Very aware of Sabrae’s stare, Coren took a fur from a pile near the door and wrapped it around his waist like a savage’s kilt, and then offered another to her, although he couldn’t help but let his eyes roam across her small, slender, but delightfully feminine body. At barely five feet tall, she had the delicate look common to most elves, yet at the same time seemed well-toned from a hard, active life. “It’s a little late for that isn’t it?” she cooed capriciously with a look of mock disappointment, stretching her lithesome form across the luxurious and delightfully warm furs with feline grace as she felt his eyes devour her naked body, knowing full well that it could be her only means of survival… as it had been before. “What brought you so far from the Velarwood in deep winter?” he inquired as he busied himself with gathering his wet cloths to keep from gawking at her. He knew that the priestesses of the forest temple worship the Dark Maiden by dancing naked in the moonlight, which explained her lack of concern at being nude before him, but it was still bad manners to stare, regardless of how tempting she was. “So far from where?” she bade idly, letting her unfamiliarity with the surface world slip without realizing that his accommodation was the result of misidentifying her as a priestess from Shadowtop Glade. “You’re not from the temple of Eilistraee!?!” he accused more then asked, realizing that she must have come from the Underdark, and that was why she was so unprepared for the winter cold, as he tossed aside his soaked cloths and rose to loom over her menacingly. “Who are you and what are you doing here?” he demanded coldly, eyeing her now as a cruel, scheming creature of evil instead of the exotically delectable beauty he had seen her as just a moment ago. “I’m Sabrae Xarann,” she responded meekly, recognizing the cold bite in his voice all too well. It was the sound of hatred and disgust; she’d heard it in every voice since she saw her family murdered when she was just a girl. “I followed a troop of males here from Maerimydra. I heard tales of green, sunlit forests free of the matrons and the spider queen,” she bemoaned like a lost child, motioning to indicate the wintry forest beyond the small cabin as her voice cracked with betrayal and hopelessness; “But all I found was this!” He stared down at her, now curled up on the bed, afraid to meet his gaze. A moment ago she was a coy seductress, now she seemed like a scared little girl. She was drow, but something told him that didn’t make her evil, and he hoped it wasn’t just that she was undoubtedly the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. Coren felt her stiffen as he sat beside her, but she let herself uncoil, sensing that his mood had softened, as he offered comfortingly; “The forest is green, alive and warmed by the sun in spring and summer, and then chills in autumn when the leaves are ablaze with red, orange and yellow. But this is winter, when only fools wander the woodlands.” She rose to sit beside him cautiously, daring to hope that his attraction to her was enough to trump the well desired hatred surface dwellers had for her race as she cooed coyly; “So then, how can I repay the fool who happened to be wander the woodlands just when I needed him to save my life?” Credits: Victoria 4.2 by DAZ3D, DMs Legends by marforno & Danie, Dragonworld: Wildenlander by Luthbel, Multiplane Cyclorama by DAZ3D and Nighthawk for V4 by Bobbie25, all from DAZ3D. Nyte Elf for Victoria 4 by Vex & Adiene and Signs of the World by outoftouch, no longer available from Renderosity. Celtic Princess for Stephanie Petite by Visual Silence and Birthright: Texture Expansion for SP3 Celtic Princess by Secretheart, for RuntimeDNA.