Fantasy Cursed Island

[Fangs9090]

“Because it’s more fun with everyone there.”

Fia spoke up. “Everyone who’s allowed, anyway.”

 

[Darkling0096]

"Then you guys can have fun."

 

[Fangs9090]

"Mm, alright." Shuffle didn't seem too pleased, but she knew she couldn't change Jerry's mind. She would've tried bribing, if she knew about the concept.

 

[Darkling0096]

Jerry smiled and ruffled Shuffle's hair, turning on her heels to go walking back to her tent to deposit most of her stuff in there, tail swishing back and forth as she walked, apparently she was in a good mood, if her tail behaved anything like Shuffle's.

 

[Fangs9090]

Corona spoke up as she started heading down the path. “Well, I’m gonna go on down.”

Shuffle and Fia glanced over before looking at Nyah. They hadn’t quite finished the story.

 

[Darkling0096]

Others nodded and started down, gathering what they needed and going down the path, splitting into the pools. Nyah's story didn't last more than a few minutes longer, they'd caught the tail end of the tale that had been interrupted when Nyah had to return to her puzzle to recharge. Once it was finished, Nyah urged the two towards the dwindling pile of soaps to pick one out so they'd smell like they wanted once they were bathed before urging them down towards the pools.

----------------------
The washing barrel had been relocated to just outside the pools. People could deposit their clothes in the barrel before going in, and the last person to go in would turn it on. That way when they came out everyone's clothes would be cleaned and they could dress again. One group at a time, of course.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle and Fia didn’t need much pushing to get going. They did take a moment to pick their scent, but once they did they hurried after the others.


Corona was first to arrive and, after having someone explain the washing machine, she unabashedly removed her tunic and put it before stepping into the water. Evidently she did not normally wear anything under the tunic.

 

[Darkling0096]

Lines were forming between the two pools, the line for the men's pool significantly shorter than the line for the women's, just by the different sizes of the two groups. The men waited on their side of the barrier to wait for the women to finish on their side, mostly to avoid being smacked across the pond by Joanne if she thought they were peeping.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle chose to make a splash as she jumped into the water, with Fia making a smaller one after her. Erina shook her head as she stepped into the water. "I do hope they'll settle down a little."

 

[Darkling0096]

"They don't settle down until they drop," Jerry commented as she passed by on a slightly lower terrace on her way to another pool, partially covered with a sheet and her wings.

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa waved to the others as she settled into her smaller personal pool. "Good luck to you."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Hmm," Veo siged as she sank into the water. Her vines enjoyed the water greatly, trying to spread out past her area of personal space to drink up the life water. Emfa wasn't nearly as calm about it, while Joanne just sat down in the shallow end and started scrubbing. Relax wasn't in the paladin's vocabulary.

------------------
"Too bad we didn't have these back where I'm from," Adran noted, using his mirror so her could shave. "Beri might not be as bad about water."

 

[Fangs9090]

Raine found a shallow spot to sit as well, enjoying the warmth without falling into it this time.

Shuffle and Fia played for a bit before even they settled down. The warm water was soothing enough that they couldn’t play and be rowdy for very long.

—————

Emil gave nod. “Hot springs tend to be a rare thing. Only certain locations work.”

Asta was silent for the time, simply laying in the water, which made it spill over to the edge of the terrace a bit.

 

[Darkling0096]

Lyak stayed close to Erina, as usual, although with the deeper water Erina submerged herself in Lyak was almost definitely treading just to keep her head above water until she found something to stand on. At least growing up in a swamp made her a decent swimmer.

Much like Asta, Nalla's entry into the pool made the water level rise quite a bit, spilling over the edge and almost taking the little ones under if they didn't have something solid underneath them.

---------------------------
"I dunno about that," Adran shrugged, "I mean a spring in general is just water flowing out of a-" There came a shriek from down below as the overflow from the two large individuals in their respective pools doused Jerry a couple terraces down.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle perked up her ears at the shriek. She swam to the edge of the pool to see if she could see what that came from.

—————

Asta raised his head as well.

Emil spoke up. “That sounded like Jerry. Ah, she did say she was going to be on her own. I guess she went lower down.”

 

[Darkling0096]

Down below, Jerry was glaring up at the pools. "Whoever did that, I've got a knife with your name on it!", she barked.

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil glanced over towards the sound of her voice. "That would be Asta. Not intentional, of course."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Nalla as well," Joanne called.

"It was not intentional," Nalla added. Shuffle and Asta were the only ones that could see the middle finger Jerry was shoving at the sound of talking. If Jerry was capable of any of Niudisa's hand spells there would probably be magic hands smacking the backs of heads.

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta called out as well. "I'm sorry. I had no control of the matter."

Shuffle spoke up as well. "You might not get splashed if you join us."

 

[Darkling0096]

Jerry groaned, looked down, then back up at Shuffle, "You're gonna have to drag me kicking and screaming." Figuring that was the end of the debate, Jerry got out of the pool she'd been using to start looking for one out of the splash zone.

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa shook her head. "Poor choice of words..."

Shuffle, seeing that as a promise it would work, hopped out of the water onto the edge of the terrace before running down on all fours after Jerry.

 

[Darkling0096]

"She's gonna regret that, isn't she?", Veo asked, wading over to the edge to look down and see what was happening.

Jerry realized that was an incredibly poor choice of words to say to Shuffle right as Shuffle caught up to her. "Shit."

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle pounced once she was in range. First step to dragging someone kicking and screaming was to tackle the to the ground, right?

 

[Darkling0096]

Jerry turned around right as Shuffle pounced. She reached for a knife, but remembered too late that she'd taken off all of her equipment and left it with Poli in her tent, all she had was the now soggy sheet, and by the time she figured that out she was already on the ground trying to wrestle Shuffle off of her.

Adran, hearing some commotion, waded over to the edge of the pool to take a look. He raised an eyebrow at the sight, "Man, you scored," he nudged Asta. Some steam kicked up by the splashing and struggling quickly obscured the sight from Adran's view point, and his shoulders dropped. It was nice for the few seconds he could see, anyway.

 

[Fangs9090]

This part of the process was foreign to Shuffle. Normally when trying to catch something, she would sink her claws in and bite it. Obviously, she couldn’t now, so she had to figure out some other method. Jerry was struggling a lot though, so she mostly just tried to grab her arms and keep her still. Again, without using her claws, it was difficult.

Asta had been watching already, though his excuse was to make sure Jerry didn’t get hurt.