"I'm glad to hear that." Gwenhwyfar replies with a sigh of relief.
"You know, I can maintain two more of these. Do you think someone might be interested?" she asks starting to look around for the others.
"I am not too sure, you should ask them though. Oh, and tell them it doesn't hurt."
As Jimmy watches, the letters on his forearm change their color and become the typical pink of scar tissue inside the gap in the flesh.
"I hoped you would ask." Gwenhwyfar hums and haws as she looks Jimmy in the eyes hoping for him to agree. "You know, after that not so clever offer I made Tauriell yesterday I don't dare to ask her this. I would die of shame if muck that again."
"Sure thing Gwen" Jimmy says and turns arounds and shouts to the others, "Guys, Gwen has a neat trick you might be interested in"
Tauriell comes out of the woods carrying a sack. As she hears Jimmy shout over the place she facepalms herself.
Then she goes over to Jimmy and Gwen, carefully setting down the sack. "I collected some berries and herbs to improve our diet."
And to Jimmy she says "If you wanted to scare away any animal we could have hunted for lunch and make our position known to every predator in a quarter mile radius, you certainly succeeded"
And turnign to Gwen she adds "What tricks do you have up your sleeves?
Abomentolor get's out of his bed roll, as he tried to sleep off the tiredness from last watch. "What's so important, that it couldn't wait until after breakfast?" He gets up and over to the group meeting.
"Gwen can cast like a shield type thing on us, its pretty neat, she was showing me earlier. But the really cool thing is she learnt a trick that lets her do it without being in contact with us. You just have to let her give you a small scar" he says, holding up his arm so they can see, "It doesn't even hurt"
Tauriell takes a look at the ornament on Jimmy's arm and a mischievous grin appears on her face. "Look who got owned." And turning to Gwen she asks "And why not putting the shield on us before combat without that body mutilation?"
"I'm sorry. I can only put this ward on one person at a time. But it vanishes as soon as the wielder of the ward gets hit or doesn't manage to withstand a spell. But that is just an additional boon for one of you. The main benefit would be, that I could heal you from afar."
Abomentolor jumps in and stretches his arm out "Gimme that. Everything that keeps me up while burning goblins on the front line is a welcome aid."
Gwenhwyfar obeys and scars Abomentolor on his arm.
Tauriell watches closely as gwen applies her sign on Abomentolors arm and says "I think I'll pass on that one."
Gwenhwyfar looks at Tauriel a bit ashamed. She had expected that reaction earlier, maybe even from Jimmy. She mutters an "Ok." to Tauriel.
Tauriell replies "I know you're a good child with the best intentions, but that body of mine I like unscarred." to console the girl a bit.
"I'll fix up an elven fruit stew, while you three enjoy your new magical bond" and bites her tongue to keep the 'puppeteering anyone' to herself.
Tehn she tends to the fire and breakfast preparation.
"Wanna do some tests with the scars?" Gwenhwyfar asks Jimmy and Abomentolor.
"Well this sure is going to be usefull. You are going to spend most of the time next to Tauriell anyway aren't you? So you should be able to reach her when she needs healing." Looking at the gnome, "Well I am game."
Abomentolor raises his hand to fend hat off "Nono, I'm good here. Do the testing on Jimmy, and give me a report on how it went." With that he also turns to see what Tauriell is doing to his fire.
Now going up to overexited again Gwenwyfar sugests "Ok, you are going to that end of the clearing, and I go to the other end. Then I'll put the ward on you. Did you feel a change when I put that ward on you earlier? So you could tell me while we play around with it? Or raise an arm, not to upset Tauriel again."
"It wasn't a strong feeling, but I'm sure I can notice it again." Jimmy says as he starts to walk over to the other end of the clearing. Once there he turns and raises his arm to indicate he is ready
Gwenhwyfar walks over to the other side of the clearing. She then puts the ward on Jimmy and waits for hs response. As Jimmy raises his arm it becomes obvious to her, that she couldn't retract the ward.
To continue the testing Jimmy would have to get hit. Weighing her options, taking her sling in her hand and looking over to him she decides against it. 'I wouldn't manage to hit him anyway on that distance, and trying the healing afterwards would be interesting, but also a waste of precious resources'.
So she decides to ward Abomentolor instead. And waits for the reactions.
Abomentolor suddenly looks up and watches himself as something seems to have changed "What was that?" he asks mostly himself.
Tauriel looks up from her stew at Abomentolor with a smirk "Your puppet master is calling?"
"Tauriell, you are a stick in the mud. I actually feel stronger inside. And it's like a force lingering around me." With that he tries to bluff her not to notice, that being called a puppet was really a low blow to his ego.
