by Tj Dixon
Peter opens the door and he looks good, except for the greenness on his face. Like normal his chest is exposed of course and whilst he may not have that much in the way of muscles he truly does have more than before his adventure in the land of the Kuroneko. The swimming trunks are much tighter than his shorts that he normally wears and the ice blue is a nice change from his red uniform. They are also much shorter than his shorts.
“Do I look ok?” Peter asks nervously.
“You look great.” I tell Peter and then wonder whether I sound weird. Perhaps I should have just said he looked nice.
“Thanks Hermes.” Peter smiles, though he looks a bit embarrassed.
“Now you two had best go on your date. Midori and I will stay here and prepare a picnic for you, so just port back here to collect it or let us know through the queen’s gift where you want it, and we’ll port it to you.” Rin tells us.
“Thanks Rin.” Peter smiles.
“Good luck, both of you.” Midori says with a smile that is mostly directed at Peter.
Chapter 22 (Hermes)
Walking down the main street to the beach with Peter I am glad that the town is more or less deserted. It means there is almost nobody to see me dressed like this. Peter looks a bit embarrassed too. Holding hands would be great but I’m too embarrassed to ask, so we end up just walking side by side with a few inches between us. It may only be a few inches but those few inches seem impossible to close.
“Have you ever been here before?” Peter asks me.
“No. My mother came here a few times when I was much younger but she always left me at home. I was grateful to be left on my own though.” I tell Peter and can’t help shivering as I think of my mother.
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.” Peter tells me with a wince.
“Don’t worry about it. You’re the one who freed me from her. Whatever happens I’ll always be grateful.” I tell Peter with an honest smile.
“So how do you swim?” Peter asks me.
“Isn’t swimming when you use water magic to move in the water?” I ask Peter.
“Oh. I thought swimming was something people did without magic. I thought swimming was when you moved your arms and legs to move in the water, but I wasn’t sure about the details. I assumed there was some sort of trick to it, but if it’s just water magic then I know how to do that.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s just water magic.” I assure Peter.
“What were those sand towers that Rin mentioned? Are they buildings that you can live in?” Peter asks.
“I don’t think so. If it’s something little children build then surely it has to be fairly easy to build. Maybe they’re mini towers made out of sand? Something you just look at?” I suggest.
“That makes sense. Rin wasn’t exactly good at magic when we first met so they can’t be that hard to build if she made them before we met. It’s actually hard to imagine Rin using magic to build anything before we met.” Peter says.
“Maybe she used tools that her mother made?” I suggest.
“That would make sense.” Peter nods. Then he frowns. “That mage over there is looking at us oddly.”
“It must be these swimsuits.” I say looking down at the ground in embarrassment.
“I suppose everyone else is busy with the war.” Peter sighs. We walk in silence the rest of the way but we are almost there so it doesn’t take long before we reach the beach.
We stand at the edge of the beach and look down at the bright white sand. It slopes gradually down towards the sea before falling sharply like a cliff just before it reaches the sea. Last night I thought it looked beautiful and it is still stunning, but now I am here for a date it seems a bit scary. The sea is much rougher than last night too. Huge waves crash against the lower part of the beach, although up here we are still a good thirty feet from the sea and a good ten feet above the top of the highest waves.
“So what do you want to do first?” Peter asks.
“The sea looks a bit intimidating. How about looking for those shells that Rin mentioned?”
“That sounds like a good idea. Even if we can use magic to keep warm, that sea doesn’t look pleasant.” Peter says sounding relieved.
“So what do you think these shells look like?” I ask.
“I’m not sure. Let’s just look for anything that seems interesting.” Peter suggests.
“Ok.” I agree and so we start to walk slowly along the beach, staying at the top, well away from the sea. All I can see is sand though. We look for about ten minutes before looking up at each other and shaking our heads at exactly the same time. I laugh and so does Peter.
“Maybe these shells are closer to the sea if that’s where they come from.” Peter suggests. We both look nervously at the sea.
“I hate to admit it, but you’re probably right.”
“How about we just go in the sea? If we’re underwater it shouldn’t be so rough. We can always look for shells when the tide goes out.”
“It feels a bit scary, even though I know we’re both perfectly competent at water magic.” I admit.
“It’s weird, but it really does feel a bit scary.”
“Oh well, we’d better get it over with. I’m sure it will be fun once we’re underwater.” I say lifting myself off the ground with flight magic. Peter floats up too and we both fly towards the sea. We stop once we’re about twenty feet past the water edge. It looks dark and deep.
“The water is so dark that we aren’t going to be able to see anything. The light stones that Hinata and Asuna can use would be useful.” Peter says with a frown.
“There’s a special type of fire magic that can be used underwater. It only burns water so it doesn’t harm people or anything that may be living down there.” I tell Peter confidently before closing my eyes and summoning a water flame in the sea directly below us. As I open my eyes the blue flame gradually floats down towards the seabed before gradually spreading out about twenty feet in every direction. The water above the flame now looks really clear and bright. The sea actually looks almost inviting. Only almost though, because the large waves still seem more than a bit intimidating.
