They ran out of the village that night, much to Roman's disapproval. He watched them at the door of his inn, hands holding his swollen, grumbling belly. Maybe some other day some nice lads would come to the village and take his darlin' off his hands. Mumbling something about pigs, he wandered back into the inn.
Isaac, Ivan, Garet and Mia had gone far south and had reached a river only a hour after leaving the village, rushing in their desperate struggle to get away from the big father trying to find wooers for his ugly daughter. The sun was bleeding red and orange along the skyline, slowing sinking into the ocean they've never seen far off in the distance. Isaac climbed up onto a rock and stood looking off south, in the direction they were to head.
"We should stop for tonight," he suggested. "It's already late." Everyone nodded and started the setting of camp.
Ivan rolled out the bed mats and had started a small fire by the time Garet and Isaac came back with armloads of wood and several small, hitchhiking bugs. They dropped the load next to the fire and plopped down onto their bedrolls, stretching and yawning.
Garet looked around. "Where's Mia?"
She had escaped the boys' gaze and wandered off behind a small line of boulders on the riverbank. Letting the warm breeze help her along, she stripped off her heavy robe and stood in the shallows of the river only in thin underclothes, letting the water run between her toes and rush around her ankles. Another regret of leaving Imil was the hot water, out here she couldn't bathe everyday, especially with a group of boys hanging around, and when they did stop long enough to actually relax, the surrounding rivers or lakes of their campsite were too freezing to bathe in. I guess we aren't far south enough yet, to have warmer waters, she thought, and slid down into the river.
Isaac flicked a glow bug from his shoulder and stirred the fire with a charred stick. The meal at the inn had filled everyone's stomachs, making their eyes droopy, and the heat from the burning wood pushed into their pores and softened their bones. Ivan pulled up his thin blanket around his shoulders, then rummaged in his bag and pulled out a lute. Garet and Isaac looked at him curiously.
"Lute," Garet stated stupidly with a yawn. Ivan started to strum experimentally.
Lulled half to sleep by the quiet sounds of the lute, Garet yawned widely and reached into his bag for his canteen. Twisting off the cap, two small droplets dripped onto his tongue when he turned it upside down. Mumbling a protest, he clambered up and went down the bank to the river.
Climbing over the moss-slippery rocks proved a challenge to his tired body. Once to the top, he slid to the ground and sat crouched in the sand regaining some strength before getting up and crawling, with his canteen dangling from his mouth, to the water's edge. On his hands and knees, he dunked his head under the water, gripping the canteen tightly in his teeth and watched the air bubbles billow up from the spout as it filled with cool water.
Mia surfaced her head above the water to see Garet's butt sticking out of the lake. She hesitated, screamed and swam as fast as she could over to him, thinking some horrible river monster was dragging him under.
"Garet, Garet, Garet!" she screamed, taking his shoulders and flipping him over and into the water. He opened his mouth in surprise and took a deep breath of river water that gushed into his lugs like fire ice. Flailing his arms and legs around, Mia grabbed his chin and yanked his head above the surface, where he gagged up green water and took a much-needed breath of fresh air.
"Oh Gods, Garet, are you all right?" She held him above the water as he spewed the water that had filled his lungs. He coughed and wagged his arms under the water, pushing away from her grip.
"W-why did you do that?!" He belched air and sighed. Mia looked at him with uncertainty.
"You were being pulled in by a river monster," she said. "…Weren't you?"
"I was filling my canteen!" As if to prove the fact, it floated by, bubbling from the neck as it took in more water. The strap caught on a piece of driftwood and weed, and was washed up on shore.
They awkwardly floated in the water for several quiet minutes. Then Garet started to blush.
Mia's long, wet, blue hair clung to her face and neck and sprayed out in the water behind her, tugging along with the pull of the current. Her silken underclothes stuck to her body, seductively attaching themselves to her curves that would make any man stare in awe. Her cheeks were rosy from the kiss of the cold water, and her lips were red and full. Garet cleared his throat nervously, disguising it as a cough. Mis noticed his extra-red face, and her eyes widened a bit.
"Oh…" Slowly she brought her hands up around her body protectively, and smiled shyly. "Umm…"
Garet turned his eyes down to the water and studied a passing fish interestingly. He cleared his throat. "Mia?"
She looked up. "Garet?"
