in over my head

Sohalia

As the skyship came to a halt, Sohalia smiled brightly at her friend. "Thank you for the ride," she said shyly. "It helped a lot. I hardly even realized we were on a skyship, after a while. You were right - the Peregrine is a wonderful ship," she added, hoping that complimenting Tal's ship would bring a smile to the courier's face. She led the way down the ladder, grateful for her friend's thoughtfulness. She would, indeed, have been uncomfortable with him standing below her as she descended the ladder.

Fortunately, Sohalia had - at least partially - considered her attire when she had set out for the Symphony that morning. She wasn't one for pants, generally, being more comfortable in her familiar dresses. However, swimming in skirts - as she had learned that day with Auden - was a recipe for disaster. As a result, she had packed a small bag with some basic necessities and carried it with her for their adventures today.

She held up the bag. "I just need to change - swimming is easier without skirts." Luckily, the Greatwood had enough foliage that she could step into some bushes to shimmy her pants on beneath her dress, pull the garment over her head, and don a loose shirt without anyone nearby being the wiser. When she emerged, it was with her dress folded neatly over her arm, her shoes in one hand, and a faint blush on her cheeks. There was something about being in pants that made her feel exposed.

Still, her friend was counting on her, and she'd never let a little nervousness stop her before. "We just need to find the right spot," she told Tal as she set her bag, her clothes, and her shoes atop a nearby rock. "Somewhere shallow, that's out of the main current. I think there's a nice spot a little up that way," she added, pointing to where she'd been when Tal had first arrived earlier that day. "If you don't mind a short walk?"

it's just a spark, but it's enough to keep me going

There was no greater compliment the courier could receive, and his smile straightened out as he beamed in pleasure at her words. He mumbled something self-conscious and perhaps just a little bashful - though he'd never admit to it - and tried not to notice how hot his ears felt as he patted the ship's wheel fondly.

Disembarking didn't take long at all, and soon they were both safely on the ground and Boreal was circling overhead while the irate raven tried to surf on her back. Tal blinked in surprise at the change of clothes, but nodded in sheepish understanding and went a little ways in the other direction to intently study a Very Interesting™ mushroom until he heard Soh's voice again.

He rejoined her as she explained what they needed, and he nodded easily in agreement. "Sure! I can just swim in my britches, right? Or, uh... I can keep m'shirt on, too, if you'd rather," he added awkwardly as he fell in beside her, letting Soh lead the way. "I don't s'pose there's any trick t'keep from drownin' if my head goes underwater again, is there?"

Sohalia

Boreal's antics drew a laugh from Sohalia, and she gazed up at the dragon fondly, shielding her eyes from the sun's glare with one hand. On the one hand, she felt bad for the raven, who'd surely been minding its own business before Boreal intruded on its day. On the other, she knew enough about birds to know that the raven could take care of itself, and, were it able to talk, would likely thank her very much to remember exactly that.

As she emerged from the brush, Sohalia clasped her hands behind her back self-consciously, unsure what to do with herself without her skirts to hide behind. She settled on shoving her hands in her pockets as she led the way upstream, where a small bow of water broke away from the main river. The water was shallow there, with hardly any current to speak of. It would do well for a swimming lesson.

"Oh, however you're most comfortable is fine," she said as she led the way along the bank, though her cheeks heated slightly in spite of herself to think of someone disrobing in her presence. "As far as not drowning goes, I wasn't planning to go into deeper water until you're more comfortable, but, well, holding your breath is a good place to start. Aside from that, what I wanted to start with is just... floating, actually. Most people will float, you know. We don't naturally sink." The young woman continued to chatter nervously as she stopped near the water. She'd never given a swimming lesson before, and with the stakes so high, she was afraid to do something wrong. After all, drowning was, as far as she knew, irreversible.

"But first, just come into the water with me, and let me know how deep you can go before you're uncomfortable." He could only go so far, after all. The water here would only come up to Sohalia's chest when she was at the deepest point, and Tal was taller than her.

Maybe he wouldn't drown.

it's just a spark, but it's enough to keep me going

Tal eyed the water dubiously, clearly not trusting it - but choosing to trust Soh and her expertise in the art of not drowning swimming instead. "Speak for yourself," he mumbled morosely at her claim that most people didn't sink. True, he'd been wearing armor made of magic stone on the previous occasion...

With a heavy sigh he began to shrug out of his shirt, revealing an armored vest beneath that glinted with crystalline inclusions. The shirt was carefully folded, neat and efficiently, and then he shrugged out of the vest and laid it atop the shirt so it didn't get blown away. His light brown skin was marred by two old, large scars across his ribs on his right side, and his body was lean whipcord and hard muscle, far skinnier without his clothes to bulk him out.