“Impressive.” Peter says, sounding genuinely impressed.
“Thanks. We learnt this in class just before you returned to the academy.” I tell Peter.
“Did everyone manage to learn it?” Peter asks but I get the impression he has already guessed the answer.
“No. About five of us managed to learn it.” I admit, unable to hide the pride from my voice.
“Good job learning it then.” Peter smiles. Then he looks down nervously. “We’d better do it now or we’ll just keep on putting it off. I’m sure that once we’re down there we’ll be fine.”
“I know.” I say unable to hide my fear from my voice.
“I’m going now.” Peter says and lowers himself fairly quickly, but not too fast. I sigh and follow him down towards the sea. I quickly catch up and then we plunge down below the surface. There is a large splash as we enter the sea but we avoid getting hit by any of the larger waves.
Below the surface we continue down until we reach the seabed. I’ve only used water flames in cups of water until now so it is really uncanny to float in the water lit by the strange blue light of the water flame. The seabed is mostly sand but there are long spiral shaped shells, about the length of my head and as thick as my lower leg, slowly crawling along. Every now and again they stop and seem to sink into the sand a few inches before rising up again and lifting off the seabed by a few inches for a moment. Then they continue crawling along.
“This is weird.” Peter says but he sounds happy.
“Yeah, weird, but worth seeing. I’m glad we came down here.” I smile.
“Me too.” Peter smiles.
“I wonder what else is down here.”
“Let’s find out.” Peter says and taking my hand he moves us forwards with water magic. I skip a breath as he takes my hand. It was so natural, and yet earlier when we w
alked down the street it seemed like a distant dream. I suppose we have held hands before, but holding hands on a date is different. His hand is still about the same size as mine. “Is something wrong?”
“No! I’m just happy.” I tell Peter quickly, before he can consider letting go of my hand. I make sure to move the water flames forward with us so he doesn’t have a reason to stop and perhaps let go of my hand.
“Look over there.” Peter says, pointing at a large white fish with a long deadly sharp bone sticking out the front like a sword. It doesn’t seem interested in us, which is good, because I’d hate to have to fight on our date. “I bet it tastes great.”
“I’d rather not find out.” I tell Peter with a gulp.
“I suppose we’re not here to look for dinner.” Peter says as if he was really considering eating the fish.
“Look over there.” I say and point at a wide silver flat fish. It looks really weird. Almost like a silver jelly.
“I don’t fancy eating that!” Peter laughs and as he does so the fish starts moving towards us.
“Maybe it fancies eating us though.” I say nervously, but a moment later it changes direction again.
“Just coincidence I guess.” Peter says sounding a little relieved.
“Must be.” I say and I am very relieved.
“Look at those!” Peter says, pointing at a huge group of small shiny green fish, each about the size of my little finger. How we failed to notice them until now I have no idea. They are heading in our direction and fast, but they move around us. For a minute or two we just float here, hand in hand still, and watch the little fish shoot past all around us. They really are fast too, so maybe that’s why we only saw them at the last moment.
“That was just surreal.” I grin.
“This was definitely a good choice. I’m glad Rin recommended it.” Peter says and I wish he hadn’t mentioned Rin. It reminds me of my rivals. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I sigh, unwilling to complain.
“Ok.” Peter says, clearly oblivious. It kind of annoys me that he didn’t even try to push for an answer, despite the fact that I don’t want to give him one. “Look at that!”
“What…? Wow…” I gasp as I see the huge golden fish about the size of a large house. The water is pretty deep here so we must have come out a fair distance. I hope we aren’t too far out, but right now the magnificent fish in front of us has me in awe. “That’s actual gold on the skin. Raw unrefined gold. Not pure enough to be of real value, but it’s pretty impressive.”
“Actual gold… in a fish.” Peter says and shakes his head in amusement as the huge fish swims past us. “It seems to have a fairly large and bright aura too, but it is pretty big so I suppose that is to be expected.”
“I wish I could see auras.”
“I sometimes wonder why I can.” Peter says with a frown. He sounds fairly worried but then he smiles. “Look at that thing.”
“A large white ball shape with twelve long tentacles… I think I’ve heard of these things, but I forget what they’re called. It seems to have noticed us. Let’s move away from it.” I say nervously.
“Ok. I don’t fancy letting it get too close either.” Peter says and moves us quickly away from it until it is out of sight.
“We must be pretty far out to sea by now.” I say nervously.
“Do you want to head back?” Peter asks.
“Let’s at least move closer to the shore.”
“Ok.” Peter says and moves us slowly back towards the shore. “Look at that!”
“A sea turtle! It must be twenty feet long.”
“What are sea turtles?” Peter asks curiously.
“They live inside those blue shells and swim close to the seabed like that one is. They eat sand and smaller creatures that live on the seabed. Like those things in the shells that we saw when we first came down here. They’re meant to store vast amounts of magic too.”
“That’s odd, because it doesn’t have much of an aura. A powerful aura generally means a lot of magic and a weak aura means not much magic.” Peter frowns.
“Maybe it used its magic on something.”
