We've been demoted to play by post.
We've been demoted to play by post.
Serafina has been sitting quietly for days. She eats occasionally, and once in a while she strips down to her shift and goes swimming. After a week or so of thought she is suddenly struck by something. She screams and doubles over, collapsing on the mossy earth.
Rio rushes over, alarm showing on his face.
"Serafina, what happened?"He begins to fumble with his belt pouch to get to the potion he kept for emergencies.
The omniportal flashes to life, and Devlyn returns to the Oasis. He looks around longingly as he takes off into the desert and makes his way to the Bazaar of the Bizarre, taking quietly to the shadows as he does so to avoid undue notice.
Devlyn appears in the Oasis, warning Sirone of trouble brewing at the Eyrie of Celestial Harmony. He then activates the omniportal and heads there.
"Hey! Canis? Where are you?"
She looked around at the lush vegetation surrounding the clear pool and sighed.
"You know if you hide in the trees I'll never find you right? Did we not just discuss how totally hopeless I am at tracking?"
Slipping out from behind some leaves, LK runs up behind Arielle and scoops her up in his arms.
"It's no wonder you couldn't find me in the trees when I was behind some of ferns." He walks calmly to the edge of the water, and seems to seriously contemplate throwing her in.. but eventually he just decides to sit her down on the sand. He lays down beside her to watch the clouds above slip by.
She shrieked with surprise when he picked her up and then smiles.
"Trees, ferns, it's all greenery to me."
She leans her head on his shoulder and seems quite content to just watch the clouds slip by, with only minor interference from her and she couldn't entirely resist drawing shapes in the clouds.
"You know.. it's hard to figure out what a cloud looks like when you keep changing it." He flicks a little sand at her side.
*giggle*
"Sorry. Force of habit. That was one of my training exercises after my powers were...reduced. Grandpa thought it was a good way to learn finesse with controlling wind."
She suddenly jumped up.
"Sorry," she said apologetically, "didn't mean to get sand on you. I'm just getting way too warm laying in the sunshine like this. Time for a swim."
She pulled off her chain shirt and skirt and jumped into the water wearing just her bra and panties.
She surfaced, laughing.
"You're allowed to start breathing again now," she teased.
She suddenly jumped up.
"Sorry," she said apologetically, "didn't mean to get sand on you. I'm just getting way too warm laying in the sunshine like this. Time for a swim."
She pulled off her chain shirt and skirt and jumped into the water wearing just her bra and panties.
She surfaced, laughing.
"You're allowed to start breathing again now," she teased.
"Breathing might kill me right now." He says as he wipes a bit of blood from his nose. "And I think your dad might kill me if he found out we went swimming. You should have heard the talk he gave me when I was little!"
She laughed. "I'll bet. So he just shouldn't find out. What he doesn't know won't kill you." ;)
"Come on in. The water's nice."
"Seems counterproductive to want your boyfriend dead." He mumbles as he takes off his shirt and dives in. He surfaces next to her and wipes the water from his eyes. "What a way to die though."
She smiles at him. "I don't want you dead. Quite the opposite."
She gave him a quick kiss before diving under the water. A tug on his foot pulls him underwater shortly after that.
*glug*
She swam up to him, grabbed his face, and kissed him before swimming away again. As she swims away he realizes that he can breathe normally in spite of being underwater.
"All kinds of kisses today!" LK thinks happily. He reaches out, his arms stretching farther than should be possible, and tickles Arielle.
Being able to breathe underwater brought a whole new world.. and as long as he was here, he might as hear her laugh, right?
She giggled and squirmed. And then threw a very surprised carp in his face while she swam off, looking back over her shoulder to make sure he was following her.
She swam under a rock overhang that made a sort of arch, keeping just out of LK's oversized reach.
LK just smiles and lets his arms flow back into their normal shape. He "leans back" in the water and gives a thumbs up to her.
Moments later, what feels like a mass of [i]cold noses begin to tickle her sides.[/i]
She giggles again as the puppies tickle her, and swims through the arch, motioning for him to follow.
For a moment, LK is "dead in the water" as he tries to figure out if the pros(Arielle) outweigh the cons(her parents)...
He swims quickly after her.
She swims out from behind a fern-like thing and tickles him before quickly retreating and swimming behind a large coral formation.
She had created an air bubble around her and was just starting the process of giving her daughter a piece of her mind.
"What do you think you're doing, young lady? And why are your brothers going on and on about wind puppies and how LK is going to 'get them'? I thought you were supposed to be having tracking lessons."
"Ummmmm....swimming?"
