[Swim Contest]A Swim and a Swam[Weekend Challenge]

by **Crylon Stonecraft** on April 1st, 2019, 12:30 am

15 Spring 519

If it had not been right next door to the Gem, Crylon likely would not have gone to investigate.

As it was, the bar of the inebriated fish next to the Gem seemed to be having some form of physical competition. That initially got Crylon's attention. Tournaments, feats of strength, proof of martial prowess, this was more akin to celebrations Crylon was used to. In Sultros it was much more common it seemed to in human cities.

But then when you were as a race the child offspring of a God, one who had gifted his children with a perfected form and physical abilities down to the youngest child... Well then, it was much more reasonable to want to show that off. To show ones endurance, strength, and skill.

So to was it apparently for humans, just not as often it seemed. But this season everyone seemed to be in such moods, and this was not the first such sign of vigor that he had seen in the city.

As he drew near to the water crossing, he saw the strange sight of humans in the water. Willingly. Odd, to Crylon, since most did not seem to willingly go in there. He had seen bodies in the water there, outside of a boat, but most had been dead.

There were also, he noted, boats with people in them. Sailors rowing, occasionally pulling a swimmer who went down out of the water. Or showing people which way to go. Back and forth. Swimming. Splashing. Stroking. In the water.

An odd shiver went over Crylon, as he looked down at the water. Crylon did not understand why they would willingly go in. Isur were not by their nature swimmers, being mountain folk.

He had been in Ravok, the city on the lake. But he had been able to focus on the “land” of sort there. The wooden boardwalks, the bridges, the boats, and had not dwell-ed on the fathoms of water below.

He had traveled by boat. But then he had mostly stayed below deck. Had kept well clear of the edge of the water. The same as when he crossed the water here in the city.

But purposely going in, diving into the water, going for a swim. Could he even swim? He had not tried that he could recall. And he was so heavy, he was not sure how good of a swimmer he would be. He supposed he would feel lighter in the water, as other people and boats and things did, but he just did not think it was very Isurian to go for a swim. To get in the water.

He realized then what that shiver had been. Foreboding. The edge of fear. He could not swim, in multiple ways. He did not want to swim. And the water... The water... He did not like the water. And yet strangely, he felt drawn closer to it. Closer to the edge.

Closer to those talking. Him in his simple clothes and boots. He had not carried much of anything else, since he was still within sight of The Gem.

There was the water, its icy depth in front of him. And people swimming in it. Its dirty, Sunberthian depths. Fear. Foreboding. What was that, but a natural aversion to danger? Was it wrong then to have a touch of fear for water, when it was such a horrid thing in this setting? Surely any other would understand his not liking it? Surely? Or was he just telling himself that?

WC: 591

by **Crylon Stonecraft** on April 1st, 2019, 1:24 am

As Crylon looked down into the water, he saw something odd. Something that did not quite fit.

It was a tiny stone statue of a man. An odd man, but a man. It was clearly well made, someone of skill had hewn it into the shape of a person. But it was in the water, knocked up against the side of the river by the flow of water.

Crylon's natural curiosity made him want to bend forward, reach over the edge, and grab the statue out. Dry it. Take a closer look. Figure out what it was doing there.

But his feet did not seem to be responding properly. He tried to will his feet to move, but it did not seem to receive the message. The more he tried to think about moving to the edge, the more planted his feet felt. He felt like he had a, literal, metal hook in his gut pulling him back from the edge. Keeping him from moving even an inch closer to the water which just fell off into the deep... Cut into the land, like a tear in skin.

Feeling another shiver coming on, Crylon took a step backward. He could see the edge, could see the water below, but even thinking about getting closer...

It was odd, as he could not recall feeling this way before, nor why he would feel this way. He was an Isur! Why would he fear water? It was just another medium. Was it any different to go down in the deep water, than it was to go on top of a boat?

But then he supposed to himself, when on a boat he had something solid below him. Land, of a sort. Ground. Surface.

He urged his feet forward again, but he could not quite put his force of will behind it in the same way he did when moving himself in other ways. Experimentally he moved his hand, finding it moving about just fine. He had walked over here, no problems with his legs. He took a step forward again, to the spot he had been in before, but even that now was difficult. Like he was pressing against a wall at ankle level, pushing it along in order to move. Weights tied on his feet slowing his progress and increasing till he could not move or until he was pulled back.

And once he was back to his earlier spot, a good few feet from the edge, no amount of pressure would get him further.

He looked about, but saw that this was isolated to himself, none of the humans seemed to have issue with getting right up to the edge. He felt his heart rate increase. His breathing quicken. His lungs did not seem to be working properly, like there was not enough air about, or too much air. Both at the same time? He had never felt this way before, least not that he could recall. But something... Something was certainly wrong with him.

He tried to will himself forward, right to the edge, but this just sent another quake through his body. And then he realized he was not moving, because some part of his mind did not want to move. That he was only halfheartedly trying to move, and that the other half of his heart was quite firm on disagreeing. A single vote nay, a single vote maybe, a clear winner then.

“Move!” Crylon heard someone yelling from nearby, but did not look up to see who it was. “Move!” There it was again, nearer this time, but he could not look up. Not when there was that threatening water right in front of him, threatening to sweep forward and grab him in a wave if he looked away when he was so close! It was not rational, some small part of his mind understood, but it made the fear no less immediate for this fact.

“Mo...” The voice cut off as Crylon felt a collision from behind, as a body smacked into him at an angle. Crylon was bounced straight forward, and the man was bounced away to collide with another man.

If Crylon had been looking he would have seen a pair of men running along the edge of the water, moving for something. Others on the edge had moved forward to let them pass, or moved back, but Crylon had stood stock in their way. A collission from the one closer to the water while at full sprint was enough to bounce Crylon right off his feet and the few feet forward to the edge of the water.

