To the shore
With nowhere else to go and not wanting to remain exposed on the beach, Jared sought to go over there. Maybe I’ll make some seal friends. It’s been a while since I’ve seen someone of my own kind, and that was a sphinx. He worm-waddled his way into the surf where the breaking waves splashed and fizzed against his belly. The confidence of swimming as a vaporeon for over a week meant he did not hesitate or worry about being underwater, but he knew it would be different. Remember, muscle memory. If I had a nickel for every time I thought of that term. It’s starting to lose all meaning.
He went deeper into the water, and the waves started crashing into his chest and face. His nostrils would shut automatically but his eyes remained open. The first chance he had he dove his face straight into the water, drowning out the sound and greeting himself with the sloping sand bank which gave way into a long oceanic darkness before him. He surrendered himself to neutral buoyancy and droned ahead like a torpedo. All four flippers propelled him forward, and with a much better grace than what he had on land he zoomed through the open ocean, towards that peninsula and its colony of unknowns.
He'd grown used to being underwater during his week as a vaporeon, but the ocean was a whole new treasure trove of wonders. However deep and dark it was, he could look in nigh every direction and see what looked like the infinite. Above him was the toil of the ocean surface. He gazed through it with his belly upturned, gliding effortlessly with his spotted torpedo body. No longer some blubbery meat sausage, he was a hyper efficient swimming machine within its element. The freedom he felt when first swimming as a vaporeon was reinvigorated here, and though his seal form was devoid of almost all human expression, something like a goofy smile rode his face as he knifed forward so quickly.
He resurfaced for a brief moment to take his first breath. In one loud snort he jettisoned a dual spray of seawater from his nostrils before inhaling quickly and diving back down. On the third breath he noticed he was close enough to see who or what was on the peninsula. With his head poked above the surface and bobbing amongst the waves he recognized what were in fact a bunch of seals on the beach and also some humans sitting around or walking, doing whatever. The queer thing was that they all appeared to be nude with extra long hair that reached all the way down to their buttocks. It looked wavy and frizzed, perhaps a byproduct of the seawater. They didn’t seem bothered by the seals, nor vice versa. The only ones looking out of place were the seagulls who continuously flew around and landed like flies on rotten fruit. Jared saw one human shoo one away.
Written by TheGreatJaceyGee on 14 October 2024
