𝕋𝕚𝕞𝕖 𝕊𝕥𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕤 𝕊𝕥𝕚𝕝𝕝 - Hawk & Stri

Orpheus could see the way L breathed in, the way his expression creased just a little bit as he was left to float on his own. Orpheus was right behind him, but it would be harder to tell that from the water than it would have been for an onlooker. Amazingly, L didn’t overbalance himself and sink. He managed to keep floating, which was a good sign. If he was in a desperate situation, he would at least be able to float.
“You’re floating!” Orpheus confirmed, a smile spreading across his face. He tried to make his voice loud enough that L could hear without shouting at him. Even if it was for a purpose, shouting still felt… unnecessary.
“You’ve got it,” he added, stepping back a little bit so he could see if there was anything he could suggest to make L’s floating any better. He didn’t immediately see anything. L, it seemed had good balance. After a few moments, Orpheus put his hand back against the small of L’s back, gently guiding him back up to a standing position.
“How was that?”

“It’s nice, isn’t it?” Orpheus asked, a grin passing across his features. “It’s like the water is carrying your weight, so you don’t have to worry about anything but… relaxing.” He leaned back himself, floating for a few moments before he got back to his feet. His hair and clothes were sopping wet, though his hair was long enough that it didn’t fall into his face as L’s did. He resisted the urge to push L’s hair from his face, letting the other immortal take care of it. He still wasn’t sure how L felt about physical contact, and he didn’t want to cross any boundaries. They were still getting used to each other, in spite of how long they had travelled together. It really hadn’t been that long since L had stepped out of the shadows. Especially in the grand scheme of their life, the time they had spent together – together together, not just L following Orpheus.
“That’s basically all you have to know how to do to survive. Of course… you either need to be able to find help or be pushed back to shore by waves unless you know how to actually swim, but if you get tired while swimming, or if you just need to take a break to breathe… that’s how you do it. Do you want to try again?” He tilted his head, unsure how quickly to move on to other steps. He had never really taught anything other than music before, and in that case he had just recreated what Apollo had taught him, starting with how to make notes and chords. This was entirely different.

Orpheus kept one hand out to brace against L, but he didn’t plan on using it unless L needed him to. He figured L was perfectly capable of floating by himself if he was given the chance, so Orpheus was more than happy to give him the chance. Besides, the worst that could happen here was L sink. Orpheus would be able to grab him almost seconds after it happened, and then they would be able to figure out why L sank instead of floated. He watched L for a moment, keeping his hand behind L’s back to steady him if he needed it. Somehow, Orpheus found he doubted L was going to need it. He was extraordinarily capable, and as far as Orpheus had seen, a quick learner.
“It might be a little bit harder,” Orpheus replied quietly, looking out at the open ocean. “Where we are right now is about as turbulent as it gets unless you’re in the middle of a storm. You still have the waves buffeting you here. When you’re out on the ocean, the waves aren’t really… waves. Not like this, at least. You saw where they crested… beyond that, they’re just sort of… movements in the water. If you’re floating right, they just carry your body with them. You might get a little water in your ears or your nose, but you aren’t very likely to be pulled under or anything.”

Orpheus gave a quiet nod, very carefully reaching a hand out to support L as a wave came crashing through. He lifted L above the crest of it, then let the other immortal continue floating. Ideally, they would be out a little bit further for this, but Orpheus didn’t want to risk them getting too far away from shore. He didn’t know how deep it was past the crest of the wave, either. He was confident in his own ability to make it back if something happened, and he was almost positive he could save L as well, but he would prefer not to scare either of them with such a situation. It would be best to just do it here and avoid the wave crests.
“The waves here are actually more powerful,” Orpheus replied, well aware that his voice was probably muffled and difficult to make out. “The waves here can carry you all the way into shore. The waves out there… they can move you places, but they aren’t powerful enough to drag you in.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Orpheus replied, brows furrowed in concern as he did his best to help L right himself. The wave had been relatively strong, and Orpheus understood why it had bowled L over like it had. It was hard to float when the waves were that strong, particularly after they had crested. Orpheus glanced out at the ocean, then back at L.
“Are you alright?” he asked after a moment, making sure that L hadn’t been too frightened. “Can you breathe alright?” He knew how terrifying it was to be bowled over like that, even when you did know how to swim. It was difficult to tell which way was up, and that sort of disorientation… he pushed the thought away. L seemed to be alright.
“It might be hard to believe,” Orpheus managed, looking out at the deeper water, “but it might actually be easier to practice floating if we can get you out a little bit more. You might not be able to stand in the water, but you’ll be able to float without having to worry about waves like that knocking you over.”

