After half an hour of painstaking effort, Astra - though still absolutely
filthy - was recognisably human once more, with around fifty per cent of
her skin now visible. She had acquired a new insight into what shaving
must be like for men, for her skin was sore and she had a number of minor
cuts. She had been unable to do anything about her hair, which still hung
in a solid black lump down her back. She suspected that the only way of
dealing with it would be to have it all cut off. Her efforts to scrape
clean her bloomers and blouse had resulted in their disintegrating, which
at least had enabled her to attend to the skin under where they had been.
Deciding that she could not get herself significantly cleaner than she now was without making her skin even sorer, she ceased work. She started to retrace her steps to the orchard. From there, she hoped that she would be able to find the settlement from which the boy had come. But before she even reached the orchard, she encountered a group of men with weapons, evidently searching for her. Some of them had burning torches, and she wondered if they were intending to incinerate the monster, for no doubt the tar would be highly inflammable.
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7/18/2004 3:38:59 AM
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