Closed Water, water everywhere.

[Daekos Volundur]

2nd of Summer, 513 AV (Sunset)


The Azurite Watchtower had turned red the day before, marking the demise of Spring and the beginning of Summer. Perhaps it was mere nostalgia, but its brilliant light brought to mind Daekos' very first Summer spent in Riverfall ten years ago - a pleasant one once he had gotten used to the sweltering heat.

And now it becomes just as warm - warmer still now that I stand near the Valkalah's Tears.

Gazing at the lava flow, Daekos idly watched the steam rise from where the lava and waters of the sea met, breathing in the pungent smell that arose from the lava without a complaint - after all, it reminded him of many a spring of lava in the Mountains near Sultros.

Perhaps it is time I went back - Nay, I have not achieved my goals yet. It would be nice to see Mother and Father again - Father not so much, but they would just pester me to get married. I am not skilled enough to do so, and it would be but a waste of effort and time attempting to create something wonderful enough.

The Isur walked away from the Lava Falls, mentally moving his focus towards the reason why he was walking on the beach, instead of working at the forges.

I chose to specialize in Water Reimancy, and yet I cannot swim.

A dry chuckle escaped his throat, even as liquid Res started to leak from his palms.

Time to learn to swim, then, Daekos! Lay on, Daekos, and - well, that was too enthusiastic. I've been spending too much time drinking and frequenting the Kulkukan. Perhaps a little practice time before I attempt to swim and drown myself - what could possibly go wrong?

He glanced around him - no one was within his sight.

While walking along the coast, feeling the sand crumble beneath his toes, feeling the gentle touch of the water moving up and down the beach, Daekos concentrated on controlling the flow of Res and its downwards motion, gently nudging it into a small, regular stream.

The Res manifested dropped to the ground, leaving a trail behind him. Slowing down his pace, Daekos continued to exert his will over the Res, causing it to levitate upwards and rotate between his legs. It was simple enough to do so, considering that the Res was practically in contact with his skin.

That's it then - control. Now to make things harder.

Once Daekos felt that he had a reasonable amount of Res created, he ceased the output of Res and began to focus solely on the circle of Res around his feet. Moving himself into the shallows, he sat down, expanding the circle of Res around himself.

Round and round and round and round - that's it.

Breathing deeply, Daekos stared at the rotating Res around him. With a thought (or several), he converted the Res into gaseous state, forcing it to accelerate.

Now to release the Res, while simultaneously converting it into water. A thin spike is what I need - the more force is focused at a single point, the greater its penetrating power will be.

He raised a hand and pushed it in front of him, freeing the Res from its rotation. No longer subjected to centripetal motion, the Res shot out. Daekos weaved the escaping Res into the shape of a stalactite - or stalagmite - and converted the outer layers into water, frowning as he did so.

Blast! It's too fast. I can't convert all of it into water before it escapes my field of control. Looks like I'll have to stick to liquid Res for this little trick.

The jet of water moved over the surface of the sea for roughly nine meters before it headed downwards and merged noisily with the seawater, causing a splash of moderate size.

Note to self: Work on refining control - that's too large, it's the equivalent of a blunt weapon.

Some strain was already creeping into his body; he could already feel a tinge of soreness in his palms. But one such spell was not all he was capable of, and he would do one more before attempting to swim.

You know, I may as well start working on extruding - or is that excreting? Why not urinating? Bah, that just gave me a horrible mental image. Yes, excreting Res from other parts of my body.

Daekos blinked his eyes rapidly as drops of Res began to leak out rapidly as if it were his tears. Placing his right hand close to his face, he gently guided the Res downwards, where the drops coalesced into a small sphere. Closing his eyes again, he stopped the flow of Res once a sphere of roughly two inches in diameter was created. Dropping it into the seawater, Daekos concentrated on the Res, willing it to attract water.

The process began slowly, for he had not much experience with doing so, as the water in a six-inch-long radius around the sphere suddenly became calm and unaffected by the gentle waves.

He snapped his eyes open, staring intently at the Res, and forced the water to move towards it.

There.