He rubbed his arms, a shiver stealing over him that had nothing to do with the cold - indeed, his wrist cuff remained in place - as he eyed the water and then Sohalia, suddenly too nervous to be shy in front of her. "Um." He shuffled forward, stepping into the chilly river until the water reached his knees before he paused.

His nose wrinkled fiercely in a scowl down at the crystal-clear shallows and he stole a surreptitious glance at where Soh stood waiting. He clearly wanted to stop where he was, but the thought of his frenemy Sah laughing at him was enough to spur him onwards, one painfully slow, shuffled inch at a time until he stood beside his friend, tense as a cat in a violin factory. "Right. Well. I'm, uh. Pretty uncomfortable now," he admitted gruffly, doing his best to keep a brave face on. "Now what?"

Sohalia

While Tal was too nervous to be shy, Sohalia's nerves made her, if anything, more so. As Tal shrugged out of his shirt and then out of an armored vest, Sohalia averted her gaze, her cheeks faintly pink. Instead of staring at Tal, she gazed at the vest instead. It was an interesting creation; she had never seen anything quite like it. Armored and flecked in black and white, she tilted her head to one side as she considered its use. Clearly there was more to her friend than met the eye.

In any case, if Sohalia had truly understood Tal's fear of the water, she would have been touched by his faith in her. As it were, she waded slowly in to her waist and paused, turning to wait patiently for Tal. She couldn't avoid looking at him forever, though, and so she forced herself to watch as he waded in, pausing briefly when the water met his knees before pressing on. It took a moment for Tal to reach her side, and her cheeks and ears burned all the while. When he finally stood beside her, Sohalia thought she might die of embarrassment. Here she was trying to teach Tal to swim, and all she could think about was that he was half-naked!

"Um," she said, flustered. "Well, I thought I could, um, help you - float?" Did her voice sound higher than normal? She cleared her throat. Get it together! she told herself sternly, and when she spoke again, she sounded somewhat more normal. "Here, let me show you." She lowered herself in the water, biting back a huff of breath at the sudden chill. She leaned back, floating easily at the surface.

After a moment, she righted herself and stood. Her clothes, now soaking wet, clung to her petite frame, and her hair fell messily down her back, dripping as she rose from the water. "That's the end goal, anyway. I'll help support you, but you'll have to trust me. I won't let you drown," she promised, meeting his gaze squarely. In that, at least, she was confident - despite her nerves and her shyness, Tal would be safe with her.

"Let's start by just getting you in the water all the way," she suggested. "And take your time. There's no rush." With that, she lowered herself back into the water, essentially kneeling on the bottom of the river. The water lapped at her throat as she looked up at Tal patiently.

it's just a spark, but it's enough to keep me going

Poor Soh was flushed from the cold water, Tal could tell. Her cheeks were as red as if a Deepfrost wind had kissed them and he felt a pang of guilt for the protection his Cuff offered from the chilly river. He tried to focus on that as he waded in, instead of on the way the water rose about his knees and then his thighs and then his waist. He was on the verge of offering it to her when she mentioned floating and he caught his breath uncertainly.

Take his feet off the bottom? Willingly? He watched as she demonstrated and as she stood back up - looking particularly fetching with how her clothes clung--

He shook his head sharply to focus on the terrorlesson at hand, sternly reminding himself that she was quite a bit younger than he was. Though he was going to have to trust her, as she said, and hope that she was strong enough to drag him back to the surface if it came down to it.

But the water was shallow here, and he could still touch the bottom and Soh clearly knew what she was doing. "Right. Into the water. All the way." His echo held a great deal more uncertainty and Soh wasn't the only one whose voice was a little higher than usual. He took a deep breath and forced his knees to bend, feeling the water lap over his hard stomach and then across his chest while his body quivered, tense as strung wire. He drew in a sharp breath, his knees buckling at last and pitching him down the last few inches to kneel with his friend while the water swirled hungrily around his throat. "An' y'want me t'just... lay back?" he checked, voice somewhere between a manly quaver and a mousy squeak.

He bit his lip fiercely and summoned his courage - along with a big breath of air, just in case - and tried to emulate what Soh had done, though his own body was stiffly uncoordinated and his hips immediately started to sink in the saltless water.

