Are you afraid of the dark? (Ero)

[Kiska]

Kiska looked at her friend, still confused by what was happening. She had watched her cough up water, and was concerned, up until the point where Ero stopped and stared at Kiska only to say that she was pretty. "Oh, um, thank you," she said. She thought this was getting rather ridiculous, and much too awkward. She ran her hand through the water, splashing water up at Ero in a playful manner. "I think maybe you hit your head on something when you slipped, you're acting kind of strange." Kiska had known Ero for almost three months now, and they had been getting to know each other fairly well. Despite the rough beginnings they had, their friendship had quickly grown into something Kiska never expected to find in anyone. She was slightly worried about the way her friend was acting, though tried to play it off as curious and playful. She hoped that Ero hadn't actually hit her head on something, as that might ruin their little camping trip together.

[Ero]

"Strange? How strange? what do you mean?" Ero was instantly on the defensive. If Sesim was pushing her agenda forward and eroding at her control, then Kiska could be in very serious danger. Even worse, based on the whisperings she had heard from Sesim lately, Kiska's dignity could be in some very serious danger as well. Ero turned away and blushed furiously. To start losing control around a friend as dear as this, what must Kiska think of her?"No, no, I am fine. I was just um." she couldn't actually think of an excuse. She was acting strange, but no more than usual around this strangely attractive woman, right? She sighed, it was most likely just the shock of finally getting to see her friend in the buff. Surely nothing was happening. "No," she repeated, "I was just goofing around. I'm sorry that it made you uncomfortable." Ero absolutely did not want to offend her friend, but at the same time, could tell that she wasn't the only one interested in taking their relationship down this certain path. "But to be honest, I am A little hungry. Shall we head back to camp?" she suggested, and waded back to shore. She didn't have any rags or clothe peices with wich to dry herself, so she would just have to air dry. Hopefully Kiska wouldn't mind. Ero gathered up her clothes, and led the way back to camp. Once there, she tossed her slightly dirty clothes into her small shelter, and made ready to eat, first checking that they had everything they needed for camp later that night, including firewood. after a few minutes of searching, she sat down, pulled out a tin of trail rations, and set forth to eating.

[Kiska]

Kiska got out of the water after Ero. She picked up her clothes to put them on, but ero seemed to have different plans. She walked back to the camp and began to check the camp for necessary supplies, then to eat. She did all of this while she was still naked, which absolutely amazed Kiska. Ero didn't even seem to notice that she wasn't clothed, but Kiska did. Kiska felt more than awkward being naked in the middle of the woods, and though she wished to get dressed, she knew she had to take care of her friend first. She walked over to where she had set her pack down and pulled out an 8 oz bottle of her 'get-well potion', as it had been called. "Here, drink this. It will make you better, if you did hurt yourself. If not, it won't hurt you, but I don't think you're completely...okay, right now. You're walking around doing everything naked." She handed the bottle to Ero and started putting her clothes back on. She was a little hungry too, but she would get to that as soon as she saw to her friends health.

[Ero]

Ero smiled and blushed slightly. "I don't mean to worry you, I just had nothing to dry off with, so I thought I would do so by a warm fire. But I will drink your potion." she said happily. Ero was feeling good, and the fire had warmed her after her slightly chilly dip. She tilted her head back and downed the strange potion in one shot, ignoring the taste completely. She walked over to her clothes to put them them on, in deference to Kiska's apperent discomfort, but thought better of it. She was feeling a strange warmth in her belly spreading through her body.It tingled in her joints, and oddly enough, down in where her pants would be covering, if she had any on. The ocean air must be affecting her more than she thought, or something. To cover her confusion, she walked over and sat down next to where her friend was still dressing. She retrieved the food she had been munching on, and popped a small piece in her mouth. She tried to give Kiska some privacy, but realized that if she really wanted that, she wouldn't have sat right next to the poor woman. She tried to obliquely glance at the woman, but several times, just wound up staring. The heat continued to grow intimately, but it was pleasant. still, she was curious. "Just what was in that potion you gave me, Kiska?" she stretched languorously, and pouted her lips slightly, liking the way everything was feeling for some reason. She had hardly any appetite now, so she set the food down again and began to run her hands up and down her thighs, as though with anticipation.

