I nodded with my limbs to let her know everything went okay. I then crawled a bit closer to the fire and the elf sitting in the doorframe.

It would be hard to warm up my entire body with this small fire, but thankfully, Cellestra had taken care of the worst part. I cast healing light on myself, just in case I was about to get sick. I didn’t know if it helped, but it certainly couldn’t hurt.

“I’m glad you’re okay. This is no weather to be outside, but I don’t think it would have stopped you.”

I guessed she was right. I was quite fixated on getting as strong as I possibly could.

I cursed in my mind as I realized I forgot to bring something back for dinner tomorrow. It had completely passed me by with this rain going on. I hoped it wouldn’t rain tomorrow.

I placed my front two sets of legs around the fire in order to allow more warmth to enter my body. I wanted to just lie down and absorb it all, but the cold, wet grass beneath me would just nullify it if I did.

I was quite exhausted, too. Just lying down would be lovely.

“Are you hungry?” Cellestra asked.

I was. The elf had just made me realize that all too clearly.

I nodded slowly in response.

“I had more or less expected to set up this fire so I have already prepared some pieces of meat we can cook on it. I figured you might like the company.”

She reached for the wall on the inside of the building and fetched a log which she added to the fire. She did it once more, before standing up and walking back inside. When she returned, she had a bowl with smaller pieces of raw meat and several metal skewers. It appeared she had everything prepared already.

I was still smiling in my mind about what she’d said. I loved her company. Her actions and words only made me long for it more.

Cellestra placed some meat on one of the skewers and handed it to me. I was able to hold on to it with my pedipalps just fine. There were small claws at the end of them that I’d unknowingly learned to control quite well.

“Also, you’re going to have to tell me what happened to your eyes.”

I cocked my head as I didn’t understand what she was referring to. Did something happen to my eyes? Did the rain have an effect, after all?

Cellestra observed me, and it was clear that she understood that I was showing confusion.

“They’re completely red now,” She finished.

Red?

Oh. Was that because of the thermal vision enhancement? That was the only explanation I could come up with. I believe the blessing did mention something about red. Infrared or something, the blessing had called it.

Whatever that was.

I guessed it meant it turned my eyes red.

I didn’t know how to make it clear it was the blessing that had caused it. I just ended up flailing my limbs incomprehensibly. Cellestra giggled at my actions.

“It’s your blessing again, isn’t it?”

Not being able to speak was hard… I couldn’t even write at the moment, which made it even more frustrating.

I replied with a nod of my legs.

“I’ll just attribute everything to that from now on I guess,” Cellestra said with a shrug.

Well, she wasn’t wrong…

Things went silent between the two of us, well, her mostly, as I couldn’t talk. We both stared at the fire and the skewers of what was clearly more boar meat. Doing this with her… it almost made me feel as if I was an elf, still. I was happy that Cellestra had always treated me like one after she found out who I was.

I couldn’t be more thankful for all she’d done and continued to do.

The rain stopped soon as well, as the sun lowered, and evening set in. We ate and Cellestra talked about how she’d gotten this roof set up. I listened with delight at her lovely, soft voice as she talked about how she had these panels in her cellar in case her roof needed repairs. She said she had several more laying around as she always made sure to have plenty of them ready for when work on the house needed to be done.

My heart was yearning to hear more of her voice. I truly wished I had a body I could hug her with. If only there was a way…

“So,” She continued, “How did today go for you? Did you manage to reach your next evolution yet?”

Her smile and expression made me believe she asked it in a somewhat joking manner. Last time it had taken multiple days to reach my evolution. The shock on her face when I nodded with my legs was amusing to see. It was soon replaced by one of her sweet smiles.

“That’s great news,” She said, before looking at the makeshift roof above us. “I’ll have to expand this sooner than I’d expected then.”

This was one of those times I’d like to have the ability to smile. As I had nothing else available, I simply placed one of my legs on her lap.

“You want to say something?” She asked, confused.

I wanted to thank her, but I didn’t know how…

I withdrew my leg, knowing that must have been weird. I moved it to her hand and she took hold of it. I then moved it up and down, as if I were making a handshake. I hoped that would get my intention across…

“You wanted to thank me?” She asked softly.

I nodded with my pedipalps.

“It’s okay. Your life will be hard enough as it is. I’ll help you in any way I can. It’s not like you’re offering nothing in return.”

Did she even know how much this meant to me? How much she had started to mean to me?

By now it was more than clear that I was starting to develop feelings for Cellestra. Feelings that I simply couldn’t attribute to friendship anymore. It broke my heart to know she could never feel that way about me.

I was glad that the evening had progressed steadily, and that she had to go to bed eventually. Cellestra cleaned up the skewers from dinner and placed another log on the fire. She then placed several more logs outside against the wall so I could keep the fire going throughout the night if I wished to do so.

I nodded with my limbs as the elf stood up.

“I’ll be going to bed. Please take care, Kealyna, and good night.”

I waved at her as she headed inside. She smiled at me one last time and waved as she closed the door.

Why had I been glad that she had to go to bed? My heart was instantly filled with regret as Cellestra was no longer here. I was left alone with this fire and the darkness that was the night outside in the forest.

I couldn’t be bothered to make that nest-like structure right now. I wanted to go to sleep as soon as possible and get this day done and over with. Hopefully, sleep would solve some of my lingering feelings.

I used my mana manipulation to try to make a flame spell similar to Cellestra’s, just slightly larger, and found that I had no issues doing just that. I used my fire to dry the grass under the makeshift roof so I could sleep there without it being damp and cold.

While I dried the grass with my magical fire, I kept wondering about Cellestra.

I didn’t know what to do.

I was lost…

All I knew was that I truly liked her, I was certain of it…

I used the time I had to pray to Elysa, hoping she could offer me some reassurance, or even guidance. Anything would do at this point.

I finished warming up the area and planted my abdomen on the dried grass. I laid myself down next to the fire. Hopefully, it would keep predators at bay, although I doubted there were any that would dare to come close to me. I wasn’t sure if they simply ignored Cellestra due to her curse or whether they just didn’t get anywhere near her.

I hoped it was the latter, but just in case, I cast my barrier spell on myself. If anything, I would wake up from whatever would try to fight me and finish it off.

I heaved a mental sigh and I tried to relax. Thoughts of hugging Cellestra in my old body kept popping up, and eventually caused me to drift off to sleep.