Gerudo Forest

Gerudo Forest Chapter 9

They walked a little ways till she heard the roar of running water and she knew it must be close. They turned into a door-less room and there was the waterfall he had spoke of. It ended into what looked like a shallow pool. Someone had tried to make it look fancy by stacking stones around the edges of it. The torches on the walls made the water dance with a yellow light and she could see tiny fish swimming around.  

Armos stepped in to the water pulling the decorative leather band over his head and threw it to a nearby rock. He then pealed off his sweat soaked shirt revealing his well toned body. Melissa couldn't help but watch as he took his hair down letting it trail down his back. It actually went down to his backside. Much longer than she thought it would be. She wondered if Ganon's was that long.  

He noticed her staring and put his hand on the top edges of his pants and pretended like he was going to pull them down. Melissa turned away quickly which made him laugh. It was a deep and beautiful sound that made her smile.  

"Fine I'll leave them on for now." She heard him say from behind her. "You can turn around now." 

Melissa didn't know if she wanted to. What if he was lying? Plus she didn't want him to see her blush again. When she didn't turn she heard him splashing away from her toward the waterfall. She guessed she would risk a glance to see if he had told the truth while his back was to her. 

He had been true to his word and Melissa sighed with relief. He stood under the waterfall. The water slid down his skin as he ran his fingers through his hair trying to get it completely wet. She felt somehow dirty watching him. Well all she was doing was looking. She shouldn't feel bad. Right? Jimmy did it all the time. He had always said it wasn't bad to look as long as he came home to her which was as good an excuse as any because she just couldn't stop watching him.  

"You didn't want to take your gloves off?" She called to him across the pool.  

She had just noticed he hadn't removed them. He looked at her then down at his hands.  

"I like them where they are." he replied nonchalantly. "Your turn." He said coming out of the water.  

"I'm not taking off my clothes in front of you." She said looking embarrassed.  

"They are not dry from the first dip today. Besides I don't have any shampoo." 

"Shampoo?" He asked like he had never heard of the word.  

"It's like soap for your hair."She replied."  

"Oh." He said realizing what she wanted.  

He went to the other side of the pool and brought back a bottle of a purple soapy looking liquid. "I think this is what you are looking for." he said tossing her the bottle. "Now you have no excuse." He said with a smirk.  

She wasn't about to show off her body. He might not be ashamed of his, but Melissa had never felt that way about herself. She envied how good the other girls here looked.  

"I'm not going to right now. I am sure my fiancé wouldn't like it if I were walking around naked in front of other men."  

He sat down on a rock and started brushing his hair with a comb he had found on the other side of the wall. He didn't say anything. He just watched her. Melissa decided to at least wash her hair. She leaned over the pool and dipped her head in wetting her hair. She opened the bottle it smelt faintly of flowers. Not overly strong which was good? She lathered her hair up then rinsed it out. After she wrung her hair out he motioned for her to join him. She sat beside him using her fingers to brush her hair out.  

"Turn around." he said picking the comb up again. 

She did and he proceeded to brush her hair. It felt nice and she almost wished he wouldn't stop. He found a tie from somewhere and proceeded to put her hair up in a pony tail showing off her ears. She turned around to face him.  

"Very pretty." he said running his finger down her face and under her chin raising her eyes to look at him. "I never noticed you had gold rings in your eyes." He said taking her glasses off.  

"I need those to see." she said turning her face away and he handed them back to her.  

Had he really said he thought she was pretty or had she imagined it?  

"Are you ready for tomorrow?" Armos said playing with his hair absentmindedly.  

"What's tomorrow?" she asked not thinking.  

"You're next magic lesson of course."He said smiling. "You're magic seems a little different than mine, but I think we can figure it out."  

"I don't want to learn magic." Melissa said deciding she didn't need another day of being yelled at.  

"How about Horses?" She asked thinking this might be the perfect opportunity to learn so when she was finally able to sneak out she would have no problems. 

"Horses?" he asked confused. "What about them?" 

"Well..." Melissa said thinking of her plan. "I have never ridden one before. I thought maybe you could teach me that?"  

He looked at her thoughtfully. "Never ridden a horse? What kind of backwards tribe are you from? Hmmm... " He looked down and thought to himself. "Every Gerudo should at least know that." 

So he actually thought her a gerudo?  

He turned back to her. "Are you still not sleepy?" He asked.  

She nodded. 

"Then I don't see why we can't go for a late night ride." He said flippantly. 

"You mean right now?" She said looking at him unsure. 

"No time like the present." He laughed.  

He got up and held out his hand to pull her up. His gloves were soggy from the water and she really wondered why he never took them off. Once on her feet they started to walk to the stables.