 He powered through the water; first stroke, second stroke, third stroke, and breathe. Dylan turned his head to suck in air and then plunged his face back into the water, propelled onwards by his kicking feet; first stroke, second stroke, third stroke, breathe. With a final exerted effort Dylan slammed his hand into the bank. Resurfacing he threw up his arm and slammed the top of the stop watching sitting in the grass and few inches away from the edge of the lake. He curled the fingers of his right hand into the reeds to hold himself steady as he held the watch in his left and peered down at the time. It was good.
"YES!" he enthused, throwing down the watch and slapping the surface of the water in triumph. Lunarian looked up from his nap in the shade of a nearby strawberry bush. "Personal best," Dylan explained with a grin, "knocked a whole second off yesterday's time." His tiger smiled back at him.
Satisfied, Dylan climbed out of the lake and collected the stopwatch and retrieved his towel from the branch of the nearest apple tree. He threw it over his shoulder and turned back towards Lunarian. Something thudded as it dropped from a great height and landed on the grass behind him. Dylan wheeled around in alarm, and found himself face to face with a girl. She was his age, with mousey brown hair which came just past her chin. She wore denim shorts and a khaki vest.
"You're good," she said matter-of-factly, "not as good as me, of course." Dylan frowned. She was tall for a girl, but very skinny. He was sure he had more upper body strength; he'd been working out for a while!
"Urm...thanks?" he replied, at a loss for anything else to say "you are...?"
"Rosie," the girl replied, holding out her hand for him to shake, "and you're Dylan, brother of Flynn, Captain of the guard!" She giggled, and Dylan wasn't sure if she was mocking him.
"Nice to meet you?" Rosie laughed again.
"Do you turn everything you say into a question?" Dylan shook his head.
"Only in exceptional circumstances." Rosie grinned at him.
"I think that's the nicest thing anyone's ever called me," she teased, punching him in the arm, "I'll meet you here at this time tomorrow and we'll race!" He didn't have chance to accept or decline before she started sprinting off across the grass back towards the castle. Dylan stood looking after her with his mouth open.
"You make a wonderful codfish," a warm voice said from somewhere on his left.
"Oh," Dylan said, looking around, "it's you." he reached for his towel and began to dry his hair as he wandered back towards the lake. Henry followed him.
"Who is she?" he asked. Dylan shook his head.
"Rosie...I don't know anything more than that. She wants a race." Henry fell into stride beside him.
"Are you going to accept?"
"I suppose so." Dylan crouched down and pulled on his t-shirt. It was wonderfully warm from being left in the sunlight. "Look, Henry," he began, planting his feet and looking up into his brother's face, "I'm glad you're back, for Renn's sake, but I'm not really in the market for another brother. I've enough trouble with the one's I've already got."
As if on cue, there was a loud bang from the castle gardens, and a plume of smoke billowed up into the air. Dylan and Henry shared a look and sprinted towards it.
Dylan
caught in the middle of this dysfunction |
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