It was a warm day in late spring and I was hiking in the mountains. Not that they were very mountainous but they were officially mountains. I had recently turned twenty and was feeling like getting some exercise. I’m a bit of an introvert and I liked being outdoors with nature so as far as I was concerned a solitary stroll through the forest was just the thing.
I’m an experienced hiker and I had a backpack with the essentials, including a smart phone (with a charged battery). I had both a map and a compass included in my essentials and, together with the GPS on the phone, I knew exactly where I was at all times. If something went wrong and I need assistance I could phone in a request and tell potential rescuers exactly where I was.
Right now where I was, was following a burbling brook upstream, slowly making my way up towards the source of the brook. Did you know that following a stream is the shortest way down a mountain? It is, with one little catch. It’s generally the steepest way down the mountain, what with water always seeking the lowest level. That made following the stream uphill rather an arduous task at time.
I didn’t worry about the difficulties going up. If I decided to worry about them coming down that was another matter and easily resolved. The stream did cross several paths on its journey, and I could always switch to one of those paths heading homewards.
I had a camera with me, a proper camera as distinct from the camera built into my phone. The phone was for communication in an emergency and I wasn’t going to have my emergency only to find I’d flattened the phone battery taking pictures. I’d taken some shots already, mainly some panoramic views but also some birds I’d spotted. It’s surprising how many creatures you can spot if you move quietly.
I was following the stream along a reasonably flat stretch of ground when I heard some splashing from up ahead. Now I know what you’re thinking. A free running stream can be expected to make splashing sounds as it bumps over rocks and things. Hence the term burbling brook. This, however, was the wrong sort of splashing.
I slowed down as I approached where the stream curved towards me, wanting to spot what was making the splashing before the splash maker noticed me. I wasn’t expecting any dangerous animals but I had no intention of running into one if I could help it.
Good thing I stopped to look as I was confronted with a very dangerous animal. As I hadn’t been noticed I made haste to take a few shots of her, enjoying watching the beast disport in a pool where the brook had filled a hole at some stage.
Seeing I was still going unnoticed I moved closer and settled quietly onto the ground, getting a couple of more shots. Then I leaned back against a tree and admired the view. I knew I’d be noticed sooner or later as I was sitting right next to her clothes.
The dangerous animal was a lovely young woman in her late teens. As far as I was concerned there were few animals more dangerous, not that that prevented me admiring them. I was especially willing to admire one who was dancing about covered in water. When I say covered I guess I mean wet. The pool was only a couple of feet deep. Enough to lie down and enjoy but standing? Not very much of her was actually covered by the water.
After a few minutes of just idling about in the pool she tilted her head back, looking up at the sky. I have to admit that that did amazing things to her rack. They didn’t sag in the first place and when she tilted her head back they seemed to leap into prominence. I took a very hasty shot, but that was probably a mistake.
She must have spotted the movement because her head snapped back down and she was looking directly at me. At first the look on her face was surprise, tinged with disbelief. Then the reality of me being there, combined with the knowledge of what she wasn’t wearing, hit her. She face turned an interesting shade of red, then white, then red again, and her hands snapped into position to cover her privacy.
Ok, the hand in front of her mons covered her to some extent, but the arm across her breasts? That one was fighting a losing battle right from the word go. Too much breast and not enough arm.
“Be reasonable,” I called to her. “I’ve already seen everything and you’re just making yourself look silly.”
“Go away,” she shouted, glaring at me. She also accepted the logic of my argument, which is rare in a woman, and stopped trying to cover herself.
“I’m comfortable,” I told her. “I’ll just wait here for a bit longer while I rest up. Strenuous work climbing the mountain, you know.”
She muttered something that I didn’t hear but the expression on her face indicated that I was probably better off not hearing it. She also seemed a little sceptical about how strenuous a climb it was.
“Please, just go away. I want to get dressed.”
“Well I’m not stopping you,” I pointed out. “Your clothes are right there. Feel free to put them on.”
“If you think I’m going over there while you’re sitting there you’re crazy,” she snapped.
“Why? All you have to do is walk over and put your clothes on. It’s not as if you’d be showing me anything that I haven’t already seen.”
“And am still seeing,” I added thoughtfully, watching her face flame up again.
“I’m not an idiot,” she said scornfully. “As soon as I got close enough you’d grab me.”
“I would? Why would I do that?” Hopefully I sounded genuinely interested in her answer.
“Because I’m naked. You’d probably take that as a chance to pounce on me and rape me.”
“Oh. That never occurred to me, actually.”
I tilted my head to one side as I gave her the once over and then shook my head.
“Nah. Not worth the trouble,” I told her.
Now you’d think that a young lady who had just been assured that she was safe from unwanted carnal attentions would be relieved. Not this young lady. She sounded narked.
“And what do you mean by that?” she demanded.
“By what?” I asked, confused.
“By me not being worth the trouble.”
