Fish Out of Water (Eli)

[James Florian]

    James didn't even step in the water yet, but already he could tell that maybe he should stick to riding instead of pretending to be a fish. He felt like a fool sitting on the steel benches waiting for Eli to appear instead of being in the water like any other person would. However James would be more a fool if he decided to get in the water because odds are in favor that he would drown. Since first of all he was the only one in the indoor pool area. The lifeguards were apparently on break or simply didn't work after classes ended, Eli would probably know he spent a large portion of his time in the water. Secondly he didn't know how to swim. That's why he was here after all, Eli was supposed to teach how to not fail around like some animal caught in a trap if he found himself in the water for some reason. That is if the Fish with legs instead of a tail ever decided to show up. 

    Which the raven haired lad sincerely hoped would be soon, because the smell of pool was starting to give him a headache. He didn't know what it was, but it was some sort of chemical and it bugged James. At least hopefully soon he would get used to it and the dull ache would fade away. He rubbed his forehead while he kept glancing towards the door wondering what was taking Eli so long to make an appearance. Just waiting was painfully embarrassing because of all the other factors he had already griped about, but most importantly he felt so exposed. Which was not a good feeling if you were destined to lead an entire kingdom one day. After all he had on were these red swimming trunks he had bought in one of the clothing stores and the maroon towel he draped around his shoulders. This was not normally what he wore obviously, with an overprotective mother, all he had in his wardrobe were modest clothing styles. You know trousers and long sleeved shirts, not these shorts. Which he honestly didn't mind. There was no need for lighter materials in colder weather, and if it was hot or muggy out, why James could just either roll up the sleeves or chose fabric that wasn't quite so heavy. However he didn't have an option with this. It was shorts, no shirt, or he didn't learn how to swim and break his promise to Eli. At least hopefully by the end of all of this he could cajole Eli into doing his pastime as a fair balance to this. Though if he was anything like Grove when it came to horses then maybe it wouldn't be the best idea on earth. 

    Suddenly James heard the metal door swing open, and he was dragged out of his thoughts. Peering at the door he called out believing it was Eli though it could've been anyone for all he knew. "What took you so long?"

[Eli Triton]

For any other meeting, it would probably be that Eli was running late because he'd forgotten and only just remembered at the last minute. This particular time, however, it involved swimming, so there was no chance at all of him forgetting - in fact it was a wonder he wasn't there early, already in the pool when James arrived.

Unfortunately, he had homework that he had forgotten about, and he knew he'd get a detention if he didn't get this stuff done, so he was trying to rush through it at the speed of light so he could get down to the pool. Then he nearly left the house without a shirt, and then without his towel, but eventually he made it out of the dorm with everything he needed and ran to the pool.

"Sorry, sorry," he gasped, a little breathless from his sprinting "I forgot some homework I had to get done, sorry, but I'm here now, shall we get started?" He threw his towel onto the bench and stripped off his t-shirt and jeans, stripping down to his own swimming trunks and moving towards the water.

"This end over here is shallower, if you get in here you'll be able to stand up in the water," he explained, climbing down into the water and waving James to follow him. As soon as he touched the water, his instant happiness was obvious.

[James Florian]

    James nodded in understanding when Eli stated that homework had made him run late, he knew just how difficult some of the assignments could be, after all he had to do the exact same work as well. There had been quite a few nights where James had to stay up past ‘lights out’ in order to finish this project or that essay. It was challenging work and it surprised him just how much they expected them to complete in such a short time frame. They were not miracle workers after all.

