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 Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 11:12 pm
Walla paused to peer down at the colorful shell, letting a tiny smile grace her features. She rarely saw colors together like they were in the mother of pearl. "I like this one...can I keep it?" She asked, looking up in curiosity at Trida.
Picking up the shell regardless of the answer, Walla looked around the beach to see if she could see the cove from there. No luck, she was going to have to wander down the beach to try and find the cove the mer was talking about. The filly gave a muffled response through the shell in her mouth and began walking the length of the beach.
It wasn't long before she found a small path leading into the cove and quietly walked in. Setting the shell down on a rock, Walla carefully advanced towards the water to wait for Trida. "Mmm...maybe I shouldn't do this...."
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Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 3:38 pm
Trida nodded. "Of course you can sweetie." internally she squealed a bit. It was so nice to see something other than a lost or neutral expression on the little filly. Trida tried to remember if she was ever that sad when she was little ...nothing immediately came to mind so she shuffled off that train of thought for later.
She watched Walla start down the beach for the cove and she wiggled and splashed until she was back in the water fully and took off at full speed for the mouth of the cove. It only took her a few minutes and she gave a graceful jump over the sandbar that lurked just below the surface of the water. She broke the surface and started for the shore checking the depth of the water. It was deep but not excessively, maybe two of her full body length at the far end near the sandbar. She slid up on the beach and smiled at Walla. "See, only tiny tiny waves, and I promise no sharks or anything else that might try to hurt you." She motioned around the cove. "Perfect for someone learning to swim."
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Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 4:44 pm
Walla looked up in surprise when she realized Trida had beat her there. "Oh--uhm....yeah....perfect." She mumbled, looking down at her reflection in the water. Swishing her tail slowly in the sand, the little filly took a tentative step into the water. "You're sure nothing bad lives here?" She asked, glancing up again. "I mean...I trust you but..." Walla sighed again pitifully and flopped into the water.
A gasp escaped as she hit the water, having not paid attention to how deep she wandered out. "Ahh!!" Little legs began to flail around in the water as a state of panic took over Walla's entire mindset.
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Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 2:04 pm
Trida nodded. "Cross my heart and hope to die." she said hoping she'd reassured the filly. She was about to start with a simple exercise when Walla suddenly just flopped into the water. She flailed a bit and then dove back into the water, getting around and gently pushing Walla back to where she could touch the bottom. "That won't do at all." she said shaking her head.
She looked around and quickly figured out what to do with the girl. "Just throwing yourself into the water isn't the way to go about this." she said gently but firmly. "Next, you need to stop letting your legs do the work. They won't help you much in the water." she moved to one side and tapped Walla's tail with a hoof. "That is what you need to use." she said with a firm nod. "So what we're gonna do is you're gonna lay down right here where your head is still above water, and you're gonna learn to move that tail." she said with a little giggle finding it to be funny. "Legs are good for directional changes, but your tail is what's gonna move you forward in the water."
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Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2014 4:35 am
"L-lay down?" Walla squeaked out, managing to keep her head above the water and moving back towards the shoreline. She wasn't serious was she? Actually lay down in the water and risk it somehow washing over her head and drowning her? She couldn't help but panic a little bit at the thought. Once she had her hooves back in the sand, the little filly turned and stared back down at the water.
"Can't I just move my tail up here...?" She asked, though quickly falling silent at the look the older mare was giving her. She was well aware she was going to get nowhere in the sand, it was just a comforting thought that she'd be safe from drowning there. Walla swallowed nervously and advanced back towards Trida and the water, getting herself into a reasonable depth and laying down. "So...you just want me to swish it back and forth....like this?" She asked after a long silence, glancing back behind her.
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Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2014 9:29 am
Trida lowered her head in the water a bit and blew bubbles mostly out of concern. Poor sweet little filly, she didn't know how someone so small could contain so much fear without exploding. She didn't relish the thought of whoever would have to put her back together either. From what the youngster had set of her parents, they were very unlikely to help. Trida shook her head and paddled a bit closer.
"Up there won't do you any good...you need to learn how it feels in the water, so you can learn to judge certain things." she said gently, and was pleased when the little one came back and settled herself just a bit away from her. "Yes, exactly!" she said happily, moving just a bit closer to judge the motion the filly was using. "Just back and forth, strengthen those tail muscles and before you know it you'll be darting through the water!" she said with a smile.
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Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 4:56 am
Walla swallowed nervously as she got comfortable in the water again, being mindful of keeping her head as high up as possible. It wasn't long before she started slowly swishing her tail back and forth at Trida's prompting. Once she realized she was doing fine and not actually moving anywhere, Walla turned her head back to watch her tail in action. She had moved it on dry land in a similar fashion many times, but noticed that it felt better and seemed much more elegant when moving through water.
"I...I'm doing it...!" She beamed happily, staring in amazement at her tail. "Look, look!" She turned her had back, kicking her front legs a bit to splash the water happily in front of her. For the first time since she had pushed her way from her basket, the little filly felt truly happy and proud.
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Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 9:36 am
Trida smiled and bobbed in the water, frisking happily in front of the filly. "You are! You are!" She giggled as the filly started to splash, she was tempted to splash back but didn't want to scare Walla. Little steps, get her used to just swishing and paddling, then maybe get her to put her face in the water, and learn to hold her breath.
