I woke up all of a sudden. I didn't know what had woken me up. I slowly opened my eyes and to my surprise I saw Elsie. It seems she was carrying a bucket of water. I was really confused for a few seconds. Why was Elsie so far below me. Wasn't she taller than me? Also why is she not catching up with me since she is walking. Suddenly she came to a stop. Only then I realized that I was being carried by someone. My chin was resting on someone's shoulder and I could feel someone's arm under me. My arms were also around this person's neck.
I leaned back to look at the person and realized that it was Sheila. It seems she was taking me somewhere.
"Where are we?" I asked her while looking around.
"Oh, you are awake Ren. We are going to the bathhouse to wash up. Elsie here is bring some hot water for us since it's quite cold outside." Sheila replied while smiling at me.
"Uh… what about everyone else?"
"Everyone else is already finished and are preparing. Cleo went to the guild to inform them of our plan."
"But… why didn't anyone wake me up?"
"Uh… um… I asked them to not wake you up…. You were sleeping so peacefully! I couldn't let them wake you up…" Sheila seemed a bit embarrassed.
She continued and said "But… since we need to start preparing, I decided to get both of us ready."
"But then you should have woken me up!"
"Umm… like I said, I…"
"Sigh…. Were you going to get me ready while I was still asleep? I think I would have found out as soon as you poured water on me, you know?"
Sheila looked down in embarrassment.
"Don't be mean Ren. Why are you angry when your mom just wants to take care of you? You are being a bad child again" Elsie admonished me angrily.
I felt a bit ashamed of getting angry at Sheila. After all, like Elsie said, she was just trying to take care of me. I couldn't meet Elsie's eyes and looked away. My eyes went to the bucket she was carrying and my jaw almost dropped! It was a huge bucket of water! I wouldn't be able to lift it even both my arms and Elsie seemed to be carrying it with one arm. She wasn't really completely oblivious to the weight as she was straining a bit but I was surprised to see her lift that big a bucket at all.
Sheila turned around and said "Uh… thanks Elsie… Let me take that bucket." She was holding me in her left arm and used her right arm to take the bucket from Elsie. Then she proceeded further and got into the bath house. There was a large tub there which was partially filled. Sheila poured the water into the tub and gave back the bucket to Elsie.
"I think this much water will be enough."
Elsie nodded and left after glaring at me. I think I might suffer a bit in our next training session.
Sheila started to take my clothes off one by one.
"Why don't you put me down. I can do this myself."
"It's alright."
Eh… I didn't think that she will just shoot me down like that. Soon I had nothing but my underwear on me. Sheila then slowly put me down in the tub. I was finally down on the ground! I started looking around to see what I can use to wash myself. I saw some soap and decided to use it. I had used soap very rarely since it was quite expensive. There were some public bath houses that I would use were I was able to use a little bit of soap sometimes. So I was quite glad to have such a big bar of soap.
Just as I was going to get the soap, I realized that Sheila hadn't actually gone out. In fact, she was also taking off her clothes!
"Wha.. wha.. What are you doing?"
"Taking a bath?" Sheila said with a confused expression.
She continued to take off her clothes. To my horror, she didn't stop at her outerwear but proceeded to take off her inner wear as well! I closed my eyes and turned around right away. I didn't know what to do at this point.
I felt Sheila palm on my back as she moved me forward a bit and entered the bath. She sat down behind me and I felt her legs around me. I opened my eyes to look to my sides and saw Sheila's naked legs. I decided to get up and let Sheila finish her bath first but before I could, Sheila grabbed me by my waist and pulled me back. She placed me on her lap as she brought her legs closer together. She then pulled me more and placed my head between her breasts. Considering the size of those breasts, my head was almost completely buried between them.
I was frozen in place. I could feel Sheila's soft body under me and saw that her arms were on the rim of the tub. It seems like she was relaxing and wanted me to relax as well. This didn't make any sense! Why are we relaxing when we are going to be leaving on the bandit raid soon? Did Leana, Cleo and Turek also bathe like this? Wouldn't it take too long? We were just lying in the water, not even washing ourselves!
Despite my reservations, I found myself relaxing as time went on. As the tension went out of me and I felt the stiffness in my body go away slowly. Soon I closed my eyes and relaxed completely. I had never been so comfortable and relaxed in my whole life!
It seemed like time had stopped since neither me nor Sheila were moving. I could feel Sheila's soft but steady breathing on top of my head. Soon I was completely lost in the sensation. It was so much I could barely hear the knocks on the door the first time. Then someone knocked even more loudly and I heard Cleo's voice
"Are you guys done bathing? I just came back from the guild. We have half an hour before we have to meet the guild's raiding party outside the city. I have brought your clothes, armor and weapons. We will be waiting in the dining hall for you. Now hurry up!"
I listened to what Cleo said but I was having a hard time getting up. First, I was just feeling too relaxed to try and get up. Second, I didn't think I would be able to get up even if I wanted to. With Sheila under me, I didn't know I would go about standing up. There was nowhere for me to put my weight on so I could stand up. I could only rely on Sheila to make the first move. But for some reason Sheila had to intention to start moving!