Chapter 7: Naked and Embarrassed

Thessalia POV

Inside the training area, back in her “human” shifter form. Thessalia shivered, feeling chilly, even though the house had fireplaces all over and it was a glorious warm afternoon. “How did the tradition of going naked start?”

She was walking on all fours with her back legs bent and her butt in the air. Thank goodness for her elfin grace and dexterity. Dane had waxed poetic about imagining the freedom that wolves felt running through the open air, and even in buildings. The way they pointed their noses and scented the wind. Fortunately, Thessalia’s senses and sight were at least as sensitive as a wolf’s. 

Kyon shrugged. “We all wore clothes centuries ago when we first started but we kept ripping them and destroying them.”

Dane put a hand on Thessalia’s back. “Keep your knees bent. Keep your back slightly rounded. And yes, clothes got wrecked.”

Thessalia wrinkled her nose. “But people ruin clothes every day.”

She listened to the brothers, Azandra, and Garnet telling the story of how shifters came to be naked most of the time. She’d never stopped to think about why they did that. 

Thousands of years ago, shifters dressed the way humans did, especially since they were related to humans. However, shifting to fight, hunt, and spar meant they ripped the clothes to pieces constantly–which could become costly.

“That’s one version,” Dane objected. “The one I heard said that we rejected dressing and acting exactly like humans, who could and would kill us all.”

Showing off his bent legs, Dirge glanced at Thessalia. “What about wood elves? What about when you’re in your trees?”

Thessalia blushed and Calyx chirped, “Then we’re like shifters. Don’t be so self-conscious, Thessi. Dirge likes your elf and your shifter body, don’t you?”

Dirge smiled politely, walking on all fours beside them, naked and in human form. Thessalia had difficulty moving as fast as she did when running, and Calyx’s questions seemed to slow her down. And her bare butt was on full display!

“Well?” Calyx ran beside her, moving only a smidge faster. “Why are you so quiet? From what I understand, shifters don’t have a problem showing their feelings or saying when they find someone attractive. Am I wrong?”

“You’re not,” Dane said with a smirk.

Thessalia wondered if Dane was deliberately trying to embarrass her. “So, if I said that Dirge is a … a fine figure of a man, I would be like a shifter?”

“Much more like one,” Azandra offered. “Don’t elves compliment each other?”

“In endlessly flowery language,” Thessalia commented. “I mean … we’re not so open. It can be beautiful. The language, that is.”

She couldn’t get over accidentally sniffing Dirge’s man parts. Elves viewed the body as something natural, to be enjoyed, to be honored. But still, they didn’t just go around poking their noses into people’s private parts!

And Dirge had nothing to be ashamed of in that department. She shouldn’t even be thinking that way, kiss or no kiss! They hadn’t even been able to talk about their kiss. That impulsive kiss.

“That it can, but sometimes the direct approach is good, too.” Calyx’s golden eyes sparkled.

She’d already had enough of the direct approach, thank you!

“Stop teasing them,” Garnet said, directing the remark at Dane and Azandra. “Not all shifters are expressive in that way.”

“Jiro isn’t until he writes a love letter,” Kyon said, his voice as mischievous as Calyx’s.

She thought of Kyonm as well as Jiro, as the calm, sensible one. Maybe he was in their territory, but among his own people, he was a menace!

“Dirge, you are a fine figure of a man and a wolf,” she blurted. “And you kiss with the passion of your wolf ancestors.”

Patch walked on all fours toward her with a happy grin on his face. “Well, he is a Cresta, and it’s about time he–”

“PATCH,” his three older brothers and his sisters-in-law chorused.

“–Complimented you on what a beautiful wolf and shifter you make,” Patch finished. “We show appreciation to each other. We’re open.”

Dirge bowed graciously. “Milady, your hair and face are as golden as the goldenberries you smell like. Your body is beautiful and strong and I know Tulaska would say it’s very good for childbearing. Azandra would too.”

Thessalia’s legs slipped out from under her and she landed smack on her nose. “OW!”

Dirge crawled over to her. “You have to be more careful!”

“You distracted me.” Her nose was fine. Her pride felt bruised, however.

She pulled herself up.

“Dirge, you’re confusing these girls.” Azandra smacked him on the butt. “We don’t just go around commenting on women looking ripe for childbearing.”

Lilia chuckled. “Maybe no one here does, but the women of the pack always talk about that. Even the younger ones.”

Garnet was wise. “Having pups bonds us as a people.”

Thessalia smiled, noticing that she picked up speed when she walked on all fours. Her legs and arms began to burn in a good way. She could smell the sweat from the sparring in this arena and feel the hard floor beneath her feet and hands. “Children bond us, because when you live hundreds of years and have children far apart, sometimes several years apart–”

“Elves do?” Garnet interjected. “That would make sense. You live so long that you might be overpopulated otherwise.”

“But it would be a no-no to talk about shifters having pups several years and centuries apart,” Jiro pointed out, bluntly.

Eyes flashing red as he passed her, Dirge growled. “She’s just talking to us–”

Thessalia shook her head. “I’ve put on pantomimes and theatrical performances, you know, and one of the things our actors will tell you is that you have to immerse yourself in the part completely.”

Jiro looked empathetic. “Intelligence work is the same way. Sometimes, people make mistakes while undercover.”

“Or uncovered,” Thessalia muttered.

