Sword and Snow

Stena and I had been training with Mom’s sisters, as promised. They had been just as rough on us as our mothers had been, so it really hadn’t been much of a ‘break’ at all, despite what we had been led to believe.

I suppose, to be fair, they hadn’t had us training for as many hours, but it was more physically focused, which left us just as exhausted. Long hours of meditation with Mom were rough, but just a few hours of stretching and physical striking practice with Demi was enough to leave my legs and arms like jelly.

Thankfully, they weren’t cruel. We were taking frequent and regular breaks to rehydrate and relax muscles for a bit. During these breaks, Demi and Rylie had taken to telling Stena and I stories about their recent misadventures. They had told us of epic battles and close calls that they had muddled through. Looking back on it, they were probably stretching the truth on a bunch of those stories, but they were still magically enthralling for children like us.

Talking about their recent stretch in Crystal Atoll had led them to mentioning swimming - which was a concept that Stena and I only had passing knowledge of. And by that, I mean absolutely minimal knowledge. Stena didn’t know what it was at all, but I had heard the word before.

Despite having a huge bath that was probably more than large enough to swim in, swimming itself was something that I had never done. Stena was just as confused by the whole prospect as Rylie and Demi tried to explain it to us. Rylie had even explained that it was something that our mothers would almost certainly teach us at some point, if only for survival purposes.

But honestly, the explanation was entirely unneeded. As soon as she said that we could move through the water like a fish instead of walking slowly through it we were both sold.

And so it was that we were promised that the two of them would try to teach us how to swim in the bath later that night, after training and dinner.

When we had bragged that they were going to teach us how to swim at dinner, Talya had given them a stern talking to, making sure that they would be careful. We were apparently lucky that the bath was big enough for the two of us to swim in. It wasn’t big enough to really test our ability or anything, but it was enough that we could swim without being crowded by a shallow depth or the walls.

By the end of the meal, Talya, Vale, Kota, and Ieji were at least nominally on board with the idea. Stena and I couldn’t wait to go bathe and were running away from the dinner table as fast as we could manage.

The four of us were stripped and in the water in record time. I was so excited that I had left my clothes in a heap on the floor in the changing room, while Stena had to be grabbed by Demi before she jumped into the bath water still wearing her bottoms.

Once we were sufficiently washed and rinsed off - outside the bath, much to our chagrin - Rylie and Demi finally let us into the bath. Demi took Stena to one side of the water, while Rylie took me to the other.

“Alright, you.” Rylie began. She clapped to get my attention, turning me away from watching my younger sister. “Hey, Cierra - focus. Because you don’t know how to swim yet, this is pretty serious. Water is dangerous until you know how to swim.”

I stood up straighter at that. “Really?” I asked. “But we’ve always bathed in here. It’s not dangerous.”

“Have you ever gone under the water and had trouble coming back up?”

I shook my head. “Nope. I slipped and fell under once, but I could just stand back up. And Stena slipped outside the bath once and fell in. She splashed a bunch at first, but eventually just stood up.”

Rylie glanced over at Stena. “She’s still pretty short. She has to stand on her tiptoes to keep her face above the water, right?”

“Mhm.” I nodded.

“Okay, so if the water was too deep for her to keep her head above the water, what do you think she would do?”

“Not go in it?”

Rylie chuckled. “Probably true. But also, if you go into water that’s taller than you are, you can float. Or swim. That’s how you would move around in water that you can’t walk in.”

“I know you can float in the water. I do it in the bath all the time when I get my hair wet.” I said with a big smile.

“Ok, show me.” Rylie said, and motioned for me to go ahead. I did so, leaning back in the water and kicking my feet up. Once I was mostly horizontal in the water, I took a deep breath and tried to relax.

“Very good.” Rylie said as she slipped up next to me. I felt a gentle guiding hand under my back as she smiled down at me. “You know, when teaching someone to swim, getting them to trust the water can be the hardest part. But you’ve already got that down, so you’re already a huge step ahead.”

I grinned big at the praise and spun back down to standing and pointed at Stena. “Stena knows how to float too. We do it all the time.”

“Then she’s a big step ahead, too. I’m sure it’ll be easier on Demi to teach her if she can float as well as you.”

And sure enough, the next time I looked over at Stena, she was floating comfortably on her back.

“Okay, so since you can float so well, let’s work on the next step. Can you hold your breath and go under the water?” Rylie asked, once again gaining my attention.

