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 Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 6:18 pm
Fish swam towards his friend, his face a combination of concern and amusement. "Wipeout! You okay?" he asked, and thumped the other boy mightily on the back. "Try not to drink the seawater or you might get an octopus growing in your stomach."
He was not sure if that could actually happen. He thought he'd read about it once.
"Better try again if you're okay," he added. "It gets easier."
He nodded to Darsh and swam back out towards the breakers. "Come on!" he called.
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 12:34 am
Coughing, Darsh found himself briefly torn between being grateful for Fish's rescue or being angry because of his hurt pride. He decided on grateful, since he really did like Fish and he was, for the moment, willing to concede that the other boy had a skill that Darsh lacked.
"Maybe you should show me." It wasn't that he didn't want to try again, of course. At least, thats what he reassured himself with. It was just that Fish knew how to do it and maybe Darsh could pick up some good tips.
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 6:14 am
"Okay," said Fish, blinking at Darsh. He was a bit confused by the sudden 180 turn that the boy's plans had made but supposed it made a bit of sense. He held out a hand. "Can I have my leash back?"
He took the strap and fastened it around his ankle, then climbed up onto the board. "So, you watch for a good wave," he explained. He was sitting on the board, parallel to shore, and looking out to see. He spotted a swell.
"When you see one, you turn around, lie down, and paddle."
He did so. The wave hit and carried him off. A moment later, Fish was up on the board and riding it towards shore. He finally lost momentum and jumped ungracefully off in the shallows, where he turned around and paddled back out.
"There's nothing to it," he said happily upon his return.
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Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 10:48 pm
Darsh had been treading water, watching Fish carefully. He was sure he could do it since Fish could. Nevertheless, he felt a surge of admiration for the ease at which the other boy took not only to surfing, but to the water itself. Darsh was a capable swimmer, but water was definitely not his best element.
"Nothing to it." He repeated, smiling at Fish. The smile held a fierce determination. "Okay, I'm ready to try again." He took the leash back and fastened it to himself, then scrambled onto the board and began paddling out.
This time he made it shakily to his feet, though he didn't stay on them long before being dumped into the water. He came up grinning, though. It was an improvement! "How was that?"
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Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 6:06 am
"Yeah," nodded Fish. "That was good! That was really good!"
When you actually watched him tread water like a natural, it was pretty clear that Fish was more at home in the ocean than on land. He paddled towards Darsh and slung himself over the side of the board.
"Yeah, it gets easier the longer you're at it," he said. "Let's swim back out. You can try it again."
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Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2009 11:47 am
"Alright." Darsh agreed, kicking his feet to help propel them. He noticed the way Fish's scales glistened with water, and the little gills on his neck. The blue-boy found himself frowning thoughtfully. "Can you breathe underwater with those?" That would be cool.
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Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2009 1:47 pm
"Yeah," said Fish without missing a beat. "I can stay under forever and never have to come up for air if I don't feel like it."
But he sort of liked breathing air. Or at least it made no difference either way.
"What about you?" he asked, looking seriously at his friend. "You're blue. Can you do anything?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 5:37 pm
"Oh, I can do all sorts of things." Came the casually arrogant response. "But I can't breathe underwater, I guess you have to be born that way." Which made it okay. If it wasn't something you could learn, then Darsh could reconcile himself with not being able to do something.
"I can tame animals. And play music. And control the weather." This last was not entirely true. Darsh and the family had discovered that the weather seemed to respond to the blue boy's moods, but he didn't actually control anything. He could barely reign in his emotions most of the time, and he rarely felt the desire to.
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Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 6:51 am
"Oh," said Fish, eyes going wide, "that's cool! All I can do is breathe underwater and talk to, like, dolphins and whales and walruses and stuff like that."
He sounded sort of bummed that this was all he could do.
"My friend Miles can see the future and he says I'll be able to, like, make water do stuff later," he added. "But it doesn't do much good for me now."
He looked down at the board they were holding on to.
"This thing's not a raft," he said. "Are we gonna paddle back out or do you want to go in?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:43 pm
"Lets go in." Darsh decided. He wasn't the strongest swimmer and hanging onto the surfboard in deep water was managing to tire him a bit. "A kid who can see the future?" He mused as the two swam their way back to shore. "Thats neat." Though really he was wondering what sort of magnificent things his own future held.
"Thanks for showing me how to surf." Darsh grinned, once they had reached a spot where their feet could once again touch bottom.
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Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 3:30 pm
"S'cool," said Fish, kicking along the sandy bottom. A wave came up behind them and pushed them most of the rest of the way to shore. He picked up the board by the nose and dragged it in.
"You should definitely try it again sometime," he added. "It gets easier."
"Your swimtrunks are still purple," he said. "Really, really purple."
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Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 3:33 pm
Darsh looked down at his swim trunks. They were indeed still purple. Really really gloriously bright purple. "I know." He said, giving Fish a bright grin.
A shout from the distant pile of towels that held his family made the blue boy scowl. "Guess it's time to go." He said, his attitude suddenly sullen. He didn't really want to go home, but the little ones were probably getting cranky from all the sunshine or something.
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Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 3:38 pm
"Bummer," said Fish, but offered his friend a smile and a wave.
"I live near here," he declared, "So if you're ever around again come find me, okay?"
He was a bit upset that Darsh had to go, since they'd been having so much fun, but families were sort of like that. "Okay, uh, seeyah?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 3:40 pm
Darsh grinned. "I'll definitely come and find you." He said with confidence, heading across the sand towards his family with a wave over his shoulder. "See ya!"
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