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Thick underbrush and twisted branches never hindered Hyacinth Mossberry. She was exceptionally nimble even for a halfling, light and swift on her feet, and never afraid to climb. Her brother, Linden, had spent years grumbling that Hyacinth decided to become an alchemist instead of going into the Family Business.
The morning air was cool but comfortable, and the forest smelled crisp and refreshing and earthy, with the pine being a particularly heavy scent. Which was probably a good thing, given the number of pine trees—if it smelled like cinnamon, Hyacinth would wonder if she was about to stumble on a baking-focused Druid circle.
They'd probably invite her to stay for tea. And she'd have to put on the politeness song and dance. "Oh, dear me," she would have to exclaim, how generous of you! I couldn't possibly intrude!" They would insist, because they got so few guests all the way out here in the forest, and she seemed so sweet and lovely, but most importantly, hungry and thirsty. So they would give her tea to go with their cinnamon cakes. And then, of course, there was the goodbye ritual, where she'd gather up her things—well, her Handy Haversack, basket, and hat—and they'd continue their chitchat as she slowly worked her way back towards the path.
It wasn't long before she spotted vibrant orange out of the corner of her eye. She all but skipped over to the patch of Harefoot Sunshine Lichen, and the Rusty Amanita with which it was living. "You are gorgeous," she said, "both of you, of course. I hope you'll be happy coming home with me." She slid the Haversack off her shoulders, pulled out a blanket, spread it, and sat down to get to work.
As she hummed the bridge of "Middle of a Dream"—her favourite tune for the last three days—Hyacinth heard a rustling noise from behind her. Foliage, moving aside for something moving through it. She glanced over her shoulder, and dropped the mushroom she was brushing clean, and the paintbrush she was using to do that, and her jaw.
There was a grizzly bear behind her, and its dark eyes were fixed on Hyacinth.
"Oh no," she whispered. Her heart pounded behind her ribs. She immediately felt too warm, her vision narrowed, and her hearing seemed oddly muffled. "Shit," she whispered, before she collapsed.
Hyacinth heard humming, but she wasn’t doing it. A warm, gentle hand stroked over her hair. She decided it was safe to open her eyes, and looked up to see a woman.
Specifically, an elf woman, with black, waist-length hair, the most beautiful amber eyes Hyacinth had ever seen, and long delicate ears.
And not a single stitch of clothing, which Hyacinth became very aware of since she was lying with her head on the elf’s thigh.
"Um," said Hyacinth.
"Thank goodness," said the elf. "I am so sorry. I did not mean to scare you so badly."
"Er?" said Hyacinth.
"I smelled something unfamiliar, so I came to investigate," the elf explained. Her hand was still tenderly moving over Hyacinth’s hair. "I should have been more careful."
"Naked," Hyacinth said.
"What? Oh! Well—yes."
If she was a bear lady, then she must actually be a Druid. She wasn’t inviting Hyacinth to tea. She was tenderly cradling her and stroking her hair and—
"Why naked?" Hyacinth asked in a small voice.
The elf’s gaze darted away and looked down at Hyacinth again. "Never mind that. Are you all right? Do you need water? Something to eat? I have your bag here. I’m Livanna, by the way."
"Hyacinth Mossberry," Hyacinth said. She let Livanna help her sit up, then Livanna handed her her Handy Haversack. She dug around in it and pulled out her canteen, and took a long drink. "So, um," she said, replacing the cap, "do you... live here?"
"Yes."
"And your... Circle?"
Livanna looked away again, playing with the long ends of her hair that mostly kept her chest covered, which Hyacinth tried not to look at too much, out of politeness. Linden would laugh at her for being dainty.
"Sorry, sorry," Hyacinth said quickly. "Anyway, thanks for taking care of me until I woke up."
"You're welcome," said Livanna. She continued to sit there as Hyacinth stood up. She was so intensely beautiful, with her long, copper-skinned limbs, her huge eyes, her slender fingers...
