Welcome to Gaia! ::

" You cannot avoid swimming forever " Talon stated firmly while watching a reluctant Tiwaz sit at the edge of the pool dangling her legs in the water. It was a rather nice day out with warm sunshine beating down and a refreshing breeze blowing . Talon had decided that Tiwaz needed to learn to swim and today was a perfect day for it, however after last years fishing incident Tiwaz had often been opposed to the idea.

Still Tiwaz sat only a few feet away wings tucked to her her and plum coloured haired pulled into a bun so that it was out of the way. She wasn't looking foreward to this but she knew she had to learn, after all what if in the future she had to swim. She also felt mildly uncomfertable becuase her now constant companion Kushiel had dissapeared and was not with her.

Shaking her head she gritted her teeth and hopped into the pool, the water since she was in the shallow end only came up to her neck which was in her opinion closer to her face that she liked. It was however cool without being cold and somewhat enjoyable. taking carefull steps she walked about getting used to the resistance the water gave all the while keeping an eye on her mother.

Tiwaz had finally been getting used to walking in the water when her attention was drawn to a pair of green wings. The boy who they belonged to was interesting enough but it was the wings that had Tiwaz staring, they were huge much bigger than hers and she'd bet a months allowance he could fly with them.

Fortunately before jealousy could get the better of the girl there was a call for all beggining swimmers to make their way to a pair of lifegaurds who were going to be instructing them. With a resigned huff she glanced at the boy one last time before walking over to the growing crowd of children.

Standing on the deck Sam the young male lifeguard smiled at the children who had gathered there. " Alright kids I'm going to ask that you all settle down while I explain what's going on. Today I Sam and my partner Cass will be helping you learn to swim. We're going to teach you the basic things you needs to know , like treading water and the most common and easy swimming styles. Now I want you all to remember that this is not a race to see who learns to swim fastest and that everyone should work at their own pace and be proud of whatever they accomplish today."

Tiwaz listened to to what the lifegaurd was saying, while she'd much rather be practising how to fly than swimming she didn't want to look stupid while learning this.

"Since there are only two of us and several of you we'd like you all to partner up so that when practising one of you can watch the other and let us know if something goes wrong" Sam continued and waited.

Tiwaz remembered her last swimming experience and decided learning to tread water would probably be a good thing. She had seen people do it on t.v and it didn't look too hard, but t.v made a lot of things look easy so there was probably a trick to this she was missing.

Tiwaz looked amongst the throng of children for a partner, and found her eyes settling on the strange but interesting boy from earlier. He was older than her which meant stronger and actually able to help her if something went wrong. she made her way to him as quickly as possible.

"Hello will you be my partner?" she asked.

Pleased to have gotten the partner she’d wanted Tiwaz smiled. “Hi Lance, that’s a neat name, my name is Tiwaz it means warrior.” Tiwaz wondered if Lance was a warrior as well after all she’d seen movies where knights used lances to fight.


Sam blew a whistle top get the children’s attention. Once all eyes were on him he began to speak. “Alright let’s begin; we’re going to star you with a simple exercise to help you get used to water being all around you. With one partner watching very carefully the other partner will sit down on the floor a few seconds before surfacing. “ Sam watched the children for signs nervousness or fear.

“ While you are underwater I’d also like you to open your eyes became as you become better swimmers you’ll swim under the water more and need to be able to see each other. Now the most important this here is to know your limits. So before you sit try a practice run above water and see how long you can hold your breath. Then sit down come up at the half way mark so you don’t run out of breath..”

At this point Cass took over “ Partners who are not sitting must watch the working partner and if they seem to be having any problems you need to pull them up immediately and signal one of us. You may now begin.”

Tiwaz turned her crimson eyes towards Lance “You can go down fist” she offered not looking foreword to her turn whatsoever

Tiwaz nodded somewhat reasurred, if Lance had managed to do it while being bigger and heavier she could too. She sucked in her first breath and began to count wondering how high she could get. When her lungs began to burn she exhaled and grinned at the dragon boy." I'm counting on you " She said as she inhaled and tucked her legs under her, with the water up to her neck as it was she hadn't needed to move to submerse herself.

Once fully under the water Tiwaz kept track of time in her head while opening her eyes. Everything seemed different underwater slower and fuzzier. Looking up Lance was a blurry blob of green that twisted and curved all over the surface of the water. Feeling her lungs burn again she relaised she'd stop counting and immediately she pushed herself upwards.

" Wow that was just weird I mean everything looks so different under water." Tiwaz babbled, glad to be able to breathe again. " I'm not sure I liked it exactly but it was sort of cool to look at."

Tiwaz had been surprised at the contact, nor frightened or bothered by it just surprised. No one had ever ruffled her hair before nevermind when it was wet so the feeling was strange, although her head seemed to enjoy it.

Tiwaz shook her head at lance's words" No it's wasn't so bad, still I'd rather fly than swim any day, besides , what warrior rescues people by swimming." Though the experience wasn't horrid and it had been amusing to see how things looked underwater the skill seemed somewhat useless.

Tiwaz supposed Lance had a point and nodded, though she hoped never to be out in open water fighting if she wasn't allowed to just fly becuase an ocean was too much water for her to imagine swimming in." . She eyed his wings as they moved " Can you fly? I can't fly yet becuase my wings are too small, and I'm too heavy."She lamented.


While the pair talked the other children finished the excerise, during that ttime a long floating rope had been strung across the pool and now Cass signaled for the children's attention.