As Drusilia led her to the small shack on the outskirts of the village, Erin couldn’t help but feel her lip curl in anger at the thought of this amazing woman being forced to live like this. As the blonde moved towards the door, she turned to face Erin and gave her a concerned look.

“Maybe… uh… maybe you should stay out here. I’ll see if I can’t find something suitable for you to wear.”

“Drusilia… why do you want me to stay out here?”

The blonde gave her an evasive look and sighed loudly.

“...You know why.”

Despite her attempts at keeping herself calm, her skin started to glow as her anger rose. She exhaled sharply through her nose and turned away. After a couple of seconds the anger left her and she sighed loudly.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. You’re right. I’ll stay out here.”

This whole ‘protector of women’ thing was no joke… even the faintest thought of what had happened to Drusilia was enough to set off her rage-mode. Despite all the stereotypes about redheads having fiery tempers, Erin felt like she had been pretty even keeled her whole life. It was definitely going to take some getting used to having to watch what she was literally thinking about in order to prevent any further unintentional outbursts. Intentional ones however… well those she was looking forward to. She wasn’t sure how much was her goddess compulsion or her own natural tendency to want to see those who wronged Drusilia brought to justice.

After a few moments Erin heard the sound of Drusilia’s door opening and she turned around to see the tall blonde half-elf duck under the small door frame of the shack and walk towards her. She had found a tunic that was only a few sizes too small for her and a pair of loose fitting breeches that had obviously been made for a heavy set man. The strip of cloth she was using as a belt was barely holding her pants up, and Erin shook her head in slight amusement as Drusilia looked at her own body in irritation.

“This body is slightly ridiculous. Especially these things.”

The half-elf placed her hands on her enormous breasts and sighed dramatically.

“They got in the way of everything I tried to put on. I fail to see how they are in any way practical.”

“I don’t know about ‘practical,’ but they sure as hell are fun to play with.”

“I'm not sure what ‘hell’ is, but if your opinion of fun is a ridiculously oversized bosom you are a strange woman indeed.”

Both women burst out laughing before Drusilia handed her a folded cream colored bundle of clothing. Erin carefully unfolded it and gasped at the beautiful dress in her hands. The hem was embroidered in an intricate gold pattern that looked like vines and leaves.

“Drusilia… this is… It’s beautiful I can't accept this!”

Erin moved to hand it back to the blonde half-elf, who shook her head and placed her hands on top of Erin's. 

“It was my mother's. She would want you to have it. It's only because of her that I was able to meet you. I would be honored if you would wear it, Erin.”

“I will only accept on one condition, Dru. The last thing I want is to destroy this stunning dress by accident. Can you find me something to try on and then we can see if my god-mode affects it? Something you don’t mind losing in case it does.”

Drusilia nodded and popped her head back under the door frame, and stepped into the shack. After a couple of seconds she returned with a drab slightly dirty tunic. Erin nodded and slipped it over her head and handed the dress back to her. She moved a fair distance from Drusilia and anything that might possibly catch fire, and closed her eyes. 

She visualized the bruises that had been on the blonde’s thighs. The busted lip. The black eye. The thought of someone doing something so terrible to someone so sweet. The sheer audacity that some piece of mortal excrement would do anything to bring harm to the amazing half-elven woman. How dare they lay a finger on such an innocent creature. How dare they harm a woman who’s only wish was to be loved. How fucking dare they even exist after what they did to her.

Eronica heard the woman behind her calling her name softly before shouting it loud enough that she couldn’t ignore it. No. Not Eronica. Erin. I’m Erin.

Erin focused on her breathing, on feeling the ground beneath her toes. She focused on the sounds of birds in the trees, on the wind blowing gently through the leaves. She inhaled… held it… and exhaled. And then again. And once more. After a few more deep breaths, she opened her eyes.

The circular burn pattern around her was slightly bigger this time, stretching nearly 9 feet in diameter. She looked down and saw the roughspun tunic was still intact, and grinned, before turning back to Drusilia. She was about to say something when she saw the look of deep worry painted on her face. Erin sighed softly and walked across the scorched foliage over to where Drusilia was standing. She placed a hand on the taller woman’s arm and smiled warmly at her.

“Thank you. God-mode is hard to turn off once it gets going. I’m glad you were here to pull me back to reality. And look! It worked!”

Drusilia nodded, but still looked deeply troubled. The worry in her eyes was quickly replaced by a flush that filled her cheeks as Erin stripped the tunic off her body. The relative ease with which Erin seemed to be able to return to her state of undress almost had Drusilia wondering if the redhead had some sort of desire to flaunt her nudity to any who would look upon her. Not that there was anything wrong with that. Quite the contrary… If she was being honest with herself, she quite enjoyed looking at Erin’s body. Because she was a gorgeous goddess, obviously. It wasn’t because she just simply wanted to imagine laying in bed next to- 

The dress. Right. Focus, Drusilia!