Hyacinth cleared her throat and bent over to pick up the dropped mushroom and her paintbrush. When she turned back to Livanna, she couldn't be entirely certain, but it seemed like the druid had to lift her gaze to Hyacinth's face.
"I, um. I'm going to be expected. Back in the city," Hyacinth said, apologetically. She always told someone when she was heading out, given she didn't have the kinds of skills and abilities of people like her brother. She tended to faint in the face of danger.
"Oh," said Livanna. "Yes, I suppose you don't look like you live in the forest. I will take my leave, then."
With that she stood, became a pine warbler, and flew away. She flew away, and Hyacinth couldn't quash her disappointment or annoyance with herself. She'd probably never see that woman again.
Hyacinth thought about Livanna every day for the next twelve days. She didn't breathe a word about the naked druid lady to anyone, and especially not to her brother. But oh, she thought about her.
The barbarian looked human enough, but her eyes were pale and opalescent, and she didn't really move much. The tiefling paladin who accompanied her moved almost constantly, being one of those people who had to touch everything. They were a curious pair and something about them was both alluring and off-putting.
They'd wanted a batch of potions that were prohibitively expensive for many, but they could pay. So as soon as they left their deposit and headed out, Hyacinth scrambled up and over the counter to flip the sign on the door to closed. She needed to get some food in her belly and her body in bed because she needed to head to the forest at first light.
She had to collect at least a half-dozen spring's trumpets—a flower that bloomed only for three tendays in the summer—and there was no time to waste, given summer was almost over.
Spring's trumpet grew near sunlit waters. It was said they were blessed by Eldath, so they tended to be their most abundant in places where waterfalls plunged into still waters. The day was bright and sunny; not that spring's trumpets would spontaneously disappear with clouds and rain, but it felt like an extra blessing from the Mother Guardian of Groves that the forest wasn't dark or muddy.
Hyacinth set down her Haversack, pulled out the blanket, spread it out near the side of the pool, and knelt down with her pruning shears. She leaned in close to breathe in the crisp, clean scent of the green, trumpet-shaped flowers, and then examined them to figure out which ones had bloomed first. They would be the most potent in the potions.
She hummed to herself—"Silver Moon" was her favourite melody that day—as she worked on harvesting the flowers. She had to prune off the leaves, so she would leave them behind as an offering back to the earth and the Mother Guardian.
When she was done, and had put her Handy Haversack back on her shoulders, she heard a roar from above. The waterfall was perhaps two-and-a-half pretty lady elves tall, and at the top of it stood a bear. Hyacinth froze, her breath froze too, and the bear lifted one big paw in a gesture that seemed an awful lot like a wave. And then it launched itself forward, off of the waterfall, performing a mighty belly-flop into the water, where grizzly-bear was replaced by naked elf lady.
"Hullo, Hyacinth," said Livanna.
The pool was considerably deeper than Hyacinth had imagined, not that he considered diving in herself. The water hid Livanna all the way to her perfect collarbones.
"Hi there, Livanna," said Hyacinth.
They stared at each other.
"That was an impressive dive," said Hyacinth.
Livanna beamed at her. "Thank you. It was great fun." She climbed out of the pool. Water cascaded off of her skin and Hyacinth kept her eyes trained very carefully on Livanna's lovely face.
"What are you doing with the spring's trumpets?" Livanna asked.
"Oh. Potions. Couple of adventurers are heading up to Icewind Dale, and spring's trumpet can be used in a potion to help keep them warm."
"Indeed it can," Livanna said, nodding. "The effect can be enhanced if you include some berries from Regal Bitterweed. You need to macerate them, but with only one pinch of sugar per handful of berries. And you don't want to get them mixed up with the rest of your fruit, it will make them rot."
Hyacinth had never heard of this technique, but she had no reason to doubt a druid about this sort of thing. "Elf handful or halfling handful?"
"I'm sorry?"
Hyacinth smiled. "You said 'one pinch of sugar per handful of berries'. Elf handful or halfling handful?"
"Oh! Elf handful. Do you want me to show you where to find the Regal Bitterweed?"
