The nymph wiggles happily, and soon enough is getting much less drippy, and a minute later even less drippy than that, and looks up at him hopefully with eyes now firm enough to have individual sparkling lashes.

"Again? All right." Again, then. And with her body firming up in his arms, he can give her a much firmer hug without any danger of breaking surface tension.

The third time seems to satisfy her at last. She unwraps herself from around him, waves cheerfully to Sable, kisses Torok on the cheek while he refastens his armor, and darts off to disappear tracelessly beneath the surface of the lake.

She grins and stands up, brushing off a bit of sand. "Had fun?"

"Yeah. And now Rain gets to be a very well-fed nymph, at least until she finds somebody who's having more trouble."

"Oh good. I've heard nymphs sometimes like girls — maybe when they're extra hungry, or maybe just because — plus sometimes I have a cock, so maybe I should make more of a point to get to know Rain eventually and spread the burden a bit."

She loops her arm through Torok's again and continues walking toward Lily's.

"I think that'd be really sweet of you! I don't actually know how nymphs feeding on girls works but having a dick probably helps. —aw, man, I forgot to ask her about learning their language. I can do that next time I see one, I guess. Unless I forget again, which I might."

"Sweet of you to try. We'll try to remember when we're back in this area too."

"Well, before I just figured I didn't have any chance of learning, but now that there's Neo—I guess it feels easier if I have a friend who's learning with me, and more important if I can help somebody learn it who needs to?"

Neo switches in for a moment, bounces up, and kisses him on the cheek with a little wink.

And then Sable is left giggling. "She clearly appreciates that."

Squeak!!

"I'm glad!" he says, laughing. "Awwww."

She hums and smiles. "Let's see, silly 'getting to know you' questions... favorite color?"

"I dunno! Red? Gold, maybe?"

"Red's also Ruby's favorite color! And not even primarily for the obvious reason!"

"The obvious reason being her name? What's the non-obvious reason, then?"

"Honestly?", she replies with a shrug and a smile. "Mostly that she just thinks red's a pretty color. It's also the color of her Aura, and of the rose petals she leaves behind, in her source material, but that's secondary as well. She just likes it."

"Fair enough," he says agreeably.

Green fields loom ahead.

"...I'll wait for you out here," says Torok. "Oh, uh—do you want my backpack? The armor has more storage than it looks, I don't need it anymore."

"Oh, wow, thank you! How much food do you need on an average day?"

He shrugs off the backpack and hands it to her. "Uh, I dunno, some? Three meals' worth, hopefully? When I was at Lily's I'd eat with her when I could and now that I'm by myself I eat with Palla at least twice a day, or try to. I'm sorry I can't be more specific."

She happily accepts the backpack, swings it onto her back, and nods. "I can work with that."

She heads into the farm proper. Is there a Lily to be found in the fields?

Yep, she's over there pulling up carrots!

She walks up and waves. "Hi Lily! Here to acquire provisions for the journey. Good day so far?"