Chapter 27: Not a Beach Episode

The group of friends, dirty and sweaty agreed that, yeah, they do need to go wash themselves.

At this age of the world hygiene is not what you would consider well practiced. Most people washed themselves only when it was hot or when they felt unconfortably dirty. To begin with they pretty much only washed during summer since, as you may think, it's not a very good idea to take a bath during the cold winter even more so when their houses had verious leaks and the common people slept in the floor with a cloth or fur at best separating themselves with the dirt, as it is expensive to put planks in the floor for the common people.

And so the four children went in the direction of the stream that passed through the village, it wasn't very deep at most of the parts, but at a certain point the stream formed a small lake or pond, it went up to the knee of a full grown man, or little more than half a meter at the deepest, and it had about a six meter in diameter. The pond was full of plants at the edges, the clear water allowed one to see it's bottom full of small round peebles, some small fish could be seen swimming around, frogs could be heard croaking and dragonflies flew above the water.

-Here we are! Mom usually brings me here so I don't accidently end up dirtying the cloth and the clothes.

Said Antiochius, as he started to unmake the knot that closed his small leather jacket together.

Alex surprised for a moment and said.

-You mom is a tailor? I didn't knew that.

-Is that so? I guess we never talked about our family, huh. Yeah, she makes clothes, cloaks and the such. I remember how last winter a bunch of people came to our house for the ritual clothes.

Antiochius responded in a calm way as he mentioned the costumes people used during the baptism ritual. Alex remembering when he also went to a tailor to make clothes for him, he tried to forget the first time he learned about how the eyes of the beastmen reflected light like nocturnal predators, it was a scary first experience for him. As he remembered of that time he conected the dots when he remembered the tailor that took his measures, her hair was blonde like Antiochius and her eyes had the same golden amber color, she was problably his mother.

-Now that you mentioned it we really never talked about our families, what does your family do Theodora?

Alex asked as he looked in the direction of Theodora that was taking out the tunic that was placed on top of her shirt.

-My family, huh? My father works a lot with animals, mainly cows, sheep and goats. So he is often out in the fields taking care of them. Mother sells plants? Not really sure what is it that she does, but she has various small plants that for some reason a bunch of people come buy the leaves. Not really sure what is so special about those plants, I guess they smell nice but that's about it.

Explained Theodora as she looked up as if trying to think about what was so special about those plants.

Although the four of them didn't know, those plants were actually spices. If you know anything about human history is that one of the greatest reasons for europe's world dominance was because of their colonial presence in just about every continent. But you may ask why? Why did the europeans decided to conquer the world? It all started with spices, in a world without refrigeration preserving food was of the most importance, after all after you killed that cow the meat would spoil in 2 hours, so you something that is able preserve food would be worth it's weight in gold. In rome soldiers would be payed in salt and the famous myth that europe had a lack of salt is actually because it was so important for society that enourmous taxes were put on salt and so the prices were high. At the current period anything that can preserve food or at least make so you don't feel the taste of rotting meat were worth enough for people to kill for it.

-What about you Moirai?

Asked Alex again as he looked at Moirai's direction

-... Ma and Pa work for the Lord, Pa takes care of the stables and Ma cleans the knight's barracks... She says it's very troublesome how messy they make the dinning hall...

Responded Moirai is a somewhat flat tone as she looked at Alex, who seemed to somewhat feel guilty for her mother's troubles since those were his father's knights. Moirai was taking out her shoes and separating them together with her clothes.

-By the way Alex, why do you still have your clothes on?

Asked Theodora that was already naked in the pond with Antiochius.

-Huh?! Oh, yeah... I was so focused talking with you that I forgot...haha.

Said Alex in a awkward and nervous voice. After all Alex was from earth before and in the life he was used to people didn't normally get naked to swim in a lake or in the beach, but he shouldn't really expect to exist bikinis or any kind of swimming clothes, to begin with there weren't even water-proof cloth in this world yet, so being naked would even be safer than using normal clothes that makes you heavier in water and may make you drown.

But a way or another Alex started taking out his clothes and entered the water. In Alex's previous world he had learned how to swim from a very young age, so as soon that he entered the pond he started swimming a bit.

-You know how to swim? When did you learn?

Asked Theodora with a voice full of interest. She still had dirt and leaves on her, she was trying to take the dirt out of her short chestnut colored hair, and the mud in her chocolate colored skin that had dried up and hardened had started to come off.

-Eh? Ah... Some time ago...? Why?

Alex answered vaguely as he had not expected the question.

-Can you teach us?

Asked Antiochius who also wanted to learn. His medium sized blonde hair that had blades of grass and parts of it hard with dried mud before now had but small remnants of dirt. In his skin, that was tanned from playing under the sun, one could see small scratches on his knees, elbows and hands, problably from climbing the tree.

-... I don't need it...

Said Moirai trying to not get involved into this as she seemed much more focused in cleaning herself. Her long hair, with a platinum blonde color so bright that one might even say it's white, had small sticks coming out of it before, the dirt making the hair almost brown at some parts, was being fiercely washed and cleaned as Moirai looked for any sticks and leaves in her hair and washed the dirt away. Her skin, somehow clear white even as she spent time under the sun, was carefully washed from any dirt. Alex learned that day that Moirai surprisingly cared a lot about her appearence.

-Even if you say that, I don't really know how to teach you guys.

Alex said with a reluctant expression in his face. It had been years since he first learned how to swim, he didn't really remember what would be the first steps to teaching, would it be how to control you weight? How to move around? How to hold your breath? He didn't know, he could try but he also wanted to clean himself first, he was exhausted from climbing the tree, the adrenaline rush made him feel very tired and he wanted to rest in the water a bit.

-Pleeeasee!

The both of them begged with pleading eyes. Alex knew that if he were to deny they would just continue asking, as such he conceded.

-*sigh* Fine, I will teach you, but I can't promise I'll be able to do a good job.

-Yay!

Said Theodora as she jumped a hug on Alex, who was thrown back in the water.

In that note Alex started teaching them. He started by making them learn how to control their weight in the water so they may be able to float even without moving their arms or legs. For that they went to a slightly deeper part of the lake.

-So first take your feet out of the floor and try to maintain your body afloat. Try doing like this first, by spreading your arms and legs across the surfice of the water.

Explained Alex the best he could, as he showed how to do it.

After they were able to float Alex started trying to make them able to actually swim, he showed them how to move their legs and arms, how to be able to breathe while moving and such.

Theodora was having a way smoothier time learning but Antiochius was aways losing his direction when not swiming in a straight line. Alex had to be constantly holding his hand so he wouldn't forget to move both his arms and legs.

By the time that both Theodora and Antiochius were able to be able to swim without problems the lunch time had already passed hour ago, Moirai had already put on clothes and was just sitting in a rock waiting her friends and Alex was exhausted.

Satisfied with their progress Alex, Antiochius and Theodora also went out of the water and put on their clothes.

-...Finally, took you long enough...

Said Moirai in a annoyed tone of voice. Alex, still tired sat on the ground, and sighed. Antiochius, noticing the position of the sun said that he should problably hurry to eat, Moirai also said goodbye and went home.

-Hey.

Said Theodora, who was looking to Alex from above.

-Hey...

Responded Alex in a tired tone of voice as he layed down to the ground.

-Just wanted to say thank you...

-You are welcome, but I don't see why - *smooch*

As Alex was responding he was interupted by Theodora as she kissed his forehead.

-Anyway, Bye bye!

She said in a hurry as she ran back home, leaving the surprised and stunned Alex alone by the pond.

-What da fu...