Ficlet time!

[ru]

I'm kinda going a little out of order, which I hope won't be too bad. We'll see. <3 Writing it, I thought maybe that it would be too long to qualify as 'ficlet', but looking at it posted, it doesn't look as long as I thought. ^_^;

For the delightful demonlet!


"My, it's warm."

Chilali glanced up from the fish packet she was making, looking across the camp to the purple-haired girl that had joined their group not too long ago. Pelagia certainly was right about the temperature. The sun had been beating down all day, and even though they were in the middle of the forest, even though they were working their way towards the cooler mountains, they were all feeling the heat. The air hung stale and heavy around them, and everyone complained about feeling sticky and uncomfortable from all the sweating.

It wasn't until Pela looked up at Chili, questioning the look she was giving her before she started and replied "Yes, yes it is." They stared at each other for a lengthy moment longer before Pela returned to replenishing their packs with the rations they had made, leaving Chili free to chew uneasily on her lower lip. By her birthriver, but she did not know what to make of the girl from the Sea Cliffs. Whenever they were with the others, Chili could usually find ways to distract herself from Pela, but when they were alone like this, even with the rest of their group just a short ways away discussing where they were going to travel next, Chili couldn't figure out what to do with herself. The only way she could verbalize what it felt like was that it was like trying to swim upstream toward a rock. She wanted to get to that rock, but at the same time there was force pushing her away, keeping her from getting too close. She wanted to get to know Pela, wanted to be friends with her, but something kept her from even being too physically close to her without giving her feelings of unease. And so they sat uncomfortably on opposite sides of the camp, away from each other. Chili wondered for a moment if Pela felt the same way she did.

She put the finishing touches on the fish packet, wiping the sweat away from her brow with her forearm. It definitely was hot out. It would be nice to take a long swim, drifting with the water, letting it wash away the heat of the day from her. But unfortunately, there really wasn't anyplace nearby that would supply her with such a place to swim was there? After all, the only real body of water nearby was that small brook, and that wasn't big enough to swim in--

No, wait. She thought a moment, trying to place the brook in the mental map she had of the waterways. There was a small pond nearby, connecting to the brook, probably not too far from here.

Chili looked up again over at Pela, who was tying off one of the packs. She looked to be in as poor a shape as how Chili felt. Chili wanted that swim badly, but at the same time she couldn't do it in her right conscience without asking Pela along. She could probably benefit from a swim too. And Pela did like swimming...right?

And so, Chili took a deep breath, steeling herself. "Hey Pela," she called over.

Pelagia looked up from her packing task, an uneasy look on her face. "Yes?"

"Do you, um..." By her birthriver, why was it so hard? "There's a small pond nearby, I think. If you're done there, do you want to go...um...for a swim? We could cool off."

Pela wiped some of the sweat off her brow, thinking. "Um...yeah. Cooling off is good. And I haven't gotten a chance to swim in a while. Okay." She paused. "But what about the camp?"

Chili glanced over in the direction of the meeting. "They're not too far. I don't think we'll need to worry about some animal making off with the food stores." she said, her voice a bit more cheerful. The promise of cooling off had lightened Chili's spirits. "C'mon."

The two rose, still eyeing each other uneasily, and with a beckoning gesture from Chili, started off towards the brook, making sure not to stray too close to each other. They silently followed the little brook downstream for a way, winding their way through the woods until it abruptly emptied out into a large, deep pond. Never had a pool looked so inviting to two bedraggled, sweltering water senshi. The pool was wonderfully blue, with a few lilypads lining its shores. A gentle breeze came across the pond, ruffling their bangs.

Pela let out a quiet sigh of relief at the cooling breeze. "We should tell everyone about this when we get back. They'll probably appreciate it."

Chili nodded. "Yeah. But for now, you look like you could use it." A hesitant smile broke out on her face as she stumbled and slid her way down to the pond's shore, a few fish scattering as her foot hit the water, sending ripples across the pond. Pela followed suit, slipping on a particularly mossy rock and letting out a little yelp as she stumbled. Much to Chili's relief, she managed to recover without falling. "You okay?"

Pela nodded slowly, straightening up. "Yeah, I'm fine," She smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry about me. C'mon."

The grin on Chili's face grew wider, easier to make. The two waded out into the pond, working their way across submerged rocks and plants. The water had just risen above Chili's knees before they discovered, much to their surprise, that the pond bottom dropped off suddenly. Chili let out a startled gasp before she slipped under surprisingly cool water, feeling the heat of the day quickly leech away from her body. She swam up to the surface, throwing her head back and letting out a delighted whoop as she popped up into the air again, greeting Pela's concerned face.

"Are you alright?" Pela asked, "I was about to dive in after you. I was afraid something had gotten hold of your leg or something."

Chili blinked, cocking her head to the side before her smile returned, goofy and large. Her deep blue bangs hung wet over her face, a few stray hairs around her neck and forehead sticking to her skin. "Nah. The biggest thing I've ever encountered is fish and turtles, and they're more interested in things smaller than them." Her smile grew larger as she treaded out a little way. "C'mon! Dropping off feels really nice. The water's cooler here."

The smile Chili was sporting must have been infectious, since the worried look on Pela's face quickly evaporated. She stretched her foot out, letting out a similar yelp as she stepped into nothingness, slipping under the water. A moment later she resurfaced, laughing. "Oh wow, I needed that. This is kinda like the tide pools back home," She glanced around the pond. "well, maybe not this big or deep."

