Getting into a comfortable position where I could wash my hair turned out to be more of a struggle than I expected. I could only bend my torso so much. Cellestra, in the meantime, worked on the ends of my hair to undo the many tangles. I had to turn my head to provide her with easier access.

“Seriously, how did you get it this messed up?” She asked.

“I don’t know,” I answered. “It’s been messed up from the moment I first woke up like this. No idea what caused it.”

“I wonder what your evolution looked like. Did your torso just burst out of your head or something?”

“For all I know that may be true. Just before my evolution, I had the worst headache I’ve ever had. It felt like something was pushing against my skull from the inside, so without proof of the contrary, I’m going to assume that that’s exactly what happened.”

“We’ll get you fixed right up,” Cellestra mused as she continued removing the twists and ravels from my hair.

I closed my eyes and enjoyed the feeling of the brunette working on my long hair. I never knew it could feel good to get tangles removed, but Cellestra was very gentle about it, far more gentle than I’d ever been.

“You know,” I started, my eyes still closed. “Maybe life like this won’t be so bad, after all. I mean, it’s not like I wasn’t happy to see that I’d gotten my elven torso back, but I’d viewed it as a… how do I explain this… as a compromise, I guess.”

“Compromise?” Cellestra asked.

“Yeah, as in, if I can’t be a full elf, this would be the next best thing, but I realize now that that’s not necessarily the case. Sure, I might look monstrous to some, but when did I ever care about that? I can do anything that I could before, well, except entering most buildings I guess. Besides that, it feels like this blessing gave me a certain new… purpose, you know what I mean?”

I noticed Cellestra nodding with my side eyes. “I think I get it, but please, do explain.”

“There’s only so much that I could physically do in my old life, and more than once did it annoy me. Now, it seems like those limitations have been blown away. The power that I briefly held… I wish to get it again.”

“Then it’s exactly what I thought,” Cellestra said as she was moving up ever so slightly in my hair. “Everyone wishes for more power. It’s only natural. I would say be careful how you use it, but I don’t think you’re the kind of person to use it for the wrong things.”

I shook my head slightly. “I would hope not. I think that would be insulting Elysa, and that’s the last thing I want to do.”

“Well, as you said, I don’t think life the way you are would be too bad. You have more than enough reasons to be thankful to her.”

“Agreed.”

Cellestra finished combing my hair, placed a hand on my back, and gently guided me towards the warm water. She made sure to splash some on my head so everything was soaked properly. She then ran her fingers through it to get the built-up grime out, before doing the same with the comb.

“Don’t expect me to do the rest of your body,” Cellestra said with a wide smile. “I don’t have nearly enough shampoo for that.”

I chuckled at her joke. “Or the time. When you finally finish, you can start over again.”

“True. By the way, have you planned anything for today? You said you wanted to head into the dungeon again.”

“Yeah. I’ll probably do that. I want to take things easy for a bit before heading out. I know it’s going to eat at me, but I have to be real here.”

“By heading out, I assume you mean Edhil, right?”

I nodded slightly so I wouldn’t hurt myself while Cellestra was working on my hair. “Yeah. I think that’s the best place to start. I’ll see what I can learn from that. From there… I don’t quite know yet. I don’t want to abruptly leave. I mean, I want to go out as soon as possible, but you know…”

“I get it,” Cellestra said. “You’re still worried about them.”

I nodded slightly again. “I hope that with this dungeon fairly close, I’ll be able to see how my new skill works exactly, and perhaps, pick up a new, useful skill.”

Cellestra let go of my hair and reached for the bottle of green shampoo. I raised my head and let my hair flow over the edge of the tub. When the purple-eyed elf removed the cork and put a large goop of the gel-like liquid on her hand, I smelled a familiar scent.

“Apple?” I asked as the sweet scent entered my nostrils.

“Yep,” Cellestra answered. “Smells nice, doesn’t it?”

“It does.”

She spread the shampoo over both hands and placed them on top of my skull, slowly spreading the soapy liquid as she ran her hands down.

“Hmmm,” I let out in enjoyment as the cold gel was applied. “I need to get that repayment more often. I had no idea it would be this relaxing to have someone else do this.”

“I don’t mind doing it,” Cellestra said with a smile. “Being able to sleep properly is something that I can’t be thankful enough for.”

“I know,” I said with a sigh. “I’ve had my fair share of bad nights.”

“Not surprising, to be honest.”

I giggled when Cellestra spread the shampoo to the ends of my hair. “Be careful not to get it in my… eyes.”

“I can’t believe you just made that joke,” Cellestra replied, suppressing a grin.

“Imagine how many more of those jokes I can come up with over time.”

“That would be disastrous.”

Cellestra smiled as she continued, making sure to not miss a single spot. She took the top of my ear and gently moved it out of the way to massage the hair behind it with her sweet-scented shampoo.

“Hey, Cellestra?”

“Hm?”

“How was it… last night, I mean?”

“I told you I slept well,” She replied, a slight frown of confusion visible on her face.

“I mean, was it comfortable?”

My heart was racing as I asked the question. I was anxious for her answer. If her nightmares were this bad, and only getting worse, it might be a good idea for her to sleep in my shelter instead. Of course, I couldn’t just ask it out of the blue like that. What would she think of me if I did? I mean, sure, I wanted to be close to her, but this would just be pure abuse of the situation, and it conflicted with what I was taught for so long.

The elf seemed unfazed by the question and didn’t react out of shock or anything of the sort.

“Oh,” She let out. “That’s what you mean.” She paused for a second before speaking again softly. “It was.”

The way she admitted it put a smile on my face. However, I didn’t continue the talk there as she seemed to be somewhat uncomfortable about it, which was understandable. I went back to focusing on her fingers running through my hair.

She was soon done with the shampoo and shifted her gaze to my large eyes. I found her facial expression particularly hard to read at this time. Normally, I could make out her mood pretty clearly, but I was unable to at the moment.

I cursed myself for asking the question I asked.

Silence fell as neither of us knew what to say next.

“I’m sorry,” I ultimately apologized with a low voice.

“It’s okay,” Cellestra said with a forced smile. “I was just… lost in thought.”

“I won’t pry,” I replied, thinking it would be better to leave it at that.

Another minute or so of silence followed. Cellestra seemed to think during that time, but ultimately, she moved her hands back to my hair, gesturing me to lower my head again so she could wash out the shampoo.

I quietly obeyed and let her finish what she started. I submerged my head and let the elf rinse it with her hands. After getting the shampoo out Cellestra started combing it again.

“It’s so soft,” She mentioned, causing me to run a hand through my own hair as well. I found out exactly what she was talking about.

“Thanks for your help,” I said as she finished up. “And sorry again.”

“I told you it’s fine,” Cellestra said, smiling. I could see she had cheered up considerably since I’d asked the question. “In case you were wondering, yes, you do make for a good pillow.”

“Heh,” I chuckled. “Yeah, I was wondering.”

I was about to stand up, when Cellestra put a hand on one of my pedipalps. “You don’t want me to braid your hair?”

“Uh, yeah. I did promise that you could, didn’t I?”

The elf nodded. “Just need to wait a bit for it to dry. I hope that’s no issue?”

“Yeah, that’s okay. I’ll have plenty of time to check out the dungeon and whatnot.”

I saw a smile growing on Cellestra’s face as she had to wait for my hair to dry. She used the time to comb the hair on my thorax instead, removing the tangles that had formed due to me sleeping on it.

I shook my head in amusement.

I wondered if Cellestra had any idea how much I was truly enjoying this…