Waterplay

If there had ever been a day for the pool, it was that day. The weather in the realm was arid, even the breeze was warm as it tussled through the green fronds of the weeping willows. The arrival of summer, the arrival of a god- imagine that, an actual sea god and then the announcement of summer celebrations.

Soyuz considered the timing perfect, a nice communal event paired with the sun. And yet he was facing a difficulty he hadn’t quite predicted.

The pool.

It was massive. He supposed it would have to be, some of the inhabitants of the realm were rather tall to say the least. The water was a light blue sheen when undisturbed, a foaming white with the general riff raff splashing about and having the times of their lives. There was tiling along the side of the pool that was mostly bleach white colour, little seashells and stars pressed into the glazed surface as decoration. His favourite feature was a mural of Poseidon, the god himself, grandly depicted with a trident, swathes of waves crashing around him, the image all made up of little fragments of glass.

It gave him that nostalgic feeling, the mural. He’d come to recognise the strange emotion as likely something that reminded him of his past life, but like most of the times this came on, he couldn’t quite place why. He’d have to come back when it was quieter maybe. Look a little harder.

It felt like the entire realm was there. His friend Starlight had a little stand, selling those homemade mochi which he still couldn’t decide if he liked or not but kept eating anyway. Maybe it was the texture he wasn’t sure about? He’d been helping out, dishing out little ice cream mochis onto plates, different colours, different dressings. He was happy to see them sell so well and especially happy to see Starlight chatting away to both him and customers.

However, after a little while, he’d been told to have a break. In all fairness he’d been helping out all morning, floating in between the front of the stand to the little freezer just behind with extra mochi. Each time he opened it he’d stood for just a couple seconds, wishing he could take off the bulky helmet for just a second to cool down. But alas, duty called.

So he was now sort of standing (he always floated at least a couple inches off the ground) just off to the side of the pool within the shade of a large willow tree. He watched as a group of smaller foxes scampered across the grass just by the poolside, being told curtly not to run by a taller fox, should they trip and fall. He couldn’t help but smile, they were enjoying themselves at least.

The water did look awfully tempting. He’d tried, went and stood by the edge, tried to dip a paw in, but never quite got as far to touch the water. Something in his brain told him to worry about drowning. Suffocation. That was another more darkly associated thing with his past that he couldn’t pin down yet. He was pulled out of his own internal dialogue as another group of mini foxes came running by. A tiny pink fox with a large finned tail and frilled gills narrowly missed his legs, forcing him to do a gentle somersault in the air. He didn’t mind pulling off little maneuvers like that. He heard someone shout ‘Watch out Axie!’, seeing another mini, a small mint green and teal coloured lad calling out to his friend.

In the distraction, he didn’t notice the change of air pressure, a swathe of fog that came in rather unnaturally from beyond the border of trees. Laughing lightly, Soyuz turned, helmet almost bumping into the stomach of another, much larger, much bulkier fox.

Letting out a surprised yelp, he jumped back through the air, eyes opening. It took him a second to determine who it was.

Gladhand Tsarkoye.

“Доброе горе- made me jump! How’d you always manage to do that” The star speckled fox tried to joke, readjusting the straps to his oxygen tank on his back. He blinked a couple of times as he looked him up and down, the other fox’s omnipresent smile widening a bit. Gladhand didn’t blink.

“Are those-?”

“Armband.” Was the one worded answer he received from the other. Soyuz nodded slowly, blinking in slight confusion at the orange kiddies armbands. Part of him questioned if they’d even be enough to support his weight. Fog moved around Gladhand’s giant paw as it cut through the air, pointing ahead like he was about to announce a bad omen. Honestly it felt like that whenever he was around him, it was just hard to tell when it was really something bad he was going to come out with.

“Pool”

The smaller fox tried not to sigh with relief, his small rounded ears relaxing from the more high alert position they’d assumed a couple of seconds ago.

“Дa” He responded simply, nodding his head in confirmation. That was indeed a pool. Gladhand still appeared to be staring intently at him, as if cogs were whirring in his brain. That’s if he was thinking at all, the fox was unreadable as a small child writing russian backwards in the dark with a pen that was running out.

Without saying a word, Gladhand took a large step forwards and began to walk across the green in the direction of the pool. The fog dissipated where he’d previously stood.

“Oh, oh alright then” Soyuz nodded, shooting an awkward smile, little feet treading the air as he kicked a few times to give himself some momentum to float forwards. It only took Gladhand a couple more steps until he stood by the side of the pool, bolt upright and ears poised as if he’d spotted something of interest. He very much resembled a cat that had spotted a mouse.

Soyuz had to veer around another fox as they carried some drinks to a group of friends, apologising hastily. Adjusting his oxygen tank yet again, he slowed just a little behind gladhand. He was expecting him to say something again, turn to him at least, but there was no response. He just stared down into the water as it lapped at the side of the pool. Soyuz couldn’t quite see, assuming it was something at the bottom of the pool. A pool sink perhaps?

With curiosity, he stepped forward again, peering over the ledge of the pool. Soyuz looked down with confusion.

“What are you look-”

A force hit him square in the back, making a sound like a pillow being aggressively flung at another pillow. He let out a yelp, tumbling forwards, the water rapidly approaching as he plummeted forwards, large arms flailing.

There was a large splash, the world around him distorted by water. It was at that moment, he stopped struggling like an animal being death rolled by a crocodile and took a moment to stay still. It was so much quieter, and he realised how the sunlight filtered through the surface, everchanging beams of light. He took a large breath, feeling like an idiot as he realised of course he could breath, his helmet was airtight for god sake.

Tilting his head backwards he realised he could see other foxes, mostly legs and tails, the bottom of pool floats, a group of aquatic foxes sat at the bottom of the pool (he waved at them, they waved back). He felt like he was moving in slow motion, feeling a comforting familiarity to the movement of space. There were differences, but he liked it nonetheless.

Kicking his legs, he was able to swim upwards, up towards the heat of the sun. The noise returned as he broke the surface tension, droplets of water cascading down the visor of the helmet. His fur felt heavier as he treaded water with his large paws, so he rested them on the surface of the pool.

From the sideline, Gladhand leered down at him with a large grin on his face, emitting a rather ominous laugh as Soyuz frowned at him.

Pointing a large coal coated finger at him, the other fox had little else to say other than:

“Got you!”