy perceives me."

  This time Tayatt didn't say quiet. "What legacy? Your family is a stain against the consteltion and everyone knows it."

  Penatra bristled but managed to calm herself before replying. "I am not associated with that part of my family and if they truly are guilty of those crimes they deserve to burn in the sun's sor for all their days and more."

  That got dark real quick.

  "Could have fooled me." Tayatt responded taking a rather forceful bite from her food.

  Penatra forced a smile with a practiced ease. "Forgive that interruption John I simply wanted to make your acquaintance and possibly be a friend in the future."

  Everything about her screamed dishonesty from the way she spoke, to the reactions whenever Tayatt mentioned her family but I couldn't quite find myself hating her. Maybe it was just that I didn't know the full story?

  "I can certainly agree to be acquaintances for now, as for friends that just comes with time." I thought my reply was fairly neutral in it's response.

  "An acceptable outcome." The deer woman said in return perking up more naturally this time.

  Tayatt still gave the woman the side eye as we all began to eat in silence.

  "What's your thoughts on all this?" I whispered to Sapphire as quietly as I could. Admittedly it was still kind of loud when no one else was speaking.

  "Usually I'd advise you to avoid nobility." My blue mia replied not being quiet at all. "And I do not follow political drama so I'm unsure about what Acolyte Tayatt is referring to regarding Acolyte Penatras family name. I would however recommend keeping a healthy distance from anyone looking to use you as a political pawn but it would also help having someone in the nobility circles as a friend if something were to happen."

  Maybe it was just me pying a few too many RPGs but I could feel an underlining threat in Sapphires reply.

  "I have no intention of using John status as a male Acolyte to further my own ambitions. I would prefer to accomplish them with my own two hands so to speak." Penatra smiled back.

  Yip there was a threat in here and Penatra definitely noticed.

  "Good." Sapphires tongue darted out quickly to taste the air. "Friends in high pces can be useful."

  "Almost as good as friends in low pces." Aria added not turning around.

  Penatras guards shuffled nervously at the rger woman but none of them went for their weapons. For everyone elses part we all stared at my guards slightly shocked at the way they spoke.

  Penatra however ughed. "You should definitely keep those two John. It's rare for some to threaten me like that, moreso to do it so subtle that I almost missed it."

  "Is that a good thing?" I asked dragging my eyes away from Sapphire who was currently staring at Penatras guards like they were mice to be snacked on.

  "If they can back it up most definitely. Remember you're an Acolyte first male second, so don't go thinking you can sleep your way to the top. There are better ways of rising through the ranks."

  "Where I come from it's the woman that sleep their way into premonitions." I ughed back. "Trust me you put it perfectly, what you can't obtain with your own two hands isn't worth keeping."

  "Even more of a reason to be friends with someone in what was it your angel said? A low pce?" The deer woman teased back. "From someone in a high pce to someone in a low pce."

  Sapphire let out a soft hiss that revealed fangs I didn't know she possessed.

  "I shall take my leave now as I appear to have stayed my welcome. It was good meeting you John and I look forward to seeing where this new acquaintanceship will go." Penatra rose having already eaten her meager amount on her pte. "Acolyte Tayatt."

  And with that she left with her little possy of guards.

  "I don't like her." Tayatt voices once they were out of earshot.

  "I would never have guessed." I sarcastically said back.

  "You should hate her more John. What her family did is just..."

  "Not what she did." I interrupted the Vattare. "Don't judge her too harshly at least right now. She could be friendly."

  "Or she could be plotting to kidnap you for her family John."

  Sapphire hissed again this time at Tayatt. "Let her try. Acolyte or not I'll ring her neck after I drink the blood of each guard one by one."

  "I think we can all agree the mia has already fucked John." Ovara smirked.

  "Lucky bitch." Her Acolyte grumbled.

  "Is it that obvious?" I wondered looking between the three. Wait I should have denied it. Dammit.

  "Let's just say if she was just your guard she wouldn't be threatening another Acolyte." Ovara answered. "The hostility comes from her nature to prove herself as a protector of her families male."

  "It will make her better at her job Acolyte." Aria added.

  Sapphire retracted her fangs into a less threatening position. "John is not my family's male. It would be an honor if he were to be but as of right now we are just Acolyte and guard."

  "With benefits." Ovara chimed in.

  "You have been taught to pleasure your Acolyte if the need arises yes?" Sapphire pyfully jested with a raised eyebrow.

  All the Vattares blushed red at that including the one looking out at the room. The bunny girl however just nodded.

  "It was part of our training." Ovara replied.

  "A part you have also made use of?" Sapphire smiled having turned the conversation around.

  I just sat there a little awkwardly trying not to let my mind wander at what was being implied.

  Tayatt coughed. "I believe John was going to tell us more about human ciming rituals before we were interrupted."

  The distraction worked pretty well as all the girls tuned to me. The lion hybrid women still had rosy cheeks and Sapphire just had a shit eating grin.

  "I was?"

  "Come on John. We're all curious about your species."

  I snickered. "Fine, fine. Where would you like me to start?"

  "How about courting?" Sapphire asked. "How do females court the males they want to pair with?"

  Oh boy this might be a culture shock for them.

  "Well because of how our genders work it's actually the males that court the females."

  That got the reaction I was expecting as each girl had different stages of surprise. Even Aria turned around but Sapphire gred at her until she turned back.

