Concrete Leather and Pearly Thread

Astra walked down the bank, across the mud, and into the stream. She sat down hard. What happened to the water? She was heavier than she remembered, and the water offered little more resistance than air when he sank in it. This part of the stream was not deep. She sat with the back of her legs streched out against the bottom of the stream, but the surface of the stream did not quite cover the top of her thighs.

She washed her feet, and found that her boots were no longer tightly bound to her. She reached for the top, and was able to peel one of the boots off her feet as if it were a short woolen stocking. She looked at the "boot," and then soaked it in the stream. Next she then gently wrung it out by twisting it, and then set it aside on the bank.

She then took a bit of mud from the stream bed and rubbed it on her feet. It felt very good. She then continued to rub it on her leg, and it felt good, too. She then removed the other "boot" and rubbed some of the fine mud on her legs.

She walked out onto the bank and fumbled around with her boots. She was trying to figure out what material was used. She first thought of it was white leather, but no animal had a skin like that. She raised a boot to her eyes, and saw a fine and regular grain. It reminded her of a very fine type of concrete, but concrete was solid after setting. This boot could be twisted and molded.

Or could it? She placed her hand in again, but found it was harder to move. Astra dunked the boots in the water, and let them soak. She washed the mud from her legs, although she felt an urge to lay on the bank for a while. After washing the mud off, she noticed there was a gloss on her legs where the mud had been. She thought that something in the mud had been left behind, and her "skin" was using it to heal and renew itself.

Astra pulled one of the boots out of the water, and found that it was again pliable. She carefully slipped her feet into the boots and unrolled them until they covered as much calf as they had before.

Astra looked at the "cloth" of a "sleeve" of her dress. It was also a pinkish white, like her boots or her skin, but the texture was different. The material itself appeared to be a mineral with a pearly sheen. On closer inspection it appeared to be a very finely woven fabric of some sort. The slide down the mountain had done put a few small holes in it and frayed some of the weave. Frayed was the wrong description. "Flaked" was more accurate. Thin grayish tubes of material could be seen flaking off the threads in places. The dress seemed to be of one piece. She wondered if she could peel it off as she had the boots. She did feel the urge to rub some more of the mud on the rest of her before proceeding.

1. And the dress peeled off quite nicely, and in one piece, and she was able to lay it aside.
2. The dress broke along its planes of cleavage, so to speak. She had swatches of an interesting fabric, but not a functional dress.
3. The dress held fast to her.

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