Can it get any further?

The bottom of this cavern was harder to reach than they thought.

Sure it wasn't a kilometer away from the point where they started, but there were other aspects which had slown them down.

The prime example was that these old stairs were difficult to walk on. Time has done its part, as it has chipped and deformed this stone-work all over.

So even though they could appreciate the perplexing beauties that lied between this ruined place, the team still had a rough time getting down.

But once they did, the group headed directly for those few ruined houses that laid near the pool of water.

It was unrealistic to expect for any frogs to live around here, but they were still hopeful; as any lifeform that could communicate, would likely point the way out of here.

What they found instead was nothing but weeds and vines. These bits of nature covered the entire bottom section of these ruined homes.

Such a scene was quite expected but it still broke the group’s spirit a tad bit. As such a fate meant that they had to find a way out of here, all by themselves.

So even though it was rough, they tried to adapt to such an idea. They had to push a lot of discomfort away, and that was achieved through a few sighs.

“What do we do now? I’m up for a little break.” Richard was the first to break the silence.

It was not that he didn’t want to get out of here as soon as possible, but his hip wasn’t in a good shape at all.

So normally he needed more time than the rest, or else this injury might develop towards a permanent issue.

Steve took a better peek around this area, and picked a few signs that helped him figure out what they should do next.

He faced the group and then encouraged, “We need to wash up here, and then we can think of where we should head next.”

“That’s clumsy… blood worms can jump on us at any time, and I’d rather not be naked if they do.” Altima expressed.

She didn’t want to be a pain in the buttocks in any recognizable way, but embraced safety instead.

“Nah, this place is nice and the waters aren’t weedy. So I don’t think that we’ll be attacked here.” Steve insisted.

And then he once more encouraged, “We have to wash up, come on we all look like newborns.”

The young man had a firm point here. Most of the team was covered with blood one way or the other, Altima was the one who had it the worst.

Her natural green skin had been painted red thanks to all of the blood.

She even felt that a few drops of a worm’s blood had slipped all the way down to her booty, so that fact wasn’t quite nice on her conscience.

Likewise she pushed her paranoia away and tried to embrace, “Okay but let’s do this quickly, it’s risky to have our guard down for long.”

"You all go ahead,” Richard encouraged.

And then he explained, “It will take me a while to undress, and I’ll keep guard here too.”

“Yell if you need us,” Steve requested.

After that point the group headed towards this large body of water. They felt nervous through the first few seconds, but the structure of this little lake was comforting.

As a start, their feet didn’t sink in mud as soon as they stepped in these slightly cold waters, no.

Instead, there was a layer of hardened, grey limestone. This thing behaved almost like cement, it didn’t let them sink down.

That fact aside, this little lake remained shallow-watered even after they walked over fifteen meters towards its core; they still were at knee depths.

At a certain point, it seemed like the best time for the group to split up. As they all had to strip naked in order to clean themselves up.

For that matter, the structure of this area gave them more than enough comfort.

Small towers, which were mixed with rocks and limestone, were spread all across this place.

Sure this formation was odd, but each of these little towers bursted out streams of water.

Not only was this helpful if they wished to clean up faster, but they could all attain more than enough privacy.

“Can you protect my sister? I didn't see any blood worms so far, but we can't take any chances.” Steve requested as he peeked at his body-guard.

He understood that his sister would require her own, private space through such a matter. Sure he wanted to protect her, but he didn't want the little girl to strip herself naked in front of him!

Sure this tiny one didn’t understand the concept of proper privacy, but it was still the older sibling's responsibility to be careful about such issues.

But yet the tiny lady argued, “I can protect myself, I’m twelve years old!”

“Yes, you’re a big girl but bugs could still hurt you.” Steve insisted.

With quite some sass in her tone, Trinia pointed out. “No they can’t, I’m the one who killed them earlier, remember?”

At this point, the young man felt that it was pointless to argue such a concept. As after all, in some odd way this tiny girl was absolutely right.

For that matter he just signed and cited, “Just be careful, we don’t know what could greet us here.”

After that point they got ready to split up, but an odd scene was quick to happen.

Thankfully it wasn’t anything dangerous, no. But after the tiny lady left to find one of her own cleaning quarters, Steve’s body-guard whispered an odd request.

The lady avoided eye-contact in the process too.

She questioned, “Can you help me get my armour off? It’s tangled with my fur coat pretty badly, and this damn big cut in the armour isn’t helping me either.”

It was easy to notice that this fine lady had a hard time as she made such a request, her soft unsure tone confirmed it.

So it was only factual that she actually needed help. Earlier on they had crashed in another cavern pool, so it made sense if clothing and armour got roughed up badly.

Steve was stunned for a second but then he could only cooperate, “Of course, but would you feel comfortable with all of that?”