    He followed Eli to the shallow end of the pool which honestly surprised him. Why didn’t the pool have one set depth? It would make much more sense to keep it even so regardless of where you were in the water you knew exactly how far away the floor was. Maybe there was a sensible reason James didn’t grasp yet, or it could just be another aspect of this school designed to confuse the students. He hesitated a moment when the school’s fish -a compliment to Eli’s swimming skills, not an insult- jumped in with a giddy grin on his face. However a knot of worry began to take shape in the land lover’s stomach. Of course Eli would be excited to be back in the water, it was in his blood after all. However water did not dilute James’ blood, nor siree, his family were a bunch of landlocked royals that had never even laid eyes on a port in any of their lifetimes. The Florian clan were not fans of water, and James could see why the moment he followed Eli into the water. He cried out in surprise when he took the first step in and the water lapped halfway up his calf. It was freezing cold. You’d think for a room so hot, the water would at least, you know, be warm. “Why the hell is it so cold?!” He said in surprise as he resisted the urge to jump back onto dry land where he belonged. However he forced himself to trudge ahead because of two reasons, first of all he had promised Eli he would at least learn the basics so in the off chance of James, oh I don’t know, falls into some body of water he wouldn’t drown like some unwanted mongrel and there was also the fact he didn’t want to seem like a coward. After all he had come this far already he couldn’t just back out now because of disagreeable water temperatures. Now if that wasn’t a cowardly action in the eyes of someone who would one day be expected to defeat some awful monster and/or lead an entire kingdom then the entire dictionary should be rewritten.

    So carefully, he forced his feet to move from one step to the next underneath the clear liquid. By the time he was off the last gritty step from the waist down he was submerged in the water and it felt really weird. His legs felt as if they were trapped in some impenetrable gelatin substance that was slowly creeping up further and further each time one of the ripples they were making hit him. He held his arms just above the water’s surface, similar to how a tightrope walker balanced as they walked across their pieces of twine. Not straight out like the conceited ones did no instead he it seemed as if he was preparing to latch onto the rope if he was subjected to the slightest wobble. His teeth chattered slightly as his neurons gave him conflicting reports about what the world around him was like. Half of his body was screaming over the bitter chill of the water, while the rest of him said that the room was hot. It was more frustrating than the chlorine headache.

    So for a moment he just stood there, trying to figure out just what exactly was going on, hot, cold, hot, cold, thud, thud, thud. His headache was steadily growing worse, and James wanted to get rid of it. Although he knew there was no way to control the chemicals, but there was one thing he could possibly get control of. James could stabilize the conflicting temperatures. It wasn’t that difficult really. He would just have to get rid of one in order for the other one to take the reigns. The easiest option would of course would be get out of the water, but he already established that he was learning how to not drown today. So that left the unpleasant option. He was going to have to submerge himself into the frigid water. Oh this was not going to be pleasant.

    Without truly thinking this decision through and instead let whatever instinct humans had with the water take over; James pinched the bridge of his nose and threw his body back into the water before he could change his mind. At first he heard the splash of him hitting the surface and then there was nothing. Everything seemed muffled, like he was hearing a whisper through a heavy door. He also kept his eyes closed as the water rushed over him and left him suspended close to the bottom of the pool, but not near enough for him to touch. A dark, silent, seemingly nonexistent world. The prince couldn’t pinpoint a spot in his memory when he had been in a similar situation. He had always had the advantages of knowing what was happening in his world, but here he was at the mercy of the water. It seemed a bit surreal to the Prince. After what seemed to be an eternity to James, but in reality had been only a few seconds, the pads of his feet made contact with the pool floor and like a rocket he shot back up.

    As soon as he broke the surface, he gasped for air. Greedily he took it into his lungs, savoring each life giving breath. He didn’t even realize the burn in his lungs while he was under the water. Well he certainly felt it now. After a few moments of this, his breathing patterns returned to normal and James wiped the water away from his eyes and moved the strands of raven colored hair that was now sticking to his forehead out of the way so no more droplets could fall into them. The room didn’t feel so hot now that James had created a barrier of sorts with the cold water droplets that continued to cling to his skin. In truth the water didn’t feel as cold either, he had killed two birds with one stone here. Not so bad for a kid who had never stepped into a lake or pool before in his life.

    The water also seemed to have at least temporarily cleansed away the apprehension James had felt earlier about getting into the water so with a small grin he asked his friend, “So what do I need to learn so I won’t drown?” Maybe no one before him in his family knew how to swim, but there was always a first time for something wasn’t there?

[Eli Triton]

Eli waited patiently while James slowly got into the pool, resisting the urge to swim off already. Instead, he swirled his hands through the water, enjoying the sensation and just getting used to being there. The cold water was a bit of a shock to him, even being so used to it, but he knew that it was just something you had to wait out - your body adjusted eventually.

"It's just colder than the outside," he offered helpfully "But you get used to it."

