Just Keep Swimming (Job)

Spoiler:

Weren’t there schools and classes for this sort of thing? The fact that the father couldn’t teach the boy confused Mao as she walked along the streets of the lively town. Considering it had a river flowing straight through the town and creating a hazard in the streets for those unable to swim led the woman to further question such a lack of ability. It wasn’t as if lifeguards exactly lined the streets every couple of blocks and surely even the most foolish of children would walk along the raised bricks framing the river. Mao hadn’t been able to resist, the things easily wide enough she didn’t have to carefully balance as her hands hid inside pockets.

Out of town she went, brick giving way to soft dirt road as the girl traveled just a bit further. They’d wanted to avoid the boats and general hubbub of the town. ’I believe they said the river would split…ah there it is.’ She noted the divergence of the water into a smaller, almost stream-like body of water that stretched back out into a full, but very calm river. ’Almost like a lake really.’ It lacked the music of the faster flow, but even the gentle trickle tickled her ears pleasantly.

A kid sat waiting on the banks for her, sun-blessed skin enviable in its dark golden hue, the breeze softly causing his dark locks to dance. He sat there with his thin limbs, arms hugging knees to his chest with a bored expression plastered on his young face. The moment those equally dark eyes passed over her the young lad visibly perked up, shooting to his feet as a smile transformed into an outright grin, ”You’re here!” With the same level of enthusiasm he rushed over and grabbed Mao’s hand, shaking the limb almost wildly with the sudden rush of barely contained energy.

She stared a bit wide-eyed, glad that he appeared eager, but not quite sure what to do or how to deal with all this enthusiasm either. Would it allow her to teach him without too much trouble? What if it merely got in the way and the boy threw himself into the water only for to need the tailed woman to follow suit and save him? ’Glad they chose this gentle flow to start, though once he’s got the hang of it then things shouldn’t be too bad at least.’ First things first they had to start.

This had to be one of the most uncomfortable missions for the woman as she removed the multitude of layers, failing to notice the surprised look of her young student. Everything had to be neatly folded and set on the dewy grass before they could begin – well away from the water’s clutches. Beneath the soft, cotton pants she’d worn a pair of short, black swim shorts. They’d have to be specially designed around her tail, some ribbon ensuring a neat little bow sat right above it. Uncharacteristically the woman opted for a slight bikini top, though rather than thin straps she’d opted for thicker ones, the lower back ones double-knotted while the one sitting behind her neck mirrored the bow theme. White stripes alternated with blue close to her hair color decorated the top.

”Swimming’s actually not so hard since people are very…floaty…that is to say, have you ever floated on your back?” The boy nodded, though looked a little insure about his answer. Mao ‘ahh’d as she took a guess, ”It worked for a little, but when you panicked you started sinking?” When his shoulders slumped Mao nodded, ”I know it sounds odd, but part of the trick is also not to panic. Randomly flailing your limbs about isn’t going to help and you might end up hurting yourself instead.”

”And of course when you have issues you can always use your tai…l…oh…yeah” Mao trailed off and they looked away awkwardly, a hand rubbing the back of her head. Okay so she’d have a few extra tricks up her sleeve that wouldn’t translate over, but that didn’t mean the legs weren’t important or less useful. ”Right, well then moving along, you’ll still want a life jacket when helping your father, but make sure to stretch before hand as well and periodically because you don’t want your legs cramping up since they’re a large part. At the same time do so for your arms as well since they’ll help keep you afloat.”

“You want to make a paddle or cup with your hands since you don’t have any sort of webbing either, this’ll help pull you through the water. You can perform over the head strokes, you can do frog style, and even doggy paddle’s good in a pinch,” she demonstrated each visually, the cool water sitting around their knees. Mao moved them towards a deeper part of the gentle river, but not so deep she completely lost her footing. ”We’ll practice each style as well as treading water before we show off for your mother, all right?”

They spent hours practicing before bringing the family out to the river’s edge. It turned into a small swimming party as the two adults took to the water to get an idea of his abilities – though Mao suspected they simply wanted to swim as well. First she had the boy show off his patented doggy paddle even if it lacked the propeller help of a tail. ’Then again a lot of dogs can’t really use their tail for simply treading water.’ Even if drying the large thing was such a pain, Mao still loved her tail even in regards to swimming.

After the kid had fun showing off an overly exaggerated frog-style that found him starting to sink due to taking too long, but he managed to recover with some flailing about and proved he could do an over-the-head stroke.

As the father and son continued to play despite the sky starting to turn a few shades of pink and orange the mother pulled Mao aside. ”I just wanted to thank you since we don’t really have time to teach him ourselves. Fishing is our main income so his father has to spend most of his time out on his boat. He’s really wanted to spend some time with his father and since I don’t have to worry about him as much he can finally have his wish.” Smile in place, the woman placed the jewels in Mao’s hand and curled the girl’s fingers over it, ”So thank you, so much for helping us. I know it’s not a lot, but it means the world to him.”