Chili giggled as the two started to swim out a ways, making long, wide strokes, occasionally dipping beneath the surface to enjoy the water's coolness on their faces. Despite how the water had relaxed them, the two took care to make sure they didn't come into close contact with one another.

"Hey Pela," Chili asked after resurfacing one time, "what are tide pools?"

Pelagia smiled at the question. "They're these pools of water hidden in the rocks right next to the sea," she said, her voice growing wistful, "you can find all sorts of neat things in them, like pretty shells and creatures and stuff."

"Wow," Chili replied, "so are there things like mussels there? They have shells."

"Mussels?"

"Yeah. They're these funny little things with two shells that clamp shut when you pick them up. Like this." She brought her hands up out of the water, cupping them together in a horizontal fashion and clapping them together.

"Oh! You mean like oysters!" Pela said, laughing, "Oysters do the exact same thing. I wonder if they're as big as oysters. How big are mussels?"

"Oh, not very big. Though there might be some bigger ones toward the bottom. It's pretty deep here."

"Maybe. Though it would probably take a while to go down and find one, if there are any." Her eyes took on a mischevious glint. "But if we did go looking, betcha I could hold my breath longer than you could."

Chili's eyebrows raised at the mention of competition. "Betcha you couldn't." She smiled. "Breath holding contest?"

"Okay. On three."

Their voices came in unison. "One! Two! Three!" The two took in as much air as they could before slipping under the surface, kicking down to about ten feet or so before coming to a stop. The two hovered easily in the water, moving slightly to keep themselves at about the same height. They exchanged glances, concentrating almost entirely on holding their breath. It wasn't too long though before that got rather boring. Chili wriggled her way around, crossing her legs and interlaced her hands behind her head, almost managing a reclining position in the water. She looked over at Pela, a goofy smile on her face.

Pela's eyes widened for a moment, looking almost as if she might start giggling underwater. She managed to recover though, giving Chili an indignant look. In a single, graceful movement, she flipped her body around to hover vertically, folding her arms across her chest, looking proudly at Chili.

Chili smiled, trying her hardest to prevent a snerk from escaping her mouth. The breath holding contest quickly degenerated into an attempt to get the other to laugh, thereby making her have to surface. Chili crossed her eyes and gave herself moose antlers. Pela put herself on her side, sticking her hand underneath her head as if she were lounging on the beach. Chili crossed her legs as if she were sitting on the ground, stroking her chin and looking rather thoughtful and zen-like. However, it wasn't until Pela puffed her cheeks and struck a leaping, jumping pose, her hair flying about her like fluffy purple tentacles and looking a bit like a rather ridiculous monster, that the combination of burning lungs and need to laugh out loud caused Chili to surface, gasping for breath and laughing hysterically. A few moments later, Pela broke the surface, letting herself float as she caught her breath and giggled like an idiot.

Once Chili had regained her composure, she broke into an exaggerated sulking look. "Hmph. No fair."

Pela smiled. "You started it."

Chili snorted, folding her arms across her chest, treading water with her feet. "I could've beat you. I could've! It's just funny seeing you trying to be a ferocious creature."

Pela looked over at her in surprise, letting out an indignant noise. "I can be ferocious!" she said, following up the statement with a splash in Chili's direction. Chili put her hands up to shield herself from the water, letting out a laugh and returning the splash with one of her own. The quiet, peaceful pond quickly became alive with the sounds of splashing and joyful shrieking as the two girls got involved in a rather energetic water war. A turtle that had been swimming near them quickly paddled away, having no desire to be in the middle of the chaos the peculiar creatures were creating.

"Waterfall pummeling!" Chili yelled, bringing her arm around to splash Pela.

Pela grinned at the rather colorful naming of the water attack. "Tidal wave!"

"Rapids blast!"

"Smashing waterspout!"

"Driving rain!"

"Whirlpool fury!!"

Eventually, the fight died down as the girls collapsed into peals of laughter, both dripping wet after their fierce war. Pela let out a contented sigh, leaning back to float on the surface of the pond, her ponytails drifting below her in the water. "That was fun."

Chili mimicked the movement, letting her hands drift in the water. "Yeah. Yeah, it was." A smile played over her face. The repelling/pulling feeling Chili had been grappling with was less intense now. "I dunno about you, but I'm a lot cooler now."

Pela chuckled. "Yeah. Hey, let's do this again sometime."

Chili smiled. "Okay! Maybe next time we can go looking for mussels." She paused. "And I'll beat you next time."

"We'll see," Pela teased.

The two drifted lazily on the water, watching the cloudless sky framed by the green of surrounding trees. How long they were like that was anyone's guess, but long enough for the rest of their group to come out of their meeting and go looking for them. They eventually made their way to the pond, and found the two floating towards the center, dozing. They couldn't see it from the shore, but over the course of their drifting, Pela and Chili's hands had floated towards each other, and managed to just barely take hold of their fingers, just enough so that they wouldn't drift apart.

Comments

[peppermintberry.livejournal.com]

Yayayay! I'm so glad you like it! <3 <3

I really enjoyed writing it. Chili and Pela are such cute boos together, especially when water is involved. <3