Starbright

More questions. Pelan steeled herself. "Okay."

"Why did you want a Starbright so badly, anyway? I asked you in the grove, but you never answered me."

That made Pelan shift uncomfortably. "It doesn't matter anymore. They're gone."

A raised eyebrow. "You understand that your insistence on avoiding the question comes across as rather suspicious, yes?"

She did. "I needed it to help a friend who got themselves into trouble. I wasn't going to harm anyone with it, and that's the absolute truth. You can put me under a geas if you want to be sure that I'm not lying. I don't want to talk about it any more, though. In order to explain it I would have to relive some... Bad memories. Things that I don't want to think about."

Both Tula and Naala stared at her intensely. She noticed for the first time how striking their eyes were. Tula's were gold, which stood out sharply in contrast with her blue skin and white hair, and Naala's were a bright, emerald green, which contrasted in a similar way with her darker countenance.

"Hmm," said Naala. "Good enough for me. I know what it's like to have bad memories."

Pelan sighed in relief, and released a breath that she didn't realize that she'd been holding. She had a feeling that Naala would be keeping a close eye on her during their travels. Well, that was fine. She was telling the truth, after all.

"You know," said Tula, after a long pause, "I think that we are going to attract lots of attention, wherever we go."

"Hmm?" said Naala. "Why?"

Tula pointed at her own breasts, which were still bobbing heavily in the water in front of her, and then she pointed at Naala's and at Pelan's, which were doing the same.

Pelan couldn't help but laugh.