Hyacinth opened her mouth to say no, she knew how to find it. But Livanna was looking down at her with such a hopeful expression that she didn't have the heart to reject the offer. "Sure," she said. "Lead the way."
Livanna smiled more, then turned to walk deeper into the forest, away from the pool and in the direction that Hyacinth would go to return to the city.
As she watched Livanna's feet move over the forest floor with ease, Hyacinth wondered if maybe this druid just didn't own clothes.
"Hullo, Hyacinth."
"Hi there, Livanna."
"You're not harvesting?"
Hyacinth was sitting on a stump, eating a sandwich. With one hand, she reached down and patted her Haversack. "Already done, but I was hungry." She dared to glance at Livanna, and found her wearing a loose-fitting, simple green dress that fell to mid-calf. It was sleeveless, and she wasn't wearing anything on her feet. Apparently she did own clothes. She also had a smock on over the dress, and she reached into the big pouch on the front and pulled out a handful of raspberries. She offered them to Hyacinth, who smiled up at her. "For me?"
"Why would I hold them out to you if I had no intentions of giving them to you?" Livanna asked, utterly baffled. "That would be cruel."
"You know what, fair," said Hyacinth. She finished her sandwich in two large bites that would have Gramma Mossberry scolding her manners, and, as she chewed the final bite, held out her hands and let Livanna deposit the raspberries into. She swallowed, then said, "Thanks," and sat there, quietly eating raspberries, as Livanna watched her expectantly. "They're delicious. They'd make a really good jam."
Livanna's eyes lit up. "Do you think so?"
"Yeah, for sure. I don't just make potions and lotions. I started with jams and sauces."
"Oh," said Livanna. "Oh, that sounds very lovely." She stood there, hovering, not naked, playing nervously with her own fingers, until Hyacinth finished the raspberries. "Do you have to go back to the city right away?"
Hyacinth thought about that. "Well... I should leave by nightfall."
Hope blossomed on Livanna's face. Hyacinth's bones all turned to jelly. "Let me show you the raspberry bushes. You can take as many as you like, and I can help it bear fruit again quickly."
Bear fruit. Hyacinth smiled and let the pun wash over her and then let it go. "You know what? I'd like that." She bounced up to her feet, and put her Haversack on her back. "Lead on."
Livanna smiled, bright and beautiful as the rising sun.
"Hullo, Hyacinth."
"Hi there, Livanna. I have something for you." Hyacinth reached into her Haversack, and pulled out a jar. Its contents were a brilliant red, and the label on it declared, in Hyacinth's swirling cursive, to be raspberry jam. She even put some red and white gingham cloth over the lid, and tied it on with twine.
Livanna gasped. She reached out, and took the jar in both hands, cradling it as though it was precious. "Thank you so much," she said, very softly.
"Do you have bread?"
Livanna shook her head.
From the depths of the Haversack, Hyacinth pulled out a basket and a loaf of bread wrapped in cloth.
"Do you have a bread knife?"
Livanna shook her head.
Hyacinth piled a bread knife, a table knife, and a small plate into the basket, then held it out to Livanna. With great care, Livanna put the jam jar into the basket, then took it from Hyacinth. Tears shone in her lovely amber eyes.
"Thank you," she whispered, holding on to the basket. "You are very kind, Hyacinth. Thank you."
There was a bear with a basket in her mouth, sitting right on the path Hyacinth always took to forage. The basket was familiar, because it was Hyacinth's basket.
"Hi there, Livanna." The bear set the basket down and grunted, nudging it with her nose towards Hyacinth. She lifted her enormous head and waited until Hyacinth retrieved the basket and stuffed it back inside her Haversack. "Did you like the jam and bread?"
Another grunt, then Livanna dropped onto her belly, making herself as low to he ground as she possibly could. She looked at Hyacinth, then turned her head around to point her snout at her back, then looked at Hyacinth again.
"You know, you can turn into a person who can talk to me," Hyacinth pointed out.
Livanna grunted again. Once more she turned her head and tilted her snout to her back.
"Do you want me to climb up?"
