As a matter of fact, I really was laughing. Waist-deep in mud, my legs splayed out in front of me as I watched her submerge into the mucky swamp, I had no choice but to take all the amusement possible in that simple face-plant. It was hilarious, even if I was involved and—I noted this in the more serious parts of my mind—drenched in mud and murky water. When I pushed myself off, shaking the muck off my hands, I was still chuckling at it all. The murky water got the rest of the clay-like substance off and I offered on hand to the woman.

"Need a hand?" I asked, my grin large enough to encompass both of us. Even if she was a snob about getting dirty, I was not about to let her heap muck over my good humor.

She glowered at me, my hand, and the rest of the world in general before she allowed me to pull her back onto dry land by main force of strength. Going through it would be easy enough now that we were muddy and disgusting, but she had looked more than a little chagrined just when her foot was in ... now that I had seen her expression coming up from a full bath, I was a bit hesitant to mention to possibility of going back into the marsh at all.

If my smile could have gotten wider, it really would have when I caught sight of her in the full light of day. Even if she was a bit snippy earlier, this was worth all the trouble in the world. Her full front side was drenched, literally drenched, with water and slick with brown-gray mud. Little tufts of greenery were stuck to various places, probably weak-rooted plants pulled out just because they had been in the mud.

"So that was fun."

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[Graphics by Me.]

"Get your facts first, and then you can
distort 'em as much as you please." ~ Mark Twain