Spring 15, 113
It was an odd thing to be in a new culture. Though he had spent a lot of time as a humanoid/dragon hybrid, he hadn't been able to partake in many of the aelven customs like that. Caelum thought that he was adjusting as well as could be expected, hell he'd even found a partner to share some sexy times with. But he was put off by how quickly the woman, AElena, had taken interest in others. Caelum quickly learned that it was normal for aelves to have multiple partners which he thought of as odd. Whenever Caelum saw her, she looked incredibly happy and something inside him made him angry to see her so happy when he was not. He tried his best to stifle his emotions though, he had adjusted to much worse than this in the past decades.
Caelum had seen her with multiple men and even women, and he could sense that there was more going on than riveting conversation. Thinking about AElena gave Caelum a headache. Sometimes he just wanted to do the simple dragon thing and eat her like he'd eaten so many creatures when he'd had the form of a dragon. But he still felt for her, and killing an aelf was probably the only surefire way of ruining everything he'd worked towards so far. He was a powerful dragon, so there was always a good chance that he could escape the aelves as he fled… but there was no chance in hell he'd ever be allowed back in the forest.
Still, just because he couldn't punish her didn't mean that he couldn't spy on her. Caelum was currently hovering outside the window of her home listening in on them. They had no idea he was there, but he could hear everything that they were doing. It sounded as though they were talking about someone, though exactly who escaped him. He was fairly certain that it wasn't himself.
"Are you sure he won't mind?"
"I'm sure. We haven't so much as talked since we arrived, what makes you think he cares who I spent my time with?"
"I talked to her; she doesn't seem as bad as you say"
AElena shook her head, "she wouldn't do anything even if she was upset."
She ran her finger along her chest and nodded absent-mindedly. "I hope you're right."
AElena propped herself up and gave her a kiss before pulling away to get dressed. "I'm hungry; care for a bite?"
Silk shook her head, "I want to lie down a bit more." She looked distraught, which AElena picked up on.
"Come on, I told you not to worry. Tell you what, how about we go for a little trip? Think of it like a vacation…"
"Okay… We'll work out a date later."
The two of them left, and Caelum was feeling tired of hovering there so he decided to call it quits. He needed to get over Aelena if she was seeing so many people. He decided to abandon his spying for the day and return to his studies.
He checked on the progress some of the herbal mixtures he'd been working on. Supposedly being a druid meant more than simply bending the plantlife around him to his will… it was also largely focused on healing. That was probably the most important part of it, in Caelum's opinion. And to properly utilize that healing facet, he needed to actually understand how healing worked, the anatomy of the body, etc.
He sighed and looked at some cloth that had been soaking in his herbal paste. He noticed he needed to make more paste because he was getting low, so he got some herbs from his little garden and started to process it into the usual gooey substance. He twirled the pestle and mortar, smashing them together in a practiced motion that he'd grown accustomed to doing. It was such a regular activity for him now that he could control the whole process without putting in much thought. In fact, it was easier to do it that way because he could ignore the aches in his arms if he focused on anything else.
As he sat and twirled his tools, his mind wandered. It didn't take long for him to start coming up with sick ways to get his revenge on AElena. He was a dragon at heart, so coming up with ways of consuming prey was a hobby of his. He thought of various ways he could catch her off guard or perhaps lure her into an area where her death would leave no traces. Then, he could kill her. He tried not to think about how quickly he'd gone from wanting her to suffer to wanting her dead. He definitely didn't have issues.
It wasn't until the herbs were fully processed into paste and poured into a container did he start to come up truly diabolical thoughts. His desire to make her suffer was too great, and he knew exactly how he would do it. A crazed look was plastered on his face as he giggled to himself and thought about how she'd react when she found out that'd he'd eaten all her other lovers.
"Everything alright?"
The sound of someone at his door knocking and someone peeking through the window shook Caelum out of his thoughts. "Oh, yes, I'm fine," he assured the aelf.
"You looked out of it," the aelf said as he walked in and patted him on the back. "No shame in it; I looked the same way when I first started working with those smelly herbs. Let's get some air; it'll do you good."
Caelum nodded and walked outside with the aelf. He decided to ask him a little bit about the laws of the aelves. What kinds of stuff were acceptable, what wasn't. He was able to disguise his interests as genuine by saying he didn't want to accidentally do something that violated their rules. The aelf went over the main laws, many of which lined up with what Caelum would expect from any society.
The two of them walked around for about an hour, not only chatting about the legal system but also about other things such as the weather and what each of their histories were. The aelf claimed to be a healer in training – most of what he did was make herbal paste and fetch supplies for his elders. It was interesting to learn how people were allowed to pursue whatever they wanted to.
Caelum shared some things about himself as well, such as where he'd grown up and how he'd come to be in the forest. He'd told the story dozens of times by now and was used to people expressing interest. He'd found that people seemed to treat him better once they learned that he'd had an obsession with the aelves for decades.
They eventually split ways and Caelum headed back home. Even though he was more aware than anybody else that he needed to improve his medical abilities, he still wanted to dive into something more useful. There were plenty of other useful magics out there, such as the ones that controlled the elements. Though, it wasn't always simple. He was now accustomed to using druidism and grist but those were glamour, which were entirely different than something like shooting flames out of one's fists. However, he was never very interested in other elements for whatever reason. They were simply less cathartic and didn't feel the same in his mind. Now that he was back home, Caelum was eager to find that elusive sense of fulfillment since he was positive he was missing something.
He shook his head and said, "focus on one thing at a time. Master druidism, then think about other magics." He sighed and had to remind himself that he was going to live for hundreds of more years. There was plenty of time. So, he would continue his studies by mastering one of the foundational herbal skills, a recipe typically taught to medical apprentices. The dragon unfolded a large scroll he had borrowed and examined the appropriate ingredients and steps needed to create the herbal concoction.
Easy enough, given that this degree of technique just required a few key components. The man worked on the recipe, his hands measuring and combining the ingredients with mechanical effectiveness. Caelum shook his head and began mixing it all together after a few trial runs and added the combination to his ever-expanding repertoire of herbal knowledge.
With a well-earned ease, he completed the steps, his hands nearly vibrating with each precise movement. Caelum felt the herbal properties almost materialize and become palpable as some drops of liquid began to infuse the mixture inside his container. He carefully poured the herbal concoction into a waiting vial, satisfied with the result. Though it might not have been perfect in every aspect, and the fragrance wasn't as strong as he would have liked, Caelum was nevertheless happy with his first attempt.
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