If you asked me to describe a generic old oran, a few of the things that I’d e up with would have matched Dekarru. Gray hair, old scars, wrinkles. But mostly she defied expectation in that regard. Her gray hair was in a long loose braid that reached her hips and gave the feeling of a kindly mature caregiver. The scars were small and few and seemed more from mundane causes than from battle. The wrinkles were far less pronouhan one might imagine and didn’t really detract from her appearance as much as just made her seem more fident for exposing them all.

  She had dark, pale, green skin, bright brown eyes with flecks of light green, and very dark green nipples on full breasts with just the lightest bit of sag. Her figure said she was still physically active and I could make out some muscle tone in her arms and legs which she seemed happy to let me stare at. And I was happy to stare. Maybe I had a thing for older womeween Henna and Dekarru there was at least the beginnings of a pattern.

  The seer spent a good amount of time with Jaina, giving her healing lessons. While they seemed to have different specific Spells and Skills, the general use of them seemed mostly the same. But sometimes she spent time making salves and brews fods knourposes. During those periods she would usually have me help grind or chop or otherwise prepare things Luvetra would bring from outings she took whenever we stopped, the tall parently quite tale finding various ingredients for the shaman. I got to know Dekarru and Willow Creek better during these periods and she proved herself to be the biggest tease of the entire group. Taking sadistic pleasure in seeing me squirm while we talked and worked.

  Between readying powders, oils, and the like, I asked her questions and she was happy to answer most of them.

  “So you all speak oteva really well, is Willow Creek a current or femony vassal?”

  She snorted a out a barking ugh, apparently that was a hirious question. “Green Mother’s dripping milky tits, her! Oteva is just on on most of the ti, we’d be speaking in tagakra if you uood it! We’ve never been under ahumb! Though about two hundred years back the Empire tried.”

  “How did that go?”

  She turo me and grinned a wicked grin that said ‘very poorly for them’ and I swallowed. “The Hegemony actually sent an envoy to the Empire when they found out, warning them not to try. You see, the Siried it themselves near a thousand years bad that ended with a treaty after only a few months. So they tried to warn the Empire that they were going to choke on their ambitions.”

  “Don’t they hate each other? Why warn enemies?”

  “Because they khe Empire would ig. Then afterwards the Hegemony could say ‘I told you so’ and embarrass them further. But back to the invasion. Fifty thousand Imperial soldiers marched oreaming Pins with one of their high priests to bless the war for their god. They thought because we were scattered vilges and nomads we were just a few simple primitives they could crush oribe at a time. Same as the Hegemony long before.”

  “But they were wrong, of course.” I nodded, it sounded like a familiar story to me somehow.

  “Three huhousand Willow Creek warriors and shaman fell upon the army. The Empire broke and ran almost immediately. But none escaped alive as their path was blocked by a Wild Hunt two hurong.”

  “A Wild Hunt?”

  “Fae-Lords sometimes make sort of… half-Champions from mortals, lesser fae, monsters, and animals. They are very, very strong even without being true Champions. They are used for various means of amusements for their creators, but often small groups of them are made to stalk and terrify someohat got on the Fae-Lord’s bad side. These groups are called a Wild Hunt. To answer your question, Fae like having fun, fae like nature, fae like disregarding societal politeness. So there is a Fae-Lord in the area that really likes those of us that follow the Green Mother’s Path. They were upset at the idea of some Imperial priests f us to wear clothes and do all that de and taonsense.”

  I snorted. “That sounds a bit far fetched, the scale at least. Hundreds of thousands of ord a giant Wild Hunt? Probably exaggerations, right?”

  She raised a brow at me “Nope. I was there. Saw it all with my own two eyes and helped take those Imperial pricks down myself.” I stared at her and she ughed. “Certain csses have Skills that extend lifespans. I’m more than three hundred years old.”

  “Damn, I hope I look half as good at ye.” I whistled, very visibly giving her a look over just to drive the words home.

  “I am a being of eternal charm after all.” she said with a grin.