Livanna nodded, broad and over-exaggerated in her bear form. So Hyacinth shrugged—if that was what Livanna wanted, Hyacinth couldn't really come up with any reason not to. She clambered onto Livanna's back and held on to her surprisingly soft fur. She leaned down a bit, wanting to stay as close to the ground as she could, and was surprised that Livanna in bear form didn't smell like an animal. She just smelled like a person.
As Livanna began to wander deeper into the forest, Hyacinth had a thought about bear-back riding, and cringed inwardly at her own unspoken pun, feeling a warm little blush rise to her cheeks. She ducked down even more, even though Livanna couldn't see her right now, and rested her cheek in the fur at the back of Livanna's neck, feeling a little bit like a cub clinging to the fully-grown grizzly beneath her. She didn't let herself think anything more salacious about Livanna and positions, especially given she was currently a bear.
After a few moments of Livanna moving slowly along in the forest, Hyacinth became aware of a rumbling noise coming from the huge body she was clinging to. As far as she knew, bears didn't purr, and yet there it was, some kind of pleasant, near-constant vocalisation. Hyacinth closed her eyes, and let the sound lull her to sleep.
Hyacinth woke from her doze when Livanna lowered herself down to the forest floor with yet another grunt. Hyacinth sat up and stretched, and then froze in place.
They were in a sun-dappled clearing full of spring's trumpets. The flowers surrounded the ivy-covered, ruined remnants of stone walls that still stood on the far side of a pond, and the occasional scattered tree. The walls, from Hyacinth's current perspective, seemed to indicate that the building they used to support was a two-room house. Hyacinth wondered who lived there—an alchemist like her? A witch? A solitary druid who liked a place to keep their stuff safe from the elements? Ooh, maybe all of the above.
She slid off of Livanna's back, and looked around with a smile. "It's beautiful," she said, right before she let out a very mild, "Hey," when a very large head pushed against her back, urging her forward to the pond. There was absolutely no resisting a particularly insistent bear-lady.
Said particularly insistent bear-lady stopped at the edge of the pond. Hyacinth peered into the water, to find it was the clearest water she had ever seen in her life. There were some lily pads floating on it, bearing brilliant pink flowers—she couldn't help but ponder, at least for a moment, what sort of properties they might have. But that thought didn't last long, as she sank to her knees at the pond's edge, braced her hands on a rock, and leaned over to watch the fish.
Because, of course, the water was so clear she could see all the fish living in the pond, and the way their scales shifted in colour as they caught the sunlight. They were iridescent, like opals, the colours shining and shifting and brilliant. Eventually, Hyacinth sat back on her heels and glanced at Livanna.
"It's beautiful here," she said. "Thank you for bringing me." She gave a soft sigh. "If I'd had any idea... I don't need to go back to the city so desperately, you know? If I'd known, I could have brought a tent. The walls there would provide some protection from the elements, but not quite enough..." She looked down at her hands. "It'd be nice to just... stay. I mean, I wouldn't dream of dragging you to the city with me."
She felt a gentle touch to her shoulder. She glanced back again, and saw Livanna in her elf form, wearing her smock again and not much else. "You would stay? For the night?" Though Hyacinth merely nodded, Livanna smiled, big and bright, and then said, "Do not wander far. I will be back soon." She shifted form again, but instead of being a bear, she turned into a falcon, and soon flapped away.
Hyacinth watched her disappear—which didn't take long, given the way trees have a stubborn tendency to not be see-through—and then sat down properly at the edge of the pond. She drew her knees to her chest and let herself be dazzled by the iridescent fish for a good long while. But soon enough, she got up, brushed off her trousers, and looked around. She didn't want to harvest any of the flowers, because something told her not to; instinct, perhaps, or a subtle nudge from Eldath herself said she should leave them be. So she wandered around the edge of the pond, admiring stones and rocks until she found a beautiful, smooth stone, and that same curious instinct or nudge told her she should keep it. She picked it up and put it in her pocket.
