|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:40 pm
The best part of being older, decided Ophelia, was that her father let her go to the beach by herself. It wasn't that she didn't like going to the beach with her father - she loved it - just that there were times when he was working in his studio and couldn't take her, and now she never had to worry about that. Even the bikini, which she had been unsure about at first, was beginning to seem pretty cool. All in all, Ophelia was starting to like this strange new phase of her life. Daily trips to the beach, independent world painting... pretty cool stuff.
She tucked her boogie board under her arm and headed down the path to the beach. Body surfing was, pretty much, the best sport known to man. When she got to the end of the path, she hurried down to the water and dashed in.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 7:30 am
Leviathan was used to striking out on his own, now that Sable had deemed him more than able to surf and swim, and practically lived at the beach. If he didn't like eating (or sleeping), he probably would live there! The only problem was getting lonely sometimes, which didn't seem to be too much of a problem, because Leviathan kept finding girls on his beach! He wasn't sure how it kept happening...or if he really minded too much.
This time, he was already out on the water -the surf had been just amazing that morning- when Ophelia arrived at the beach. Upon spotting the girl, Leviathan scowled and waited for his next wave. Upon spotting the girl's board, Leviathan had a complete change of heart and rode his wave in all the way to shore. He jumped off in knee-deep water and splashed over to the strange.
"Hihi!" he crowed, waving.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 3:42 pm
Scratch that, thought Ophelia. Surfing looked like it was even better than body boarding. Except she didn't know how to do that. But this boy looked like he was really good at it!
"Hi!" she replied, and considered how this stretch of beach was usually deserted. "You, uh, live around here?" she asked. She knew there had to be other cottages somewhere in the area, she'd just never seen any of their inhabitants. Maybe he was their neighbor? He looked about her age, and Ophelia decided it would definitely benefit her to have friends who lived nearby.
"I'm Ophelia," she added hopefully. "People, er... call me Squishy."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 4:30 pm
Leviathan still hadn't noticed how different Ophelia's board was, jumping and splashing through the waves to get close enough to chat. "I'm Leviathan!" he chirped merrily, extending his hand for a shake. There he was, being polite again. A dark thought crossed Levi's mind, what if she didn't like his shell, like the last girl? And as quickly as it irked him, it was gone.
"Oh, I live up the street, a little." A lot, actually, but he didn't feel compelled to explain why he lived so far away from his beach. "I sometimes ride my bike here. Or walk. Whatever." He nodded and shrugged. "Squishy?" He blinked and tipped his head to one side. "Uhm. Sometimes people call me Levi?" he offered. He didn't have any nicknames like that!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 5:58 pm
So far, he was making her feel far less awkward than Melchy had. That, in her opinion, was a good sign. "Nice to meet you, Levi!" she said happily, pointing up towards the dunes. The roof of a cottage was barely visible over the towering sea-oats.
"I live just up that way," she said, looking at his board. It was longer and narrower than hers, more... aggressive looking, she guessed was the phrase.
"So, are the waves good?" she asked, holding up her board.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 11:49 am
She didn't shake his hand, either. Confused, Levi retracted his hand much more quickly than he had the last time someone refused a shake, doing that, run it through his hair thing again. So, Levi followed her finger, nodding when he spied the house. "Cool," he said, glancing back over. "Oh, the surf? It's awesome!" he exclaimed, throwing his free hands into the air.
"But what's wrong with your board?" he asked, tipping his head to the side. "Did it get broken? It's short!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 12:48 pm
"Broken?" asked Ophelia, confused as she looked at her board. "No," she said, "It's not broken."
She realized what he meant. He though her boogie board was a surfboard like his was...
"It's just a different kind," she explained. "For bodysurfing."
She pointed to the water. "Do you want to paddle out?" she asked.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 4:12 pm
Leviathan frowned and tipped his head to one side. It was supposed to look like that? Why would she want a board so short? "Oh, different," he said, trying to look like he knew what she was talking about. "Bodysurfing? But you can't surf for real with it, can you?" he asked tipping his head the other way as he took her lead and started walking through the waves. "Won't it, like, be really, really, really hard to balance?" he asked.
He tossed his board into the water and threw himself on, wet suit making a loud noise as he started to paddle himself out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 6:32 pm
"Well, you don't stand on it," said Ophelia as she tossed her board onto the water and paddled behind him. The water was perfect today!
"You lie on it and ride the wave in," she explained, cresting over the last of the breakers and coming to float next to him. "Bodysurfing. It's fun!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 12:29 pm
Leviathan wrinkled his nose, shaking his head. "That sounds an awful lot like cheating, if you ask me," he said, turning back to make sure she heard him. "The whole challenge is standing on your board," he insisted, continuing to paddle out. He didn't know how far Ophelia would go out, but Leviathan always went out over his head. That's where the biggest waves lurked, even if they didn't push him all the way to shore.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 3:16 pm
Ophelia kept up with him, going out just as far. If he could do it, so could she! She would prove herself one way or another.
"How's it cheating?" she asked incredulously. "It's just not the same thing!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 5:53 am
Leviathan huffed and shook his head. Clearly, Ophelia did not understand the art of surfing. "Because," he said, turning around, "the balance is the hard part! Duh!" If you didn't have to balance, well, anyone could surf and then it would hardly be worth doing, huh? The lobster-boy shook his head again and paddled a little harder, determined to get to his spot before the next swell came through.
"Ohohoh!" he cried, pointing up ahead. "Look at that!" Leviathan took a few strokes and whirled around, sitting on his board. "Ready?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 1:23 pm
"Way ahead of you," grinned Ophelia over her shoulder. Her board was not made for sitting, so she had to turn it around by getting off, flipping it around, and getting back on, but that was okay. She was well practiced at it, which made up for some of the inherent slowness.
The advantage of the different shape was that you could kick with your legs for propulsion, but it wasn't really suited for paddling, so she was already in motion, gathering speed for the wave to catch her. The swell lifted her and her board, and she shifted her weight towards the nose, dropping into the trough of the wave and speeding towards shore, leaving a protracted "Whooo!" hanging in the air behind her as she went.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:12 am
Well, at least Ophelia knew what to do with waves, even if her board was broken and made for not-real surfing. Leviathan watched as Ophelia went ahead and began to paddle himself, smiling as the wave swelled up beneath him and-
Down he went! Leviathan sprung to his feet, arms out to the side as the wave rolled and Leviathan carved down the crest. More than the average surfer, Leviathan ran his hand through the water as the wave began to curl around him. Leviathan carved up and down the tube, sliding out as the wave crashed down behind him. Soaked, the lobster-boy cackled with sheer delight before he realized he was hear with someone else.
Sitting back down on his board, Leviathan looked around, wondering where Ophelia got to.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 5:56 pm
Ophelia had glided to a stop a while away once the wave petered out, and was already paddling back towards him. Her hair, which had somehow remained dry until now, was now soaked and plastered to the side of her head. She lifted a hand to brush it out of her eyes, blinked a few times, and grinned.
"Awesome waves today!" she called, agreeing with his earlier statement.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
