young_swimmer (young_swimmer) wrote in dc_nextgen,
@ 2010-10-06 04:46:00

Entry tags:

The Healing Process
With all that had been happening Cait had very little time to go see and play with Hope and her pod. As soon as she could move reasonably well and wasn't in too much pain, Cait made her way down to the water. It was a cool day in San Francisco, too cold to go swimming, but Cait wasn't human and the temperature didn't bother her as it did humans. Not to mention the easiest way for her to stay hydrated was to go swimming in the ocean.

Cait dived into the water and called out to Hope and her pod.

Within a short time they came into the bay and Cait greeted them with a big smile. A few of them were happy enough to see her again that they started jumping out of the water and doing tricks.

Cait gave Hope a hug and watched the others play.

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

	young_swimmer 2010-10-06 07:39 am UTC (link)
	"They would like that," Cait said. "I don't really speak dolphin, but I can communicate telepathically with them." Cait paused. "I can speak to them using my mind." She was talking to Pippi after all. "Would you like to go for a swim with them?" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	bobblehead 2010-10-06 07:40 am UTC (link)
	"Oh." she replies, peering closely at Cait's firehead as if there might be some sort of hidden messages there. Then she catches the second part, and grins wide. "Yes! That would be fun." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	young_swimmer 2010-10-06 08:54 am UTC (link)
	Cait called two of the adults over. Hope was still too young to have one of them holding on. "Hold on like this," Cait said as she put both hands on the dorsal fin of one of them. "Then just hold on." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	bobblehead 2010-10-06 08:11 pm UTC (link)
	Pippi picks up on that part pretty quickly. "Whee! This is fun! They seem to like it too." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	young_swimmer 2010-10-07 04:29 am UTC (link)
	"They like to play," Cait said as the dolphins pulled them through the water. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	bobblehead 2010-10-07 04:31 am UTC (link)
	"So, if you can talk to dolphins with your head, is there anything else you can talk to, or is it just a dolphin thing?" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	young_swimmer 2010-10-07 04:32 am UTC (link)
	"I can talk to all sea creatures," Cait said. "Fish, sharks, whales, rays, dolphins and even some sea birds," Cait answered. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	bobblehead 2010-10-07 04:36 am UTC (link)
	"On, that's a neat power! So, like cats and condors and cow..." she blinks, noting the other examples. There's a few moments of trying to put 1 and 1 together and not coming up with the third letter in the alphabet before a light turns on. "So, have you ever seen a dogfish?" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	young_swimmer 2010-10-07 04:44 am UTC (link)
	"No, by sea creatures I mean creatures who live in the sea. Like whales, sharks, dolphins and fish." Sometimes talking to Pippi was an exercise in patience. "Yes. They're a type of shark actually." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	bobblehead 2010-10-07 04:50 am UTC (link)
	Pippi nods. "Yeah, I figured it out. I was going to have you talk to King Triton and find out if he wants different food. He'd probably like more fish in his diet though. So... uhm, why are they called dogfish, anyway?" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	young_swimmer 2010-10-07 04:57 am UTC (link)
	"I'm sure King Triton would like more fish anyway," Cait said. "I honestly don't know. Humans have some weird names for things." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	bobblehead 2010-10-07 04:59 am UTC (link)
	"So, if dogfish are sharks, what are catfish?" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	young_swimmer 2010-10-07 05:29 am UTC (link)
	"They are fish," Cait said. "Names can be weird." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	bobblehead 2010-10-07 05:59 am UTC (link)
	"I figured they were fish. Just didn't know if they were some specific kind of fish, like whales or sharks." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	young_swimmer 2010-10-07 06:14 am UTC (link)
	"Whales are mammals," Cait said. "Like dolphins." Cait felt like she was digging a hole and getting herself in deeper. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	bobblehead 2010-10-07 06:21 am UTC (link)
	"Oh!" Pippi exclaims. "So they're like seals and penguins then." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	young_swimmer 2010-10-07 06:23 am UTC (link)
	"Almost. Seals are mammals, penguins are birds." Keeping digging Cait. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	bobblehead 2010-10-07 06:26 am UTC (link)
	"Pft, penguins can't be birds. The chicks are all fluffy. And they can't fly, birds fly. Birds are, like, robins and eagles and bats." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	young_swimmer 2010-10-07 06:28 am UTC (link)
	"Penguins are birds. They have specialized feathers for swimming. Bats are not birds. They are mammals." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

bobblehead
2010-10-07 06:43 am UTC (link)

"That's silly, you don't fly with feathers. I know there's some mammals that swim, but mostly birds just float, like ducks. I wonder if the Hawkpeople would do that though... maybe we should throw Nic in the water next big party and find out. And /of course/ bats are birds. They have wings, they eat bugs, they make chirping noises... its just that no one can see them very well because they only come out at night, so people get funny ideas."

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	young_swimmer 2010-10-07 06:48 am UTC (link)
	"Pippi, birds have feathers and they fly," Cait said carefully. "But some birds like penguins and ostriches don't fly, but they still have feathers. Ducks can fly as well as swim." "Bats are definitely mammals," Cait said. "They fly, but they have fur instead of feathers and they don't lay eggs like birds." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

bobblehead
2010-10-07 06:54 am UTC (link)

"Well of course ducks can fly, and float. Feathers float if you put them in water, which is why ducks can do that. Some mammals can swim, like you said. Penguins and ostriches kind of look like birds, but its just a trick to throw people off. I've played zoo tycoon, I see the ostriches running around with their friends the zebras and giraffes and eating the same stuff, instead of bugs and worms and birdseed. Its just a trick to confuse predators and things that might hunt mammals, but wouldn't hunt birds because they figure if they tried, the birds would just fly off. But ostriches and penguins are just tricky mammals. And so are emos. Those are kind of like ostriches, but really sad for some reason."

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	young_swimmer 2010-10-07 06:58 am UTC (link)
	"Penguins and ostriches are birds, Pippi. Trust me on this." Cait asked the dolphins to turn and head toward shore. "I'll get you a book that will help you keep track of animals. It will have lots of pictures in it too." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

bobblehead
2010-10-07 07:06 am UTC (link)

"I don't think so, Cait, but maybe its a weird Atlantean thing. After all, you guys probably don't even see as many bats as people on land. I'll totally trust you on the whales thing though... and I'll take a look at your picture book. Ooohhh, oohh, I could lend you some of my books too, to help you learn surface stuff. But I'll wait til you've had some aspirin and a good night's sleep before I give you any hard reading."

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	young_swimmer 2010-10-07 07:08 am UTC (link)
	Go with this Cait, she told herself. Stop while you can. Cait smiled. "It could be an Atlantean thing. I'd love to see some of your books and yes, after some aspirin and some sleep would be best." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)