Orpheus looked out at the crest of the waves, considering L’s concern. The last thing he wanted to do was frighten L instead of teaching him, but… he didn’t know how to teach this without having L take at least a few risks. He pondered the question for a moment before he looked at L, a small smile touching his lips.
“You’ll sink, yes, but I’ll be there to hold you up. The next thing you have to learn is how to tread water, anyway. It’ll be easier when you can’t feel the bottom. And the floating will be much easier when you don’t have these strong waves to contend with. Don’t worry, you might be able to feel the bottom… I don’t actually know how deep this water is, but… it won’t be dangerous. I won’t let you breathe in any water.” It wasn’t so much a concern about L drowning – they had no proof that they were even capable of drowning. But Orpheus knew that breathing in water was frightening even if it wasn’t capable of killing you.

Orpheus looked out just a little bit further, then gave a small nod. He was about to start leading L out further when his eyes widened and he froze in place, spellbound. He grabbed L’s wrist, his other hand pointing out towards beyond where the waves were cresting.
“L!” he gasped, tone filled with abject delight, “Look! Do you see… there! Out… follow my finger… dolphins!” He grinned, turning to look fully at L instead of at the dolphins. They weren’t very close, but they were close enough to see that it was a pod of four or five, leaping over the waves and surfacing for just a moment before they dove back down again with nothing other than a small flick of their tails to betray that they had ever been there in the first place.
“I think they’re striped dolphins!” He added, referencing the black stripes that ran from their eye to the tips of their tails. It was hard to see from this distance, especially with their images refracting off of the waves, but… still.

“There!” Orpheus exclaimed, pointing where the dolphins had resurfaced. He was curious what they were doing. It didn’t seem that they were just coming up for air. They seemed to be… hunting? Or perhaps playing. He had heard stories of dolphins playing as though they were people, but he didn’t know if those stories were true. He wanted to believe that they were. They were… oddly human creatures, for animals that didn’t look anything like humans. It had been years since Orpheus had seen any, but he felt his heart swell a little bit at the sight of them breaching the water once more. They were majestic in a way he couldn’t really describe. Not as fantastic as whales, perhaps, but he thought they had a little bit more character than whales did. They were certainly more playful, and almost definitely more curious.
“They are pretty, aren’t they?” Orpheus asked, a grin crossing his lips and seeming to get stuck there. He didn’t want to look away, but he also wanted to see how L was reacting to the dolphins. He had seen L react to the Northern Lights, and that had been nearly as beautiful as the lights themselves. Perhaps more beautiful, because the reaction had been so human. It was like that now, too. There was always more to discover. The two of them could still be astounded by things they had never seen before.

Orpheus hadn’t seen dolphins often, but he found that when he did, they were usually up to something that took a while in one area. They had followed the Argo for a while, jumping out of the water whenever a crew member threw a bit of fish overboard. They had been joking about how the dolphins were likely to follow Atalanta home. She hadn’t seemed terribly opposed to the idea. Orpheus shook the thought away. He wasn’t sure what the dolphins were doing here, but they were the only two people in sight. Surely the majestic creatures weren’t there for them. They had just… gotten lucky, it seemed.
He gave a quiet laugh at L’s reaction, turning back to watch the dolphins for a few seconds more. They really were impossible to describe. It was easy to forget sometimes that there were things beyond what they saw every day. Orpheus wondered sometimes if there were enough animals in the world for them to see a new one every day and not run out. Dolphins had once seemed relatively commonplace to him. Now… his smile never left his face. He didn’t know if the cetaceans knew they were there, but he was half afraid to move in case it alerted them that there were humans nearby.
When Orpheus turned back to glance at L one more time, L was already looking at him. Orpheus held his gaze for just a moment, a blush moving across his features.
“Thank you for sharing this with me.” The words were soft, almost snatched away by sea breeze. But the meaning was unmistakable.

Orpheus didn’t know if he’d that kind of effect on anyone’s life. He hoped he did… he hoped that he crossed into his life for just long enough to remind them about something important to them, but there was nothing he could do to influence that one way or another. He had lived long enough that it seemed almost impossible that he hadn’t, but… chance was a strange thing. Once, Orpheus had believed in fate. He had believed that everything was laid out in front of humanity, that there was a plan that people followed and steps that they took that they couldn’t quite get out of no matter how hard they tried. It had been long enough that he found he doubted that now. He was far more inclined to believe that life was driven mostly by chance. The things that weren’t pure luck were driven by human choices. Or… perhaps it was human choice that created chance, with a few small exceptions. Human choices couldn’t make a volcano explode, but they might be responsible for the destruction of a village.
That was far from the point. Nobody – human or god – had decided that this specific pod of dolphins was going to come by this specific beach while L and Orpheus were there. It had just happened, and there they were. Two immortals seeing something that was more beautiful than it had any right to be. Orpheus had a feeling that life would be defined from this moment forward by what they thought of as beautiful. This moment here… while it wasn’t quite as beautiful as the lights, it was just as beautiful as any masterpiece Orpheus had seen painted.
“I’m grateful, too,” Orpheus whispered, his gaze not leaving L’s. If his heart was beating more quickly than usual, he didn’t notice. “I think there’s still a great deal for us to show each other, and… and discover together. I’m glad we get this chance.”

