The Gaia nymph and her demon alpha

A discovery in the buttercups

~ Adelaide ~

I wake up slowly, blinded by the strip of light from my window, that get through the tiny opening in my curtains. Ugh, why does it have to be monday today?

As I get out of my warm and comfy bed, I can't help but wonder what this new day will bring. I can't really say that my life is all that exiting. I live in a little cottage out in the forest, all by my lonesome, like some type of sad little hermit.

I stay out here on my own to avoid detection, as nothing good seems to come from me being near others. Not that I'm a bad person or anything, but I have sort of gotten used to people trying to take advantage of me. People always want something from me, never just liking me for who I am, but only wanting to be near me for what I am and what I can do for them.

Well, honestly I'm not so sure what I am, but I’m definently not like any of the other beings of our realm. In an attempt to figure out what I am, I’ve borrowed, bought and bargained my way to quite a few books, but even though I read all of them, including every single encyclopedia on Medeias’ creatures, I never found anything that fit me or my powers.

It seems like I share some characteristics with certain species of our realm, like my control over nature and earth, that once made me think I may be at least part fairy, but then I discovered I also have some control over water, although it’s not even close to as good as my nature control, no fairy has ever been recorded to be able to control more than one element. I also seem heal faster than any fairy does, which is a trade of the shifters and vampires, but I don’t drink blood or have an animal-side to myself. It’s very strange.

I’ve been in quite a few fights over the years, mostly it’s just idiots who notice my abilities, and then they try to take my powers for themselves, or they want to keep me locked up, like I’m some pretty bird in a golden cage.

Some of those who come for me seem to know something about me, but they never share it. The only thing I ever got out of them is a few weird sentences about being “A rare breed”. I swear it pisses me off to be talked about like I’m some sort of pet animal they want to own.

The sad truth is, most people crave power, and I just seem to have a lot of it.

I can't quite explain how all my powers work, but I can identify any type of plant or herb, it just comes to me naturally, without having studied it.

I also have some control over nature, being able to make plants grow, shifting the wind and moving about water to some extent. The older I get and the more I train, the better and stronger my powers seem to become. When I started out discovering my powers, I could only make the grass grow a little bit. By now, I can grow an entire tree from a little seedling, without even breaking a sweat.

As my life is now, I just try to stay under the radar, and out of trouble. And for that to be ensured, I have stay out here in the woods on my own.

The last time I attempted contact with others, I tried negotiating with a coven of witches for information and some herbs I needed.

Needless to say, that turned out to be a major mistake. One of the witches followed me home, and observed me using my powers on both water and nature.

I noticed too late that I had been seen, and before I could stop her, she had gone back to her coven to report her sightings.

The next day, the entire coven showed up at my little cottage, ready to subdue me, so they could do experiments on me, and figure out what else I could do.

Stupid witches, they didn't think I would be able to fight them, just because they had me outnumbered. Idiots.

Don't they know not to judge a book by it's cover? They should just count themselves lucky that they got to leave with only a few broken bones.

I made sure to use my usual potion to make sure they forgot the whole encounter. I'm sure it would be wiser to take their lives to ensure my own freedom, but I just couldn't make myself cross that line. Everything living is precious, no matter what, and any life being taken will have consequences, which I do not want to face.

Well, enough thinking for now, I gotta get out of my head, and into the shower, so I can get going.

After bathing, I wrap myself in a big fluffy towel, and go about deciding on an outfit for the day. It’s in the middle of spring right now, so it’s not too hot and not too cold, just the perfect temperature outside.

Because I need to go out to collect herbs and mushrooms, I end up deciding on a pair of airy dark brown linen pants and a green top to match.

On my way out of my little cozy cottage, I grab the basket for foraging and my emergency bag, that's full of different potions and powders for self-defence and first aid, and walk off into my little quite part of the woods. I absolutely love being outside, I can always feel it recharging my energy, aswell as my magic. I go through the forest, I find some of the things I'm looking for, mainly mushrooms for dinner, and some herbs to spice it up a bit, and as I walk past the different plants and vegetation, I lend some of my magic to the plants that need it, making the ones dying trees stand tall again, and the wilting flowers bloom once more. Keeping the forest healthy is one of my favorite things to do with my powers, I just feel so at one with nature. As I finish up boosting an oaktree that needed a little help, I hear a groan and a loud thud.

I take a peek around the tree, and on the other side, theres a huge and beautiful bed of Ranunculus flowers, known by most people as buttercups. I quickly notice that quite a few of the pretty little yellow flowers are stained red, by what seems to be blood.

Stepping closer, I can see that theres a person lying there, clearly in distress.

Judging by the figure, it's a rather large male, and he is taking harsh shallow breaths. Without doing much thinking, I rush over to his side, checking on his injuries and over all state.

"Damn buddy, someone did a serious amount of damage on you..."

His shirt was torn to shreds, with several bitemarks on his chest, bleeding profusely. Rushing as much as I could, I grabbed the healing lotion and lathered it over the injuries, hoping it would be enough to stop the bleeding, at least for now.

I watch in relief as the wounds close partially, not alot, but enough so that I can get him to my cottage and fix it properly.

Checking around me, to make sure no one had followed him here, I hastely use my nature powers to do a make-shift stretcher. Wood and vines are getting knitted together in a rough pattern, alongside two more robust pieces of wood, that have fallen off a nearby tree. It's not the prettiest piece of work I've ever done, but It'll do for now.

As I dragged the mystery man along with me, I was really glad that I hadn't gotten that far away from home. It took me a good 30 minutes to get all the way there, mainly due to this heavy guy.

After finally arriving home, and alot of moving about, I finally got him into my bed, so that I could treat him properly.

While examining and treating him, I got a bit confused. He didn't have the pointy ears or magic aura of fairies, his injuries would definently have killed a warlock, so he had to be vampire or shifter, but then why was he healing so slowly?

His healing abilities seemed to be slower than anything I had ever seen before, but why? It was abnormally slow, something must be affecting this guy.

Continueing my work, I start to notices what seems like an earthy herb smell. It's vague, but it doesn't take me long to identify as wolfesbane. Checking him over, it seems to be all over him, someone had to have sprayed him with some sort of liquied wolfesbane. Realizing that he had to be a shifter, and this was the reason for his slow healing, I quickly got water and scissors. I cut off everything except his underwear, and washed every visible part of his body. Shortly after I was done, the changes were clearly visible, and I could see the healing pace getting quicker.

"Phew buttercup, you sure had a close call there. Lucky for you that I idintified that s**t quickly, huh?"

I honestly have no idea why I'm talking while he is unconcieus, but it's somehow kind of nice to have some company that isn't trying to attack me, well... not yet at least, we'll see how it goes ones he wakes up.