Chapter 14 #2
“I think you have just heard someone talk about one. To show you the clawprint of a kronk, you’d have to lie down here and then get up. That’s about as long as they are.”
“Are you crazy? I’m not lying down in the mud!”
“In the snow, then. Come on.” She squeals as I grab her, march over to the edge of the snow, and carefully place her in it, back first. Then I lift her back up while she kicks and screams in outrage.
“Oh no! There’s been a kronk here!” I hold her with her face down so she can see her imprint in the snow bank.
“That’s not a kronk footprint!” she hisses. “That’s only a poor alien woman held by a brute! Those tracks show it very clearly. See how bravely she fights!”
“Very excellent kronk,” I say, touching the tip of my boot to the extra-deep imprint of her behind. “I like this part especially.”
“If you like that part,” Riley huffs, “this is not the way to show it.”
I set her down and brush some snow off the back of her fur. “Then what is the way to show it?”
She snorts. “You think I tell you now, when you put me in the snow like a… like a spront?” She bends down and gathers snow between both hands, packing it together.
“Spronts don’t live in the snow,” I tell her. “But apart from that, I see the likeness—ow!”
Riley throws the wad of packed snow at me, hitting me on the hip. “Ha. Take that, brute kronk.” She brushes the snow off her hands.
“All right,” I concede. “Tell me later.”
She marches on, back straight and head held high. “I’m not telling you anything ever again. Oh, look!” she points. “There are ghosts!”
Three white pillars of steam rise straight up before they’re slowly blown to the side, looking a little like apparitions.
I catch up with Riley. “Huh. I wonder what they want.”
“To bathe in the hot spring, of course,” she says. “Why else would they be here? Ghosts need to get clean too.”
“I suppose so. Hello, ghosts. Do you mind if we bathe in the springs?”
“They won’t mind,” Riley says as she squats down to put her hand in the largest pool, crusted with yellow. “We’ll soon be ghosts ourselves. Oh, this is hot, but not bad.”
I look back the way we came. If this place isn’t as desolate and hopeless as the chief said, then he will have sent men to follow us. But I haven’t seen any sign of Gar men, so it’s also possible that we really can’t escape this way. The mountains around us certainly look unpassable.
“No one following us?” Riley asks. “I didn’t see any movement behind us the whole walk.”
“Neither did I.” I nod, glad that she’s been paying attention too.
“They’re not coming. The chief may be hoping that we really try to escape this way, so that we’ll die without his help.
” I don’t really believe that. The Gar tribe only wants me dead—losing Riley is the very last thing most of them want.
But the chief may see the advantage of not having to deal with her, and the inevitable fights she will cause between his men.
I find a suitable boulder to place my fur and sword belt on, then jump into the big pool of clear, steaming water, making sure to splash some on Riley. Standing on the bottom, the water reaches me to just above the knees.
“This is shallow,” I observe as I carefully take off my loincloth to avoid getting it wet. “But very deep for a small spront woman.”
“Where is the spront?” Riley asks. “If you’re not careful, the woman spront will leave you alone in that silly puddle.”
“The spront can go. The woman should come in the silly puddle and enjoy the warmth. Oh, so nice.” I sit down on the bottom. “Even this kronk likes it.”
She quickly looks around, then sheds her fur and the dress under it. I help her get into the water so she can sit on my lap and still keep her head above the surface.
“This is nice,” I sigh. “We must build a hot spring near the Borok village.”
“One where only spronts and kronks are allowed,” Riley chirps as she scrubs her arms. “We don’t want anyone else there.”
“Of course not,” I agree, adjusting my position. “Only the cutest spront and the most brutish kronk.”
She casually slides her hand up my stiff manhood. “I like it when you’re brutish. Sometimes.”
I lean forward to kiss her on the cheek. “You know, we’re alone here. There’s only one spront and one kronk, and they’re both in the same pool of water.”
Her hand doesn’t move away, and the teasing edge between us shifts into something heavier, as the heat of the water seems to settle into our skin and stay there.
I feel the change in her before I fully see it: the way her breath catches, the way she turns her head toward me instead of away, and her laughter softening into something more intent.
My hand slides down along her back, no longer playful, and when she meets my eyes there’s nothing casual left in her expression. The world beyond the steam and the stone fades, leaving only the two of us and the quiet understanding of what we both want.
Without a word, I rise, lifting her with me as water spills away from our bodies, and we step out onto the warm rock, drawn together with a common purpose.