This bath, which was normally only used by royalty, could be found on the lowest level of the tree. Supposedly, the bath would be hot no matter when one wanted to use it, and that was proven when I entered and saw all the steam built up.

  Since Lana had said I would get real clothes to wear after bathing, I deemed the leaves covering me to be useless as I tore them of. As I did this the door opened, and a naked Luci who had properly stored her undry in the bath's entryway entered.

  "That's... not something you see everyday." The elven princess spoke with an exasperated sigh.

  "Hmm? What do you mean?"

  "Well... as royalty I've had proper etiquette drilled into my head since I was born, so I don't really get to see someone just... tear clothes like that. Even if the 'clothes' are just leaves that barely cover anything. Heh." She let a small chuckle slip before continuing with a big grin. "And... well... Elves don't really get as... big as you are."

  "Ah. I guess that's true... Heh."

  Well, at least I have something to be proud of, even if it is also a little embarrassing. Besides, Luci may be thin, but she's still beautiful in her own way.

  Putting that aside, I moved to the water and dipped in a toe. Not even a second ter I pulled it away with a yelp.

  "Ah! That's hot!"

  Luci grinned at that. "What did you expect? The room's filled with steam, and I already told you that on the way here!"

  "Right right."

  I tried again, this time letting my toes get used to the heat, but I grimaced and pulled back when my blistered foot touched the heat.

  "Hmm..."

  "Mira? Is something wrong with your foot?"

  "...Yeah..."

  "Hold on, I'll be back in a second."

  "Wha-" She was already through the door before I could ask. She stuck true to her word though, and was back very quickly with a stool in her hand. She set it down and gestured for me to sit.

  "Let me have a look at it. You see, while most of the Pristel royalty are attributed to unique nature magic, I'm special in that I can also use a second type: Wind. And by extension I can also use its first-tier spell, Healing."

  She kneeled down and gently took hold of my foot and lifted it to see.

  "Ooh, you really did a number on yourself. I know you were walking in the forest earlier, but how long did you have be out there for it to be this bad? Welp, nothing I can't fix. Raise your other foot for me please."

  I did as she said, and she pced a hand just beneath each foot. Moments ter, her hands emitted a bright green light, and then I lost consciousness.

  I had a dream. I was seeing through the eyes of a man, same height as myself, and I was on the edge of a bed.

  "Stay still, and watch me as I use... healing magic!"

  There was a woman in front of me, taller than Tahli, but still short. For some reason though, she was blurry, her face especially so to the point that I couldn't see it. I could however tell that she had long orange hair, with what looked like pointed fox ears on top of her hair. If I looked down, there was another orange mass poking out from beneath the back of her skirt, and it also had a white tip. I assume that was a tail The weirdest part of it all, I got some sort of warm feeling inside me every time I looked at her.

  She moved her hands to my surprisingly thin yet muscur right shoulder, and her hands started glowing like with Luci's healing magic, except the light was a golden color instead of green.

  "You seriously need to stop rushing in like that. I know you're strong, but please be more careful next time. I don't know what I would do without you, after all..." I couldn't see it, but I could tell she had a smile now. "...you're the one who's going to save us. Right?"

  I woke back up, still on the stool.

  "...aaaand, all done! You're good as new now, Mira! Hmm? You have a weird look right now. Is there something on my face?"

  "I-uh, no. Is the healing magic supposed to put someone to sleep?"

  "Huh?! No? Wait, what happened? Did I mess up or something!?"

  "Oh, when you did that, my mind went bnk, and I felt myself pass out there. Then I had a weird dream of a girl who was really blurry, and she was using healing magic as well, although, it was on my shoulder instead. Oh! And I was a man for some reason."

  "Hmm..." Luci was deep in thought for a moment. "I can't expin the dream, but suddenly fainting like that could happen if the recipient of the magic is too tired. Healing magic doesn't just simply repair a wound, it speeds up the body's natural rate of regeneration by astronomical amounts with a small bonus of making you feel good and removing any possible scars. That said, maybe if someone's simply too exhausted at the time, then the body's healing rate may be slowed down alongside everything else, and since you would heal faster while asleep anyway, the magic put you to sleep momentarily to counter that? Then that brings me back to my question before I started. I wasn't looking for an answer at the time, but now I need to know: How long were you walking in that forest?"

  Was it just simple exhaustion? Hmm... well, lets see... "Um... I didn't have much of a way to keep track, but at the time it felt like hours, but when I saw the suns in the middle of sky a bit before I met Tahli, I thought it must've only been maybe 3 or 4 hours at most since it seemed like the sun had just barely risen when I woke up. Other than that, the only thing I could think to say is that while I was walking, it gradually got brighter in the forest over time, and then after a peak it grew darker until it reached a point where it stayed the same for about as long as it took to grow lighter and return to the starting light. When I reached the ke it was noon today, and it was at the peak of my second cycle of the light fluctuating."

  "The second..." Luci was shocked after what I told her, it seemed normal to me, so what could have made her seem so surprised? "The fluctuations you described could only mean the rising and setting of the primordial sun while the twin sun was in the sky. That expins why you felt like it was a long time when it was only noon when you saw the suns. That only leaves one expnation: You hiked around barefoot in a forest for an entire day/night cycle and then some. I'm surprised you didn't colpse yet from the pain of your blisters or from exhaustion."

  "Ah, I guess that... kinda makes sense. I have no idea why the exhaustion hasn't gotten to me yet, since even now I don't feel tired, but as for the pain, I kinda got used to it after a while. At first I would just dip my feet in the creek I was following for a few minutes whenever it became too much for me, but after a while I couldn't even feel it anymore."

  "Hah... I actually feel pretty sorry for you now. Well, I guess we should forget all that for now. Talking about 'dipping' in that creek reminded me: We're here to bathe, and we haven't even gotten more than a few of your toes in the water so far."

  "Ah, right. How could I forget? Let's get in now then."

  Needless to say, once the steaming water enveloped my body in its heat, the exhaustion really hit and I realized just how taxing everything's been since I woke up in the forest. I'm really gd I get to rex in this refreshing bath now.