We awoke hot and sticky with the late morning sun beating down and baking us inside our tent. Our lips were chapped from the heat, but I used my Healing Song and within a couple of lines they were as good as new, which Brick decided to celebrate by kissing me until I was breathless.

I announced I wanted to go and bathe in the river, and he followed me, not bothering to wear his kilt-like loincloth the few meters between the tent and the water.

I decided the whole Mr. Darcy walking out of the lake scene in Pride and Prejudice had nothing on a morning-after playful orc splashing about in a river, droplets of water beading on his leathery green skin.

We splashed about for a bit, before noticing Bruiser a little way upstream in his bear form.

“What are you thinking about him?” Brick asked, his mood becoming more serious. “Do you still feel the same as you did yesterday?”

I watched as Bruiser sat down on the riverbed, unaware he was being watched, and stared morosely into the distance.

“I do,” I whispered. “That is, I still care about him. I’m still attracted to him. I still want him… But I don’t feel that same confusion or conflict anymore, which is thanks to you.”

Brick leaned in and kissed me gently.

“You better go tell him and put him out of his misery then,” said Brick. “I should go hunt down Bastion and make sure he hasn’t torn his pointy ears off.”

I laughed and gave him a playful punch on the arm.

“Besides, he deserves to know we’ve changed plans. We’ll stop by Kira’s on the way through to leave a message for Jackal and Nightfall, but then we’ll head straight for the university.

“Thank you,” I said, giving him another kiss. “I’m looking forward to having you show me around.”

He gave me an orcish grin, kissed me goodbye and then turned to wade back up to the shore. I watched his green backside until it disappeared into the tent, then turned upstream to go hunt down Bruiser.

He saw me in the distance and shifted, meeting me in the water, although he still threw uncertain glances towards the campsite.

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“Embracing the naturalist lifestyle yourself, are you?” he asked, raising a brow but then wincing as it pulled on his damaged cheek.

“I’m giving it a try,” I said, lifting my hand to his cheek.

“Don’t. I deserve it,” Bruiser said, catching my wrist.

“But I forgive you,” I said. “Surely that should count for something.”

“It counts for everything.”

“I don’t like seeing you hurt. Please, just let me fix it.”

He dropped his hand from my wrist, and I began to sing to him. It was just another nonsense song, but it worked.

“Emma,” he said when I’d finished. “I’m glad you made up with Brick. I know that was weighing on you, and I’m sorry for contributing to it.”

“It’s fine. He’s been great and he… Ow!” I yelped, slapping at my leg. “What was that?”

“Ah, that’ll be the leeches.”

“The what?!”

“Sorry, I forgot about them. They don’t really bother me in my bear form.”

I scrambled out of the river and found several inch-long black leeches attached to me with their slimy jaws. I cried as Bruiser hovered over me, plucking them off and sniffling through a song to heal up the bleeding red circles they had left behind.

“I hate this stupid world,

Just when I let my guard down,

To come tell you that I love you,

I’m chewed up by effing leeches…”

“You were going to tell me that you love me?” Bruiser repeated, pausing in his own leech removal process to look at me.

“Yeah. I love you,” I said, plucking a leech off him. “It took me a while, but I figured it out.”

“Well, it’s just that 5/20 intelligence stat slowing you down,” he chuckled, dodging when I threw the leech at him. “I’m glad, though. So, does this mean we can be together?”

I grinned and nodded.

“Good, because I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time.”

He picked me up and swung me around, making me squeal, then pressed my back into a smooth-barked tree and kissed me with the ravenous desperation of a drowning man searching for air.

“You have no idea what you’ve been doing to me these last couple of weeks, Emma,” he groaned. “How much self-control it took to not just take you on the forest floor.”

“You can now,” I whispered, feeling a thrill run through me. “You can have me right now.”

He growled and pulled away from me long enough to lower me from my position up against the tree to a spot nestled in the soft, sandy soil. I reached for him, but he took my hands in one of his and held them above my head, and continued to kiss me until I felt like my intelligence had dropped to a mere 1/20 for all the thoughts I could string together.

“Bruiser,” I whispered, writhing under him.

“Emma… My Emma…” he whispered.

I held him for several minutes afterwards, enjoying his affectionate post-coital nuzzling until I noticed the mosquitos buzzing around.

“I think that’s our cue to move on,” I said, slapping one as it landed on Bruiser’s shoulder.

He stood and fetched his bag, which he’d left by the riverside, and retrieved one of his shirts to pull over my head. It was about three times too big for me, but it kept the mosquitos off my skin.

“Let’s get on the road then,” Bruiser said, kissing me once more before shifting back into a bear and letting me ride on his back to camp.

For the first time in two weeks, I felt totally, undeniably optimistic that everything would work out.