"And, ummmmm.....there might have been a slight bit of a er....issue with the twins spying on us.....not that there was anything.....errrrrr...."
LK swims through the fish to the aid of his girlfriend.
"Oh come on Mrs. Jill, we were only taking a break! At least, that's what I told her. I thought she could see the forest in spite of the trees if she wasn' in a forest. Tracking underwater can be a good skill to have too you know."
"As for the twins, you know every time they try to do something to me I threaten to 'get them' so they'll run off. Don't worry though, cause when I do 'get them' I've been told they must stay in one, whole piece."
She raised an eyebrow expressively. "Interesting," she said, drily. "And perhaps you can tell me, Arielle, why it is that a girl who only gets wet when she wants to even at the bottom of a lake is swimming in her underwear?"
"I...er....well, it's just that....I ummmm...wanted to go swimming.....cause it was hot out.....and, er......it's not really any diffferent than a bikini, you know........er, ........I ummmmmm.....thought it would be more convenient.....for, er.....learning," she stuttered, blushing fiercely.
"I...er....well, it's just that....I ummmm...wanted to go swimming.....cause it was hot out.....and, er......it's not really any diffferent than a bikini, you know........er, ........I ummmmmm.....thought it would be more convenient.....for, er.....learning," she stuttered, blushing fiercely.
"Curioser and curioser. So. Which one of you would like to tell me something a little more closely related to the truth?"
"We're a couple."
LK looks back and forth between the two ladies, wondering why there is silence and why he has this sudden sense of foreboding...
"Um.."
"LK is telling you the truth. He's my boyfriend now. Not just a boy who happens to be my friend. So I may have brought him here because it's a beautiful romantic spot that my little brothers are not likely to follow us. And I know you think I'm a little young, but I'm not. I mean, maybe, if we just look at objective age sure, but you made me start out at ten years old, and sure that doesn't all count since I didn't start with a ten year old's memories and stuff, but Aiselle let me share her memories in the dreamlands so that makes up at least six years of the difference. And that does make me old enough. So, ummmmm........." her voice trailed off as she realized all of what she had just said to her mother. "So that's it," she added, more firmly. "That's the whole explanation."
[ blink, blink ]
A very smelly goblin runs through the thread. He seems to be tap-dancing. "Stupid bets...."
Arielle swam over to LK and took his hand. He could feel that hers was shaking. She bit her lip and waited to hear what her mom had to say.
"Okay....that's...." she sighed deeply. "That's a lot to take in all at once. Weren't you both just kids yesterday?" she asked plaintively.
"Yesterday might as well be a life time ago. It's not like we haven't done things other kids wouldn't even survive." LK squeezes Arielle's hand reassuringly. "Let's not make this into a Romeo&Juliet ripoff, okay?"
She snorted. "Please tell me you did not just go there. Just because I'm a bit stunned that my baby is more grown up than I thought doesn't mean I'm going to take a trip into melodrama-land. Can you really see your father going along with that? Either of your fathers?"
"Look, I'm not saying that you can't date. It takes some getting used to, but you're right. Sometimes I do forget that you're older than your actual age, Arielle. But I'm not so sure about unsupervised romantic getaways in that little clothing at this stage," she added drily.
"Your husband has already warned me, he did so quite some time ago in fact, and Arielle can tell you that I thought this swim could end up with me dead-by-parental-retaliation."
"I'm glad we can date with out the proverbial poisoned chalice in our future, but if it's the little clothing she's wearing.. I'm sure we could get her a bikini to ta.. wear. I'll even get a pair of swim trunks."
"Someday, and probably a lot sooner than I'm comfortable with, but someday you're gonna have a daughter of your own and then you'll understand exactly why Ch'ack Hammer threatened to pound you into tiny little pieces if you touched his baby girl. He's not actually going to do it. Most probably. Well, I'll have a talk with him anyway."
"And do me a favor, kid. Don't call him my husband again. He only ever married once and it wasn't me. I know that's more complicated maybe than it needs to be, but that's the way things are." She shrugged. "Love doesn't always make sense."
"Don't worry, I'll be a good boy." He says, panting with his tongue out for comedic effects.
"Cross my heart, I'll not lie, lest you stick a silver needle in my, I won't do anything that causes me to be pounded into tiny pieces."
She laughed. "I very much doubt that. Just....try to be discreet, okay? I'd hate to actually have to hurt you. It would make my daughter cry." ;)
"Mo-om," Arielle said, drawing the word out into several syllables.
"I know, I know. And I do trust you, sweetie. Which is why I'm going to give you approximately five minutes before I send your brothers in here after you. You're welcome." ;)
And with that she disappeared.