Lasarus

Right. I suppose I should mention something. What you are reading on here (scribblehub if you somehow weren't aware) is a rewrite of what I have currently uploaded on Webnovel under the same name. There's about 80 chapters up on there but I'm reworking things because well, I'll be frank, there wasn't much ranching going on and I wasn't quite happy with how things were going. This is my attempt at remedying that.

Splashing a final handful of water into his face, Noah scrubbed the last vestiges of grime from his face then after a moment to drip, stood and extradited himself from the cooling water. Carefully, he lifted himself out of the tub, flicking his arms as he did to get as much water off his hands as he could. The motion brought about another realization when an aching stiffness sent him bowing backwards, cracking his spine a few times in the process.

“Gah, did this guy not know how to stretch once in a while?” grumbling, he rolled his neck getting even more sharp pops.

Noah rolled his toes on the sodden floor, it was cold, not as cold as when he’d first entered as the residual heat of the water that had splashed over had sapped into it, warming it just slightly. It was made of stone, the floor that is, not of wood like the rest of the house as that would just rot and cause who knows what type of issue.

He crossed the bathing room, arriving by the sliding door into the dressing area and reached for the indented handle and pulled it open on its hanging hinges. The wood was thick, a decent two inches, had it just been settled flat on the ground it would have been more of a struggle.

Pushing his way into the room, Noah gripped the back of his neck, hoping his massage would quell the ache. In doing so, he’d not noticed the woman stood by the table and shelves who was sorting through a raggedy basket of fabrics. Liora plucked from the top of it and with swift, skilful motions had folded it neatly. By the second piece, she was lifting her head, turning it to Noah while continuing to fold essentially blindfolded.

It took barely a second for her to latch to his skeletal chest and skeletal shoulders and skeletal hips. His legs were thin and muscles non-existent. She blinked, meeting Noah’s eyes as he glanced over her, she wasn’t naked—something Noah knew he should be thankful of but his mind said otherwise—having changed into a loose-fitting robe thicker and less transparent than her last.

They held gazes, though that broke when Liora darted her emeralds down to his member which had shrunken and gone half-mast during the bath and just as quickly, she darted her head to the side, flushing and gulping in the process.

Noah glanced to his side, found the shelf with the towels and lumbered to it, “right. Sorry, did not expect you to be in here,” he said, hand falling to push down and cover his genitals while the other grabbed a towel and brought it to hang loosely over his member.

Being at all honest with himself, he should have expected it. This was by far not his first time in an oriental style bathing room that separated changing and washing. So of course Liora could enter at will and do her own thing. That was the entire point, that and to keep the less water accepting things dry.

She didn’t respond at first, too flustered and squirmish for her mind to even work properly, “n-no, it’s my fault.” She patted her chest and forced her eyes to focus on the table before her as Noah wrapped the towel around his waist and kept it up. “I-you were bathing, I should have let you know.”

Even hidden behind the surprisingly plush robe—compared to the flat and thin towels—Liora’s derriere positively bounded from it. Wide and round, showing no flattening from age or muscle training exercise. Noah darted his focus up, hoping that Liora hadn’t noticed his ogling, and noticed she was still sticky with wine on her cheeks and in her hair.

“It’s alright,” he forced a chuckle.

Silence befell the two, awkward of course. One unable to pull the skeletal form of Noah, an image which would often lead to a downwards spiral to a particular shaft Noah was doing his utmost to stop from peaking. The other hanging his head with his body turned to the side as he fiddled with the towel to hide himself and his shame.

“I, I think I’m going to prepare a meal for us,” she tossed him a flushed smile then turned away, “you look about my husband's size…” eyes darting down then quickly up, “maybe a bit b-” before she could finish her sentence, she’d lifted her hand and sent a harsh slap against her cheek. The sound was loud enough that Noah bounced and winced away as Liora stood there stoic and unfazed.

“Liora, are you o-”

“I’m fine,” she straightened her posture, forced her flush away and smiled, “I’ve left you a change of clothes. They were one of Harv’s bigger pairs, so do let me know if they fit alright. If they don’t, I should be able to do some small alterations.” She didn’t give him the time to respond when she lunged for the door and hastened down the hall, almost leaving a comical void in the steam leaking through.

