?


    Kat and Lily blinked dumbly for a few seconds as they stared at Mint. [Ok… while I wouldn''t mind going on a little walk around the ind together this is so much more interesting. I have so many questions!]


    *Go ahead, I love hearing you excited about things Lily. I''ll just stand off to the side looking pretty while you do your thing.*


    Lily smiled, "I have so many questions for you! That is… if you don''t mind?" said Lily.


    "No of course! That''s one of the reasons I left the grove! Hit me with anything!" said Mint with a smile.


    "Well, first, before we get too far into things, are you… genderless like Thyme? They''re prettyfortable shifting around all the time, and seem to go by ''they'' but you''re a Maid Thyme at the moment, and it seems like that''s your only body?" said Lily.


    "Oh? Oh I see, I''m d you seem to have the demon trantion ability like your girlfriend, otherwise I might not have understood the question," Kat and Lily shared a nce at that, but just assumed Thyme told Mint as she continued speaking, "So, it''s a tadplicated, but I mean, you''re asking me questions right? So I should give a full answer?


    "So… I''m a dryad, obviously, so like Thyme I don''t have a gender the same way you guys do? Gender? Is that the right word? No… not quite… sex? Hmm… your words are confusing even with the trantion magic. Too many things oveyed… hmm… right. Well, I am a tree, like Thyme, and as a tree, I have both sets of genitalia?


    "So in the dryadnguage, which, is only sort of anguage because we don''t have to talk to understand each other, wait… no ok let me start again. In the dryadnguage there isn''t really a word for that sort of idea. Thyme did exin it to me though, and myself, and the others that took Thyme''s sses in preparation for leaving the grove, were rmended we picked a pronoun so that we could tell people.


    "Thyme rmend ''They/them'' because it''s the most urate way to convey the idea we don''t really fit into the same categories as the other sentient races… but I happen to really like the female form. Both too look at, and to wear, so I decided that when people ask I''d just tell them I''m a girl. It''s not true, but it''s easier then exining dryad culture to everyone that asks. Still, you were curious so…"


    Lily nodded with a big grin, "No, no please go on if you have other thoughts. I wish I had a notepad actually because this is all really interesting to me. Other than Thyme, I''ve never met someone that didn''t identify with one gender or the other so this is all interesting to me,"


    "Um…" Mint ducked under the counter and pulled out a notebook and pencil. Well, it looked more like a predecessor of the modern pencil. It was a ck stick of pencil lead, that had a leather wrap around it so you could hold it without coating your fingers in it. "This should do? Also as I said, I''ve sort of imed female pronouns as my own. It just seemed easier, and I like the look,"


    Lily nodded and said, "Thanks for the pencil. And yeah, I see, I see. Would you mind borating on those sses you mentioned?"


    "Of course!" said Mint with a smile. "So… Thyme has been trying really hard to get more dryads out into the world. We''re a… slow species naturally. I don''t think I can properly exin to you how different our concept of time is. Everyone else seems to be doing stuff all the time, but a dryad can rx in the sun and sleep for a few weeks without thinking it strange.


    "So all of the other races are really weird in that they do things every day! Anyway, Thyme has been trying to encourage us all to be more… consistently active. Part of this big push is training up the younger dryads and getting them to interact with all the other races. Thyme seems to think it will make us smarter and more active? It''s hard for me to tell how true that is, because I''ve always been considered rather hyper for a dryad, but I think Thyme might be right.


    "So Thyme''s been doing these ''how to interact with the other races'' sses and because the older dryads are being super restrictive about the whole idea Thyme first had to develop… well I don''t really know what they are but they''re teeny tiny little portals that let me control this body even though my main body is still my tree and it''s safe back in the grove.


    "With that, Thyme''s been letting those of us who scored highly in his sses have the chance to open an inn! Normally there''d be multiple dryads working at each one, but for now it''s just me and Thyme. Thyme is going to be slowly rolling things out as the tournament goes on, and this is a bit of a trial run. Thyme trains me, I train the next dryad, and then they go off on their own and train another. Eventually everyone will have training!<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "It''s all very exciting and I was a bit surprised I managed to get top marks for the sses but I''m happy to be here!" Mint was practically vibrating in ce, her joy wafting off her in practically visible waves as she hopped around the area. If they hadn''t realised that this wasn''t Thyme before, now it was very obvious.


    Even when Thyme was being silly, Thyme still had a slightly regal heir to themselves. Like they were a performer and the world was their stage. Mint in contract seemed like somebody that never lost their childhood spark. Energy for days even if she still had the same way of speaking as Thyme, Mint just had a slightly different tone. It wasn''t quite an ent, but it was close. Which did make sense, if Mint had learnt to speak a more easily understoodnguage under Thyme.


    "You sound just as happy as I was when I started to learn magic for the first time!" said Lily with a grin. "Though if you''re still up for questions, I want to know what you mean when you said Thyme designed your body?"


    "Ah, yes, Thyme didn''t just design it, Thyme built it as well. See, as dryads we inactively know how to produce a secondary body once we gain sentience but it''s not very good. It''s… um… hmm… I don''t know the word… wait no you have trantion. Does this make sense?" Mint frowned and then shifted slightly, her hair blew in an unseen breeze and somehow Kat and Lily got the word ''puppet'' from it.


    "Um… yes it does, assuming puppet is what you were going for?" said Kat.


    Mint looked to Lily who nodded, and Mint smiled, "Yup, that''s pretty much what I was getting at. It''s so weird to have like… lungs and stuff! These bodies Thyme makes on a whim are sooooplicated! You might think we don''t need lungs, we''re trees, that''s not how we breathe. Well, you''d be wrong. We need them to make sure our voice boxes work, and sure, technically we could skip that, but do you know how unbelievably hard it is to learn how to speak with a voice box? The answer is very.


    "Thyme knows how to talk without one, and that''s insane! I don''t want to even think about the sort of effort that would take. So yeah, we have lungs, and these bodies have like… a full set of muscture and skeletons! It makes our movement a lot more natural seeming. Apparently it looks creepy if we don''t?


    "That part I never really got myself, but Thyme assured us all that the other races would find it off putting so we had to do a bit of training to use them properly. Which isn''t anywhere near as bad as speaking! Thyme designed these bodies to sort of just… do what we want them to as long as we think about it the right way. It''s SUPER cool. I don''t think I could ever be half as smart as Thyme. Honestly I don''t know where Thyme gets the time!" said Mint.


    "How much input did you have as to what the body would look like?" asked Lily.


    Mint shrugged and said, "A little? Like all of this," Mint, having no sense of shame or understanding of body modesty simply pulled her outfit off her body revealing sensual looking curves. Mint then proceeded to gesture at ''her body'' without shame. "This was all stock. Thyme has like three variations, to pick from, and lots of clothes for us, but the outfit?" Mint gestured to the maid outfit. "That''s part of our uniforms. They fit the bodies, but we were allowed to choose FIVE whole outfits of our own for Thyme to make! I''m just not meant to wear them while I''m ''working'',"


    *Should we tell her about the whole ''being naked'' thing?*


    [I don''t know? She''s so innocent and pure. I don''t want to taint that!]


    *But she knows what genitalia are. Surely she knows at least some of that already?*


    [Oh. OH. Huh… maybe?]