[Kiska]

Kiska raised an eyebrow to her friend's behaviour. She had forgotten about that little side effect. "Oops," she mumbled under her breath. "Oh, not much at all really, most vinegar. Apple cider vinegar, licorice root, dong quai, ginkgo. It's a pain reliever and general immune system booster, and increases bloodflow, apparently," she said, quite sure that her friend had experienced this effect already. She finished dressing and sat down to Ero's right. "I'm fairly new at this sort of thing. I could make you something else if you would like, if I have the stuff for it I mean." She had brought all of her stuff that she may need for gathering and making things, as well as all of her herbs, healers kit, and identification kit. She generally liked to carry those things around, never knowing when she would have the urge to create a potion or find an interesting herb. She looked Ero over, who now appeared to be rubbing her thighs. She was slender, pretty, well gifted in ways that Kiska was not, and oddly masculine. Ero always did make Kiska feel safer. Kiska reached a hand up to place it on Ero's forehead to see if she was really okay. Unfortunately, Kiska was never good at being graceful, and since she had been using her right arm (the arm opposite of Ero), fell face first into Ero's chest, landing with a light plop. Her hand fell to Ero's left shoulder, in all appearances making it seem as if Kiska had planned this.

[Ero]

Ero grimaced. "I guess it's a good thing I just drank it in one go then. Licorice is disgusting." Ero looked around and realized how she was rubbing her thighs, and stopped. "Also, I told you earlier, I wasn't hurt at all, so I don't really need a pain killer. I don't reallyknow what an immune system is though." she paused thoughtfully for a moment, then added, "The increased bloodflow bit certainly seems to be working." Even her face seemed flushed. Then when Kiska asked if Ero wanted something more. she smiled and opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted as Kiska dove face first into her chest. They wobbled, then Ero fell over backwards onto the ground. Ero reflexivly threw her hands up and back to try to catch herself. The small sack that had so recently held some dried rations flipped up into the air, snagging on a nearby tree where it remained to confuse small birds for many weeks. When all was said and done, Ero wound up being half straddled by her friend. She heaved a sigh in her attempt to cover a smile at the younger woman's sudden eagerness. "A little overeager, aren't we? I, uh, can you breath like that?" she asked Kiska. Ero shifted and maneuvered her friend to a more confortable position. She twined her arms around her friend and smiled placidly to herself. This was beginning to look like a very fine camping trip indeed.

[Kiska]

Kiska's face turned red, heat radiating from her skin. She quickly sat up from their position, smoothing out her clothes as if she were trying to act like nothing happened. "I am so sorry, I didn't mean to, I just.. I slipped. I trying to check your temperature and... I'm so sorry." Her eyes were wide with both embarassment and shock. She stood up and walked around in a small circle. "Maybe I should go look for some herbs now, or something," she was half stuttering the words, and it was very apparent that she was nervous. "I didn't hurt you did I? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to." Despite the actions of Kiska, she was very slightly aware of the fact that Ero seemed to be enjoying this. Kiska rubbed a hand across her forehead, as if she had been sweating. Maybe it was the beginning of a nervous habit, maybe not. "Yes, that's a good idea," she said, walking off across the small clearing, "I think I'll go collect herbs." She picked up her herb pouch and small knife and looked to Ero. "Would you like to come?"

[Ero]

"If that's how you check people's temperatures, faking sick may be much more fun than it was when I was a child." Ero said slyly. One glance at the blushing benshira's face was more than enough to send her over the side. She craned her head back and laughed deeply. "Hmm I like that...My little blushing Benshira. I shall remember this." she thought to herself. She gasped slightly as Kiska pushed off of her, then smiled sweetly at the woman and joined her in standing, as it seemed all the fun that was to be gotten from the horizontal position had been exhausted for now. She stretched, arching her back for maximum effect then sighed. "Yes, I would love to accompany you on your search for herbs. I assume you would like me to be dressed though yes? It is getting a bit chilly, and I am dry now. well, mostly dry." Her eyes sparkled at her little joke, and she stepped over to where her clothes lay in a pile. She pulled them on she turned to Kiska. "As for hurting me, I assure you, the effect you had was quite the opposite." she grinned again, then set off toward the opening in the trees around the clearing. "So what sort of herbs are likely to be found around here?" she asked over her shoulder, purely out of a desire to spare Kiska any more embarrassment, rather than a desire to learn anything about herbs.

