Ambush - Druid

"OI!" A voice called out to her from behind.

Zaya turned, arm raised up with two daggers held ready to throw. Only to be met with... nothing. Just the trees, rocks and the corpse of the goat she killed.

"What the..."

Before she got anything else out she felt a tug on her leg and suddenly found herself on her back on the ground. She looked down her body and saw her leg was covered in a root, with more sprouting from the ground and moving to hold her down. She struggled a bit before calming down. Could she get out of this? Probably, but that would involve revealing who/what she was. Instead she decided to let whoever was here make their appearance first; then make a choice from there.

"After all, I'm not dead or hurt. They wouldn't just capture me if they wanted me dead." She thought as she tried to look around.

A figure seemed to materialize out of the shadow of a large rock and as she approached, Zaya got a good look of the woman. She had long, braided, black hair that hung over one of her shoulders and brown eyes that glared at her. Her clothing looked to be a mix of cloth, leather and wood; her base clothing looking like a woven top and long skirt with an added protective 'apron' made out of wood, arm guards, and leather boots. A cloth of vines and leaves were on her shoulder that fell to the ground. She wasn't too tall, maybe 5'6" or so and an athletic build if the areas on her arms and uncovered stomach were anything to go by.

The woman walked over to her, and rested the end of her staff on Zaya's torso, just under her breasts. It was bothersome but it wasn't too forceful, like an itch you can't get to. The long blade on her waist, craved out of a long blue bone on the other hand, that looked like it could do some damage even to her. She hadn't tested how 'durable' she was, and if she could cast magic, she might be in trouble anyway.

"May I help you?" Zaya asked in a sing song voice.

"You don't look like a hunter." She replied; her voice a little rougher than expected, "So I'm gonna ask you; why did you kill that creature. If I don't like the answer..."

The roots started to tighten around her body to make it clear.

"I'm... struggling for coin okay..., I don't have anything to my name and no one's willing to hire me..., I heard those horns sell for a lot and I figured I'd risk run the risk of running into someone or something in the woods..., unless of course you know some place that's willing to buy throwing daggers."

A lie. A rather bold face lie but something had trickled into her mind from the other two memories; that the local druid was a bit of a softy for sob stories. Still she was a stern woman if the tales those two heard at the pub were to be believed. So here she was, trying to throw herself at the mercy of this woman. So long as she didn't dig deeper into who or what Zaya was.

"An outcast then...., hmmm. I don't suppose you tried out for that Merc guild nearby?"

She lifted her staff off Zaya's chest and the roots slowly started to withdraw. Zaya fought to stand up but found her legs were still bound. The druid reached down and offered a hand, which she took and used the extra support to get up. It was a little awkward to stand while while still partially tied up.

"I was kinda **** and... new to the area. I wasn't sure HOW I should handle a hunted animal..., I just figured I'd leave it there for the forest to reclaim itself. I heard..., you were pretty fair so, I'm sorry. What can I do to...,"

"Enough..., can't believe I'm getting...," the woman pinched her nose with a sigh before looking at Zaya, "IF you are that **** for coin and yet aren't an merc yet..., then I will give you a task suited for you."

"I am called Krea de Mowbray..., and if you have any knowledge of me, you should know that I am trying to guard these woods from the corruption from those ruins."

Zaya did her best to not flinch at that. Had she been discovered already? No that couldn't be right could it? Was her appearance or even rebirth something that could be sensed..., maybe? She wasn't too sure on how magic worked just yet but she shouldn't get too worried. After all the ruins had probably been leaking out all sorts of poisons and threats into the local area..., much like a ruined factory in her old world might do so. It made more sense to bank on that fact, more so if Krea had been doing this long before herself had arrived.

"What... sort of corruption?" she asked, making a show of looking around, "Cause I don't see anything that looks too weird."

"Well since you seemed to be interested in their horns..." Krea started with a glint in her eye.

Hours later Zaya was sitting down and panting. That Krea woman had ran her ragged all day, dragging her from one spot to the other. It seemed something in the ruins was changing some of the local wildlife and it wasn't her. They wouldn't change physically for the most part save for a few odd flesh growths or extra bone where it shouldn't. But the main change was mentally and temperamental too. They'd go wild and attack other creatures at random, under go strange changes, or pass a strange sickness onto others. It was as if they were turning into outright monsters than beasts.

