Ew, ew, ew. No matter how hard he scrubbed, he couldn't get rid of the feeling of being squalid.
The pool of the stream where he was bathing was deep and pleasantly warm, the current slow enough to be safe, but fast enough to carry away the mud from his body.
<I think it's a good look for you,> Maneki said, purring. She sat beside his clothes on the bank, watching him with her bright blue eyes as he tried to get himself clean.
The day was not turning out to be a great one. In fact, it was terrible. The worse he'd had in months.
When he found the kid that had thought it was funny to fling handfuls of mud at him, he'd teach him a thing or two. He hadn't even been able to get a good look at the boy before the little maggot had run off in a fit of squealing laughter, leaving Monnayage standing there in horror and revulsion. It had even gotten in his hair. His beautiful hair!
With a repulsed and strangled sound of terror, he dropped back under the water, madly massaging his head and leaving no strand of hair untouched.
Unclean! He was unclean!
<If you scrub any harder, you'll have no skin left,> Maneki said to him. <You've been in there for half an hour. You're clean.>
When he surfaced, he said aloud, "You wouldn't be acting so calm if you'd been the one to have mud thrown at you. I'll have to burn my clothes." He couldn't wear something that had been tarnished with street mud; the worst kind of mud.
<Yes, well. You might want to get out before your skin starts to shrive—>
Both he and Maneki heard it at the same time: the sound of someone approaching. Whatever or whomever it was, he or she was upwind and he couldn't get a good sniff for identification.
And then a large tiger burst out of the trees some ways down. It didn't seem to notice them, instead lapping at the water and then resting itself on the bank.
Monnayage blinked, momentarily forgetting his obsessive cleaning. A tiger? Those weren't native to Serendipity. At least not Featherfall.
Now how was he supposed to get out of the water with a giant tiger settled nearby?
Damn. And they were downwind from it, too.
Worst day ever.