Surprises

Finrod swallowed, and the chewed meat slowly went down his throat that he felt he was going to choke. He swiftly grabbed the bottle of water and gobbled it down.

"Ahhh." He said in relief and then fell his back to the ground, he smiled and belched.

"Ohh." He laughed realizing that he had forgotten his manners, it wasn't his fault however. He hadn't had a proper meal since the advent of the apocalypse, only now could he indulge himself.

"Are you certain that there are no other survivors?" He asked looking into the sky at the dimmed lights.

"The last I checked, there may be once we get to the village. Don't get your hopes up though, you were an exception."

"We?" he raised to sit and looked at her.n

"I have decided you are of no threat so I want you to come to see our village, the chief will feel less down knowing that there's at least one Mire woods elf out there."

He laid back, "My meat doesn't taste great." He joked with a smile which quickly faded.

"Your humour isn't the worse." She complimented and chuckled.

Finrod was never the humorous type and he couldn't tell whether that was a compliment or not, he did like that it made her chuckle.

Pouka finished his meal and ran forward.

"What?"

It ran towards him. Finrod didn't know what to do, this was the biggest surprise of all and he wasn't prepared for it.

He closed his eyes fearful of the inevitable when the beast jumped over him and stood on the rock behind him and then sat.

"Whhheww"

Elessar burst out laughing that she fell on the ground while Finrod just looked on.

Her laughter died and she sat back up...

"Where was the resilience you've shown since?"

Finrod simply ignored her and stood. The atmosphere was serene, Finrod could hear the tweeting of birds although he was unsure of where they came from. Ripples went down the dark pond that reflected images of the balls of light above.

He ran his hand through his hair and felt that they were sticky. He brought it down and saw that his hands were stained with sticky brown dirt. He then began to sniff himself hiding the action from the eyes of Elessar.

'By the goddess, I stink'

He turned to Elessar seeing that she was in her business petting her black monster. He turned away before she could look at him in the eyes.

Now conscious of his body and free from danger, he felt very uncomfortable and dirty. Cleanliness was never a priority when he was out surviving, but now he knew and was aware, he needed a bath.

He cleared his throat and spoke, "Can I have this lake to myself? I want to go for a swim."

"Huh?! Aren't you afraid of possible transformed monsters down there or can you see the bottom if it's free from the hungry creatures?"

Finrod turned back to the pond, walked to the bank and looked down. Of course, he could not see beyond his reflection and the dark surface with the little light.

'Am so stupid. How did I survive so long?' he thought realizing that such a large lake must have unfriendly creatures in them possibly even transformed ones.

'But wait…The mist, it's nowhere here.'

He turned to meet Elessar stifling a laugh. She couldn't hold it any longer and burst out laughing.

"I had you there, you should have seen the look in your eyes"

Finrod scorned.

"We killed every man-eating beast in here, which saves us the trouble of fighting more Transformed ones in the future although we got measly experience points."

Relief swept over Finrod, but he felt even stupider.

'Maybe another time, perhaps when I get to her village. If I don't get eaten that is'

"I need this wash." He decided to choose to ignore Elessar's existence and taunts and then began pulling off his clothes.

He pulled them all off revealing all of his pale skin. He heard no comments from Elessar and then he dove inside.

He swarmed around a bit and rose lifting his head above the water. His hands went through his hair removing the dried blood and dirt that had turned it brown.

He dabbled lots of water and wiped and wiped till his hair became pure white once again.

He then began rubbing through his body. After a few minutes, he was done and he swam to the bank of the lake.

"The mist, why hasn't it gotten here? It certainly would have foul this terrain had it gotten in."

"Oh, it got in. Lots of it did and the flowers and plants were poisoned."

"Then how…"

"It was all the Chief. His ability contained the mists and pushed it away. He also saved most of the plants and some birds. Look there." She pointed to the right.

"See those large mushrooms? They are all around and they absorb all of the mists that attempt getting in here. They feed on them and get larger as they do so. Also on the trees, there are some outgrowths chief placed that are slowly eating some of the mist they have in them. It would have been great had they worked on animals but, unfortunately a little of the life force is drained in the process and many can't endure. The birds around have just about a few days left."

"Ohhh."

"These demon invasions are only going to get worse as time moves on so does the mist. So, you have to gain strength as fast as you can or you'll be swept into the mist. We have none but ourselves now."

"None but ourselves." He repeated.

Finrod then got up the lake revealing once more his naked body, this time beautiful and appealing.

"Not bad" Elessar muttered but Finrod didn't hear.

Elves weren't squirmish about nudity, they embraced their beautiful bodies with positivity and thus, Finrod felt nothing being completely naked before Elessar and her pets.