By the Lake (by Ring)

"Rrrgn...blrrghn... grrrmble-brmble..." Tao grumbled several words that barely counted as profanity through her teeth as she slowly made her way back to her feet. Monsters were so rude sometimes! Now not only was she naked and missing her glasses, but sore all over! Or... at least her soreness covered enough surface area that it felt like it was all over. She still had red markings running rings around her chest, in three different colours to boot. One from the sudden cold, one from being yanked through the ice, and one from the squeezing!

This... really wasn't the sort of place that a rookie should be exploring, was it?

"Good thing I'm so talented!" Tao boasted to herself, tossing back massive swathes of green hair as she squinted around for her things. Not that she needed her glasses and robes to prove herself, but being naked around the frozen lake was starting to make her shiver. Plus! She'd need her glasses to spot whatever had laughed at her earlier. Fortunately for Tao, the water was barely running, and so it seemed reasonable that her glasses would still be where she dropped them. After all, the water wasn't that deep. Plus, there was still a big pair of holes in the ice from her... partial submersion earlier.

"Nnn!" She squeaked as her first attempt to reach into the water resulted in her breasts touching the sub-zero surface of the ice. "C-C-C-Cooooold...." She shivered, immediately recoiling. Goosebumps were already rising around her areolae, and she couldn't help but try to rub some warmth into them. If she hadn't just burned a good deal of her fire magic getting free she'd let loose another round.

She gulped. There really wasn't any way around it, was there? She leaned towards the holes again, one arm doing its best to cradle her bosom as she reached into the water, getting just past her elbow before she touched the bottom... but she had to go deeper if she wanted said elbow to be able to bend.