"Heavens, you scared me out of my skin!"
Elowyn gasped, nearly dropping her mixing spoon as the tiny plant spirit suddenly popped up right beside her wooden bowl of paste. It peered over the rim with wide, innocent eyes, examining her preparation with a disturbing level of fascination before she hurriedly nudged it back.
"Shoo! What on earth do you want here? Go bother Ares," she hissed, casting a paranoid glance down at the bowl to make sure it hadn’t shed any leaves into the paste.
The little creature didn’t flinch. It merely scrambled a few inches away onto a stray log, sitting quietly as it watched her with steady, unblinking eyes.
Elowyn shook her head, a deep sigh escaping her lips. She still couldn’t fathom what possessed Ares to adopt a wandering spirit plant. Where on earth did he even get the idea that they brought good luck? The man had no memories to stand on, yet he spoke with absolute conviction.
Ting...?
The tiny enigma tilted its head, extending a miniature leafy finger toward the wooden bowl. Miraculously, a clear, unspoken intent drifted into her mind, translating the chime into a simple question.
"Yes, it’s for Ares," she answered quietly, lowering her voice.
The spirit blinked at the name, its green eyes clouding with confusion.
"He needs it for his bandages," Elowyn murmured, her defenses melting into unexpected gentleness as she whispered. "If you had seen him when I first found him buried under the snow, I honestly thought he was a dead man."
She resumed stirring the paste, her gaze drifting into the distance as a sobering reality settled over. "He’s recovered faster than anyone I’ve ever seen. It’s incredible, really. And once he’s back on his feet, he’ll leave to find his own people and reunite with them."
She had repeated those words like a mantra since the day she made it her goal to get him back up on his feet. But as she said them now, a strange, hollow ache tightened around her chest. Read the latest chapters at novelping . com.
Setting the mixing bowl aside, she looked at the creature, eyeing the tiny green thing with a mix of cynical humor and curiosity.
"If you truly bring good fortune, then can you... find me a mate?" She asked the woodland spirit, watching as it simply tilted its head in quiet inquiry. "It doesn’t even have to be a true mate bond. It’s not like I can feel one. I just need a reliable partner, someone I can work with until I can figure out where I truly belong."
The creature merely stared at her, hence, Elowyn let out a self-deprecating laugh, sinking back as the absurdity of her request washed over her. Talking to a tiny plant about romantic partnership had to be the new low. Even if it was a spirit of luck, it certainly couldn’t fix her fractured life.
Though, voicing it out even to a miniature spirit plant felt like a release from carrying the weight entirely alone.
"You’re a plant, so it doesn’t matter what I say," she murmured, her voice dropping to a low, vulnerable whisper as she stared at the clouds. "That is for the best. You don’t need to understand the nonsense I’m saying right now. Once Ares is well, you’ll both leave. You know, I come from a tribe that hates my very existence. Everywhere I go, women look at me like I’m a viper waiting to steal their husbands or their mates. All for some baseless lie."
The dark ghost of her nightmare flickered at the edges of her mind, and Elowyn violently shook her head to clear it. "Why does a woman’s worth always come down to whether she has a mate? Would a husband actually change anything, or is it all just another cage Nysa has prepared for me?"
She dragged a hand down her face. "The deadline is nearly upon me, and I have absolutely nothing to show for it. Knowing Nysa, she’s already waiting to tear my home apart and turn it into something humiliating. That’s how much she wants me gone."
Beside her, the spirit plant suddenly snapped to attention, turning its leafy crown toward the tent flap as a soft, musical chime rippled through the air.
"You think I haven’t considered asking him?" she muttered defensively, a bitter pout touching her lips. "He’s not a beastman. If I brought him back to my tribe, they would ridicule him just as they did to me, and I refuse to put him in that kind of situation. More than that... I won’t have him feeling like he owes me a debt just because I pulled him out of the snow."
Elowyn looked away, her jaw set against the rising panic. "The truth is, I’m entirely out of ideas. Our rations are nearly gone, and if we don’t fix this soon, the winter will finish us off. I have no parents, and the tribal laws leave me only one path: get a husband, or I lose everything."
She hadn’t said a word to Ares about the empty storage sacks. She couldn’t bring herself to worry him while he was still recovering, nor would she weaponize his dependence on her to force a solution.
Looking at the spirit plant, Elowyn felt a bit lighter now. At the very least, the spirit plant made a surprisingly comforting confidant. Cupping it gently in her hand, she gave a soft, wry smile. "Actually... it might not be so bad having you around. You could become my temporary emotional support companion."
Unburdening her soul felt like breathing fresh air after months of suffocating isolation. She wasn’t about to surrender to despair, even if every hard-earned mile ahead meant carrying the burden entirely on her own shoulders. Read this novel at novelping . com for the best experience.
[•]
Twilight had already painted the sky in bruised shades of violet by the time Elowyn helped Ares strip away his heavy clothes for the night. She had already dressed his healing wounds with the herbal paste earlier that evening, but the simple act of assisting him remained an ordeal.
She would never admit it aloud, but every single time he peeled off his layers, a fierce internal war broke out behind her calm exterior, wrestling her practical, sensible-driven logic away from the scandalous urge to reach out and test whether his devastatingly sculpted abs were genuinely as hard as stone.
Ares possessed a tall, breathtaking frame, every line of muscle chiseled to absolute perfection without an ounce of bulk. Fearing her own self-control would crack under the sheer temptation, Elowyn abruptly sidestepped behind him, pretending she needed to inspect the bandages across his broad back.
A sharp, jealous pang twisted in her chest. Shiftless or not, a man with a body like that was bound to have half a tribe of women waiting for him, or a wife.
"Elowyn," he murmured, his voice cutting cleanly through the quiet room and making her freeze mid-movement.
Oh no.
Did he notice?! Did he know I was staring?!
"Y-yes?" she squeaked.
Instead of staying put, he turned around to face her, the movement fluid and deliberate. He loomed above her, tall and magnetic, leaving her no choice but to crane her neck upward, trapped by the dark intensity of his eyes.
"Do you need help with anything else?" she blurted out, desperate to break the suffocating closeness.
"I want to be your husband," he dropped.
The world outside the tent seemed to stop spinning, leaving her drowning in the sudden, thunderous silence of his words.