The Dryad 48 Tying Up Gray

"Are you two doing alright?" I asked in concern.

"I thought that we already answered you. I at least am doing fine. I'm just not used to being on the horse all the time," Leafia said, while her face showed she was obviously confused why I bothered to take them away from the others to ask them again.

"Sorry, I guess that I did not word that well," I frowned, wondering how to word what I wanted to use. I eventually decided that since we were all ladies here, I did not really need to beat around the bush. "Are you having any unusual discomfort down there?" I waved my hand over my pelvic area. I was not entirely sure what these particular parts of the body were called. It was not something you could just go up and ask people, and though I was gifted with language from my birth, that did not mean I knew the names of everything in the world. "If I remember right from all those years ago, riding horses all the time can cause some pain and numbness in that area that men do not have. I can give you some medicine if you need it."

At hearing my words Leafia and Emily both turned bright red. I knew I was right to take them away from the men. If it was this bad with just me here, I could only imagine how bad it would be for them with the men. Especially Leafia who was still single.

After fidgeting for a moment Emily spoke up. Well, spoke up is really not the right way to say it. Her voice was barely over a whisper. "I think I could use some of the medicine." Leafia's blush deepened further at Emily's acceptance. I took that to mean that Leafia could use the medicine, too.

I guess what I learned all those years ago was correct. But this was an easy problem to fix, or at least it was for me. I bent down to the ivy on the ground and caused it to form two cup shaped leaves. We had been walking along the stream, so I used that to fill up both cups with water. After setting them on the ground, I stuck two fingers in each. Since I was making such a small amount it only took a few seconds. After I was done, I handed each of them one and said, "Here, this will help."

Both of them took the leaf cups and drank the medicine that I made for them. "This tastes a lot better than any of the medicine that I have ever made. Can you tell me how you made it taste so good?"

"I would be happy to help you with your medicine, but first we need to see how far your skills in plant shaping can grow. I feel that this will be much more helpful in the immediate future," I said, causing Emily to frown. She still had a long way to go to get the plants to be really helpful if she needed to defend herself.

"May I ask how you came up with this medicine?" Emily asked. She seemed to be asking a curious question, but the way her eyes darted to my lower body made it clear there was more behind her question.

"This is just your basic restorative medicine, but it will work for this too," I said calmly. I was hoping that she would not notice me turning a little green at what she implied. "We should get heading back soon," I said to change the topic. It was starting to get truly dark now, so we headed back quickly before the two would have too hard of a time seeing the way to our campsite.

After we got back Istan asked, "So what did you talk about on your walk?" He might be trying to engage in pleasant conversation, but his inability to read the mood made that hard.

"Nothing really, we just enjoyed a casual stroll," I said nonchalantly. However, the shades of Emily and Leafia's face gave away that this was not quite correct. Gray raised his eyebrows a little but did not say anything. Istan had already turned back to the rabbits over the fire so I don't think that he noticed. Thankfully for Lefia and Emily, Istan did not ask any more questions.

Since we had some extra meat tonight, I had some too. But then I remembered something. "Istan, I thought that elves did not eat meat in the fall."

"It is not that we don't eat meat in the fall. It is that we don't eat meat when sufficient other food is available." He then took a bite. There was an extended silence. Was he waiting for me to reply? After he chewed and swallowed, seeing that I did not respond, he continued. "While we are traveling we take what food we can get. We feel it is wrong to end an animal's life to sustain ourselves when we can do so without harming the animal."

Part of my self-righteousness as a plant wanted me to point out that when they eat a plant they are either killing the plant or its offspring. But I held my tongue. If I said that to Istan, he might starve himself or switch over to eating only meat. Either of those would kill him in the end.

After dinner it was time for Emily and Leafia to practice using their powers. Today we were going to do something a little different. "Gray, do you mind helping us out with our training today?" I asked.

"I have no issue, but you know I have no magic," he responded quizzically.

"I know. You don't need any for the help we need," I said with a smile

As we were walking earlier, I thought it might be a good time to start making things more practical. I could tell that Emily was wondering what good a wiggling plant would do to help her in self defense. She needed to see what she really could accomplish.

"What do you want me to do?" Gray asked. Why was he looking at me so suspiciously when I just smiled at him?

"You just need to sit there," I responded with a smile. Gray again looked at me with a puzzled expression. "Emily, you take the left leg and Leafia, you take the right. I want you to try entangling his legs with the vines."

Emily and Leafia looked at me in shock but Gray did not even seem to care. He just continued leaning against the tree poking the fire with a long stick. Any suspicion he had earlier seemed to disappear. I guess it really did not matter to him either way, since he was just sitting there.

We practiced for about an hour before Emily and Leafia were completely worn out. It took about half the time for them to be able to get the plants to even wrap over his legs right. But even by the end they were not able to do anything that would slow Gray down at all. Before we finished practicing for the night, I decided to show them the best way to ensnare him. "Watch what I am doing," I said to them. I caused a vine to grow and wrapped it around his leg just like they were doing. But once it was over his leg, I had the tip coil tightly around a thick vine on the other side, giving it a good anchor.

"Ok, Gray. Now you can get up," I said.

Gray tried to, but he was having some difficulty. I tied the vine around his thigh so he had a hard time shifting to find away to push off. After a good minute he was finally able to break free.

"It is often worth spending a few moments to try and find the easiest solution rather than just charging ahead. There is often an easier solution," I said to the girls to conclude our lesson.