“What do you mean?” Larisa asked Ha’na to clarify.

“For example, how often do you sleep?”

“Every two, maybe three days.” Answered Larisa.

Ha’na’s eyes seemed to widen a bit and her smile got a little bit bigger. Her hand on Larisa’s arm seemed to make its home there as it grazed against her skin back and forth. It made Larisa’s scales a bit ticklish. It felt nice though, she didn’t want Ha’na to stop.

“I see. And how long do you sleep for?”

“How long? After the sun sets the moon is halfway up the sky.” Larisa said.

“Mhm.” Ha’na didn’t ask for more, but instead took her hand away from Larisa’s arm and took off her necklace. The one with the blue rock hanging from it. Larisa hated that rock for taking Ha’na’s hand away.

“Do you feel something, Larisa?”

“What should I be-” She couldn’t finish the question as a staggering amount of emotion flew into the Essence. The depth and intensity of the feeling took her breath away. The joy, elation, excitement, and passion and… attraction? Ha’na was attracted to her? To Larisa? It should make Larisa feel good, she suspected. But she wasn’t quite sure what the feeling meant. She wanted to find out though.

“I feel you. In the Essence.” Larisa couldn’t help but whisper. She was scared she would break the cloud of the Essence that seemed to gather around them. It flew with its sweetness against Larisa’s nose and brushed at her skin with its soft touches. Ha’na felt amazing.

“I can feel you too.” Said Ha’na. Could she? Larisa wondered what she could feel? Would she be able to differentiate all the emotions brewing in Larisa? Would she feel the same attraction back?

But, wasn’t only people like Larisa supposed to feel the Essence this way? It was true that Larisa didn’t listen to Farre as much as she should but she remembered that information.

“Can’t only people like me feel the Essence?” Asked Larisa. The question seemed to amuse Ha’na a great deal as she laughed.

“Who told you that? Farre? Well, you and her are wrong. Let me tell you how it works.” A well of satisfaction seemed to brew inside Ha’na as she came closer to Larisa once again. Her close presence made Larisa clench her fists for some reason and her attention and field of view seemed to focus on the cold blue of Ha’na eyes.

This was a dangerous woman, being able to distract Larisa this much. In the jungle they both would be in cienja’s stomach by now.

“In simplest terms, it is true that only bestian and beasts can feel the Essence in its rawest form. But it doesn’t mean that humans - people like me and Farre - aren’t able to gain such an ability. Although, a much weaker one.” Ha’na reached for Larisa’s second bracer and took it off of her arm gently.

“I am the student of the Essencecraft, Larisa. It means that I breathe and live for the Essence and what it is, what it can provide, how it can be understood.” Both of her hands caressed Larisa’s arms now. Ha’na’s face came closer and Larisa could feel a burning feeling beneath where her heart should be. Her hands felt idle but she wasn’t sure what to do. She wanted to feel Ha’na skin at her fingertips. She wanted to see if touching her would make her feel even more of the Essence that was Ha’na.

“And people before me have found that bringing oneself closer to nature, to things untouched by human hands, can cultivate your Essence into something similar to what you have, to what bestian have.” Larisa reached her hand out under Ha’na sleeve.

The skin she met there was tender as the flesh of a fruit and warm as the burning coal of her fire. Larisa could feel a very subtle, but noticeable connection take place. She felt their Essences mingle and some of Larisa flew into Ha’na and some of Ha’na flew into Larisa.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Such wonders did these people have.

“There’s a connection.” Said Larisa and Ha’na smiled.

“Yes, there is.”

They spent a lot of time entangled like that. Staring into one another while the Essence in the air swirled and danced around them. Larisa broke the eyes contact to watch as the strings of vibrant Essence fell upon Ha’na shoulders. It then slowly absorbed itself into Ha’na and she became even a brighter source of the Essence in this tent. The tent felt smaller and smaller the more they spent connected like that.

