A jet of water slammed her from the saddle! Grunting, Mikial hit the ground in a soggy roll as Kikia bolted with panicked bleats.
"Well that seemed to get your attention," Paleen commented in a honey voice from the shore. "That will teach you for rudely ignoring me."
Getting up with teeth bared, Mikial followed the wet path from the river past where Paleen stood next to her yhas. She looked down at her soggy uniform then back at her insensitive friend.
Paleen's smirk vanished. The Ipper turned for the river with a shriek.
Roaring, Mikial leapt after her. She'd had enough! Her powerful leg muscles vaulted over the embankment. This was no time for playing around, as Paleen was about to learn! Only when her head plunged beneath the cold water did common sense prevail. She was chasing an Ipper...into the river. Cursing herself for a fool, Mikial twisted around. Her nails grabbed at the fine gravel bottom for purchase as she lunged for dry land. Hands seized her boots.
Bending down, Mikial pulled on the zippers, not liking the wicked look on Paleen's face as she wrenched her feet free. Worse still, other swift shapes were approaching. She barely got her face above the surface for a deep breath before the river sucked her under. At least four Ipper girls flashed by in swimming thongs, their vortexes drawing her in deeper. Nails extended, Mikial prepared to make Paleen and her companions share in the misery she knew was coming. She would end up laying on the shore half drowned, a favorite punishment for those who unduly vexed an Ipper near water. Mikial's eyes widened as the river bottom came alive with rising Ipper. Creation! She'd only meant to give Paleen a good cuffing. The girl had gotten the entire school after her!
The water lifted, and her with it. Gasping, Mikial broke the surface and kept rising as a geyser erupted beneath her. Spreading her arms for the return dive, Mikial saw a swirl of Ipper waiting beneath her. She took another preparatory breath as she went in again. This wasn't what she expected. The river pressed against her ears and chest as they took her even deeper, speeding her through a canyon of rock and upwards on an incredibly swift current. She broached the surface in mid channel, arching her back for the next dive. Ipper joined her like a school of ecstatic fish. All were girls around her age, oddly enough. Not one male among them. At least they were playing with her, she realized with relief. She braced as she hit the water once more. Playing hard.
She was skipped like a stone across the river, finally washing up exhausted on the embankment beneath Lani's bridge. Her half-naked playmates were gone in an instant, save one. Mikial declined the amused assistance of some nearby Cothra as she pulled herself up on a rock flat. Paleen glided up beside her. "Umm, here's your boots."
Mikial gave her a long look as she emptied them. "My uniform's a mess, Paleen!" She ringed out her side skirts with an irritated growl as the Ipper joined her on the rock wearing only a swim thong. "What, you wore that underneath your skirt? You planned this all along?"
"It's always part of what we wear," she scoffed.
"I'm lucky half of my outfit's not at the bottom of the river."
"We were just having fun, so hush." Paleen unknotted the blue fabric of her dress she'd stuffed into a boot. "I'm not going to apologize. You needed to feel the water."