“Mhm!” I nodded vigorously. “I do it to wash my hair sometimes, see?” And then I pinched my nose with my right hand and threw my face down into the water deep enough to wet my head. I shook it around a bit, then flung my head back out, sending my hair - and a sizeable amount of water - flying in an arc above me. I giggled as the water slashed back down around me.

Rylie clapped. “Okay, very good!” Then she grinned at me with a bit of a sly tilt to it. “Now, can you do it like this?”

She made a show of taking a deep breath and just dropped under the water. It looked from above like she had sat on the floor of the tub, her legs crossed, very similar to one of the meditation positions. I kept waiting for her to come back up, but she didn’t. She stayed under for a while before finally popping back up. Her ascent was controlled and unhurried, so she clearly wasn’t under any stress.

She wiped the water away from her eyes, and slicked her hair back. “What do you think? Can you do that?”

I looked at her, then at the water. “Without holding my nose?” I asked.

“Yep.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”

Rylie ruffled my hair, dumping a thick lock of wet over my face. “There’s a trick to it.” She said with a smile, then got the hair out of my eyes. “When you’re about to go under, you take your deep breath as normal, right? Then right as you go under, breathe out of your nose a little and don’t breathe in. You think you could try that?”

I swallowed and nodded. “I think so.”

“Good. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, okay?” Rylie said. “Swimming is easier once you can go under without having to plus your nose with your hands, but you can still do it that way.”

“Let me try first.” I said. As I was concentrating, I didn’t hear Rylie’s response. After another few seconds of hesitation, I dipped under the water, doing exactly as she had said. And it was fine - I went under and stayed there for a few seconds. Then a few more. Then even more.

When I got excited that I was doing it, I accidentally breathed in through my nose. The water shocked my system and I erupted out of the water coughing and spitting, and blowing out through my nose to try to get rid of the stinging.

Rylie immediately got an arm around me and alternated between patting and rubbing my back. “Cierra? Are you okay?”

I nodded, but still couldn’t get any words out between my coughs trying to clear my airways. When they were finally clear, I asked if I got it right. Rylie nodded and laughed, then asked me to try again.

This went on a few more times, but I didn’t make the mistake of breathing in again. Once Rylie was confident in my abilities, she moved on.

“Okay, Cierra. How do you feel about dogs?”

“I love them!” I said. “Why, though?”

“Well, what we’re going to teach you next is called the doggy paddle. If you put a dog in the water, it’s basically how they swim.”

“But who teaches the puppies?” I asked.

Rylie smiled. “No one knows. But almost all dogs know how to doggy paddle. It’s one of the world’s great mysteries.”

“Okay, so how do I do it?” I asked.

“I’ll show you first, then I’ll help you with it, okay?”

Once I nodded, Rylie leaned forward and began paddling away, using all four limbs to stay afloat. Once she was steady, she began to slowly move around me in a circle while paddling. “See?” She said, “You use your hands and feet to keep paddling in the water and it keeps you up, or you can move.”

I nodded. “Okay, so how do I try?”

Once Rylie was settled on her feet again, she stepped up next to me. “I’ll keep a hand under your tummy while you’re paddling to make sure you don’t fall all the way under. Try not to get too much water in your nose or mouth - it can happen. But if it does, don’t panic. It’s okay.”

I nodded, then kicked up with my legs to try to doggy paddle. I managed to stay above the water without Rylie’s help pretty quickly, but it was tiring. After a few rounds, my arms and legs were tired of the constant motion required to keep myself up.

“Okay, I think you can doggy paddle, so let’s move on.”

Two hours later, I was swimming, albeit clumsily. The water wasn’t deep enough for me to really practice too many different options, but I was able to stay afloat by mostly kicks alone by the end. Stena was successfully dog paddling, but not good at going under water.

I kept dunking myself just because I could.

We stayed in the bath playing for quite a bit longer than we probably should have, but Rylie and Demi didn’t fight us to get out of the water for a while. It wasn’t until it was basically bedtime that they finally dragged us out of the bath.

After that, we were towel dried quickly before being sent to bed with hugs and kisses from almost all of our relatives in attendance, as well as a bedtime story each, courtesy of Rylie and Demi. To be fair, they decided to swap partners for the stories, so I had Demi tell me about another of their little adventures as I slowly drifted to bed that night.

The following morning, when I woke up, I really didn’t want to. My throat was scratchy and even when I swung my feet out of bed, I felt off. Stuffy, and everything was a little muted.

“Talya…” I called from my bedroom weakly. “Talya…I think I’m sick…” I called again, and plopped back down on my bed.