Tisis

Bathroom talks (S)

I lead Nym into the dog's cave, while keeping her eyes covered.
She keeps protesting, how silly this is, and how there were more pressing issues to take care of, but I'm not really listening.

Something is clearly bothering her, but if I want to know what it is, she needs to wind down first...and if my little crafts project doesn't do the trick, I don't know what will.

I turn her around and push the fur carpet cordoning off the area I am heading for, turn Nym to the front again.

"Can I look now?!" she asks, obviously unnerved.

I remove my hands and shout, "Surprise!" as Nym opens her eyes to the large body of water that is slowly pouring in on one side and out on the other side.

"What...what...what in the world...is this?!"
"A bathroom! I thought that much should be obvious. I mean okay, it's not the same as back in the volcano, but..."
"It's...huge! How...how did you even..."

I smile and admit, "I had...a little help from our friends with the hard claws. They did most of the digging...but you haven't even seen the best thing yet."
"The...best thing?"

I grin, walk over and pick up the large pouch from next to the wall, hold my breath and pull out the plug before pouring the contents through a small hole into the small cavern, Tyr dug beneath the pool of water.

I pour some more of the stinking liquid into the small cup next to the hole, plug the pouch again and carefully put it back.

Nym already holds her nose and complains, "The heck, Siwus?!"

I pick up the two rocks I had collected and smash them against each other, making sparks fly.

As the sparks make contact with liquid in the cup, it immediately goes up in flames.
The fire follows the trail of the liquid and sets the wood I place in the cavern ablaze, as indicated by the crackling noise and of course the heavy and dense smoke emanating from the hole.

I quickly fetch the plug made from moss and vines and use it to seal the hole, also shutting in the smell of the burning blood.

As the smell slowly dissipates, the water already begins to warm up.

"Your Bath should be ready by the hour," I explain with a bright grin on my face, while Nym just keeps staring at the contraption.

"Where...where does the smoke go?"
"Oh, there's an underground outlet on the back of the cave. I had to block most of it with a rock, to keep the little dogs from crawling in though...wouldn't want them to get burned after all."

Nym's expression changes from amazed to terrified and it takes me a moment to realize, what I just made her remember.

"Err...anyway...want to give it a go?" I ask, trying to gloss over my slip up.
"Is it...safe? I mean, the ground...it wouldn't..."
"Oh, don't worry about that. Of course we did test runs before showing it to you...and if the ground can stomach a grown wingdog, I'm sure it can stomach a lightweight like you."

"One...of the dogs was in here?!" Nym asks with a high-pitched voice.
"Well, this kinda is their bathroom, so...yeah, afraid so. You must have wondered, why I built it so large, right?"
"Yeah...yeah, I guess. It's just..."

I walk over to Nym, who now looks seriously disappointed and put my hands on my shoulders, "Nym, I know it's not the private bath we had back in the volcano. But the fire's lit, the water's warming up and you really look like you need a break. So please...do me a favor and take a break, alright?"

I then start walking, but Nym grabs my hand and holds me back.
"Where...are you going?" she asks, looking down to the ground.
"Oh, I'll be outside, you know, checking up on the outlet and stuff..."
"You...would you...mind staying here? With me?"
"You sure? Last time I checked, you were very...insistent on taking your baths by yourself. Y'know, private time and all that."