Closed Dreams of Water [Garland]

[Anibesa]

18th Winter, 517AV
"Common" | "Fratava" | "Tukant"

It was a pleasant day, as usual, and life in Syka went on as usual, even with the odd lights in the skies at night and the occasional rumbling from the jungle.
Anibesa had heard rumours of strange footprints being found in the jungle, though she hadn’t seen anything for herself. She knew that she had never ventured far into the jungle, unlike others she’d kept fairly close to the beach, keeping to areas that she could hear the sea from as a way to guide herself back to the safer areas.

But for now it was daylight and though she hated the struggles that came with being in a mortal form, she enjoyed the safety that came with the daylight.

Today she’d decided to go practice her swimming in the community pool.

As she approached it, she noticed it was quiet again, and that the mage that maintained the pools had vacated the area for a while.
She preferred to be alone when swimming. After all, most would think it odd for a ‘Svefra’ to not be a highly adept swimmer, and a few members of the camp hadn’t yet found out that she was pale, horned woman that was only seen at night.

Hurrying to the edge of the large pool, the redhead pulled her clothes off piece by piece and attempted to fold them, leaving them in more of a crumpled mess to the side of the pool, before she slowly climbed in, enjoying the feeling of the water brushing past her skin.

Even though she hadn’t much experience of swimming she enjoyed the feeling of the water moving around her and always had done.

Once she was stood in the water up to her shoulders, she took a minute to dunk her hair in the water to get it wet, before brushing it out of her face to try and keep it slicked back and out of her way.

For now she was quite content to relax in the water, rather than push herself to work and learn how to swim, so instead she recalled days with her pod, when she’d watched the children float on their backs in the sea. They always seemed to enjoy it and have fun, before starting to assault each other with splashes of water, so Anibesa thought it might be a good chance to try that.

Smiling confidently, or as confidently as she could, she leant backwards and pushed up with her feet until they were straightened, though the closer to straight her body became, the quicker and quicker she sank.

Not wanting to duck under the water again just yet, she quickly pulled her feet back down to the solid rock under the water and stood herself upright, brushing her hair out of her face again as she glanced around for only the second time today.
~

[Garland]

The air was chilly, not from the season but from the breeze coming from the sea itself, the smell reminded him a bit of the docks back in Syliras, but in truth, it smelled... fresher, as if this world wasn't stained by the problems and pollution of the world.

Garland sighed and breathed in deep, filling his lungs with the crisp sea air, he never really liked the sea before, the smell of the docks back in Syliras was overwhelming to say the least, the smell of fish, sweaty Sverfa, the drinking, and the occasional exotic cargo just made Garland's nose twitch in annoyance, but here the smell was calming, yet exhilarating even.

Garland had not seen the twins for a year when he was in Alvadas, he still expected the bubbly bumbling little babies that could barely walk, now look at them. The twins were off rushing towards the pool, giggling along, Phobos chasing little Aneka, both of them in their swimming gear, well... swimming gear is a very generous term, it seems more like their extra clothes they had packed, some was a bit ripped, but otherwise, still usable.

Garland made a mental note to see if there was some sort of seamstress here to make bigger clothes for the kiddies.

"Pappap! To dah wateh!" Aneka yelled before rushing to the lip of the pool they were heading too, Phobos following closely behind her, laughing and smiling all the way.

Garland was walking calmly to the pool, the twins already climbing in and floating, natural swimmers these two, well, maybe it was because of their Sverfa heritage or the fact that the twins were taught to swim by their grandfather.

Ilia was holding Garland's hand, while carrying a bag of the extra clothes for the twins and a few towels. Garland held Ilu Nena, a baby that should honestly not be away from his mother, but in Elin's mental state and disappearance, Garland was sure Ilu would die from neglect or some such.

"Ilia, do you want to join the twins?" Garland asked, loosening his grip on her hand a bit, but Ilia seemed to just hold on tighter. "Don't worry, I'll be right on the edge of the pool, and if I ever have to leave for something and you can't find me, stay where you are or find aunt Jade, alright love?" He said and leaning down and kissing Ilia on the cheek. "Now go have fun."