Curiosity got the better of her again, and she went to investigate the ruins. It had surely been a home, given some of the walls still bore evidence of windows, and there was definitely a crumbling hearth, and in one or two spots she found the last remnants of floorboards. Hyacinth put a hand on one of the walls, and imagined living in a quaint cottage like this. She didn't quite have the funds to pay for it to be rebuilt—not yet, at least.
She was light, and she was nimble, so she took a chance in clambering up one of the sturdier-looking walls, looking out over the clearing at the flowers and the pond, and thought that, yes, she really could imagine living in a place like this. Some of the flowers would have to go, to make way for a vegetable patch, and some of the trees might have to be replaced to fruit-bearing trees. There'd need to be a pathway for city-dwelling visitors to use—that seemed only polite—and a little patio for an outdoor stove, table, and chairs. She could imagine building a swing in one of the sturdier trees, a swing with a seat wide enough for one of the tall people and one little halfling.
For some time, she climbed up and down walls, and investigated what remained of nooks and crannies, until she heard familiar footsteps approaching. She stepped quietly out from behind one of the walls to see a grizzly bear. "You're back!" she exclaimed, raising her hand.
The bear made eye contact with her, and let out a snort before displaying its teeth and swatting at the ground.
"You're not back," Hyacinth whispered, feeling her heart begin to pound behind her ribs.
She knew plants. She didn't know animals so much. She did know she couldn't possibly outrun a bear. She didn't know if she could out-climb a bear. Bears could climb, couldn't they? That was a thing they did—she was pretty sure, anyway.
Her hearing grew strangely muffled.
And then she was certain there was a roar, and it wasn't from the bear in front of her. She heard little else as she stood frozen, but she watched another bear come bounding into the clearing.
Hyacinth had no idea how she could have possibly mistaken the second grizzly for her grizzly. Livanna's coat was a far richer brown, vibrant and beautiful, like an artist's own idealised version of a bear, while the newcomer had a more silvery undertone. Hyacinth gripped the stone wall in front of her, trying to hide even as she tried to watch.
The two bears stared at each other for a long, long moment. Would they fight? Were bears territorial? Was the second bear hungry? But the second bear sat on its haunches, and stared at Livanna, who stood her ground. And then the other bear hunched a little, and got to its feet again, and lumbered off, glancing back only once, but Livanna just stood still and—honestly, Hyacinth couldn't be certain if she was making any sort of noise at all.
When the other bear was completely out of sight, Hyacinth sank down to the ground to sit on her heels, putting her hands on her knees as she remembered how to breathe and her perception of the world returned to normal.
Livanna reappeared as an elf. She carried a large rucksack, which she set down as soon as she hurried to the ruins, and she dropped to her own knees and immediately drew Hyacinth into a hug.
"That wasn't you," Hyacinth whispered.
"I'm so sorry," Livanna said. "He is very young, and he smelled something unfamiliar—you—and came to investigate. He was just curious, and I think you startled him just as much as he startled you. I told him in no uncertain terms that you are not food."
Hyacinth choked out a laugh and leaned up to wrap her arms around Livanna's neck. "The only thing that's allowed to eat me is a dragon," she said, which was apparently the absolute wrong thing to say, because Livanna immediately thrust her out to arms' length, her fingers a little too tight on Hyacinth's shoulders.
"No!" she exclaimed, then, softer, "No, Hyacinth. Nothing is allowed to eat you. Nothing at all, I won't allow it."
"All right, all right," Hyacinth said, feeling her face grow warm. "Nothing's allowed to eat me, not even dragons."
"Correct," said Livanna, and she cupped Hyacinth's face in her hands, and leaned close, and kissed her. Hyacinth's eyes widened, then her lashes fluttered, and she leaned into the kiss, resting her hand over one of Livanna's.
"Oh," she said, when Livanna broke the kiss and drew back. Livanna's eyes were full of anxiety, so Hyacinth leaned close and kissed her again, the only way she could think of to reassure her.
"Oh," said Livanna, smiling—not her big, bright smile, but something small, almost shy. "Hullo, Hyacinth."
"Hi there, Livanna."
"Do you still want to stay?"
"Definitely." Maybe forever.