I couldn’t help but relax as the wonderfully warm water from the shower flowed over my skin. Until this moment, I had not realised just how much I had missed having showers. Still, the white tiles on the floor made me uneasy as they threatened to slip me up if I made the wrong move.

Alis was still not fully used to the bathroom and refused to get into the shower with me when I asked her to. So I had started this shower to show her that everything would be okay. Now, I was enjoying the shower so much I sort of forgot about her. It was so nice to finally to be able to wash my hair.

It helped the shampoo had such a lovely fragrance too. Just a hint of herbal extracts, but not too overpowering for me to be ashamed of smelling like it.

As the shampoo lathered in my hair, the thick greasiness started to fade away. As it did so, so did my some of the tension in my shoulders and back.

‘Klarric,’ Alis said reminding me she was indeed still there.

‘Come in, I’ll wash your hair for you. I’m sure that you’ll love it.’

‘Klarric, something’s wrong with Celameth.’

‘Umm…’ I hummed, continuing to massage the shampoo into my hair.

Alis grabbed my arm tight, her slender hand much stronger than I expected. She then pulled me towards her. My wet feet slid over the slippery wet tiles and I fell partly on top of Alis’ naked body. With my wet, naked body laid on top of her naked body, I was conscious of how her body had changed in small and subtle ways.

As we were this close to each other, it was obvious to see that she had gained some slight womanly curves to her hips and waist. Just a touch. Just enough to give her a wondrous body, yet not too much as to ruin her lithe and muscular, slender body. Her stomach was wonderfully flat, without the slight bulge it had in the past. I was beginning to get really excited now, as there was something else for me to enjoy.

‘This is no time for messing about.’ Alis said, pushing me off harshly and climbing back to her feet. ‘Celameth is in trouble. She needs us.’

It took me a moment to refocus my mind after the abrupt, forceful exit from the shower, and enjoying her beautiful new body.

‘Celameth is in trouble. Hurry and get rid of that stupid foam on your head. We need to go help her.’

Finally, Alis’ words started to make sense. I scrambled up off the floor and dived under the shower to quickly rinse the shampoo from my head and cool myself down. By the time I exited the pristine white bathroom, Alis was already mostly dressed for battle and was just putting on her armour.

I dried myself as quick and efficiently as I could, before pulling on my clothes and armour over my still damp body. By now, Alis was standing impatiently in the rustic doorway leading into the entrance hall, already wearing her boots.

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‘Hurry up,’ Alis shouted across to me as I quickly walked across the chestnut flooring. ‘I’m worried about her. It seems things are getting worse for her.’

She then turned and headed into the entrance hall. I entered the large flagstone floored entrance porch a short while afterwards. The needlessly burning fire was still burning, and was something I was happy was there as I enjoyed for the ambiance it provided. Alis was standing by the front door to our divine cabin. Unlike the simple rustic plank doors within the rest of the cabin, this one was much better constructed, seeming almost like a castle gate rather than a simple cabin door.

Alis was holding her hand against the door mumbling to herself. ‘Ah, found her, let’s go.’

She grabbed my hand, and we shifted. Once shifted, we appeared within the homely living room we had shared with Celameth atop of her tower. The thick carpet, the heavily cushioned sofas and lounge chairs were all still there. But they were not as nicely arranged as they had once been. The carpet was torn in places and burnt in others, showing the seemless grey stone beneath. Those sofas and chairs were strewn all over the place, some of them had their stuffing spilling out of them.

They too had signs of burning on them. Some were still smouldering.

Only the walls, with their vivid colouration, showed no signs of any burning.

To further break the once-homely image I once had of this special room were the bodies of what had once been people laying all over the place. All of them had a deathly grey tint to their skins, whether they had once been as pale as Alis, or had skin which had been almost pure black. Their bodies were twisted in agonising manners and had many strange bony growths growing from various parts of their body.

Most of the twisted grey bodies had horrid burns on them.

The air was thick with the stench of blood, and voided bowels and bladders. A tang of burning and the putrid smell of burnt flesh underlay it all.

A scream of pain came from somewhere up above. I recognised Celameth’s favourite pale blue dress squeezed between a press of those grey tinted bodies and the iron railings running up the stairs leading to the sun platform. Alis jumped from alongside me towards the pile of bodies pressing down upon Celameth.

I stood in amazement as Alis landed on the thin banister with ease and started cutting those grey tinted figures. Shuffling feet and the slamming of a door from behind me brought me back to my senses. I called forth my mana axes and spun round. The door into this room had been smashed open. Through it came another seemingly endless horde of those grey-tinted people with their twisted bodies and bony growths.

Not wanting to be surrounded, I charged forward, hoping to catch them before they could fully leave the doorway. The first three went down with easy swings of my axes. They didn’t even try to protect themselves. The fourth one was harder to deal with as another figure barged it from the back, meaning my once clear swing hit the bony growth in its neck instead. A second swing took care of it.

That momentary hesitation brought the horde of those grey tinted figures too close for me to effectively deal with. I transformed one of my axes to a shield and used that to push back against them. But there were lots of them pushing themselves into the room and I was not the strongest person I knew, by far.

The push of bodies forced me further into the room, allowing them to surround me, trapping me. Hindering my ability to escape.