Free Hunter Legacy 11: Home Is Where the Hero Is by Timothy Ellis Page B

which took us twenty meters down to where a pool of crystal
clear water sat in a small clearing in the jungle, fed by the waterfall from
the river above.
    Just the Alpha team had grown just a
little. On the Launch Deck I'd found not only the team and Miriam, but Amy,
Melissa, Grace, Jack, and Sam.
    We filed down the steps. The Lightning
re-oriented so Jeeves could exit the small cargo bay with a number of grav
trunks, and returned to how it had been to let Jane step out behind us. The
ship then ascended to wait for us at a high altitude.
    At the bottom of the steps to the left,
there was a small clearing set up as a picnic area. It was very clear it had
been setup in a way it wasn’t interfering with anything natural, mainly being
barren rock.
    To the right was the pool and waterfall.
    The twins pushed past me, and whooping
madly, in seconds they were naked, and jumping into the water. George was about
ten seconds behind them.
    Amanda was in the center of the pool, before
more than Miriam and Aline had come down behind me.
    "Everyone come in," Amanda
shouted up to us. "The water is divine!"
    I bent down and dipped a finger in, and
found it to be a very pleasant temperature. Both twins were grinning at me, so
I shifted my suit to a belt, dropped my briefs, pulled socks off, dumped them
in a pile behind me, and jumped in after them. I swam out to the middle, and
turned to face the others.
    The girls in the team were right behind me.
Grace hesitated for a minute, and then stripped and jumped after us, Amy only
slightly behind her.
    Melissa's jaw was hanging open. It had
obviously not crossed her mind we'd be going skinny dipping. She must have made
a decision though, as her suit vanished and her underwear came off, before she
too jumped in.
    This left Annabelle, Jack, and Sam.
Annabelle considered for a moment longer, shrugged, stripped, and joined us.
Jack stood there looking poleaxed, with Sam quietly laughing at his reaction. Her
belt changed into bikini bottoms, she pulled her top off, and moved a short way
away, where she stepped down into the water, and waded out into the middle to
join us. Jack watched her go, shifted his belt into shorts, and followed her.
    Jeeves lobbed a large ball in after us, and
it began to be tossed around. I paid it no mind though, and headed for the
waterfall. I took a deep breath and swam under the falling water, eyes closed,
and letting it pound down on top of me. It was much heavier than a shower,
slightly cooler than the pool itself, but very refreshing. I stayed under as
long as I could, and then pushed up out of it between the flow and the rock
behind it. I was still getting spray here, but could breathe as long as I
wasn’t looking up. I looked around and found a ledge. I pulled myself onto it,
and sat there, in a few centimeters of water.
    A head poked through the curtain of water
in front of me, and grinned at me. Aline pushed through, and joined me on the
ledge. Before I knew it, she was kissing me. I hastily checked I had my
override set on.
    "None of that you two," said
Amanda loudly, her face poking through the curtain now. "This is a public
place. Shame on you."
    She was grinning wildly. The grin faltered
for a moment as Miriam poked her head through as well, and saw us together. But
she laughed her head off when Miriam seized my leg, hauled me off the ledge,
and I disappeared into the waterfall. I not only went into the waterfall
without preparing for it, but I went under as well.
    It was Jane who pulled me back to the
surface, where I promptly coughed up water and spluttered for a while. She
pulled me over to the easy steps in, and helped me out of the water.
    Jane was naked too. She pulled me over to a
seat, and before I sat, I changed my suit into a pair of shorts. Jane remained
naked, and while I continued to cough, she fetched a bottle of water for me.
    "When did you learn lifeguard
duties?" I asked her when I could talk again.
    "I didn’t. I read about fifty books on
the