Gwenhwyfar assesses the situation and then walks over to Jimmy. "I'm bored. This is no fun to play with. To really test it, you would have to get hurt again. That's stupid. Let us do something fun." looking at Jimmy for suggestions.
"Well you have never been out of Sandpoint have you? We could go for a walk, see if there is a stream or something nearby." Jimmy says. It is obvious to anybody looking for it, that rather than irritating, Jimmy finds Gwen's childish moments and her sudden switching to serious and back to be somewhat endearing
A bit perplex Gwenhwyfar replies "Sorry, I don't get it. I haven't been around much, but we have a river in Sandpoint you know?" Not sure like flowing water should help with her being bored.
"But have you ever been to a flowing stream in a forest? If we get lucky and stay quiet enough we may see some wild animals coming for a drink." Jimmy says, as if a walk with a friend should be enough to entertain anyone. "Or is it my company that you take issue with?" He jokes, sticking his tongue out at her
"You, Mr Jimmy Fiddle are a boring adult." and quickly touching Jimmy on the shoulder and sticking out her tongue back at him she adds "Tag, you're it."
And before he could react she is off into the woods and disappears between the trees.
"Siiiiigh" exaggerating it to play into her gibe. He is quickly off after her, a broad smile on his face. Before he reaches the edge of the clearing he makes sure he has his daggers with him, just in case.
One could hear some whispering follwed by some giggling. And then Jimmy could see something in the corner of his eye scurrying between the trees
But as he looks there it is gone again.
Jimmy looks for any hint of disturbance in undergrowth, trying to get an idea of where Gwen went
Another whisper and giggling can be heard from behind some bushes. As the giggleing fades out Jimmy can hear Gwenhwyfars voice as if she stood beside him.
"Will you find me? I don't think so"
"Ahhh, but you see, we both know the fun part is when I find you." Jimmy says aloud as response to the whisper. He begins moving off towards the bushes, but not right towards them, off to the side a bit, acting as if he isn't interested in them at all. Once he reaches level with them he changes direction and walks directly towards them
Seeing Jimmy approach, she moves away to circle him and spook him from behind.
As he doesn't notice her she comes really close, pinches him in the calf shouting "BOOOO!" and without waiting for Jimmy's reaction she turns around again and runs.
As Jimmy turns there is a surprising sight of a 2ft. 4inch Gwenhwyfar running away on her now rather short legs, who has a rather hard time not to topple over with all her laughing.
On Gwenhwyfars heels is a confused cat, that wonders what all this running is about.
"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Jimmy laughs as he runs after her. The sight of a tiny Gwen running through the forest being chased by a cat that is now only half her size is far too funny for Jimmy. He sits down, laughing raucously, and thoroughly enjoying himself
Gwenhwyfar stops as Jimmy no longer follows her.
Stemming her hands in her sides she asks "You are giving up already?" and coming closer again she adds "You are already feeling the little aches and pains of getting old?" with a mischivous smile on her face.
As Gwen draws closer, Jimmy bides his time, looking relaxed, waiting for her to get closer. Once she is within reach he quickly lunges out to tag her.
He quickly jumps up running away at full tilt, shouting over his shoulder "Tag! You're it!"
Gwenhwyfar looks a bit frustrated, as she got beaten at her own game, but then decides to pay Jimmy back and runs after him. "Let's see how long you can keep that up old man!" Not really trying to catch him yet, just keeping close enough not to loose him.
So Jimmy now get's chased through the woods by a little Gwenhwyfar.
Jimmy sprints full out, getting ahead of the little Gwen. He zigzags between the trees, making sure that Gwen doesn't totally loose sight of him. Besides the childish nature of the game Jimmy is enjoying himself more than he would feel comfortable telling anyone
As Gwenhwyfar runs after Jimmy the spell wears out and she returns to her normal size, gaining speed and closing in on him.
As Gwen grows in size, Jimmy decides to have a bit of fun, he quickly turns on his heel and starts running straight towards her as quickly as he can. Waving his arms about and making a fuss
As soon as Jimmy is within reach, she takes a leap to take him down.
Jimmy could easily avoid being knocked down by Gwen. Instead he decides to turn the tables, he falls with her but tries to spin as he does in an attempt to pin her.
Jimmy's attempt is a complete mess of flailing limbs on his part, and he ends up being knocked down as Gwen intended
Both fail miserably in trying to topple each other over, resulting in both of them ending up on the ground.
Gwenhwyfar rolls on her back, waving her arms through the leaves on the ground laughing out loud, as she lies exhausted on the forest floor.
"You see, that is what fun looks like", she states continuing with her laughing.
Jimmy just lies in the leaves, laughing loudly. "That certainly was fun. I'm not such an old man am I?" Jimmy says jokingly, poking her in the ribs