Nya tilted her head at his words, wiping seawater from her face and brushing her loosely tangled hair out of her eyes. She was suspicious of praise but enjoyed that he seemed to think that she was doing okay. Nya wasn't so sure. All the moving of hands and legs and keeping ones head above the water was a foreign thing to her. She even had the taste of salt in her mouth and the briny sea wasn't her favorite flavor for sure. Worse than that she was using muscles she'd never used before and they were starting to ache. Given enough time she was sure they would stop working and then she'd drown for sure, despite the reassurances that Pulren had given her.
He glided through the waves like a seal... and she almost envied him for it. Duncan swam like he did, but Pulren seemed to have a joy that the water mage didn't hold close to the surface if he felt it at all. Nya was fascinated by that joy and she watched him as he moved, trying to understand it.
When he suggested she might want to quit for the day, Nya nodded vigorously. "Yes... please. I have muscles I didn't know I had and they are all protesting." She said somewhat grumpily. It wasn't that she didn't like swimming. It was that she didn't like feeling this tired this fast for using parts of her body unused to working. She also was unused to the feeling of being vulnerable and in the ocean she certainly felt like she was.
At his urging, she stretched her arm towards the shore and started paddling that way, letting the waves catch her until she could put her feet down like he did. Once she could walk in the water, she did, catching up to him and thanking him.
"Thank you for the swimming lessons, Pulren. You are a good teacher. I learned a lot and appropriate your time. Maybe I can pay you back sometime when you need some help or would like to learn something I know about that you might not know so much of. Just let me know, okay?" The Kelvic said, walking out of the waves with him and heading up to the shade on the beach. She'd earned a good swing on one of the swings hanging from one of the palms or at least a bells worth of a nap in the shade to recover. Then she'd worry about some food and definitely something fresh and cool to drink.
Nya smiled at Pulren. She'd invite him along if he was game to find food... but after... definitely after... a nap. The Kelvic yawned widely and broke into a light jog. It had been a good afternoon for sure. Maybe things were looking up in Syka if the company kept getting better and better like it seemed to be.