Feat of Strength [Cranberry Sour & Cricket]

[and be blue]

Young and energetic; impatient and loud; short-tempered with an ego the size of a nation -- Red was most certainly a teenager, in that awkward stage before youth turned to adulthood and a Kimeti truly found himself.

...assuming Red ever did.

In any case, in the way of youth, in the lack of foresight, with the certainty that there was no way that he could ever step wrong and that he'd live through whatever the world had to throw at him, Red had decided to go exploring. Investigating. Hunting. Whatever you wanted to call it. Pacing out the edges of the swamp, those precise areas where he'd been instructed time and time again not to go.

And ended up in deep water.

And Red could only kind of swim.

And he was starting to get tired; only his head still above water, his breath a little labored as he tried to remember which way was stable ground, his limbs flailing awkwardly in the muck...  

[Vashtya]

Making her way nimbly across a particularly messy patch of bog, Cricket hummed to herself, enjoying the feel of her hooves as the thick mud clung stubbornly to them with each step she took, each movement accompanied by a loud squelch as the mud was finally forced to relinquish its hold.

Almost disappointed when her hooves finally met more solid ground, Cricket's green-and-white pelt was already splattered liberally with mud. Shifting her weight from foot to foot, she shook herself, dislodging some of the larger globs of mud before moving on--she was hungry, and thirsty, and recalled that there was a good-sized pool of water (clean enough to drink from) not much farther ahead.

Her memory had indeed served her well, she noted with satisfaction, wading in so that she was in water that came up to her ankles before lowering her head to drink, gulping the cool water down greedily. It still tasted of algae, and swamp--but unlike many of the pools one might encounter, it wasn't cloudy with mud.

Raising her head, she looked out over the still--okay, it wasn't very still--what on earth was that, barely above the water-line? Looking more closely, she realized it was a kimeti. "Isn't it a little chilly to be swimming?" Her voice, cheerful and loud (as it usually was), carried well across the water. She enjoyed swimming as much as the next kimeti, but she couldn't help but wonder why he'd swum so far out-not only was there the risk of fatigue, but there were predators who would see a kimeti so far from shore as an easy target.  

[and be blue]

At least he stood out against the calm surface of the water, a fury of cranberry-red against the edges of waves. Waves that he was churning up, struggling to get turned around right. The sound of her voice, however, was startling; enough that he was driven fully under for a moment as he floundered to spy her on the edge of the water, and for about five seconds his whole world was water...

Red came up spluttering again, struggling wildly in that direction and not making a whole lot of progress. His legs were tired, his head was tired, and he'd likely swallowed a whole lot more water than he'd wanted to. His only answer to her question was a garbled, gargling bleat of sound that bore no resemblance at all to any word.  

[Vashtya]

Eyes widening slightly, Cricket watched, mouth dropping open lightly in surprise as the other kimeti disappeared beneath the surface for a moment, before reappearing, said reappearance followed by an unintelligible sound. It didn't take a rocket scientist (which was a good thing, as she wasn't one) to see that the other was not doing too well, at that point.

Cricket hesitated a moment--it was cold, and the water was even colder...additionally, the other kimeti was quite far away...

Shaking her head, not one to concentrate overly much on logic, Cricket waded in further, powerful legs propelling her forward steadily, even as she grimaced at the bitingly cold water, ignoring the nervousness that tugged at her at being out so deep as to be where she couldn't see the bottom. Hopefully, the one she was swimming out to lend aid to wasn't in such a state as to do anything foolish, like drown both of them by panicking.  

[and be blue]

Again he dipped under the water, and again he bobbed back to surface -- spluttering and annoyed and maybe just a little scared around the edges. He didn't panic, at least [and he couldn't tell she was female, eyes full of water, fortunately for her] and with a little nudging and dragging, she should be able to get him to shore.

She'd just have to deal with the flailing legs, awkward and ungainly, and the surprising weight of a healthily growing colt.  

[Vashtya]

Finally reaching the spluttering youngster, Cricket, who was breathing rather heavily herself by that point, didn't wait for his permission, leaning her head forward and attempting to clasp him firmly with her teeth, seeking purchase on the slightly loose skin of the neck, just behind his head.

He'd turned out smaller than she expected--not yet full grown--which would at least hopefully make her task that little bit easier.  

[and be blue]

She got several spluttering objections -- but he was tired, and he kept going under, and his limbs were awkward and ill-shaped for swimming anyway so...so Red wasn't all that hard to drag off toward the shore. Once they got going, he could even help steer himself some, put less drag on her.

On more solid ground, he'd stand shivering and spluttering, spitting water out and shaking it wildly from his coat.  

[Vashtya]

Ignoring the objections, Cricket nonetheless released him as soon as her own hooves hit solid, if slightly muddy, ground.

She shook out her own coat, closing her eyes and making a face when cold water from the other's similar actions hit her squarely in the face.

After some brief preening (more to warm her up than for the sake of appearances) Cricket eyed Red expectantly, curious as to just how he'd ended up so far from shore, and in such deep water. "Deeper than you expected?" she asked a brief moment later, the beginnings of an infectious grin toying with the corners of her mouth.  

[and be blue]

He was still spitting and spluttering, too much water swallowed, pulling a whole range of horrendous faces as he attempted to recover from the fiasco. It wasn't until he could breathe comfortably, after several ragged coughs, that he actually looked up at her --

and damnit, he'd been rescued by a girl.

He looked affronted, scowling at her even as he coughed again, shivering out his fur. "I coulda done it..."  

[Vashtya]

Cricket grinned, the amused expression belying the words that followed. "I'm sure you could have." No need to antagonize, particularly given his youth.

Making her way out of the water, she turned to face him from the shore. "So what were you doing in the water to begin with?" Her tone was openly curious--it was too chilly outside, in her opinion, to want to really go beyond wading.  

[and be blue]

"I thought I saw something." He took another moment, shaking himself head to toe until his fur stood on end, his tail puffy, the water down his throat still clinging wetly to skin beneath. He finally looked at her, frowning in a way that was [perhaps] disproving. By a girl. Really.

"Big something. I don't know. I wanted to see what it was. It wasn't thatdeep..."