Something happens on shore
“So uh …” Daniel starts, a bit awkwardly. “This trip is an annual thing for you? Does that mean you’ve been to whatever places over and over again, or do you mix it up and go to new outdoor type stuff each time?”
Angel’s first answer is to stand up. Petite and decidedly bare feet balanced neatly atop the lion’s back. Holding her arms out for balance she’d teeter backward between those spread wings, easing her way toward the center. Everything shifts as Daniel twists around to watch, wide paws surging through the muck filled lake, green algae and a strange moss coating their slimy visage into her fur.
“You could say that.” Angel starts. “The first one I mean, we usually go to the cool places. Next on the list was this rock climbing area with all these boulders you can crawl on. If you know what you’re doing there’s cliffs and mountains to scale, that sort of thing.”
Daniel gives a small flap of her wings. “Hah! Is that why you want me to come along then, help getting to the top?” water sprinkles everywhere, but Angel was already soaked, and the only things around to be disturbed by that splash were fish.
“Dream on girl.”
“Not a girl.”
“I’ve been to the peak three times already, don’t need help from your silly little wings.”
“Does that mean you aren’t interested in flying? Ooohh, is that what I’m hearing?” The sphinx’s tone all but had that tease dripping through her teeth.
“Flying is not climbing, and clouds are a heck of a lot higher. If you wanna get out of this then start catching fish.”
“Big ones, yeah.” Daniel rolls her eyes, but can’t help but smirk. “Fine then, going under. Just need to … to …”
The lioness brings a wet, slime coated paw up to her face, hind legs kicking with a splash and occasionally stirring up the murky sand whenever she scrapes against the lakebed.
“What’s wrong?”
“I can’t plug my nose.” Daniel offers the most desperate whine, placing the palm to her face and squeezing her wide, rounded toes about. They did not have even a fraction of the dexterity required for such a delicate task.
“Ahahahaha!” And Angel seemed intent on offering a similar fraction of sympathy.
“I can still twist and knock you off, you know.”
“But can you catch a fish?” Angel immediately counters, striding atop Daniel’s back as if this were an actual boat. Given how dry it was between the wings and just how easily those four paws kept everything aloft, it might as well have been a more typical seafaring vessel. If anything Daniel was easier to balance on, she corrected herself if about to tip.
“I’ll figure something out …”
“Oh come on, just hold your breath and go. I know you didn’t see too many lakes in Egypt but the water’s going to be fine, trust me.”
“Doesn’t Egypt have like, a nile river or something?”
‘Aha! So you do know what it’s like over there!”
“Basic knowledge of geography does not mean I’m a magical creature.”
“But it doesn’t prove you aren’t, and it’s a lot easier to assume magical creature than transforming teenagers. Unless you want to put on a headband and tell me you’re also a ninja.”
“Fine then! I’ll just dive down now and ignore whatever tingling in my nose.”
“Alright with me.”
“Diving right now.” Daniel threatenes, lowering her paw and trying not to get too annoyed at the green slime that coated her lips.
“Go right ahead big girl.” Angel snickers.
“I’m not a … Uughh.”
And then in an instant she’d dipped her head down. Her wings fold up, brushing into Angel’s shoulders before suddenly her perch had submerged. There wasn’t so much a floundering as a sudden splash, the human kicking and swiping to keep herself aloft while Daniel went deeper and deeper.
It was hard to hear, everything was blubs and sloshing. It was hard to see, a billowing cloud of muddy brown coated the floor behind her, and the waters in front were a green coated darkness. Rays of light filtered in from above, but none penetrated to the deepest bottom. Down two body-length and Daniel was at the lakebed, but it sloped more steeply and continued on further toward the center. Breath held, eyes open, her wings swaying in odd directions as the soft currents took hold. She couldn’t see a single fish.
And now her nose was itching.
She glanced back up to see where Angel went, perhaps to scoop her up and go find another spot to search. Somewhere that fishermen hadn’t gone through, maybe the deeper areas near the center. But even in that minute or so scanning the waters Angel had made it halfway to shore and was swimming desperately.
A deep frown, Daniel pads through the water with a lurching twist toward the shoreline. Her claws scraped through the dirt as one might swipe dust off an attic shelf, her notable force struggling to maneuver the even more impressive bulk of her mass. A body that was hardly aerodynamic to begin with suddenly having even less traction with those unfurled wings catching the current and halting all progress.
But sheer strength, the raw and unrelenting power of a doggy paddle, the sphinx had in spades.
Up, up, swimming proving to be completely different from flight now that she actually had this chance to compare the two, where in flight her legs were all but vestigial and her wings were responsible for every bit of movement now it was her legs propelling herself toward the light and her wings tried their best to drag her down.
A burst from the surface, a gasping breath, and with a thunderous flap she rose yet higher still. Above the water, soaked wings beating through dead cold air, her front paws dripping before her chest and her hind legs dipping beneath the shallow waves.
It was there she saw what had Angel so desperate to reach the shoreline …
Written by Arbon on 20 February 2017