A strange sound was heard as water was sucked up and moved towards the Res. Standing up slowly, Daekos willed the Res to move with him, and it did so, moving to chest height even as it grew larger.

Oh dear, it's getting a little too large.

Alarmed by the rate its size was increasing at (roughly exponential), Daekos pushed it away with his mind, willing to move away from him. However, this disrupted his control over the spiralling sphere of water, and it exploded, drenching him all over and sending water up his nose.

It took a few minutes of sputtering and shouting insults in his native Isur before Daekos calmed down.

"You petching water! I swear, one of these days I'll - hold on, I can't do anything to you."

Deciding not to attempt any more spells that day, Daekos turned his attention to the sea, readying himself for his very first attempt at swimming.

His mind drew a complete blank.

Bugger.

His frustration grew to new levels he had never reached before, and he screamed (in a manly manner).

"How the shyke am I supposed to learn swimming without anyone to teach me?"

[Ans SpringBorn]

As Ans was walking along the beach exploring the city he noticed somebody thrashing in the water and walked over.
"Uh...Hello...Need any help there?"

[Daekos Volundur]

"Eh? What or who the petch are you?"

Noticing that he had instinctively spoken in Isur, Daekos switched tongues and repeated the same question.

"Who, or what are you?"

A hooded man. Wearing some sort of robes. I do believe he's attempting to look mysterious - although that could just be me thinking too much. Still, considering the heat, he's either touched in the head or just loves that outfit too much.

[Jack Benefort]

Jack had developed a sort of tradition of seeing the whole city on his first day in a new place. After stabling his horse he set about that goal and had spent nearly the entire day simple walking around Riverfall, taking in all the sights, the sounds, the smells of this new place. He had seen some real wonders so far. An aged looking arena that he was dying to do some practice in, some nice enough looking taverns, beautiful docks that made him think of home, and a lava flow! A real lava flow! 'I'm liking this place a LOT so far,' he thought to himself, 'and I've only seen the things this place has to offer. I can't wait to meet some of its people!' As he lost himself in thought and memory of the day he soon found himself standing on the beach, and took a moment to truly enjoy the view of the vast and beautiful ocean that stretched out in front of him, as far as the eye could see. It was a truly satisfying moment.

"How the shyke am I supposed to learn swimming without anyone to teach me?"

And the moment was gone. Jack was taken aback by the sudden cry for.... Help? Maybe? It seemed less of a cry for help as an exclamation of frustration. But where many would see an uncomfortable situation, Jack dreamt of opportunity. Sure, he might not be that great of a swimmer. But whoever this was, probably wouldn't know the difference. And besides, Jack was a teacher, and this was a great opportunity to meet a local, or at least to meet somebody new, and get a shot at teaching something other than swinging a sword for once. So Jack eagerly ran off towards the source of the shout, further down the beach.

Eventually, he found not just one but two people, one an Isur and one something else. The other one was hooded and seemed to be trying to look mysterious, and since it was faced away from him, he couldn't really tell what was under the hood. Nevertheless, Jack was even more excited now. He'd not had much in depth contact with any Isur in his travels, and now he learned that he would get to make(he hoped) two friends instead of just one. 'This day is really turning out to be wonderful!' He thought to himself, slowing down as he finally drew near to them.

Before saying anything, he looked himself over. He hadn't thought about it while he was running, but now realized that his entire outfit, which had once consisted of brown pants and a green shirt, was now entirely sand colored. He let out a sigh and decided that it wasn't really relevant. After all, he'd probably be swimming soon so might as well get dirty if he was going to get wet too. Moving on from that train of thought, he walked up to the two men.

Putting on his biggest salesman smile, as he knew he was about to try and teach something he hadn't done in at least 3 years, "Hi! I heard one of you yelling about learning to swim and needing a teacher? Well it just so happens that I do know how to swim and am, in fact, an experienced teacher. So I thought I'd offer my services to you. Free of charge of course. I only desire friendship in return, if it's not asking too much. So what do you say?"

[Daekos Volundur]

Before he could hear the hooded man answer, another person approached the duo, smiling rather suspiciously.

Daekos mentally groaned.

