8.4

Looking up and puffing out her chest she continued her thoughts, "No. It can't be. Surely he's talking about now. Yes, it has to be. Hmmm! If I smell ugly now, maybe when I smell better we can get married. Yes, if he wants to lick me, he'll have to marry me first. I'll be following what I was told, though. On the other hand, now I have the opportunity to take a bath, smell and feel better, but I don't want to do it alone. What if something dangerous lurking around the place catches me as soon as I get careless? To take a bath I have to become tangible". A whole stream of shivers made him wonder aloud to the much-worried Parcae, who floated about the place almost shrugging his feet and arms:

"Rey, since it is I who will not allow you to lick me without first marrying me, would you, at least... stay by my side?"

Rey turned around, the word marrying surprised him, however, he remembered the conversation he had with his mother. With his eyes he looked at the face of the little floater, she reminded him a lot of Ehimus. Scary and prejudiced, someone who made rash decisions.

"Oh, get married? I get it. You know what it's like to have sex. And for two adults to have sex, they have to get married first in some cultures. Don't worry, I told you I'd take you to the place you came from, didn't I?"

She nodded her head, whose eyes and forehead were hidden behind the hood.

"That means you are part of my pack and I will take it upon myself to protect you until our paths divide. When I said lick you, I was referring to bathing you with my tongue."

Edith opened her eyes so wide that she almost lifted the corners of her sad, drooping mouth. She wasn't quite laughing, but she was happy at his words. It was ironic to see how at the same time White was licking a paw and then preening himself, as one who wanted to show off the form of a real bath.

Once on the shore of the immense lagoon, the little white-eyed boy stripped off the only garment he had to enter the place without caring how many people were watching or passing by the busy plain. In contrast, the Parcae thought twice, she felt it was not right to bathe or relieve herself if other people saw her.

After waiting for a while, she began to complain hovering above the little guy:

"What, aren't you ashamed that other people can see you, that I can see you?".

The little boy with no last name returned her a confused look, as if downplaying the matter.

"I am!!!! I am a lady...."

Rey, taking Edith's demands into consideration, asked a question:

"Do you want to go somewhere where no one will see you?" She nodded. "I understand..."

With only his head, on which he carried White, above the water, Rey used his hands and legs to stay afloat and go into the depths of the lake, which caused panic in the Parcae's behavior. Edith acted as if she were a chicken that had lost her chicks. Hysterical for not even knowing or seeing the depth of the lake. From the air, the shimmering body of water was vast, deep and dangerous. Her mind wandered among the millions of creatures that could exist and be hidden beneath the surface of such a place. On second thought, what other place could be more advantageous to predators than where they could see their victims and attack them from below. Panic swelled inside the little girl to the point of generating a very intense discomfort in her stomach and almost making her vomit. Edith, exalted, could not keep quiet:

"What are you thinking, aren't you afraid that something will come out of the water and eat you?"

Rey shook his head as if he had no reason to think of such a possibility.

"I am! Arg... What, do you want to die?"

Rey, as if pointing out a problem and speaking as if he were a master training his disciple, said:

"Edith, if you want to become stronger, you have to become more vulnerable?"

"More vulnerable?" asked Edith in agitation. "What do you mean, how by being more vulnerable will I be stronger?"

Rey, as one who understood that he was explaining something that would not be understood, continued:

"Someday you will understand for yourself. It's beyond my control to make it clear that you understand if you're not ready to understand" Changing the conversation, now more than halfway across the middle of the lake, he continued: "Look, there's no one on this side. Still."

"Okay" Edith replied in a soft voice, reaching down and grabbing Rey's left arm with her right hand and sticking to his body as if she wanted him not to drop it in the process of leaving. She had her mind occupied with something else, she was reflecting on what she had been told. "Being vulnerable," she thought.

The Parcae's eyes lowered once more to look at the little guy's not so developed limb. Leaving the panic of the lake, now came another fear that made him feel vulnerable. Stripping in an open place, in front of other individuals, was a great moment of vulnerability. She was female, and even small; such an action of being unclothed would provoke the approach of other types of predators; still, it would make her strong somehow. "No, this is simply arrogance. Like those warriors who go without armor to a battle, or want to take on the strongest person they can find... Still, taking risks is an opportunity to make me stronger, unless I die in the process. Maybe that's what he meant."

