HOME | DD

Description
“Any good Undyre is as elegant in the water as she is on land.”

It’s decades ago, then, now, and Pith is six years old. She’s had her first bead affixed to her tail, and she’s still getting used to the weight of it. It’s not the heavy, decorative bead she would come to wear in her adulthood, now, later, but a carefully carved wooden bouy. Light. Balanced. Painted white and yellow and pink to match her fur. Perfect for swimming with..

The sun beats down on both of them- she, treading water already, in strong, practiced kicks, Her mother, standing in gently lapping waves up to her waist, scanning the horizon. It’s hot, and the water is warm, but only at the surface.

She’s been diving since before she can remember walking, her infant lungs as used to stopping as they were to breathing, strapped to her mother’s chest as she practiced, or clinging to the ring of her mother’s bead as she tugged her through the water like a toy boat on a string. Her mother is ethereal when she swims, fast as any eel and elegant as any twisting strand of kelp in the tide, and she can dive deeper than anyone ever has before.

It wasn’t Pith’s innate, childish faith in the omnipotence of her parents that said so. It was a bevy of officiators, a line of pencil-pushers and number-counters who declared as much at the boring competitions held every summer. Last year, she broke her second record. But her mother wouldn’t be competing this year. Rather than risk her as yet unborn son with the pressure of deep waters, she has opted to teach her daughter to follow in her wake.

“You’ll have to swim on your own now. You can’t cling to me forever, you’re a big girl.”

“What if I drown?”

Her mother’s face had grown tight, and ugly in a way it almost never was, as if Pith had asked another awkward and embarrassing question in front of important people. It was an expression she knew well, but it only ever lasted a moment.

“We don’t drown. We were made for the sea- only an idiot drowns. You understand?”

She thought she did. Years later, she would read the statistics- undyre drowned almost every other day, dragged under as much by arrogance as by accident. But then, convinced still that her parents knew everything in the world, and would never lie, she’d nodded, chin splashing in the water. Her mother smiled.

“Good. My daughter is not going to drown like an idiot, right?”

She shook her head. There was more splashing.

“That’s my girl. Now shut your mouth, shut your ears, and follow Mama.”

In truth, her mother wasn’t much of a teacher. Not in terms of answering questions or explaining her thoughts. She learned and taught by doing, and expected her daughter to follow suite. “Sink or swim methods,” her father called it.

Splendid vanished into the water, more elegant in the suspended gravity than she ever could be on land. Pith shut her mouth, and her ears, and dove after her.

===========

In tandem with Hours-Fast and Minutes-Long

Focus Character’s Reg Sheet: Pith
Guest Characters Reg Sheet(s): N/A
Your Curio’s Guild: Hunter
Prompt: 1/4 - Write or draw your character getting into a nightmare situation and using their training to get out.
EXP Payout: Shaded Fullbody: 6EXP + Simple Background: 4EXP + 524w Story: 2EXP = 12EXP

Description
“Any good Undyre is as elegant in the water as she is on land.”

It’s decades ago, then, now, and Pith is six years old. She’s had her first bead affixed to her tail, and she’s still getting used to the weight of it. It’s not the heavy, decorative bead she would come to wear in her adulthood, now, later, but a carefully carved wooden bouy. Light. Balanced. Painted white and yellow and pink to match her fur. Perfect for swimming with..

The sun beats down on both of them- she, treading water already, in strong, practiced kicks, Her mother, standing in gently lapping waves up to her waist, scanning the horizon. It’s hot, and the water is warm, but only at the surface.

She’s been diving since before she can remember walking, her infant lungs as used to stopping as they were to breathing, strapped to her mother’s chest as she practiced, or clinging to the ring of her mother’s bead as she tugged her through the water like a toy boat on a string. Her mother is ethereal when she swims, fast as any eel and elegant as any twisting strand of kelp in the tide, and she can dive deeper than anyone ever has before.

It wasn’t Pith’s innate, childish faith in the omnipotence of her parents that said so. It was a bevy of officiators, a line of pencil-pushers and number-counters who declared as much at the boring competitions held every summer. Last year, she broke her second record. But her mother wouldn’t be competing this year. Rather than risk her as yet unborn son with the pressure of deep waters, she has opted to teach her daughter to follow in her wake.

“You’ll have to swim on your own now. You can’t cling to me forever, you’re a big girl.”

“What if I drown?”

Her mother’s face had grown tight, and ugly in a way it almost never was, as if Pith had asked another awkward and embarrassing question in front of important people. It was an expression she knew well, but it only ever lasted a moment.

“We don’t drown. We were made for the sea- only an idiot drowns. You understand?”

She thought she did. Years later, she would read the statistics- undyre drowned almost every other day, dragged under as much by arrogance as by accident. But then, convinced still that her parents knew everything in the world, and would never lie, she’d nodded, chin splashing in the water. Her mother smiled.

“Good. My daughter is not going to drown like an idiot, right?”

She shook her head. There was more splashing.

“That’s my girl. Now shut your mouth, shut your ears, and follow Mama.”

In truth, her mother wasn’t much of a teacher. Not in terms of answering questions or explaining her thoughts. She learned and taught by doing, and expected her daughter to follow suite. “Sink or swim methods,” her father called it.

Splendid vanished into the water, more elegant in the suspended gravity than she ever could be on land. Pith shut her mouth, and her ears, and dove after her.

===========

In tandem with Hours-Fast and Minutes-Long

Focus Character’s Reg Sheet: Pith
Guest Characters Reg Sheet(s): N/A
Your Curio’s Guild: Hunter
Prompt: 1/4 - Write or draw your character getting into a nightmare situation and using their training to get out.
EXP Payout: Shaded Fullbody: 6EXP + Simple Background: 4EXP + 524w Story: 2EXP = 12EXP