Jack looks around, the bucket helm shifting over the chain coif.  The noise of it louder than it should be, as there's complete silence.  Shrugging the green cloak over his shoulder, the warrior draws the two handed blade at his waist.  The river looked safe enough, if that's possible in this dank, dark depths of the forest, and he would like a bath.<br/><br/>The splashing to his left gets his attention and a naked blond girl, looking very startled, very wet and very naked suddenly fills his view.  A rapid blink on her part, "Oh!"<br/><br/>And suddenly dips back under the water, obscuring her fine frame.  Jack counts his blessings as the chain skirt covers a rather embarressing reaction he had to all that gorgeous flesh.  The metal breastplate and spaulders are dull, and the attached cape around his neck is travel spotted so he must cut quite the figure.  The leather gauntleted hands pull off his helm and he grins at female, "Don't worry, I won't bite.  Well, at least not unless you ask."<br/><br/>A nervous giggle as she looks up at him with crystal blue eyes, "You wish to enter water?"<br/><br/>The accent puts her further north than he's been and given her curves, she could easily be from up there.  However, a lone girl in a dangerous wood, unarmed or armoured?  Something doesn't seem right.  And then it hits him.  Why is always suspiscious?  It's getting tiresome to always expect the worst from everyone, it would be nice to have someone be who she seems to be.<em>And get a chance to bed her, like you did your wife</em>, the snarky voice in his head pokes at him.  That aside, there doesn't seem to be any real danger.<br/><br/>Opening the pack he placed beside him when he found the river, Jack fishes out a small loaf of Hard Bread and waves it at her, "You hungry?  I don't see any food with you, so here, I'll share some of mine."<br/><br/>The gesture is one of pure innocence, he doesn't even realize the enormity of it, doing what comes naturally to him.  The blond on the other hand reacts as if she'd been offered the most treasured items in all the lands.  The crystal gaze turns wide, her lip trembles as she sobs, "Thank you, Kind Sir, thank you!  If only my love had been so honest in life..."<br/><br/>And with that, she melts back into the still waters, her spirit fleeing the prison form of liquid.  Jack sighs and takes a bite out of the tack, "So it's going to be one of those days is it?  What was that?  A water nymph?  No, nymps are nature spirits, this one said something about love and life."<br/><br/>He ponders, having had eight years of travel under his belt, he's accumulated quite a bit of lore and knowledge.  And the King's Library did also have several books on monsters and legends.  Which he needed to find out the history of his sword.  Of which he still hasn't found, still the former Knight of Leland does remember a tid bit about a woman's spirit bound to a watery prison...  It hits him.<br/><br/>"A Rusulka!  That's what you were!"  He crows at the water where she had been.  Then he sobers up, "Oh joy, monsters in the water, monsters on land...  Maybe I should bathe somewhere else."<br/><br/>The swordsman ponders his dilema and then shrugs, "They eat me, they eat me.  At least I'll be clean going down the gullet."<br/><br/>Several minutes later, fully washed, his gear re-oiled and prepared he continues his trek to find a habitation of some sort in this forsaken wood.