A Promise is a Promise

Ornaax actually offered to finish painting her coat for her, managing to create fine details in the waves of color that lined her body. Bright pinks and blues shined in the dark, and stars were scattered around her coat as well. Antlia was satisfied with the way she looked and ended up painting a few silly shapes on the leader of the Depthstriders. He seemed to enjoy it as well and gave her a deep smile as they both finished their masterpieces.

“I think you look like the cave ceilings, spotted with filtered light and glow bugs. It suits you.” The Haedian said as he stood back to look at her, eyes sparkling with admiration at his work. 

“Well you look pretty good too, I think fish fit you.” Littered across his pelt were groups of fish, mostly goldfish but there were a few koi in there as well. Ironic that a Haedian that loved the water would want fish scattered about, right? “It totally wasn’t because I couldn’t think of anything else.” 

“Sure, I believe you.” He answered, tongue sticking out at her as he stood up. “We should get a move on though, there’s more to do!” She cocked her head at him but followed suit, curious on what else they could do here besides paint everything.

Her question was answered only a few moments later when she saw Haedians of all shapes and sizes working on different projects. A table sat in the middle filled with different clothes and fabrics, as well as different pieces of coral. As she glanced around she could see a lot of them working on bracelets and necklaces, some of them giving them to others as gifts. What stood out to her though was a specific Haedian working on some sort of bodysuit. It almost looked like it had flaps, but for what she did not know.

“Helps them swim better, if you can get just the right aerodynamics you can move a lot faster in the water.” 

“Does it actually work though? Also how are they wearing them underwater, are the fabrics you have waterproof?” 

Ornaax looked at her for a moment before a smile appeared on his face. “Of course they’re waterproof, what kind of clan would we be if our clothing wasn’t waterproof.” He paused, cocking an eyebrow at her. “Why, you wanna make something?”

She shrugged, not sure if she wanted to make something out of the fabric or if she just wanted to braid some of the coral into her hair. “Maybe, a waterproof bag would be nice, but I don’t know if I can do much without some help.”

He looked at her and then down at his hands and back at her. “You act like you don't have a new friend with fingers that can definitely help you make things.” He paused and looked down at the ground. “Unless you forgot I had hands.”

She smacked him lightly as she stood up. “No, I did not forget. I just didn't want to drag you into my projects in case you had, ya know, leader things to do.”

“These are my leaderly things to do, help those who need it. You look like someone who needs help and so I'm offering it.”

Antlia looked at the fabrics once more and sighed in defeat. “Fine, but you better know how to sew or else I'm gonna find you if my clothes break.” He nodded and brought her over to the table. There were fabrics that shimmered under the light, changing colors with ease. She figured that would do her good so she grabbed that and a couple of the white and blue corals that were close by.

Ornaax got to work measuring her, making sure all the pieces would fit well. He went to work patching pieces together and soon enough they had a waterproof suit for her fur. Antlia hadn’t helped much, far too distracted braiding the bits of coral into her hair while the Haedian worked. It’s not like she would’ve been much help, she didn’t know anything about sewing.

The depthstrider leader didn’t seem to mind though, he looked like he was enjoying being able to help her out. They probably didn’t get many visitors that stayed for long and she was grateful that he was willing to do this for her.

“I’ll come back, once my explorations are done.” He looked up at her confused for a moment. “You asked me to come back earlier, I will when I’ve gotten through the other clans. It doesn’t sound like there’s many left to go visit anyway, so it shouldn’t be too long. I’ll come make coral necklaces with you and you can teach me how to swim fast. It’ll be fun, I promise.” She gave him a smile to reassure her words.