Chapter 196: Chapter 203: Cooling Off

Finlo’s footsteps suddenly stopped. “You're heating up even more. Do you feel like you're going to throw up yet?”

I Groaned again. “Yeah…” I moved to wrap my arms around my stomach but suddenly found myself flying through the open air and plummeting before I could. Just before my stomach erupted I hit cold water and as I opened my mouth, instead of anything coming out the water rushed in like a vacuum.

The steam surrounded me and sent multiple waves of shivers through my skin as my body cooled down enough to process what was happening. ‘Water?’ I did feel better… But… ‘I can’t swim… Why would I be in the water? Did I pass out, is this a dream?’

I felt myself slowly start to sink as I calmly held my breath. Rather than choking on the water I inhaled and drank, I felt at ease with it cooling off my insides, which was probably the strangest part of the whole thing. Like my body's natural reflexes had been rewired, or completely removed.

I didn’t freeze time, and my survival instincts were completely calm, even after my mind cleared. ‘It has to be a dream, I feel no urge to breathe, and the water feels so warm, even though it’s the ocean.’ I slowly turned, staring out into the depths of the bay. ‘I can see them, the towering trees that grow underwater. There's a whole forest down here…’

A beautiful fish with reflective pink scales swam past me, and I could feel the gentle tide sway me back and forth. After a moment to think about it… I realized it was far too real to be a dream.

Thankfully, before I could start to panic a sharp tug came from the back of my dress, pulling me all the way back to shore. I felt my breath heat the air around my face as my body coughed out the water and I took in air again.

I could still hear as if I was under the waves. “How do you feel…” Finlo asked with a deep voice, trying not to show how much the cold water bothered him.

He trudged all the way back up the beach, dragging my feet through the sand and dropping me just as I was about to answer. “Well. My clothes are all wet now… And covered in sand…” ‘Every time I breathe the air comes out hot… Was I really about to breathe fire?’

“Geez I save you and all I get are complaints.” He chuckled, finally taking on a lighter tone again. “I would have taken them off for you, but I figured you would prefer it this way.”

“Ha, well… I guess that’s true.” I rolled over to my hands and knees, tripping as my sense of balance went haywire and fell flat on my face.

He laughed again. “If you hate the sand so much then why did you just give it a big kiss.”

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I didn’t bother getting up right away, letting my brain reconnect with my body… And letting the embarrassment fade…

Finlo groaned. “Just to be clear… You’re alive right… Nothing wrong?”

I lifted a thumbs up to put him at ease but layed in the sand a moment longer before trying to stand again. I was still a little unsteady at first, but before long everything had returned to normal. Even my headache and brain fog were gone.

“At any rate, I need to go get changed. If were at the coast, then… I think the inn is that way right? I asked, pointing back toward the city. ‘My mind is finally clear again.’ I lowered my arm and turned to him, freezing stiff as he finished gathering his clothes and starting to get dressed.

He nodded without so much as a blink. “Yeah, that looks right. Good to see you’re heads working again. We should find Zu and deal with those people we found next to you first though. I’m assuming you had something to do with that.”

I quickly turned around… It wasn’t like he was naked… But… He had stripped down to just a loin cloth, which was just as bad… I could barely comprehend what he had said. ‘The people… Right, the kidnapers I beat up…’

I turned around again out of habit. Like mom always said, you had to look someone in the eyes when speaking to them. “Yeah those guys tried too–” I felt another chill come over me as I remembered why I had turned away in the first place and spun around again, starting to just turn in circles. ‘Maybe my brain isn’t working properly after all… My head feels hot again…’

“Your blood isn’t acting up, you’re just blushing.”

‘How does he know what I’m thinking!’

I was able to stop myself from turning around again… But my photographic memory meant that I didn’t have to for the image of his body to invade my mind. He wasn’t shredded to the bone like the men in my family, but his muscles were certainly well-defined. Another thing that clearly separated him was his lack of hair, at least across his body, probably because of his elf blood.

“Stop it stop it stop it stop it…’ I lightly clapped my hands on the sides of my head with each repetition of the phrase before dragging my palms down my face as I crouched down and stared at the sand under my feet.

Of course, having every detail perfectly replicated in my mind, it wasn’t long before the image came back. The worst part about it was… He was smiling. ‘Why was he smiling like that?’

I let out an uncomfortable groan thinking about just burying my head in the sand, or jumping back in the ocean again to cool off.

“Ok, you ready?”

I jumped straight up in the air, landing on my feet and taking a step away. “Ready? Ready for what?”

His hand touched my shoulder and my nerves were so tense I quickly twisted around and flipped him, only for him to twist around himself, reversing the move. Before I knew it I was flying through the air.

‘Fairy dust…’

Just before my head hit the ground my momentum stopped and I realized he had caught me.

“This is… Really unfair… You know…” ‘and way too familiar…’

His expression told me everything I needed to know, he wasn’t feeling anything, much less embarrassment like I was. “We should meet up with Zu and take care of the guys that were tied up next to you, ready to go?”

He pulled me back onto my feet without hesitation… But once again the image was uncomfortably burned into my memory with him looking down at me, and his arms wrapped around me. My words got caught in my throat. “Ready…” I finally muttered.

“I get that I’m probably the first naked guy you’ve seen but you shouldn’t let these things bother you so much. It could–”

“ALMOST naked,” I interjected. “You weren’t naked… I’m still pure!” ‘What am I even saying? That doesn’t even make sense!’

For quite possibly the first time I could remember, he was left speechless. Following that speechlessness was a smug laugh though, one that made me want to punch him…