It did not take long for the restless stirring of my companions to turn into waking. I had a feeling that our conversation was a little too loud for them. I did not think telling Tide to be quiet again would help since she already wanted to just wake them up. 

Leafy was the first to make it out of the tents. Popping her head out of the tent she saw me sitting by the unlit fire pit. “So that's where you were! I woke up and you were gone, and I got worried that you might have.... That you were…” Her words got stuck in her mouth as she noticed Flood and Tide on the other side of me. 

“Good morning, Leafy. Sorry I worried you. Especially after all you did for me last night…. But you were sleeping so peacefully, it would have been a shame to ruin it.” She blushed a little at my words. I guess I could see it being embarrassing to have someone talk about how you look while sleeping. Trying to cover my faux pas I quickly changed the subject, “I had to leave you to meet with these two. They showed up a few hours ago. This is Tide, or as you might know her, Mother Sea,” I said, gesturing to the elder naiad. Not that it was easy to tell her age by looks. “And Flood here is the naiad that has this river as her domain.”

“What are they doing here?” Leafia asked with some confusion on her face as she exited the tent and sat next to me. 

“I am here to help my friend,” Tide said, while staring fiercely at Leafy. I was not really sure what Leafy had done that got Tide so riled up, but I put my arm around Leafy, hopefully making it clear to Tide that she was my friend and I would not let Tide push her around. 

Istan also exited his tent at this time and I once again introduced our two new additions. Hearing who our guests were, Istan’s eyes opened wide. But before he could say anything I cut him off. “Do not even think about it, Istan. You can not build a sacred site just because Tide showed up and we had an argument.” 

I heard Tide mutter in the background, “If that was all it took to make sacred ground, there would be nowhere to plant fields between the churches.” Leafia seemed to stifle a strange snort at this comment. I partially wanted to agree with Tide, but let it go. It seemed counter productive to agree that we had had so many disagreements. 

Istan was not satisfied that this was not some sacred occurrence, so I decided to help curb his devotion some more. “If you really want to commemorate the one millionth time Tide and I have debated some issue, go make some breakfast.”

He did not seem to appreciate my hyperbole but he still started to get breakfast ready. Sadly Leafy also left my side to start building the morning's fire. Though the more I thought about it I might have been fairly accurate in my estimation on how often Tide and I had disagreed. 

It did not take long until I had to perform introductions a third time. At least Emily and Gray exited their tent at the same time which saved me from having to do it a fourth time. 

“Shall I make you some food?” Emily asked us spirits. I saw Tide shudder at the mention of food. Emily did not seem to notice Tide’s reaction. She was approaching Istan’s attempt at breakfast with a wrinkled nose and a slightly nauseous air. Istan seemed grateful to hand off the pot to Emily.

Tide’s reluctance to join the meal prompted my curiosity. “I take it Ivy has been practicing some more.” There was a meek nod from Tide at my words. “Emily is a much better cook than Ivy,” I comforted her. “I had to have a few of Emily’s meals after leaving the pond to help remind me that food is meant to be palatable.” 

Relief spread over Tide’s face realizing that she was not the only one that was having trouble with Ivy’s ‘cooking’. Though that look fell again when Leafia sat down next to me now that a strong fire was going.

Emily, now noticing Tide’s reaction, said, “I will make you a small serving. Flood, would you like some food?” Emily asked, trying to engage the naiad who had spent most of this time in silence. 

Flood did not want to respond. She had grown more timid now that my companions had started to move about. “You don’t have to worry about them, Flood. I promise that not all mortals are bad. And Emily here is not really a mortal anyway.”

The two naiads looked at me quizzically and I felt the smallest wave of power from Tide wash over us as she looked more closely at Emily. “Um,” Tide said seeming to be having a hard time making out what it was that she felt from Emily,

“Her Mother was a Dryad, but her father was human. She is half immortal,” I explained to them. Then I turned to Emily. “You said you were over 300 hundred years old?’ 

She seemed to be a little embarrassed to be having her age talked about but confirmed as she stirred ingredients into the pot. “Somewhere between 300 and 350.”

“I did not even know that was possible,” Flood said, looking at Emily in awe. It seems like she was just realizing what new roads… rivers were opened to her. 

“I am not too surprised that mortals and immortals can have children. You see things like that all the time in nature,” Tide said. “What really surprises me is that she is able to have children.”  Then looking at me. “And that you would let her face these dangers in such a state.”

Silence fell over the camp at these words. I tried to form words to respond to Tide’s accusation, but nothing was coming. I just looked over at Emily. But it seemed I was not the only one looking at her. Gray was more intent than any of the others and the only one that she was focused on. But it was clear that she was well aware of all the other eyes on her by the blush that was spreading over her face. 

“I was not sure yet,” she said quietly. “I thought maybe traveling was just being hard on me. I wanted to be sure before I told you.”

A soft, “ohh” came from Tide as she realized the mess she just made with her words. She was right though. Now that Emily was pregnant she probably should not be marching into a potential battle with us. This was her first child, and we didn’t know how Emily’s half immortal body would react. We had no right to endanger the life of mother or child. Also as an herbalist and healer, she was the only one in the group with no offensive abilities. 

This was a thought I had been pushing out of my mind for a while since I was not going to turn down help from a friend, but what could she do in a battle? The elves had their bows and a long knife they could use for short range. Gray had his throwing club and arrows. But the most Emily might be able to do is trip up some people's feet by making grass grow. Seeing how she still had not learned how to cast her powers at a distance, the most likely victims of her onslaught would be her own party. I really did not want to have to be the one to tell her she had to stay back. She had come all this way and had done so much for me that it felt wrong to force her to stop just short of the end. 

“How about you two go for a walk,” I said to Emily and Gray after a moment of silence, not knowing what else to do to cut the tension in the air. “I think you need some time to talk.”

“I think that is a good idea,” Emily said, pulling Gray’s hand. We watched them walk away but that really did nothing to help the atmosphere of the situation. 

Finally the growing smell of food brought our attention back. “Oh. Emily left the food on the fire,” Leafia said, extracting herself from her seat next to me and hurrying over to where Emily had been a few long minutes ago. As she started to stir the pot she let out a low groan. 

“Do we need to start over?” Istan asked hesitantly. I was wondering if the look on his face was mourning the potential delay in breakfast or the bad show that was being given to us spirits. In the end I decided that my curiosity did not run deep enough to hazard the question. So in the end I just waited for Leafia to be able to free up enough concentration from the pot to answer.

“Don’t worry, the food will be just fine. I just feel sympathy for whoever is going to have to clean this pot.” My face contorted into an odd combination of condolence and smirk. Since Emily was cooking that would usually mean that Leafia had the lead in dish duty. Can you feel sympathy for yourself?

Katuwarrior

Not the big one yet. By I am getting close. I am almost done with my second draft so I can turn it over to my Editor. Thank you all for your support.