Garland sat down by the pool, looking down to the youngling in his arms. "Hello Ilu, let's sit you up on my lap so you can watch your brother and sisters play." Garland said, and booped the little girl's nose, confusing the little one before being sat up and rest on his chest.

The twins were busy swimming from one side to the other, splashing at each other and generally rough housing with each other. "Hey hey, Neeka! No rough playing in the water."

[Anibesa]

"Common" | "Fratava" | "Tukant"

Anibesa was enjoying the water when the sounds of other people coming towards the pool made her freeze for a few moments. She wasn’t fond of meeting people at the pools, especially not when she’d completely forgone her underwear and opted to swim in the nude.

Carefully she paddled her way over to the edge of the pool, placing her hands on the stone and pulling herself out of the water enough to look towards the source of the noise, only to see a man and four children, all coming towards the pools and Anibesa instantly let go of the lip of the pool, letting herself sink back into the water.

”Shyke.” she mumbled to herself dejectedly. She didn’t want company in the pools, but also didn’t want to be seen getting out of the pool naked.
The settlement seemed to be fine with nudity, though Anibesa hadn’t yet gained comfort with her own nudity yet, though now she was fine with wandering the beach in her underwear, which was something she had never expected to be able to be comfortable with after leaving her pod five years earlier.

Mumbling to herself, Anibesa lifted her legs and kicked them, slowly but surely floating and propelling herself further from the few steps into the pool and towards the other side of the pool as she heard a little girl yelling something before two very young children climbed into the pool and start swimming, and Anibesa started grumbling to herself about the kids, attempting to try to start swimming again and ignoring the arrival of the man with the other two children and Anibesa lifted her feet and ducked her head under the water, being careful not to open her mouth or inhale at all, though soon she could feel a few bubbles escape her nose and she couldn’t hold her breath any longer and she had to stand up and bring her head into the air again, the water covering to her shoulders and her wet hair sticking to her face.

She peeled the red hair from her face and then pushed it back so it was slicked back from her face and trailed down her back again, before she looked towards the two children swimming, and then towards the man and the two children, noting that none of them had noticed her, though it was likely because she was at the other end of the pool.

”Hey isn’t it dangerous for those two?” she raised her voice enough for he man to hear her without her having to get any closer to him and risk him seeing anything through the water. ”Also, you better keep them all away from my clothes, alright?” she called out again, her face showing a mix of nervousness and concern, remembering that she’d left her clothes in a heap towards the edge of the pool. She couldn’t help but imagine one of the kids dragging or pushing her clothes into the pool, whether by accident or not.
~

[Garland]

Garland let the twins splash and swim around, he was ready to give Ilu to Ilia and dive in in case the twins had any trouble swimming, of course they were pretty good swimmers, in fact they were better than him.

Aneka floated on the water, on her back and looking up the sky, seeing the blue sky up above, her blue eyes shining brightly in awe, before being splashed in the face by her brother before he swam off.

Garland looked at Ilia and then to Ilu in his arms. "Well, head on in, Ilia, watch over the two, make sure those two don't hurt each other." He said and the older girl nodded, then followed the twins in and made sure they didn't splash too hard.

Garland looked around and saw a bundle of clothes in the other side of the pool and looked around for someone else in the pool, and he saw her in the far end of the pool, a redhead, her entire body hidden under the water.

"Hey! It's the middle of the day and you're skinny dipping?" He said back and slowly lowered Ilu's tiny feet into the pool, getting them wet before he pulled her back up, it seemed like she didn't like the water as much as the twins did because as soon as he put her little feet in, she shivered and was about to start crying.

"No no no, shhh Ilu, the water's not going to hurt you." He said in a soothing voice, of course the baby was crying now and he started rocking her in his arms, humming a little tune to calm her down, a tune Elin would hum to get Ilia to sleep.

