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Post by Noa on May 5, 2019 11:28:45 GMT -6
There was no sign of Azalea anywhere within the confines of the pool, though of course she must have been there. She was, as far as Rabbit was aware, the pool’s only resident, another half breed and bonded to Aster. He had informed Rabbit that he would tell Azalea to avoid them, but Rabbit took a cursory scan of her surroundings just to be sure.
She couldn’t tell where Azalea was hiding. That was good enough for her.
The creature with her was still meandering, and taking in his surroundings with an air of studied disinterest, but he was brought up short when Rabbit stepped into the water. She could see out of her peripheral monitors that his eyes had snapped to her, but if he was concerned for her sake, he needn’t have bothered. She was waterproof. She was not necessarily very buoyant, despite being hollow, but she would not be harmed by water.
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Post by Noa on May 5, 2019 11:28:59 GMT -6
After all, there were a good deal of aquatic creatures in the area, and a TROD would not be very useful if it was limited to land.
When she was up to her knees in water, she turned around to look at him. “Will you come in?” she said. “This will make it easier.”
There was no response from the creature--- at least, none in terms of taking her up on her offer. He merely stood at the water’s edge. Another thought occurred to her. “Are you afraid? It is only water. It cannot harm you.”
If the creature understood her, it did not rise to the challenge. Rabbit waded in further, still thinking of how she might entice it to come in. The idea of swimming had a great deal of merit in theory, but if the creature would not enter the water willingly, then she wasn’t sure if it could be accomplished.
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Post by Noa on May 5, 2019 11:29:18 GMT -6
She did not think she had the capacity to force it in, which wouldn’t have been conducive to positive relations anyway; and she had found nothing thus far that she could really bribe him with either.
But as she was pondering this, she heard a splash. Turning, she was treated to the sight of the creature making his way through the shallow water. He did so with one great lunge, then minced his way like an unhappy feline, picking his legs up high and shaking various parts of his body at irregular intervals.
If she had had the capacity for humor, she might have found this amusing. As it was, she stood still for a moment to watch him make his way in. He stopped within a short distance of her, breathing hard and giving her a look. She could not tell whether it was meant to reproach or to convey resentment, but it certainly did not express pleasure.
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Post by Noa on May 5, 2019 11:29:38 GMT -6
“Thank you,” she said instead.
The creature huffed, and made a not very graceful turn, walking deliberately toward the shore once more. After a few steps, he stopped and turned to her, again with the unhappy look.
He must have meant to urge her to return with him, and she wasn’t doing as he wished. She put this together, and was a little puzzled herself at it. Did this, then, convey that on some level, the creature was trying to ensure her well being?
On the other hand, she was also his consistent source of food and favors. Perhaps he was merely interested in her continued survival for more pragmatic reasons. Regardless, it was not exactly a bribe, but it was possible that she could use this to her advantage.
She did not stay where she was, but moved parallel to the shore, so that she was no closer to coming out of the water for all that she was walking.
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Post by Noa on May 5, 2019 11:30:11 GMT -6
The creature watched her at this a while, then began moving to keep pace with her. At first, and in fact for quite some time, his movements had a sense of urgency to them, as though it was at least somewhat important that he keep within reach of her, whatever his specific reasons for doing so might have been. He did not move in deeper, but he maintained the same distance from her, ostensibly to keep her within easy reach if something went awry.
But eventually, when nothing happened, he seemed to realize that he was being manipulated, at which point he stopped and exhaled sharply. It was not quite a snarl, but he was clearly unhappy about being led on, or however he chose to frame what she had done.
“The water is good for you,” said Rabbit. “Walking in it will make you stronger. Do you not wish to be stronger?”
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Post by Noa on May 5, 2019 11:30:40 GMT -6
He turned away from her, but Rabbit merely waited. Time and patience were both things which she had in great supply. She had other duties to attend to, of course, but they were generally not duties from which she absolutely could not be spared; and they were hardly so numerous that they occupied her whole day, or even half as much. This was especially true because she didn’t require sleep.
Moreover, this was already a great deal of activity all at once for the creature, who after all was recovering his strength; and she did not want to strain him too much. Letting him rest was well within her interests too.
At length, he deigned to look at her again, and Rabbit took this as his acquiesce, whether he meant it to be or not. “Very well,” she said, and began walking again, at a slow and idle pace, so as to make it easier on him.
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Post by Noa on May 5, 2019 11:30:51 GMT -6
He did not respond immediately, and there was a distinct grumble when he did, but in the end he did as she had wished, and followed alongside her.
In this manner, they walked for perhaps half an hour, with a slight break in between, before she returned with him to the barn.
This became another part of their routine. The creature could hardly be said to be happy about this development, but perhaps he had noticed the effectiveness; after the first few days, he did not resist the idea of it, even if he continued to look reluctant at the water’s edge each time. As his condition improved, the stretches of time they spent in the water lengthened, and on occasion they would make multiple trips a day. Sometimes she would go with him on a walk over land instead, wandering around the more quiet, secluded portions of the rambling property that Aster owned.
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Post by Noa on May 5, 2019 11:31:34 GMT -6
When he had grown strong enough, Rabbit decided to try something else. They were at the pond once more, and the creature had grown accustomed to the general pattern of what they did there. He went out a certain distance, until the water reached his chest, and stayed there to wait for her to begin.
This time, Rabbit did not. Instead, Rabbit waded even deeper into the pond.