[Kiska]

Kiska was still blushing, but followed the woman into the forest. Kiska frowned at the question, she hadn't actually been taught too much of the local plants of the White Isle, and even less so of general plant types that lived in other specific areas, but she knew enough about plants to give her friend a basic idea of what she believed they would find. Now that it had been brought to her attention, she was starting to think that maybe that could be part of this trip, to learn the local plants. So far, most of the things she had learned were about making cerain mixtures from provided plants and materials, they hadn't done much harvesting in their classes. She assumed that there would be a bit more of that in the next term. "Well, I know that plants with long roots or waxy or spiny leaves are usually found in the desert, because they need to conserve water and be able to get it from far beneath the ground, but I learned that long before I ever took a class in herbalism. Around here, there's plenty of water, yet quite a bit more danger for plantlife. There will probably be plants with shorter roots, and probably more poisonous plants, like the poison ivy we saw earlier. You'll definitely see more of a variety of barks and vine-type plants." She led off into the forest as she explained the differences of the two enviroments from what little Drae had implied during their classes together. Kiska smiled, so that was what Drae wanted, she wanted Kiska to be able to come to conclusions about this sort of thing on her own. Kiska supposed that was part of training to become a professional, knowing what to do when there is nobody there to tell you every step you need to take and every bit of information you need to know. Drae was smart enough to teach Kiska indirectly that sometimes information will need to be gathered alone, without help, and will have to be pieced together into something that makes sense, something others could go by as well. Every professional herbalist was likely to research herbs and discover new things, as their work required, and this is what Kiska was doing on this trip. Kiska bent down to examine a small blue flower. "And there's far more flowers and berries than in most other environments, so I hear. I've been doing a lot of things concerning flowers in my classes, so a lot of them are probably from around here." The flower didn't appear to be anything of importance, and much too small to be of use, so Kiska left it. "This one's out late, most flowers are out in the summer and spring. A lot of plants are actually, very few will live through the winter, but you can still find them in the fall. Were we doing this in the winter, we wouldn't find much of anything out here I'm sure. But it's not too cold yet, so the plant life shouldn't have died out yet." Kiska continued her treck through the forest, eyes mostly to the ground and on the leaves of the trees. Off the path a few feet, she spotted a small patch of leafy plants growing on the ground. Stopping to inspect them, she noticed that there was a small red flower growing on top of the leaves. Excitement rushed through her, this was the first harvest of the trip. Though she doubted Ero felt the same as she did about plants, so she tried to hide her excitement. She wasn't quite sure of the name of this one, but she had been told about an herb with this description, commonly used for cuts, inflammations, or other skin conditions. She knew there had to be more about it, and would likely test it tonight sometime. She began picking as many of the leafy plants as she could, carefully, and placing them into her belt pouch. She had no idea that there would be such an abundance of herbs around this late, and assumed that she would probably have to use something else to hold them in as she gathered more.

[Ero]

Ero nodded as Kiska talked plant-talk, but didn;t really listen. You couldn't stab someone with a leaf, so niether Ero nor her dark sister cared much for herbs. She knew you could eat some of them, and others made you spew from both ends. She tuned in long enough to hear something about vine-types, then got back to her own thoughts. Specifically the thoughts concerning what had just happened between her and Kiska. She knew that she felt feelings for her friend that she had never felt before for someone who was not a man. Then again, she had never had any close female friends, so maybe this was what it was like. She shook her head, and decided to move on and think about it some other time. this "increased bloodflow" was making it hard enough to think about things without getting philisophical. Ero heard something about flowers and berries, and decided it was high time she chimed in with something. "I like flowers and berries." she intellectually interjected into a small pause. she felt that something more might be needed, but Kiska continued regardless. When they finally reached a patch of something Kiska showed interest in, Ero leaned against a nearby tree, and absently picked a leaf off of one of the plants Kiska was gathering. She quickly spit it out, this was obviously not one of the edible ones. She switched her attention to her fingernails, and started cleaning them. When she looked up, Kiska was still happily picking plants and stuffing them in her bag, so Ero again asked something that might be relevant. "So you think that might be why you're out here? to gather as many herbs and stuff for your teacher as possible?"