Sohalia

The water was cold, but not unbearably so. It actually felt quite nice to Sohalia, whose nerves and embarrassment had left more than her cheeks burning. Unfortunately, all she had to do while she waited for Tal to lower himself into the water was watch him, and watching him kept her cheeks flushed with heat. Focus, Sohalia told herself sternly. He's your friend.

The lesson itself was at a standstill until Tal - somewhat unwillingly - bent his knees and let the water rise to his neck. With him all the way in the water, it was easier for Sohalia to keep her mind on the lesson, and she felt a wave of relief. "You're doing great," she told him encouragingly. "Just remember that you can still touch the bottom. If you get nervous at all, just stand up."

When Tal tried to copy what Sohalia had done, she had to give him credit for trying. Unfortunately, he was far too tense, and immediately began to sink. She'd been planning to work slowly toward this rather than throwing him in the deep end, and she'd also been planning to ask permission before she touched him. As it was, rather than let him sink and make his fears worse, the young woman reached out almost instinctively to place her hands on his back.

With one hand gently between his shoulder blades and the other more firmly on his lower back to lift his hips higher in the water, Sohalia swallowed hard at the skin-on-skin contact. "You're going to have to relax," she told him gently. She could feel the tension in his body, and floating was never going to work that way! He'd have to get more comfortable moving in the water before he could learn to float at all, let alone swim. "Take a few deep breaths. I promise I won't let you go under."

it's just a spark, but it's enough to keep me going

Her encouragement was nice but it didn't have much effect on Tal, who was nervous enough for all of his muscles to lock up in the face of all common sense. Her reminder that he could still touch the bottom here was more effective at calming him down, enough that he was willing to try and copy her floating, though not enough to completely set him at ease. The memory of the glotter was still too fresh for him to let his guard down, and his body had not forgotten what it had felt like to be pulled under the surface and away from the air...

Luckily enough, given the situation, Tal had no qualms about being touched - especially if it prevented him from sinking further into the water! He was oblivious to Sohalia's discomfort with the contact in his current state of anxiety, and simply felt grateful for the support that stopped his descent.

"Easier said'n done," he grumbled weakly. Still, he tried to breathe, gulping air quickly at first as if to make sure that he'd have a lungful if her hands went away.

But they remained, two spots of relative warmth against his back and shoulders, and his face remained above water. It took several long minutes before his breathing began to slow and while the tension didn't entirely leave his body, enough of it eased so that he was no longer fighting the natural buoyancy of his body. "Right," he said tightly, though his muscles lay a little looser in the water. "Am I floatin' yet?"

Sohalia

Tal didn't protest as Sohalia's hands met his back, and that it seemed to be a complete nonissue for him left her more at ease. Just because she'd had limited physical contact with others throughout her life - aside from the occasional hugs from her guardian - didn't mean that touch was bad. Maybe it was even normal for people who were not her.

In any case, Sohalia calmed as she supported Tal's weight in the water, focusing again on the matter at hand. She'd always enjoyed the weightlessness that came from floating in the water, and she hoped that if Tal could relax, he would see that it wasn't so bad. She could tell that he was trying: his back muscles, which had been tight as a bowstring before, had softened somewhat under her hands. She smiled at him encouragingly. "That's it," she said in as soothing a voice as she could manage. "You're doing great."

After a few moments, Soh slowly lowered her hands so that they hovered just beneath Tal's back - close enough that she could grab him if he began to sink again, but far enough away that he'd have a chance to float on his own. She couldn't wait for him to get it right and realize that even he would float, given half a chance.

it's just a spark, but it's enough to keep me going

For all that he wasn't good with other humans, Tal had never been particularly touch-shy. Perhaps it was because of the exuberant physical affection of his dogs and dragon, or the (wo)man-handling he'd received from his sisters as a young child, being dressed up or carted around like a little living dolly. Regardless, he didn't find Sohalia's touch strange or uncomfortable - especially because it kept him from sinking!

Maybe her verbal encouragement was just trying to make him feel better, but Tal chose to believe it. Maybe he wasn't a natural a this, but he was at least still breathing air and not water, and the longer he stayed in the river without anything bad happening the easier it became to remain there.

Not easy. But... easier.

At first he didn't realize that Soh's hands had left his skin. Between the chill of the water and his preoccupation with his own fears the slow fading of the warmth where her palms had been wasn't immediately noticeable. He floated - however awkwardly - for a solid minute before he realized he had no support and then he tried to sit up in surprise--

With the predictable result that he sank straight to the bottom, butt-first, and then exploded upwards with a spluttering gasp as he tried to cough out the water that had gone up his nose.

