"We're here," Nicola suddenly said in front. I could immediately feel the water elements in the surroundings increase greatly.
"I didn't expect there to be such a clear stream hidden in the Edenmere jungle. The water looks so clear!"
As soon as Cyra reached the stream's edge, she immediately took off her shoes, lifted her skirt, and stepped into it, beginning to play with the water.
"Be careful, the current is a bit rough, don't get washed away!"
This scene of a beauty playing in the water looked quite pleasing to the eye, and even had the added effect of wings, simply gorgeous beyond compare. But I still stood on the shore and warned.
"Don't worry! Did you forget she can fly? No need to worry!"
Nicola was watching with great interest on the shore. She even reached out and splashed some water on Cyra on purpose.
"Hey hey hey! Even if I can fly, my feathers will be too wet to fly!"
Cyra was caught off guard and got splashed quite a bit. Her two wings on her back flapped wildly as her whole body got half wet, instantly reminding me of a chicken tossed into the water.
"Wife rebelled again! You think I don't how to do it?"
She certainly wasn't willing to take this loss. She immediately screamed as she splashed creek water back.
"Wah, you dare to fight back!"
Nicola also didn't expect her opponent to still have the courage to resist after having so many feathers plucked by her. Too late to dodge, she got splashed all over, and even I got caught in the crossfire next to her.
"You two are adults already, how can you still be so childish!"
I didn't expect things to suddenly turn out this way. I yelled loudly for them to stop, but the response I got was a handful of cold water over my head.
"Wahhhhh! Too much already, tiger no roar, you treat me like a sick cat is it?"
I couldn't care so much anymore either, just splashed back. Of course, that meant I naturally joined the fight.
"...seems like you all forgot why we came here?"
A voice suddenly came from above. The few of us were in the midst of intense battle, only to come to our senses now. Reed had noticed the situation was not good earlier and flown up into the sky first.
"It's all because of my wife! She started it!"
Cyra was quick to tattle, standing in the middle of the creek pointing at Nicola and shouting. Right now, her whole body was completely soaked, especially the feathers on her back, continuously dripping water.
"If you call me wife again, don't blame me for plucking all your feathers out!"
Hearing this, Nicola pretended to charge forward and threaten. Of course, she was still stuck on the shore blocked by the creek water.
I don't think it would make much difference even if she did charge in. After all, her whole body was just as soaked as Cyra's.
My situation wasn't much better either. My upper body was drenched, back equally wet and soggy. My thick feathers were also not sure how long they'd take to dry... Should have hidden my wings first earlier...
"That's right!"
Thinking of this, I suddenly had a flash of inspiration. When my wings were injured, I definitely couldn't hide them away. But now I just got my feathers wet and wasn't injured! So that means I could...
"You all can use the method of hiding your wings to get rid of the water on your feathers."
Indeed, just as I thought of this, Reed in the sky opened her mouth to advise.
"Hiding your wings is equivalent to returning them from physical form back to the elemental energy state. The water on the feathers is foreign matter, so it will naturally be separated during this process."
"Really!"
Hearing this, Cyra immediately tried it out. Indeed, after the wings on her back dissipated into dots of white light and disappeared, the water clinging onto them earlier instantly cascaded down like a waterfall "whoosh" and fell back into the water.
"So magical!"
I didn't expect there to be such a trick. Nicola and I followed suit. In a blink, the wings on our backs regained their dry, soft and fluffy state.
"Awesome awesome! If only this could be done when injured too, then it can immediately recover. "
Cyra said somewhat regretfully. The experience of me plucking half her wings last time was still fresh in her memory. It had taken her a full two days to regrow them, although that was considered quite fast already.
"Hiding and manifesting wings is a little similar in principle to magic arrays. Usually within an activated magic circle, the elements flow along the engraved paths. The blood vessels distributed within the wings correspond to these paths, plus blood itself inherently belongs to the materialized light element. So injury is tantamount to the elemental pathways being damaged, thus unable to smoothly hide them."
"You can even explain the principles?"
I admire Reed! To me, things like this already belonged to the rather incomprehensible realm, yet she somehow came up with a complete theory.
"This is not strange at all! All things have cause and effect, so every seemingly incredible phenomenon must have its principles behind it."