Another? Aye, ruin my day then. But he knows swimming. Hmm. This might work out. Somehow.

"Yes, I yelled about not knowing how to swim. It's quite embarrassing, really, especially since..." Daekos trailed off, remembering the exact reason why he would be embarrassed. Not knowing the stranger's attitude towards magic, it would be best for Daekos to be cautious.

"Yes, I do desire learning how to swim, but I'm afraid my friendship would be a rather difficult thing to give away for a mere swimming lesson. Especially to you humans. Mizas, though - that's a different question. Shall we say 'acquaintances that aren't very close'? That would be less distasteful."

He reminds me of the time one particularly low-bred human tried to convince me to buy some of his lucky charms. Well, his smile, anyway. I suppose it could just be me being suspicious, but it never hurts to be paranoid.

[Ans SpringBorn]

"I'm Ans, Whats your name?"

The man in the water was asked to get taught how to swim. Or maybe he was just rambling about how he was embarassed. Ans took a few steps closer to the man and said...

"Don't be embarrassed I can't swim either"

But he still felt pain watching this man struggle. Ans walked closer and helped the other man help the "swimmer" out of the water. Ans looks at him with a dead stare and says...

"Are you Alright?"

[Jack Benefort]

Jack drew a little closer until he was standing about the same distance from the Isur as the other person was. He seemed to be a human, though there was something just a little..... Odd about him. He couldn't quite put his finger on it though, and decided it was probably of minimal relevance how certain he was that the man was a human.

Jack was slightly taken aback by the Isur's opposition to friendship and his obvious wariness of both Jack and the other man, but remembered after a moment what he did know about the Isur. He had been told by a friend he made in Syliras that they were slow to warm to others, as stern a people as the mountains that they hailed from. Two things now stood out to Jack in this excchange: First, slow to warm in his mind was in no way equatable to impossible, and was in fact very much within the realm of doable. He would have his victory yet, he assured himself, however naively. Second, he now stood to get paid for his work. His slightly idealistic nature meant that Jack did tend to ignore the reality of his situation from time to time, and the fact that he only had 100 mizas to his name was not about to magically change. Money is good for those who enjoy surviving.

"Sure," he said, the smile disappearing from his face gradually as the moment changed in tone, "Acquaintances it is then, and mizas will be fine, if that is what you are comfortable with." He took note that the other man seemed to be quite concerned for the Isur's welfare. "I think he'll be alright, you know. And what about you? You say you can't swim either? Willing to learn? Oh, and my name is Jack. What're your names, if you don't mind me asking?"

[Daekos Volundur]

"Yes, I'm fine."

Daekos was beginning to feel more irritated than before, especially since the hooded man - Ans, was it? More like Ants - was staring at him, making him feel uncomfortable.

"I was perfectly fine even when I was in the water - if I were drowning, I wouldn't be in the shallow part of the sea."

Gods, they're starting to get on my nerves. At least the fellow named Jack is willing to do something for me. Ans appears to be just a spectator of sorts - but then again, I can't very well tell the future, can't I?

"Since you've both given your names, I may as well give you mine. You may address me as Volundur."

[Ans SpringBorn]

Ans sensed the irritation in Volundurs voice and quickly said...

"I'm sorry for my...uh...suspicious behavior.I am Kelvic and my animal form is a cheetah, so it's times like this that my feline traits show"

Ans hoped this apology would be accepted and quickly added...

"I'm sorry we got off on the wrong foot. I was just heading to the Inn, perhaps I could buy you a drink and make up for it."

Ans needed to make a better first impression on these gentlemen.

[Jack Benefort]

"A beer doesn't sound too bad, actually. But I think we ought to try and make some progress with the issue at hand first, don't you think? You say you're a cheetah kelvic- it makes sense that you don't know how to swim, but I can definitely try and teach you if you want." As appealing as a cold beer sounded, Jack did have a real desire to get the teaching underway before doing anything else. And if they were going to start, they ought to start soon, as late in the day as it was.

Turning to look at Volundur, "So what say you? If we are to get any training done we ought to get to it. We could of course go to the inn if that's what you'd rather do. I'm willing to defer to whatever it is you would like to do."