He was about to suggest that James duck under the water, it made it much easier to take the temperature when your whole body was wet, but he wasn't sure it was such a good idea - completely submerging yourself when you weren't used to it wasn't really a lot of fun for most people, he was aware, so he didn't know how James would feel about it - until he went and did it himself, and Eli couldn't help but beam with pride that the boy had thought of it.

Of course it didn't go perfectly, James came bursting out of the water gasping for breath and honestly it would almost have been funny if Eli was feeling a bit more mean spirited, as it was he hovered around his friend anxiously to make sure he was fine, waiting for him to catch his breath and get his bearings back. He breathed a sigh of relief when James seemed to recover quickly enough, mood bouncing back just as quick.

"I think floating is probably the best way to start, it's nice and relaxing and it means you're not as scared of the water." he suggested. He'd never really taught anybody before but it seemed like a nice logical way to start, learning to let the water lift your body.

"Just lean back and lift your feet off the ground, and completely relax your body, like this," he let himself float on the water for a few moments to demonstrate, before standing again and moving to James' side, ready to catch him if he didn't relax properly and started to sink. "You try it."

[James Florian]

James nodded in understanding when Eli told him the next logical step was for him to learn how to float on the top of the water. It made sense, and Eli made it seem easy enough. It just looked like lying down on the water like it was a bed. However the Prince had no clue that his friend made it look so easy because he trusted the water and James wasn't quite at that stage yet. Tales of shipwrecks, drownings, and sailors lost forever at sea swam around his mind making it nearly impossible for him to relax and just trust that he would not die.

Which is why when James leaned back instead of lying on the surface of the water like Eli did, James sank like a stone. Granted he didn't fall to the bottom of the pool, since not only was Eli there to catch him, but James' own automatic reactions didn't let him just sink. Before the water even completely submerged the bridge of his nose James was standing back up sputtering out the small amount of water that did make it into his mouth. "Eli I'm not so sure this a good idea..." James said as he managed to calm his fluttering heart and forced his body to stop taking in such large amounts of air. James was fine, he wasn't going to drown. Eli wouldn't let that happen... Would he? James' naturally paranoid brain was jumping to the absolutely wrong conclusions and James knew it. What was he thinking? Eli was his friend, this wasn't like he was his step-grandmother who probably wouldn't think twice about holding his head under the surface long after his body had grown cold and still. This was Eli who was one of his best friends --along with Grove and Azalea of course. 

James blamed it of course on the water. All his life he knew that deep pools of water weren't safe since he didn't know how to swim. Granted he maybe only ran across a pond or a lake maybe two or three times in his life when he was visiting some other kingdom with his parents. Whenever that happened he was given the very clear message of staying away from the murky depths, and now he was going against that rule he had grown up with. So of course his mind was in panic mode. Not only was he in a potentially life threatening situation, but he was breaking a rule everyone told him. Now that was a dangerous state of mind to be in, and James knew that there was only two ways to get himself out of this paniced state of mind.

One: Get out of the Pool
Two: Break the rules so boldly, that his brain would be changed.

James knew exactly which one he was going to have to go through with since he always kept his promises. After all he had sworn on a Prince's honor. Now there was no higher promise in their world than that, unless of course there was a pledge made to god. As a religious boy, in James' world nothing triumphed that. So he swallowed his fears and tried once more to float. For a few seconds after he leaned back into the water it seemed like James had done it. There he was seemingly floating on the surface, but the moment he moved the corners of his lips to smile, he once again sunk.

Like the first time, James quickly got his head above the water and this time he looked at Eli with a small shake of the head, "Eli I don't think this is going to work."  Now to be clear, James was not giving up,  he was merely being smart about this situation. James had spent all his life firmly on the ground and maybe, just maybe, it would be a good idea to stick with the way humanity was designed to be. After all he and Eli were not mermaids like his cousin Isla. Perhaps there was some good reasoning behind that. 

[Eli Triton]

Eli reached out in a panic when James started to sink, but the prince righted himself before Eli reached him. He bit his lip awkwardly, unsure how to explain any better than he already had - there was a difference between being able to do something and being able to teach somebody else how to do it, especially when it was something that had been practically instinct ever since he was born. Thanks to his mother, he'd learnt to swim so long ago he could barely remember the process, let alone copy it to help his friend. 
Still, he was just as determined as James was, so though he wasn't quite sure how to help or what to do next, he resolved to press on. It seemed James had come to a similar conclusion, and Eli was delighted to see him try it again. For a moment it seemed like it was actually going to work, but then, once again, the flailing began.

