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 Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 7:45 pm
It made sense for the fish to be talking to Fish, thought Crowley. "Is so, Feely," said the boy, leaning over the surfboard a little to look closer at the big fish. "Big fishies," he continued, thrusting a finger to point at a manta ray. Wow, this view was pretty great, right?
He leaned over a little further.
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 7:49 pm
Ophelia saw what Crowley was doing and pulled him back onto the board before he fell in. Fish grinned at Crowley.
"Am too," he affirmed. The dolphin surfaced again. Fish chattered at it.
"What's he say?" asked Ophelia.
"D'we have any food for 'im?" asked Fish.
"No," said Ophelia. She stopped paddling and let the board float for a while. There weren't really any waves to surf on today, but that was okay. It was good weather to take a pair of rambunctious toddlers out into the water in. Fish chattered something to the dolphin. It went back under. Ophelia considered that maybe he really was talking to it.
She was jealous.
"Crowley," she said, "Was that woman you were with your mother?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 7:58 pm
Crowley made a funny 'ack' noise as the teenager pulled him back. "Ow," he said sulkily, frowning mightily. "Hurt." It hadn't, not really, but it worked to make people say sorry, which was what he really wanted.
"What do big fishies eat," he queried, peering at the dolphin, thinking maybe it ate feet. This would be a good thing to check. If the big fish ate feet, then surely someone would let him know. Actually he would not mind a big fish biting his feet. As long as it didn't bite them off. Maybe. No, not really...
He cast a defiant glance at Ophelia and stuck his feet in the water. It was cold, which he found nice. "No," he said, "She is Antan-tan. Maybe she is my mama. She is kinda mama-like."
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 8:09 pm
"They eats little fishies," said Fish, sticking his hands in the water. He looked ruefully over his shoulder at his sister. "M not a little fishy, though. I'm a big Fish!"
Ophelia laughed and decided that since the water was calm they could probably get off the board and swim for a bit. Fish seemed to sense her decision.
"Wanna swimmmmmmmm," he declared.
"Alright," said Ophelia, and playfully shoved him off the board. Fish sank into the water and then swam back up to the surface. He was a natural at this swimming thing and treaded water with ease.
"Crow-lee come in?" he asked.
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 8:18 pm
He nodded, giggling about it. Well, he wasn't a fishy at all, so he didn't need to worry about that. So when Ophelia said that they could swim, he slid off the side and was quite astonished to find the water salty.
"Woah," he said, profound to the bone. "Warm. How you doing that?" Crowley narrowed yellow eyes at Fish, as if suspecting witchcraft of some kind. Only not in so many words, because of course Crowley didn't actually know of witchcraft yet. He could sense that the orange thing was holding him up, but what was holding Fish up?
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 8:25 pm
"M swimmin'," said Fish, like that explained everything. "M movin' my arms n' legs. Swimmin'."
Ophelia slid off the board and floated beside the boys, also treading water. This was pretty fun. Pretty chill. This was fun.
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 8:30 pm
Oh! All right. "'kay," agreed Crowley, who didn't really get it, but he tried to copy Fish's movements anyway. He kind of couldn't do much but bob where he was, but he would figure this out! Oh yes, he would. It didn't go over well, but at least he hadn't hit anyone with his crazy flailing. "Look," he announced, pointing out another manta ray. "S'another big fishy." And he attempted to follow it, using Fish and Feely's movements as his base.
Antanasia, back on shore, looked a little antsy.
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Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:33 pm
Fish looked where Crowley was pointing. 'S a really big fishy!" he agreed. He pointed out another one of the gliding, kite-like shapes. "Another!" he observed. Ophelia looked down. They just kept coming - they were floating above a whole school of mantas.
Fish laughed and swam back to the board. He shimmied up onto it and stood up, because he was light enough not to tip it, and grinned widely.
"Imma jump!" he said, and leapt into the water, cannonball style. It took a while for him to resurface. "S fun!" he said, shaking water from his hair.
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Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 7:06 pm
With a giggle, Crowley watched the rays slide by underneath them. "Cool," he said, getting a mouthful of salt water for his trouble and coughing it up resolutely, then making a face. What the heck was with this stupid water? It belonged outside his mouth. And it tasted funny!
He decided to forgive it, though, watching Fish jump off the board. "Is," he queried, climbing up to try it himself. He jumped, bobbed on the surface of the water for a minute, then decided that yes, it was fun, and then he laughed.
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Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 7:13 pm
Fish smiled at his new friend, glad that they agreed on something. Ophelia laughed at both of them, charmed with their innocence and wide-eyed sense of discovery and joy. She really could get to like this big sister gig if it was as fun as this all the time.
***
After spending all morning on the water, Fish was starting to get hungry, and his hands were all wrinkled. He swam back over to the board and climbed up onto it.
"Feely," he said, "M hungry!"
Having him say that lead Ophelia to realize that she agreed with him on that count. She climbed back onto the board as well and then hoisted Crowley back on as well. "Let's head in for lunch, okay?" she suggested to the boys, and aimed them towards shore and began paddling.
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Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 7:19 pm
Crowley nodded solemnly, examining his own rather pruny hands. "Okay," he agreed, allowing himself to be hoisted (like he really had a choice, of course). Experimentally, he dug one hand into the water on one side of the board. "Fast," he decided, pulling one hand out and looking at Fish solemnly.
Then he grinned. "Fun," he said, for what had to be the umpteenth time that morning.
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Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2009 6:21 am
Fish laughed, returning the other boy's grin. "Crow-lee friend?" he asked, hesitantly, because it would suck if Crowley turned him down.
Ophelia looked behind her and spotted a fair sized wave.
"Hey guys," she interrupted, "Hold on!"
She paddled ahead of the swell, picked up its momentum, and got to her feet. This would carry them in to the shore.
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Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 6:53 pm
"Yes," said Crowley immediately. Because of course he was friends with Fishy and Feely! Well duh, why wouldn't he be, they did neat stuff and it was just crazy. If he didn't want to be friends with them he'd probably be really boring, like Antan, who was possibly Mama. His head spun a little at that reasoning. "Fishy and Crow-lee are friends. Duh."
At the interruption he grabbed on tight, just as instructed. He could see the wave (which seemed huge to a toddler) and how they were headed straight into it. Thrilled by the idea, he looked over at Fish. "We are gonna run into the big wave," he said precisely, a huge grin all over his face.
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 6:47 pm
Fish lifted a hand off the board to catch the wind and droplets of water as his sister steered the board along the crest of the wave. He let out a long shriek of excitement.
The momentum finally died off when they were in the shallows. Ophelia hopped off the board and pulled it through the knee-deep water.
Fish grinned over at Crowley. "Wanna do it again," he declared.
"Sorry, kiddo," said Ophelia. "I'm too hungry." She squinted up the beach to where the woman waited.
"And I think your mom wants you back," she said to Crowley.
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Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 5:03 pm
And they ran into the big wave, and it was awesome. Already Crowley was composing a new story with which to regale his- mother. Aunt. Thing. Person. Redhead lady. He gave up.
"Yeah!" Agreement was pretty much required, in Crowley's thought process. That whole 'we-are-big-wave-going' deal had pretty much rocked. He'd find out what it was called later. Probably it had a neat name, too, to match its innate neatness which was neat, like... Something.
Obediently he looked back up to Antanasia. She was staring at the trio, expression inscrutable which Crowley knew to mean she was annoyed. Or mad. Or something. It was also her default expression. "Yeah," he said again, this time less enthusiastic. He started to struggle at the buckles- but black, shadowy tendrils got there first, there and then gone. He shrugged out of the orange thing and offered it to Ophelia.
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