Aquatic Adventures - The Depthstriders: Part 2

Aquatic Adventures
The Depthstriders: Part 2

“Are you alright?”

   Meline descended to the rocky platform where Aethone lied down, eyes closed and the lower half of the body still soaking in the water. The Puller took some time to recover, the only sign indicating she’s still alive were her sides that moved due to her breathing. The Empyrian left a wet trail behind her as she was still soaking wet, looking at least three times smaller than she usually did.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

   Aethone responded calmly, opening her bright pink eyes and glancing towards Ornaax and Laniata, who were still chilling around in the pool - Lani had rolled on her back and was effortlessly floating, admiring the cave ceiling while Ornaax playfully chased his fellow Haedians underwater. Meline shook herself, splashing water all around her and as soon as she was done, Cailu appeared behind her and followed Meline’s example, shaking the water from his coat off back at Meline. The Empyrian grunted but gave Cailu a whimsical smirk to show that she actually didn’t mind his little prank. Aethone tried to get up but her legs felt like boiled spaghetti. Meline and Cailu extended a helping paw, giving at least a tiny tug to the massive lady. Laniata noticed them struggling, so she swimmed over and tried to help Aethone get her hind legs on the ground. It was a bit of a hassle but she managed to climb out, being slightly sour over the fact she needed so much assistance with this simple task. Securing her footing, she also shook her coat dry, everyone around her turning their faces away as if that helped them to avoid the flying droplets. Laniata stayed in the water, front paws rested on the ledge where Aethone had just been.

“I’m sorry if I went too fast.”

   She apologized with a guilty look in her eyes, maybe Ornaax would’ve gone slower if she hadn’t put in so much effort to keep up with him. As soon as Aethone had shaken her head with a slight smile while Meline and Cailu had assured her that they’re not mad and everything’s alright, Ornaax popped his head out right next to Laniata.

“You are good in water, want to try out a small race?”

   Laniata grinned to the challenge. She definitely liked the idea of testing herself against the best of the best.

“But of course. Chiao guys, I’ll be right back!”

   She followed Ornaax towards the course, leaving Meline, Aethone and Cailu to the shore.

*** Laniata ***

   Ornaax went with a similar pace as before, but this was only to guide his guest to the starting point. There were other Haedians waiting, mostly kids and teenagers who eagerly waited for Ornaax to start the race. They all resurfaced where Ornaax gave a small pep talk before everyone inhaled deeply at the same time and at the leader’s signal, dived towards the entrance to the race track. Laniata was at a disadvantage thanks to her nubby tail and lack of wing-like appendixes to direct herself in the flow, but she made up for it with her great skills and strong core muscles. She managed to keep up with the others, Ornaax staying nearby to observe her or if needed, guide a bit as it was her first time being in the Depthstriders territory in general.

   The course started easy with a straight track carved in the bedrock. The Haedians got ahead of Laniata there, but as soon as the track led to a maze consisting of stone pillars, Lani got the opportunity to use the pillars to push herself further. The pillars’ placement forced everyone to take sharp turns to get past them. The smallest Haedians managed to get ahead of their bigger companions as the latter were struggling to maintain speed without crashing into the obstacles. Lani had to resurface to breathe two times before she cleared this part and carried on with the fastest Haedians, Ornaax still following her closeby.

   Next up was a series of underwater loops and short tunnels. Seeing how the young Depthstriders dived deeper to go through them, Lani resurfaced to breathe a few times before inhaling as deep as she could and went back down there. She elegantly cleared the first loops and tunnels, but just in case exchanged the old air for new in her lungs before taking on the last longer tunnel. This one didn’t have any crystals in it to light it up, but fortunately the surrounding waters were bright enough to create enough visibility there. When Lani entered the tunnel, she felt a small current pushing her back, causing her to nearly bump into Ornaax. Determined not to give up, she paddled as fast as she could to slowly move forward, hoping she wouldn’t run out of breath before reaching the exit. A couple of Haedians managed to get past her, offering temporary shielding from the flow, which Lani obviously didn’t leave unused.

   Having cleared the dangerous tunnel, Laniata spotted a painted stone arc up ahead where her fellow racers were heading, using their last ounce of strength to clear the open water part. She realized that the arc marked a finish line and put on her next gear to gain enough speed for the final spurt. To Ornaax’s surprise, she was still capable of moving very fast, which didn’t leave the opportunity for Haedians behind her to surpass her. Somehow, she even caught up with the ones ahead of her and with the last powerful strokes, the winner was revealed.

