[B][U]Chiasa's Bath[/U][/B]

Chiasa thought of how lovely a hot bath would be as she sank her nude body beneath the cold water of the river. The water was wonderfully clean and now so was she as she pushed off from the rock and swam like a fish. Light from the sun filtered through the crystalline liquid in shafts which illuminated small reflective fragments drifting on the current making it seem like she now flew among fire flies. All her troubles were caught in the river's current and carried away making Chiasa wish she could be a river kami and exist in the quiet world beneath the waves.

She surfaced quietly near the center of the river and looked all around herself before returning to where she'd hidden her drying clothes. Cautiously she pulled herself up on the rock and all the while like any wild animal which was prey to other beings of the forest keep her senses alert to the slight's hint of danger.
"At least if I were in a village I wouldn't have to be so worried about being caught naked" she thought as she pulled her cotton blanket from her pack and wrapped her shivering form in it's soft folds. It was lonely out here in the wilderness between towns and cities but at least here she needn't worry so much about being made someone's plaything.

When she finally stopped shivering Chiasa bound down her chest with several wraps of cloth eliminating it almost entirely. She then put on her simple peasant's clothes of faded dark blue an gray and baggy so as to disguise her curves.. Around her long black hair she tied a scarf that hid her features somewhat then applied a dye of brown to her face arms and legs. She finished her disguise by tucking little wads of cotton between her cheeks an upper molars, the effect of all her work made her appear like a fat farm girl tanned by the sun and without attribute to appeal to most men outside of the fact she was female.

She'd learned long ago her vanity could cause her great and frightening trouble. She looked at her reflection in the still surface of a pool and sighed. She had only two courses open to her before she might feel safe, the first that age would finally take from her that which men desired or second, that she marry and settle down to become a wife. The latter she would love but the times in the past when she thought she'd found a man she could love she'd discover each wanted her to be dumb or at least act dumb, that or she displayed the skills of her youth and their love had proven false. To men she was little more than a vessel in which to vent their lusts and insure their future by turning out sons.

Picking up her pack Chiasa found the road once more and began putting distance between herself and all the pain she'd left behind her.