Chapter 54: Your Turn To Strip
Aster had been awake through the initial first contact, so he had already familiarized himself with a bit of the layout beforehand. There was one thing he was DYING to do, and the human soon found himself standing at the edge of a surprisingly clear river running along the western end of the town.
They were certainly still in the Crimson Sands, or at least near the border, but the landscape had splashes of life around this area where the earth softened up a bit, and the climate felt just a little less harsh than before. Slowly but surely, the group had found themselves clear of their first great trial.
As the human looked across the simple, flowing stream, his eyes lit up in sheer delight, something that made Stahl happy to be present to experience it with him. Aster turned to the she-wolf, spilling his excited thoughts.
"THIS IS A RIVER RIGHT? IT’S SO MUCH BETTER THAN I EXPECTED IT TO BE! HOW FAR DOES IT GO? LOOKS LIKE FOREVER! I CAN’T EVEN SEE THE END OF IT!"
Stahl laughed at both Aster’s unexpected reaction and her own oversight. She had assumed Aster just really wanted to take a bath, never even considering this was the first time the human ever had a chance to see water like this...
Stahl felt a bit guilty about that but didn’t want to ruin the experience for Aster. She spoke, contempt in that moment.
"Just you wait, Aster, I’ll show you the ocean some day too... The mountains, the forests, the towns... You’ll see it all, and I can’t wait to be there to see it all right beside you... To see you in utter awe of the world you have yet to live in."
She leaned in close to Aster for a moment, quickly licking at the tip of his nose before she continued, motioning to the water as she spoke.
"But until then... Want to jump in? Captain Rix was actually right about one thing... We do both stink pretty badly. I like your scent, but still... it has been over a week..."