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The ol' swimmin' hole... Or perhaps new one, in this case. No one had gone swimming that she knew of, recreational or otherwise. Hai walked up to the water with Ash, looking at the water somewhat dubiously. She hadn't stopped to think about what might be living in it until now. She didn't get to pause for long, though. Ash, true to her word, grabbed her arm and tossed her in without a second thought.

Nika! We're at the lake! You better hurry or we'll have all the fun before you get here! Ash giggled to herself, but that giggle turned to a brief mental screech as Haisyn latched onto her ankles and dragged her in. She'd almost forgotten that Hai's sense of humor wasn't all that different from her own.

artimis came running past the others when he saw the gleam of water. his cloths fluttered to the ground behind them. he sprinted and lept off a rock clad in only his britches and landed with a splash in the fairly shallow water and began swimming out under water towards the middle of the lake. he liked the feeling of water on his skin. at least clean water like this. he really didnt like anything to dirty. he and sk seemed to differ in that regaurd! he waved to the others from a ways from showre when his head popped out of the water.

he smiled at what was goin on and jsut nodded to ash before she was pulled in the water. her and hai were gettign along well. he liked to see that but at the same time kinda wished that he could go and hang around sk. he wanted to learn the weapons and how to use them. no one could have asked him why. least he could not have given an answer that is, to why he liked blades. but he thought they may very well become a passion for him.

Ash laughed with the others for a moment, but as usual her mischievous nature asserted itself. She swam toward Nika and pulled up to a stop much as she had previously, and used both arms and both wings to splash as much water as possible at him.

Haisyn snuck up on the both of them while Ash and Nika were distracted and splashed water at each of them in turn. She attempted to dive before they could retaliate, but she couldn't quite manage to escape unscathed. She surfaced near Gee, gasping for air with only minimal success between bursts of laughter. She actually remembered playing like this with Verran and Danica when she was younger, and for once the thought didn't hurt.

It was so cold. Nika gasped as the water made contact with his back and then shivered when she force of the splashes increased. Two people? That wasn't fair! He plunged into the water head-first, tried to turn around so that he was facing Ashy (wich was quite a feat as it was difficult to keep his lanky form entirely sumbered underwater). Once he was sure that she was in front of him, Nika made a grab for her ankles.

From under the water, he sent a message back to Arti, 'No problem, kiddo.'

G_E had been laughing at Nika without relent and was experiencing trouble keeping her head above the water. When Haisyn surfaced beside her, the blonde woman gently placed her hands on the other woman's head and pushed.

"Hold your breath," she giggled.

((Crudtastic post 'cause it's all I can think of. >< ))

Hai fought her way out from under Gee and the water and gasped for air, finally breaking into laughter when her lungs stopped burning. "You caught me! Too bad there's not a prize for it." She settled next to Gee and watched Nika and Ash practically throw water at one another. "This is how life is supposed to be, isn't it?"

She lounged non-chalantly in the water for a few minutes, not looking at anything in particular, when something finally registered in her brain. "Hey, Gee... is it me, or are the leaves starting to turn?"

The various shades of green and in some cases yellow that had been present since they arrived on the planet were starting to change colors. Most of them were subtle changes, but some of the leaves were obviously showing some crimson and orange... and even blue. She didn't know why it hadn't occured to her that autumn would eventually arrive, they'd been here for most of the length of a spring and summer as she was used to them. It didn't really make sense for there not to be seasons, in any case, even tropics usually had their rainy seasons. It seemed as though they were in the early stages of autumn when the weather still felt summery but was showing obvious signs of shifting.

Haisyn frowned for a moment. "I guess someone's going to have to go shopping. We're trailing behind here as it is, I know we're not equipped for a weather change."

Oh, don't do that. She shifted her thoughts quickly. They were supposed to be having fun, they could talk business after dinner. Speaking of which...

"You want a roast bird for dinner? I've seen some quail looking things wandering around, I could probably catch some."

Ash wasn't fairing as well against Nika as she would have hoped. In one last desperate maneuver to try and regain the advantage she ducked under the water and tried to grab his ankles to drag him down like he'd done to her earlier. Unfortunately she lost her tenuous footing on the lake bottom right when she started to tug. She was going to end up tumbling along the lakebed, and unless Nika moved quickly he was going to go with her.

Hai shrugged. "Maybe Nika would know if they have names? And he might know how different the weather is going to be, if he can remember stuff now. Heck, Ash might for all I know. Why don't we ask them?"

Nika's unceremonious falling on her didn't help a whole lot. After lots of flailing around she managed to right herself, only to find one of her wings trapped under him. After a little more floundering she stood and looked at Nika, and couldn't help bursting into laughter. And though it could only be heard mentally, that didn't make it any easier to breathe.

Oh man, do I have that much mud on me, too? She devolved into another fit of laughter after she finally squeezed the question out and this time she was having trouble stopping.