super awesome title coming...maybe never

[Ember]

You're really going to learn how to swim? There was undeniable excitement in the green's mindvoice. She loved to swim and it would only be so much better if Hers could swim with her. Nuoth had been very disappointed when Nephele had told her she couldn't swim. The green had tried to convince Hers to seek someone to help her learn but it was a weakness the girl hadn't wanted to reveal to even her closest (and only) friend, Erilena. Assuming K'sel actually does teach me, then yes that's the plan.

The girl lounged on a boulder, dressed in a really short pair of shorts and a tank top. She absolutely hated the feeling of wet clothes on her skin but she sure as heck wasn't going to go skinny dipping with K'sel around. That just invited disaster. Instead she settled for as little clothing as she thought wise. She might have under-dressed anyways. Nephele held up a vial as she listened to Nuoth contact Pettahth. She smiled slightly at her plan before resting the vial on the rock and yawning. NepheleMine is ready to meet Yours. Is he coming, Pettahth? Nuoth inquired politely, an almost apologetic tinge to her mental voice.

The better part of the day was gone and the sun was actually beginning to set. This worked best for her for two reasons. One was that fewer were likely to see her floundering about in the water. The second was that people were less likely to see her giving K'sel a massage, assuming he even accepted. Nephele flipped onto her stomach so that she could see Nuoth swimming. In truth, she was just as excited at the prospect of swimming with her dragon as the green was. The mutual spillover of that emotion through their bond made the excitement almost painful and she retreated mentally just a little bit.

Nephele was oddly devoid of a firelizard companion. Charming had a mind of his own and Diva preferred to guard her stuff from her weyr but she usually had Mother perched on her shoulder. The heat sickness that had claimed one of her flitters forced Nephele to try and keep her firelizards in her weyr with a large bowl of ice water for keeping cool. Mother obeyed as usual and Diva was happy to continue as she usually did. Charming continued to do as he pleased but he was a very intelligent flitter and so kept himself cool enough. The lack of any of them around mildly disturbed her but she always got to see them whenever she was at her weyr so it was alright. She sighed and wondered not for the first time if K'sel would actually come.

[Lotty]

Of course Nuoth. We will be there any moment if BlockheadMine hurries up. The brown was about ready to reach into K'sel's quarters of the weyr and drag the boy out, but instead had to settle on calling him "Blockhead" which was rather unusual for him. He preferred action over silly little monikers, but this seemed like the only method by which to encourage his lovely rider to get moving. It wasn't like he could grab the guy with his claws, he'd poke a whole in him, and then he wouldn't be able to float when he went to go teach Nuoth's how to swim. Hmmf. The dragon snorted as he shifted impatiently, privately to his rider he chastised him further...I do not know why you are fussing so much. You will just get wet anyway...

Eye roll. The dragon just didn't get it. This was hard, because he wasn't just going swimming. This wasn't just a trip down to the water hole with the guys, he had to spend one on one time doing something that southern boys usually did naked. Hence the issue...did he even have anything appropriate to swim in? Should he shave? Maybe he should at least wash up from drills... She's waiting on you... He took to tearing through his clothes... pants...pants...pants...boots....pants....ah-ha! He finally pulled something out, though he wasn't even sure he had worn these since he was fifteen....look there was even a calico patch in the light linen shorts where his mother so lovingly mended them. Ugh. They would have to do.

Throwing on one of his many white shirts for the ride down, and a pair of sandals - another item he didn't realize he even owned, he must have taken them from his brother - he finally mounted his perpetually irked dragon and they made their way down to the river. K'sel wasn't sure what Pettahth's big rush was, if you asked him, he figured that the brown had forgotten that he was ignoring the "silly green" and that he was just excited to see her. The brown protested. It was rude of you to take up their time like that... Uh-huh, I'm sure they are all torn up over five minutes...