And then there was only air, as he fell, a squeal of fright, a screech, a scream. It was just as he hit the water, his entire body tense as a rock, that he realized he was the one making the sound.

WC: 816

by **Crylon Stonecraft** on April 1st, 2019, 1:43 am

As Crylon hit the water, his entire body tensed. And then he began to thrash. Spasm. Fight. Like he was trying to fight the water itself. As if it was a living thing able to scuffle with him.

He felt the motion of the water moving outward, and smacked into the side of the river. More by instinct than anything else he clung to the side with both hands, literally shoving his left arm into the side to stop himself from moving. He felt a wrenching at his shoulder as he stopped, but he stopped.

Then he began to scramble upward, trying to reach the top. He could not breath! Water was pressing on him from every side. Was attacking him. He could not see. Could not hear. Could only feel the oppressive weight of water. Could not reason. Could not think. Could only focus on getting up, getting out of the water, getting to safety.

And then as he climbed he found he was not in the water at all, but in completely different water.

It was a slick underground cave, with a pool of water washing over to him. He was also not himself now, but much younger.

Next to him was another young Isur, somehow related to him but not a sibling, young but older than Crylon.

“Its fine, see, the water isn't that deep. And besides, no one is around. Its just a quick dip. We'll be back before anyone noticed. Come on.”

Crylon looked over at the other child, a small grin on his face, before shrugging and hopping into the water.

The water was cool, the stone it ran over slick making him slide about. But it was not deep, not dangerous, only up to his ankles. Then a few steps more, deeper out, and it was up to the tops of his thighs.

Crylon felt a splash from behind, and turned to splash back. But then a spray caught him in the face, and spluttering he slipped and fell a few steps backward. And then he heard a high pitched screech, and realized it was his own voice, as his feet fell out from under him. And then he was sliding, having fallen into a small opening a the back of the cave of the underground spring, which was but an offshoot of a much greater well of underground water, which went... Somewhere... Somewhere much deeper and wetter and... Not safe.

Scrambling he tried to grab, to stop, but he could not find purchase on the slick rock, and he felt himself sliding. Sliding. Moving, intermittently surfacing and being dunked under the water before surfacing again.

And then there was only air as he fell, not touched by water or anything else. No sound. No sight, just blackness as he fell. And then his body met the surface, and he was underwater in some span of water he could not fathom. His feet could not find the ground. Could not find purchase. The water was attacking him, attacking and striking from all sides like some great living creature, some great mass of violent liquid bent on taking his life.

His head broke the surface, and he gasped in a breath, before still thrashing he slipped under. Up again as he moved with a fervor, and then his body beginning to weaken he began to slip under again.

A light now, and someone calling his name. An arm, an adult Isur, yanking him out with a black limb glittering in the wetness of the water.

WC: 591

by **Crylon Stonecraft** on April 1st, 2019, 2:14 am

His head breaking the surface, Crylon took in a gasp of air, finding not the Isur arm he had been recalling a moment ago, but a human arm pulling on him.

“You git, who drowns a foot from the edge of the water in a swim contest! Who told you to go for a swim you ol' rock head!”

With a grunt he pulled, heaving Crylon, and Crylon finding new purchase latched on and grabbed the boat. Like a cat trying to get out of rising water by climbing a tree he grabbed at the small rowboat, clutching and climbing with fury. Clutching so hard his left hand cracked the edge of one side of the boat from the sheer panicked pressure as Crylon pulled and hefted and the man pulled and leaned backwards to counterbalance the Isur's weight, and finally got him into the boat.

There was a few moments of fury as they fell back and forth, and as Crylon thought he might fall right through the bottom of the boat, before they settled and calmed relatively speaking for being on the water.

Crylon for his part was frozen on the bottom oft the bottom, forcing the human to move over and place his legs across Crylon's body. His lungs and heart hammered away, his mind rushing over... A memory? But one that he had not recalled before until just then. Had it happened, and he had forgotten it? Repressed it? Or, had he just dreamed it all in his panic as he was under the water.

Whichever it was he did not know, and he did not care as he focused on breathing and trying to calm himself. Beyond that he could not move, sitting without moving as the human shook his head at the stone man who could not swim and making for shore.

“We're here, get off stone arm, before I pitch you out.”

At that note Crylon managed to sit up, and finding them but an inch from shore managed to heave himself up and scrambling out in a completely undignified way. But he managed it, crawling away as he dripped on the ground. He kept going till he was a good ten feet from shore, well away from the action and anyone else running along the edge of the river.

The two men he had collided with were gone, having gotten up apparently and left before Crylon returned.

Getting up he turned to look at the water, saw its motion and wetness glistening in the sun. Saw its cold depth roiling below to sweep up with hungry liquid arms and grab him. He felt a pain in his gut, a rushing, and felt himself sick up the contents of his stomach all over the ground.

Anywhere else but Sunberth that might have been looked upon poorly, but here someone throwing up in the street with a rather normal sight.

With an empty stomach and a shudder Crylon turned and walked away from the water. How had he never realized he had this issue before? How had he forgotten... Whatever had happened before?

He could not recall, did not know if what he had seen was real or not, and so instead was left to dwell on his newfound realization of his fear which he had apparently had for some time. Since he was a child, possibly, if his memory was correct.

Stumbling somewhat drunkenly by appearance, Crylon did his best to put more distance between himself and the water. It had never, that he had been aware of, been an issue before. Could go into small bits of water. Could go on boats. Bridges. But actually getting in the water, not having something solid under his feet... That seemed to be the crux of it, whatever it was.

WC: 635