Ghost Monkey, стр. 48

"I get told that a lot." He sighed. "I want to be cured. There are things I still need to do."

"It might still kill you. Death is quicker. Cleaner." She looked up. "You want to suffer immense pain to be cured?" She licked her lips, and the look of an uninterested woman turned to that of a predator.

"Please." He knelt, hands on his knees and eyes cast to the ground. "I beg you to cure me, or teach me how I can be cured."

"Wash yourself in Lake Dyashka once a day for seven days. You can stay in my hut at night. Go."

He went into the water. It was cool, even under the hot sun. He washed himself thoroughly, then just enjoyed the coolness of the water in the oppressive weather. He often went into the rivers of Sankive to refresh his spirits, and it was a reminder of times before the corruption. The sun neared the horizon when he got out. A howl rang out nearby. Wolves charged out of the bushes, and Sugriva was too far from his staff to retrieve it.

Sugriva danced between the pack until he reached the staff. Then he struck the wolves in quick succession until they were dead, bodies battered and skulls cracked.

He went into the shack where the woman cooked. She looked up with wide eyes and furrowed brow. "You survived the first day of bathing. Few do."

"Does it get harder?"

She shrugged, going back to the cooking. She willed water to exist, and it cascaded down an invisible waterfall into the cauldron. "I know this lake has healed others, long before I arrived. But it is known to deal with corruption more immediately."

That night after dinner Pankatav said, "Lay with me."

It was the first time Sugriva noticed the delight of her slight body. The contrast of dark skin and blue eyes was attractive. "I'm in love with a woman already."

The following day he went back out and bathed early in the morning. He was going to leave the lake before sunset to avoid the attack, but hippos were so fast. Their bulk swam through the waters, large jaws and blunt teeth snapping at Sugriva for invading their territory.

Learning from the other day, the staff was on him. He willed it to shoot him up, as the monstrous animals neared him. But the ground was soft and gave way. Just as they snapped at him, he dodged underwater, then the staff hit ground and catapulted him through the air. The hippos lost interest.

Water spirits and elementalists were known for healing and toning the body to perfection, and Pankatav displayed these talents as she laid naked in the sun when Sugriva returned. "Lay with me."

"No," he muttered, before he escaped to a nearby cliff to meditate and clear his mind.

The following day, while he was bathing, he felt a tug on his staff, and he struggled to hold on. Teeth clamped down on his ankle, and Sugriva cried out. "Crocodiles," he bellowed. The staff extended, puncturing one crock straight through. Then he thrust it repeatedly into the skull of the one biting him, until it let go. He launched himself out of the lake to see three more waiting for him in water colored by his blood.

He limped to the shack. Pankatav said, "Let me look at your wound." She was wearing a loose top, just thin enough to show Sugriva what was under it. The way the clothes pretended to give her modesty made it more alluring than complete nudity. Sugriva's heart thumped in his ears.

Water wrapped around his ankle and soothed the pain. Within an hour, the wound was nearly gone and the pain dissipated. "For my services, lay with me."

Viewing the woman for an hour while she tended him was nearly too much. Desire ached throughout his body as muscles tensed. Prisha made clear that she would never be with him, no matter how much she led him on. Why wait for someone who wasn't waiting for him?

"I’m still in love with another," he forced out. Sugriva knew he wouldn’t hold out the next night.

The following day, men painted red and white stormed the lake. They shook spears and wore headdresses and loin clothes. The mass screamed for blood in a reckless charge. They held Pankatav hostage. "Come out and we let woman go. Only eat you."

"Cannibals. Where did your tribe come from? Her flesh is definitely better tasting than mine. You can even get some play out of her before cooking her."

The cannibal looked confused. "You would throw her to us?"

"If she wanted, you would all be choking on water already. Go ahead. Bite her."

Pankatav glared as a cannibal sunk his teeth into her. Flesh turned to water, and her entire body splashed into his mouth. He grabbed for his throat and dropped to the ground. Then water burst out of his chest and Pankatav reformed. She said, "I can kill them. They can bite me, and I won't die. That doesn't mean I like it." She pursed her lips, but called on Lake Dyashka to surge into their lungs and drown them all.

“I only do this because of their insolence to bite me.”

Sugriva laughed when he got back to the hut, patting her shoulder. "Thank you."

"It was supposed to be your battle. The lake will not be happy." She stood in front of him in only a loin cloth. If the lake wasn't happy, it had a strange way of showing it.

Her look softened. "Lay with me for what I've done for you."

SUGRIVA ITCHED AND smelled like rotting fish in the morning. He left the shack immediately, before Pankatav woke. She smiled in her sleep, a sated predator. As he approached the lake, he felt like it would try to more earnestly kill him for how he defiled the lake's woman.

A fish so large that it left a shadow swam under Sugriva, then rose up to eat him. Sugriva burst through its guts