Eshalu disrobed without ceremony. She tugged off her boots, her leather jerkin and breeches and set her weapons down with practiced reverence on the a shelf by the side of the wooden tub. The warmth and humidity in the air were a relief to her skin, matted with dust and sweat from the journey. Still, the water seemed too warm - almost like it had been heated artificially. Either that or there was a hot spring beneath this human lodge.<br/><br/>She observed Aeryn keenly while the human woman undressed. She always noted the physical contrast between herself and most human women. Eshalu was tall for her kind, but had the characteristic lean, muscular build of a wood elven ranger. To her eyes, Aeryn was shapely - built more like a dryad, or a druid who had just borne child, her breasts swollen with milk. Where Aeryn had a certain sensual softness, Eshalu prided herself on her hard, streamlined musculature, her long limbs hard from running and hunting in the forest. She kept her body honed like her blades - no ranger should demur from hardship, or give herself to a comfortable, sedentary life.<br/><br/>But what was most striking was the dark hair covering the plump mound of Aeryn's sex. She knew humans had body hair, but that seemed like a very odd pattern. Perhaps they trimmed and styled it for aesthetic reasons, the way some of the more vain druids of her Caern braided their hair with flowers and amber - often enough to attract the attention of the right ranger.<br/><br/>"Robes and sandals - what for?" Eshalu said, taking a moment to inspect the leaf-shaped point of her spear and the wicked curve of her short-sword, "We are in your lodge, no?"<br/><br/>Satisfied that her blades did not need sharpening just yet. She focused her attention again on Aeryn. The human woman's body may have been soft, but it did not speak of a sheltered life. Eshalu wore the faint scars running down her arms and thighs, and the hard, turtle-shell muscles of her abdomen with pride. She knew the story of each. But she had never though of Aeryn was a warrior. She found the rich copper of Aeryn's skin beautiful, but the scars added a new level of fascination.<br/><br/>"You have taken wounds? From both beasts and blades, I think. So you are a warder of your lodge, a scout?" The word 'scout' was the only concept that came to Eshalu's mind that could explain why Aeryn always seemed to be traveling even after her period of wandering should have, by all measures finished.