Dolphin at Play!
Emerald Cove Shallows
As you splash out into the shallows, warm salty sea water surrounds you body. Your feet sink into soft sand as schools of extremely tiny fish dart around your legs. During the day, the sun shines on the water creating bright sparkles like priceless jewels floating upon the tide.
As you wade farther out, the water gradually creeps up to a level of about four feet deep. Bluish-green sea weed floats by, tangling around arms and body. The water is extremely clear allowing a person to see to the bottom. Round flat sea-smoothed stones decorate the sandy floor with an occasional delicate shell tossed in.
Looking out over the water you notice the patch of darker blue that signifies deeper... [look closer]
It is a spring afternoon.
Hovering over the water is Rhythm
Swimming about are Bastian, Ihiske, Pip, and Tursi
Tseyrin is here.
Obvious exits:
Emerald Cove Dolphin Track North Emerald Beach Emerald Beach South Beach Seabreak Pool
Jessa drops her well used and slightly damp towel on the beach, and then enters the shallows of the cove. She spots the 'phins and swims out to them with even strokes. The apprentice stops about ten feet from the closest 'phin and treads water, "Hi!" she bubbles out, full of energy despite all her classes and chores from the day.
Tursi swims to the east.
The day is young and the females are even younger, and for Ihiske, it's not a day for playmating. It's a day for discovery! Upon the arrival of the long-legged strange-finned Jessa, the 'phin's attention is grabbed and he quickly rushes to investigate this new girl. She's bubbly. Like Pip! Automatic reaction: accept her as Awesome. Surfacing, Ihi tosses his head playfully, chattering excitedly to his new play-toy. Lookit how pretty he is!
Jessa grins at the 'phin, they are so cute and playful. Lovely and wonderful creatures really, "Hello there," the apprentice repeats, "I'm Jessa, how about you?" Her charm bracelet, worn dutifully and proudly upon her right wrist, does indeed reflect her rank as being that of apprentice.
Ihiske 's voice is tenor and smooth, however the usual dolphin-happy hyperness is bubbly behind every word. "Ihiske!" is cheerily replied. "What're you doing in the water?" As though it's completely strange that Jessa might consider joining the dolphins in the /water/ when she could watch from /land/.
Jessa blinks at the 'phin, what a silly question. Doesn't the 'phin know that she's a Dolphincrafter and all, and that such crafters like to swim and be with the 'phins? "I'm swimming around, and visiting you," Well, not specificially Ihiske, but 'phins in general.
Ihiske circles the dolphincrafter at a slow, easy pace, one of his round, dark eyes always settled on Jessa. "Oooh, another one of you 'phineers," he murmurs, dipping under the surface of the water for a brief moment. "How come you like visiting us?" He's a curious one alright. Very curious. Very strange, but very curious.
Jessa grins and shrugs, "I like 'phins, so I like visiting all of you." Isn't that part obvious? "It's a lot of fun to be out here with you all." And that's the truth, pure truth too. She grins at the 'phin and looks him over as well. Cute and pretty creature he is.
Ihiske seems satisfied with the dolphineer's reply and chuckles excitedly, breaching into the gently lulling waves. "Well, some of us are funner than others," he notes, the upstrokes and downstrokes of his fluke causing his ever-smiling face to bob up and down, dangerously close to dipping beneath the surface as he talks. He circles Jessa once more, giggling happily. "I like all of you! You have two fins that you walk on with ten little fins on the ends, and two fins you swim with with ten little fins on the ends but you don't swim fast," Ihi rambles. "I think they're called fin-gers?" That pronounced 'fin-gurs' rather than 'f-ing-ers'.
Jessa grins and laughs at the 'phin, she can't help but find them so amusing and darling and cute. They describe things in an absolutely wonderful, albeit different, way. "Yup, they're fingers, indeed they are." The apprentice wiggles them, first in the air, then in the water, to show the fin. Jess is just beaming, happy with the 'phins right now.
Ihiske waves his own fin in the air, rolling onto his side in order to accomplish the feat, and then in the water, sending an explosion of water into the air. Whoops! He laughs and ducks under the surface of the water, his tail fluke giving a gentle splash while sunlight dances along his back and dorsal fin. "You use those fin-gers to draw on your 'rolls?" he asks, mistaking 'scrolls' for 'rolls'. Either way, they /are/ rolled up eventually... or atleast sometimes. "What do you put on those 'rolls? Do you draw? What do you do with them when you're finished?"
Jessa ducks a bit as she is splashed too, and giggles, "Rolls? No, we eat rolls with our fingers." She doesn't quite get the questions he's asking, and her answer makes logical sense to her at least. As for the rest of Ihiske's questions, Jess has no answer, writing it off as silly 'phin questions.
Enter the opposition. Or rather, the calf. A breech from out of nowhere signifies Pip's entrance. Look at /me/, I'm little and fast and I breech almost as if I can /fly/... "Ihiske! ... Apprentice-lady!" Yeah, Pip forgot Jessa's name already, having just talked to her earlier today. "... Rolls? I know of rolls. A lady dropped some in th'water by mistake." Lady.
Jessa grins at the entrance of the calf, "Heya Pip!" Since the calf appears to have forgotten her name, the apprentice repeats it, "I'm Jessa," of course, the apprentice wouldn't mind at all if they called her Jess. "Rolls in the water? Did you guys like them?" The apprentice still thinks they are talking of food.
Ihiske seems slightly confused and simply rides the gentle waves for a moment as he contemplates exactly how strange these four-finned ones are. "You know, even though few of you come swim with us, you all seem to make very little sense," he notes, arriving at his final conclusion of the humanpets. "But I guess that comes in being Humanpet. You're born into your strangeness." Upon Pip's entrance, Ihi breeches, chattering excitedly to the young calf. Yay! Silly Pippii! "Rolls? I've never seen anyone eat them. THey just draw on them lots. With those funny sticks."
Jessa finally gets it. She grins, "Oh, you guys must mean /scrolls/." She giggles. "Yes, we write on scrolls, with our fingers." Jess lifts her left hand and demonstrates this in the water, as in, she demonstrates holding something and writing. "And we also eat rolls, and meatrolls." Grin. Silly 'phins.
Ihiske nods excitedly, squeeing and chattering as he tips backwards and does a celebratory breech. Again. "/Scrolls/!" Eurika! "Meatrolls? Rolls? Why 'roll' everything? Just eat it whole! Like Fish?"
Jessa grins and giggles again, treading water still, "I don't know, I don't think I'd eat fish, at least not /raw/ fish." She grins, "We gotta save the fish for you 'phins." Aw, how sweet and nice of her to do that. "Meatrolls are really good, and so are rolls." Sagenod there.
All references to worlds and characters based on Anne McCaffrey's fiction are © Anne McCaffrey 1967, 2000, all rights
reserved, and used by permission of the author.
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