“Oh,” Orpheus whispered, pulling his gaze back from the dolphins to watch L instead. He had a point. The dolphins likely didn’t see humans on the beach very often. It wasn’t like there was a settlement anywhere nearby. They were the only humans around, likely for miles. Orpheus considered that for a moment, a smile passing across his features for just a moment before he gave a tiny nod.
“I think… they might be able to,” he said after a moment. “Do you see the one that looks a little bit smaller than the others?” He pointed, eyes flashing with excitement as it broke the surface again. “That one. I bet… I bet it’s younger than all the others. I wonder if this is the first time it’s ever seen humans before. If it’s the first time for you, and the first time for it. If this moment is something you’re both sharing. Sharing deeper than I can understand, deeper than its parents can understand as they guide it towards the proper hunting grounds.” It may have been a fanciful idea, but there was no way to prove it wrong. Which made Orpheus tempted to believe in it.

Orpheus had decided a long time ago to believe the best of a situation. It hadn’t saved Eurydice, and it likely couldn’t save either him or L if it came down to it, but it made living an immortal life far more tolerable. If he could just… believe in the best, then maybe it was true. Maybe the dolphin was sharing a moment with L. Maybe it was wondering the exact same thing they were. It was a wide, mysterious world. There were so many things they couldn’t prove, and there was no harm in believing in small miracles.
“Good,” Orpheus breathed out, watching one of the dolphins throw itself into the air, arcing high above the water and splashing all around it as it dove back down under. He gave a quiet laugh, then turned back to look at L. “I think it appreciates it. And… I think it’s kind of you to remember. It’s… odd to think that there are so many things that have existed on this Earth and who have since left… things that have nobody to remember they were ever here.”

“There are no secrets that have no carriers,” Orpheus replied, glancing over at L. “The things that no person was alive to witness, the things that nobody can speak of… the trees saw them. They whisper their stories to the saplings that grow beneath them, the seeds that are carried by the wind… or maybe the mountains saw them, or the waves. And if no one else… then the wind. Just because we can’t understand the wind doesn’t mean it isn’t trying to say something.” Orpheus knew it was a poet’s way of seeing the world. He knew that L might not see it the same way he did. He knew that there was so much knowledge lost every day because people died, or because nobody human was around to capture a moment. There were experiences that nobody in the world would ever live, and that was… a devastating thought, if he were honest. But those moments didn’t just cease to exist just because nobody was there to watch.
“I’ve heard someone ask… if a tree falls down in a forest, and there’s nobody around to hear it… did that tree make a sound? I think… yes. I think that those sorts of moments aren’t lost just because nobody human was there. Just because the only people that were there are gone. The dead carry secrets. They share them with each other, and… and maybe one day they’ll share them with us.”

“Do you think,” Orpheus whispered, “that the mountains have no memories?” He glanced over to his left, noting the mountain range sprawling several miles to the side. He hadn’t spent nearly as much time in the mountains as he had at sea, but he knew enough about them to know the sorts of secrets they carried. The sorts of memories they held. There were only a few they were willing to yield to human eyes, but there were plenty more that existed. “I’d like to show you some of the secrets they’re willing to tell,” he admitted, grabbing L’s hand impulsively. He wasn’t sure if the other immortal would shake him off, but he wasn’t entirely sure he cared. He wanted to show him how many things weren’t entirely forgotten. How many things weren’t just lost to time.
“Have you ever seen a tree when it’s been cut down?” Orpheus added, hazel eyes searching dark. “There are rings that show its growth pattern. It shows how well a tree grew each year. You can see which years held rain and which ones were years of drought… I’ve met people who base their faith around just that. The trees have memories. And the waves… well, do they not come back to the same spot? Do they not wax and wane and reveal the same stretch of beach, reclaiming things and leaving shadows of secrets behind? He bit his lip, then pulled L a little bit deeper into the water.
“Here,” he whispered, leaning down to grab a seashell. “What is this, if not a secret? What is this, if not a memory of the creature that once called this home?”