Daiko’s throat couldn’t handle this, man. Saltwater flushing in just as he was about to reach the surface, and it hurt quite a bit… it also had this lingering, itchy feeling to it afterwards. Truly, water was one of the greatest challenges that Daiko had faced in his life. As a Fire Mage, water spells in combat weren’t exactly preferable to him given his element’s weakness to it, but one would think that a Savannan guy like him knew how to swim? Or what?

He had never been to Savannah himself, so he didn’t know what the norms were over there.

If you looked over the beach from the docks of Port Hargeon, you could be lucky to spot the silhouette of a dark, mocha-skinned Blue Pegasus Mage crawling up from the sea towards the shore and spitting out saltwater. A few coughs followed suit, and he wiped his mouth and attempted once more. However, having repeated this all day long, Daiko soon came to a halt, and he began questioning if he could ever master the art of swimming.

There was a time when he was able to swim, remember? Back when he was a Lamia Scale Mage and had underwent Shahrbaraz’ - no, wait, it was Aguero’s - training journey. He had climbed mountains, crossed the ocean and survived the winter out in the forest, but what the hell, man?! Of all those high-quality skills, why did he forget how to swim?!

It was as if he had been reset back to square one, just like all those other times in the past! He could’ve sworn that it was a curse or something! NO! He wouldn’t let it take over him again! He was going to overcome this weakness one way or another, and he was going to stay as fit as always! To hell with curses!

…

Today, he had recovered a little. He was in his swimming trunks, dark-green and humble, and sitting down near the edge of the shore while hugging his legs. Coda was perching in front of him, not that much afraid by the saltwater flushing up on the sand.

“I’ll learn to swim, somehow… Coda, I have a surprise for you,” the Fire Mage spoke up to his curious, little fella, “I, uh… I asked for someone’s help with this, and they should be here very soon. It’s someone you really, really like a lot.” Coda cawed out loud for a few seconds, and Daiko replied with a flustered look on his face: “S-Shut it, that’s not the case! I swear…!”

WC: 429

Coda’s wings spread out flamboyantly as Daiko realized that the raptor was looking at someone behind him. Yep, it seemed that his Guildmaster had arrived at last, which at first bought a sense of relief to his lungs; however, her very first words to him made a small vein pop on his forehead. “I-I’ve already tried like… hmpf…” he huffed. Nothing ill towards her, but Alisa seemingly still had a thing for saying just the right words to ticker him like that.

Taking a look at her, he could’ve sworn that she had donned that bikini before. However, it had been a whole winter and autumn ago, so his memory was faint and lacking. It still looked good on her, though… but there was something dangerous about it… something dangerous that Daiko noticed. Did it… was it smaller than-

You could almost hear his neck crack as he turned away from looking too much at her after having spent a good ten seconds doing what felt a lot like ogling at her figures. To think that he was so aware of her body like this… it made him feel embarrassed to a very high degree. And her teasing words never helped, and it was as if she was slightly mocking him or something! Truly, Alisa didn’t seem to be the type of mock a friend like him, but it was still so annoying for who knows what reason…

She did raise a good point about the whole premise of him inviting her over. Taking a deep breath, he remembered that he asked her to come here and all, so he had to be somewhat collected and mature. Please, Daiko, keep yourself together. Yes, Alisa was good at poking his nerves, but she wasn’t like Sofia… one of the reasons that he invited her and not the actual, slightly more voluptuous water mage was because of his previous experience with the ocean-haired lady.

To summarize his worry, he feared that she would try and get her way with him like back in the forest. She did seem quite a little pushy back then, and that had lingered in his head ever since. It, uh… it made him aware of her. He was aware of her and Alisa nowadays.

That would likely be all that Daiko would ever admit, to be honest.