Ilu stopped her crying, sniffling and looking up. "See, feel better, dear?" Garland kissed the little girl on the cheek and returned his attention to the stranger at the end of the pool.

"Should I bring the clothes to you? Considering... you're... 'not decent' so to speak." He asked and got up from the lip of the pool and walked around to where the stranger's clothes were.

The twins saw the stranger and started swimming towards her. "Aneka, Phobos, no. No going to the deep end of the pool." Garland said and Ilia quickly grabbed the twins and pulled them back, making both of them groan in annoyance.

"Jeez... You two are a handful..." Garland said as the twins thrashed in Ilia's grip. "Ilia make sure they don't go to the deep end."

"O-okay!" Ilia said and pulled back the twins, who were still trying to break free, Aneka got a fist right up into Ilia's nose and that made Ilia drop Aneka and let the toddler go under the water.

"Aneka!" Garland called out, placing Ilu in the stranger's clothes and diving in, it was deep and Garland quickly found Aneka, and brought her above the water. The little girl coughed out some water, and rubbed her eyes. "Aneka, don't do that again!" He said and placed her on the lip of the pool.

[Anibesa]

"Common" | "Fratava" | "Tukant"

Anibesa heard the man speak to the oldest of the children, though she wasn’t of an age to be responsible, at least in Anibesa’s eyes. Then she watched the girl enter the pool and she rolled her eyes in annoyance, before she noticed the man look towards her clothes, and then towards her and the words her said sent a glare onto her face.

”Excuse me, but I’ll assume that you haven’t noticed how most people here walk around with their bits hanging out!” she responded, her words harsh and obviously displaying her annoyance. ”So if there’s any issue in me not wanting to get my clothes wet, that issue is with you! Especially considering that I was here first, boy!” she completed, her words getting more and more aggressive as she spoke before she leant back against the wall of the pool, glancing away from the group and glaring at nothing before she heard the baby start to cry and the man trying to calm it down, before she heard his next words, offering to bring her her clothes.

”Get them wet and you will regret it!” she said, turning her blue eyes to him, until she heard him address the kids and she looked to see that two of them where trying to swim towards her, the older child trying to keep them away.
She watched the girl closely as the two struggled, her eyes refusing to move off them and when she saw the little girl go underwater, she started to try and propel herself towards them.

The man got there first and pulled the little girl out of the water, but Anibesa was close to them now.
She took hold of the little boy from the older girl and held him above the water, making sure she was still covered by the water before she checked the older girl.

”Hey, are you okay? She must have hit pretty hard there.” she said to the girl, worried as to whether she’d been hurt by the fist that found its way up her nose. ”You shouldn’t be having to look after these two at your age.” she said, before glaring towards to the man and then holding the little boy out to him. ”She’s a kid too you know! You shouldn’t be relying on her to look after these two!”

As she waited for the man to take the little boy, she glared at him, before glancing around the pool and noticing that she couldn’t see the baby anywhere.
”And where did you put that baby! There are wild animals here! It’s too dangerous for these kids without someone that can look after all of them properly! And if you don’t mind, I’d like to leave you with your spawn so I can go back to some peace and quiet!” she grumbled, waiting for the boy to be taken from her so she could leave and dress herself so she could go back to her tent or to the Tidepool bar.
~

[Garland]

Garland had completely ignored the girl and took Phobos and Aneka back up the pool, he sat them on the lip of the pool. Aneka just coughed and sneezed the water out of her.

"You okay, Aneka? I told you not to rough house!" He scolded before pulling himself up and uncovering little Ilu from the clothes he bundled her up in. Of course his hand was wet and got said clothes a tiny bit wet.

Little Ilu looked at Garland and a bit of water from his hair dripped down to Ilu's nose, making her sneeze. He looked over to Phobos and Aneka and said. "Watch Ilu while I get Ilia out of the water."

