I've discovered the most wonderful place! Half a mile directly north of Owen's Smithy in Overlook, there is a great, towering red pine. About a quarter of a mile north by north-east of that, there is a large boulder shaped like a tortoise's shell. From there, head directly west until you find me. I've carved your name in the tree so that you'll know it. Come tonight, just after dusk.
Naala looked at the note, then looked at the boulder. If this was a tortoise's shell, it was a very odd looking tortoise. If she squinted the smaller rock next to it sort of looked like a head in the flickering light of her lantern, but the shell was all lumpy and misshapen. Still, the tracks in the snow- they could only be Sumi's- led here before meandering off to the west.
Owen the Smith had still been at his smithy when Naala set out. When she had asked him if he'd seen Sumi he said "The blue lady? Aye, she passed by here about an hour ago. Ye can still see her tracks there, in the snow. I told her that a lady like her, she shouldn't wander out into these woods after dark, but she weren't hearing none of it." He'd eyed the warhammer strapped to her back. "If she ain't come back yet I reckon ye might want to find her quick-like, assuming ye know how to use that, then come back just as fast. T'ain't safe for anyone to be out there at night, but for pretty women like you? Well, there's things worse'n bears and wolves in that forest, I'll tell you that."
Sumi could handle bears and wolves. She was forest-born, one of the fair folk of Felu Shala, and had a way with animals, as all her people did. "We have an agreement," she had once told Naala. "An ancient pact. We do them no harm, and they let us wander the wilds of the world without fear." Naala had heard stories that the elves had special magic that let them speak with animals, but when she had asked how they could possibly make a pact with every animal the world over, Sumi had just giggled and kissed her. It was absurd, she thought, and Naala hadn't believed it, until the two of them had accidentally stumbled upon a mother bear and its cubs one summer while traveling. Naala froze, and started to slowly back away, but Sumi had just laughed and walked right up to it before she could stop her. To her utter amazement, the bear sniffed her, grunted, and then rolled on its side. And then it had let her pet it!
So it wasn't the animals that gave Naala pause. Bandits, cutthroats, and monsters weren't likely to roll over and let her pet their bellies, and Sumi wasn't a fighter. Far from it.
The wind was coming from the west. She was glad that she'd had the foresight to bring a covered lamp. Even down here in the the deep woods that encircled Overlook the wind was blowing through the pines fiercely enough to put out a small torch. Naala sighed and braced herself against it, following Sumi's footprints into the darkness. Even after living in the cold northlands for years, she still wasn't used to the biting winds and constant snow of this place. She found snow beautiful, certainly, the way it blanketed all of the familiar places in white and made them strange and new again, but sometimes she yearned for the hotter climate of her homeland, Vishanatar, far to the south.
Now was one of those times. She couldn't help but feel irked at Sumi. They'd been away from each other for weeks- Naala had received a summons from the White Keep, the headquarters of the Knights of the Chrysanthemum, at the same time that Sumi caught wind of a disease of the groin spreading through the town of Overlook. Naala was oathbound to answer the summons of the Keep, and Sumi was honor-bound to destroy such poxes wherever she found them. Neither of them could refuse these calls, as much as they loathed being away from each other, and now, after a week of slow riding through freezing rains and snow to meet her at Overlook, Sumi had her trudging through even more snow in the darkness of the night, searching for this "wonderful place" and growing more worried by the minute.
Onward she trudged, her eyes on Sumi's tracks. If she'd known that she was going to be doing this she wouldn't have pushed her horse so hard getting to Overlook. By the time she had arrived there it was completely lathered despite the cold, and could go no further. She'd left it in the small stable attached to the town's only inn, where she'd found the note that Sumi left for her.
But perhaps that was a blessing in disguise, for if she'd been on horseback Naala might have never noticed the
other
set of tracks in the snow. They were almost outside of her lantern light, and it was only by chance that she'd noticed them- she had frightened a snow rabbit and it bounded away behind a tree, right over a sole footprint in the snow, about thirty feet away from Sumi's tracks. Naala's heart caught in her throat, and it only got worse when she followed this new set of footprints. They ran parallel to Sumi's tracks, as if the person who made them was following her. Whoever it was apparently kept their distance, never coming closer than about twenty feet to Sumi's path, and even then they kept several trees and bushes between them. That meant that they were following Sumi herself, not her just her tracks.