"Knew that tail of yours would love the water. Look at you move it around. You'll be able to swim faster than even me I bet once you get going!" she said moving close enough to give her a nuzzle. "I knew you would be a great little swimmer." she said fondly. "Go as long as you please, I'll make sure nothing happens to you." she finished with a nod. Then looked over her shoulder making sure there weren't any waves incoming, luckily due to the sandbar their were just gentle little swells, nothing that would threaten the little filly.
She then pondered what to have Walla do next once she was comfortable with her tail, obviously get her little legs involved in the process, but what would be the best way to do that? Well it would come to her eventually, little steps after all. Little steps.
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Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 4:59 pm
For the first time since Walla's birth, she felt truly happy...overjoyed even! So much so she started giggling and splashing a bit in the water without Trida needing to say a word to her. She knew she could swim, she knew this was going to be as easy as walking was...there was just that terror deep down that kept her from the deeper water, past where she couldn't see.
"Look! Look! My tail moves so easily!" She cried out, splashing again and going as far as standing up to dance and jump around in the shallow water. It felt absolutely wonderful to feel this happy and excited over something so small and simple. Walla wished she could feel like this all the time...and not just for herself...daddy too. She eventually paused for a moment to look back down into the water at the mer. "...where do you live? Is it far away...? Do you come here a lot?"
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Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 5:49 pm
Trida watched her frisk and smiled. "You're going to be just fine." she said. She knew Walla would be okay, it seemed she just needed someone to give her a little encouragement and maybe a lesson or two. The fact that such little things were such a big deal for the filly...Trida really wanted to give her parents a talking too.
When asked about her own home she looked back towards the sandbar and pointed a hoof. "See where the rock spires are around that one island out in the deep water? I live in a cave out there with my mate. We have all sorts of things out there." she said. "I come along the shoreline often enough, especially when the traders come. I like to trade the things I find in the water for things I can't get otherwise." she said flicking her tail as a swell came up behind her and jostled her from her position.
"But I could always come more often if you liked." she said. "I wouldn't mind spending more time with you, little one." she smiled. "We could continue your swimming lessons, among other things." she said. "Whatever you would like to do."
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Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 9:38 pm
Walla smiled again and nodded, her gaze eventually following Trida's hoof in the direction of home. She stopped her splashing around almost immediately to stare out into the far water, noting how dark it was beyond a certain point.
"A-all the way out there....? It's dark...and far away...why?" She asked, shrinking back and moving towards the beach again. "Why would you live somewhere dark...?" The little filly's knees trembled when she finally hit the soft sand of the beach and nearly collapsed. "Y-you should stay up here...where it's s-saf...er...."
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Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2014 10:02 am
Trida looked out and frowned a bit. Yes, the water did look dark after a certain point, but that didn't mean it was dark under the water. Did she not know that it wasn't? She must not. She turned back to look at Walla who was now a crumpled mess on the sand.
"But it wouldn't be safer for me to be along the shoreline little one. What if a big wave pushed me far up onto the beach? How would I get back to the water? I could crawl, yes, but I would dry out and then I would get very sick." she said with a sad nod. "And the water just looks dark because it goes down deeper than it does here, but it's not dark Under the water, not unless you swim down very very very deep, and I would Never go down that far it's far to scary where there's no sunlight at all. The water out there doesn't even get close to getting that dark though." she said moving closer to nuzzle Walla. "Even at the very bottom around the spires you can still see light from the surface. It's not scary at all. I promise." she offered a little smile. "And if I never came went home, poor Pontas would wonder what happened to me, and I wouldn't want him to worry about me." she said.
She nuzzled Walla again. "And it's not that far at all. It's much closer than you think. One day you'll be strong enough to swim all the way out there by yourself and you'll see." she said offering a smile.
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Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2014 8:45 pm
Walla swallowed hard and looked back into the water, her eyes falling back on the darkness in the distance. She stared for a long time before awkwardly crawling her way back into the water, tail swishing almost immediately. "Then why is it so dark...?" She asked, her eyes never looking away from the spires. "If you can see the light so far below...why can't I see the bottom?" Eventually she laid her ears back and looked towards Trida for answers. She had to know, after all...she lived there. And she had a mate!
"...Pontas? What's he like...?"
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Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2014 9:39 pm
Trida was a little pleased when the little filly returned to the water, and was amused as her tail immediately began the motions necessary to propel her forward. The filly was a natural, she'd known she would be once she got over her fear.
"Because the water is much deeper there than it is here." Trida smiled a bit. "Sweetheart, you can't see the bottom in this little cove either. If I swim out to where the sandbar is that blocks the big waves you wouldn't be able to see the bottom there either, except for where the bar is. On either side of it though the water would look dark because the light can't light it all up. There's just too much. There are things getting in the way too, like kelp, fish, coral, rocks. Lots of things to get in the way of the light." she smiled reassuringly. "I've heard there are great big lakes somewhere on the dry land and they look dark and scary too because the light can't light it all up. I promise, though if I go to the bottom of the cove, I can see the light from the surface." she said with a nod.
Trida sighed happily and frisked a bit and giggled. Pontas~ Her wonderful, wonderful mate~! "He's wonderful~!" she gushed. "He's fun and goes exploring with me, and we play games sometimes." she blushed a bit and wiggled happily. "He's just the best."
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