Wraithvine, hir cat, Gikka, and the little gnome that was a dragon in disguise came upon a hotel that was a hot spring resort. The very kind family offered a free vacation for all of them. Why? Because the family believed that all travelers should find relaxation on their travels, and it made them happy to help people. -- Anon Guest
It wasn't the first hotel and resort associated with volcanic hot springs. It was, however, one of the few that welcomed guests with no money.
"Hospitality is our pleasure," insisted the house matriarch. "Relax and revitalise. You need it."
Bibrid, especially, needed it. He was intensely nervous in most placed offering healing services. Dreading the moment he might be called in, and thereby trapped, by the need for his gifts. Very few people, after all, ask about who might heal the healers.
Lilbit and Gikka both found a hot rock to lounge on and permitted food to be placed well within their reach. They spent their visit in indulgent lassitude.
Wraithvine would have loved to have followed them in a similar attitude, but ze had one last charge to care for. Bibrid, who still feared incarceration. The lasting trauma of his previous imprisonment had a way of lingering. It was in places like this, dedicated to healing, that he dreaded being discovered.
Wraithvine took him to the tea baths, to the pools of little fish that kissed dead skin from each of their bodies. To the steam caverns where aromatic herbs contributed to the healing miasma. Ze even attempted giving the disguised Dragon a gentle and calming massage.
Always, Bibrid's eyes watched anyone outside their circle. Always, he tensed when anyone said anything about healing. Some scents from healing herbs would send him into shivers. Their hosts' salutation of "health and long life" would set him whimpering.
Wraithvine didn't know what to do. Bibrid might be deathless, but he could still fret himself into a desperate sickness.
It was one of the host family's children that broke the dam.
"It's all right, uncle," they soothed. "You can really relax here." And to prove their point, shapeshifted into a very young Pyrite Dragon. "See? We know who you are. We see you. And you are welcome."
Bibrid's transformation almost knocked Wraithvine out of the pool, but ze didn't mind. His healing had begun. At last.
[Photo by Cloris Ying on Unsplash]
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