“They’re having some serious discussions in there,” Moon whispered. She was sitting with her ear to the back of Ayla’s tent, naked as usual. The nakedness was not necessary for the eavesdropping, but Moon liked it that way. She sat nymph like, her legs curled gracefully under herself, breasts tanning in the dappled sun. Her sybaritic figure was elegant and elemental, as natural as any flitting sparrow or buzzing bee.

Vix was not naked, but she had swapped her unwieldy dress for forest green leggings, a leather tunic, and a knapsack. The closer fit of the clothing revealed her body to be nicely curved in all the right places. Her bottom filled out the leggings to the limit of their capacity and her waist was neat under the tunic, which flared open at the top to reveal enough cleavage to satisfy a nation. Her hair had been tied back into a simple pony tail and she was whittling as usual. “Oh yes,” she said. “Very serious I’m sure.”

“I think Liz is praying,” Moon said, her brow quirking.

“Praying for a brain, I hope,” Liz murmured.

“Oh she’s not that bad,” Moon waved an elegant hand in her direction.

“She’s that bad and a whole lot more,” Vix replied. “This was messy enough before she got mixed up in it.”

“It is getting confusing,” Moon agreed, counting events off on her fingers. “Kira wanted Ayla to help her with Aeron, but she couldn’t just ask her to come because Ayla had gone into retreat. She sent us to tempt Ayla in with a story about Ariadne…”

Vix nodded, picking up the story. “Would have been all well and good, but that stalker spy Liz followed us along the way and now we have Ayla here, it turns out she wants to defeat Ariadne, which puts her at odds with Kira and Aeron and especially Liz.”

“Liz is a ringer for Ayla’s ex,” Moon interjected.

“And Ariadne’s biggest fan,” Vix added.

“In theory at least…” Moon let the words trail off, her lips quirking in a smirking little smile.

They looked at each other, and snorted with laughter.

“This war is never going to happen,” Moon giggled. “These people couldn’t fight their way out of a wet sack.”

“Kira is a legendary warrior, we can’t underestimate her.”

“Kira is a legendary lust hound,” Moon replied, shimmying away from the tent, her bottom and knees sliding alternately as she moved toward her herb pouch. “Aeron has her all twisted up and distracted.”

“And Liz has turned Ayla from a forest witch to a forest b…” Vix lowered her voice to an inaudible whisper, then giggled to herself.

Moon propped herself up against a tree and packed herself a pipe. “I think we’re well on track, don’t you?”

“Mhm,” Vix lowered her lashes as she nodded, and a sly little grin spread across her face. She slipped a whittled piece of wood into her knapsack. “We are right where we need to be.”