Lady of Curses

*Splash* Without hesitation Aella dropped her newly acquired cloak on a nearby rock and walked in the river. The water was kind of cold and refreshing at the same time, plus the stream wasn't too strong making it easy to move around. 

While the others were putting their stuff down and getting ready to join Aella, the dark-haired lady had already arrived at the middle of this river. The water reached right below Aella's ribs, so she decided to dive to get herself clean from all the blood.

She submerged her body fully under the water for a few seconds before she broke the water's surface again as she emerged. While standing back up Aella used her hands to push her black locks out of her face so that she could see again. 

When Aella emerged from the water and finally got the hair away from blocking her vision she was met with the opposite shore of the river from the one she came in, seeing only a bunch of trees that continued the forest she turned around to see what the party was doing. 

When she turned around she saw they were getting undressed. Sam and Alex were already fully naked and coming to the river while holding hands. 

''How's the water?'' Sam saw Aella looking their way so she asked the black-eyed woman about the water's condition.

''Nice and cold.'' 

Hearing Aella's answer Sam nodded. Soon after Sam and her lover reached the shore, and together they stepped in. ''You're right, this is nice.'' Sam had to agree, the cool water was nice in this weather. 

Still holding each other's hand the couple went deeper into the river until they were in the same depth as Aella. *Splash* Sam similar to Aella dived under the water's surface, while Alex just stood there and looked down. The water was clear enough that he could see Sam doing her thing even though she was fully submerged.

They both were some distance away from Aella, so she couldn't fully see what Sam was doing underwater, but she wasn't that curious either because there were only so many things someone can do in a river. 

Aella was already turning her attention from the pair until she saw how Alex's eyes turned big as if he got surprised by something. Seeing that reaction from him, Aella thought for a moment before a slight smirk crept on her face. 

It wasn't long before the dark-haired catkin resurfaced. Sam pushed some hair out of her face before kissing Alex. ''Coght something, Sam?!'' Looking over Aella could see that one of Sam's hands was around her lover's neck, while the other was still underwater. 

Hearing Aella's voice, Sam broke the kiss and looked a little confused at her, but when Sam saw Aella pointing at her hand with her eyes, Sam automatically understood. ''Yes, I bought a real beast!'' Sam answered Aella with a big grin, while Alex at the same time just stood there not knowing how to react.

Not wanting to interrupt their fun, Aella turned her attention back to the shore. *SPLASH, SPLASH, SPLASH.* The moment she did she saw how Grefured ran into the river with June right behind him. As for Kayne and Hubert, they had already made some way to the middle of this river in the time when Aella's attention was directed at Sam and Alex.

Seeing how everyone was somewhat relaxing while washing themselves, Aella decided to relax too. Originally her idea of relaxing was to lay on her back in the water and just let herself float, but she was in a river right now, so if she wasn't careful she would float away. Knowing this she came up with plan B.

She washed herself as quickly as she could, when she thought she was done, she used the water's reflection to double-check before returning to the shore. Stepping out of the water Aella stretched her limbs and let the sun's rays engulf her body. 

After enjoying that, Aella found a nice grassy spot and laid down. Closing her eyes, Aella could feel the soft grass under her, the soft sound of the river, the warmth that was coming from the sun gently engulfing her, and the songs of some birds that were near her. It was a perfect spot for her to just slowly let the sleep overcome her.

But Allea knew that this wasn't the place for that, even though she wouldn't fully die if she was suddenly attacked by something, but she still would be sent back to the other plane and she would lose part of her growth, and none of those two things were positive in her current situation. So even though her eyes were closed and she was enjoying things around her she still was wary, ready to react if needed. 

Aella couldn't help but remember when she opened her eyes for the first time in this new world and this body. Although it has only been a few days from the time she first came to be in this world, it still was somewhat full of action and adventures, not much but still more than she expected.

She still remembered how confused she was when she first opened her eyes in this world and was blasted by sunlight, how she tried to find an explanation for what was happening to her. She still wasn't sure how she got here, but she didn't really care what or how but only that she was here now. The reason she wasn't too concerned about her life back on Earth was probably because of her mentality changing, plus stressing about it won't do her any good, for her it was better to just go with it.

Another factor contributing to her indifference was probably the fact that she didn't lose much by coming here. She didn't have any close family, she didn't have any close friends, plus she didn't need to go to work bonus point for that she didn't need to experience the cold winter. 

Talking about winter, Aella started to wonder what seasons looked like in this world. Aella knew that there could be normal weather because she was experiencing it now, she was curious if mana somehow influenced the weather, and if it did how much it influenced the weather. Are there days in summer when the sun's rays just melt rocks, or if there are days in winter when just stepping outside would freeze your blood, and if there were such extreme days, how do people counter them? Although those were some extreme examples Aella was curious about how dangerous the weather can get in this world, after all, mana was an unknown variable as far as she knew.

Aella could ask the party about these things, probably June was the best option, but Aella wanted to relax right now. So that will be what she does, just relaxing, plus the party probably wanted to relax too, after all being stuck in a cave where the smell of blood and guts assaulted your nose nonstop wasn't a nice place. So just relaxing and enjoying their freedom from the cave was a good option.