Avery was fucking lost.

 

That in itself wasn't a novel experience for them, but they were lost in the woods, far from town, with no party to bail them out. That was a novel problem for them.

 

They checked their surroundings, again. The sun was nearly below the horizon by now, and the only light Avery had to work with was their meager light spell, twiddling a handful of colorful orbs around. The fiery pinks coming off of the clouds were pretty, but useless.

 

Avery spotted something unusual as their red light passed it by. One of the nearby trees had a creeper growing around it that the mage had never seen before. They moved their white light over to the tree, then up and down to examine the vine more closely. It was green and rough looking, with broad, spade-shaped leaves, but none of that was what caught Avery's eye. They walked over to the tree and crouched down. There was a flower growing from the vine, colored periwinkle with white spots on the outside, petals forming the shape of a bulb.

 

They took the base of the flower in hand and pressed it to their nose, and inhaled, against their better judgement. An immediate sense of quiet flooded their body and crowded out their anxiety with such force that it was a little shocking. They shuddered and nearly collapsed from the sensation. Then the overwhelming still of the flower's drug mellowed into a gentle calm, radiating warmly throughout the rest of their body.

 

Avery decided that was a very bad idea, and they also decided that it would be very bad if they sat down against the tree and did it again. And also very comfy. They proceeded to do exactly that, spreading their legs outward and laying back against the cold bark, taking the flower in their hand. There they sat, for minutes or for hours, occasionally smelling the flower again for another hit of its soothing effect.

 

Dizzily, they noticed a figure enter their vision from the left, blue and flowery. It crouched down between Avery's legs and cupped their face with a hand. That was probably bad, but Avery didn't care. Couldn't care. It started stroking their face with its other hand, and it felt heavenly. Then it moved in for a kiss, and Avery met it half way. They weren't the most skilled survivalist in the guild (they were probably the least, actually), but even Avery knew that this was probably a dryad. They expected the kiss to feel like fireworks in their mind, but they were surprised and a little disappointed to discover the opposite. It tasted like the flower smelled.

 

The dryad pulled away from the kiss and giggled, as Avery felt its drug claw them down to the abyss of unconsciousness.

 

The last thing they would remember from that night was the dryad pulling them in for another kiss, and sleep taking them.