"What's taking you so long?" Karyn nagged. "Is there something wrong with that body?"
"Not aside from what was wrong with all the other ones, no," Jon said. "I'm just trying to figure out if this is my best option for playing the party heavy." She looked herself over in the pool.
Jon's newest body was sturdily built; not especially curvy, but reasonably attractive nonetheless, and had a healthy tan, which in this setting probably indicated a lot of outdoor activity. She had strong legs and fairly strong arms (for a teenage girl, anyway.) The horns weren't going to be much use unless she had to headbutt someone, and she wasn't sure how well the wings would work, but having a pair had already saved her life once. If Karyn was right and she was a martial-arts type character, this probably was a pretty good choice for the job.
"Okay," she said, "I think this'll work. So now we head...where?"
"I'm not sure," Karyn said. "I was trying to follow the river, but this appears to be the source. There's a branch further downstream that goes off...um..." She pointed. "that-a-way that we could follow, maybe."
"I want to say that's west," Jon said. "Not sure, though. But yeah, let's."
"That's west, all right," came a voice. Jon and Karyn whirled around to see two men in shabby leather clothes, looking about as disreputable as humanly possible. "Very nice," the shorter of the two said. "But the real question is, what's a lovely young lady like yourself doing out here in nothing but her skin?"
Jon had almost forgoten that she was naked, and gave a girlier shriek than she cared to admit as she tried to arrange her hands to cover as much as possible. The two men laughed as she blushed furiously. "Maybe she's lookin' for company," the taller man suggested. The other man laughed.
Jon blushed even brighter. "No," she said through her teeth. "I'm not." She was beginning to feel hot from the blushing, and the muscles in her neck were starting to stand out.
"Ah, come on, sugar," the tall man said, "You're not just out here takin' the morning air. You know you want someone to keep you company, don't you?"
Jon was feeling even hotter now, and she couldn't figure out why, other than sheer embarrassed rage. The tall man stepped toward her, and something in her head snapped. His partner's eyes went wide.
"Get down, you fool!" the short man shouted, shoving the tall ruffian's shoulders down. Jon exhaled sharply, like an angry sigh, and was quite surprised when flames spewed from her mouth and set the tall man's hair on fire.
Jon was too shocked to do anything, and simply watched as the tall man, who had apparently never been taught to "stop, drop & roll," headed for the nearby spring. The shorter fellow had a bit more sense, and was trying to smother the fire with his jacket, but was having trouble reaching up to his partner's head. He finally got the jacket secured atop the other man's skull just as the other man leapt off the bank, and the two of them went tumbling into the spring.
Karyn flitted up beside Jon. "Come on, let's get out of here!" she said, just as the two ruffians emerged from the spring as a centauress and an octopus-mermaid not unlike the one Jon had become on her first dip.
As Jon and Karyn hoofed it away down the river, Jon noticed that Karyn was carrying a small cloth pouch.
"Oh, this?" Karyn said, catching Jon's curious look. "I got it from them. Took me a while to get behind them and snag it without being noticed, but it was worth it. Don't worry, I get the feeling they didn't actually earn this."
