Ask him where to get clothing

Adella feels herself shiver. How much of it is from standing naked in the cool breeze from the ocean and how much comes from the awkwardness of standing next to the naked prince, she really couldn’t say. She looks around for covering, and seeing nothing readily available, she asks Praamo, “Where can we get some clothes?”

Praamo seems to take a moment to register Adella’s words. His hands continue their quest to cover his crotch, and his eyes appear to have difficulty moving away from Adella’s body and her similarly-awkward attempt to cover herself.

“Praamo?”

Abruptly, he returns to the moment and looks up at her face. Even in the light of the moon, she can tell his face is very flushed.

“Um.... Right.... Come with me; I have a little place just over here.” He starts to lead the way, and then when he realizes his butt is fully exposed to Adella, quickly places both hands over it. When he turns to see if she is following, however, Adella gets a full-on view of what he has been covering up in the front.

She averts her eyes, but not before seeing that he is sporting a full erection. Even in the awkwardness of the moment, she cannot he’ll but be impressed and to feel flattered, since she clearly must have something to do with his condition.

She follows Praado a short distance to a tree that is growing very close to the restraining wall. Instead of passing beyond the tree, Praado turns and squeezes between the tree and the smooth, rocky wall. Only when Adella gets very close can she see the hole in the wall that the tree manages to conceal.

“In here,” calls Praado’s voice from the darkness.

Adella gingerly squeezes into the opening, and is relieved when she feels Praado’s hand grasp hers and offer her support and assistance.

She stands in the opening, with darkness on one side and the light of the moonlit beach on the other.

“Give me a minute to find the matches,” says Praado. Adella hears him scrambling around, and after a few moments, she hears the sound of a match being struck.

As Praado begins to light the several candles, she is able to take stock of her surroundings. It is a small cave, perhaps four meters wide and just as deep. She sees a bedroom on the ground, and a couple of crates. A number of books are piled on one of the crates. On another is an artist’s drawing tablet and a charcoal pencil.

Praado retrieves a shirt from a hook on the wall and gives it to Adella. She slips it on over her shoulders, grateful for the covering. It comes down not quite midway down her thighs, and is much more immodest than she would prefer, but under the circumstances, it is better than nothing.

Praado takes a towel from another hook and drapes it around his waist. In the candlelight, Adella is able to see his defined muscles — not bulky, but toned, like a swimmer’s. The towel succeeds in covering his nakedness, but does not prevent the evidence of his erection from lifting the towel’s contours.

“We can wait here for now,” says Praado, clearing off some books and offering a crate to Adella to sit.

“Oh, but we cannot!” exclaims Adella. “It’s your sisters! That’s what I’m trying to tell you. They are missing and we must find them! I worry something has happened.”

Praado smirks and takes a seat on another crate. “I wouldn’t worry about them. They went with the Ashrays.”

“The Ashrays? Went where?”

Praado explains that Ashrays will often invite their sexual playmates to journey with them to their underwater home. The watery creatures have the ability to envelop a human in a water cocoon, trapping enough air to make the journey survivable.

“I was watching you — them, I mean...” he says. “And saw them depart. They’ll come back in an hour or so; they always do.”

“You were watching us?” Adella says, suddenly feeling exposed, despite the covering of the shirt.

Praado blushes deeply. “I wasn’t trying to be a pervert or anything, but when I came out to the beach, you were already there, and I couldn’t help it.”

Adella wondered just how much he saw of her watery romp with the Ashray. She felt simulataneously embarrassed and aroused at the thought of this handsome young man watching her and getting turned on in the process.

“So you are confident your sisters are safe?” she asks, in an effort to change the subject.

“Oh, sure. They’re fine,” he says. “It’s the Ashrays I would be worried about. They’re the ones that will likely be too exhausted to swim after an evening with the Princesses of Porn!”

Praado laughs, but Adella detects a note of bitterness in his voice. She remembers what she has learned about the life that Praado has lived, and she feels a sense of kinship with this royal offspring who must live such a restricted life under the shadow of two free-wheeling siblings.

She has many questions about Praado.