There was something dashing about her. Even from a distance Clive could tell the woman was a whirlwind. She made her way through the area with a type of confidence that spoke of intense security, and wore clothes that spoke of no massive wealth from which that security might have come. Each movement was equal parts effortless and decisive.

Honestly, Clive really wasn’t surprised her heart started to go pitter-patter. Even if this woman was different than her normal type – lacking the muscles and movements of a fighter, but still somehow giving the impression she could break Clive over her knee anyway – she was radiant, so full of life that it almost hurt to look at her.

She was content to watch from a distance, enjoying the feeling of longing, and not wanting it to end because her mind was repulsed at the mere idea of potential reciprocation.

Something else had other plans. In a startling instant the woman turned and looked directly at Clive. It was hard not to melt as that dazzling smile was directed at her. Before she knew it, Clive was face to face with the woman, or as close as they could manage, considering she towered over Clive. Eyes of a colour that she couldn’t quite put name to gazed into her own, mischief and amusement dancing in the wrinkles around them.

“Well now, aren’t you a storm-eyed girl.” The woman’s voice was smooth as honey, lilting with the very same amusement as played in her features. “You’ve got quite the interesting adventures in front of you, don’t you?”

Clive felt her throat go dry. She knew she should pay attention to what was being said, that she should do more than stare at her. She should say something.

The woman reached out and moved some hair from out of Clive’s face – the deed seeming more like an action carried out by the wind than by another humanoid.

“When you’ve had your trip, why don’t you come see me and tell me about it?”

Clive nodded, dumbly. She knew that she should be outraged that a stranger had invaded her personal space, that under any other circumstance she’d have smacked away the unknown hand, but something about this experience was different. She seemed familiar, well known, like a summer day lived a million different times, though Clive knew for certain she’d never once laid eyes on this person in her entire life up until today.

The woman’s expression drifted into a warm smile. “You’ll know when to come find me. Pleasant days, miss storm-eyes.”

And just like that, the woman was on her way past Clive, and Clive herself couldn’t even muster the power to turn and watch her go.

Looking back as she asked around town, she would find she couldn’t remember the woman’s features. Her hair was flowing yet still, every colour at once yet none. Her eyes were indistinct, yet clear and bright. Her skin was simultaneously brown as the fertile earth and pale as the hand of death.

The townsfolk knew her all the same, calling her the Wind Woman, an entity that came through town with portents of the future and endearing titles for those she cornered. It was said that good luck came to those who spoke with her – but even the most stoic of people found themselves dumbstruck in her presence.

Clive tried to find the portents of the future concerning, but ultimately, her mind kept drifting to the other parts of the encounter, how she’d been asked to come back later to tell her her tales.

She let out a frustrated groan and let herself fall back on the grass, staring up at the sky as the pad of graph paper fell from her lap. “How the hell am I supposed to tell my tales to someone I can’t even say hello to?”

The chaotic adventurer knew her priorities on this matter were a little silly, but there was a part of her that, almost desperately, wanted to please this entity.

“I’m such a useless lesbian,” she grumbled, pretending that was the source of her concern, and not the fact she’d been so close to an entity of truly primordial power. Much easier to pretend her being smitten was the real issue, and not the fact she’d been forewarned of some great task she had not a clue the time nor nature of and was on some level excited to come back and speak of the deeds.