“What do you see?” Asked Ha’na.

“I see the Essence flow.” A grip tightened and Larisa thought Ha’na would not be able to control herself, but then a wave of calmness shot up from Larisa and it was settled.

“You can see the Essence? It was theorised that dragons can but to find out like this is…” Ha’na’s posture strung up as if she was about to jump on Larisa. And honestly Larisa didn’t think she’d mind that much if that were to happen.

“You truly are a child of a dragon. Someone did the impossible and created you. Do you know how old you are?” Ha’na’s breath came out shallow and fast. It felt warm on Larisa’s face.

“Vitash sleeps every ten years, yes?” Asked Larisa.

“Yes…”

“I think I was ten when Vitash slept last time. I remember someone saying that to me. That I’m ten.”

“So you’re twenty. Younger than me by a couple of years, it seems. But how is it that you don’t remember?” Prompted Ha’na.

“I don’t know.”

“What is the last thing you remember?”

“The last thing would be…”

“I’m ba- What the Hal is this stench?” A yell broke Larisa and Ha’na from their trance.

They both jumped a bit from each other and looked at the interloper that protruded themselves is the entryway. It was Farre.

“Sergeant, seems like you’re back. Already?” Ha’na stood up and made her clothes more ordered. She also put her necklace back on, which Larisa found herself to be unreasonably hating. She took her braces scattered around her and put them back on. She got up too since her legs felt a little stiff.

“Already? It’s literally sunset out there. Wait. What were you two doing here? You-” Farre pointed an accusatory finger towards Ha’na. “-didn’t take advantage of her, did you?” Farre whispered to Ha’na. She knew Larisa could hear her, so why would she bother?

“Whaaat?! How dare you accuse me of such a thing, you scoundrel? I detest the accusation!”

“Hmmmmm.” Hummed Farre with much suspicion.

“It’s true! Everything was wholly consensual, wasn’t it Larisa?” Ha’na prompted Larisa to answer.

“What’s ‘consensual’?” Larisa’s question seemed to start a screaming match that was completely impossible to follow. She was able to catch a word here and there but never make out what they were actually arguing about.

That gave Larisa a bit of time to think. What was she doing with Ha’na before? There was some sort of connection, but what did it do? And did Ha’na actually said anything informative? She seemed to not answer a lot of Larisa’s questions. Like the one about why she called her a ‘cold woman’. Larisa had a feeling she wanted to know.

“Stop.” Larisa said as she stepped in the middle of the screaming match. It was getting irritating to Larisa’s ears.

“What-” Both women said at the same time. Seemed like Larisa was quite capable at making people quiet.

“I have questions. Will you answer?” Larisa asked both of the women. She felt it was time that she was the one doing something, instead of being dragged along by everyone. It was true that Larisa already decided to go with Ha’na but she wanted to know some things too. Being a simple backpack or something did not feel good to Larisa.

“Oh! Of course, you’d have questions. Yes, mhm, I’ll answer them all.” Ha’na voice cracked a bit when she said that but overall it still had that singsong quality to it.

That’s what a shouting match will do to you, Larisa guessed.

Farre on the other hand simply huffed and went to sit in a corner of the tent. Larisa hasn’t realized before, with all the mixture of hers and Ha’na’s Essence in the air but Farre seemed to be impossibly stressed about something. Stressed and nervous and somehow… guilty? Larisa wasn’t sure about the last one, but Farre’s state seemed strange either way. Well, there was still time to make sure she was alright. Now, back to Larisa’s question.

“Why did you call me a ‘cold woman’ before?” Seemed like Larisa’s question wasn’t as simple to answer as she hoped since Ha’na sighed and brought forth a scroll of paper from behind her desk. She then took some strange looking book out which seemed to be as big as Ha’na forearm and as thick as Larisa’s thigh. Which meant it was very, very thick.

When she revealed it on her desk Larisa saw the whole world before her eyes.

“Where should I start?”