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I exhaled in relief.
I needed clothes so badly, I would go skin an animal for them at this point. I also equally needed some time away from any Einherjar.
Lana ended our embrace and took my hand.
I followed her past the smoking pits of spiced meat, beyond the women cutting fresh fruits and the men skinning animals that looked like deer but were as big as buffalo. Everyone stopped to stare at us. Some signaled with hands, others with lips, and eyes. Each seemed to have different gestures of greetings. A few smiled. Others bent their heads in acknowledgement. They all looked so human. Some tall, and others gangly, a few no larger than children, but all had the same characteristics as people from earth.
I tried to pull my shirt further down to make sure I wasn’t giving them a real show. I shuffled after Lana, who walked surprisingly fast for her tiny legs.
My head whipped back to see where Ales was going before we entered Lana’s home. I spotted him a few huts down staring at me. I waved and mouthed, “Thank you,” before I disappeared behind Lana’s massive wooden door.
The inside of the hut was more modern than I was expecting. The walls appeared to be made of stucco, a light gray-colored mud. There was something fashioned like a faucet and sink next to a pump in the corner. Two light wooden doorways led to opposing rooms.
Lana gestured to the room on the left. It appeared vacant, but I thought her brother lived here. She gestured to the corner of the room which held a stucco-looking tub. The material must have been impenetrable to water if it lined the house and the bathtubs.
Something resembling a bed sat in the corner of the room, low to the ground, but plush with sheets and furs. The floors throughout the home were made of a rich, ash-colored wood. The wood was different from the trees back home; it was firm and smooth like glass. I bet it also repelled the water, like the mud. The materials were simple. They built their homes from what was abundant on the island. It was a lovely home, even comfortable, by Western standards.
Lana opened her arms, gesturing for me to enter the room.
“Thank you, but what about your brother?” I questioned.
She shook her head and pointed at me, then gestured to the tub. She went to it and pumped water until it was almost full before she disappeared into the other room, bringing me soaps and oils. Each smelled like a different sweet fruit or earthy herb.
I motioned to my shirt and then her clothes, trying to ask for something else to wear.
Lana nodded in acknowledgment. She motioned for me to bathe and shut the door behind her.
After I spent about an hour in the water, I decided it was time to leave the bliss and find something to wear. Opening the door wrapped in a soft cloth, I looked around the rest of the home.
I was investigating a strange fruit in a basket by the fire when Lana walked in.
She showed me what she had found for me to wear for tonight, twirling it in the air, like a magical piece of cloth.
It was a wispy skirt that cinched together at my waist. The top was no more than a dark blue ribbon tied around my neck and back to cover my breasts. It didn’t cover much of my non-existent cleavage. The top left my entire torso bare, and most of my chest; the skirt tied at the waist, creating a natural slit high on my thigh.
I was practically naked. I had worn more clothes swimming on the beach back home. This was ridiculous. I hadn’t worn a skirt in three years for a lot of reasons, one being I preferred pants.
I turned to Lana, who had helped me tie the top in place while I bent down. “Um, Lana. Do you have something else? Like something more…” I sighed. “Just, well… more?” I gestured to my chest and the skirt.
She tilted her head in confusion.
“Do you have pants?” I gestured to her pants.
She realized I was asking for her pants, and then shook her head no and frowned.
Well, they wouldn’t fit me anyways. She was a tiny nymph, and I was a giant Amazon. I sat down on the bed.
She shrugged and stood over me as she started brushing my hair with a wooden comb.
I tried to remember the last time someone had done my hair. Besides the hair stylist, I didn’t think I had had a friend braid my hair since high school.
Lana was gentle as she untangled my wavy locks. Her hands moved from my scalp all the way down my back until every tangle had been tamed.
“Thank you. What are you wearing tonight?” I motioned to her clothes.
She smiled and took my hand, pulling me to her room.
She showed me a bright red top similar to mine, but the skirt was a blazing orange and red. With her hair, it would be perfection.