The creature’s eyes widened. He didn’t move yet, so Rabbit wandered in even deeper, until the water went over her head. There she waited for a moment, watching the creature--- or more specifically, his legs--- to see what he would do.
He stayed still a moment, perhaps waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, he waded in with great ungainly lunges again, one thrashing jump after another in quick succession.
He really had no grace in the water, she thought.
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Post by Noa on May 5, 2019 11:32:18 GMT -6
The creature had some height on her, and his neck was long on top of that, so his full height was, while not gargantuan, still considerable. She had to go in quite a ways for him to be submerged enough that he would have to swim, instead of merely walking along the bottom of the pool. She was fortunate in that she did not need to breathe, and given her weight, it was all too easy for her to stay submerged. When the creature had finally reached a depth where his feet could no longer make contact with the ground, he began flailing at once.
Rabbit turned on her propulsive wings, the ones that permitted her to fly, just enough to bring herself to the water’s surface and stay there. She grasped the creature’s head. “Be easy,” she said. “I will not let you drown. But you must relax.”
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Post by Noa on May 5, 2019 11:33:05 GMT -6
A touch when he was already agitated was something of a gamble on Rabbit's part. He could have reacted badly to it, and lashed out in retaliation. This was within Rabbit’s expectations, but in fact, the creature did not do as she expected. She felt him tense, but only for a moment; he seemed to recognize her, and while he did not exactly relax, he did stop his thrashing. He was still, or mostly still, and only breathing hard. They stayed like that for a moment as Rabbit waited for him to stabilize himself.
“Very good,” she said. He did have some innate buoyancy himself after all; she had at least in part been doing this to ascertain that he did. He was still wearing his armor, but it must have been lighter than it looked. When he was still and almost relaxed, he still did not sink to the bottom.
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Post by Noa on May 5, 2019 11:33:26 GMT -6
“We will begin moving now,” she said. Ever so gently, she moved back slightly. The reaction was immediate and profound: at once, the creature began moving urgently, a motion that involved his whole body. Even his wings beat irregularly, and not in any particularly gainful way.
Rabbit stopped.
“No,” she said. “You will tire yourself out, and perhaps hurt yourself. Keep your wings tucked in, like so.” With one hand, she eased one of his wings back to his side, then switched hands and did the same with the other.
Here in the water, with her holding his head, he didn’t have quite the same presence that he did on land. He felt more like an undertaking, a creature well and truly within her care. She had no doubt that if she let him go, he could have made it to shore; they were only barely past the point where he could walk, after all.
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Post by Noa on May 5, 2019 11:33:55 GMT -6
And now that he had seen that she was not drowning, there was no need for him to stay with her, not that she imagined he could actually have done her much good if she had been. Nevertheless, he remained. “We will go slowly,” she said. “You need only move your legs a little. I will not let you drown.”
And with that warning, she did move back slightly again. This time, she could see the creature making an effort not to move the way he had done before. His wings quivered, but did not unfurl, and though his legs were still raking through the water with wide, hurried movements, at least it was not so bad as before.
“Yes,” she said, for it was an improvement. She imagined that with time, he would find a more efficient tempo. Right now, she merely wanted him to get a sense that he could move through the water in a controlled, purposeful way.
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Post by Noa on May 5, 2019 11:34:13 GMT -6
They continued on in this fashion for a little while, and then she guided him back to shallower waters. This was enough, for the first day. By the end of it, there was beginning to be something resembling a rhythm to how the creature moved his legs, and that was good enough.
The trouble turned out to be getting him to try it again. The next day, he moved even more slowly than usual as they made their way to the water. At first, Rabbit thought that he must have been tired. But his movements did not seem to pain him, and the look in his eyes was alert enough. He went out until the water hit his chest, and no further. And Rabbit knew she could not trick him again.
“Swimming is a useful skill,” she said. “And you will become better at it with time.”
He did not look convinced.
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Post by Noa on May 5, 2019 11:34:45 GMT -6
Just then, a sound caught their attention, and Rabbit turned away to look. She didn’t see what had caused it, only ripples, but a moment later, it happened again. This time, she registered it, and knew it at once for what it was: Azalea’s head, peeking up from across the pool, watching them.
Aster might have been concerned for her sake, but in their present state, Rabbit would have told him that his fears were misplaced. The creature she was caring for could no more catch Azalea in her watery home than he could prepare a five course meal for a dinner party. He could barely swim.
Azalea must have realized this too. She was no great wit the way that Summer or Rabbit’s companion was, but even she must have been able to tell an adept swimmer from a poor one, if only for the purposes of determining what was dangerous, and what might be good prey.
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Post by Noa on May 5, 2019 11:35:01 GMT -6
She knew better than to play with them, for Aster would have warned her about that, but she could observe them from afar with little fear.
She could, evidently, tease them a little too; Azalea jumped up and dove back down several times, and there were often considerable distances between where she went down and where she popped back up. In the water, almost nothing matched her for speed.
Rabbit turned to look at the creature standing by the shore, and found him watching Azalea.
Then, very deliberately, he waded further into the pool. Once he had gotten submerged up to his neck, he looked at Rabbit expectantly.
“Oh,” said Rabbit. “Yes. We can begin now if you would like.” When he did not protest, she went to hold his head again.
He willingly levered himself off the bottom this time, so she didn’t have to take him out to where that was no longer an option for him.
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