"Well sorry, but I'm not sure how well one can swim while holding a toddler." Garland said and looked at the person's eyes. "Sverfa like you probably could." He said and looked over to Ilia then back to the person.

"You're right about one thing..." He helped Ilia out of the pool and looked at her face. "Does it hurt, dear?" He asked, turning her head to see if Aneka threw a few more punches. He'd have to tell little Neeka off later, he could tell she was going to be a little rebel when she grows up.

Ilia shook her head. "N-No I'm fine, she didn't hit me hard." She said with a small smile. "You're clothes are all wet!"

"Hehe, I didn't plan on going for a swim, dear." He then turned his attention back to Aneka. "And you young lady! What were you thinking! Time out for ten chimes before going back to swim. Phobos, don't follow your sister's example." He said, making Aneka gasp.

"Nononono!" Aneka yelled out and started throwing a tantrum. Ten chimes is like an eternity for a toddler.

"Oh... She's gonna be in a foul mood all day now..." He said and turned to the swimmer. "And by the way, I would like to raise my kids in a decent manner."

"Ummm... The first time you and mommy met was in a bathhouse with a lot of naked people... And you brought the twins there. Ilia said meekly.

"That's different, the twins probably don't remember, Ilia. They probably don't remember Syliras much either..." Garland just took a towel from the bag he had been carrying and covered Aneka in it. "The two of you can keep swimming if you want, but do not go to the deep end."

Garland waited for Ilia and Phobos to go back into the water before Garland turned his attention back to the swimmer. "I know she shouldn't have this much responsibility but you've never had to juggle three kids and a baby, you've heard of fathers leaving their children but both their mothers left them to me and I don't have time to be criticized on how to be a parent by someone who doesn't have any children herself." Garland chided the swimmer but didn't raise his voice.

Aneka just threw the towel back at Garland's head. "Aneka Windweaver Tristal... Do you want another ten chimes in your time out, little lady?"

"Bleh!" Aneka replied and sat down in a huff.

[Anibesa]

"Common" | "Fratava" | "Tukant"

As the man ignored her, Anibesa frowned at him as she watched what was happening. The way that he placed the two children on the lip of the pool and scolded one before going to check on the baby. Something about it seemed reckless to Anibesa. He didn’t seemed to be the most sensible person and not somebody that she’d have thought to be the best man to leave in charge of children.

Now she just stood in the water, making sure that she was mostly submerged, and as she went to turn away from the group and walk back to the other end of the house, she heard the man start to speak, this time his words directed at her and she turned to glare back at him, locking eyes with him.
”So just because I have blue eyes you think I can swim?” she said, her voice intense as she glared at him. ”We aren’t born able to swim. Most of us just pick it up!” she frowned at him, before seeing the man turn his attention to the oldest child and Anibesa was glad. From what she’d seen so far the young girl had far too much responsibility.
Now that he was tending to his children, Anibesa took the chance to glance around the pool, ducking her head under the water again and smoothing back her hair as she did so, trying to get used to the feeling.
She had no idea what to do about being in the pool though. The man had a problem with her lack of clothing, and she wasn’t fond of the idea of leaving the water and the small amount of protection it offered, but it seemed that the man was too busy looking after the multiple children to take them away or give her to chance to even get out of the pool, dry off, and put her clothes on again. It seemed to Anibesa that she was stuck in the water for now.
And so she listened, prying into the conversation as she listened to the man attempt to discipline one of the children before speaking to the older girl about something to do with bathhouses and naked people.
Eventually she heard him address her again and she frowned as she looked at him.
”Who care? We kids of different parents. Some parents dead, some bad. Stick together. Don’t go alone.” she mused back, her words in Fratava as she spoke before switching to common to say something directly to the man. ”Then you do not bring children to somewhere this dangerous. Get Randal to help you build a pen or something or you’ll be rid of a few problems pretty quickly. And how would you know that I’ve not raised a child before? If you know so much about Svefra, as you seem to, you’d know that our children belong to the pod. We all raise them because we aren’t dumb enough to think that we can look after children alone in such a dangerous environment!” she huffed as she spoke, more than aware of the dangers lurking around the settlement and likening them to dangers she’d heard of in the Suvan Sea. Sharks searching for food were like the jungle animals that when brave had strayed onto the beach. The sea was the same, though shallower here, and could likely kill a child in minutes if they weren’t experienced with it, and here the jungle would pose a threat to them too.

