Solo Deep blue shallows

[Taren Coballon]

1st of Fall, 518

The morning was beautiful as usual in Syka. Syna had come up, the breeze was as constant as ever, the bay had very small waves rolling into the beach, and the smell of the salted sea air filled his nose. As usual in Syka the days were sunny and warm while they made him want to do nothing but enjoy the day. He knew he couldn’t or more importantly he wouldn’t waste an entire day doing absolutely nothing when he had so much to accomplish in the near future with his home and learning what he needs to stay in Syka. Although it was never stated as a requirement he can’t see that it would hurt knowing how to swim in a place like this and today seemed like as good as any time to learn.

It was early morning and he was quite surprised at all the activity going on in Syka. More residents were awake and working then he thought there would be. He had finished a quick breakfast of fresh fruit on the walk to the commons and hoped to catch something later at the commons. As he approached the commons he dropped his pack up in the shade near a tree as he removed his weapon belt to set on top of it. He sat down next to the pack to unlace his boots before he stripped out of his clothes to stride down the beach and out into the water.

He waded out into the crystal clear water as the course sand scrapped at the bottom of his large blue feet until the water was chest high before he simple laid back on the top of the water to relax and hopefully float on the water. He laid there floating up and down in the waves for maybe a chime before a larger wave crashed over his face and he ended up breathing and swallowing a large gulp of seawater. Quickly righting himself he was wracked by a coughing fit that was caused by the offending sea water while it also lit a fire in his nose that he had never felt before. The fit lasted for just a chime before he regained control of himself and dropped to his knees to simply relax in the water. The swells gently lifted him up and down off the bottom of the bay as he sat there catching his breath before attempting again.

He hoped to not repeat last time but realized he likely would, regardless of the consequences he tried again. As he laid back the second time he tried to keep a feel for the swells coming in, he tried to time his breaths to be in between the wave crests in the hopes of not inhaling more of the bay if he didn’t have to. This seemed to work better for him while he laid there for several chimes this time while he started to feel quite proud of himself but the moment he lost his concentration was when he was assaulted by the bay itself or that his at least how it felt to him.

Thanks to Gossamer for the boxcode

[Taren Coballon]

The coughing fit wracked Taren again as he attempted to breath around the water in his lungs. The fit didn’t last long this time as he realized someone was talking to him.

“Doctor…..” started a boy of maybe ten years old before he paused and then finished “wait, your not the doctor, are you? Who you are? “

He must of drifted into shallower water while he practiced and a small group of children who were playing in the shallower water. From the best he could tell the were young from maybe eight to ten years old and they were doing their best to interrogate him with as many questions as they could and mostly at the same time!

“Want to play with us?” came from a slightly younger boy.

“What are you doing?” came from another child with the chorus of questions that mostly he couldn’t make out came from all over. Truly he didn’t care about the questions as he expected the kids were simply being kids.

“Why are you blue?” asked what he expected was the youngest girl of maybe eight years old.

Taren laughed at this question and found it quite humorous that he had to answer that simple question from the innocent child in front of him.

“I’m blue because I’ve been in the water too long and now I’ve become a sea monster!” he growled in the deepest voice he could muster. Children had always been easy to relate to for him as they required and expected only the simple things in life.

From there Taren held his breath and dove under water and proceeded to chase the children around the shallows for ten or fifteen chimes as they screamed, giggled, and ran away from him in all directions. He dove down and chased them around to occasionally grabbed an ankle to quickly dunk them in the water but made sure they were never down long at all. Half the time pulling himself along the bottom with his hands and kicking his feet behind him, at other times he would use his legs to push off the ground and propel himself forward in the water with a faster speed from what he normally had.

Taren only surfaced to catch his breath before he submerged to start the chase all over again. He quickly learned that by twisting his torso he could easily veer himself in one direction or another and it surprised him that it came as naturally to him as it did. The simple motion caused a shift in the water that he could feel as it flowed over his skin. However all the exercise quickly caused him to come up for more air quicker and quicker until he didn’t feel like he could dive any more for a while. He sat there and caught his breath as the children played on around him.