Frowning thoughtfully, Eli tried to figure out what it was that James was doing wrong. Floating came so easy to him he could do it without even thinking about it, where the tiniest movement had caused James to sink again, Eli found he could do all sorts of things and still remain buoyant. Clearly he was missing something here. 

"I don't think you trust the water," he decided eventually, before realising how accusing that sounded and quickly backtracking "I mean, because you're worrying about it, you're not relaxing, and when your muscles are tense it's harder to float..." he frowned again, suspecting that even if James did try again, after two times sinking he wouldn't be able to relax a third.

"How about we try treading water instead?" he offered "That gives you a bit more control and doesn't require you to be completely relaxed, and it might help you be more comfortable in the water. Come this way..." he motioned James to follow him a little further into the pool, the floor started to slope and the water deepened. He stopped partway down, where it was deep enough that treading wasn't going to end with him kicking the floor, but not so deep that he couldn't stand.

"So what you do is this, lift your feet and you... you sort of circle them, like you're trying to walk up the water. Then you circle your arms like this..." he demonstrated, lifting himself up off the pool floor.

[James Florian]

Regretfully James nodded when Eli stated that the problem was most likely the fact that James did not trust the water. "I'm sorry, I'm honestly trying it's just that..." James trailed off trying fruitlessly to explain why he couldn't just relax. What was he supposed to say? That he was terrified of a couple of ghost stories? No he couldn't do that. That would be embarrassing. After all only little children let legends about ghost ships haunting the sea or creatures lurking in the water’s depths affect them. Especially when James was currently in the crystal clear waters of the Olympus gym pool and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the pool was far too small for ships like the White Ship. However could you really blame him when that ship with the oh so original title was the same ship that sank and brought an heir apparent down to the murky bottom along over three hundred other people?

Although he desperately wanted the answer to be no, you couldn’t; James knew the answer was that yes you could. Since he knew for a fact that it was all in his head. There was no possible way he was going to be hurt here. First of all Eli was here and the child of a fish turned human. Even if he got into some sort of trouble, his friend would be there in a second to pull him to safety. Also this pool’s deepest depth couldn’t be more than a few feet above the Prince’s just above average height. Nothing bad was going to happen, this wasn’t some ghost story he used to read curled up by the library’s fire long after the sun went down back home. No this was his friend trying to teach him how to swim in the school’s pool. There would be no drowning here. Not to mention at the first sign of trouble some of the school officials would swoop in to resolve the situation. After all the pool was being used by two princes. They would be fools to not keep a tab on them somehow, whether it was a security guard peeking his head in every now and then or cameras. Nothing would happen and his mind knew it. So how could he get his muscles to listen?

As Eli tried to think of a solution, James allowed his mind to wander back to home. He was homesick there was no denying it. He missed his family, he dreamt of his home, and he yearned for the unwavering familiarilty of it all. Back there he knew his place, even though he may lack the cofidence needed at times, but he knew where he was supposed to stand, whose hands he needed to shake, and what he needed to say most always. Here it was just one cunfusing twist after another. However that didn't mean he just wanted to throw in the towel and just go home, no that couldn't be farther than the truth.  He just wanted a week, a day, heck he would even be happy with just a few hours to head back to the past and walk down the cold, drafty corridors that he knew like the back of his hand. He wanted to laugh over some story his father told over supper while his mother glared disapprovingly at her husband, but all the while there would be a light smile on her lips. He wanted to be able to tromp down the cobblestone path from the Great Hall to the stables and spend the day just feeling the wind beat his face like it was some poor rag doll. James just wanted to go back to the land of forests and fairy tales, where you could find a queen chattering away with chimpmunks and deer like they were all one species or if you strained your ears enough you could hear a dwarfs song as they returned home from a hard day's work. James just wanted to go home, but yet at the same time he didn't wanted to lose what he gained here. Like Eli's friendship.

