NOVEL NEXT Chapter LXXVII (77)- Swim Lessons
Chapter LXXVII (77)- Swim Lessons
“I hate this,” Ione said. “I actually hate this so much.”
She currently stood beside Anata on the beach, knee deep in the ocean. Unlike Anata, she didn’t have an actual outfit designed for swimming and instead wore bands of dark cloth across her chest and a pair of shorts. Kizu would have thought that with the sun overhead that she would be warm, but Ione shook ceaselessly as she eyed the water with distaste.
“The key is getting comfortable,” Kizu said from where he stood a few meters away, shoulder deep in the water. He bobbed up and down, pushing off the sandy ocean bed with a foot.
“That is not helpful advice.” Ione looked over her shoulder at Basil who lay spread out on a towel on the dry beach, basking in the sun.
The shapeshifter declined the offer of swim lessons but tagged along for the show. He currently wore the body of a sculpted man. And he was really showing that body off today, forgoing his massive wardrobe in favor of almost exclusively skin. Already, six different cute academy students had approached, only to get turned away.
Anata, for her part, had the opposite problem of Ione. She was overly eager and kept rushing deeper into the water and forcing Kizu to go out of his way to rescue her. Her survival instinct was at practically zero. He also worried about her getting sun burns. Her skin was almost as pale as snow. And her vampiric lord heritage likely didn’t lend itself to ideal skincare. He resolved to only do a short trial lesson for their first day.
“Okay, so the first thing you need to learn is how to float.” Kizu slipped onto his back to demonstrate. He stayed there for half a minute before returning to his feet. “I chose this spot specifically because it’s relatively calm. You should be able to float here without any waves crashing down on you.”
He gestured for them to try. Ione just slowly crouched down in the water and put her head back. Anata fell backwards with a splash and immediately folded her body into a V, sinking. Kizu had to rush over to pull her up, out of the water.
“I should have explained better. You want to keep your chin up and stomach up. Spread your body out and take a deep breath. Don’t let out all your air, take shallow breaths with your lungs still mostly full.”
To her credit, Anata did try. But she still sank and spluttered up salt water. Kizu ended up supporting her back with one hand to help her practice.
Ione had similar results. She technically did as Kizu instructed, but she was stiff as a corpse the entire time and submerged almost immediately.
By the end, Kizu realized that teaching someone to be comfortable in water was more important than actually teaching them the mechanics of swimming. So, they ended up just messing around and splashing one another.
Ione scrambled out of the water and began sketching in the sand with one hand. She slammed her hand down and a bald, green reptilian creature with webbed feet and a turtle shell crawled out. It stood about the same height as Anata.
“A kappa!” Kizu said with delight. He had heard of the monsters but never spotted one in the wild. “My sister told me stories about them! You’ve actually seen one in person before?”
“Yeah. There was a family of them that lived near my house growing up. They’re pretty cheeky. And they’re actually not all that magical so it’s pretty easy to create one as a summon.”
“Why’d you bring one out now though?”
Ione grinned evilly and pointed at her summon’s bald head. Or rather, the large divot in it. Often referred to as a dish, kappas usually carried water in it.
Kizu watched in fascination as Ione’s summon dipped itself into the water. When it emerged, the indent was full of water. Then it waddled over to where Basil sunbathed. The shapechanger was oblivious. His skin was starting to droop, indicating that he’d fallen asleep. So, he remained in blissful ignorance right up to when the kappa bowed to him, completely drenching his face.
He jolted upright, his features solidifying as he cursed. He threw handfuls of sand at the kappa, chasing it off.
“Why are you even sunbathing? You can’t actually tan, can you?” Ione asked as she moved toward him. She then wrung out her black hair over his legs, causing him to curse again and kick at her.
Basil glared at her as she nibbly stepped out his reach. “Can a cat tan? No? And yet you don’t dump water on them. Is it a crime to enjoy the sun’s warmth?”
“You’re making an unfair comparison. I like cats.”
Anata giggled behind Kizu. He turned away from Basil and Ione’s bickering to see her small hands failing to cover a giant smile. Her red and black eyes sparkled with joy as the sun shone down on them.
“Kizu, is that you?”
Kizu watched his niece’s smile fade as she looked behind him at the speaker. She bit her lip, her sharp canine drawing a bead of blood. In a mere moment, she had gone from jubilation to discomfort.
Emilia approached on the beach, shielding her eyes from the sun. Kizu tried to smile, but the normal jumble of emotions Emilia produced in his stomach was replaced by a lump of dread.
“Hello, Emilia,” Kizu said, raising his hand in greeting. The irritation he felt was completely unjustified.
Emilia was tailed by her two usual friends. They both frowned at Kizu in distaste. Something he had done must have somehow upset them, but Kizu couldn’t find it in him to care at the moment. Thankfully, Basil broke away from his arguing with Ione to sidle up to the two friends to start chatting them up. He successfully redirected their attention from Kizu to himself.
“How’s the water?” Emilia asked. “Mind if we join you?”