Thanks to Gossamer for the boxcode

[Taren Coballon]

Taren now feared he has lost all ability to intimidate these children in the future by this escapade with them today, but expected they would listen to him for a good while if he asked them too. From the amount of screams and giggles he was still hearing from them, he bet that he had made several new friends. He hadn’t done anything like this since his own son was young and he found that it had oddly satisfied him now.

He needed to get back to his plans for the day so he told the children “Time for you to go back to the beach and play for a while” he told them with as much authority as possible amidst “No”, “We want to play” from the children. However they listened quickly enough when he threatened to feed them to real sea monster amidst more screams and giggles again however they did proceed directly onto shore and started to play in the sand.

Now that Taren had caught his breath again and he wouldn’t have the children follow him into deeper water he could continue his work. Taren gathered all the strength he could in his legs and dove sideways into the water as he pointed himself towards the deeper water of the bay. With his arms still in front of his head he kept his arms straight and pulled them out to the sides and all the way down next to his body as he continuously kicked his feet. Again he bent his arms before he stretched them above his head again to repeat again. He continued this for as long as he could hold his breath so he came up to the surface for air and found himself in almost chin deep water. Amazed slightly by the distance that he covered in the one attempt and he finally felt that he may have a chance of learning something of the skill.

Taren spent a chime to catch his breath before he tried again. Changing directions he points more parallel to the beach so he would actually go into a slightly more shallow and not deeper water, he again gathers his breath before he pulled himself down to the bottom and used the the sand to propel himself forward, he pumped his legs furiously as he outstretched his toes while he kept the motion of his arms as fluid as he could. Again he covered a large distance that he was happy with at the moment anyway but he realized that he couldn’t breath underwater so this wouldn’t allow him to swim in open water. He guessed it may be useful for swimming to the bottom to pick something up or maybe to if the waves were large enough you dive through them.

He did know he wanted to be able to swim longer distances than just one breath worth so he needed to swim above the water so he could breathe while he swam. He decided it was time to start working above the water again.

Thanks to Gossamer for the boxcode

[Taren Coballon]

Taren took the opportunity to take a break and dry off for a short while as he had been in the water for a bell or two and had started to get hungry again. He headed straight to his pack where he puts his pants back on before he walked up to the commons in the hopes of a quick meal and as luck would have it, the place had plenty of fruit scattered around and someone had left a bit of fish as well. He cut himself of portion of the fish but made sure he left at least one portion for others as he found it extremely nice to find have the occasional meal here and he suspected others of the same. With the fish in hand, he looked for a couple of mangoes to go with it and then sat down at one of the tables to eat a quick meal alone which he found it odd because normally someone was always around the community area.

Afterwards he grabbed his waterskin for a drink and sat down beside his pack to rest for a short break before he continued to practice. He leaned up against the tree while he drank the rather warm water and stretched himself out on the sand as well. He watched others coming in and out of the water and some swimming out in the bay whom he watched intently to try and pick up any possible insights. After maybe 20 chimes of resting, he stood up and stretched himself out after sitting so long before he removed his pants again and set them out to dry in the sun. He waded back into waist deep water before he dove back in head first to swim underwater out to an area about chest high to keep himself honest about the swimming and to make it difficult to use the bottom as a crutch.

He jumped up and kicked his feet out behind himself as he attempted to swim which found little success but a valiant try. He succeeded in the fact he moved forward but no where near fast or far enough as he wanted. His feet splashed the top of the water sound and probably scared every fish in the bay. On his next attempt he found focused more on keeping his feet underwater completely while he kicked which helped immensely while he moved forward faster but still not enough. He tried this approach until he felt comfortable enough to keep his feet underwater and felt like each time it was getting easier and he proceeded further in length. He knew he could do better and faster but he thought this was a style that he could manage for some time if he was forced to or needed to save his life. With this in mind he felt proud of himself that his goal was that much closer to a reality after a morning worth of work.