Although he definitely was not going to say it aloud, James thought the description of how you treaded water was beyond ridiculous. After all he was pretty sure there was only one person who was able to walk on water and he sure wasn’t here. However he went along with it, hopefully this wouldn’t be as disastrous as the floating venture. It didn’t look that way at first, because his steps were awkward and he was too busy focusing on his feet to worry about his arms moving like Eli was doing. Yet instead of just dropping his feet to the bottom of the pool and calling it quits, he preservered and soon his feet weren’t floundering anymore. When he also did the hand circling thing it actually began to mimic what Eli was doing. Sure it wasn't as graceful his buddy's was, James bobbed up and down in the water slightly, but he wasn't touching the bottom of the pool as well as the fact that he was able to keep his head above the water. Which meant he wasn't drowing! A nervous laugh escaped his lips as he looked down into the refracted water to see his feet kicing back and forth. It was so wierd. It was so cool and yet the only words he could find to describe his situation were, "I'm doing it Eli! I'm actaully doing it!" This was really big for James because no it meant, that although he didn't really learn anything, as far as James knew he was the only one from his homeland to be able to "swim." Now anybody would see that as being cool.

[Eli Triton]

Eli hoped his explanation made at least a tiny bit of sense, it was really difficult to explain how to do something that came so naturally to him. It was a little like trying to explain how to breathe.

James seemed to struggle with it a little at first, and Eli put that down to his poor description than any failure on James' part, but to Eli's delight he kept at it and successfully managed to hold himself up in the water. Eli beamed at him, punching the air in delight.

"Yea! That's excellent!" he laughed. He could see now that starting off with floating hadn't been the best thing for James, it was much better to teach himself something active rather than passive, it would be easier for the other boy to trust the water once he knew that he had a way to keep himself up if all else failed.

"Okay, wanna try moving?" he offered, emboldened by the success. "Just lean forward slightly, so your legs are kicking back a bit, they'll propel you forward. Move your arms in front and paddle them to keep your head up, it should look a little something like this;"

Demonstrating the moves as he had described them, Eli doggie-paddled his way in a small circle around James.

[James Florian]

James smirked at the sight of Eli doggie-paddling around the pool. It looked so silly, it kind of looked stupid. Not that he was regarding Eli as a fool in this moment. Oh no, that was most certainly not the case, but just the motion of it looked foolish to the raven haired lad. James had seen Eli cut through the surface of the water like the fish he was plenty of times. Every time he looked strong, graceful, and somehow powerful in his friend's eyes, but here he looked like a drowning rat. It wasn't graceful or powerful in the slightest. The way he was pushing his arms around and kicking his feet looked barely coordinated as well as weak. It looked kind of foolish, but for once James kept his mouth shut and didn't reveal his true feelings. After all Eli here was doing him a favor, it wouldn't be wise to insult his lack of grace as he was trying to teach his fellow prince how to not drown. 

So after thinking for a moment about he was going to do this, James carefully leaned forward like Eli had had told him to do while he kept kicking and suddenly he was moving... down towards the bottom of the pool. However once he realized what direction his top-heavy body was going, he thrust his arms forward and copied Eli's movements. In the blink of an eye, James righted himself and soon he was moving. He was actually swimming. Sure he was wobbling and he was far from graceful, but he was doing it. James was swimming. 

He laughed out of relief of actually being able to do this. (It also didn't hurt that the water felt weird if he spread his fingers or toes as he kicked, but that was besides the point.) As the time went on and James kept up the kicking as well as paddling, he steadily got better at it until he barely wobbling anymore. He then looked over to Eli as he asked out of sheer curiosity, "So I guess you've been swimming since you were little right?" It seemed like that rather than celebrating the first steps, Eli's family praised the first strokes. James didn't really know why he asked it, but he had a feeling that if he knew that Eli was doing this from the time he could walk then he would feel slightly better about being as graceful as a hippo on his first go.

After a few more minutes though of paddling like that, his legs started to hurt. They weren't used to this level of movement and motion. So he moved a bit closer to the shallower end to where when he stood up the water reached a little less than halfway between his belly button and shoulder blades to give his limbs a small break and much needed break. He leaned on the side of the pool as he also asked Eli, "So what's next?"

[Eli Triton]

Ok, so, he had to admit that when you watched somebody else do it, it wasn't exactly the most graceful or manly way of moving through the water, but he wouldn't dream of making fun of James for it - he was far too delighted that James was successfully moving around the pool under his own steam. He punched the air again, doing a little happy dance in the water that this was going so well. It might have been a shaky start, but they were on a roll now.

