It was not exactly a pleasant sensation.

“This way,” Moraki said, guiding them around a small clump of rocks. “Most of the others have returned home already. You will have much of the bathing pool to yourselves.”

Darla did a double take.

“Did you say communal?”

“Yes. All villagers share the bounty of the springs. They give us an ever-fresh bathing pool in this location, and they also provide our clean water from another nearby source.”

“So, communal,” Darla repeated just as the body of water came into sight as they rounded another bend.

It was a roughly circular pool, fifteen meters across and two deep in the middle. The water was crystal clear, a faint layer of steam drifting across the surface.

There were two older women there, submerged to their necks, soaking contentedly off to one side. Three younger men were there as well. Not from the hunting party, she noted. These must be regular villagers. Perhaps farmers or something. She hadn’t really figured out the socio-economic structure of the Oraku people just yet.

“Excellent,” Heydar said, seemingly oblivious to the others present. That, or he just didn’t care.

With a fluid motion he pulled his tattered shirt from his body and tossed it aside, stretching wide, his rippling muscles moving like coiled beasts under his skin. In full daylight Darla could truly take in just how impressive his physique was. His abs had abs, and his chest was broad and deep. His thick forearms seemed as big as her legs, making it clear his multi-jointed, elongated fingers were likely even more powerful than she’d already witnessed.

Heydar’s large, capped shoulders bore a few scars, the lines of knotted flesh blending with the tattoos running all over his body. Runes like the ones on his arms that channeled power into them were scattered all across his torso. What they could all mean, she had no idea. Pecs, arms, shoulders, back, and one in the middle of his chest, all interwoven with the overall design.

She was admiring the lines when Heydar abruptly dropped his pants, pulling them off one leg at a time just like anyone else, then tossing them with his shirt. The motion was familiar, but Darla’s breath caught in her throat at the sight of a decidedly alien cock dangling between his legs.

The tattoos traveled all the way to his groin but stopped short of his length, ending in a small rune of deep purple pigment. That was as far down as the rune extended, and by the look of it he clearly did not require any additional power in that department.

His manhood was massive. It was also a deeper golden tan color than his upper body, long and ringed with slightly raised ridges that ran from his broad tip all the way to the base.

I wonder if that thing’s multi-jointed like his fingers, Darla mused, unable to take her eyes off the alien’s impressive cock. Say what you would about his personality, he was not lacking in this area. Not one bit.

Darla looked at him openly, a warmth that had nothing to do with the hot springs blooming between her legs. His runes and tattoo ink which had seemed somewhat plain and even primitive when she’d first caught sight of them were so much different now. So much more.

In the daylight and fully nude, she could now see how the different shades of pigment shifted ever so slightly within his skin. A living ink as much a part of him as any. Heydar stepped into the pool slowly, letting the warm water soothe his body inch by inch as he entered it.

Moraki picked up Heydar’s clothes and turned to Darla, an expectant look on her face.

“I will have your clothing laundered,” she said.

“Uh… right. Yeah, thanks for that,” Darla replied.

Well, I guess when in Rome.

Darla hesitated, uncomfortable stripping in front of all these prying eyes. Finally, she overcame her reluctance, sliding off her top then shedding her bra with a relief she knew all too well. She’d had it on for how long now? Too long. And with the relief came a new feeling of confidence. If the alien guys were going to gawk at her, well, so be it. She unfastened her slacks and pushed them down over her hips but paused. Heydar was standing thigh-deep in the water, watching her.

Fuck it.

She pushed them down further, the runway tuft of pubic hair she’d so carefully trimmed exposed for all to see. Darla slid the legs past her feet then handed the slacks to Moraki.

“Thank you. Please, enjoy,” the young woman said, looking the newcomer up and down with surprise, then headed off with the pair’s dirty clothing.

Darla stepped into the spring up to her shins, the hot water feeling amazing on her aching feet. Her nipples tensed and hardened in an instant as pleasure made a rather unexpected but very welcome appearance. But there was something else.

She could feel the violet-gold eyes on her body without needing to look. She glanced up, her eyes locking with his a moment before his gaze shifted, looking lower and lower with curiosity. Curiosity and it seemed like something more.

Motion just above the water caught Darla’s eye. Heydar’s impressive cock had shifted on its own, the ringed ridges pulsing slightly as he began to grow semi-erect. Darla thought she could see a single drop of fluid glistening at the tip before the alien abruptly sank down into the water and swam off to the far side of the pool.

What the hell? Darla was just wondering when the water abruptly sloshed higher on her legs. She turned to find a somewhat young, and very naked, Oraku man standing waist-deep in the pool beside her.

The very clear water, through which she could plainly see his rather respectable penis floating lazily between his legs. It looked nowhere as impressive as Heydar’s, but there was a respectable girth to it. Unlike Heydar, however, his was not rousing to life as he stared at her nakedness. Darla couldn’t help but feel a little put off by it.

“Where are your runes?” he asked plainly, his eyes scanning every bit of her with a curious gaze.

“I don’t have any. Well, except the one behind my ear. Just got that one, courtesy of those Raxxian bastards.”

The man cocked his head askew, surprised. “But everyone of adult age has received their initial designs. It is the way things are done in the Dotharian Conglomerate.”

“The what, now?”

“All planets under the Conglomerate’s gaze have agreed to this. It is a common bond between us.”

“Well, I’m not from a Darthin Conglomerate planet.”

“Dotharian.”

“Okay, whatever. My point is, on my world we don’t have any magical powered ink. When we get tattoos, it’s of our own choosing, though sometimes it’s a reminder of one drink too many.”

The other males swam over to join the conversation. A moment later the older women did as well, all of them perfectly comfortable in their nudity. Darla felt panic growing being the center of this unwanted attention. All of those eyes staring at her, evaluating her, put her on the defensive but she did her best to react slowly, trying to look as casual and confident as she could as she lowered herself into the water up to her neck, closing her eyes a moment as she savored the sensation.

The heat felt amazing on her aching body, soothing the tired muscles the moment she submerged. For a brief moment she almost forgot about the aliens studying her like an animal someone had brought home from the woods.

Almost.

“She is without her pigment,” one of the women said. “It is not right.”

Her companion nodded her agreement. “The laws must be followed.”

Darla reluctantly opened her eyes, her brief moment of comfort ruined. “I was just telling your friend here that on my world we don’t do the whole tattoo thing. At least, not as some mandatory ritual.”

The women shared a concerned look, and the men murmured their displeasure at this flaunting of the laws.