Thanks to Gossamer for the boxcode

[Taren Coballon]

After he had watched several others swimming with an overarm stroke, he decided to try and see if that would prove any better for his practice. He kicked off the bottom to propel himself forward to start his stroke, his feet kicked steadily behind him as he rotated his arms around in circular motions that natural caused his body to shift in the water as one arm exited and the other entered the sea. He quickly found the rhythm of the stroke and it felt very natural as he proceeded to use the stroke, he also found it as a much faster speed of stroke however he soon drank the sea water yet again from not watching his breathing but not nearly as bad when compared to the episode earlier in the day.

Standing on the bottom he again caught his breath before he tried yet again. Each time he attempted to swim he felt like he was performed slightly better and learning bits and pieces of additional help. As he cupped his hands it seemed to push water and allowed him to move further with each stroke, keeping toes straightened seemed to help, and learned to take breaths when his face was away from the waves and not into the waves. Finally after several bells of practice, he turned around to swim back to the commons and his belongings. He started the swim proceeded toward the beach before he realize how far he had actually moved away from where he started. Steadily he swam back though, it ended up being a long slow journey but he refused to give up on his task until he absolutely had to from over tired muscles.

As he finally allowed himself to give up on his task for the day he felt satisfied on the results of his efforts. With a glance back, it felt like he had just swam half the Syka beach but he also realized that while he could allow himself a little pride in his days work that he also had a long road ahead to actually become any kind of accomplished swimmer. Now he trudged up into the slightly shallower water before he turned back toward the commons, and then slowly walked the last 25 meters until he came up to his gear. After a long draught on his water skin he proceeded to get dressed before he leaned back against his pack in the cool shade with his arms, legs, and chest all slightly numb from all the work he had forced out them today.

After he rested for several chimes that allowed his muscles to regain a little strength he sat back up and started to pull his boots back on while he laced them up with wrinkled blue fingers. Finally he stood up to buckle his sword and lakan back on his hips before he slung his pack on his shoulder while walked off to scrounge up a quick dinner so he could succumb to a long nights rest to recover from the day’s exercise.

Thanks to Gossamer for the boxcode

[K'irr Darkwater]

Taren

Observation - 5XP
Swimming - 5XP
Endurance - 4XP
Planning - 1XP
Rhetoric - 1XP
Acting - 1XP
Socialisation - 1XP
Intimidation - 1XP
Body Building - 2XP
Logic - 1XP
Acrobatics - 1XP

☉ Syka: A busy place despite its size
☉ Location: The Syka Commons
☉ Location: Syka Bay
☉ Swimming: Learning to float on one's back
☉ Swimming: Be careful of waves
☉ Enduring the burning sensation of salt water up the nose and in the lungs
☉ Observation: The relaxing weightless feeling of the ocean
☉ Planning: Anticipating the movement and swells of the ocean
☉ Swimming: Matching breaths to the peaks and troughs of the waves while floating
☉ Swimming: Even floating requires a great deal of concentration
☉ Rhetoric: Teasing children with playful banter
☉ Acting: Growling and posing to mimic a sea monster
☉ Swimming: Making use of the shallows to push and propel oneself when submerged
☉ Swimming: Easier to change directions by twisting and turning ones torso while submerged
☉ Endurance: Building up lung capacity and fitness
☉ Intimidation: Using stern words and playful threats
☉ Swimming: Using long, broad strokes and kicks while submerged to cover greater distances
☉ Logic - Diving is useful for picking up objects from the sea floor or avoiding waves
☉ Syka Commons: The place where some leave extra food.. and others find a bite to eat
☉ Swimming: Kicking techniques - keeping feet submerged is more effective
☉ Swimming: Basic overarm stroke technique
☉ Swimming: Using hands to cup and push the water
☉ Body Building: The satisfying, exhausted feeling of a good workout

Comments

I'm not sure how many children are in Syka but that was a truly delightful thread, Taren! Enjoy the extra complimentary skills and lores and congrats on completing the weekend skill challenge (and your first grade) Do let me know if you have any questions or concerns about your grade via PM or nudge me on my Antipodes account.

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