"Since before I can remember, practically," Eli agreed, sometimes he felt like he'd been born in the water, he didn't remember a time when they hadn't regularly been to the seaside, or when his brothers and sisters hadn't dragged him down to the water just to get them all out from underfoot before a big party or banquet. Water was just... so much a part of his life he was hard pressed to remember an important event that hadn't involved it in some way.
"I'm just as much at home in the water as I am on land, I guess." he shrugged.

Once James moved to the shallow end, Eli moved over to join him - almost instinctively flipping himself smoothly into a dive and gliding over to him underwater before standing up beside him.

"Next... well next let's learn some actual strokes, that's probably best." When he was younger they'd just learnt to move around the water in whatever way felt natural, and proper swimming hadn't come until a lot later, but he figured for someone who just needed to know how to swim in case of emergencies, it was probably something he'd need to know.

"Let's work on the legs first, that's the easy part... kicking is probably best." It wasn't technically correct to kick with breast stroke, but he doubted James was going to be entering any competitions any time soon. Waving James to follow him over to the edge, he demonstrated as he spoke.

"So just hold onto the edge like this, and then kick your legs out behind you. Figure out how much you need to kick to keep yourself upright... just practice, I'll be back in a second." he left James to figure it out and swam off to the other side of the pool, hoisting himself out with ease and rummaging through the boxes by the pool side for a float.

[James Florian]

"So swimming to you is like horse riding to me..." James said trailing off at the end. Although it was true, he wasn't fond of horseriding from the beginning, it didn't mean his parents didn't at least try. However the way they tried is kind of what turned James away when he was little. You see like all responsible and over protective parents, royalty or not, when you introduce a toddler to horse riding you start them off with a pony. Baby James did not like ponies. They were fat, they were slow, and they weren't the kind of horse that he saw everyone else riding. However since James could barely talk at the time, nobody really understood that he just didn't like the horse they were trying to get him to ride. So they all just thought that he just didn't like it and they stopped trying, until they caught James sneaking out of his room when he was a bit older and more physically capable of conveying his hatred for the knock-off horse.  

He laughed a bit and shook his head in that typical teasing disbelief fashion when Eli decided to "show off" as he came over to where the raven haired prince stood. He was tempted to say something, to lightly tease him for practically being a fish and never resisting the urge to swim, but he bit his cheek to keep it in. He didn't want Eli to take it the wrong way accidentally. James has been having some trouble lately about accidentally pushing too far. 

He nodded to Eli's plan after all he was the teacher here, it wasn't exactly James' place to challenge him and it also didn't hurt that he didn't have a reason to. After all James was new to all of this. How was he supposed to know it wasn't proper form to kick during some strokes? He was just learning how to not drown after all.

"Like this?" James asked as he followed Eli's instructions and was kicking on the edge of the surface while holding onto the pool's edge. It took him a couple of seconds to figure out which amount of kicking power was needed to keep him upright, but once he did he looked to where Eli was last standing, but to his surprise. he wasn't there. "Hey..." James said quietly as he looked around the best he could to see where his friend was and for some odd reason saw him digging through boxes looking for something. 

"What are you looking for?" James asked as he continued to kick the water, making a little geyser appear to bubble up where James feet were. 

[Eli Triton]

"That's exactly it," Eli told him as he swam away, glancing back occasionally to make sure James was still doing the right thing. He was glad to see that even while the other prince was getting curious he was still practicing, and he approved of that sort of dedication.

Rifling through the box he pulled out a pair of the small rectangular kickboards, clutching them to his chest as he dived back into the pool and swam back over to James. It was a little more difficult with two floats and only one arm, but he still managed it with a certain amount of well-practiced grace. The slightest obstacle would cause clumsiness on land, but in the water almost nothing could stop him.

"These," he announced, holding up the two boards as he reached James. Handing one to the prince, he took the other in both hands "Since we're working on legs to start with, these are going to help you swim until we do the arms. You're going to swim all the way up and down this pool, and you're going to do it like this-"

He held the float out in front of him and started kicking his legs, propelling him forward while the foam in his hands kept his arms up.

"Make sense?"

