Welcome to Gaia! ::

Every day that Kalani had classes, as soon as those classes were over he made a bee line for his room, collected Nanners, and the pair hurried over to the nearest swimming pool as far as their collective feet and fins could take them. The pair would playfully chase each other around in the water to work off some energy, occasionally getting into a few mischievous antics involving the other pool occupants who happened to be in line of sight. Some of the regulars knew the pair on sight and knew to keep an eye out, so not all their mischief was success, but the whole point was having fun so it didn't really matter.

Once they'd worked off the bulk of their energy they slowed their pace a little, looking around to see if there were any familiar or new faces who looked like they might want to join in. They even poked their heads out of the water from time to time in case there were any nonaquatic species approaching who might want to play. Of course there was still homework and other things Kalani needed to attend to, but if he didn't work out all the pent-up energy that had been gathering throughout the day then trying to sit and focus was merely an exercise in futility.

Today was no different. Kalani and Nanners had been taking it in turns to chase each other, trying to "tag" the other in a stream of bubbles. They were both feeling pleasantly tired but in no mood to call it quits. The duo began to slowly circle around the pool, taking things at a slower pace and keeping an eye out for someone interesting who they could maybe play a game with. (Or a trick on.)

Kalani had been paying so much attention to the land that he completely neglected the pay attention to the water behind him. A brief warning bark from Nanners was all the heads-up he got, but before he had time to do more than start to turn his head to look at Nanners there was a loud "Boo!" behind him. Kalani squeaked, startled, and jumped out of the water like a fish fighting it's way upstream. Looking back on it later he was pretty sure even his tail cleared the water.

He came back down with a less-than-graceful sideways splash, then quickly darted underwater. Once he was a least a few feet down he made a tight turn. By this point his brain had finally caught up and he realized he had probably overreacted a lot bit. Blue eyes met blue, glowing eyes. Kalani noted the dark skin, which made the eyes and light-colored hair stand out all the better. Kalani looked like something made to dart around in bright, tropical waters. This person looked like someone who slunk around in dark depths. To top off the air of ominous mystery, Kalani noticed their tail wasn't the usual graceful fin, but a sharper, more stream-lined shark's tail.

Kalani was fascinated!

He swam back up towards the surface. The other child sounded a little out of breath, but excited. Kalani tilted his head, then grinned.

"Nah," he lied. "I was just practicing my evasive maneuvers. Had to show Nanners how it's done." The sealpup, who had followed Kalani through all his movements (minus the jump), poked his head up out of the water and gave a bark as though to confirm this. Kalani's grin widened and he kept his voice full of innocence as he added, "You might have scared Nanners though." Nanners barked again, then popped back under the water. He circled Kalani, giving his a light thwack with his tail as he passed, then began a shallow, swooping circle that allowed him to examine the other child.

Unabashed by the light rebuke from his familiar, Kalani just laughed. "I'm Kalani. What's your name," he asked, voice brimming with curiosity as he fought the urge to copy Nanners movements.