Chapter Text
There was a surge of magic and Tav blinked in surprise as the bear in front of her transformed into a man.
It wasn't the transformation itself that surprised her, as a druid herself she was more than accustomed to taking wildshapes, but the wood elf that unfurled, foot by foot until he stood half a head taller than her. It was quite a feat to make Tav feel dainty in comparison, and she felt heat pool in her stomach.
Mentally shaking herself she smiled at the druid who was muttering something about goblin guts and got back to the task at hand.
Halsin caught himself staring at the elf who approached him in the Grove a couple of days later. He'd been distracted when she and her party had aided his escape from the goblins. In the bright sunlight, the pale green of her skin a marked contrast to her dark hair, her heritage was unmistakeable; a spore druid, and elf of the deep woodlands.
While spore druids were rare, it wasn't her heritage that surprised him, but her size. He was used to being an anomaly among his kind, but she was almost as tall as he and looked as though she could wrestle a bear without a sweat. He felt his mouth go dry and swallowed hard, reminding himself he was far from being a youth in his first century.
"She'll be trouble," she was saying now, unwittingly echoing his thoughts. He shook himself, and followed her gaze to Kagha.
"She'll be Francesca's problem," he said.
Tav turned to him, a question in her green eyes.
"Francesca will be taking over the grove while I'm gone," he explained. An eyebrow arched and he shook his head. "I said I'd accompany you to Moonrise. I mean to honour that debt."
Tav broke into a grin at that, and he noticed that her eyes shimmered between black and green like pools of acid.
"We'll be glad to have you," she said.
"I'm glad to be had."