not beaten down just yet

Irui · Jul 31, 2014

Haleth considered his advice thoughtfully, changing her movements a bit to match his. She considered the way fish moved through the water - they had to propel themselves. It was a smooth action that was easy to attempt with their streamlined biology and fins. As a human, though, she'd have to improvise.

She couldn't keep her legs together like a fish's tail was to propel themselves, because a humanoid's body didn't have anything else to propel itself with - and legs were strong. Stronger than the pull of arms through water, anyways.

With that in mind, she broadened her kicks and straightened her legs a big, feeling her body press against the water. Honestly, it was only her grip on Lelei's arm that was keeping her from swimming into him.

That... that was surprisingly easy. Probably because of her butt. But still, it was easy.

"Like this?" she asked, unsure if she was doing it correctly. It felt right to her body, but there was no way to be sure just yet, especially seeing as she was trying this for the first time.

It was interesting, this swimming thing. The water was nice around her - she wondered why she hadn't tried this before. Had she just understood that she couldn't swim? Why hadn't she tried to change it? Had she just accepted it as fact?

Well, to be fair, it was possible that she'd failed in it before - that could have made her subconsciously wary, right?

Haleth shivered involuntarily at the thought before returning her attention to their practice. Now wasn't the time to think back to things she had no control over.

Critical · Jul 31, 2014

"You're getting it! Keep it up!"

Haleth's forward movement became more pronounced against his arm almost immediately. She was no child, so it was expected that she would pick up on the nuances of swimming quickly, and Lelei was happy to see it happen. As she moved forward, he leaned farther back and swam leisurely in reverse. His tail easily kept him propelled, freeing his hands for Haleth to hold onto.

"Now with your free hand, try doing broad strokes through the water. Keep your fingers together, push back and down, and raise your arm while bringing it back forward."

He again demonstrated with his free arm, showing the wing-like motion she should be doing. The idea was that her arms would keep her up, while her legs moved her forward.

Eventually, after she got the hang of the arm movements, Lelei would slow them to a stop and hold onto Haleth again under the arms.

"Now I want you to remain calm... But we're farther out in the lake now."

He motioned his head toward the now farther-off shore. If Haleth tried lowering herself again, she would not feel the bottom. Lelei was keeping both of them at about chest/shoulder level.

"Stay calm because it's okay. I want to teach you to tread water. Alright?"

Irui · Aug 19, 2014

Haleth hadn't even realized how far out they were until he'd mentioned it. Naturally, she felt herself panicking a bit, especially when she went vertical and wasn't touching the bottom.

The natural reaction to this, of course, was to immediately pull herself closer to the person that, you know, did know what he was doing. Because she sure didn't.

He said to be calm though, so aside from clutching his arms, she wasn't doing much else. Just kind of hanging onto him and trying really hard not to whimper.

"Okay," she agreed quietly.

She didn't notice it because of her concerns about being out of her depth (literally!), but her swimsuit, now soaked, was perhaps more... transparent than it had been marketed as. Were he to pay attention, Lelei would notice that the curves of her body, already made obvious by the bikini, would be visible through the almost opaque color of her swimsuit.

Critical · Aug 22, 2014

Panic was an infectious little bugger. Lelei might have been the poster child for calm while holding the two of them upright in the water, but the very short burst of sudden, panicked movement from Haleth also made him flinch in response. As she tightened her grip on his arms for support, his own hands momentarily grasped firmer beneath her arms. It was not enough to hurt her, and he recovered quickly. She was handling the revelation much better than he expected and nodded approvingly.

"This next lesson is very important: treading water. It'll keep your head above water when you can't stand."

Removing one hand from Haleth, he drew circles through the water.

"Move your legs like this. Make circles with them. Try and do the same with your arms too."

To give her the chance to keep herself up, he slightly lowered his hand on her. She would sink slightly from not being supported by Lelei, but hopefully she would learn to keep her head above water.

The sinking would also give Haleth a moment of modesty. Lelei was not completely immune to the effects of a pretty girl in an outfit that was only a notch above completely nude. He himself was obviously very fine with nudity, as Haleth was probably well aware at that point, but he was not dumb. While he may have been fine being free in the wind, he understood that she probably was not okay with shark eyes lingering on her bosom. For the most part, he maintained his composure and tried to teach. But a tinge of red appeared on the tip of his head fin: his version of blushing.

Irui · Aug 22, 2014

She didn't--

She didn't get it. Oh god, she was going to fail in all kinds of epic ways at this. Haleth could already sense the impending embarrassment. She wasn't ready yet, but she didn't think that would matter - she'd have to make herself ready.

The keeping her head up part wasn't so hard until he gradually starting lowering her into the water. Then came the fear that she wouldn't be able to keep her head over the water. As she dipped into the water, she panicked and her body reacted accordingly.

Haleth found that she was breathing.

Under water.

She was breathing under water. She slipped a bit further under the surface in surprise as she lost her grip on Lelei, but even though she slipped deeper into the water, she didn't seem to be having any problems. It was only when she exhaled bubbles that slipped upwards towards the surface that she realized what was happening. It was then that she took her hands from Lelei's and truly let herself fall into the waters.

What had she to fear? Her body was changing the water to air as she inhaled it. Now, at least, she could learn to swim without fear of drowning. Maybe it would even become less of a feared thing and more of a fun thing. Haleth giggled under water and wondered how the sound carried.

"Lelei, can you hear me?" she called, wondering if he'd be able to or if he needed to be underwater (or if it even mattered and this was all a failed point).

