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Leo followed Koram through Irontree, where he saw some beautiful sights of the village. The people of the town seemed friendly, as they smiled kindly at Leo, despite his decrepit state. He felt the embrace of a peaceful warmth that flowed through Irontree.

“Here it is!” shouted Koram, as he gestured towards a house that lay near the outskirts of the village.

The single story house had vines that climbed up its sides and an overgrown garden filled with plants Leo had never seen before. The house was small, dirty, and damaged. Leo couldn’t help but adore it. He’d spent his life in an apartment and this small place felt more like home than his place ever had.

“I, uh, hope it’s up to your standards,” muttered Koram, as he felt shy about Leo’s lack of response.

“Dude, this place looks incredible. I was just in shock at how cool it is,” reassured Leo.

“Oh, it’s not on right now, but we do have a heating system, just in case it’s too cool for you,” said Koram, as he opened the door for the two of them.

Leo wasn’t certain if that was an attempt at a joke or a miscommunication, so he decided to play it off with a light chuckle and smile. Koram led the way inside as Leo followed.

Plants littered the house, whether they grew in vases, pots, or even planter boxes. Leo hadn’t ever before seen so many unique plants. He wondered which were plants he just never got a chance to see and which were plants unique to this world.

The windowsill had flowers that shined every color he could think of. He spotted clusters of plants that had large fruit that grew from them, and a small group which seemed to hum a musical tone. There were more plants here than he could ever appreciate, especially in such a small time frame.

“Sorry if it’s a bit messy, normally our garden holds most of our plants, but Buddy didn’t want them to be damaged by the heavy rainstorm that happened this week,” explained Koram, as nervousness entered his voice.

“No worries, this place is amazing, I’m just appreciating the plant collection,” responded Leo.

“Well, I’ll go grab the clothes, just wait here,” said Koram, as he scurried off down the hallway.

Leo stood in the middle of the living room, unsure of what to do. He didn’t know the first thing about these two, yet they planned to give him free clothes and to take him on an adventure. He felt guilty at how much lying he’d done so far, but he didn’t know how to stop now that he’d started.

As he stood there he realized that his steps had gotten lighter on the walk, and his body seemed to grow gentler with each step. But, even then, he could still feel that even the slightest bit of pressure on his foot would be enough for him to snap the floorboard in half.

While he fought off his intrusive thoughts to let loose, he heard the creak of a floorboard as Koram approached with a pile of clothes in hand.

“Seems as if I had more than I thought, and I didn't want to throw them out just because they don’t fit me,” Koram said, as he seemed to hide his gaze with the pile of clothes.

“Thank you, Koram, really, it means a lot man,” Leo said, as he grabbed the pile of clothes from him with a smile.

“The bathroom is at the end of the hall, so clean up before you change,” Koram said.

“Thanks, dude, I’ll go do that, I guess,” replied Leo.

Leo assumed he’d have to change in a bush , but to get a shower definitely seemed like a far better deal. Once he closed the door behind him, he took a look at the large tub, alongside all the stuff it came with. Leo proudly used 19-in-1 for most of his life, so he felt a bit shocked at how much stuff was there.

He placed the clothes on a nearby counter and began to disrobe, as he tried to be as gentle as possible. Despite his best attempts, he still added more tears to his already damaged clothes, but at the very least, it showed him how careful he needed to be with the new clothes.

In the mirror he looked himself over, as he processed his new body. He could already tell that he was a lot larger and more muscular than before, as his eyes still functioned normally. Leo posed in the mirror, as he tried to grasp just how drastically he had changed in just the past week.

While he knew this was him in the mirror, it didn’t feel like him. He felt that he couldn’t possibly have changed this quickly, though it was primarily because he shouldn’t have been physically able to. It was a jarring disconnect for him as he looked at the new person who was still him. He decided to not focus on it too much and got back to his shower.

He looked at the bath and saw a stone tablet with odd runes inscribed on it connected to the wall. While Leo didn’t know how this worked, he figured that it would be really odd to ask for instruction on how to take a bath.

Leo decided to simply get into the tub and press the tablet, as he was certain it would accomplish something of use. Well the first hurdle was how he could get in, as ceramic was definitely more fragile than stone.

He decided that the safest way would be to lean in and just fall over into the bath as gently as he could. Despite his increased strength, he weighed as much as a normal person of his size would.

He fell and successfully landed inside the bathtub, despite the fact he was in a somewhat uncomfortable position. He, thankfully, had enough reach to still touch the tablet, as he extended his arm up while gently repositioning himself.

He lightly pressed the upper left corner of the tablet, which caused ice cold water to pour down on him from the ceiling. Leo had been certain he had become immune to pain, as he easily brushed off a fall from the cloud. This was how he found out that he was really just resistant to physical pain.

The water burned in a way that only ice could, as if shards of frost crept between his skin and through his veins. He quickly moved his hand and clicked the upper right of the tablet, his panicked tap cracking the stone.

A downpour of scalding hot water, reminiscent of flowing magma, cascaded onto his body. Though his newfound body stopped him from being burnt, it did not do anything to ease his pain. He bit his tongue as he stifled his scream of pain.

Finally, Leo tapped the center of the tablet. The water lessened in intensity and became a nice lukewarm temperature. He felt relieved to have figured out how to take a bath.

As he got up he noticed the crater he had left in the middle of their stone tablet, it seemed as if he’d lost too much control. He decided that it would be a future concern, as he just let the water run over him. He applied a mixture of soaps and shampoos, careful to not burst the glass bottles in his hand.

When he had finished up, he tapped the remains of the stone tablet as carefully as possible and did what can only be described as a strategic roll out of the bathtub. He dried off, though he was too terse when he dried his hair, which caused the towel to rip in half.

Finally, he tried on a few of the outfits given to him by Koram, though it took a few tries before he was able to put the clothes on without breaking them. The clothes didn’t fit perfectly, but it was better than nothing, and it fit in better with the outfits of this world.

He settled on a simple white button up, alongside hide pants that had leather suspenders to keep them up. He piled up the remaining clothes on the counter, as he didn’t want to leave them strewn about. Leo looked at the mess he’d left of empty soap bottles, shredded clothes, and their bath tablet now damaged. He hoped they wouldn’t notice it for the time being, and that he could make it up to them eventually.