Elody and Vrasha talk about the future

The fire was still burning as the two woman sat by it again. The flame flickered and danced, Vrasha regarded it as an old friend of sorts. Many times had she sat by the fire in some camp, on the eve of a battle wondering if she would be alive to do so again. The fire was comforting to her, a reminder of all the times she had stood on the brink, and yet, also a reminder of all the friends she'd had who had not been so lucky. She was a soldier, after all. People died in battle, this was well known and expected. How many times had she sat around a flame, talking and laughing with someone who unknowingly was spending their last night alive? Far too many times.

Soldiers died. That was the constant, the eternal nature of war. Win or lose, tactical brilliance or foolish mistake, no general could save everyone. No matter how well you did, you always knew you could have done better. No matter what you won, you were always so aware of the losses as well.

No one lived forever. Not soldiers or emperors or even generals. Ultimately, everyone would one day breathe their last breath, and the camp fire would go on for another soldier.

She gazed at the flickering flames, a grim mood settling on her shoulders.

On the opposite side of the fire, Elody sat. Her dark hair was straight and clean once more. She had summoned another cloak, and wore it around her body. She looked at the fire with wariness, after all, she was a forest spirit. Fire was a threat to her. Not one she couldn't control, and she had made this one herself, so she didn't fear it, but she knew deep down that it was not to be trusted.

"You know." Vrasha said. "You're lucky, Elody."

"Hmm?"

"After we were done, I was so messy I had to go and take another dip in the river." Vrasha laughed, gesturing towards her skin, still beaded lightly with moisture. She was drying out quickly thanks to the flame, but was still nude as the day she'd been born. "But you just, what, wave your hand and vanish it all?"

"This form is a projection." Elody said. "Though, it is solid and functional, it shows what I want it to show. So when I want to be clean, I just revert it to what it was before."

"Handy." Vrasha said with a grin. "Wish I could do that."

"No, it's not as fun as you think." Elody admitted. Then paused. "Well, it is pretty fun I guess. I mean, um, that is to say, what we did it was pretty fun..."

"You mean when we had sex?"

"y-yeah. That." Elody said. "But what I mean is... this form isn't mine, you know? It's not what I used to look like. It's just what I thought you would have wanted me to look like."

"What did you look like then?"

"I don't know." Elody admitted. "I was alive so long ago, Vrasha. I'm very old. Most of my life has been with the forest, as part of the trees, the land, the rivers. If you asked me what I was like when I was alive? I was a woman. That's about all I know. No last or second names. No major history. No relations, no appearance. Just my first name, and my sex. Elody. That is me. But I don't know what I looked like. Any form I take feels slightly wrong, like it's off. I wonder if that's because it's not my body, or because it's been so long since I was alive, I am not really fitted to any body."

"I see." Vrasha said. "That is heavy stuff. I don't really know what I could say to make you feel better."

"Nothing really." Elody admitted. "Many spirits like me aren't right in the head, do you know? We go insane by your standards, because we're so old, because we lost so much. We become deranged, or obey odd rules that only we know, or insist on specific rituals to avoid our wrath. Your people say it's because we're all alien in mind, but it's not. We're just....we're just so old, Vrasha. Time changes you, and if you don't know what you were before, you float, aimless in it. What you become is something utterly alien to what you were before. That's why you get stories of mountain spirits crushing towns, or fire spirits killing armies, or spirits of wind trying to sink ships. We're not just killers...well, most of us aren't... but we tend to lose grasp of reality. After a while, we just do what comes naturally. Rocks crush. Fire burns. Wind rages."

She gestured to the forest around her.

"Trees grow."

"You're not insane, though, Elody." Vrasha said. "I think I'd have noticed if you were. You were a bit strange at first, but once you got used to speaking like a person again, you were fine."

"I sleep." Elody admitted. "That's why I am so normal compared to the others. I spend hundreds of years sleeping, trying to preserve myself. My sanity. But even so, one day, I'll be like them. We don't die. We just keep going. No matter how human I am now, it's inevitable."

"Inevitable." Vraha said slowly. "That's never a word I've liked, you know? It seems so defeatist. Like you can't do anything to stop it. I've never much believed in that sort of thing."

"Believe in it or not." Elody said. "There are things you can't stop alone. One of my kind can take on whole armies of yours. And there are things bigger than even us. I'm immortal, Vrasha. I've existed for hundreds of years. if I am not killed, I'll live for thousands more. In that time, I will change. Slowly, but inevitably. I'll become more detached, more alien. More separate. Eventually, I'll be just like those spirits in the stories... the ones who destroy cities, who have to be prayed to and appeased, or else they'll attack. I'll be like that, Vrasha. I don't want to be, but I will. And there's nothing I can do about it. Nothing at all."