While Coda was flaunting and fawning over Alisa like a worshipper of hers, the Fire Mage’s face couldn’t contain the inner embarrassment and fluster that his whole ordeal with Alisa usually consisted of. However, he tried to voice out somewhat maturely: “W-Well… I, uhm, figured… *inhale* I figured that it’d…” His words sort of died out into a myriad of silent bickers, while a dark shadow loomed over his head.

What… just what the hell is wrong with me?! Why did I ask Alisa for help and not Sofia?! Sofia’s the water expert! This doesn’t make any sense! What was I thinkiiiiiiiiiiiing?!

“W-Well, you can also swim, right? I just want to learn the basics… I keep sinking whenever I try to stay afloat, and it’s really annoying…!” he muttered out with somewhat more stability than a moment earlier, having stood up on his feet and clenched his fists. To make it more clear for his friend, he would mimic the moves he used to do while swimming - it sort of came out as making angel figures in the sand with the way he waved his arms and legs. “I do know that I gotta keep my arms and legs active all the time, but it just doesn’t work…”

Looking close enough at his moves, the problem/issue was already apparent. He waved his arms and legs in the right direction to stay afloat just as much as to the wrong direction.

WC: 632
TWC: 1061

Coda didn’t hesitate for a second when Alisa manifested a crystal layer on her forearm, indicating that Coda could perch safely on her without harming her or herself. She did need to flap her wings once or twice to regain some balance, but resting on the arm of the beautiful Guildmaster was mesmerizing for the red falcon. She cawed like a happy crow, pleasantly letting her talons grind against the impenetrable crystal surface.

Man, from Coda’s constant worshipping of his Guildmaster to said Guildmaster’s constant giggling, Daiko was quite lost for words. A vein had appeared bulking on his forehead, and he tried his best not to arc his eyebrows… why was everyone having so much fun teasing him like this?!

Well, back to the issue at hand, which was Daiko’s swimming skills… or lack of, really. Alisa approached the ocean, and Coda quickly basked off of her arm as she did so. The raptor landed on the dry, sandy shore once more, trying to pick up the pareo that she let glide down. Daiko’s face looked up at Alisa who stated that it’d be easier to float in salty water… for some reason, salty water allowed one to float easier? The Fire Mage didn’t know the mechanics behind that fact, but he trusted her words and stood up, following her towards those Hargeon waves.

It didn’t take long until he had walked as far as his head could stick up from the surface of the water with his feet still touching the bottom. He took a deep breath and dashed forward, reaching the deeper levels of the shore and began basking with his legs. It looked to be that he was able to project himself upwards just enough to stay afloat as many swimmers would do, but his movements underwater also proved to do the opposite; with the movements of his arms, he unconsciously pushed himself downwards and nullified the buoyancy effect from his swimming, so he was always swimming up and down and up and down, slowly sinking due to the effort in his arms’ and legs’ movements favoring the descent that he didn’t even intend to do.

His face was sudden the only part of his body still above the surface, and Daiko started panicking a little. He didn’t want to look like such a fool to Alisa, but at the same time, he was in desperate need of some advice. “S-S-Sinking, again…”

WC: 406
TWC: 1467

The way Alisa propelled herself towards him made it seem all too easy to swim. He tried bending his legs by the knees to propel himself upwards, but it was a rather weak advancement. He tried one more time… nothing. Fair, he felt like his actions were futile and that he would need a miracle to learn how to swim. It all rested upon Alisa to show him how to fare the waters with grace and balance.

And, uh… he began listening closely. According to his Guildmaster, keeping his lungs filled with air helped him float above the surface. Given his previous efforts, he was a little exhausted - moving underwater was more tiring than on land - so he had to put some effort into bringing enough air into his lungs via a long, vacuum-like inhaling. He grabbed Alisa’s gentle hand out of fear that he would accidently sink while pulling in air, but she assured him that he just had to focus on his legs for now.

