Wounds

Ezma watched with frustration as the party dissolved into shambles.

Everyone was mature enough to wait until the wary farmers had left the barn, they had been ready and willing to repay their debt by letting the group use their barn for a few hours of shelter from the rain but it had been clear that the travelers were expected to be gone by the next check.

In the mean time:

Willow and Aspen sat stripped down to where they could tend each other's bruises between shooting dirty looks at those who had inflicted the injuries. Willow at Shiro and Aspen at Ezma.

Ewan sat with his back to the group looking miserable while trying to preserve the modesty that the elves seemed to have no interest in protecting for themselves.

Hassium, well they were hard to see in their amorphous form and kinda leaking into a bundle of hay.

Lorna was keeping watch outside but seemed a bit miffed that her and Ewan's short legs had prevented them from keeping pace with the group and as such miss the fight.

Shiro sat miserably, looking guilty and depressed.

Everyone was trying to not think about those monsters, about how they glowed like those crystals that seemed to follow their every step, or how the monster corpses had dissolved like smoke.

No story spoke of either of these things, not even an inference of something that could be interpreted as relating to this.

Thunder split the tense silence.

With a deep nervous breath Ezma took a gamble. Her people had a long tradition of both music and fighting. Usually the great beasts flushed down into their lands from the bitter colds of farther north, sometimes raiders. So the had combined the two interests into something formidable.

As the Elves tidied themselves up though Ezma knew this project was would not be smart to start tonight, the wounds to pride and body were to fresh for such things tonight.

Instead she approached the pair and whispered in Elvish "I am sorry for hitting you, it won't happen again."

Aspen looked at Ezma long and hard, Aspen knew what was right, accept the apology and move on, they had entered the fight without any experience working with each other's unique fighting styles (no one really considered the fights in the land of slime as counting due to the body swap.) and the gash in Ezma's sleeve showed that Aspen was not innocent of friendly fire either.

Yet, her beloved was right there, not just her beloved but her champion. It had been hard being Willow's partner even before the sealing. How does one love and support the person who a whole land relies on? So Aspen had opted to be Willow's perfect partner, developed her administration skills practiced close quarters combat to cover the weakness of Willow's whip. Aspen had held Willow every time a beast to feral for its own health and that of the forest had to be put down.

She could not make a mistake in front of Willow, if she did Willow would have every right to replace her. They had talked at length about Aspen's worries of being replaced in the course of their relationship, but had never gotten to the why or how those fears extended far beyond the bedroom.

So, the response she gave Ezma was "Thank you, I will consider what you say." and a dismissive turn.

A look of confusion passes Willow's face but her outrage at Shiro almost getting the two of them killed drives what ever thoughts she had about Aspen's out of mind.

The group settles in to get a few hours of fretful sleep.

***

They left the farm before dawn, the weather now warming but still overcast with the threat of rain but none forthcoming.

No matter which way Shiro sliced it, the shield did not fail because it was beyond her ability. She had lost concentration for a reason that felt really stupid, especially in life and death combat.

In that moment she had thought of herself as a man for that split second, and it had been such a shock to the system that her spell had failed. It made sense that there would be moments where slipping into thinking like that would be unavoidable, after all she had lived that way most of her time in this world and her parents had refused to acknowledge her as a girl at all. That had led to a rather embarrassing moment in elementary school gym, but that was neither here or there.

Shiro wanted to talk to Hassium about this but that felt a bit wrong, not because of anything wrong with them, it just seemed like Hassium would not understand given that they did not think of the world in a male/female manner but rather as if gender was as changeable as cloths.

So while they had helped a lot in helping Shiro realize it was an option to not be locked into the gender everyone else expected, she did not want to break with the concept of gender completely after all.

These thoughts chased their tails the entire day in Shiro's head for the whole of that day's hike.

After they made camp off the side of the road that was slowly showing more signs of use, and had dinner Ezma put her plan into action.

Clapping to gain everyone's attention she passed around a hat to with slips of paper on it, then cleared her throat "I don't mean to insult anyone, but yesterday showed me that we all have very strong skills and fighting styles that are well… less than cohesive. Hassium, if my memory serves me most of the major battles where more than one champion turned the tide they never really fought close together?"

Hassium thinks for a moment from where they were lounging in an androgynous form before nodding affirmative.

Ezma went on "So I would like to teach everyone a dance, if you would humor me."