moon-blessed tides / ike & sothe
“Got it.” Ike isn’t chagrined at all to hear Sothe’s explanation. He had missed the start of it, after all– he nods with attentive eyes, and then with visible appreciation as he realizes the hefty amount he’d missed. It was starting to become a common mistake, he noticed– his first assumption was to attempt to find a fixed point to steady himself on, and even on firm ground, that approach hadn’t worked as well as he’d thought it would have. He stores the observation for later. Try more things that require unstable and agile footing. Rely less on your footwork and weight, and instead on the balance of the rest of your body. Surfing is one way to do it, perhaps riding and flying next? He follows Sothe, wading a little deeper to match him, then throws the board out. It lands with a splash. Immediately, difficulties arise, beginning from his very attempt to pull himself up onto the board flat– Ike is heavier, much heavier, so he finds his body awkwardly pushing one of the sides under the surface, which then retorts him by rocketing out from the waves with a vengeance. He ends up scrambling for purchase, the plank slipping from his fingers and away. Luckily, he’d expected this, and his other hand is still fast enough to grab at its fleeing tail so it does not get lost. This time, he slows down his attempt, and he’s able to pull himself up, toes touching the tail of the board. He presses his hands as close as he can to the center of the board, setting his chin straight ahead. Nothing goes wrong here: once he’s stable enough, the rest is piecemeal. He pushes himself up with fluid ease, following Sothe’s example to rise into a position resembling vaguely a sprinter’s start, deft footwork allowing him to drop his left foot into where his knee had been, his right moving almost to his palms. He waits for a moment to sense the feeling and attempt to stabilize, feeling a growing sense of tension like he shouldn’t be like this for too long– and then uses the position of his stance to twist himself upwards into standing, like a rubber band snapping straight. He fans his arms out to the side for balance instinctively, before he can stop them, and Ike winces as he prepares for a fall. Nothing happens. The salty air tickles his neck, and Ike almost blinks in surprise as he finds himself balanced properly, standing on the board as the miniature waves rock lightly under his feet.
“…Huh.” Ike can feel a smile curling at the edge of his lips. This is actually kind of fun. He looks eagerly over the water. There’s the peeling waves that the figure had gone earlier on, but Ike frowns at the thought of immediately going in. He looks around for something smaller, and his eyes catch on a layer of white foam as the waves break over a bank that’s shallow enough where he can still see the pale sands rise and fall with the ocean, much like it was breathing. It’s not too far from them. “Sothe, look over there.” He points, jerking his chin at the point of interest.
Sothe could only smile, seeing Ike succeed. He sure needed ways to pass the time—aside from swordfighting and training that is—and this had the potential to stick. On that note, he also thought of possibly returning to this in the future, although, perhaps, in an attire fitting for colder weather.
When the other called out to him, Sothe followed his eyes and pointers to a number of smaller waves a bit out to the right, still near the shore. Those would be a wise place to start: after all, they were unprepared for the higher peaks, as much as he wanted to head out there. The island didn’t seem to pose any danger, but who knows what could happen should they bring the danger upon themselves.
“That works,” he replied. “Let’s?”
All that was left to do was to paddle out.