Angling in for a landing, Pettahth was careful not to throw up too much dust and sand, and trilled a nice greeting to Nuoth as his rider slid down off of his side. Ta-da! He was here, get excited! K'sel took some very easy steps over to his "student", though he wasn't exactly sure how much she would learn from him. Wasn't swimming a natural thing? He didn't ever remember needing to be taught it, but he sure as shards was going to try and teach Nephele because...well her drowning wasn't on his list of things to do today. Coming up beside her he took a look at her wardrobe. Is that what she was going to wear into the water? Opening his mouth he stopped himself. He wasn't going to argue with her about it, though why she would be so modest with him when she seemed to unabashedly flirt with everyone else he didn't know. He pursed his lips together into a frown at the thought before re-routing his thinking, "Are you ready to do this?" He began kicking off his sandals.

[Ember]

The blockhead title amused the green but she didn't say so. Plenty of dragons were of the mindset that only they could insult their riders. She ducked below the surface of the water and actually sunk her claws into bottom of the river to anchor herself. It only worked for a few seconds and she regretfully had to start swimming in order to to stay underneath the surface. The green was glad that dragons could hold their breath for much longer than humans. It was quite pretty under the water.

The green pushed off the bottom and resurfaced, Hers watching fondly from the shore. Nuoth watched Pettahth fly and she headed for the shore. Nephele turned over on the rock and sat up as the small brown landed. As K'sel approached and he saw what she was wearing he looked like he was about to say something...then didn't. She tilted her head slightly, curious about whatever he had intended to say. Then he frowned and it just drove her even more mad. Worse than a woman with unsaid things (nevermind that he was normally not so closed mouthed).

Nephele looked over what he was wearing and smirked slightly. Whatever his judgment on her apparel no longer mattered after that. Was that a patch on his shorts? Funny. She partially slid and partially jumped off the rock (leaving the vial mostly out of sight) and nodded. "I suppose so," she said, though the tone lacked confidence. It wasn't necessarily that she didn't have confidence in K'sel...it was that the inability to swim had led to a bit of a fear of water she couldn't stand in. She motioned towards the water and allowed him to lead her.

[Lotty]

Pettahth was thrilled to be able to visit with Nuoth, even if he was unwilling to admit it to his rider or to even to the green. He was still hesitant around her, as if he had done something to her so long ago that had taken him out of her favor. The brown was unwilling to admit that losing a flight didn't mean that he was a complete failure in her eyes, and now he was left continually torn between being bitter and mean - which would have been his rider's method - or just trying to do better and endear himself. It seemed logical to try both, and he was going to start off with being nice. He padded over towards her in an attempt to meet her halfway since she did have to get out of the water. Hello Nuoth...will we be swimming too today? He flicked his tail expectantly.

As for K'sel...he was a little busy with his own girl problems. What was she smirking about? He looked down at his shorts...nothing to see there...he leaned briefly to one side in an attempt to hide the patch, though the stance couldn't last too long. They had to make their way down to the water. This lesson would do no good if they stood around on the beach making small talk the whole time. Uncrossing his arms his cocked his eyebrow at the tone of her voice. It did not go unnoticed, "You suppose? It's not going to bite you..." well there might be some kind of river dweller that does but...what she doesn't know won't hurt her, "I'm not going to let anything happen to you..." he had no idea why he felt compelled to tack that little bit on, but it was too late, he had let her know he cared at least that much.

He uncrossed his arms and took his shirt off without hesitation. What? It wasn't like he could honestly be expected to swim fully clothed...he was being polite enough in keeping those shorts on. Tossing the shirt over to where his foot wear lay, he stretched a moment to loosen up a few taught muscles before turning back to the girl and offering his hand. Such a gentleman. Besides, he suspected she needed that kind of support if he was going to get her into any kind of water that was deeper that she was tall. Which reminded him, he probably needed to know how much it was that she knew. No point wasting breath on the obvious facts she would probably ignore, "So, before we jump in...what do you know? Can you like wade? Or float?"

