Larann sighed. When she was envisioning the three men before her taking a bath, images of hot steamy shower scenes came to mind, complete with hair flips and suds in strategic locations. Reality was a bit less exciting.
Sawa growled at the cold water and almost refused to go under. Shuiss was fine with the water, but the soap he treated like poison. Mura just started giving himself the equivalent of a cat bath
Now Larann knew that they were beastmen. She knew that cats hated water, but that was a little much for her. Esacerbated, she threw her hands up.
"You said you'd do as I told you. Are you breaking your promise over a shower?" She asked, glaring at her men.
After being reminded of their promise, they all settled down and reluctantly showered in the cold water. Larann was none too thrilled with the water temperature either.
"There has to be a way to warm the water!" Looking around, she could see that a trench had been dug to redirect the water from the pond. It was filled with stone and a hard sappy substance to keep the water from soaking into the ground.
Wooden pipes connected the trough with the vat. Fire would have destroyed it pretty quickly. She sighed, looking at the amateur piping job before her. And it wouldn't be anything else because she doubted anyone here knew what they were doing. Ganne may have been able to fake extensive knowledge, but there were no Bootube tutorials to refer to as you went.
That was the difference between knowledge and understanding. Knowledge only gets you to the first step. Understanding took you to a finished product.
Larann decided that she would need to think about that later. Right now, she had a couple of very wet and cold men in front of her.
They had used the residue of a plant to get the worst of the dirt off of them and they smelled refreshing. She went over and ducked under the pouring stream, screeching as the icy water fell over her.
Shuiss came over and helped as the cold didn't bother him as much. Helping to lift her hair and wash the clothing as well. Washing it while it was on wasn't ideal, but the thought of taking it off to wash and then letting the filth touch her skin again made her gag.
She would rather walk around freezing. But luck was on her side since today was pretty warm for the most part.
The thing she felt she should complain about were Shuiss' hands. As they roamed across her body, Larann couldn't help but let out a moan. A smirk crossed his face, but he stopped when the other two came out to see what he was doing.
"You clean up well," she mumbled to try and cover for the heat from the touch of Shuiss. And they did clean up well.
Sawa's long hair was now brushed back in long waves around his face. Gone were the dingy tips. He could have been on the cover of a fashion magazine. His washboard abs were displayed prominently ever since he had taken off the scrap of leather covering his torso.
Mura had short salt and pepper hair, striped like a white tiger. His feline jaw and intend gaze bore into her, making her imagine he wanted to explore infinite possibilities with her.
And Shuiss, she had noticed as the water froze her, his towering presence made her want to dissolve in the heat of his playful eyes.
It wasn't the first time she had been attracted to such beautiful men, but from their gaze, it was the first time they were attracted back.
And since all three were her husbands according to the traditions here, she didn't have to choose between them.
It was a novel experience that she didn't know if she even wanted, at least not with her head. The perils of keeping many men were well documented and jealousy between them and the need to possess and dominate often made arrangements like it fail.
But her hormones were not listening to her and if anyone of them pressed her even the tiniest bit, she would be tempted to cave, they were that hot.
After taking their bath, they went back to the city. Larran kept her eyes open on the way back. She asked her husbands about the plants as they passed. When she saw one that was oozing with some of the same sap that had been used to line the trench, she asked Sawa about it.
"We just call it tree sap, but Ganne said it was like rubber." Larann could see the thick trunk of the plant with cuts on it to harvest the sap from it.
One thing that she knew was that rubber trees didn't exist in the Jurassic era. So far, most of the plants she had seen were similar to what would have existed back then, even the dinosaurs she had seen would have existed back then.
Yet this rubber tree and the people of this village were out of place in that ancient forest. She thought that maybe, somehow, she had traveled back to a prehistoric era, but based on the unexpected mixture of what existed here, it was almost like this was a different world entirely.
"I want to have some food, but I want some fruits. Are there any nearby?" Mura smiled at her and took her hand.
"Yes! We have begun to cultivate some fruit plants close to the city. Ganne gets first pick, but the rest of the females get to have second pick." He led me to a place near the village where several rows of a lush plant grew.
As we got closer, the heady scent of grapes filled her senses, lavender and violet were also present. What she was looking at was a vineyard. But these were modern plants in this place. Could Ganne have brought them here? But how?