  "What?! Why?" Tayatt yelled getting a few looks from others in the room.

  "Human men are physically stronger and have a reputation of being the providers of a family, for protection, food and a roof over their heads. So because there's an even birthrate the men try to look impressive as a provider while woman try to look attractive enough to get the attention of a high roller so to speak."

  "But how do females get their rocks off if they have to wait for a male to take interest?" Tayatt asked, leaning forward in interest but had the unfortunate effect of pushing her tits forward. Or fortunate for me. Sapphire noticed and pced her tail on my p applying a slight bit of pressure to my growing arousal.

  "That's a bit of a gray area at the moment." I answered. "Traditionally a woman would save themselves for marriage but now they use a dating app to try to get a males attention but a few of them simply use it for free food as the male is expected to pay for the date. Then there's the few that are looking for a quick fuck instead of actual commitment and it kinda sours the whole process."

  "You sound like you speak from experience." Sapphire softly said.

  "I left nothing behind on Earth." I replied with a shrug not wanting to get into it. I had much better prospects out here, a lovely mia is a prime example.

  "So human females try and get the males to provide for them? What about children? Who looks after them once they've finished nursing?" Tayatt asked seeming to bounce. It was very distracting.

  "Again difficult to answer. It use to be that the females would do all the childrearing while the males work but due to inftion and a bunch of other reasons most families have both parents working and look after the children together."

  "That seems very boring. I'd much prefer to hand a child off to their father once it stopped sucking my tits. Unless he wants to keep sucking them, then I would make an exception." Tayatt emphasized this by hefting her chest in my direction.

  "I can somewhat understand. Lamia tend to have the weaker females in charge of offspring while the stronger get to actually breed and defend their cims. We differ in that a males purpose is to breed and look pretty to attract other females to join their family. Safety in numbers and you only need one male to impregnate many females." Sapphire tried to keep the conversation from going down a different route.

  "Vattares differ a lot between subspecies." Ovara pulled Tayatt back slightly, scolding the Acolyte by spping her boobs. "But we lion subspecies tend to have one male to a few females but no where near the amount mia have, somewhere around five is considered a healthy family unit. We females provide for them in every way so long as the male keeps a clean home and can look after any cubs. Simir to how you said your females use to be."

  I'm guessing that's going to be a running theme with the birthrates out here.

  "You mentioned marriage. What is that?" Aria asked tapping Sapphire on the shoulder who nodded and they switched pces.

  "Oooh is it a human ciming ritual?" Tayatt excitedly asked while scowling at her guard.

  "I guess you could say it is?" I replied hesitantly. "We kind of flip the script a bit here, I mentioned before that human woman control sex but it's the males that control if the get married or not. We date to try and find out if we like them or not and if we do we buy an expensive ring and make a big deal out of asking them to be ours. I'll admit I think we do this more for their sake than our own but we have a saying 'happy wife, happy life'."

  "What happens if they date just to fuck you?" Aria asked seeming to be more interested in the whole dating part of my expnation.

  "Depends. Sometimes they will keep in contact for a bit to sleep with each other again, other times they part ways and never speak again."

  Aria didn't seem to like that answer by the way she wrinkled her nose. I thought it was adorable but felt like it would be a bad idea to say that out loud.

  "And how would you keep a human male happy?" Ovara asked this time having pced a hand over Tayatts mouth to stop the Vattares woman from speaking.

  "Easy." I said with a smirk. "Keep his belly full and his balls empty. Do that and they will worship you like a queen."

  Tayatt stopped trying to lick her way through Ovaras hand and pulled it away. "That's it! I want a human as my mate! How long till the Consteltion trains a male human guard?"

  "At least five years." Ovara sighed. "And if you did that you wouldn't be able to be part of Johns harem would you?"

  This seemed to stop the lion hybrid. I found the whole ordeal amusing.

  "Well I guess you have a point there." She admitted with a pout.

  "We might take our leave now." Aria said rising from the bench and putting her wing around me. "It was lovely to meet you all but we do have physical training tomorrow and I would like to make sure John gets a good sleep."

  "That sounds like a wonderful idea as I don't think Tayatt here will get to sleep very quickly tonight." The bunny girl spoke up for the first time. Her voice was high and chipper but not in an annoying way.

  "You could always help me get to sleep faster?" The woman in question smiled back.

  "Only if you behave yourself."

  At this point I was the one in surprise and it took Sapphire nudging me under the table to get me to stand back up. My mias tongue darted out quickly and I knew what she was going to say.

  "Don't say it." I quickly interrupted.

  "It make so much more sense now that you say the females control sex in your species as to why you're so easily aroused."

  That is somehow worse.

  "I can be of assistance!" Tayatt called out as we made our way back towards our bunks.

  "Once you become a full mage we'll consider it." Sapphire called over her shoulder as she got into position to take point. Aria filled out my left side again with her wing covering my back.

  Well I can say that's been the most interesting meal I've had in a while. I also got a slight glimpse into Arias species at the end there. She might actually want to be wooed.

  I looked at her as we walked only slightly admiring her figure. Maybe I should take both her and Sapphire on a proper date. Show them human culture.

  I doubt they'd allow me to take them one at a time so I'll have to compromise and if I remember correctly the day after tomorrow is free.