After her encounter with the magician, Erimosi immediately set out to look for solitude (for her thoughts would be of nothing except for these newly made plans, which she would polish for hours upon hours) and space (as it couldn't hurt to actually begin practicing, particularly being that she intended to make changes).
She would have fun with that magician, a thought that made her grin each time it occurred.
The light was fading when she resigned from her practicing, exhausted physically and mentally. She needed rest and was in the mood for lighter endeavors. She lightly and slowly treaded in the direction of camp, again humming that tune to herself. Her feet ached. She thought she might dip them in a pond she'd noticed and headed that direction.
(As usual, if this is not what you intended, Taj, do say so. And, if it is, sorry for keeping you waiting for so long.)
(Would it be alright if Katarina and Eri made their first meeting here? I hate to see you waiting all by yourself. If not, I'll delete this part of the post.)
Katarina was making her way back to the pond to take the bath that had been so strangely intruded upon earlier that day. She stank of sweat, and animals, having had to relocate some of the horses to a further corral that afternoon after one of the vendors complained of the smell being bad for their business. She'd carried them two at a time something like 30 yards, and then had to assist in actually constructing the corral itself. She was exhausted, and irate. She desperately needed somewhere to cool down.
Katarina noticed a sort of quiet humming as she passed through the camp. Quiet footfalls nearby, the rustling of fabric. She WOULD NOT be denied her bath a second time, and lengthened her strides in the direction of the pond. With a crackling of branches and rustling of leaves, she took a short-cut through the thicker areas of wood to circumvent the other foot traffic, and was at the water's edge within seconds. She submerged herself in the water, walking out to the middle where few were tall enough to wade, and fewer still strong enough to swim before removing her clothing and letting it float off toward the water's periphery. She was concealed in the opaque, mineral-saturated body everywhere below her neck when she sat and up to her waist if she should stand. A large rock became an apt backrest for her somewhere on the pond's bottom, and she stretched her legs out toward the shore as her eyes fluttered closed, appreciating the brief luxury of solitude
and privacy.
(Incidentally, Eri and Katarina are for their time out of synch temporally with the rest of the cast. We're a little bit in the future, while --for example--Isis and Marcy are still engaged elsewhere some time this afternoon. So if you're comfortable dual-casting in the present and the future, you'll have some mobility earlier today should you choose to use it. )
*******
Marcy scoffed at Isis' ploy, "Hedonistic, she says?" as he began slowing his flickering fingers so that he could extend individual pointers beneath her arms and wiggle them against her smooth hollows. "As I recall, this was your war. If I'm hedonistic, then you're completely barbaric! Am I right or wrong, Mrs. Blackside?" He punctuated his teasing inquiry with quick little pokes at her ribs, before returning his fingers beneath her arms. "Anyone who has the audacity to look on as you snatched some helpless young thing off the fence and torture him, without so much as lifting a finger should be as bad as you; they've scarcely any room to judge I think. Don't you agree?"
He had gotten all four fingers beneath her biceps and was using a pinching motion of his palm to squeeze at the edges of her armpits and ribs.
"Why I dare say, that my hedonism should be a compliment relative to my present company. Hm? Isn't that right?"
