duskrecluse:

The river wended its way through the forest like a particularly wiggly snake, interrupted occasionally by a waterfall, a fallen tree, or an interesting set of rapids. Basteaux usually preferred to make camp nearby to the river if only for the sake of convenience. It was a convenience he had decided to take advantage of on such a warm late afternoon.

Having thoroughly cleansed himself of the lingering taint of morbol slime, Basteaux left the powerful crash of the waterfall and swam to the edge of the deep little pool. His clothes were folded neatly on a rock, his strong bow and full quiver resting beside them. Atop his pile of clothes was a towel that he used to dry his face and give his hair a rough tousle.

The sound of rustling in the underbrush saw him hastily tie the towel around his hips and lunge for the bow, nocking and drawing an arrow in one quick and smooth motion. A moment later and he recognized the person who had intruded upon him. He lowered the bow. “Oh. It’s you.”

He seemed vaguely perturbed, but otherwise unconcerned to be found almost entirely in the nude. His long, dripping hair hung loose around his shoulders, but perhaps the most striking thing about his appearance was the large sunburst of scarring on his left side and over part of his abdomen. Its tendrils crackled like lines of white lightning over his dusky skin. Making no move to cover himself further, Basteaux set the bow down again beside his clothes. “You have an uncanny knack for showing up in the most surprising of places.”

Destiney nearly took a step back as the first thing she saw was a arrow trained on her. Finally taking a moment to sigh in relief when she caught sight of who it was and he lowered that arrow. Her hand came to rest over her heart at the brief moment of fright. Thinking maybe she had stumbled across a bandit on accident.

Now that she finally had a true moment to focus… Oh boy. Her cheeks were bright red and her mouth dropped open for a moment as she stared at Basteaux’s mostly nude form. Mentally she had to chide herself for staring like she was. So impolite. Yet she couldn’t help it. Between the magnitude of the scarring on his body and just in general seeing so much of his dusky skin without clothing. Of course her imagination was already trying to picture him without the towel. She literally was about to slap herself for it. Bast was her friend and he had treated her like a sister the last time they had met. She didn’t need to be thinking of him like that.

Besides what had caused that extensive scarring… There was an urge to reach out and touch that scar. A need to ask about it. Yet she was unsure. The odds were high that he would get defensive or walk away. Last thing she wanted was to make him angry with her. It was all so very frustrating. So she forced a smile as she looked towards the water then rather at him any longer before her mouth could put her in hot water. She could still feel her cheeks burning. “Sorry… I really don’t mean to do it. It just happens.”

Argh! Why did he have to look so good even with the scars… Dest finally sighs and walks over to kneel next to the river so she could splash some cold water on her face.