How Did I Go To the Beast World in My Pajamas?

Chapter 4: Miracle River

Riding on a running Ao-ao's back was definitely bumpier than Samantha expected. She had ridden horseback before, but only enough times to make a few memories. The "horse girl" experience had been sadly out of her reach when she was young, and although she had stayed busy otherwise, she knew it was one of those skills that often proved useful in life. Though perhaps not always so... literally. Ao-ao had reached a speed and bumpiness requiring her to try to grip her legs to a furry torso or abdomen or however far she reached down Ao-ao's mythically large form. Samantha had known foxes were fast runners, but this ride appeared to be just as fast as a car, and she felt her body jiggle and bounce in ways she had no idea it was capable of. Hopefully this wasn't too much for Ao-ao, but as far as Samantha could tell, the fox was doing just fine not only with her weight but with a passenger, of all things - and she was pretty sure Ao-ao was strong enough to carry far more if needed. Her train of thought came to a stop at the same time as Ao-ao, who knelt forward to let Samantha slide down one shoulder and behold their destination.
Looking to Ao-ao's enigmatic face for the reason she had been brought here gave her a more direct answer than she had expected. Ao-ao held her gaze and flicked a set of brown fox eyes to the bank of the river they had arrived at, and then moved them back to Samantha. Ao-ao did this until Samantha looked away, apparently unsure if she had gotten the message. "Thank you for bringing me here," Samantha told her companion, though she was still not sure exactly why this was the location Ao-ao had chosen. But the fox had not hurt her yet; on the contrary, it seemed to be an actual companion and maybe even a friend. So she turned toward the river bank and noticed a short stone structure of some kind sticking out from the water. This must be what Ao-ao had intended for her to see, because it looked entirely man-made.

Finally close enough to examine the stone set into the riverbank, she noticed that it was a rectangle with four sides, but with a notch cut into one side to allow water to flow into it. It looked suspiciously like a bathtub, but a Samantha-sized bathtub - certainly not one that Ao-ao would use. 'Is this how foxes like to drink water?' she pondered, 'But surely the running water of the river is cleaner and fresher, not to mention... colder.' she concluded, noticing the shallow base of the tub. She knew Ao-ao meant for her to come over to this... thing, but now she had no idea why. She looked back at the fox with embarrassment, and Ao-ao coughed at her and Samantha was pretty sure she had just heard her first fox laugh. Because she had covered her face in shame, she was taken by surprise when that laughing fox nudged her into the bathtub. Luckily there were stairs leading down into the tub, which had somehow escaped her notice before but did turn what would have been a fall into a minor stumble.

The water in the tub was surprisingly warm, considering how cold the rushing water outside it was. There was also plenty of room for Samantha to stretch out, and she completely forgot about Ao-ao as she indulged wholeheartedly in this activity. How long had it been since she'd had the luxury of a bath? Her chronic pain made it so hard to do a deep clean on a bathtub on a regular basis, and her shower chair did enough to take the normal amount of discomfort out of a shower. But a bath was an incredible luxury, and even though she had none of the creature comforts of home, such as her favorite bath salts or even shampoo, this sun-warmed river water was so much better than feeling like she was covered in grease and muck. The stone tub was so firmly placed and didn't even look like it had a crack in it - it was like a miracle tub, in the middle of a strange river, just for her. Samantha let out varying moans and grunts as she stretched all the aching parts of her body in the water, able to reach both below and above her and to use the sides of the tub as leverage for an even deeper stretch. She swished her mid-length, thick hair from side to side as she took the pressure off her neck. Even tangled and greasy, the feeling was heavenly when she realized how dirty she had felt since she got to this mysterious and possibly enchanted forest.

After swishing and stretching to her heart's content, Samantha looked for a way to try and clean herself. Finding absolutely nothing, she reached outside the tub for a handful of silt and used it to exfoliate her limbs and torso, getting used to and testing the feeling before tackling the more sensitive areas of her body with additional handfuls. Unfortunately, this simple process physically exhausted her, and she forgot to pay attention to her energy level because of the unexpected novelty of a bath. She pulled her body up against one of the sides of the tub and was grateful for the generous thickness of the stone used to make it because she promptly leaned over onto it for a brief rest before deciding what to do with her hair. Defeated, she grabbed one last handful of silt, scooped it onto her head, and cradled her face in her arms while she waited for her energy to hopefully recharge. She briefly wondered what had become of Ao-ao, but figured there was little interest for a fox in watching her bathe and that Ao-ao was probably nearby doing whatever it is that foxes do. Rooting around for fruits or something? Fruit sounded good to her too, and Samantha extended her arms over the side of the tub with her silty head on her silty arm and began to doze while dreaming of delicious forest fruits.