[Ember]

Nuoth let out a quiet croon for the brown. For all there had been a breach in their friendship (the green was still convinced she'd caused it but didn't remember) she still liked the brown better than most other dragons. Him and Feyrianth. They were her friends and her favourites. She tentitively got closer than she normally did with others but she still didn't touch him. She considered her immediate response to his question but easily discarded it. It sounded too much like she didn't have a mind of her own. Instead she settled for, Greetings Pettahth. I would like to go swimming, but if you have another activity you would prefer I would like to hear it.

Nephele found she couldn't keep eye contact with K'sel when he noticed her uncertainty. Bugger. Her eyes slid away from his and she shrugged. At his last comment she glanced at him and smiled slightly. To cover up the actually happiness she felt - aww, he cared? - she said, "You better not. If I drown, I'm going to come back and haunt your ass." The tone was far from threatening. If anything it was amusement over some nervousness. She watched idly as he removed his shirt though she glanced away when it came over his head. No need to seem like she was looking him over or anything.

She looked at the offered hand blankly for a moment. She wondered vaguely if it was pity that drove him to help her and she wanted very much to reject his hand. Instead she reasoned that even if it was pity he was helping her and she took his hand. "I think everyone knows how to wade, K'sel," she replied dryly. "And floating can't be all that hard?" It was a question, too. It didn't seem very hard but who knew. She was hoping the brownrider did or else she'd be screwed. And not in the good way.

[Lotty]

Pettahth cocked his head. Something he wanted to do? It is getting too late to lay out and sun... he noted with some remorse. Not that it was any more fun than swimming, he just liked knowing that he had all of the options out there and on the table. As it was though he would deal, and lacking any other options, he insisted that they go into the water. It might be dark soon anyway, and he needed to keep track of his rider, I think swimming is the best idea. It is after all, nice to swim at the end of the day. Hard work meant big rewards right?

He stifled a laugh at the thought of Nephele haunting him, though he wouldn't really put it past her, she seemed the type to try and make him miserable for as long as possible. K'sel could have rolled his eyes at the girl, but he was much too distracted by the fact that she actually took his hand. He wondered how long that would last though, considering his past track record. Any second she was bound to cast away his hand and that would be that... That wouldn't prevent him from savoring the moment though, how often was it that he even had small little victories?

He decided to tug her along, lightly, to the shallows of the river, while mulling over the answers to his questions. This time he couldn't hold back the laughter. Softly it came, more of a chuckle really, as he responded, "No Neph, it really isn't...." he glanced around, "Do you need me to show you?" It was strange the way he said it. He wanted it to be a smart mouthed challenge to the girl, but it didn't come out quite that way. It was almost sweet. Almost. With the way his voice lilted at the end it certainly seemed that way, but there was still a playfulness in his facial expression that alluded back to his more wily temperament.

[Ember]

Nuoth, as most dragons, enjoyed sunning as well. She glanced towards the sky and agreed with Pettahth's assessment. Too late. She was more happy to go swimming though. Especially if Pettahth's did not keep an eye on Hers. It wasn't that she distrusted the man. It was just that some of Hers' concern was causing her to be on slight alert. Out of politeness she responded, Yes, it is quite nice. She headed back into the water, careful to avoid the two humans. She fluttered her wings as the water rose over her legs and she let out a airy breath that sounded much like a pleased sigh.

Nephele let K'sel draw her towards the river. At his chuckle and response she looked at him. Funny, was she? The offer was considered but she just shrugged. "If you tell me what to do I'm sure I'll be able to do it." It was then that she noticed that he kept calling her Neph. Actually, she wasn't sure she'd heard him say her full name for quite a while. It didn't annoy her but it did make her curious. Nicknames generally indicated friendliness. She let it go without comment as she stepped into the water.

In the shallows she was fine. Really, as long as her shoulders were above the water she wasn't afraid. She felt the muddy and rocky bottom with her bare feet idly. Then, feeling the need to reveal something she said, "If you do well I'll repay you." Her tone and accompanying grin were just sensual enough to hint at something. It wasn't what she had in mind but she might as well tease him at the same time.