He felt his chest rise up to the surface again as it was filled with air. Keeping his mouth shut and his cheeks filled with air too, he noticed that Alisa was swimming backwards slowly. It must’ve been a prompt for him to swim along and test his swimming skills again, in which he closed his eyes and basked his legs. His face got submerged underwater again, but differently from before, it didn’t sink deeper than just under the surface. His back still felt fresh air from above the waves, and so did his legs and feet a few times as they basked up.

He lifted his head back up from underwater again and revealed his packed cheeks to Alisa, whose whole and elegant body led him along the waves like a mermaid luring a drowning sailor to their death. He felt confident that he could swim now and noticed after a while that he didn’t need to hold his breath all the time, but he could merely reach for air once in a while as quickly as possible to refill his lungs.

“I’m… starting to get the hang…-“

He got brave and basked more with his legs to propel himself forward at a faster pace. Although his face was underwater at the moment, he had full faith in Alisa and that she didn’t just swim out to the open sea or something and still stayed near the shore. He hadn’t spotted any fish just yet, but he was looking… while, obviously, keeping his breath under check.

In the meantime, Coda was sunbathing on the beach sand…

WC: 436
TWC: 1903

Yeah… he was getting the hang of it by now. His feet did most of the work, but he gently darted across the waves like a fresh, new swimmer… it reminded him of back when he swam from Hargeon to one of the neighboring islands during his training journey with Kái. It was… the more he thought of his past, the more embarrassed he became of how he forgot how to swim so quickly. He shook his head on the surface of the ocean to wash away his thoughts and focus on learning how to keep himself afloat.

“T-This easy?!” he let out after having given his progress some thought, “H-How did I forget how to do this…?” He got a bit of saltwater in his mouth and spat it out, not enjoying the salty but dry taste in his mouth. If saltwater rushing through your throat was uncomfortable, then what happened next topped it by a margin.

Underwater, between the legs of both Blue Pegasi, a 30 cm long cod basked and somehow decided that now of all times was the perfect hour to seek shelter in a cave. The cave that it was targeting was the waving space in Daiko’s swimming trunks, so without warning, it put some more force into its bask on its back fin and torpedoed itself into his trunks, almost pulling it off of his hips. Queue the shock…

“B-BLEUEGH! M-MY *blurp* P-PANTS *bluuuurgh*” he coughed out loudly. The force from the cod’s torpedo move sent an electric shock through his body, and in quick reflex, he pulled his hands that Alisa was so gently holding for him back in one, quick swipe to try to grab his trunks. His head submerged underwater, and his salty eyes caught a glimpse of the back fin still exposed as well as the dorsal fin of the cod poking his swimming trunks. In utter panic, he barrel rolled underwater to try and get it off, but it only helped the cod conceal its whole body under his dark-green trunks.

“*Bluuuuuurgh!!!*”

What did she mean by debaucharous?! He wasn’t doing any of this on purpose - really, he could’ve sworn that that fish was acting on its own agenda! Now Daiko just wanted to eat it for dinner later, but that required actually getting a grasp of the fish without, uh… without any accidents down south. He stuck his head out of the surface of the water for a brief moment to hear some of Alisa’s quips, which only embarrassed him even more.
 
As he was about to be pulled away by the ridiculously strong fish, he spotted the crystalline spear handed to him by Alisa. That would work so much better underwater than his Fire Magic, so he quickly grabbed it and began eyeing the fish’s contour sticking out of his trunks- oh fuck, shit, no! His trunks were about to rip!
 
His breath caused bubbles to escape his mouth as he shouted underwater the silenced words ‘die’ as he lunged the spear through his trunks. He was aiming for the fish, yes, but it was difficult moving the spear underwater, and the fish still got away! His teeth grinded in rage as he planned to follow, but he needed some more air, so he quickly used what Alisa had taught him and… well…
 
Was it the same? Swimming across the surface and swimming underwater? Wait, no, it couldn’t possibly be the same. Then again, he… he…
 
He was panicking! He couldn’t just stay down here without air! He had to do something…!
 