Calyx burst out laughing and Thessalia shot an exasperated glare at her best friend. 

“So, I have to mostly talk like a shifter, and think like one, too,” she said to stop herself from feeling total embarrassment. 

“Living among shifters helps,” Lilia commented. “Why, when I first came here as a witch, it took me a while to get used to things.”

“BUT she got down and sniffed Alpha Jude’s tail when he arrived in wolf form for the War Council,” Dirge volunteered. “Everyone loved it.”

Come on. She could meet his eyes. He didn’t hold it against her for accidentally sniffing his jewels, did he? His face looked like a sunflower–innocent and loving. Maybe he understood she was trying to learn? 

“You’re embarrassed,” Dirge murmured, his face sad. 

She looked away. “Certainly not.”

He was so sweet and loving and helpful. He did have a playful and sometimes blunt way about him, but no meanness. And she could NEVER imagine High Lord Ilbryen going to such lengths to teach people about wood elf ways, even risking looking foolish himself.

He leapt up and reached out a hand. “Come on. I think we’re all confusing you. I’m going to take you to learn from the best teachers in the pack. You too, Calyx!”

* * * * *

Dirge POV

Thessalia’s gasp of delight melted Dirge’s heart.

“The last time I saw most of them, they were always being swaddled and held by various members of your family,” she said, gazing at the sight before her.

Inside the playroom, the Cresta children crawled and toddled around. 

Jiro’s and Garnet’s three children were playing with Kyon’s and Azandra’s three children. Jiro’s ginger-haired Tiberius was entertaining Azandra’s red-haired Primrose. She and her twin Fairmont were eight months older than dark-haired Winston, who had a cowlick of hair almost as perfect as his father’s. Fairmont and Winston were playing with Jiro’s and Garnet’s red-haired Lucina while their blond Mekito was content to just watch everything.

And was that Kyon’s flute from the wood elves that Winston was gnawing on, trying to play?

Dane and Lilia’s triplets tore around the room, chasing after a tiny mechanical car, a gift from the Orcs. There were wonderful toys from the dwarves, too. Plants from the wood elves and Tulaska were placed around the room for the pups to explore and even cleanse their little stomachs. A spinning glass faerie mobile hung low enough for the pups to reach for but high enough that they couldn’t break it. That didn’t stop Patch’s and Anneliese’s dark-haired Ziggy and Brandy, with spots of pink in their flowing flocks, from trying to grab the balls painted to look like suns and moons.

Thessalia had gotten down on the floor with Mekito, Fairmont, and Winston. “Hello.”

Winston blinked, his brown eyes wide. “‘Lo.”

Mekito looked up at her with a quiet smile. “Want to play?”

Jiro’s children were a bit more social than Dirge heard Jiro had been as a toddler. But a young Jiro would have happily talked to a wood elf and invited her to play. Fairmont added, “We wrestle now?”

Thessalia smiled and gripped Fairmont’s tiny fist. “How about arm wrestling?”

Fairmont growled. Of Kyon’s and Azandra’s three children, she was the fiercest. She pulled Thessalia’s arm down and Thessalia held back, knowing that elf strength could be too much for most adults, never mind toddlers.

Calyx poked Dirge in the ribs. “The child will win easily. Thessalia has a soft touch.” Her voice was full of love for her friend. 

“Don’t be too easy on her,” Dirge called out. “Shifter babies need to build up their strength.”

Wrestling with Fairmont was fun, and Thessalia pushed her as hard as she dared, but the tiny shifter pushed Thessalia’s hand down.They rolled over and over together and chased each other on all fours, and before long, Thessalia had all the children chasing her!

Calyx had to have her turn, and Dirge couldn’t tell the pup from the elf. 

Taking a breather, Thessalia looked at Dirge, smiling despite her obvious frustration with herself. “Thank you for taking on this huge task I dropped in your lap. Everyone says elves are so superior. Well, maybe the wizards and the advanced rangers can think and act like other beings, but no one else. Our mystics can tell us how to become aware of the ants and the wind in the trees, but no one ever tells you what it’s like to be something else. To live in another’s world. I don’t care how many mistakes I make. This is an experience I wouldn’t miss for all the stars in the sky.”

Dirge took her hand gently. “You’ve had a long day and need to relax. I’m sorry about my family being a bit much sometimes. They mean well.”

“Sorry about telling them we kissed, and about impulsively kissing you.”

He gave her a warm smile. “I’m not sorry we kissed. You have the sweetest lips in the world, like rose petals.”

“And your fur feels like the leaves on my tree. Your kiss, too.”

“You’re only here for a short time,” Dirge said, breathless. “And a wood elf and a shifter–well, we mostly love to stay in our own lands. Both our peoples.”

Her eyes swirled like a golden spiral. “And yet here I am, all because your brothers, and your father before them, walked in our forest. What does your Moon Goddess say about that?”

He knew. His wolf, Shepard, kept saying, “Mate. Mate.” 

“I sense we have a connection,” he said, for once not blurting out what was on his mind. “And … and I need to explore it. I feel drawn to you.”

“Then let’s hope your Wise Woman can point us in the right direction.”

Did she guess that they were fated mates? Could she know?

Heat spread up his body to his ears. “She always does.”

“And may that direction lead to Calyx’s phoenix casuarina and the potion that will change the destiny of the wood elves,” Thessalia declared.