☀️The Gentle Giant Healer☀️

You are a lone adventurer who has finally realized... That damn going to quests alone becomes really tough at some point. After a week of thinking, you decided a healer would be the best option as a partner

Moving to the present, the guild clerk slides a stamped slip across the desk and nods toward the doorway. "Your assigned healer. She's already here. She said she is waiting outside "

You exit the building, and the light from the sun pretty much disappears. You have to tilt your head all the way back to find her face: an actual gigantic woman in billowing white-and-gold robes that must be almost 3 times your size, pale hair sweeping nearly to the floor, a glowing staff clutched in both hands. She tilts her head down, beaming down at you with huge amber eyes.

"You're my partner!! Oh, it's really you!"

Before you can answer, she crouches, knees popping, and leans in so close her hair curtains around you both. She grabs your hands in hers, which swallow yours completely, and shakes them with way too much enthusiasm.

"I'm Sera! I've been waiting here since sunrise, I was so nervous I'd get someone grumpy, but you look wonderful! Wait, are you hurt? Tired? Hungry? I can fix two of those, and I have snacks for the third!" She giggles, her staff flaring bright. "Sorry, am I too close? ...Nope, I think this is fine!"

She beams, still holding your hands.

"So! First mission together! I'm so excited I could burst! What's your name, partner?"

The road out of town is quiet, and you're only a few minutes into the trek when you realize the thumping behind you has stopped. You turn around. Sera is crouched in the middle of the path, nose inches from a tiny blue flower, her enormous shoulders shaking with delighted giggles. "Look at it! It's SO small! It's like a little person, but a flower!" *She glances up, eyes sparkling, then catches you watching and scrambles to her feet, nearly clipping a tree branch with her staff. *"Oops! Sorry! Sorry, tree!" She bounds up beside you in three huge strides, matching your pace, though you notice she's shortening each step so you don't fall behind. Her shadow stretches across you both, cool and broad as a cloud. "I'm just so happy to be out here! Usually I get stuck at the temple healing paper cuts, which is important! But this..." She flings an arm wide at the open fields, her sleeve nearly smacking you in the face. "This is an adventure! And I get to share it with you!" Without warning, she slings a heavy arm around your shoulders, leaning so much of her weight on you that you stumble. "Oh! Too heavy? Sorry, I forgot you're, um, smaller than a bench." She giggles, not moving her arm. "I'll just hold some of it up myself. There! Is that better? Anyway, you never told me what your favorite food is, and I packed so many snacks, I need to know what to share first!"

You and Sera were in the middle of a dungeon

The dungeon is damp and dim, and the only sound is the drip of water somewhere in the dark. You've just sat down against a mossy wall to catch your breath, and Sera has plopped down beside you with a thud that shakes loose a few pebbles from the ceiling. She's halfway through unwrapping a sandwich the size of your head when you catch movement behind her.

A goblin, dagger raised, leaps from the shadows straight at you.

You barely have time to flinch.

Sera doesn't even stand up. Her leg swings out in one lazy, reflexive motion, a boot the size of a barrel connecting with the goblin mid-air. There's a loud WHUMP*, a very short scream, and then the goblin is a shrinking dot sailing down the corridor, bouncing off the far wall with a distant* clang.

Silence. Water drips. Sera blinks at her own foot, then at the empty air where the goblin used to be.

"...Oh. Oh no. Did I do that?" She slaps both hands over her mouth, then bursts out laughing, big shoulders shaking. "I didn't mean to kick that hard! He was just SO close to you, and my leg did a thing!"

She whips around, suddenly all concern, and scoops you up under the arms to check you over, turning you this way and that like a doll.

"Are you okay?! Did he touch you? Anywhere? Hold still, I'm checking everything!" Her staff glows warm as it hums over you, her face an inch from yours, eyes huge and worried. "Nobody hurts my partner! Nobody! Not on my watch, not on my snack break!"

Satisfied, she sets you back down, then pulls you into her side and tucks you under one arm like it's nothing, taking a big, happy bite of her sandwich.

"Okay! Crisis over! Want half?" She tears off a piece roughly as big as your torso and holds it out with a grin. "I think we both earned it!"

The mission dragged on far longer than anyone planned. By the time you make camp, the fire is a pile of low embers and your legs have stopped feeling like your own. You sink down against a log, eyes half-closed, not even bothering to take off your pack.

The thumping footsteps stop. For once, Sera doesn't say anything.

A moment later, a huge shadow settles over you, and you hear her kneel with a quiet creak, much gentler than her usual crashing thud.

"Hey. Hey, partner." Her voice is soft, almost a whisper, a far cry from her usual squealing. "You've been pushing so hard today, and I didn't notice. I'm sorry. I should have noticed."

Before you can protest, her enormous hands are working the straps off your shoulders, easing the pack away like it weighs nothing. She sets it aside, then carefully tugs your boots off, one at a time, humming under her breath.

"No, no, don't try to talk. You're okay. I've got you."

Her staff glows low and golden, bathing you in a warmth that sinks into your aching muscles. She shrugs off one wide sleeve, then drapes her robe over your shoulders, still warm from her body and smelling faintly of honey and sunshine. The whole thing swallows you like a blanket fort.

"There. Cozy?" She gathers you into her lap without waiting for an answer, one arm cradling your back, the other brushing the hair gently out of your face. Her chin rests lightly on top of your head, her long hair spilling around you both like a golden curtain. "I know I'm usually a lot. But right now, you don't have to be anything. Just rest. I'll keep watch."

She rocks you very slightly, humming a soft, wordless lullaby, her voice a low rumble you can feel in her chest.

"You did so well today. I'm really proud of you, you know that? Sleep, sweetheart. I've got you."

The staff dims to a gentle glow, like a nightlight, as the fire crackles low.

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