As the door creaked shut, Noah’s shoulders slumped to his side, “this is going well…” he hissed. Trailing to the pile of fabrics, he gently lifted the top piece, a thin green tunic. Nothing special or fancy but as a shirt, it was passable, if not large, even for his past body. As he rubbed the fabric between his thumb and middle finger he could only sigh at its coarseness, it wasn’t bound to be the most comfortable fit if anything.

Beneath that was a pair of brown pants in a simple one colour scheme with a thin leather belt to top it all off. The only things missing being socks and underwear—of which he was happy he didn’t get. Pre-worn socks he could live with, underwear, not so much.

Swiftly clothing himself, Noah lifted the pants to his hips when a cold, devilish thought came to his mind. ‘This world… it does have underwear… right?’ On Earth, he had seen things of ancient undergarments from Romans and the like, loincloths and things like that. He glanced around, saw the modern-esque amenities and then recalled the faucet in the bath, this place, certainly wasn’t archaic, so they must…

***

If awkwardness could have a physical manifestation, it would be a widowed woman seeing you naked and being unable to look you in the eye after and was doing her utmost to seem as stalwart as she could while spooning some type of wheat-based gruel.

He couldn’t help but feel apologetic for letting that happen, he really should have been more on guard. ‘Oh well, nothing I can do about it now.” Sighing internally, he focused on the meal before him.

It was porridge, from what he could tell, more hearty than his usual sweetened type. A simple bone broth thickened with a roux topped with thinly sliced meat and various types and shades of vegetables. One of which looked like a half-moon purple carrot, something his grandfather had been adamant in telling him was how carrots originally looked before people bred them orange.

Bringing a wooden spoonful of broth and meat to his mouth, he masticated the delicate meat and downed its gamey richness. “Mmm,” he hummed pleasantly, “delicious. What’s the broth made from if I may ask? It doesn’t taste quite like beef.” It was the best he could come up with to break the ice between them.

Liora jolted and shot her gaze up to him, quickly turning away as she could still only see his naked skeletal form. “It’s minotaur,” she squeaked.

“Minotaur?” he muttered more for himself than anything, “like, cow people?” his cheeks paled, his stomach queasy. He realized that minotaurs weren’t quite human but still, they were humanoid. At least, from what his old world had taught him.

“No,” she hummed, “minotaurs are a type of monster found around the kingdom. They’re just big cows that walk on two legs. They look nothing like humans,” her voice laced with nervousness, unable to keep her eyes on his bearded face longer than was necessary to say her piece.

“So I’m not a cannibal? That’s good,” didn’t alleviate the bipedal creature factor from things.

Liora nodded along with a slight, “Nnn…” but said nothing more and returned the awkward silence laced with only the noises of them chewing and gulping and the odd gust of wind blowing past the opened windows.

The silence was killing him, his attempted ice-breaking failed. He needed a new way to lift this awkwardness. Annoyingly enough, his answer came to that of facing her upfront.

Which he was not dumb enough to admit was like pouring oil onto an already towering flame.

“Uh, ma’am… Liora, I’m sorry for earlier. I showed you something unsightly due to negligence on my part. I hope it doesn’t change anything between us. Especially considering we barely know each other, I hope it doesn’t colour me in a bad light.” Noah laid his spoon to the side and lowered his head.

Liora, not having expected that from him, blinked rapidly. A small drop of off white gruel running down her plump ruby lip. She glanced down, chewed her tongue and berated herself silently for acting so out of it after seeing… seeing a penis after so long.

Eyes softening, she said, “please don’t be. It was an overreaction on my part. I shouldn’t have entered the changing room without at least letting you know I was there. Even then, I could have handed you clothing before you entered the bath. So I am sorry for having no forethought about this.”

Noah didn’t like that in the slightest, “no, it’s my faul-”

“Stop that!” Liora barked, surprising him. “This is my house. Therefore what happened is to be blamed on my oversight. Not yours. I entered the changing room while you were bathing. How were you to know I was there? So, don’t go attempting to take any fault in this. If anyone is to take the blame, it’s this old hag. So no more of this. Am I understood?”

Mouth hanging, Noah instinctively puckered and nodding his head. Tail thoroughly tucked between his legs.

“Good,” Liora hummed, “now, let’s finish up. I need to… to get into the fields a bit…” her spoon hung in the broth, expression dark and empty, “no… it’s just… it’s pointless…” she mumbled almost illegibly to herself.

Almost.