Chapter Seven: Sneaking a Look

As the slime slowly dragged Dayn back to its watery lair his eyes burst open shining a brilliant icy blue, he opened his mouth and as the ooze threatened to suffocate him a silver white fog began to spill out. The fog became more dense completely enveloping him and spreading out to engulf the interior of the slime, it rapidly began to try to push Dayn out but it was to late, it cracked apart in large chunks.

Dayn climbed from the remains covered in a thick gooey slime, "Lets not talk about this" he said embarrassed. Sieri and Ziri were to relieved to laugh, He walked through a few feet of water to the shore and collapsed exhausted on the bank.

Ziri and Sieri finished setting up the camp while Dayn cleaned off his armor, it was completely covered in the viscous body fluids of the slime, in the meantime he was dressed in a plain beige tunic with iron buttons and brown leather breeches. He sniffed at his arm absently while at work, he smelled awful, the fluids had soaked through his armor and the gambeson underneath and onto his skin.

"I'll take first watch tonight" Dayn offered, it wasn't fair of him to not help set up the camp and then be the first to rest, he had mostly scraped all the gunk off his chainmail and the smell hadn't clung to it. He looked at his gambeson disdainfully, he was probably going to have to throw this out and he only had a single spare, he scrubbed and scrubbed but the smell just wouldn't come out. He proceeded to roll and up in a cloth and set it in his bag, both the girls were looking at him now, "Don't worry about me, take your rest."

They hadn't said anything to him since he had destroyed the monster and he hoped he hadn't offended them in some way, he figured it was probably the smell, they had been keeping their distance. After they had gone into the tent he rifled through his backpack pulling out a small bar of soap, he stripped down and casually walked into the lake.

"That was to close" Sieri muttered under her breath when they were in the tent, "That fool just about got himself killed with such a simple mistake!" Ziri said frowning. "Now he reeks!" Sieri added, "Should we ask him to take a bath?" Ziri asked in all seriousness, Sieri thought about it and started blushing. "Maybe we should tell him to take one while we're resting" she pondered, "You know, less temptation" a lecherous smile creeping onto her small face.

Sieri poked her head out of the tent and couldn't see Dayn anywhere, "He's not here" she said, Ziri looked out as well but couldn't spot him either, they both climbed out of the tent and began to look around.

They passed around a mushroom tree to see him break the surface of the water, the spray cascaded down his long hair to his shoulders rolling down his hardened chest to drip back to the surface of the lake.

The girls watched as he unwrapped a cloth package and began to lather up his skin his green eyes shining as they reflected the light shining on the lake. He refolded the parcel and tossed it to the shore, the girls ducked down worrying that he would see them both their faces flushed. "We shouldn't be doing this its not right" Ziri whispered harshly, as soon as Dayn turned back to his task Sieri started peeking again. "Stop" Ziri said pulling at the gnomes arm, "If you don't want to watch go back to the tent" she said shaking off Ziri's arm and moving closer.

Dayn wiped down his arms slowly scrubbing at them in frustration, some of the slime had begun to harden before he had a chance to bathe. He didn't have any spare cloth's only the one he kept his soap wrapped in so he was using his finger nails to try to scrape it loose, every so often he'd scan the area just outside of the camp, he was on watch after all.

Sieri sighed as Dayn slowly drew his hands across his muscled arms, moving to his chest next, she was in a daze, meanwhile Ziri kept trying to shake her out of it and take her back to the camp. She continued to watch as his hands moved to his stomach next and then the other arm.

Dayn finally reached the lost bit of gunk on his body, he was just glad it hadn't soaked through his pants, cleaning this stuff off his privates would've been difficult without a scrub brush or a cloth, he managed to scrape off the last of the hardened filth before dunking himself in the lake again. As he rose from the water he thought he saw something, he froze holding as still as possible while his eyes scanned the shore.

"Stupid!" Sieri said harshly, "He's going to see us if you keep causing a fuss," Ziri still insisted it was wrong although she didn't want to be seen herself, she got lower to the ground but still insisted on pulling at Sieri to get her to stop ogling.

Dayn spotted one of the smaller groves of mushroom trees swaying unnaturally, he swore he could see movement near the ground, he moved slowly to where he had left his weapon, he didn't have time to get dressed but with high small the potential enemy appeared he wasn't worried.

"Where'd he go?" Sieri asked disappointed, she scanned the surface expecting him to rise from the water again at any moment, a sheathed sword smashed the rock near her face, she slowly looked up to see Dayn's emerald eyes looking down at her simmering with anger. Ziri blushing profusely eyes covered with her hands screeched in a pitiful voice, "She did it, I was trying to make her leave but she wouldn't listen." Sieri's eyes moved to the left "Oh... what a coincidence" she said in a fairly flat voice "I was just thinking of taking a bath and found you here." Her eyes came back to Dayn who had covered up his privates, his expression unchanged, he said very slowly emphasizing each word, "Why are you still here."