Seeing our wings were dry, Reed finally dared to descend from the sky. She answered me matter-of-factly.
Well! She had always been this scholar style. Felt like nothing was different...
"What about the clothes on our bodies? Any way to dry them?"
Nicola asked looking down. At this point, everyone's attention was placed back on the clothes. The atmosphere instantly became tense.
"...⁄(⁄⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄⁄)⁄"
"...(ŎдŎ;)!!"
"...( ̄ー ̄)"
"Err...you two cannot peek!"
Cyra didn't know which part to cover up. She could only turn around and sit butt down in the water. The feathers on her back instantly got soaked again over a large area.
Luckily luckily! At least got wings to block behind.
My situation was slightly better. Only my upper body was wet, so just needed to hug my chest to temporarily avoid streaking.
Aiya, women! Just a bit troublesome. And who asked us to all be wearing the silk dresses issued by the Tivi Palace? Pure white silk fabrics, indeed very comfy, but usually okay if not wet. Once wet, the transparency ...٩(o『o٩).....
"Wah, how come you hid your wings again!"
I was just thinking of teaching Cyra the previously used "Spring roll wrap technique" to alleviate the awkwardness of having no clothes to change into. Didn't expect this girl's brain to short-circuit. Felt her wings were wet then hid them again.
Now nice right, whole back completely exposed naked before our eyes.
I won't say much more...
Reed was originally female, to begin with, so had zero reaction to this kind of situation. The main problem was with Nicola.
"Yo, nice curves, front sticks out, back sticks out, very promising!"
Nicola whistled lightly and teased flirtatiously, fully displaying her playboy nature. However, her situation wasn't any better. But couldn't beat her shamelessness, totally unconcerned about the gazes of me and Reed.
"Wife, don't think you can get away with it. You were also soaked through!"
Cyra gnashed her teeth and retorted. Hurriedly stretched her wings back out again. Amazingly, she had subconsciously learned the "Spring roll wrap technique" and directly stood up from the water facing us.
Huh, how come Nicola knew to be shy now?
Seeing Cyra ogling her unabashedly, this girl started to panic. Hurriedly stretched her wings from behind to wrap around herself.
"Tsk, no creativity. I'm collecting copyright fees for your 'zungji wrap technique!"
Cyra looked very dissatisfied, probably only caught a tiny glimpse. Unhappy, she started shouting.
"Hey! That was my invented 'spring roll wrap technique'. You're infringing my patent!"
I couldn't help but protest. This girl had stolen so many of my patents. Simply intolerable.
"'Spring roll wrap technique'? When did you register that?"
Hearing this, Cyra turned to look at me blankly. Didn't expect I hadn't reacted yet, but Nicola was the anxious one, actually yelling loudly.
"You, close your eyes! No peeking at Feliciana!"
"Huh?"
Just now when she was peeking at me, how come she didn't say that? Otherwise, I wouldn't have had to block my chest with my hands. Moreover, her original intention in splashing water at Cyra was also very suspicious. I suspect she did it on purpose!
After this fiasco, I suddenly felt my lower body wasn't so secure either. Could only hurry to wrap myself in my wings too.
"What's it got to do with you?"
Cyra glared fiercely at Nicola. Right now everyone's movements were inconvenient, so she could only seize this chance to bluster a bit.
"Alright alright! You're all girls. What's there to be shy about, you all want to drag this on?"
Reed really couldn't stand watching anymore, directly stepping in to put an end to this farce.
"Are we still doing Feliciana's water element test or not?"
"Who said I'm a girl, I'm pure man!"
Nicola argued very indignantly.
"who isn't the same!"
Cyra immediately echoed right after.
"I..."
I looked left at Cyra then right at Nicola, hurriedly raising my hand too.
"Me too!"
".... what's the difference?"
Reed paused expressionlessly for a long time before spitting out these few words.
"All are the same gender right, what needs to be so fussy over?"
Had to admit, Reed's words simply struck at all our sore spots. Looking back now, the earlier situation was like taking off pants to fart, exaggerated and pretentious.
But speaking of which, if I were to spread my wings without care and calmly stand naked in front of them, it still feels too embarrassing...
From their looks, Cyra and Nicola seemed to have the same thoughts.