Hey! Rika T. Strange here with a quick one-shot. Hope y'all like it, and please reveiw! If you don't, you'll make Deekin cry D:
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"Shut up, Valen!" Aleesha snapped, pulling the blanket more tightly about her sparsely clothed self. "You think I wanted to get sick?!"
"I am merely saying that we should not let it delay us..." Valen kept his steady gaze turned away from her as he spoke. "We don't have much time before the Valsharess makes her next move."
The Half-elf shouted in frustration and struggled to her feet. "Listen to me, you stubborn son of a bitch! I know we have stuff to do! I know the Valsharess is practically knocking on our-" She paused and shook her head. "Knocking on the Seer's doorstep! But until I'm over this sickness I can't do anything!"
"You fought at the temple easily enough," Valen said coolly.
"That was... Different," Aleesha huffed, collapsing back onto the makeshift bed Nathyrra had pulled together for her. "This is because of my blood."
That caught Valen's interest. He turned to look at her, his hard eyes boring into hers. "And what does that mean, exactly?"
"I didn't learn to be a Shifter like most Druids," Aleesha responded, squirming slightly under his intense stare. "My mother thinks my father has a were creature's bloodline. Otherwise I'd probably be more of a 'Quarter-elf', then a Half-elf. It's uncommon, but not completely unheard of for a Druid to learn to harness that trace of blood and become a Shifter."
"I still don't see a problem," Valen replied, turning away once more.
"Because I've had Deekin keep you out of here until now!" The young woman growled in frustration and threw a nearby pebble at the Tiefling. It bounced harmlessly off his armor with a slight 'dink'. "My shifting's uncontrolled! I could turn into a White Wyrmling at the drop of a hat! Or I could be talking with someone and shift into a Medusa! Do you want me to-" Aleesha sneezed loudly and violently. "Do you want me to turn someone to stone?"
"It depends on who it is," Valen replied, secretly smiling beneath his stoic mask. "Maybe you should speak with Deekin more often."
"Augh!" Aleesha threw another rock at him. "You're impossible!"
"On the contrary, you're the one who refuses to continue with our journey. It's been two days already."
Aleesha quite literally roared in frustration and picked him up in her huge jaws. She glared at him with the eyes of a Manticore, seeming to ask, 'now do you believe me?'
"I will break those jaws of yours if you don't set me down," Valen said calmly.
Aleesha dropped him roughly to the cave's floor and curled up in the far corner of the small cavern. A moment later she was human again. "I want to help the Seer, Valen. I believe that what she is doing is right. The Drow live like the Old Ones did, from what my mother told me of them. They'll become extinct like the Old Ones, too, if they don't learn to live with one another."
"Must everything you say be related to nature in some way?"
"I am a Druid, Valen. I have been taught to look at things as the Earth Mother does." Aleesha shook her head and stumbled back to her makeshift bed and the slight warmth the blankets there provided. "Although sometimes-" Whatever else the Half-elf had meant to say was turned into the pathetic mewling of a purple, stripped kitten.
Valen looked over at her and cocked an eyebrow. "A purple kitten. How strange."
Aleesha hissed and scratched at his armored legs, not leaving marks but making a horrible screeching sound.
The Tiefling picked her up by the scruff of her neck, holding her at eye level and glaring at her. "You're lucky you're cute like this." He dropped her back onto the makeshift bed and sat down by the small fire pit Deekin had insisted on digging. Aleesha grinned mischievously, or as well as she could in her currant body, and pounced onto his shoulder. "I'll make fire and drop you in it," he threatened coolly, picking her up by the scruff once more. Aleesha looked at him with the cutest expression she could muster and watched as Valen's hardened glare slowly softened. "...Maybe I won't drop you in it," he said at last, setting her down on the ground. "But you'd better watch yourself." She inwardly laughed as he removed his gloves and started to make a fire, occasionally "accidentally" brushing against her soft fur when he reached for twigs and tinder.
The fire was well built and roaring when Deekin and Nathyrra returned from scouting the area and hunting for food. "BOSS!" Deekin shouted as he entered the cave. "BOSS, DEEKIN AND THE NICE DROW LADY IS BACK NOW! WE-" The faithful Kobold was cut short when Nathyrra clamped his mouth shut. He looked at the Drow woman wonderingly, until she pointed to Valen and Aleesha.
The Tiefling sat leaning against the cave's wall by the fire pit, snoring softly. In his lap lay a large, stripped purple kitten, sleeping soundly and nearly engulfed by the huge hand that rested on its back.
"Deekin thinks he will draw this for his book," he said quietly, grinning at Nathyrra. "What does Nathyrra think?"
"I think that Valen has a weakness for kittens..." Nathyrra laughed softly and sat down by the fire across from the Tiefling and Shifter, then began to skin the animal she had killed for their dinner. "Let's see what happens when they wake up." Deekin nodded enthusiastically and then returned to his drawing.
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Well, that's all folks! Hope y'all enjoyed it. Just to make things clear, Aleesha is the Hero of Neverwinter's daughter, not the Hero herself. Gotta love Artistic Freedom x3