...oh, whoops. She looks at RJ thoughtfully.

"I could get you to the edge of the forest in a few hours, but it's getting pretty late, and you aren't really dressed for how cold it'll get. If I take you to a warm place to sleep, will you tell me more about how you made those when we get there?"

They raise an eyebrow at her again. "Mind telling me your name, first?"

Did she really forg- yeah, she did, whoops. "Oh, sorry. I'm Kaitiaki. And this is Damisa." She pets her very large tiger, who trots up when he hears his name.

Sniffffffffffffffff the tinyperson that bestfriend is being friendly with! They smell... odd. (Damisa has met a tinyperson before! But it's been a while).

-they shrink back a bit, because even though the druid is being friendly that is a VERY VERY BIG CAT right in their face.

...Ooops. She instructs Damisa to give RJ space, then turns back to them. "Well?"

They shake their head bemusedly. Druids. "Yeah, sure. Lead the way."

It takes her a little bit to adjust to RJ's short legs (They're like half her height!) and she vaguely considers offering to carry them (she's pretty sure it wouldn't slow them down! they're tiny!), but she decides against it. It's not that far. (She doesn't try to chat on the way, because she can't focus on detect magic while walking.) 

Since learning Soften Earth and Stone, she took the time to make another weatherproof small underground campsite, much closer to the center of her territory. She lets RJ and Damisa inside, and then replaces the fur that hides and insulates the place into place. 

"I'll get a fire going." It's pitch black in the cave, but she can see fine.

RJ does not like how dark it is!

"...is it okay if I make some light?" they ask, teeth chattering.

"Oh, sure." Right, most people can't see in the dark. (Even Zisel would have a hard time in here, actually.)

...Man, RJ is cold. Poor thing.

She's plenty warm from the exercise, so she heads their way to give them her warm cloak.

RJ finishes casting light on their hat right in time to see Kait rather closer to them than they were expecting - "eep!" - and then suddenly she's offering them a thick fur cloak big enough for someone literally twice their size, which is to say, an incredible blanket.  

"...oh! Thank you." They wrap themselves in cloakblanket contentedly until only their head protrudes.

She nods absentmindedly and goes back to getting a fire ready. They can talk afterwards.

oooh gosh she sure has big strong arms

Kaitiaki gets a fire going with spark, beckons RJ to come closer to warm up, and then sets about making a stew for them both. (Damisa, happy and full from a huge lunch, curls up on the opposite side of the fire and falls asleep.)

"How did you learn of these plant oils? I would have heard, if people were coming here regularly to harvest." 

Oooooh it is so nice to be warm. They stretch out happily, which looks rather comical given how much cloak they're still contained in.

"It's a rare technique, as I understand it, and it's only really useful for saving on spellsilver when making smaller things." If it worked on big ticket items, there'd be archmages with special demiplanes where these plants could grow, by now. (...there still might be, actually. It's not like RJ or anyone else would know, if Geb was doing that.)

"My mentor wouldn't tell me where she learned how to do it, but she did tell me that when she was younger, she would journey north in the summer to harvest the plants, in this part of the woods. She showed me what to look for - here, let me -"

They disappear into the cloak entirely, rustling, and emerge a few moments later with a journal containing careful plant illustrations.

Kait nods thoughtfully. Her part of the Forest contains a lot of area that Zisel only rarely spent time in - if RJ's mentor came only once a year, it's possible they never would have encountered each-other.

She walks behind them and looks over the notes critically. "These plants lie dormant from first snow till midspring - you won't be able to find them now, and even if you could, there wouldn't be much to harvest."

Whoops. "That explains why I couldn't find any!" They laugh wryly.

"Well, at least I've only wasted a few weeks. I'll live, which is more than I can say if you hadn't shown up."

She snorts. It's kinda funny how unconcerned they seem about the prospect.

The stew finishes cooking. She serves them both in a pair of carved wooden bowls, waterproofed with some kind of hardened sap mixture. (No spoons, obviously.) 

The flavor is a little bland, even with some added salt.

Absentmindedly, they cast prestidigitation and use it to reflavor their stew into something more exciting.

...aaand now the very strong druid is staring at them intensely. "...what?"

"What was that orison? I've never seen anything like it before." She knows it's an orison because she could see RJ catch it as the spell finished, but everything else about it was deeply unfamiliar. 

Their mouth is slightly agape. "You've never seen a prestidigitation? Did you grow up in this forest or something?"

...they deflate a bit under the glare. "...Sorry. Uh. Prestidigation is the most common cantrip, which is what we call the arcane spells that are simple enough to catch and reuse. It does a bunch of random minor things - it's most commonly used to clean clothing and bedding and such, but it can also move stuff around," (they pause to levitate a rock) "change colors temporarily," (their stew turns lime-green) "and it can heat or chill food and change the flavor, which is what I was doing just now."

Kaitiaki is staring at them, desire plain on her actually kinda cute? in a weird way? face.

RJ shrugs apologetically. "...It's arcane magic. I'm pretty sure druids can't learn it. I can flavor your stew, though?"

...Darn, that spell seems really interesting. Ah, well. She shrugs. "I don't mind the taste." 

They eat, mostly in silence. She pets Damisa as he sleeps. 

Once they're both full, RJ pulls out their bag of holding, since that's the most interesting and instructive thing they have on them. They start with a high level overview of how magic item creation works, using the bag as an example.

They don't expect to get very far with this, with a druid who's never seen an arcane spell cast before, but Kaitiaki has both a surprisingly decent knowledge of magic and the right kind of brain for this stuff - she could have been a decent wizard, with the right teacher.

By the time the fire has burned down and they're both getting sleepy, Kaitiaki is in no way ready to create a magic item, but she's a lot better at examining them to figure out how they work, and has a good theoretical understanding of the art of teasing spells into the silver threads that can stabilize them. 

And... RJ kinda likes teaching her, weirdly enough. The girl is not tactful or polite or easy to hold a conversation with, but she's earnest and smart and saved their life and for sure isn't not their type. 

Wizards need lots of sleep every night, apparently, or they can't cast spells. Once RJ passes out, she stays up, thinking.

In the morning, she's up and finished with preparing her spells before they first start to stir. (Their familiar, an enormous toad named Splorp, is awake - she gives him some water, and a tiny bit of dried fruit.)

She hands them a goodberry. "I don't yet know whether I will let you harvest hothon bulbs and efrofyel, when the snow thaws. I need to think about it more."

??? "Good morning to you too," RJ replies bemusedly, and eats the berry.

...Huh. They've heard of goodberry, both from rumors of druids and when Kaiti (can they call her Kaiti? ...probably not out loud, but she's a druid so she can't yell at them for thinking it) was talking to them about druidic magic last night, but the experience of a full meal from a single berry is hard to describe. They burp happily.

Hmmm. How to approach this. "Well, I'm from pretty far away, and would rather not travel all the way back in four months just to be told to leave again, if I can help it. How long will it take you to decide? Would you let me stay here and teach you more about arcane magic and crafting, while you think it over?" She obviously loves the stuff and isn't going to learn it from other druids, and surely that can't hurt their chances, here.