Krea was in the middle of tracking some of these changed beasts when she found Zaya walking away from one of the healthier Sprialhorns. So she had tied her up to ask some questions of her to make sure this was just a mistaken hunt or something darker. After that she roped the 'rogue' into helping her own work.

While Krea seemed powerful enough to do this on her own; she allowed Zaya to follow along as a punishment for a 'poorly handled kill'. She'd either distract or draw the creature out, while Krea used her powers to restrain it. If the creature could be healed, Krea would do so using her powers to cleanse the taint, but otherwise she'd put it out of it's misery. And if Zaya wanted the horns or pelt for her own ends, Krea would allow it so long as the creature wasn't too corrupted. No sense in killing the sickness if some part of the corruption was carried away.

The Druid... Shaman(the right term escaped Zaya right now) was rather skilled and knowledgeable so simply going along with the work was rewarding enough for the info she got about certain plants and monsters in the woods, along with the extra resources she got. A few poisonous plants where pointed out when she brought up how the first goat was killed, a couple different animals that would be far safer to hunt and were in need of light population control, and a few other bits of info that could be helpful in how to find things.

But being that close to a woman was starting to stir up certain... desires in her.

She was pretty attractive and the few times Zaya was able to get a better look at her figure lead to mental images of Krea worshiping her cock or getting her ass spanked by the monster's tail. Controlling it through the day wasn't hard, but it was annoying. Like a little buzz in the back of her head; no doubt put there by one of the Goddesses...., or maybe the person she fused with was a bad guy..., or maybe she actually was in her previous life.

Now though, it was a little harder.

Krea seemed to be a good host or maybe she was impressed by some of the plant knowledge Zaya had, or maybe the hard work she had put in. So she had brought Zaya to her home in order to rest and recover from the long day.

It was built into a large rock formation that somehow had a tree growing at the top of it. Inside, the rocks were smoothed out to a near tile like shine, and the tree's large roots that had broken through were turned into furniture pieces. It was smaller than her own place, being about four-five rooms, with a basement door latch she saw, but it was much homier with all the extra pieces and details like a rug of leaves, several book cases and even a kitchen.

Zaya was on the 'couch' of the main room trying to get her breath back after all the running she'd been doing to keep up with Krea..., well maybe over selling it. Even after all that work she felt only a little tired at most rather than the dead tired she figured she would be. Her old life wasn't this active from what she recalled, but between the two bodies and the transformation; she was far more athletic than before. But she wanted to try and keep that a bit of a secret.

"So... that... everything...." she gasped out as Krea returned, offering her a cup which she gulped down the liquid inside.

"Careful, don't drink too fast." Krea said as she took a seat on the other end of the couch, "And yes. That is. You... do good work. Usually people cut and run after the first part of the job or so. Pushed too hard or too weak willed, which leads me to catching them a week or so later. And then I'm not so polite about it."

"Everyone gets that one chance huh?"

"I like to try and see the possible good in people sprout in them rather let them be buried in their foulness", she took a sip from her own drink, "But I'm not an entire bleeding heart fool to fall for the 'I'm so poor and worthless.' stick. Honestly I give you perhaps a 5 out of 10 for that act."

"So why'd you give me a... "
"I saw you with the Sikis Sprites."

Zaya had to stop from breaking out in a sweat. Depending on when she had seen her, Krea might have a very different idea here.

"I saw that you left in one piece. They don't tend to deal with people who are evil or foul..., they're pranksters, not villains. You would have left with your pants down and egg on your face if they felt threatened by you. So you know how to handle them one way or another. That's why I figured on giving you a shot."

She nodded in agreement but mentally she was breathing a sigh of relief. If she had seen her earlier, she'd have an idea of what Zaya could do... seeing as she bribed those sprites with aphrodisiac. That would probably be enough for the druid to start doubting her. So she got lucky..., how much longer could that hold though.

Cause here she was..., with a woman..., alone. And she was starting to feel needy.

The way her clothes were held tight against her skin, the leg slits she could see on that long skirt now, how she could smell the scent of warmth and fruit from her(Wait did she make her own shampoo or something?). She had to throttle down her body from reacting the way it really wanted.

Zaya had to figure out just... how to handle this.

Encounter Table(d20)

• 1-4: **** Her
• 5-8: Charm Her
• 9-12: **** Her
• 13-16: Leave/Sleep
• 17-20: Surprise