After pondering for a while, she looked sideways, let Rey drift away, floated to shore and very slowly began to undress. "As long as my feet touch the bottom, I don't have to worry about something bigger coming to eat me from underneath. If I can make myself intangible, no one will be able to touch me... Let's see what happens," Edith thought.

Both Rey and White got out of the water and shook their bodies to wring out the moisture that covered them. Then they lay down on the grass as if they were taking a breath to let the light dry them. On the other hand, the Parcae, very careful not to slip, already without clothes, covered both her chest and her vulva with her hands while, little by little, she entered the lake without looking to the sides. She felt that, if she saw that someone was watching her, she would regret what she was doing.

Her heart was pounding, she felt sand under her feet, the water rising and covering more with each step. To her, the liquid felt warm, almost as warm as the warm glow that washed over her face. No colder, no warmer. She remembered that whenever she stepped into the bathtub where she lived, the icy water would take her by surprise and make her recoil a few times. Also, that when she asked for the bathtub to be heated, it would almost boil and burn her badly on contact. So far, she didn't know that bathing could actually feel so refreshing. As she walked, no longer worrying about what might be around her, she sank her body and let her hands become freer until she let her weight float in the water. Edith did not understand this feeling of well-being and relaxation that the shimmering lake gave her. She could swear she was bathing in the sky, as free as any bird flying over the firmament.

With one thing leading to another, Edith set out to let go of the discomfort she felt in her bladder, something that was supposed to relax her even more. Relaxing her pelvic area she set out to urinate. Rey felt a hissing sound that she managed to identify quickly. "Edith is whining about something," he thought. The hissing turned to grumbling, and the grumbling ended in complaints against the water. No longer holding back her doubts, Rey asked aloud like someone caring for a child:

"What's wrong?"

Edith answered:

"I don't know. It burns me, I can't wee without it burning. It's the water, it has to be. This has never happened to me before."

Rey, worried to discover a word he had never heard before, asked:

"Wee?"

Edith, as if it were as common as drinking water or breathing, replied:

"Pee, that yellow liquid that comes out from down there?"

Rey, as if deducing something new, added:

"Oh, urine. Come, let me see. Maybe it's not the water and it's you."

Edith, somewhat elated, refused:

"Definitely not."

"Why not?"

Edith, almost red-faced, said:

"I don't know. I feel sorry for her and a lady shouldn't be showing her parts to someone."

The little boy stared at her, as if he wanted to understand the logic of what she was saying. She changed her mind when she saw that she was practically naked at the other end of a lake traversed by many individuals:

"Mnnn, but make it quick" she said as one who wanted to be vulnerable, with the purpose of being strong.

The Parcae came out of the water with slow footsteps, like someone who did not want to get out. Since he didn't know what to do, the white-eyed young man gave him instructions.

"Come closer. A little more, stop covering yourself with your hands, crouch down. Spread your legs. Let me get a better look... Mmm, you have an infection."

Edith, surprised to hear a new word, asked:

"What?! What's an infection? How do you know that?"

Rey, as sure as if it were a matter of course, answered:

"Yes, it's an infection. It happened to White when he was about to die. His wounds became infested and secreted pus of different colors, yellow and green, to be more precise. That's not a wound between your legs, though...."

The little boy felt sorry for having jumped to the conclusion that a woman's genitals were a wound because she had had a baby, he decided to put that behind him and continue:

"Sometimes I think it behaves like one and the strong smell you have comes from there. To keep it from getting worse, I advise you to clean yourself well and more often. Saliva and certain other ointments have properties to protect the area from developing infection. But first of all I think you should also clean your clothes with water, the dirt on them doesn't help."

Edith remained thoughtful. It was true that she had not taken much care of her hygiene lately and that every time she finished doing number two, she just wiped herself with the rocks and leaves that were lying around. She also remembered how "the caretakers" would fussy warn her about how important it was to clean herself properly, front to back, which she hadn't been doing lately.