Max stood up. "You must turn around." He said. "Dwarves aren't so comfortable being seen unclothed as humans."
Sammel said. "Whatever you wish, just so you bathe." He turned about and faced the far side of the lake. A few moments later he heard a quiet splash as Max entered the water.
A moment later, Max said. "Okay, I'm in the water, happy?" He had waded until only his head and sparse beard rose above the surface.
Sammel turned about and gaped. It is a little known fact that dwarves and humans have slightly different ranges of sight. In the area of blue-green, the color of lakewater, dwarves are near blinded, and cannot penetrate it with their vision. However, humans, having a bit more of a aquatic tendency can see through several feet of blue-green water. He looked at Max and said. "Oh by the One."
Max looked very concerned for a moment, then settled his face back into a glower. "What?" he demanded.
Sammel turned away and swam a small distance away. Then said "You've got tits!"
The dwarf panicked and ran from the water, splashing to the surface and grabbing his clothes. As he turned to pick up his trousers, Sammel realized that there was no 'he' to Max, either.
Sammel looked after his friend, then it hit him square in the head. Max's mom looked just like his dad. Dwarven women looked just like the men. He swam to the bank and quickly dressed, still dripping water, and ran to the campsite. Max was there, dressed in wet clothes as well, stuffing her gear into her rucksack.
"Max, what are you doing?" Sammel asked.
Max looked at him with angry eyes. "Packing my stuff, what's it look like to ya?"
The lad sat down on a tree stump and looked at her. "Don't." He said, quietly. "You can't walk home tonight."
The dwarf regarded him a moment then said. "What the hell makes you think I'm goin home?"
Sammel sighed. "Because that's what I would do." He said. "But it won't do you any good, I'm still your best friend, you know, and I'll go home too."
Max stopped stuffing the gear into the sack. "You can't." She said. "It'll ruin your wandering." Her face grew very concerned. "Your family will be shamed."
Shrugging, Sammel stood up. "Oh well." He said. He looked at the dwarven girl that he never knew was a girl. "Max, why did you never tell me?"
The dwarf gave him a quick glance. "Would it have served to make a difference?" Then she turned away. "I've heard you talk all about girls, Sammel. I know what you like in them, remember?" She looked at him again. "And I know what you don't like in them." Then she looked at herself. "I'm pretty close to opposite of what you think of as a good girl."
Sammel regarded her. "I guess I should have known." He said. "Your beard has always been spotty, at best." He grinned slightly.
Max turned toward him a little. "Well, yeah, we girls don't grow them in good till we're in our thirties." She stroked her wispy whiskers thoughtfully. "But some boys have the same problem, you know!" She said, her eyes flashing with dwarven pride.
"I don't doubt it." The lad said, wisely avoiding any further ire. "I still wish you had told me."
"So you could treat me differently?" She said, eyeing him dubiously. "Hell, I liked you as a best friend. Had you known I was a girl, you'da been all 'Let me do that, it's man's work.' and shit."
Sammel laughed. "Bullshit." He said. "You've been able to kick my butt since day one, as you've proven many times."
She smiled. "I suppose that's true." She said, considering. "But you boys all act so funny around girls. I didn't want that."
"It might have helped." Said Sammel. "I wouldn't have picked on you to make you kiss Theresa last year."
Max's face twisted a bit at that. "Don't remind me. My only kiss of my miserable life, and it was another girl."
Sammel chuckled. "If it makes you feel any better, she said she liked it a lot, repeatedly." He said. "She was willing to take you to the loft, from what I hear."
Max laughed at that, too. "That'd been a hell of a deal, huh?" She said.
"I suppose so." Said Sammel. "She thought you were just shy."
Max grunted, sitting on another nearby stump. "Just shy a cockstem and a pair of eggs." She said, then chuckled at herself.
Sammel said. "Like I said, it's no good going home tonight, in any case, it'll be dark soon."
Max regarded the sky. "I see well enough at night." She said.
"That's not the point, it's dangerous at night." He retorted. "There's bad stuff out there, even here on the Isles. The rangers patrol places like here, but not out in the wilds."
Finally, Max relented. "You're right." She said. "But what are we to do?"
"Get our camp ready and go to bed in a while." Sammel said.
Max looked at their gear. "We've only got the one tent, though." He said, eyeing their only shelter.
The lad looked at it. "I can sleep outsi..." He started to say.
"The bloody hell you will!" Max yelled. "I'll be damned if I'll let you pull that macho shit on me!" She had stood up and balled both her hands into tight fists. "Don't make me pummel you for it."
Sammel regarded her a moment. "I guess you're right about treating you different, huh?" He admitted.
"No shit." Max said, chuckling. "We can share the tent, It's not like your attracted to me or anything."
The lad looked at Max a long moment, then said. "Or vice-versa?"
Max just looked back at him for a second, then started to erect the tent. Sammel helped her soon after, and they had it built in just a few minutes. A half hour later, they were laying in the small tent.
"Max?" Sammel asked in the darkened tent.
Max sighed. "What?" She said.
"You aren't attracted to me, are you?" He asked.
Max sighed again, and seemed to shift in the darkness. "Would it matter, Sammel?" She finally said.
"Yes." Sammel answered. "You've always been my best friend. It would make a difference to know you feel something toward me like that."
Max chuckled. "It'd scare the piss out of ya, if that's what you mean." She said.
"No, it would not." Sammel said, defensively.
Max paused for a few seconds. "Sammel, you're a cute boy, okay? But you're hardly a dwarf, are ya? I mean, you're a bit skinny, yer way too damn tall, and you can't even grow a half-arsed moustache." Then she finally added. "And yer cockstem is too thin."
Sammel said. "My what?" He sounded offended.
"I said yer cockstem is too thin, looked like a damn fishin pole." She grunted into the darkness.
The youth sat up in the tent. "Molly in Hobb's Mill didn't say it was 'too thin'." He said, sounding offended. "And she got a good handful of it."
Chuckling, Max said. "Her hand ain't where it goes, now is it?"
Sammel laughed. "I suppose not." He said. "But still, it's not all that thin, it wasn't hard when you saw it."
"Not bloody likely I'll see it that way, either." She said, her eyes flashing in the dimness of the tent.
"I wouldn't swear on that." The lad said. "I thought about them tits of yours and got that way a while ago."
She faced him. "You bloody what?" She asked.
"I got stiff thinking about your boobs." Sammel said. "They were quite nice ones."
"For a dwarf." She said. "You mean they were nice for a dwarf."
Sammel laid back down. "No, they were nicer than Molly's for sure." He said.
"Were they then?" She asked, and Sammel could see her smile a little. "Well, that's something to know." Then she paused a second. "Nicer how?" She finally asked.
The lad thought, casting his mind back a few months. "Well, not that I saw them long, mind you." He said. "But yours seemed bigger, and rounder, and...well...really to stand up there." He stopped a moment. "And they had really pointy nipples."
The dwarf grunted. "Aye, I've always liked those." She said, grinning into the night
The youth chuckled. "There, I've done it again." He said.
"You've done what?" Max asked.
"Erm. Gone and made myself stiff again thinking about your tits." The boy replied.
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