Huffing again, she glared at the man, before pointing towards the sea, away from where her clothes were.
”Anyway, I’d like to leave now, so if you’d kindly look that way and make sure your children are too.” she said, this time her voice calm but forward as she ordered the man.
She didn’t wait to see what the man did, instead opting to pull herself up on the lip of the pool, swinging her legs up to help herself up out of the people before wringing her hair out and making her way to her clothes, seeing that they had been dampened to her dismay.
”Idiot petching Shyke-stain” she remembering the string Fratavan curses from her time in the pod as she glared towards the man, now drying her hands on the rock before squatting down and searching her clothes to see what was the least damp.
~

[Garland]

Garland breathed in slowly, this lady was insufferable. "So you are a Sverfa? I don't have access to a pod and trust me when I say that leaving them alone in a cage isn't exactly the best parenting method, wouldn't you say?"

Aneka crept up behind Garland, taking a deep breath, ready to spit on him. "Don't even think about it, young lady." He said, not even turning around to look at the little girl. Aneka stopped in her tracks and sat down in a huff, sticking out her tongue.

Phobos spoke this time, in Fratava. "My mommy is not dead!" Phobos seemed very distraught and may have misunderstood what this lady was saying.

Phobos swam back to Garland, eyes seem a bit wet, and not from the water. Garland pulled up Phobos and held him close. "What wrong, son?" Garland looked at the girl, he was fine with being insulted, almost everyone thought he wasn't fit to be a knight in the first place anyway, so he was used to jeers, but if anyone were to insult his children, they're be hai to answer for. Luckily he opted to not be violent in front of the kiddies.

"She said mommy is dead!" Phobos said, tears welling up in his eyes.

"Y-You know your mother?"

Of course he does, you idiot! They've been living with their grandfather for a year, they were bound to learn a thing or two about their mother.

"Your mother's not dead, Phobos. She's fine, probably sailing the seas."

I probably shouldn't tell them her ship was still docked in Syliras last I checked.

Garland glared at the lady before smiling at Phobos, trying to reassure him. "Come on, your mother wouldn't want to see you cry. You're her tough little sailor right?" Garland said and saw that Ilia heard it too.

"I-Is... my mommy alive?" Ilia said, she was putting on a brave face, but she seemed close to breaking apart any second now.

"Of course she is!" Garland said with gusto, and he was technically right. Alive and sane are totally different things though.

Oh gods...

Garland sighed and the kids were too distracted to notice the naked lady climbing out the pool. Garland was going to have his hands full, and to think he was planning a nice little family outing.

Aneka heard the last string of Fratavan curses, and mimicked one word. "Petch!" She said and pointed at both the girl and Garland.

"I need to learn Fratavan, but I'll assume Aneka just said something rude." He said with a sigh. His clothes were wet, the kids were sad, Aneka is cranky and he just wanted to sun bathe today.

His luck is terrible when it came to girls. "Sorry about your clothes." His voice was calm but not without anger, he was more tired about the circumstances, and raising his voice would be a very bad idea with the kids in a heightened emotional state right now.

[Anibesa]

"Common" | "Fratava" | "Tukant"

”If you left them alone in a cage they probably wouldn’t expire as quickly as they’re going to with you looking after them!” she glared at the man angrily. ”And I was a Svefra. I haven’t been a Svefra for a very long time!” she huffed at the man, knowing that he likely wouldn’t understand and would just assume that she was being dramatic or had been cast out of her pod.