[Lotty]

Pettahth followed Nuoth into the water, though admittedly with far less in the way of grace. He really tried not to make even a splash though, but physics just wasn't working with him, and a little wake rippled through the still of the river shallows. Giving up on trying to be subtle and delicate like the green he was swimming with, he flopped in the water with a content little croon and basked in the coolness of it all. He hoped that his rider was having as much fun, even though he was a jerk, he deserved to have a good time as well and gave K'sel a reassuring feeling his way. His was a good teacher and he mentioned this idly to Nuoth, he needed to make conversation somehow, Mine is a good teacher. I saw him once teaching one to dance....hmmm I'm not sure that I should have mentioned that...

K'sel was blissfully unaware of what his dragon was talking about though, but it would have bothered him really. He didn't like to bragged about for one because that set up expectations for him and secondly the subject matter was just not one he was fond of. He didn't particularly want to talk about dancing or harpering or anything of the sort. Stubborn he was...but it was all moot. He was too busy coaching a girl how to float, and despite her insistence that she could figure it all out from words alone, he was going to show her. He didn't know any other way...and just as he was about to open his mouth she just had to go and raise the stakes. Repayment? Shards.

Now he had to try even harder...."So what you are going to do is just sort of push off the bottom and arch your back so that..." and as he spoke he did the actions exactly as described, "you are sort of reclining on the water. It helps to keep your arms and legs out..." he began to sink as he finished the sentence and paused to take a deep breath, "it helps to keep your lungs full. So yeah, you can just do this all day if you wanted..." assuming she didn't try and paddle out to where the current would sweep her off, but he assumed that she would be smart enough to know that. Then he twisted around onto his stomach to swim back to where he was, "And that is that..."

[Ember]

Nuoth watched Pettahth enter the water and crooned quietly. She moved out a little farther and lowered her head to peer through the surface to try and spot any fish. She caught sight of a couple under the rippling surface before looking at her brown companion when he mentioned His was a good teacher. She paused to think of a proper response and she rumbled quietly with amusement. I shall not let on that you told me, she told him. Except to Hers. Entirely truthful and honest to her rider she was.

Nephele smirked as K'sel proceeded to show her how to float despite her telling him she could manage without. Was he trying harder because she had promised something in return, or was he just being typical stubborn K'sel? The girl found it hard to tell so she just focused on his lesson. By the end of his explanation she nodded and went ahead to try it. It looked quite simple in the end. She turned her back to the other side of the river and lowered herself to the water in order to emulate his example. She was ultimately succesful, though it took her a moment to be willing to let the air out of her lungs so that she could take another breath.

"Tada." She tried for a dry tone but it came out a little more wonder-struck. She couldn't quite believe she was actually swimming...floating. Either way, she was actually in the water with the intention of going out further than she could stand and not drowning. It was an interesting concept to her and she let it sink in as she continued to float. She felt Nuoth's pride in her radiating through their bond and she smiled. It was likely not a smile K'sel had ever seen. It was rare for her to forget to cover up her smile. Erilena had seen it, and Nuoth of course...and she'd briefly flashed the smile at Yoalla before she impressed a wher. Beyond that...no one else had seen it. Happy Neph was happy.

[Lotty]

Pettahth's eyes whirled happily with the same blues and greens of the river. Sooooo happy he was that the green was going to keep his secret. Not that he didn't trust her to use better judgement and not tell anyway... But that was all beyond the point! They were supposed to be swimming and not worrying so much about about their peoples. He watched the green duck her head under the water. Not what was interesting down there? He decided to take a good look too, only he didn't know he was supposed to be looking at the fishies and instead saw algae covered rocks. Those were pretty cool! He popped his head back up and opened his mouth revealing what he scooped up. Look at what I found.....kind of icky though.

"Hey not bad!" he said rather cheerily. His inner K'sel was pouting and angry at him though...since when did he sound so...so ridiculous? Yuck. He just didn't know how he felt about this whole happy thing, but the truth was that he really didn't have anything menacing to say to the girl. There were no foul words to throw around or any reason to be his usual grumpy self, and as such he could only be nice and sincerely excited for the girl. This was something he would just have to grow used to he supposed. After all, it seemed like Nephele was in a good mood too. Was that a genuine smile coming from the girl? Hmmmm he never thought he would see the day, and he had to stop himself from teasing her for it.