[James Florian]

James pushed himself off the wall when Eli swam up to him once more kickboards in hand. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion when he saw the prince come over with the weirdly shaped pieces of plastic, because simply he hadn't seen anything like them before and at first glance their purpose wasn't so clear to see. However he understood once Eli demonstrated for him. Cautiously he took a board and listened to what Eli wanted him to do. Here, there, and back again. Seemed simple enough until James realized one little thing. There meant the deep end the pool. The deep end of the pool where it was almost nearly as deep as two James' standing on each other. James could barely tread water and do the doggy paddle. If he fell off the float and fell down into the deceptively deep waters, he knew there was a good chance he wasn't going to get his head back into the sweet air fairly quickly. 

He looked at Eli with slightly wide eyes as he said quietly, "You want me to go over there?" James really didn't want to go all the way over there, he liked the shallow end over here. He could touch the bottom over here, and there was no chance of him drowning over here. (As if he was even at risk of drowning in the first place. After all he was swimming with Eli.) However as both the boys probably knew, their lives were filled with doing things they really didn't want to. There was nothing they could do about it either, as royals the two of them were expected to pick their chins up, and wear a grin as they bared through it. So James would do it, because he was expected to, but there was no way he was going to be smiling. Only if hell froze over, thank you very much. 

He took the board from Eli, with his skin a little paler than usual and with some reluctance he used the wall to help propel him forward and he did what Eli told him to do. The shallow end part was okay, since he knew that if need be he could just put his feet down, but as soon as he past the underwater black line, he whimpered slightly and buried his face as best he could into the kickboard so he couldn't see the untouchable bottom. It didn't work out so well because every time a miniature wave created by both the princes' movements lapped up onto the board he sputtered as the water made it's way into his eyes, mouth, and nose, but somehow he managed to never get a good look at the water. Maybe it was because every time he picked his head up his eyes were screwed tightly shut. He really didn't want to see what was out of his reach, he didn't want to see the vast empty space that he had always been warned was a killer. 

When his board tapped the other edge of the pool, James not so skillfully turned himself around while clutching to the magical piece of floating plastic. He did open his eyes for a second to catch a glimpse of the depth marker on the outside of the pool. Nine feet. The pool went down nine feet, and that was very, very deep.

Trembling slightly because of this new bit of information, James cautiously kicked himself off the wall again and kicked a bit faster than he did earlier, wanting to rush back to an area of the pool where he could touch. In no time at all he was back in the safe zone and he breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't like the deep end. He didn't like it one bit. When he reached Eli once more he stood up and said to the fish prince. "Could we not do that again?"

[Eli Triton]

"Yep," Eli grinned encouragingly, he didn't bother trying to convince James that he could do it, he just stood back and waited expectently, because he knew James could do it.

He waited at the shallow end, watching his friend the whole way, as tempted as he was to play about in the water, he knew James deserved a witness to his achievement, and he also knew he had to be ready in case James ran into any trouble. When James made it back he laughed, throwing an arm around him and waving his other arm in the air in victory.

"That was excellent! You swam all that way! On your own! Without drowning! You should be proud of yourself!" breaking away, his face a little flushed (and that was definitely from the warm air in here, definitely), he punched James lightly on the shoulder.

"Okay, let's work on those arms. I promise I won't make you go into the deep end again."

[James Florian]

James felt a little awkward with Eli's way of praising him. It's not really like he actually did anything anyway. He just clutched onto a little plastic board for dear life and kicked while he trembled at the possibility of dying a painful, slow death. It really wasn't an achievement in the raven haired lad's eyes if you asked him. But Eli was treating it as such, so he couldn't help, but crack a small grin when the fish Prince pulled him into a side hug. Eli's happiness was just that infectious.

"Alright Eli, I'm proud." He said as he shrugged his friend off of his shoulder. It was too hot in here for contact with anything other than the water anyway.

"So how are we going to work on these things." James said with a small grin before flexing his arms like a bodybuilder would as a joke. They weren't on that level of muscles of course. He was a weakling Prince after all, but he was a prince and a medieval one at that so of course there was something there. Back home he made sure of that, after all how was he supposed to be a warrior king if he looked like he couldn't hold his own in a fight?

He was also grateful they weren't going anywhere near the deep end again. James really didn't want to know what dying was like.