As I orient myself I can feel the water still rushing about me, and then the sudden support of my dance partner’s nose on my shoulder. Once I’ve cleared my airways I grin up at him in thanks. The rain slicks my growing mane against my neck and I snort drops off the end of my nose before giving my head a quick toss. If the red mare were here, it’d be complaints all the way from here to the far side of the shore about how miserably wet everything was. I, however, enjoy it, and stamp my little hooves in the water to splash more at my friend.
His offer to teach me to swim makes me gasp and romp in a quick circle before him before he directs me up out of the water and along the shore. In my excitement I race ahead of him, then rush back to chatter excitedly about everything I’ll be able to do once I’ve mastered moving through FatherSound. "Do you know how big the ocean is? I could swim all the way to the other end of it, easy, once I’m as big as you! The red mare says there’s a big place farther than I can see and the land stretches for days and days and days and there is no water like FatherSound once you get in far enough, but smaller pools and stuff she called lakes which are still pretty big but different I guess, but I’ve seen the shadow of an island off the west coast when the sky is clearest and I want to go there first, wherever it is, because the red mare also said that there’s a few islands around here and they’re all pretty different and, I know she’s kinda mean, but she’s right about a lot of stuff, too, so I don’t think she’s lying, but even if she is, I mean, I’l be able to go find out for myself, right? Yeah," I grin and rush ahead of him again, spotting a curve in the beach that I just have to get around to see what’s up ahead.
The rain has, at this point, slowed, though it still patters down all around us. It seems the storm has abated and we’re experiencing the last bits of it as it passes over the island and retreats back to sea. I send a fervent, happy wish that it strikes the shores of wherever the red mare has gone off to, to keep her at bay for a little while longer. I stop and wait for my friend as soon as I see where we were headed. Extending out into the ocean is something like a rocky arm coming out of the island that seems to cup the water to the shore. The waves are calmer here, the water a little easier to see through. I glance over my shoulder at the golden stallion and dance in place, excited and impatient to learn how to conquer the water with his aid. |