He stepped back deeper into the water though he was loathe to be too far away from her. It was ok. He had a plan after all, he was going to demonstrate a little bit of actual swimming now. Cue a little segue, "So whenever you get tried you know...you can just relax like that. It's good if you might be stranded in like the Sea of Azov and waiting to be saved, but why that would ever happen I have no idea," clearly because K'sel himself would be there to save her right? Hah. Anyway, "So if you flip over onto your stomach...and keep a float mind you...then you can just reach one hand out in front of the other while kicking your legs..." this time he didn't do a demo. For whatever he felt like this was more self explanatory than floating. Oh well. He back away from her some more putting a good distance between them, "And you can try swimming out to me..."

[Ember]

Nuoth was aware of the brown peering into the water as well but she didn't comment. Instead she watched him curiously until he showed her what he'd gotten. She crooned with interest and a slight bit of amusement. Looks icky, she agreed as she swam closer to him for a better look. She'd seen it before of course but she'd never paid much attention to the algae. She liked to watch the living things more. Although the algae was likely to be living too if it was anything like the land plants. Hers had told her that plants lived too.

Comfortable as she was with floating it still wasn't what she'd come here for so she listened to K'sel as he explained the next step and she tried to picture it in her mind. It sounded suspiciously like flailing. She turned just enough to see where K'sel was and nearly yelled at him. What was he doing so far away for! She flipped over onto her stomach anyways and when she didn't immediately sink she began to try and swim towards him, carefully keeping her face out of the water.

It felt like flailing. Nephele ignored that fact though as she was moving and that was good enough for the moment. She wasn't sinking like a rock so it was already quite a vast improvement (Not that she actually knew she sank like a rock since she'd never bothered to try it. She wasn't suicidal.). Kick, kick. Flail, flail. It felt like forever. When was she actually going to get to K'sel? Or maybe she'd just slowly sink...Who knew.

[Lotty]

The rocks were starting to get a little gross admittedly...even for a creature who chewed stone to make fire. Convinced and pleased that his friend had taken a good look at his prizes he gave her one last option, Do you want one Nuoth? Wait... He dropped the old ones down into the water so that they splattered water all around before ducking his head under again and pulling up a new batch. Clearly these were somehow better. Probably because they were fresh, and at least a few of them had a rusty orange fuzz spreading across the surface along with that odd spongey green. He pushed his mouthful of offerings forward. Of course he wouldn't be too offended if she didn't take one. It would be HER loss.

Don't laugh at Nephele...don't laugh at Nephele...don't laugh at Nephele... It was his mantra. It was the only thing keeping him from very immaturely cracking up right then and there. The thing was, even if he did, there was no way for her to retaliate. She was stuck in water and her only escape was help from him. Still, for the sake of redeeming that reward, he had to keep it together, and he only cringed and twisted his face in humor when her face was turned away and couldn't see. A conveniently placed hand did the trick for the rest of the time.

Even though it was a half doggy paddle, half breast stroke hybrid he still had to give her credit for trying and succeeding. They could work on the finer points later, maybe spread it out into a couple of lessons...until then he was going to cheat a little and speed the process up a bit. Wading in small steps he closed the gap between them little by little until..."Oh hey there..." He reached out his hand to stop her, "you made it. Congrats." He tried not to act too excited for her considering his random moment of mirth only moments ago. He couldn't let his happier emotions get out of hand.

[Ember]

((Whee, timeskip.))

Nephele wandered out of the water, squeezing the ends of her short hair to get some of the water out. She didn't mind water but she wasn't too fond of dripping everywhere. Drying out her hair was a habit born from wanting a clean, dry weyr. The few guests she did entertain wouldn't appreciate a messy place anymore than she did. The gross factor of some weyrs had driven her out before and she began to offer her weyr as an alternative. She wandered over to the rock from earlier and snatched up the bottle of oil before turning to K'sel.