“Actually,” Ione interrupted, her kappa waddling up to Emilia. “We were just about to leave. Kizu promised to help me study one of the magical creatures he spotted in the forest.”
“Oh, are you talking about that turtle?” Emilia said, sounding vexed.
“Turtle? No, but that sounds interesting. You saw a magic turtle nearby?”
“Not personally. Professor Knoff mentioned it.”
“We’ll keep our eye out for it, thanks for the heads up.” Ione turned to Kizu and Anata. “Come on.”
Kizu felt relief wash over himself as he grabbed ahold of the figurative escape rope tossed by Ione. He apologized to Emilia and helped towel off Anata before they headed into the forest toward Owl’s Respite. Basil opted to stay behind, still engaged in a deep conversation with the other two girls. He heard them all give a little yelp of surprise as Ione’s kappa collapsed and started to dissolve on the beach as they walked away.
Anata held his hand as they walked, and he felt her relax as they left the beach behind.
“You know,” Ione said as they walked. “I have actually been working on compiling all my studies of vampiric spawn. I even checked out a grimoire from the library.”
“You’re actually studying? I’m shocked. Are you secretly actually Sene?”
“Ha. Ha. You’re so funny. Anyway, even despite all the research I’ve done, I can’t figure out how to conjure one. It’s weird.”
“Don’t you need a summoning circle? Do you already know the right design?”
“No. But I should still be able to develop a connection and figure out the proper pattern based on that. I can’t get even an inkling of an idea of where to start. I haven’t had trouble like this…well, ever.” She eyed Anata.
“Have you been able to get anything else to work recently? Maybe it’s a block with you, rather than the creature.”
“That’s surprisingly insightful of you,” Ione said. “I thought you didn’t know anything about conjuring?”
Kizu shrugged. “You can get into a slump for anything.”
Ione snapped her fingers. “I know, I’ll try figuring out the proper summon for the sonney we found down below. If I can do that, that proves you wrong.”
“The little furry creatures?” Kizu recalled they were supposedly lucky, but he couldn’t recall any particularly good fortune after they found the creatures. Basil had abandoned them. They’d gotten stuck in a trap. And the thing had died underwater. He still vividly recalled the sound of its dying scream. He supposed maybe the good luck was that it had died instead of them.
“Hold up.” Ione stopped and started sketching on the forest floor with a crooked stick.
Kizu and Anata settled back and watched Ione work. It took about ten minutes of her muttering, a dozen failed circles, and three broken sticks, but Ione did manage to finally get a circle to activate. And out of glowing design, crawled a round, white rodent creature. It pointed its nose skyward to sniff the air, then it scampered over to Ione. Ione set it on her shoulder, just as she had with the real one, they’d encountered a few weeks ago.
“That was fast,” Kizu said, impressed. “Is that normal?”
“Bit slow for me." Ione said, dusting off her bare legs. "But I didn’t get a ton of time to study the creature, so I guess it’s to be expected. Regardless, this completely obliterates your theory. I knew I wasn’t in a slump.”
Anata walked over and reached up to poke the sonney. It squeaked and shook its whiskers at her.
When they reached the cavern that housed Owl’s Respite, Ione immediately went up to the underground lake’s edge and leaned over it.
“One swim lesson didn’t transform you into an athlete,” Kizu warned.
“Not one lesson from you,” Ione said. Then she paused. “Sorry, that came out more venomous than teasing. I really do appreciate your help.”
“I know you don’t mean anything by it.” Though Kizu privately appreciated the apology.
She sighed loudly and stepped back away from the water’s edge. “I still just have that summoning block on my mind.” She paused again. “Plus, I don’t like your friend.”
Kizu blinked. “Which one? Basil?”
“No, I’ve mostly forgiven the annoying ooze for abandoning us back in the dungeon. I mean the Tainted girl back at the beach. Emilia. I don’t like how she divides her attention. It seems like she zeros in on specific people she views as holding value and the rest of us don’t exist. It kind of pisses me off a bit.”
Kizu looked over the lake at the ship. “Actually, I'm trying to put a bit of distance between us right now. I’m trying to sort out how I feel about her.”
The three of them stood in amical silence for a minute while Kizu thought over Ione’s opinion on Emilia.
“Wait,” Kizu said. “What did you call Basil?”
“Annoying?” Ione’s brows furrowed in thought. “Wait, you mean an ooze?”
“Is he an ooze?”
“I don’t think so. They’re all quarantined in Ilosin-Don. They lack the brains to get off the island.”
“But, regardless, Basil did say to me he was a changeling. That’s a monster type, isn’t it. Could you summon a copy of him?”
“I never really thought of him like that. I’ve only seen him in human form." She considered. "I don’t think I could right now with my current understanding of him. I don’t know anything about his anatomy.”
But Kizu could see the gears turning in Ione’s head as a smile touched the edges of her lips. She might not have enough information at the moment, but Kizu doubted that would last for too much longer. On one hand, he felt a bit bad for unleashing this beast on Basil. But to be honest, Basil had it coming.