The sun was still young in the sky, as Gharna and Azhul, have been sitting down contemplating what they just talked with Michael. The two simply told the human he should go and wash, while they take a moment to catch their breaths.
"... Do you believe what he says?" Azhul asked Gharna, with an exhausted tone.
"Well... keeping in mind how I found him, where, the fact that we have not seen any of his kin ever before... and it doesn't seem like he is lying... I think... maybe?" Gharna said back with a huff of her nostrils.
"Gods... Hunt Father guide us... there is nothing for him to gain from lying to us... I think... he is no weakling so there's no need for him to try and intimidate us with deceiving words... which... in all honesty... is worse..." Azhul said annoyed with a growled oink, as her string of logic just confirmed her fears.
"If this is true we must tell the Den Mother... Urla needs to hear of this... even if Michael has no ill intent... I don't know what to think of his kin..."
"I am certain there must be more like him between them, but the way he spoke of them and their world... I dread to think if his people saw our forests and mountains... what they would do to them..." Azhul added as she stood up, using her halberd for support.
"We can do that once we return, now lets see what Michael is up to... wait... oh dung pie! I didn't ask if he can swim! The water gets deep a few steps in, but the water doesn't show it well!" Gharna said with small panicked oinks as she began to enter a light run.
"If water is what kills him, I pledge to the Brood Mother, I will eat a rock." Azhul said as she followed behind, not even wanting to dwell on the dark hilarity if that situation could happen.
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Michael got to the water, looking back at the two Tuskir women in the distance behind him, still sitting and seemingly talking. He dropped down his backpack and took off his flip flops leaving him in his plain old gray trunks.
'Ugh- I feel so sticky with sweat, I could swear the air could get stuck to me.' He groaned as he began peering over the water, he could see fish, but no breeds he recognised, many of them being similar in patterns to some species he knew, but the colors were vastly different, most of them small fish, nothing longer than a forearm and nothing that seemed to be carnivorous, at least from looking.
"Hmm... no crocodiles, aligators, no sweet water sharks... if this world has anything like land sharks though, I swear God put me here just to fuck with my inner eleven year old nightmares." He said taking a minute longer to look around, not at the water though, over the forest and small grove. A slight paranoia fueld fear over land sharks made Michael actually take a moment to be as careful as possible.
Seeing no danger the human made his peace that things will be fine and he simply took a step in and immediately pulled his leg. "Fuck! It's cold!" Takin in a deep breath and followed by a sigh, Michael did the awkward cha cha walk someone does when entering a pool that feels cold after being in the sun for a long time.
"O-oh! Hoh! Just dip the tea bag! Brrr" The young man yelped as the water reached his hips, a few moments later he simply sucked in a mouthful of air, taken by surprise, as he was suddenly submerged in water after some steps into the river.
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In a few moments Michael then reemerged lightly swimming in place. "Fuck, this is deeper than it looks. Hack- ahem..." He groans wiping his face as he blows a bit of water out his nose and then swims backwards to the shore.
Keeping to where the water reached his chest, Michael began running his fingers through his curly hair, backwards and to his nape, where he seemed to touch something that made him wince a bit. "Ah- I need to stop scratching my neck when I get nervous... but the past few days have been horrible on my anxiety..." He whispered softly.
Frustrated with his own bad habits, Michael then laid back letting himself float on the water, he looked at the blue sky above as clouds lazily passed in front of his eyes.
'What is my plan here? What the hell am I doing? Agh-... alright. Take it slow man, no need to panick over stuff I can't do anything about. One thing at a time. I know that I don't know how to get home or when I can. That is my goal for now, find a way to get home. Alright. That means i gotta make sure I stay alive so... find ways keep alive... I'm sure the tuskir people can show me how things are done here and I think I could show them a thing or two or give them some ideas to make life easier... what though... hmm... I could show them how to make a peeler, they did have a smith... Would that even be useful? Hmm... They have fire and grinding wheels, so this won't be as easy as those online sci-fi stories of modern man meets cave man...'
As the human pondered, he started to feel a light vibration in the water. Slightly panicked he stood up and looked around. Weird. Nothing seemed to approach him. What was that then? He began listening and a sound of... singing started to come from a near by tuft of plants, which looked like red colored water lettuce like plants, with greener leaves at the bottom and cattails that were purple.
Due to natural human curiosity, he began slowly approaching as the sound of singing got slightly louder, he couldn't understand it though as he left the amulet in his backpack as to not lose it. He lowered in the water until only his upper half of the head and nose was above water, slowly walking in the water.
Once close enough he slowly began parting plants to see where the noise was coming from.
'I-... Is... Is that a dancing frog?' He thought as all sense of danger just flew out the window, as in front of him was what looked like a bipedal frog, standing on a dark green and slightly teal water lilly, using a purple cattail as a back scrubber while bumping its hips to a melody it hummed. It was a mix of pastel pink and purple with black marks, uneven, all over its body.
'I just met boar people so this is either another type of person or simply this world has dancing frogs... I can live with that.' He thought shrugging. As he was about to back up and leave the creature be, it let out a soft high note as it turned around, its voice stopping mid note as it locked eyes with Michael.
'Oh no... uh... ok, based on reaction it is a frog person... toad?... I just walked in on someone in... a public bath? River? Uhhh... WHAT DO I DO? Don't smile. Don't smile. Agh... simply maintain eye contact and back up.' Michael then simply kept staring at it, while gently and slowly moving the plants back in place and then simply backing up.
"Alright... it worked. Things are f- ACK!" He yelled out as a pebble hit him in the forehead, he then heard high pitched yelling voice that sounded akin to a latino mother berating a kid. That is when he saw the frog, with a vest and tiny pantaloons pulled on as it began using a tiny slingshot to hit Michael with tiny river rocks, while running on the river's shore towards him, or rather very quickly hopping.
'I am not fighting a tiny frog person! Fuck that, I feel shitty enough already, I will not have a tiny pink and purple colored soul on my conscience. Full reverse advance.' He thought as he began swimming away as quickly as he could, which wasn't too quick, but hopefully quicker than the tiny frog on shore.
After a bit of swimming though he felt something land on his back, something sticky and soft at which point, Michael felt his body lock up and stiffen and from swimming he began to float. Face down.
As the air in his nose began to bubble out slowly, he realized he could't even as much as flex his butt to let out a fart, but weirdly he was calm, maybe due to his inner hope of this still being a fever dream. 'Well... so this is how it ends... drowned by a poisonous cotton pink frog... guess I am getting a Darwin award. Shit.'