Brighid, coming down for her own bath.

You stand and rush towards the stream bank where your spear lays discarded, but then you stop and stiffen in an entirely different way as Brighid steps through the bushes and into your view. Her hair is unbound from the warrior's braid she had it in for the last day and a half, and she is completely, gloriously naked. There is no Power in all the Realms which could keep you from staring open-mouthed at her bare breasts. They were even bigger than you first thought and you mentally nudge your estimate of their size up to two cups larger than Anwn. You can detect not even a hint of sag in either of them and they bounce alluringly with each step she makes. Her nipples and areolas are a dusky rose color and surprisingly small given the bounteous expanse of flesh they crown.

The sound of Brighid clearing her throat shakes you from your reverent appreciation of her nudity and makes you realize that you are in a life-or-**** situation. You whirl around so that your back is to the centaur and begin babbling an apology, but she interrupts you.

"What are you doing? I swear, humans are the strangest race in the Realms. If you're embarrassed about that dagger you have between your legs, it is too late for that; you were giving me a show while you were taking in the show, so to speak. I promise you I will not make fun of you, now turn back around and help me wash my fur. It may be cool out, and Sunsteel may be resistant to heat, but wearing two layers of armor over fur is going to make anyone sweat, and centaurs aren't built to scrub our own backs."

You hesitantly turn back around, but you keep your gaze averted from the warrior woman's chest. "Oh, for Braihan's sake, you can look at me, I will not kill you for noticing the giant sacks of fat attached the front of my body. I will never understand the obsession of grown men with teats. I admit that these," she lifts her breasts with her hands and forearms, "are larger than average and that seems to flip some switch deep in males' brains, but get over it. I knew you were here when I came down to the stream. In fact, I came down because you were here. Now collect yourself and get to scrubbing. Tomorrow's training will go a lot worse on you if I'm itchy because sweat has soaked into my fur and dried." She hands you a long wooden paddle with stiff bristles on it, turns her back to you, and lowers herself into the creek.

Brighid's warning about tomorrow's training gets your mind back in gear and you set to scrubbing her back with the brush. At first you scrub too gently and she snaps at you that she's a warrior, not a milkmaid, and to scrub harder. She keeps complaining until you're putting your whole back into it, at which point she finally wriggles a bit and sighs with pleasure. You work from where her human torso meets her equine body along the spine, then down the flanks, then splash water over her and take a second pass before moving a little further down her body and repeating the process. Meanwhile, she begins to wash her torso and hair. At one point, she asks, "I couldn't help but notice that you look a lot less bruised than I expected. Either you have a lot more points in Toughness than I believe you do, or you healed yourself magically. Which is it?"

"Magic, I'm afraid. I have a few levels in Vivimancy and the Patch Wounds spell."

"Ritual." Brighid corrects absently.

"Pardon?"

"Ritual. Esoteric magics -- Life, ****, Dream, and so on -- do not have spells, they have rituals. They are more involved and more expensive than the common magics like my Fire magic, but tend to have greater effects. So you have a ritual which restores Health and cures Wounds. Probably just Minor Wounds, if I had to guess, but that's still a very good thing. I have healing magic, but mine is more of a last resort. Cauterize is powerful for stopping bleeding and sealing holes in a body, but it deals damage and causes Wounds, and tends to leave nasty scars. Fire magic focuses more on burning things to ashes before they have a chance to kill you. Proactive healing via subtraction of your enemies." She says wryly.

Suddenly, you feel her tail slap you across the wrist. "While I appreciate your efforts in making sure every inch of me is clean, and I will admit that you are scrubbing my rump quite pleasantly, if you go any further back I shall be **** to kill you." You realize with a start that your scrubbing was about to round the curve of Brighid's rear end and head towards more sensitive areas, and you immediately stop. "I did not say stop, I just said do not go any further back. I think you have done a good job on this side, go ahead and scrub my other side, then you can do my belly and legs." Without a word you move around to her other side and start back at the juncture of her human and equine halves.

"I know you probably think my training was harsh, but I will not apologize for it. If we had all the time in the world, I might have used a less violent method -- or better yet, bribed Fionn into doing it. The old fossil is as ornery as they come, but he is a far better warrior and teacher than I likely will ever be. But we do not have time. In less than two days we will enter Bannagh Macht and you need as much skill with your weapon and armor as I can impart to you in that time. You were right to ask for training, and I will apologize for not starting the night before. Regardless, this is the only method I could come up with to teach you both weapon and armor skills quickly. Combat skills always advance faster when **** is involved, even if I was intentionally pulling my strikes."

"Wait, what, you were hitting me softly?! That bloody well hurt, woman! I was completely covered in bruises when I came down to wash." She half-turns her torso and gives you a 'no shit, Sherlock' look. You're distracted a moment by the glimpse of side-boob, but her response brings your sense of indignation back.

"Of course I was going easy on you. I could have crippled you in a minute flat without even using the blade of my glaive. My goal was, is, to teach you to defend yourself, not to maim you. And I did not give you bruises everywhere -- I left your twig and berries quite alone, thank you. By the way, is that your little twig I feel brushing against my leg? I am flattered, I assure you, but you should keep it to yourself if you would like to keep it." She gives you a dour look and turns back to washing her long hair. You take the warning to heart and scoot backwards in the water.

After a few more minutes, you finish washing her left flank and she stands up again, directing you to wash her belly and legs. "Do not scrub as hard underneath as up above. I do not wear armor on my belly, nor does the blanket cover me down there, just the straps holding it all together. I would probably be fine without any scrubbing at all, but we are already here and you already have the brush, so we might as well take advantage of the situation, yes?" Now you're sure she's just teasing you, but you acquiesce gracefully anyway and begin lightly scrubbing the rest of her. She hums in pleasure as you run the brush along her body and down her legs, eventually side-stepping out of your reach when you once again draw close to her nether regions.

"That's good enough, Aidan. Thank you for your help, truly. Centaurs normally bathe together because it is just not possible to scrub one's self truly clean. That is why I am not shy of my body around you; I do not think there is anyone in the village who has not seen my tits while we bathe in the river. I do not mind if you look; just do not touch without permission. Now, speaking of touching, I think I told you to polish your spear well tonight, and it looks like you have yet to take that task into hand, so I will leave you to it." She turns towards you and pushes her breasts together just a little bit with the sides of her arms, smirking at your very visible reaction. "Oh, and Aidan? I am going to go out into the brush a little ways and take care of some business of my own. If you hear me screaming -- do not come running. Understand?" Her smirk turns devilish and she trots out of the stream and into the darkness.

You stare at her as she leaves, not quite willing to accept what she just told you to do and implied she would be doing, but when you hear her voice begin to call out into the night, you do indeed take matters into your own hands and polish your spear vigorously. By the time Brighid's voice reaches a loud and violent crescendo and you take care of the problems thinking of what she was doing caused you, two new prompts have appeared in your mind.

Congratulations! You have reached level 1 in Masturbation. You are now Unskilled in Masturbation. Masturbation is a subskill of Sex.
Congratulations! You have reached level 1 in Voyeurism. You are now Unskilled in Voyeurism. Voyeurism is a subskill of Sex.

Mentally and physically exhausted by the night's events, you gather your gear and clothes, trudge back to the campsite, curl up into a ball, and go to sleep.