Seasonal | Burned Out | Warm Columns

Laohu | Dillyweed

315 Words

The water had slowly gotten warmer. It was hard to pinpoint why as the Aristo swam around the bare seabed. It wasn’t the same warmth as the current kept. And as he swam he could feel the water get warmer and warmer to the extent as to almost burning him.
He paused for a moment. Swimming slowly in a eight figure at the edge of the warm water. He wanted to explore it. He wanted to know why the water was practically burning. But would he? There was something telling him to stay away. That this wasn’t something he was used to, and that is true. Usually when something was hot under the water it was a current with heated water. He had swam in many of them. This however was more like a radiating warmth. Something that expanded. 

Laohu was trying to decide on what to do as he saw the shadow of something in the corner of his eye. He whipped around in the water. Much more agile than his body seemed to be capable of, but when it came to the water he was a natural swimmer. He let his eyes scan the area around him. He was sure that he had seen something, he just wasn’t sure what he had seen. Whenever you saw something in the distance in the sea it was hard to tell size apart. 
Suddenly the shadow came back into sight. He narrowed his eyes as he watched it, peddling in place just for a moment to steady himself as he watched. Another Aristo, just like him. Before he even realised he had started moving forward towards it. It seemed as curious about the heat as he was. He tried to get into sight of the other Aristo when he saw another shadow move. There were two of them. Both Aristos? He couldn’t tell at the moment. 

Kaffe & Chippy | Zhetan

468 Words

The water was so incredibly dark at this depth, but it didn’t scare the young adult brown aristo at all. Especially not when she had her sister with her. The pair loved exploring, so when one of them had suggested travelling further away from the islands, and deeper into the ocean, it had been met with mostly excitement, even if they at first also had been nervous. Who knew what could be out there? But as they had traversed deeper into the darkening ocean, and the water slowly got cooler and cooler, the nervousness had melted away.
“What do you think we’ll find?” Kaffe wondered, they had started following warm water to, well somewhere. It had caught their attention as it stood in stark contrast to how cold the rest of the deep ocean was, and they hadn’t even needed to ask the other if they wanted to explore this new thing. It had been a given for both of them.
“Maybe it’s from a giant monster’s breath” Chippy replied with a playful tone, though she didn’t really believe it, it made her slightly nervous again. So when a silhouette suddenly appeared in her sights she couldn’t help but shriek. Kaffe and the stranger both seemed to startle a little at her noise, and she laughed at her own jumpyness when she saw it was just another Aristo, like the two of them. He seemed at an impasse, teetering on the edge of the warmer water that didn’t seem like a current. Like he couldn’t quite decide to explore it. Maybe they had interrupted him
“Sorry” Chippy apologized a little embarrassed “I didn’t see you there” Kaffe nudged her with a flipper.
 “Gosh you scared me Chippy” she chided her sister, light heartedly “And this poor soul…” she looked at him expectantly, waiting for a name. “Laohu” he volunteered “..Laohu” she finished her own sentence, slightly mispronouncing his name, even though she did her best. 
 “I’m Kaffe, and this is my sister Chippy” as if there were any question about their familial bonds just looking at them. 
 “Are you also investigating where the warm water comes from?” Chippy chimed in her question. Curiously looking to the stranger, but not really waiting for him to answer before adding “-You can come with us if you want, we are going to see where it leads!” He seemed to ponder this, looking back down the deep where the hot water came from, and then back to them before nodding once. “Okay”
“Great!” Kaffe exclaimed cheerfully, in her mind there was no reason to not trust a stranger, and Laohu immediately was counted in as a friend. She smiled at him, as she continued toward the source of this strange warmth, letting him join up next to them in the warm column.

Laohu | Dillyweed

318 Words

It was quite clear when he met the two Aristos that they were siblings. Or at the very least blood related. They even seemed to move in a way that indicated they knew each other better than simply just friends. 
Kaffe didn’t really leave much room as she spoke. Sometimes he didn’t even manage to get a word out before she continued. But they didn’t seem bad, neither of them. They were young, like him, and friendly.
“I am curious as to what could make this heat,” he said as he placed a fin closer to the heat, “it’s as if it’s radiating from something in the middle. I can’t really put my fin on it.” He ended it with a drawn out hmm as he followed the two siblings into the warm after a few seconds, catching up with them with ease. 
“It’s not like any currents I’ve ever felt before. This is like a type of still heat.” He had always been a bit curious. Wanting to understand just how things worked or what caused certain things. He was so curious as to find out just what caused this. As they moved the water around them became heavier with heat. It had gotten so hot that it felt as if the water could boil any minute. At least in Laohu’s head. If it had actually been that hot they most likely wouldn’t have made it even half way in towards the middle.

“Look!” He pointed his flipper towards an upstream of bubbles exiting a sort of vent. He slowly swam closer. “This must be it! This must be where it’s coming from! Don’t you think?”
He turned to the sisters as he carefully circled the pillars of hot, bubbly water. Careful to not get too close as he was terrified it could actually burn him quite well if he accidentally stuck his flipper into the water. 

Kaffe & Chippy | Zhetan

156 Words
“Right?” Kaffe agreed quickly to his observations.
“Like the heat comes from below, straight up, not like currents” Chippy added as they closed in on the source, at least they would assume so from how much hotter the water became.
“It has to be!” the darker sister nodded and rushed after him towards this curious column of bubbles, the lighter of them not far behind. Unlike Laohu the sisters were not as cautious. The shared a challenging look before trying to stick a flipper closer to the stream. Kaffe pulled hers back before Chippy when it started to hurt.
“Hah I won!!... Ouch” Chippy declared her win, before pulling back her aching slipper, waving it in the water trying to cool it down.
“Hot tip, do not put your flipper into the column” she laughed. “Get it… Hot..” she giggled more as Kaffe and Laohu rolled their eyes at her bad pun, though Kaffe were smiling.

1257 Words