[DTA] Chasing Waves

The sun hung high, and the rim of the islands was once again flooded with summer heat. Shallow waves lapped at the sandy shores, and seafowl circled up ahead, squawking and yelling, ready to harass any unfortunate soul for even a scrap of food. For any land-locked fools, noon wasn’t the time to play at the beach. The sand was scorching hot thanks to the sun’s brutal rays, and there wasn’t anything worth risking burning their feet besides reaching the refreshing water.

Paddle didn’t have to worry about any of that. The atopo was contentedly sifting through the reef's soil for nutrients and grazing on the fields of seagrass. The summer weather warmed the water too, but it was a gentle embrace rather than intense pressure. It wasn’t too deep this close to the shore, but it wasn’t as uncomfortable as the heated rocks and sediment bathed in the angry sun’s rays.

Lost in her routine, she thought no terrestrial critter would come to swim at this time, but did her senses deceive her? The sound of swift footfall along the beach made her pause. Coaxed by curiosity, she breached the surface, sticking her wide snout out of the water to look at the shores and squinting against the bright light.

For a moment, she just blinked at the lanky figure running across the hot sands. What she saw was not an unreasonably large seagull but a dinosaur of sorts beelining it for the water.

She has never seen anyone like this. Small, not as small as her, but smaller than other dinosaurs she knew. They were lanky and evidently nimble on their feet. No, wait a moment. She does recognise the shape, but not the colour. Is that? It looks like the Shopkeeper, if he were particularly bald and pale.

Before she could ponder any longer, she had to duck into the waves again as the stranger practically launched himself into the water near her to escape the heat. Swimming to a deeper end of the reef and turning her head to the surface, for a moment, she could only make out his splashing limbs and the ripples of the waves.

The stranger let out a relieved sigh as he vigorously paddled along to stay afloat, oblivious of the aquatic critter eyeing his energetic kicks from below. He seemed to have fun, splashing around in the cooler waters, but not quite accustomed to the waves trying to push him back ashore. He just kept treading the waters, pleased to be submerged in it as is.

His clumsy fight against the ocean currents summoned a smile onto Paddle’s face. Who knew a strange, lanky thing could swim so assured and unpoised at the same time? It wasn’t graceful, but it was with an energy that was contagious. Paddle couldn’t help but watch him from different angles under the sea, while he held his head high and spirits unperturbed.

Finding the courage to approach him, she drew closer. Circling him once, then twice, just enough to make him pause at the movement below, she breached the surface again to face him.

“Hi,” she greeted him, careful and small, as if she got a little distracted seeing him this up close.

The sandy oviraptor jerked his head back in surprise, and his paddling stalled a moment long enough to dip him neck-deep into the water. Picking the pace up again, he regarded her with baffled confusion. He glanced behind him, and back at her, before returning a slow “Hello?”

It might’ve been his delivery or just the shape of him, but his response made Paddle giggle. Riding the low waves, she circled him again, splashing along in high arcs with her paddle feet.

His eyes followed her movements, watching her lean into the waves to carry her a little forward, and paddling in rhythm. If he wasn’t mistaken, she was mimicking him! He gave a short shake of his head, droplets flicking from his beak, the bafflement still plain on his face. With a grin tugging at his beak, he swiped at the water and sent a spray of salty ocean spray her way.

She squeaked in laughter as his spray caught her across the snout, and with a playful flick of her paddle tail, she sent a splash right back. He squawked out a short laugh, but before he could even think of sending another attack, she slipped beneath the surface. She popped up behind him, daring him to keep up as she darted away a short distance.

Caught in play, the oviraptor dashed after her with surprising efficiency for a land-bound animal. The waves still shoved him around some, especially as their game of chase-and-tag pushed them to deeper ends of the reef.

With an idea striking Paddle, she dipped back under the surface to continue playing beneath. The currents here were a gentle push and pull, rather than something that crashes in one’s face. To her delighted surprise, her new playmate caught the cue and followed suit.

Their game continued as they chased one another around the reef in a dive, surfacing in rhythm to take a breather and splash one another with delightfully clear seawater, before venturing below again in circles and carefree paddling.

Both breach the water surface again, and this time remain floating on the waves to catch their breath. She could keep going, but judging by the way he was panting, as good a swimmer as he was, he wasn’t built with an atopodentatus’s lung capacity.

“You’re really good at this!” Paddle laughed, light and full of whimsy. With a smile, she took the moment to regard the stranger and his striped face. “You must swim a lot. Are you new around here?”

“I- You can say that, yeah,” he answered after a breath. He let out a short chuckle. “I have never seen such a large lake. It looks like I can just swim forever and never reach the other side.”

Paddle tilted her head to one side, then the other, before letting out another amused giggle. Lake, he said. With a shake of her T-shaped snout, she filled him in.
“This is the ocean, silly! Only water all the way! Maybe don’t swim too far out, these islands are the only solid ground for miles.”

With that, she dipped backwards, crashing into an incoming wave, before popping up again beside him. Looking him in the eye, she found she couldn’t quite read his expression, but something changed in the way he carried himself. His eyes didn’t meet hers, but when his brows shot up fast, it appeared he had just recalled something.

Maybe he’d hold onto his optimism if she didn’t stray too close for comfort or didn’t stare so insistently. A look to the sky, a swift glance back at the beach, and it didn’t take him even a second before his confident pace turned to a frantic thrash back towards the shore before Paddle could process it. His escape benefited from the previously unwelcome shove of the waves as he was thrown onto the shoreline. Heaving himself out of the water, letting sand cling to his wet scales, he sprang up to his feet to jump from foot to foot. Seems the sand soaked up even more heat in the time they were playing, or maybe he just much preferred the water after all. Just one brief look back at her, and he ran.

“Huh- Hey, wait up!” Paddle called out as the stranger gunned it across the perceived floor of lava again and gave chase to the shore. She didn’t mean to scare the stranger away. She didn’t think she could, considering her size and lack of weaponry. She doesn’t have claws or fangs, nor was her stature threatening any. They had fun, right? Was it something she said?

“I am sorry!” She called after him, although she was certain she had done nothing wrong. In the water, she could’ve caught up to him, but once she was swept onto the wet edge of the shore, it was no use. She could only see his departure.

“Aww… They’re gone.” Stretching her neck a little higher above the waves lapping at her stranded body, Paddle scans the sandy shore for the equally warm-coloured oviraptor. Sadly, she could only make out the trail of footprints he left behind, disappearing behind a shallow hill.
”I didn’t even catch their name.”

[1407 words according to Google Docs]