She stood at least triple my height… I say stood, but she was at the moment seated. She was brawny, with arms thick as my waist, a stout neck, a massive head, and a face with a curiously placid expression.
And she knitted. With needles the size of javelins. Which looked comically small in her thick hands.
The most awkward smile I’d ever managed crossed my face. I raised a hand and waved. “Hi. Gretta, was it?”
“Yeah. Well, you have a nice night with Missus Nose.”
“Come.” Sephimara took my hand and pulled me along after her.
After a minute and a half of twists, turns, and ascending wrought iron staircases, with Sephimara guiding me like a dazed marionette, we stepped into her place.
“I am afraid I am not fully unpacked and organized yet, but welcome to my home, Mister Thistlewood.” She lit a wall-mounted glow lamp near the entrance. “You have the honor of being my first guest.”
I gazed slack-jawed at her. “Ogre. Ogre in the entryway.”
“Og-ress,”she corrected. “This is the ogre district, what did you expect?”
“The main street in the city of Xin is called Basilisk Boulevard. But there are onlycarvingsof basilisks.”
She stepped through the apartment, lighting glowlamps as she went. “Very well. But thisisthe historic ogre district.” She tapped the side of a table lamp several times. “Oh mitten moths, this one seems to be broken.”
I shook my head. I blinked. I was in a perfectly normal apartment at the moment. I could worry about the rest later.
The place was mostly open, with a wide living area and kitchen in one room and a pair of doors leading off to one side. The ceiling was easily twice my height with numerous skylights. Wood plank floors were a tad rustic, with obvious grain and a few knotholes, but were well polished. The place was huge; easily twice the size of the entire apartment I’d grown up in in Thorncove.”
“May I offer you something?” She had removed her jacket, vest, and sword belt, and unbuttoned the first two buttons of her shirt. “I dropped the basket, and am afraid my larder is rather poorly stocked at the moment.”
I stepped to her and extended my hand.
“What is this for?” she glanced at my hand a moment, yet finally took it.
“It’s been a bit of a harrowing experience this evening. I hope you forgive me for being a bit… discombobulated.”
“Harrowing?” She tipped her head to the side. “And here I thought I used all woodworking tools in a safe and proper fashion this evening.”
A grin spread across my face.
Her own lips, looking fuller and more inviting than ever before, quirked at the corner.
I inched closer, squeezing her hand. “Do you remember my saying that you weren’t what I expected?”
“I do recall that. I assume it has some relevance to our present conversation?”
I extended my other hand. Was I actually doing this? It seemed like a hazy dream.
Without the jacket and vest, the curve of her waist, the swell of her hips, the sleek profile of those wonderful long legs justpopped.I longed to feel every curve pressed against me.
“I don’t believe I elaborated on exactly how you differed from my expectations of an elven lady.”
She took my other hand briefly in hers before sliding her palm under my forearm.
My gaze flitted around her face. The piercing green eyes, short, neat, light brown hair, except for that one stray lock peeking over her right eyebrow. The tips of her ears poking through her hair. And those full lips, teasing with little flashes of emotion here and there.
“Do you intend to enlighten me?” She kneaded the back of my upper arm with her fingertips, her grasp firm, deliberate.
“It’s quite simple, really.” I stepped close enough to feel her breath on my face.
Her eyes glowed at me through slow blinks.
