"- I mean are you thinking of being a wizard too."

"Ohhh." Embarrassed headshake. "No, definitely not." She pauses in the way she does when she's building a sentence out in her head.

"...Arcane magic is interesting, and I might try to learn one of their cantrips, just to see if I can? But... our magic is just so much prettier than theirs. It's like the difference between a grove of fruit trees and a plot of farmed land - you can respect the work the farmer's put in, of course, but it's not the same." 

Nod.

She hangs out for a while in companionable silence, doing a bit of woodcarving she has on her while Zisel braids, but after a while Damisa gets hungry enough to nuzzle her meaningfully, and the two of them head off into the Forest.

For whatever reason it's much colder, this winter; cold enough to be distracting even when she's bundled up and moving, cold enough that even with his beautiful think coat of fur, Damisa doesn't like going out. Being cooped up in their cave isn't good for him, though. She starts preparing endure elements every other day so he can go play (and hunt) in the cold. 

Bestfriend is SO GOOD. When she gives him her WARMING TOUCH he can go HUNT STALK POUNCE KILL all day! Even in the river, which is SOSOSOSO coldbad normally!!

 (He brings Kaitiaki some of his prey, too, and by the time the spell's worn off he's exhausted and ready to spend most of the next day sleeping back in the cave.)

She loves him so so much, and sings him lullabies in his sleep.

Kaitiaki supplements the meat Damisa brings home with a small berry brush she's replanted in their home - she has a second-circle spell that makes it bloom in a minute, which, combined with goodberry, means she can stay comfortably warm inside.

She gets restless, though, and so every few days she'll take an endure elements for herself and hike through the snow-covered trees all night, marveling at the silence and stillness. 

Still, she spends a fair amount of the cold season indoors, without much that needs doing.

She uses her magic to help her dig out a bit more space in her little cave - it's fine for her and Damisa, but it was a bit small when RJ was here, and they said they wanted to bring things with them when they come back in the spring.

With her copious amounts of free time and unusual-for-a-druid appetite for fiddling with magic, she attempts to teach herself prestidigitation. For all that RJ called the spell the most basic kind of wizardry, it's a horribly complicated process, taking an exhausting amount of trial and error. Each day she struggles with it, she gains more appreciation for the way the Forest gives her the magic she wants. (She's also getting more impressed with the work RJ does for their magic. She knows how much more complex first-circle spellforms are, compared to mere orisons/cantrips.)

A few weeks after the winter solstice, she finally cracks it. She celebrates by eating a tuber and changing the flavor every bite. 

It takes her a bit longer to get the hang of using it to clean, but once she does, she cleans all her clothes, Damisa'a fur, and then the entire cave. She rolls on the floor, afterwards, just because she can. 

The next time she sees Zisel, she lets him know she figured out how to use the wizard cleaning orison. 

"Huh! Do you have it on a page like they do or some other way?"

She shakes her head. "It's like my other orisons, mostly? The hard part was figuring out how to make it..." she waves a hand vaguely "...Stable? But now that I know the right shape for it, I can just... sculpt a bit of magic that way when I'm getting my spells, and it takes some focus but it's not difficult." 

"Interesting. You're a funny one."

She shrugs. She already knew that she likes the fiddly bits of magic more than the rest of druids, here. 

That's okay. There's all kinds of druids. 

Does Zisel want anything cleaned with her shiny new cleaning magic?

It's still cold enough that he hasn't wanted to take a lot of dips in the river, if she's offering.

Sure. It's a useful spell!

"What a peculiar feeling, almost not a feeling at all."

"It is odd, isn't it? Nothing like taking a bath." 

"Nothing like it. I'm not sure I'd like having it enough to put in the work but I'm proud of you."

She bows, failing to hide the red tinge on her face. "Thank you." It's such an odd, warm feeling, being acknowledged like that. She doesn't really know what to make of it. 

The rest of the winter passes by pretty uneventfully. 

When the snow melts, Kaitiaki spends a few days carefully cataloguing (in her head, of course) the locations and health of the efrofyel and hothon plants in this part of the Forest. She does some careful figuring, double checks the broad strokes with Zisel, and comes up with a firm initial amount of harvesting that's she's okay with doing for RJ this spring. It's a tiny fraction of what's available, but given what RJ told her, it's still a pretty good haul.

When she meets RJ at the Forest's edge, they hug her again, and this time, she hugs them back. 

RJ is happy with Kaiti's provisional harvest amount, and lets it show on their face. They're very impressed when she casually shows off her prestidigitation (as an orison! they didn't know that was possible, actually!), and they don't miss the way she blushes at the praise.

They whistle appreciatively at the renovation she's done in the cave. RJ gives Dasima a big cut of pork, and endures a barrage of facelicks after he finishes devouring the gift.

Kaiti goes to collect the plants they'll need while RJ unpacks and sets up their fancy bedroll, cooking supplies, crafting tools, and in-progress works. 

They've gotten a few different projects to the point where they need to commit to either spellsilver or plant-based substitutes; once Kaiti gets back, RJ goes over them with her, and lets her pick which one they'll do first, smiling when she chooses a pair of campfire beads. 

They finish the first one in time to test it out on a delicious late lunch of trout, tubers, and some exotic dried fruits that RJ brought with them.

It's an even more exciting week than last time - Kaitiaki gets to help RJ make well over a dozen different magic items, though most of them are small - four minor bags of holding, some feather tokens, a pair of boots that make falling less dangerous, and three sets of bandages that you can use in an emergency to let someone heal as though they were resting while they're on the move. 

RJ tells her how much her share amounts to and what each item is worth; she ponders it for a while and takes two of the feather tokens, a bag of holding, and one of the bandages, which leaves her with a bit of extra saved up. She'll make a second bag of holding for Zisel next time, when RJ comes back in the summer.

RJ probably should have assumed that Kaiti would sleep outdoors when it's not winter, but it's still a bit odd to get used to. 

They can tell she's not getting enough sleep while they work together, at least at first, and gently points out to her that they need to be able to rely on her for this to work, and everyone makes mistakes when they're tired. She goes through a series of facial expressions RJ wishes they knew how to translate, but in the end, she nods and the bags under her eyes disappear the next day.

They decide to leave the campfire bead behind. They tell Kaiti that it's an investment - if she doesn't need to collect firewood for cooking or warmth (the spring chill is still very real, at least for RJ), that's more time they can spend working together. (It's actually sentiment, more than anything - they want her to hold onto the first item they made as partners.)

This time, it's Kaitiaki's turn to surprise both of them with a hug. She does really like having the bead! And... the memories are nice.

The week ends. She carries RJ back again - there's no snow and she knows she doesn't need to, but she likes going fast through the Forest. They stay awake to chat with her, this time; she learns a bit about the people they work with, back in the city, though it's hard for her to pay too much attention while moving at full speed.

 (She has some confusing feelings about saying goodbye) She'll see them in a few months! 

Spring turns to Summer. She gifts Zisel a set of bandages of rapid recovery, and the kind of feather token that creates a massive tree, along with a promise to make him a bag of holding the next time around. She spends a week traveling far upstream, to investigate why the trout population seems to have dropped, and clears away a major blockage caused by an ancient pine tree falling in just the wrong place.

When she gets back, she finds Zisel to let him know what happened.