Season of Fall, Day 40, 513 AV
It was a rare warm day in Fall, and Jorin wanted to take advantage of it. He'd actually wanted to do this in Summer, when the summer heat was bearing down and he could more easily justify this, but the truth was his trip down to beach this day was inspired by two things.
First, he needed to learn how to swim. It was really quite embarrassing that he still didn't know how. He was a child of Zeltiva, city of sailors, and he lived in Riverfall, a coastal city. His own mate was an Osprey, a bird of the sea, and he couldn't swim? Jorin sighed. Even his mother was apparently (at least according to her) a strong swimmer, who tried to teach him once or twice before giving up.
Second, and in his mind more importantly, it was a way for him to be closer to Rinya. To spend time with her, and just her, with no other people to interfere. Ever since their first time making love they'd not had a chance to really just be together. Granted, that was only two days ago, but to him it felt like an eternity. Besides, the weather was nice, so it was a good excuse.
Jorin knew, of course, that wet clothes were not conducive to swimming, so he had already stripped down to just his smallclothes, leaving his shirt, pants, and shoes in a neat pile on the sand, on top of a small blanket he'd brought with him. Honestly, he was no longer embarrassed or nervous being fully nude before Rinya; but this was technically a public place, and so for the sake of decency he chose to keep his undergarments on.
Jorin dipped a toe into the salty sea water, testing its temperature. The water was still warm from the heat of summer, a decent temperature that was not too cold, not too warm. He'd been afraid it'd be chillingly cold, which would have put a damper on his plans since the last thing he needed was to come down with pneumonia.
As he gazed up at the sky, Jorin wondered how Rinya would arrive. Would she walk down from the beach? Or perhaps she'd drop out of the sky as a hawk. He didn't know, and didn't really care. As long as she arrived at all, he was happy. Jorin considered the possibility of getting started by himself, but he remembered the last time he tried that.
Jorin's stomach clenched involuntarily as he recalled the feeling of panic as he was almost carried away by the current, and was only saved by Rinya's timely intervention. He'd honestly thought he might've drowned if it weren't for her, and so he decided to just wander around knee-deep in the surf, picking up colorful rocks and hurling them into the ocean. Without Rinya there to save him, Jorin wasn't sure he was comfortable even attempting to swim.