"Well, you kept up your end of the bargain, so I'm willing to repay the favour," she told him, slipping on a mask of sweetness. "I've been told I'm pretty good at giving massages." No need to mention who told her that or how she learned. The act slipped a little as she looked down at her bare toes as she dug in the sand with her feet. "It's up to you if you want your reward or not. I'm sure there are plenty of others who would be more than willing to let me practice my skills," she added, throwing in a slightly flirtatious smile.

Nuoth had come out of the water sooner than Hers had, algaea covered rock in tow. Gifts from friends were never turned down, no matter how strange they seemed. The green had tentatively curled up next to Pettahth and actually fallen asleep with her rock protected under a large forepaw. It was a testament to how comfortable she was with the brown that she would actually curl up next to him, nevermind sleep next to him.

[Lotty]

He trudged out of the water not far behind Nephele, only instead of wringing his hair out quite like her, a quick shake of his head sufficed. It was his shorts that were annoying him. The cloth did a little too good of a job soaking up water and it felt like it was sticking to his skin, and when it wasn't doing that they felt soooo heavy like they were going to fall right off of those thin hips that were barely keeping them up as is. Busy with pulling them up every few moments, and trying to squeeze out excess water from the pockets, he missed it as the girl snatched up the bottle of oil. Only at the sound of her voice was attention reclaimed.

"Hmmmm..." Oh his reward. He had...well admittedly he had forgotten about the reward when his focus had shifted to actually making sure Nephele didn't drown, that wasn't to say he was against receiving one, and well....what kind of guy would reject a massage. K'sel would probably take one from another man if offered because the fact was that he was comfortable enough in his skin and his muscles hurt. He did have a long day of drills before coming out here after all. But, he cautioned himself...he couldn't seem too eager, and so he suavely placed a hand on his hip as he replied smoothly, "Uhhmmmmmm..."

Yeah ok, not so smooth. Lets try this again, "Where do you want me to go? I mean should I lay down or something?" He was at a loss for what to really say since he honestly wasn't expecting this. Not that he was going to complain or anything...yes, the idea of him not complaining was strange, but then again it might have been all the warm and fuzzy run off from his little brown dragon.

Pettahth was so delighted! He couldn't be happier to have Nuoth accept his gift, and even more importantly, she was cherishing it. He could tell that much, but that wasn't all...she was sleeping right next to him. So proud he was that he quietly mentioned it to his bonded K'sel....K'selmine. Look! Nuoth-friend is being so kind with me. I do believe this may mean that Hers will be so with you too. Maybe you will curl up together soon? I hope so. I highly recommend it. It is very snuggy. The rider might not answer with words, but he was reassured with a gentle touch of the mind anyway. That was encouragement enough for the dragon to drape a sandy colored wing over the green. Hopefully she wouldn't mind too much....

[Ember]

Nephele hid a grin at K'sel's reaction. Was he feeling awkward at all? If he was he was more proper than he let on, or what Erilena said was true. It wasn't worth dwelling on though. There was no way she knew how to find out without outright asking him...and she wasn't willing to do that. "Yeah, just lay down. On your stomach." Right, 'cause that really needed clarifying. "You could lay on the sand or on the rocks, up to you really." She preferred sand to rocks but she wasn't the one who would be laying on either.

She stifled a yawn and glanced at Nuoth. Silly green sleeping when Pettahth was around. The green was partial to the brown but falling asleep next to him? Oh well, at least she was happy. Nephele approached K'sel at his chosen place and shook the bottle slightly so the oil could be heard sloshing around. "I have some oil too, if you're interested. It's spice scented. I saw it when I was buying oil for my firelizards and thought it might come in handy some day." She wasn't sure why she felt she had to explain why she had it. It wasn't really important.

The green stirred slightly as the wing was placed over her. She woke up and took a moment to look around. My apologies, Pettahth. I did not mean to fall asleep. I hope you are not offended? The green fully realized how rude it was that she had fallen asleep on him. She hadn't meant to. It seems I was more tired than I thought, she added more apologetically.