Naala started to run, ignoring the biting cold of the air flooding her lungs as her heart raced. But then something strange happened. She had been following Sumi's tracks for perhaps a quarter of a mile when the air started to get warmer. She thought she was imagining it at first, until she noticed that there was less snow on the ground the further she went, and even the wind started to lessen. Finally, she saw it: A hot spring.
It erupted from a wide overhang of rock that mounted the side of a hill that jutted up sharply, a thick, tall white fir tree at its crown. The overhang where the water came out was bowl-shaped, forming a pool bounded by stone about five feet up which overflowed its walls, creating a small, steaming waterfall that fed a larger steaming pool below. Naala stood at the edge of the lower pool, panting, and took off a glove, testing the air. It was still slightly chilly here, but warm enough that she could have taken off her thick furs if she'd wanted to.
There was no sign of Sumi. Both sets of tracks, where there was still enough snow to see them, had led in a direct line straight here. This had to be the place, so where was she? Naala had a hunch, and thinking about it made her stomach churn.
Naala called out Sumi's name and waited a few moments. Silence. With her fingers gripped tightly around her warhammer she clambered up the side of the hill to look over the upper pool, but she was not there either. She took a deep breath.
Stay calm
, she thought to herself, but she felt very cold again despite the warmth from the spring. She took a deep breath.
Go back.
The ground here is muddy and wet, even where the snow has melted.
She must have left more tracks. Find them. Follow them. Find her.
Something soft and very large pressed against her back. Naala made a noise that was somewhere in between a gasp and a grunt, sprung forward a step, and had her hammer poised to strike before she even saw who it was.
Sumi was naked. That wasn't particularly surprising, knowing her. She was also whole and uninjured. Her golden eyes seemed to almost glow in the lantern light, and they were wide with surprise. Then she smirked and put her hands on her hips. "Well, hello to you too!"
Naala dropped her hammer. For a moment she thought she was going to cry. Her mouth was open, as if she was about to speak, but she couldn't think of anything to say. Instead she nearly tackled Sumi, wrapped her arms around her and held her tight.
"I missed you too, Naala," said Sumi with a giggle, returning the hug. "It's been far too long." Then she kissed her.
Sumi had the best kisses. As soon as their lips touched, all of the fear and worry drained right out of her. Her stomach fluttered, and her chest tingled, and for just a few moments, there in Sumi's arms, everything was right with the world. Her smell was intoxicating, like snow-in-summer and lavender, and her lips tasted of mint leaves.
An eternity passed before they pulled away from each other, and yet it still felt like far too short a time. Naala simply stared at her for a long moment, drinking her in with her eyes.
Sumi's skin was blue, and her hair was silvery-white, like spun platinum. It was so long that the bottom of it brushed against the backs of her calves when she walked, and it was currently draped in smooth, straight, silky lengths over her back and shoulders. Despite having never had children she had a curvaceous, womanly figure: Wide, fertile hips which tapered off into a relatively thin waist, a soft stomach, and plump, full breasts that were still easily the largest that Naala had ever seen, even after her many travels.
Naala had traveled all over the world and seen wonders beyond imagining, and yet in that moment there was no sight that could be more beautiful in her eyes, or more welcome.
"Well?" said Sumi, nodding towards the hot spring. "What do you think? Isn't it beautiful?"
Now that Naala was looking at it, really looking at it, she had to admit that it was. The moon was full tonight, and the trees were just sparse enough to let its light fall upon the spring unhindered. The night was still and quiet, the only sound was the whispering of the water as it flowed from the upper pool to the lower, and it seemed to almost glow in the moonshine, like liquid light.
"It is... But, listen, I found-" Sumi kissed her again, and Naala found herself returning it despite herself.
