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The fact that we had all worked together to help him was surely why his anger towards us had ebbed.
A trickling sound slowly permeated my thoughts as we walked. It took me a minute to realize what the sound was and when I finally did, my heart leaped. The Yang River.
It was along our route. We would have to cross it to get to Tsuki’s temple. I had known that, but it had seemed so distant.
The sound of softly rushing water put a spring in my steps that days of walking and fighting had drained away.
“What is it?” Clem asked, looking at me curiously.
He was always the first to sense a shift in my mood, but I was too excited to acknowledge it now.
I veered off the beaten path, into the trees, vaguely aware of the others following me as I searched for the river. We must be close. Close enough to see the river from here at least, if I could hear it.
I stopped on the edge of a short drop off, my heart beating with excitement at the sight that met me.
The wide river that cut through all of Naran stretched below me. It was a quiet part, where the water flowed welcomingly, practically beckoning.
As I watched it glittering in the daylight, I didn’t think I had ever seen anything so beautiful.
Without thinking, I swung myself down, climbing the short distance to the water’s level.
“What are you doing?” Kiar hissed, suddenly catching me by the arm.
I paused, realizing that he had followed me like the mother hen he was, worried that I was about to be attacked. The others still stood on the ledge over us, watching like I had lost my mind.
I didn’t care. Nothing could ruin my excitement.
“Look at us,” I said. “I feel like I am made more of filth than of skin.”
I pulled my arm free and slowly pulled the clothes off my body, grinning when Kiar’s gaze darkened and raked down my exposed flesh. Without waiting, I turned and walked over the uneven stones and into the frigid water.
Even the icy temperature made me feel good. It was like an electrifying shock as I waded into it. As soon as I was deep enough, I lowered myself all the way to the shoulders.
Suddenly, arms caught me around the waist, and I could not help but laugh as I was pulled into Kiar’s arms.
“You’re crazy,” he breathed against my ear.
Gently, I pushed him away.
“I am not here to play,” I told him. “I want to get clean.”
I glanced back at the others.
“You should all take the opportunity to wash yourselves.”
Clem fluttered down the drop to the rocky shore and approached, dipping a curled toe into the water before shivering and stepping back.
“I don’t think I’m that dirty,” he said.
“You practically billow dust when you flap your wings,” I teased.
Bracken laughed and without warning, flew from his place on the ledge straight into the middle of the river, throwing himself in without warning.
The water splashed high and lifted us as it moved around him.
For a moment I didn’t see where he was and then I saw his large, dark form under the surface as he swam toward us.
He popped out of the water with another splash and shook the water off of his hair.
