not beaten down just yet

It was nice to be back. It had been a few weeks of helping out with classes and such. Haleth had even had the opportunity to give a few private lessons to students that seemed to be having difficulties with their instruments - like the purple haired boy that hadn't known how to form his embouchure. Once they'd managed to break him of his bad habits, he'd sounded just fine.

It hadn't exactly given her the opportunity to make friends, though. For the most part, she'd busied herself with her own studies, but she couldn't help but feel a bit lonely. She hadn't exactly had friends the last time she'd been here, but she'd been hoping that something would have changed between then and now. Perhaps she had changed. Perhaps it just wasn't enough.

For now, she could only continue as before. There wasn't much going on as far as school events - that she knew of, anyways - so there was no way for her to do anything differently.

All in all, her frustration with her inability to progress as a person (though did she even count as one?) had caused her to leave the more studious parts of the island in favor of seeking some sort of refuge to relax in. She'd changed into a simple white bikini and spread a small blanket to lounge on along the lake's shore.

There was enough of a breeze going to cause the surface of the water to ripple back and forth, causing tiny waves against the sand. The sound was soothing, but after a while, she found herself humming along with it, having found an easy tune within nature's rhythm.

It was nice out here. There was no pressure. She assumed this place was typically busy, but... it wasn't so bad this early in the morning. Maybe everyone was at the beach? It made sense, Haleth supposed, considering that it had a lot more actual beach and shoreline than the lake did.

Haleth had not paid the waters any mind - not beyond the gentle sounds and the occasional small splashes that she heard and made music with. It wasn't until she heard a few louder disturbances that she shifted upwards, resting her weight on her elbows (and no doubt emphasizing her ample chest) to see what it was.

It looked... Well, were she entirely honest, she hadn't gotten enough of a look to say for sure. She didn't bother to pause in her quiet tune as she waited, hoping for another glimpse of whatever person or creature had made that sound. She hadn't gotten close enough to see - she didn't think she knew how to swim - so she hadn't bothered to look into what possible lifeforms she might run into here.

Of course, now that she thought about it, there were animals that enjoyed life both on land and in the water. Though the island wasn't the biggest in the world, it wasn't exactly the tiniest either. For all she knew, it had carnivorous otters or hungrily angry bears.

...maybe she should have invested some time with a computer or book on the area here before coming out after all. Well, it was no big deal. She supposed if something did come at her, she could defend herself.

Anyways, it wasn't as though she'd died yet and she'd seen some interesting things back when she'd attended here (and she couldn't help but want to kick past Haleth a bit for not venturing out into the area more - or at all).

The waters were still for a moment - long enough that Haleth was starting to wonder if she'd been embellishing the sounds of the water in her head. She was just starting to lower herself back to her blanket when she saw the water erupt up and out, a fin sticking out of the foam.

Well then.

Oh, and it was coming towards her.

What.

Haleth took up precious miliseconds with panic before shifting out of the way.

Or, well. She'd tried to. The bluish-skinned person-creature-thing (she hadn't gotten all that great of a look) had adjusted, too. Unfortunately, Haleth had moved into his path and felt the air getting smashed out of her when he landed on her, wet, firm, and scaly.

Winded, she couldn't protest the weight of his body or get a good look. She was too busy trying to breathe, because ow.

She squirmed beneath him until she could introduce some oxygen and nitrogen and all of those wonderful elements back into her lungs again. She drew some deep, heaving breaths before finally turning towards the other individual with dubious eyes.

Taking in what she saw, she couldn't help but frown before the corners of her mouth started to quirk upwards when she found the humor in the situation.

"Trying to take out us humans on land, too, eh?" she quipped. "And here I thought the lake was safer for sunbathing than the ocean."

Haleth blinked up at him, a smile still tugging on the edges of her mouth. "Apology accepted," she said easily. "Somehow I don't imagine you intended for this to be the end result, anyways."

She squirmed a bit, but only really succeeded in jiggling all of the extra flesh. It didn't seem as though she'd be able to get very far on her own, especially considering that this person seemed to be... well. Fairly muscular. He seemed humanoid enough despite the skin and the teeth.

"Um..." Haleth wiggled beneath him for a moment more before giving in to the facts. There was no way she was getting out from under him unless he moved. She simply didn't have the know-how to escape his weight and she didn't want to change his attributes. She hadn't really tried it on actual people and was reluctant to see what would happen if she tried it on him.

"Do you mind.... maybe letting me up?" she asked, blushing a bit. Squirming had made it obvious that he wasn't exactly... well. Clothed. There was a distinct lack of swim trunks.

And she was showing kind of a lot of skin. Oh, boy.

"No worries, no worries," Haleth assured him when he lifted himself from her. She took his hand and stretched a bit, hoping to get blood flowing back into her extremities.

She had to adjust her bikini - she never could quite find the right sizes for her body. Water from his body had wet her, leaving two skin-tinted dark spots on her top and darkening her bottom. White was a nice color, but easily influenced by others.

And she happened to get an eyeful. "Woah."

Her slowly fading blush came back in full force. "Do you, uh... have clothes? I have some, if you don't. If, uh, you wanted to cover up?" Getting flustered, she immediately followed it up with, "Um, but you don't have to if you don't want to! I don't want to be insulting or anything if this is normal for you. Don't do anything you're not comfortable with!"

And she was probably making a bit of a fool of herself, but she was faced with a lot of naked person right now, okay? She wasn't used to seeing this out of a classroom or medical facility.