  “So, a Fae-Lord on your side. Good friend to have?” I drew the subject back to the battle or else she was going to tease me back ten times as hard.

  “Sometimes, they are mercurial beings, the fae. The Hegemony was a better friend. Ohey realized they would ake us, they decided to just be good neighbors instead. This is less true right now, the illed over our borders a few times and so our armies have cshed. But there is no official flict with us yet. Uvtrayl however, they came to us before they decred independend asked us how we felt about it. They are good friends. Though I worry about this flict between those children in charge.”

  “Well hopefully I vihem both I’m not a threat.” I sighed and crawled from the kit area to the cushion pit.

  Dekarru joined me, sitting aing against my side. Her skin was quite warm a extremely rexing against me somehow. I figured it was a Skill of some sort. “Well, that’s assuming you really aren’t a threat to Uvtrayl.” I opened my mouth to protest and she put her finger over my lips. “Just because you aren’t oo Willow Creek, and just because you don’t want to be, doesn’t mean you don’t pose some dao Uvtrayl and her people.”

  I grunted and crossed my arms. “Fihat’s true enough I suppose.” I just sat with the idea for a minute and stared at the ceiling.

  “So, your lovers.” I turo look at Dekarru with a raised eyebrow. “Carmil, Jaina, this Henna you talked about. They are your lovers, yes?”

  “I mean…” I turhe words and ideas in my head over slowly, trying to make sure that what I said felt right, it was important when it was about them. “I have some trouble with that word. Um, love I mean. I’ve kinda dragged the word out of me a couple of times when talking about my feelings, but Jaina says I probably have emotional trauma from a failed romahat makes it hard for me. I ’t say I disagree.”

  “Do you have sex with them without aional e?” She just asked me bluntly.

  “What? No, not at all! I… maybe I jumped into things with Jaina and Henna, but I did have good feelings about them.” I shrugged and blushed, avoiding eye tact with the shaman.

  “Just good feelings?”

  “Well… and Carmil said they were safe. Said they were a good match for us.”

  “You trust your elemental pletely then?” she asked, gng up. Carmil was on the roof of the vardo at the moment, hanging out with Luvetra and just enjoying the world in her new form.

  “I have so many reasons to, she’s been my anchor since I woke up in that transport and I owe her so damned much, including my very life.” I g the shaman and she gave me a look that said she khere was more to it so I kept talking “I love her. I think maybe my go-, my patron might have done something that made us feel more strongly towards each other. But I don’t care. Even if my feelings for her were maniputed, I still have them and she’s givehing but reasons to embrace them.”

  The old woman chuckled and patted my thigh. “What of you and Jaina?”

  “I love her too, as does Carmil. She’s been amazing and I am so damned happy to have her with me. And to head off the question about Henna, I don’t know. I think I was growing to love her but then she kept getting pulled away and we all got awkward about Jaina and-” I blinked as I remembered Jaina’s messed up buttons and blushing orain. “Actually I think maybe those two were doing a lot better with each other just before we got separated.” I ughed. “Fuck, I want to love her. I do. But I feel this lump ihat’s worried about it. I know at least part of the reason behind it is from when I was still Lietri, but I think there might be more that I’m missing.”

  “Do you think that knowing more about who you were will really ge how you feel about Carmil, or Jaina?” She asked softly and I knew what she was saying immediately.

  “No, so it shouldn’t affect how I feel about Heher. So… I think I love her too.” I took a long, slow breath. “You have some kind of therapy Skills, don’t you?” I chuckled softly and covered my eyes by draping an arm over them as I id back.

  She let out a faux gasp of surprise “Miss Dreamsihat is a very personal question. I’m afraid I’ll have to insist you bee far more intimate with me before I answer such a thing~” The sed half of that urred into my ear as her fingers slid up my thigh, then up my stomad between my breasts to softly around my neck “But don’t worry, I’ll wait till you’ve recovered enough to actually st with me.” she whispered close before nipping my ear lobe softly.

  As my member throbbed to life she let out a cackle and pulled herself up. I let myself calm before I followed and got back to work with the cruel old seer on the batch of salve ingredients.