<span style="font-size: 12px">"Don't be ridiculous," Vee snapped.  "Why would I have a boulder here?"  But then her sister was helping her take off her backpack despite her very loud and anxious apprehensions.<br/>
<br/>
Vee peered over the edge slowly as her sister looped arms with her.  She was trying to convince herself that, perhaps, Farris was right.  She did spend a lot of time reading about adventures and romances and protagonists with hearts of gold and stomachs lined with steel.  Maybe it was time for her to take the chapters of her life and rewrite a few things, add in a few details ━ "Actually, actually, I'm quite okay with where I ammmMM <i>SON OF A</i> ━ AHH!"<br/>
<br/>
She should've known that her sister would try such an underhanded trick ━ that thought echoed in her mind right before she crashed through the surface of the water, too terrified to close her eyes.  The force of her fall pushed her deep into the lake, her limbs automatically searching for something solid and stable to grab onto, but finding nothing.<br/>
</span><br/><i><span style="font-size: 12px">Up, up!</span></i><br/><span style="font-size: 12px"><br/>
She looked up toward the sky and saw a flash of light ━ sunlight?  It didn't look like it, but there was no time to think about that as she felt herself sinking toward the bottom.  With the faint memory of ten-year-old swimming classes, she kicked her legs and propelled herself to the surface, breaking through with a gasp and a swear.<br/>
<br/>
"Son of a two-timing asshole <i>bitch</i>, Farris!" <br/>
<br/>
Vee wiped at her face, pushing aside strands of her hair as, in the midst of the action, her braids had come loose.  She undid the tie and slipped it around her wrists, and then seeing her glasses floating off to the side, she swam over and reached for them.<br/>
<br/>
She spat out some water and swam toward the shore, hoping to get firm dirt beneath her feet.<br/>
<br/>
"Not fun at all, goddammit" she grumbled, looking down at her wet clothes and shivering.  "Hey, Farris, what was the weather forecast today?" she asked.  "Why did you take us out to swim if it was going to be storming?"<br/>
<br/>
Finally, when Vee was standing calf deep in the water, she pulled off her shirt to wring the water out.  The air was chilly and goosebumps littered her arms, but she felt strange, as if part of the shaking had to do with people <i>watching</i>.  Were there people watching?  It felt...odd.<br/>
<br/>
-<br/>
<br/>
In a nearby tree, Hidetsugu glanced between the girls and his companion, the way her ears were twitching and her slit eyes sparkled.  He couldn't deny the fact that they were interesting.  One second, there was no smell of humans, and in the next, the whole area was lit up with the scent of human girls as they emerged from the holy lake as if they had always been there, when in actuality, there had been no one there before the two of them.<br/>
<br/>
He heard his companion murmur, "Interesting," under her breath, and he was inclined to agree.<br/>
<br/>
"Shall we greet them?" he asked softly, knowing her demonic ears would catch his faint whispers as easily as if he had publicly announced them.<br/>
<br/>
They were wearing such strange clothing, he thought.  They were very scandalous and <i>sinful</i> ━ it wasn't quite the word he wanted to use, but he had noticed that the humans, especially women, were always covered and clad, soft and demure, but these women were boisterous, and one of them wore a different kind of spectacles that he had never seen before.<br/>
<br/>
"New toys, perhaps?" he chuckled.</span>