Cassandra was fuming, they had gone complacent the last few days. Going through the forest like they were on a casual stroll and not one of the more dangerous places around. It was true they were at the edge where monsters rarely showed up, but letting a kril get so close to them without anyone noticing was a testament to their negligence.

“Its good that no one got hurt, but we can’t continue like this. Inara you are on scouting duty again, Lyria take care of Alex while we march.”

Inara scrunched her eyebrows and was ready to protest, but she thought better of it after she felt the gash in her armor. She really liked her time with Alex. He was always smiling at her and very attentive to everything she said or did while holding her lessons, not to mention the way he looked at her. She sighed while getting a sad look, but this wasn’t the time or place. She had more important things to do, and the first thing was digging out this core.

Lyria who had just cleansed the land from the quills corrosion looked up at Cassandra with a horrified look on her face.

“But I don’t know how.”

“No buts, just treat him like a regular person and teach him Valerian to your best abilities.”

Cassandra shut down Lyrias protest immediately. That girl needed to learn to socialize with others especially men.

After they cleaned up the battlefield and stored all the valuables from the kril they continued the journey.

Lyria tentatively stepped close to Alex while they were marching, they had slowed down the pace to normal speed again. She glanced up towards Alex, who was looking directly at her with a grateful smile.

“Hey, thank you”

He spoke in Valerian to her, she gulped and focused back on the road while trying to build up her courage to speak up. She didn’t know what to do and say, it felt like she already messed up while the building silence was pressing down on her.

“Fight strong beast.”

She was woken from her stupor when Alex spoke again. When she looked at him he mimed by spreading his fingers over his head, making a whoosh sound while sending them outwards and growling.

“Beast?”

“Eeeeeh, kril?

She managed to squeak out.

He followed by repeating kril while sagely nodding to himself, then got a grin on his face before he started to reenact the fight with sound effects and exaggerated motions.

Lyria couldn’t help but giggle while looking at him, he looked so silly doing it. Completely different from anyone she has ever seen or heard about. He wasn’t stuck up or looked down on her. He even helped her out when she was supposed to be his teacher, but couldn’t even manage to speak.

At the end he putt his arm up to protect himself, making pinging sounds he put his hands in front like there was a wall there. After that he nodded towards her.

“Thank you.”

She blushed while he was looking directly at her with admiration in his eyes.

She could feel butterflies in her stomach, yet her mouth was in a full bloom.

***

There was no more surprises the next two days. Well except for the fact that Nylas giant backpack was able to store all the quills, skin and a lot of other stuff inside that should have been at least five times more than its size.

The heavy tensions was also lifted as the trees where getting smaller and the oppressive feeling from the forest subsided. The girls were clearly more relaxed than they were yesterday.

I was glad my gambit payed off, I was really nervous when I started goofing around after the fight. I just felt like I needed to break the ice somehow.

It was really cute to see Lyrias reactions, she had such a pretty laugh. And the fact that she was so shy and uncertain while teaching me was endearing. I would never have guessed that someone as beautiful as her would be so shy and quiet. She probably grew up in a monastery bereft of men, its probably like in the fantasy trope that priests are healers.

While I was musing to myself we walked into a breathtaking clearing. There was a waterfall that splashed into a crystal clear pond, that had a small stream flowing from it. The sun was shinning and there was pretty flowers growing around the edges. Yet the picture was broken when I saw a bunch of dirty goblins gorging on a fawns corpse.

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They stood up with a shrill hiss when they saw us, but before they could charge they were promptly decapitated by Inara. She was grumbling about something while looking down in disgust on the skeletons left from their previous meals and defecation that was spread across the bank of the pond. Cassandra summoned a stream of water that quickly swept away all their filth after Inara had cut of their left ears.

This was the most picturesque place I had ever seen, baring the small goblin infestation that was removed. When I walked up to the pond I could clearly see the bottom. It was shallow barely going down tree meters at the center and lower towards the edges. I could see tiny fish swimming in there, but barely anything else.

We had been walking through the forest for the last seven days since I met them. And with the fast pace, no change of clothes I was feeling very clammy. I couldn’t help but stare at the crystal clear water.

I turned around and saw Nyla was next to me.

“Water safe?”