Sohalia

As Tal remained steadily afloat, Sohalia became more comfortable. She'd been so nervous about teaching him, not truly believing that she could be of any real use - and yet, here he was, floating on his own, and starting to relax in the cool Flowerbirth water! She smiled proudly down at him, her hands still hovering below his back -

And then he tried to sit up.

Her hands slid across bare skin, skittering unhelpfully across his back as he sank in the water. Soh yelped in surprise, not having expected him to do that, and frantically reached for any part of him she could find to help him to the surface. As he surged upwards, she managed to grasp an arm and pull - for all the good it did. His coughing and spluttering left the young woman guilty. She had promised not to let him drown, after all.

"I'm so sorry!" Soh exclaimed as Tal recovered. She maintained a grip on his arm, as though afraid he would go under again if she let go. "Are you alright?"

it's just a spark, but it's enough to keep me going

He was still flailing a little as Soh caught him, but feeling his feet on solid ground beneath the chilly water helped to mitigate the panic down to a mere surge of fear and adrenaline. He coughed again and then wheezed, trying to pat her shoulder in distracted reassurance as his nose streamed river water. "Uh, hck, yeah, 'mfine," he managed to get out before he gave his chest a good couple of thumps and sneezed once. Shaking his head, he grimaced and took a deep, clear breath and then glared at the water.

"So, uh... how long was I floatin' for?" he asked with all the prickly dignity of a cat that had just missed a jump and was now grooming itself and pretending it hadn't happened. He snuck a sideways glance at his swimming instructor, a little embarrassed and a little hopeful that it had been for more than a few seconds. On the shore, Boreal watched with fond amusement, sunning herself on a large rock and not bothered at all by her companion's lack of composure.

Sohalia

Luckily, Tal seemed to recover well from his unexpected dip in the river. Sohalia relaxed as he patted her shoulder, distracted enough by her distress that she didn't have time to be uncomfortable. She peered up at him with poorly disguised worry as he sneezed and coughed and found his breath. "Oh," she said, her anguish clear on her pretty face, her hands fluttering as though unsure whether to continue to support him or let him go. "I'm sorry, I thought - you had it!"

But, perhaps predictably, Tal didn't seem to want to linger on the mistakes they'd made, and Soh lowered her arms to wring her hands, wishing she had her skirts to hide behind. "About a minute or so," she informed him, smiling in a way that didn't quite dispel her guilt. She took a deep breath. "You were doing so well. Do you... want to try again? Now that you know what to expect?"

Or perhaps it would be better to try something else. "Or, if you don't want to, we can try something different," she said. She wished she felt more confident about everything she was trying to teach him, that there weren't so many moving parts to be mindful of. She would need to show him how to use his arms, how to kick his legs, and how to hold his breath properly once he did go under. What would be most helpful to start with?

"Actually," she mused aloud. "It might be helpful for you to learn how to hold your breath when you do go under."

it's just a spark, but it's enough to keep me going

Ah... shit. Soh looked as upset as Tal felt and he grimaced as he tried to swallow his fear and discomfort and put on a brave face for his kindly friend. She was doing her best to teach him, and it wasn't her fault he was so scared of the water... and of this river in particular. He chewed his lip for a second and then reached out to tentatively pat her shoulder in return, trying to be comforting as he slowly recovered what little dignity he had.

Besides, hearing how long he'd been floating on his own cheered him up unexpectedly and he almost met her smile with one of his own, shocked into forgetting his embarrassment for a moment. "Hey, that's not bad!" He looked downright proud before she suggested trying again and his face fell. Her swift attempt to change the lesson plan up was appreciated, and her musing brought a rueful twitch of his lips as he pushed his wet hair out of his eyes.

"Yeah, let's do that," he agreed, figuring it was an easier lesson than floating. Just holding his breath? He could manage that!

Though it turned out that doing so without getting water up his nose was trickier than he expected, and willingly putting his face into the water was a challenge it took several false starts to overcome. Sohalia's patience with him was the only thing that kept him going as the afternoon wore on and they moved through the basics until he could at least thrash around and keep himself afloat with a rough doggy paddle. Even Boreal joined in eventually, showing off her own paddling prowess with smug confidence.

By the time they were ready for a break Tal was looking a little morose as he ran his fingers over the edges of the Goggles that hung around his neck when he didn't have them over his eyes, heaving a heavy sigh. "I dunno how I'm s'posed to go down an' see any critter that's really deep anytime soon, though," he admitted, a hint of frustration coloring his tone. "How can anyone hold their breath that long without magic?"