He let his feet propel him up and focused on holding in the air he had left in his lungs, and sloooooooooowly, he began ascending to the surface again until he broke the layer with a gasp. Coughing some water out, he shook his head and looked around, quickly diving his head down to spot the fish swimming towards some coral reeves… WITH HIS TRUNKS!
 
“…” His hair flared up immediately; deep-red flames signaled his utter anger at the fish that stole his swimming trunks and left him with such a heavy weight of embarrassment in front of his friend. He couldn’t let Alisa see him! He had to be quick and go after it before it disappeared, so without any break, he spoke: “I, uh, got the hang of it, I think, it stole my pants, wait here, don’t look, PLEASE STAY HERE!”
 
With that said, he dove down again to hunt it down. This time, he wouldn’t hold back any of his magical prowess… but that was rather futile as his Fire Magic just turned to warm bubbles underwater. The way it propelled him, though… that was useful! His feet released the same jets of fire that he usually used midair for flexibility, and it torpedoed him towards the reeves where he spotted many sea creatures; clown fish, moray eels, crabs, sea stars- there it was! The giant fish was holding his swimming trunks in its mouth and swam across the reeves with him trying to stab it down.
 
…
 
He managed to return to Alisa at the surface, but he was gasping for air like he had ran a thousand miles. The fish was stuck through the spear that Alisa handed to him, and he had his trunks back on again… or well, he was in the middle of putting it on.
 
“Hng… t-there. Stupid fish is served…” he spoke with pride as he took a chump off of the fish’s scaly body with his omnivore teeth. He needed a pick-me-up after his embarrassing scenario… and, uh, his trunks were ripped almost in two. Would be fun if he realized that sometime…

No, please, no, he was fine with, uh… his injured swimming trunks. Ones made of crystal would poke him in the wrong places, and he wouldn’t want any of that. Now that he thought about it, it felt rather cold underneath the belt line, but he shook it off as the change in the water’s temperature. The fish tasted pretty salty, a taste that he wasn’t used to as most of the fish he used to eat in Worth Woodsea came from lakes with freshwater. The salt planted on the fish’s body gave it a strong spiciness that he became very fond of.
 
Although Alisa wasn’t a big fan of his eating habits, in which he rose an eyebrow at her direction. There was nothing wrong with eating raw fish, was there? The fish was basically meant to be eaten raw, and in his defense, sushi existed. Sighing sadly, he followed her suggestion and approached the shore as it was time for a break…
 
The cozy sand under his feet was refreshing and relieving. He was no more out in the unpredictable sea, and he had some solid foothold that made his courage spray out. No fish could embarrass him here, and he felt like a warrior who had overcome a dangerous task and came back home victorious.
 
While Alisa asked him to go get wood, he was half-listening. Something about her adjusting her signature swimsuit with her fingers and seeing the fabric hugging her skin distracted him from many of the words that she spoke to him. It was when she mentioned ‘sticks’ that he came to his senses and replied: “Sticks… oh, wood, sure…!” He darted off towards some greening further into the land from the shore, and since just a couple of sticks would do, he brought himself three long sticks that were found on the ground. Birds had been using them for building their nests, and overtime, they just fell down after usage.
 
…
 
“… Ohhhhhhhhhh, no, no, no, no-“ he began panicking in the middle of picking up the branches. He had now realized that there was a gaping hole in his swimming trunks, and from the space between the flakes, his manhood could swing forth into the light. His face reddened up despite his dark nuance, and his hair lit up in a pink fire out of embarrassment. “Shit, did she see? What can I do…?” he mumbled in fear as he looked around, his first thought being to go get some leaves to cover up.
 
…
 
As he returned with the branches, the pink fire was still on and his face was still blushing while his eyes were lowered in what looked like remorse and guilt. His trunks were patched up with wide leaves that he pulled off from some of the palm trees, so upon observation, it would be clear to notice why he looked so down. He could barely say a word, while Coda landed on the sandy floor and cawed at his arrival...

It always ended like this, huh...?

-EXIT-