I asked in Valerian without hesitation. She slightly tilted her head and started to pass me her waterskin.

“No. Water safe?”

I pointed at the pond and imitated swimming and washing myself.

She looked uncertain before turning towards Cassandra and calling out to her. But before she could answer Inara appeared next to me while nodding.

“Yes. Ira water na safe.”

She also mimed swimming and told me what it was called, the same for washing.

I saw Nyla looking between Cassandra and Inara. Cassandra just sighed and went back to setting up her tent. Meanwhile Inara was getting her predatory grin while pulling Nyla away and pointing towards a boulder several meters away at the edge of the pond.

It looked like a good place to undress, I didn’t really mind doing it right where I stood since I was going to keep my boxers on. But since she was nice enough to point it out for me, and it might be inappropriate to just do it out in the open so I followed her advise.

When I went into the water the cold stopped me at thigh high. I always needed to hype myself up before I could do the plunge, even if I knew it would get better after a second.

Looking back towards the camp, Nyla was staring at me with her eyes wide open. Inara was nowhere to be seen, Cassandra was meditating in the sun as she always did after we set camp. When I looked towards Lyria she quickly turned away, but she tried to glance back after a few seconds. It was really funny to see her reactions.

Taking a deep breath I dived in the water, it felt really good having clean water wash away my sweat. And after a few minutes of swimming and floating I started to scrub myself, I lacked soap but it was better than nothing.

It was nice just swimming and floating in the pond, I felt more at ease than in a long time. Not having my smartphone or the internet constantly drawing my attention was weird at first. But it really isn’t so bad to just enjoy nature and relax, better stress relief than anything I did back home on earth actually.

***

Inara almost dropped out of her stealth when he brazenly walked out in the pond. She thought he would just quickly splash and wash himself in the water that was hidden away, but he just causally strolled out. With no sense of modesty he even turned around and directly looked at the girls sitting in the camp. Nylas eyes where almost popping out of her skull with how shocked she was.

She wondered if she should just sit down and enjoy the show, his tight underwear showing his buttocks and that bulge. His bare body glistening in the water. It was good that she stopped Cassandra from just casting her spell to clean him. Getting a show for the whole party was already worth the trip to this glade.

Yet his mystery kept on growing, he didn’t know their language. He had the most unique clothes she ever saw. He had no modesty about his body compared to other men. And he didn’t know any magic at all, even the basic self care that every awakend learned. He was even amazed and enraptured by the things they did, even when nothing was actually truly special or impressive. Good thing she went all out carrying that boar, it was so satisfying seeing him gape at her when she came back to camp.

It was expected they could do at least that much as veteran mercenaries, they weren’t green horn rookies anymore. If you wanted to survive in the endless forest this level of power was needed, and that’s only good enough for the periphery.

But Alex had no knowledge or power that would be required to live or survive in such a place, he really is an enigma.

Wait maybe he was a regular person? But it's impossible for a mundane person to survive in the forest, the mana intensity alone would poison him after a few weeks.

Shaking her head she focused back on the view, dismissing her last thought.

Idly fantasizing Inara even had the weird idea of diving in with him. How would he react?

The way he acted to her was very warm, and the slight glances towards her body actually made her feel good about herself.

Alas it was still to scary, what if he was just tolerant. She really wasn’t confident enough in her body to just do it.

Idly looking at him frolicking around in the water she was musing about her thoughts and fantasies.

She saw him coming back to the boulder after awhile, she was sitting stealthily on top of it the whole time. What shocked her to the core was that he dried himself on the shirt he got from Cassandra and then pulled of his wet underwear.

It was so unexpected that she lost her concentration and revealed herself right in front of him.

They both stood there shell shocked for a second. She couldn’t even properly processes what happened before panicking and dipping out of there.

While she was moving to the camp she was screaming at herself for being so stupid. Now he would think she is a pervert that was peeking at him. Would he hate her now? How could she even face him later?

Nyla saw her walking back into the camp with a blank face and obliviously started talking to her.

“Did you see him swimming in the pond, I never saw a guys body before. Does that mean he likes us and wants to create a family with us?.”

Nyla was extremely excited and couldn’t help pestering Inara who was completely lost in her own world after the latest fiasco.