Both knew what the younger pointed towards, but at least they were old enough to discuss such a matter without nervously pissing themselves.

“To be honest, I never even let a man hold my hand before, so yes this will feel uncomfortable.” She described.

But then she also assured, “It will probably take a long time until I can get this damned armour off, but I’d rather have you help me than anyone else.”

“So you trust me, ha?” Steve teased just so he could break the tension.

In an instant the lady expressed, “It’s hard not to trust your overly-righteous ass, now come help me.”

After that point the couple of friends went through quite an adventure, but it wasn’t anything that would tickle their happy hormones, no.

They simply had a lot of trouble getting this armour off. Steve’s short height proved as a barricade through this process.

As it was a good idea to pull the armour from above, but he was too short for that and couldn’t pull this entanglement of metal, too high.

At the end, they figured that it was the best idea for the lady to bend over. So under such circumstances, the young frog could pull the armour from the top portions, much easier.

Now this procedure was tricky too, especially since the hard limestone beneath their feet was a tad slippery, a lot of algae coated this place so that made sense.

“Pull harder,” Altima tried to yell, but her tone was muffled by the fur-coat that covered her face.

“I’m trying my best,” The other stated under his breath.

The situation became especially uncomfortable after the hero actually progressed. As once he pulled the armour slightly off, the darn thing slipped away from the lady’s body, all within a blink!

Under just half a second, Steve had no option but to fling the other’s armour upwards, and behind himself.

Such a result had forced a lot of imbalance between their stances. The lady fell towards the other’s chest.

And in that same process, the young man had no option but to fall back. Gravity, friction and the opposing force encouraged so.

Such a fate was difficult enough on its own, but there was one more thing that made this scene even more uncomfortable.

Altima's armour was forcefully pulled, that was for sure. But that effort had also flinged the lady’s fur coat away from her body.

And since her shirt was ripped due to the fall she suffered when they fell in the first cavern, all that effort had ripped her shirt away too!

So in all ways possible, the lady’s upper body had been accidentally stripped naked, right before she crashed against Steve’s chest!

It took them a few seconds to realise what happened. The body-guard was the first to notice, and she was not happy.

“Don’t you dare let go of me,” She demanded.

It was not that she wanted to turn this atmosphere towards what a few hormones would prefer, but she understood one key fact.

If she separated herself from this man, then her chest would be completely exposed to the elements.

So in a way, she used this good friend as a shirt. But at the same time, she was embarrassed to be seen naked by this same man!

Desperate calls called for desperate measures, and in this case the lady acted with half a mind. She didn’t even consider the other’s struggles.

“You took my shirt off,” She acknowledged with another half-shout.

The water here was shallow, but this odd situation made the most unfortunate one, drown.

Steve held onto the lady for dear life! In one way, he couldn't breathe due to all of the water he swallowed.

But in another way, the lady’s soft chest which was pressed against his own, was beyond comfortable.

So in all ways possible, this was the definition of hell and heaven crashing together.

It took a few seconds for Steve to remember that he was a frog in this new world. But once he did, his instincts embraced another way for him to breathe.

Likewise he closed his mouth out of desperation, and then he tried to reap oxygen out of these waters, all through his green skin.

But a moment later he felt some commotion. It gestured that these couple of frogs arose from the waters.

Steve felt that the lady hugged him harder in the process, and after a moment she became a bit more communicative.

“Sorry that I almost drowned you,” She spoke, her tone was beyond soft.

And then she described, “But I’m almost naked… how’re we going to walk away from this?”

At that moment the younger one opened his eyes, and noticed that the lady’s face was just across his own.

A few inches kept their faces apart from each other. So it was fair to say that these couple of good friends were deeply lost in each other’s eyes.

They both realised that this situation had developed too far already, so it almost felt reasonable to push it even further just for the fun of it.

But at the same time, Steve understood the amount of discomfort the other had felt, at least until this situation led them up to this point. So it felt abusive to go any further.

Likewise, he pitched. “What if I close my eyes? Can I walk away if I close my eyes?”

“That’s a good idea… but promise me that you'll close them.” The other followed along with a worried, soft tone.

“I promise you,” Steve instantly assured.

As the lady slowly let go of the other, she recited. “Okay… I trust you.”

And after she let him go, the lady covered her chest with her arms right away.

After a moment she demanded, “Swim over there and get my stuff, get them closer to me and please go clean yourself somewhere else.”

“Done deal,” The young man agreed.

The amount of emotions he felt at the moment were beyond measure, he had never felt so conflicted in both of his lives.

As for Altima, she noticed the amount of blood that spread around her at the moment.

It was not that this commotion had forced her to bleed out, but she had been covered with a lot of dried-out blood a few moments ago.

So ultimately, these couple of friends got a sense of each other's skins, as they were surrounded by a bloody mist; perhaps kinky to a certain extent?