Drusilia handed the dress back to Erin and felt a momentary pang of disappointment at the thought of Erin covering herself.

Erin smiled and nodded before slipping the silky smooth garment over her head. She didn't know how it was possible, but the dress fit her perfectly. The backless style showed off her flawless radiant skin, the cutout in the bodice revealed an ample amount of cleavage that only slightly pushed the bounds of what she considered chaste, the form-fitted material hugged her curves in the perfect way to accentuate her voluptuous figure, and the slit that ran up each side showed off Erin's sexy, toned legs. The only complaint Erin had was that she didn't have a mirror to see how good the dress made her look. Although… The look of absolute reverence on Drusilia’s face told her everything she needed to know.

“I was about to ask what you thought about it, but I can tell that you approve.”

“Approve? Realms above, Erin… You are so beautiful. I more than approve. That dress is most befitting a goddess as resplendent as you.”

Erin couldn't stop the frown from forming on her face momentarily at Drusilia's words. While flattering, she was slightly disappointed that Drusilia only saw her as a goddess. Not as something more. Wait. Why would it matter how Drusilia saw her? They'd known each other for less than 12 hours… So why would there be anything more between them? Instead of letting her mind wander into the depths of that particular topic, she grinned at Drusilia, who immediately grinned back.

“So, I was going to suggest that we find you some clothes that actually fit… But I realized that I have absolutely no idea how we'd go about doing that. It's not like my world where you can just go to an outlet store and just be like, hey, my friend needs some new clothes to accommodate her sexy new muscles and Amazonian stature.”

“Do women in your world change their bodies often enough to warrant having to purchase new clothing so casually?”

“Uh… What happened to you is something that never happens in my world. Magic, gods and goddesses, even half-elves… they don't exist in my world.”

Drusilia gave her a look of confusion as she cocked her head to the side.

“Do elves and humans not procreate with one another?” 

“OK… Lemme rephrase. In my world, the only sentient species that exists is humans.”

“That sounds… Boring. No offense intended, of course.”

“No you're right… it is boring. There's a reason why so many humans, myself included, write stories about worlds like this. Although… In my world we consider that to be fiction… Or a made-up story.”

“Huh.”

Drusilia's stomach rumbled loudly and Erin gave her a sheepish grin.

“Sorry! Forgot about that. So… What does one do for food around here anyways?”

“Well, when we passed by my snares in the forest they appeared to be empty, so I think right now we'd have to go to the tavern and get some food. I only have a few coppers, but that should be enough for a bowl of leftover stew. If I wanted more I could ask Hanri to take it out of my wages for...”

Drusilia’s face darkened and she pursed her lips.

“You know, on second thought, I’m not really that hungry. I had a pretty big dinner last night, so I think I’ll be OK.”

Erin knitted her brows and placed her hand on the blonde’s arm.

“Drusilia… If your stomach were growling any louder I’d think it was a ravenous beast. Why'd you suddenly decide you weren’t hungry?”

Drusilia studied her face for a moment before glancing away and refusing to make eye contact.

“It’s not important. Really.”

Erin moved so that her face was directly in the half-elf’s line of sight and gave her a serious look.

“Hey, what’s going on? Tell me… please.”

Drusilia sighed very loudly and leaned against her shack.

“I work at the tavern. I mostly serve patrons food and drink, but I’m not very good at it. After I broke a bunch of stuff my boss gave me the opportunity to earn some extra coin doing… other stuff. Please don’t be mad!”

Erin inhaled sharply and held her breath before exhaling slowly. Her skin had turned slightly luminescent, but she managed to get her anger under control before it went too far.

“I’m not mad. Well… I’m not mad at you. You were doing whatever you needed to survive. Before I rush to any judgments, did you enjoy the things you had to do? Or even want to do them? Be honest with me… please.”

“No.”

“No to enjoying them or to wanting to do them?”

“I never enjoyed having to do them. And even though I didn’t necessarily want to do those things, I felt like it was the only way I could earn enough to pay for the dishes I broke and still have money to eat.”

“Did your boss encourage you to do those things or just give you the option?”

Drusilia met Erin’s gaze and the look of shame told her the answer.

“Did he threaten to fire you if you didn’t?”

Again, Drusilia refused to answer, and again, her expression answered for her.

Much to the half-elf’s surprise, Erin’s skin didn’t start glowing. In fact… she seemed eerily calm. As her hand squeezed gently on Drusilia’s forearm, Erin gave her a smile that looked… off. The blonde hadn’t known Erin for long enough to say what was wrong with it, but she knew that whatever it meant wasn’t good.

“Come on Dru, let’s head to the tavern and see if we can’t find you something to eat.”