*** Meline and Aethone ***

   Meline, Aethone and Cailu watched Laniata leave to participate in the race. Both topsiders were secretly really glad that Ornaax didn’t suggest them to take part of it, meaning they had other opportunities to make friends with the already welcoming clan. However, when looking around they only saw the Depthstriders play with each other games that involved being in the water. Cailu’s thoughtful humming made both girls turn around in hopes to get a piece of what was on Cailu’s mind.

“The Depthstriders are known for their idyllic home, but also for making bright pigments and glowing paint from the corals they cultivate. I’ve always wanted to see how they do that.”

“Oo, sounds interesting, I’m in!”

   Meline’s ears perked up. She then looked at Aethone to hear her opinion, but the introverted Puller shrugged to indicate she didn’t mind tagging along, as she definitely didn’t have something better to do. Cailu picked a direction and began climbing to the higher grounds, Meline and Aethone following him.

   Having asked a few Haedians for directions, the trio made it to one of the spots where the Depthstriders prepared dyes and other crafts. The area was slightly hidden from plain sight, around a corner where slightly dimmer light allowed to see how some of their jars with bright paints were glowing. The clan members also applied the various paints to each other, giving the average-looking Haes a flashy makeover to match with their vivid and bright caverns. Meline realized that the others she had seen didn’t boast some funky Depthstrider-exclusive markings but displayed the work of skillful painting artists.

   Cailu approached one of them, introduced himself and his companions before expressing his interest in familiarizing himself with the process of extracting pigment from the corals. The Hae gladly agreed to teach them, so Cailu eagerly grabbed the tools and listened to the guidelines. Meline listened along and observed closely how Cailu worked while Aethone was distracted by one of the Haes painting another with clever patterns that happened to hit Aethone’s aesthetics.

   Suddenly, there was a sound of a splash, to which Meline yelped, Cailu gasped and the mentoring Hae shouted. Everyone’s attention was on the scene, which consisted of partially orange Cailu, even more orange Meline and the workspace around Cailu also covered with the same color. 

“Oh, oops…”

   Cailu muttered while failing to hide his embarrassment. Meline sneezed as some of the paint had gotten in her nostrils, leaving some new artistic orange splotches on the floor next to her. Aethone barely managed to prevent herself from bursting into laughter as this situation was beyond comical.

“Quick, wash it off before it dries, otherwise it won’t come off any time soon!”

   The mentor ushered them to the small pool right next to the crafting area, where Cailu and Meline hopped in, temporarily turning the crystal clear water in a murky orange mess. Fortunately the dye had dissolved completely when the two had rinsed themselves thoroughly and returned to dry land.

***

   By the time Cailu and Meline returned to others, Aethone was already helping with cleaning up Cailu’s mess together with Laniata. Lani had found them right at the moment the color-splosion happened, so she trotted over to lend a helping paw to Aethone and the other Haedians. Aethone couldn’t hold back smirking at the mental image of the orange Cailu and Meline, while replaying Meline’s sneeze in her head made her giggle. Meline didn’t question the Puller’s unusually good mood, she just grabbed a rug and helped along with the clean-up. Cailu apologized profusely while also trying to salvage what he could. The Depthstriders didn’t make a big fuss of it, instead this accident had also left them grinning as this happened quite often to their young learning this art for the first time. While everybody was focused on the damage control, Lani used the opportunity to sneakily leave some pawprints on Meline’s plain black tail. To avoid the suspicion immediately falling on her, she shaped them like flowers as if they could be painted by anyone.

   Having eliminated the minor disaster Cailu created, the culprit himself sighed in relief. The moss growing on the table they used was still orange, but the mentor assured Cailu that it’ll grow out eventually, plus the pigment wasn’t toxic or harmful in any way. Without a warning, Meline started to chuckle as she noticed a splotch of color on Aethone’s rear, which had already begun to dry. Aethone had to bend herself quite a bit before she saw it, which made her softly gasp. She also noticed Meline’s painted tail and Laniata casually sitting next to the Tyrian. To Aethone’s puzzled look, Laniata deviously winked at her and Aethone’s mouth pulled into a wide grin as she realized that Meline was oblivious of the lovely art decorating her fluffy tail.