Behind the branches and behind the bushes a man was hiding. It was hardly surprising Aris saw him as his pinkish skin was almost visible against the dominant greens and browns of the forest. He was naked, muscular and he displayed no talent for stealth. Reasonably she threw rocks at him, which he made no attempt evade, and she tried to cover herself up while he stayed in the same position, seemingly taking as much enjoyment from watching her scramble for her clothes as he did from her bathing. Whoever he was, he was a terrible, shameless voyeur, who did not comprehend the idea of retreat.<br/><br/>Aris in turn displayed the idea of advance and lunged at him with her dagger, which he made no attempt to evade either. She jumped through the bushes, screaming a "hiyaah" like a ninja - a confused ninja - and stopped the dagger just short of his chest, not wanting to strike a killing blow.<br/><br/>The dead man who had been peeping on her could not have cared less about that. After all, he was dead.<br/><br/>Hidden slightly by the foliage his condition as dead had been questionable. The noose that hung around his neck was much harder to spot than the rest of him, and his feet which dangled above the ground was behind a juniper bush so he might just have seemed uncommonly tall. His facial expression was still, but did contain a few hints of a creepy peeper, with his eyes bulging out and his tongue hanging limply from his open mouth, remnants of drool glistening perversely on his chin. Being naked didn't help either. He was a real creep; If he wasn't dead he would deserve to be hanged.<br/><br/>His name had been Jack when he was alive and he had been hanged for peeping on the baker's and the fishmonger's wives bathing. When they caught him they hung him from the tree next to the one he had been peeping from, claiming it was justice, but in reality the dead man, Jack, now just ruined it for everyone else coming to bathe in the lake. Everyone in the city knew the dead man was hanging near their pond and no one wanted to go near it now.<br/><br/>Which explained why Aris had it all to herself. Unless you counted Jack, who was dead.<br/><br/>Under other circumstances that would be the end of the story. Aris would move on and find someone living to help with her problems, and there would be no reason to even mention the dead man. Even an angel could not revive the dead and so he was of no help to anyone. Fortunately for Aris and especially fortunately for Jack, Jack had never needed help coming back to life and as Aris removed her dagger from his chest the dead man sprang back to life, kicking his legs in the air, and making strangled throaty growls befitting of a man in a noose. His face turned red as a bead and his eyes started bulging again. His hands desperately clawed at the rope trying to free himself, but his body weight worked against him, keeping the noose taught, and as suddenly as he had come back to life Jack died again, croaking wordlessly for help.<br/><br/>Jack was as bad a dead man as he was a peeper because four minutes later he returned to life again, kicking and croaking and dying all over and there was no telling how long this process of rebirth and strangulation would have continued if not for Aris.