Critical · Aug 22, 2014

"Miss Haleth...?"

Lelei's wandering thoughts about Haleth's state of dress were quickly pushed to the side as the young woman began to sink a little more than he was comfortable with. He still wanted her to learn however, so he forced himself to wait and see a few more moments to give her the chance to learn. And she would learn, right?

"Miss Haleth?"

The moment her head dipped beneath the water AND she lost her grip on him, Lelei knew something was wrong. He immediately ducked beneath the surface to try and hoist her back to the surface. But to his amazement, Haleth seemed... perfectly fine. Unless her method of drowning was totally without panic, or he had royally screwed-up and she was already dead, Haleth appeared right as rain under the water.

In the crystal clear water, it was easy for the two of them to see each other, and Lelei could see that she was casually exhaling and even smiling. Haleth would see that Lelei's powerful tail was doing most of the work for him, and he hovered in the water in a position reminiscent of any flying superhero hovering in the air.

"Y-Yes. I CAN hear you! Are you... okay? I didn't think humans could breathe underwater."

Just out of caution, he swam closer to her and put his hands on her hips, ready to simply throw her back to the surface if need be.

Irui · Aug 23, 2014

Lelei followed her into the deeper waters, clearly ready to tow her back up to the surface. Haleth didn't think there was any need though. It was nice here, under the surface. The water was all around her, but she still got the sense of movement from it. Her long, red hair fanned all around her in a crimson cloud that contrasted with their current surroundings.

She let herself fall all the way to the dirt and rocks on the bottom - or was it sand here? - where she perched herself on a rock. It was easy - the buoyancy took most of the gravity from her allowing her to position herself comfortably without accidentally stabbing herself on any of the rocks here. She could see fish all around, though they swam a safe distance from here. If she sat still long enough, would they come and brush up against her skin the way you could teach small animals to eat from your hand?

Her tutor swam down to grip her hips, clearly a bit unsure of what was going on. He was close enough that she could see what he was saying though she could not hear him. It seemed that particular ability was beyond her skills which made sense. She'd done enough both singing and teaching song to ready his lips.

"I don't think we're supposed to be able to," she responded, a pleased smile pressing itself into place on her lips. "But I think my power lets me do this."

Which was, you know, amazing. And super convenient. She didn't know if she could do it for someone else, but this was certainly one helluva nice surprise. Maybe she'd never learned to swim because she hadn't needed it? More questions arose from the discovery, but for now she took pleasure in the wonder of the tiny world around them.

"It's pretty down here," she said, in awe of what she could see. Admittedly, there were spots of green where algae and lichen gathered, but it was to be expected in a lake. It didn't make the world any less impressive to her.

Critical · Aug 23, 2014

Lelei was both happy and a little incredulous to hear(?) that Haleth's powers were paying off during their lesson. It was very nice to see that she now possessed the ability to breathe underwater, so at least one other person could join Lelei on his long swims if she wanted to. But now the lessons seemed like a moot point since the whole point of swimming, for humans, was that they needed a method to stay above water while also having some semblance of locomotion while in it. Water breathing removed the entire problem swimming was meant to fix.

Now he wondered if they should even continue the lessons as they drifted to the bottom of the lake, surrounded on all sides by clear water and diffuse sun light. He supposed that he probably should keep trying at least. Walking across the bottom was nowhere near as efficient or fast as actually swimming.

"Yes it is. You can probably see why I like spending time beneath the surface. Though... the ocean is even more gorgeous."

His head tilted around as he took in the majesty of life beneath the water's surface once more, and his hand idly drifted up and down her waist.

"Do you want to try swimming again, without the fear of drowning now?"

His hands let go of the soft woman, and Lelei started swimming lazy circles around Haleth. Under the water, he appeared much more graceful and agile than on land.

"Or maybe you would like a fun little ride courtesy of me?"

Irui · Aug 25, 2014

Haleth blinked at Lelei, surprised by his offer. A ride? What did that even mean? Of course, she did want to master how to swim, but.... a ride? She was curious and given that she'd made some pretty good progress thus far, she didn't see why she couldn't have some fun. Possibly.

"A ride?" she questioned, curious. "What do you mean?" She wondered what it would look like - what did he mean? Would she grip his fin? Was he going to take her by the hand and trail her after him like some sort of particularly enthusiastic banner?

She couldn't imagine what this would look like.

No, really, she was having some issues with trying to visualize this.

Haleth cocked her head to the side, eyeing Lelei. "I think maybe we should have some fun? I feel like I've made some decent progress so far anyways... It's a good time to take a break, don't you think?"

Critical · Aug 27, 2014

"A ride around the lake. A reward for learning so well, so far."

Lelei's swimming was effortless and light. What had started as a fairly standard sleek swim with his arms and legs down while his tail propelled him turned into him lounging backward with his hands behind his head. It was a wonder that he could teach anyone to swim with their hands and feet when he clearly was a natural with his tail.

He popped a big smile when Haleth agreed to a fun swim.

"Stellar!"

His circular swimming came to a lazy end with him crouching on the lake bottom with his back toward Haleth. Looking over his shoulder he motioned her to go ahead and mount up.

"Put your arms around my neck and hold your wrists."

When she was good and secure, Lelei took off, leaving a cloud of sand from where he kicked off the bottom. Haleth would experience first hand how much of a natural swimmer Lelei was. The sensation was not unlike flying as he made a rollercoaster run around the lake.

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not beaten down just yet

Irui

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Critical

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Irui

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Critical

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Irui

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Critical

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Irui

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Critical

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Irui

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Critical

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