All of a sudden the sound of the boy crying penetrated Anibesa’s ears and she rubbed the bridge of her nose, taking a few moments to try to breathe and calm down, all the while listening to what was going on.
Obviously the children had misinterpreted what she’d said as relating to their mother, who from the sounds of it might as well be dead from the way that the man was shocked that the boy knew of his mother.

”Kids are allowed to cry right! Don’t make him be tough just because it fits with your masculine ideals!” she huffed out loud, annoyed by the man, before hearing another child question whether their mother was alive.
Anibesa wondered how reckless the boy had been, for a person less than half of her own years to have children with at least two different women, and to have brought them somewhere dangerous.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of one of the girls swearing and she smirked slightly, hearing the man comment that the word must have been rude, and Anibesa kept quiet, leaving him to work it out.

She heard him apologise for her clothes and instead of saying anything she found her underwear to be the only item of clothing that was dry, so hurriedly she slipped them on after wringing her hair out, before laying the rest of her clothes out on the hot dry rock, waiting for the sun's heat to dry them out.

”If those two are Svefra, how did you get them away from their pod? Must have been a useless pod!” Ani turned her nose up at the thought. ”Our pod, if parents wanted to leave the children stayed with us. The children were the pods children. Nobody really cared about who gave birth to them, and they were only let go if they were near land and the baby didn’t have blue eyes. Otherwise they were thrown into the ocean and left to be drowned. No use raising a baby that wasn’t a full Svefra.” Anibesa said out loud as she sat near her clothes, not caring as to whether the children heard. Plenty of Svefra children had seen babies killed for not having the right eye colour!


That practice wasn’t one that she’d agreed with, but the pod had been kind enough to let her stay with them, they’d looked after her and she’d always felt that it wasn’t her place to judge their traditions.

Now she just turned her attention to the dark haired boy, somewhat intrigued by him.
~

[Garland]

"If I left them alone and they got out and wandered about, who'd protect them huh? They could have gone here and without someone to stop them from drowning themselves." Garland had just blocked out most of what this lady was saying, he was too busy trying to comfort the boy. Something about not being a Sverfa for a long time or some nonsense. He had heard rumors of the Djed storm several years back changing the gender of a few Akalaks but that could just be rumor, so unless she had some sort of magic that made her turn into a Sverfa, he doubted anything she said.

Garland was not a very patient man, he tries for sure, but they usually don't last long. "Kids should cry, but they should also be strong, not physically, but emotionally. If you kept crying and looking for help, you usually won't find it, so you have to learn how to keep yourself in check. I'm not going to teach them that now, but eventually they'll need to learn, if you want to coddle your kids then be my guest, but leave me and mine alone to your teachings." Garland said as he wiped away Phobos' tears. Garland wasn't the best father, he never had one to learn from, but he's doing his best.

He tried just giving them off to their grandparents, but he wasn't quite sure if that was a good idea, his father and mother just left him in Syliras from the stories he'd heard, he wasn't going to be like them.

At least not again.

Garland didn't really know much about Sverfa culture, but if he recalled right, a pod was something akin to a family and several ships, more like a town of ships at sea than a fleet.

"I won't even pretend I know how Sverfa's raise their children, but I know I would never abandon them." Then he heard about them drowning their own children for not having blue eyes. "They do what?"

That got him really riled up now. He just looked at the blue eyed seafarer, he was angry, but he had no idea where to direct that anger. He just sat there for a chime, staring, his expression a mix of anger and disgust.

"So... if my children were born on that... 'pod' they'd be drowned and dead?" Garland said, his voice seething with malice. "Huh... Maybe that's why she left them for me to raise."

Garland held grudges sure, but they were few and far between, but now though, April Windweaver was not on his good list, a list that seemed to have grown much shorter these pass few seasons.

He muttered under his breath. "I need to hit something right now..."

Ilia on the other hand heard that Garland would never abandon them, and that made her sobs softer and she was calming down now.

Phobos was too busy crying to pay much attention to the conversation, while Aneka just continued to curse like a sailor.