"I…" he took a step forward and suddenly the mud under him slipped. His foot getting stuck in the mud, he lurched forward, grabbed onto Mia's shoulders, and pulled her under with him. They did a twisting water ballet under the surface for a moment before Mia pried Garet's hands from her and came to the surface with a gasp of air. Scrambling, she searched the water. Garet's vest floated to the surface several feet away and started going downstream. She screamed.
Isaac and Ivan came rushing up, sword and staff in hand, battle ready. Eyeing Mia frantically searching the water, they ran down the bank and waded in knee deep.
"Garet!" she screamed, digging through the water with claw like fingers. Sheathing his sword, Isaac dived in and touched around in the mud, searching for his friend. Ivan stood knee-deep in the water, helpless.
Isaac surfaced and took a deep breath, and Ivan walked down stream and picked up Garet's vest with the tip of his staff.
Crawling up on the other side of the river, Garet looked like a monster from the deep. His body was coated with the thick mud that had dragged him down, and little bits of weed stuck to the mud, making him look like some shaggy mud demon. Rubbing mud from his eyes, he stood and watched his friends search the water. Gagging on the water that welled up in his throat, he spit up into the river with a noise like a cat choking on a hairball. Hearing the sound, Mia looked up, saw the mud demon, and shrieked, "AHHHH!!!" Now scrambling, sinking chin-deep in the water to grab hold of Isaac, she pulled him up and thrust him towards the monster.
Ivan saw this all and raised his staff, muttered some words of Psy, and cast Lightening on the mud-coated Garet. Shocked, literally, Garet fell to the ground and rolled around in the water, sending little bursts of lighting rushing through the current, electrocuting everything in its path. Isaac and Mia dived for the bank, getting little shocks just as their bodies hit the sand. Thinking on her stomach, Mia threw a Frost spell out to the lake, preventing any electricity shocking Isaac's and her toes. Cracking their feet out of the iced water, they stood, dripping on the sand, looking at the frozen mud demon under the river's water.
Mia sighed, then looked around. "Where's Garet?" Ivan stood further away, staff still raised and Isaac stood next to her, shaking his head. Mia looked back to the river… "Garet!" Shocked with lightening and her discovery, she rushed forward, screamed at Isaac to cast a melt spell, and pulled the mud dripping, charred Garet up onto the sand. She put his head in her lap and brushed cold and dried black mud from his face. "Garet! Wake up! Garet!"
The warmth of the fire heated his eyelids, and slowly he opened them, but finding it harder to do so. With a painful peal of skin, his eyelids pulled back from the dried mud that stuck them together and his eyes snapped open. He lay with his head against Mia's lap still, but they had moved from the riverbank to the campsite. Most of his body was still coated in dry mud, but his face had been washed clean, the mud kept in heat as the fire's flames roared. Mia's head hung, her lips slightly parted as she slept in a sitting position above him, one hand halfway though a stroke of his hair. He reached a hand up to rub his eyes and the movement awaked the Water Seer.
She opened her eyes with a sigh, blinked sleep from them, and looked blurrily down at Garet. They sat staring at one another, at loss for words.
After awhile, the flickering of the fire warming their faces, Mia opened her mouth to speak. Garet raised a hand, baring mud-crusted fingers, and put them to her lips. She closed her mouth despite the taste of dirt.
He noticed his hands were dirty, and quickly withdrew from touching her, and brushed them against his tunic. Flakes of mud fell away from his skin with each rub.
"Garet…"she whispered, but he had cleaned his fingers and once against raised his hand. He traced his fingers down her cheek, feeling her warm skin beneath his, and leaned up and she leaned down at his delicate touch, moving in for their first kiss.
There was nothing to disturb them from having it; Isaac and Ivan lay snoring on their bedrolls on the other side of the fire: Isaac sitting upright, no doubt having first watch over Mia and her muddy charge. Ivan was curled up under his thin blanket, completely invisible under the white sheet, and as their lips met, their warm, wet skin touching, there was a burst of joy, excitement and nervousness as they shared the thing they both had wished for. Mia closed her eyes after the initial shock, and gently leaned against his chest, deepening their kiss.
Finally they pulled away, and both were once again speechless. Garet shifted his eyes nervously around, searching for any eyes that might had seen them, while Mia sat, lips again slightly parted, and gazed at him, her mouth close enough to Garet's skin to feel her hot breath.
With the stars twinkling above, and the fire flickering next to them, warming their bodies and giving them safety, there was nothing more to say, and side by mud-flaky side, they fell asleep.