Posted on: Friday, 13 February 2009
"I hate you!" Imoen hissed, balling her fists at her sides and glaring. "Hate you, hate you, hate you! Why don't you just crawl off and die?"
The five-inch long wooly monster which was camped out on her carefully folded clothing didn't seem ipressed. It watched her boredly and chewed a leaf which had fallen there. Maybe it wasn't boredom. Maybe it was anticipation. Pure, evil anticipation waiting for Imoen to freeze to death in the middle of the lake.
"Look, c'mon, just gimme the clothes," she pleaded. "Puffguts's gonna skin me alive if I'm caught sneaking back into Candlekeep without my skivvies." She swam a little closer, keeping low in the water, until she was next to the ledge that she'd thought was a safe place to hide her stuff. The caterpillar took a pointed munch out of the leaf, just daring her to make a go for it.
"Good caterpillar," she murmured, flashing it the same charming smile that worked on the denizens of the library. "You're a girl, right? We redheads gotta stick together." The thick scarlet bristles shivered in response. Hey, maybe this thing really was intelligent. She'd heard of stranger things in those dusty old tomes. "I'm just gonna reach out..." Her hand slipped forward. Even if she had to go home wet, at least she'd go home clothed. "...just reach out and take my pants, okay? Good caterpillar. Good, gooooood fuzzy red monstrosi–eep!!"
The beast made a lunge for it, darting towards her hand with unnatural speed, and Imoen launched herself back into the water with a less-than-graceful splash. She sputtered and spit as her head broke the surface of the lake again and shook her wild red hair out of her face as she glared at the wooly worm of Hell with renewed vehemence. "If I was a mage, I'd summon the biggest, ugliest bird alive and make it eat you!"
"Yeah, but you aren't," came a chuckled reply. "Hell of a trick if you could, though."
Imoen spun around — well, as best she could while keeping afloat — and her eyes widened. "YOU!" Three quick strokes of her legs brought her to the edge of the left bank. Nessime sat a few feet from the embankment with her arms around her knees, looking at her with the god-awful, knowing smirk she always had. "Go get my clothes!"
"But you were so close! Don't let a little worm outfight you."
"It's not little! D'ya see how it came after me?"
Another lopsided smile. "Yes, all five inches of leaf-eating fury."
"It tried to eat me!"
"Oh, it did not."
"Dammit, Ness, you know spells and stuff," Imoen huffed. "Go zap it or something!"
"Why would I want to do that?"
