Swim Instructor Swavelli

As summer rolled in, the land and sea became warmer, and if given the choice, Swavelli always chose the sea.

To her, warm air was oppressive; it settled on her shoulders like a great tower of stones, pinning her beneath its weight. A hot day on land meant she was doomed to sloth until a cloud came by and passed over the sun, granting her some reprieve.

The ocean was another story. A warm ocean was a cuddle from Seffe’s feathered pelt, a hip-bump from Heron. It was a welcoming embrace, an invitation to lose herself in the waves.

She was in the middle of enjoying a soak, with only her nostrils and eyes peeking out from above the water. A perfect, serene soak as her legs kicked lazily beneath her, surrounded by that warm embrace.

Then she noticed a golden oviraptor taking careful steps along the shore.

She couldn’t help but stare; she’d heard of the newcomers, but she’d never seen one before. And practically on her doorstep, too! Seffe was probably nosing through crab shells right now, just out of sight… oblivious to the danger…

But Seffe was the one that asked her to not jump to conclusions about the oviraptors. As suspicious as she found the sudden appearance of a new species, she was willing to put that out of her mind, for now, for his sake.

The oviraptor’s spiked skin fit in well with the sandy beach; if Swavelli didn’t specialize in spotting exactly that sort of camouflage, she doubted she would have spotted him. The ovi himself, however, didn’t seem built for the beach at all. His eyes were locked on the small waves lapping at the shore (to the point that he didn’t notice the suchomimus staring at him), but he acted deathly afraid of it. He could walk close when it receded, nose to the ground with eyes full of curiosity, and he’d jump away as soon as it returned. Like a hatchling.

Was he a hatchling? He was a bit bigger than Seffe. How big were oviraptors supposed to be?

Swavelli had no idea, but she was moved by the sight of the hydrophobic oviraptor. Mostly by pity. But still, she couldn’t leave him there to his… whatever it was he was doing.

Slowly, deliberately, Swavelli swam to the shore, giving him ample opportunity to notice her as she approached. It still took a shockingly long time for him to notice her.

“Take it easy,” she said, poking her head above the surface. Her feet had struck land and she began to haul herself out of the water. “I’m not hungry.”

“Oh,” he said, and said nothing else. He watched her with the same mix of apprehension and wonder as he had the sea.

“You act like you’ve never seen the ocean before.” Or a suchomimus.

“Ah. Well, I haven’t. Or, I suppose, I’ve seen it, but never so close.”

That came as a surprise; she hadn’t been born by the ocean, and hadn’t seen it until she’d gone through weeks of traveling, but when she heard that the oviraptors were new to the islands, she imagined that they’d come from an island of their own… but if this one had never seen the ocean—and his actions certainly proved that he hadn’t—maybe their origin laid somewhere else.

“I don’t know how you do it,” the oviraptor said, wringing his long-fingered hands nervously.

“Do what?”

“Swimming.”

“You’ve never even swam before? Wherever you come from, you must have had water somewhere. A river, or a lake…”

“Of course we did! I just… never wanted to swim then.”

“But you want to swim now?”

“No? Maybe? I didn’t really care when it was just ponds and rivers. But the ocean is… it’s different.”

What a rambler this oviraptor was. It was starting to get on her nerves.

“What’s your name?” she asked him, lowering her head.

He took a step back, but didn’t bolt. Yet. “…Hippocampus.”

“Hippocampus. I’m Swavelli. If you want to swim, I’ll teach you. But you have to decide right now.”

#

Swavelli was a little surprised that he agreed. He seemed too flighty to take a step out of his comfort zone, but here they were, standing up to his knees in pleasantly warm saltwater. It wasn’t really swimming, but it was a start.

“It’s like it’s alive,” Hippocampus whispered.

“What?”

“The ocean. With the way it ebbs and flows, and laps at the shore… Not at all like a lake.”

Swavelli had never thought of it that way. Not in those words, at least. But it was true that the ocean was very different from the stagnant swamp she’d hatched in. She much preferred it this way.

“Well, the ocean won’t eat you.” That wasn’t entirely true, but she wanted to get things moving. “Take a few steps further in. When the land disappears beneath you, paddle with your legs.” She stepped around him until she was floating. “Like this.”

He looked startled at the idea, like he’d forgotten that he was here to learn to swim, not to philosophize. “You make it look so easy.”

Swavelli shrugged. Why couldn’t it have been Seffe that found him? He was so much better with words… Then again, the thought of him and Hippocampus prattling off with each other was a bit frightening. Maybe it was for the best.

Seeing that he wasn’t going to get an answer out of her, Hippocampus took a deep breath, and began to wade through the water. He didn’t have the conviction of a seasoned swimmer; his steps were cautious, and the ocean pushed back at him whenever it could. But, slowly, he made his way into the depths. As one foot sank into the water, he gasped and fell into the sea.

Swavelli quickly caught him with her snout and hauled him back to the surface. Hippocampus coughed and sputtered, shaking violently as he clung to her.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes,” he coughed, “I think so.”

“We can stop if you want.”

“No, no! I can do this!” In a surprisingly sudden movement, he launched himself off of her and threw himself back into the water.

Swavelli watched, a bit impressed, a bit full of pity again, as he splashed and flailed; he was keeping his head above the water.

She was in for an unexpectedly long summer day. At least she could spend it all in the sea.