Change

Pryt stomped a hoof and shook his head, annoyed at a fly that was buzzing around his head.  Lena leaned forward in her saddle and shooed it away.  They stood on a small hill just overlooking the Stormwind keep.  Lena looked out over the city and could practically hear the frenzy.  Looking to the west toward the setting sun, she noticed how the light was beginning to slant in a slightly different angle.  As the low-hanging branch near her head rustled in the breeze, she took a deep breath and noticed how the air was cooling, crisper.  She could smell the change of season on the wind.  Harvest was coming.  What did the humans call it?  Autumn.  They were desperate to finish the tasks of the summer before settling in for harder months.

She dropped her chin to her chest and closed her eyes, fingers loosening around Pryt’s reins.  She’d need warmer armor.  Perhaps the change wouldn’t be so bad.  She smirked inwardly as she reached up and toyed with a lock of hair tucked under her hood.  Maybe other things needed to change, too.  A flood of guilty pleasure invaded her thoughts as Hawtrey’s face appeared behind her eyelids.

She’d convinced him to stay that night, and they stayed sitting on the couch for many more hours, eventually falling asleep.  Sometime in the night, he carefully leaned her back to lay down, and then stretched out beside her.  She woke in his arms, curled up against his chest, and somehow it felt right.

And every night for a week, he came to her door, offering a flower, a bottle of wine, a small trinket, a poem.  Anything he could give her.  Eventually, they would make their way upstairs to her bed, always sleeping fully clothed on top of the blankets, never more than kissing and holding, fingers and legs laced in each other.  He was patient, but she could see his growing confusion.  His curiosity.  His longing.  She felt tugs of it at her own heart.

Krastos was in Shattrath, packing up their old home while Lena recruited for the new order in Stormwind, putting up notices, talking to likely candidates.  The order would be based in the Exodar, but Lena felt it important to still have a home in the human city.  She would easily be able to teleport to their headquarters and bring Krastos along as necessary.

The doctor wouldn’t have much time.  Kras was nearly finished with the packing and selling.  He would return to Stormwind soon.  Lena hated to think what would happen having the both of them in the same city.

It didn’t feel big enough.

Lena opened her eyes and urged Pryt forward, continuing her patrol.