“Something like…” Peter says and then frowns even harder. “No. That can’t be it. Are you getting hungry?”
“I am actually. Even though we’ve not been up that long I’m really hungry.”
“Me too. Let’s go back to the beach and get Rin to port our picnic to us.” Peter suggests.
“Sounds like a good idea.” I grin.
“We’ve seen a lot down here.”
“Yes. It was a good suggestion.” I agree with a smile.
“I’m not sure what else we can do though. I guess we can look for shells again, though I’m not sure that will be as interesting as this was.”
“As long as we’re together alone I’m happy. I’m just glad to be able to have a date with you.” I tell Peter honestly.
“You really do look cute when you’re smiling like that.” Peter says and I blush.
“Look!” I say and point at a large rock that rises out of the sea. “Let’s have our picnic on that.”
“Sounds like a good idea. I’ll have to port back to get the lunch though, because Rin hasn’t been here before.” Peter tells me and ports away. I port up onto the top of the rock, which is about five feet wide for about eight feet and then quickly narrows to form razor sharp ends. A few moments pass, but they seem to last forever. Then Peter ports back with two large canvas bags filled with food and drink.
“That’s a lot.” I say happily. I notice Rin even put a couple of my favourite sugar rolls in the picnic.
“Can you do anything to smooth and soften the rock?” Peter asks. It does look quite hard and sharp.
“Sure.” I say and crouching down I use earth magic to first smooth the rock surface and then to make it a little softer. It is still rock though, so it isn’t the most comfy of places to sit. It is a very secluded and special location to eat though. We are also high enough up that the waves don’t threaten us. I sit down and ask Peter. “How’s that?”
“Not quite as soft as the dwarves made stone, but not bad.” Peter says as he sits down and puts the bags between us. I silently curse myself for not being better at earth magic, but if my rivals are dwarves I don’t suppose there would be any chance of my beating them at earth magic. At least they’re not after Peter. I have enough rivals for him already!
“That looks like a nice picnic.” I say to change the subject. It really does look nice though.
“Do you think this is happy juice?” Peter asks as he holds up two glass bottles with a metal lid and filled with clear liquid.
“It’s either that or water.”
“I hope its happy juice, but either way this one is yours.” Peter says and hands me one of the two bottles. “You like these rolls, don’t you?”
“Yes, sugar rolls are my favourite.” I say and take the sugar roll from Peter.
“You like food almost as sweet as Hinata.” Peter says with a smile.
“I like spicy food too.” I protest.
“I know, though not as spicy as Niji.” Peter laughs.
“No human likes food as spicy as Niji.”
“That’s probably true.” Peter grins.
“So what will you start with?”
“This looks good. Not sure what the meat is, but I’m going to start with this.” Peter says holding up a meat sandwich.
“I’m sure it’s nothing you wouldn’t want to eat.”
“I learnt in Nirvali not to ask what I was eating.” Peter grins. Then he takes a bite and his grin widens. “This is good! It’s a bit spicy so you’d probably like it too. I’ll save the other one for you.”
“Sounds good.” I say and take a bite of my sugar roll. It tastes as good as ever. It isn’t big though so I’ve soon finished it. Peter is still eating his sandwich so I look in the bag he got it out of and take the other one. I take a bite and it really is spicy. “This really is good.�
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I open my bottle and take a sip. It is just water, but it’s very fresh water. It tastes great having just eaten some of that spicy meat. I take another bite. It isn’t long before I’ve finished my sandwich. Peter is eating a different sandwich now and he looks to be enjoying it. It is filled with green goo so it looks a bit unappetising.
“What’s that one like?” I ask.
“A little sweet, but fairly spicy too.” Peter says and it really has my interest now. Everything seems to be in twos or fours and there are still three of these so I take one out of the bag and take a bite too. It is only a little sweet but it really is fairly spicy. The combination is great.
We end up quickly demolishing the food and then just sit side by side watching the sea below us. I’m only a few inches to Peter’s right and the distance feels comfortable. Unlike when we walked down the street I feel it would be so easy to close that gap and yet I don’t feel the need. With magic we are of course quite warm despite the cold air around us and despite having just come out of the sea. The sea breeze through my hair feels lovely and just sitting here with Peter is actually very nice.
All of a sudden I feel Peter’s hand on my shoulder. I turn and see him staring into my eyes. He says something but I’m so shocked that I don’t really hear what he says. Then he pulls me closer and kisses me on the lips. He isn’t taking power. He’s just kissing me to kiss me. I’m shocked but also really happy.
Then Peter puts his hands on my shoulders and pushes me gently but firmly down onto the rock. He is just inches above me now and looks ready to kiss me again. This is just crazy beyond belief. It is Peter so I’m ok with it but I’m worried now, because this is so far from how Peter normally acts that I just can’t understand what’s going on. What is he thinking? Has he really decided that I’m the one he loves?
Then Peter speaks again and this time I hear what he says. It is only four words and it is almost what I want to hear. If it was three words it would be perfect. But this isn’t perfect. This couldn’t be further from perfect, because what Peter said was, “Hades, I love you.”
