“Oohhh,” Petra lounged back, the force field mattress, a white thing on the top that looked like a regular bed otherwise, if one with logs for legs and the wall as a headboard. “This is nice! I could live in a place like this. Maybe have a private bedroom added on? Could it be made bigger, do you think?”
Tor stood with a groan. He was just tired of course.
More? Yes, he could modify it now, no problem. But it was good sized already. Bedrooms he could do, but this was basically just a tent so far. A really nice tent that someone could live in, as long as they didn't have a lot of stuff. It was bigger than his old house by about fifty percent, being nearly seventy five feet deep and fifty wide. Big enough for him anyway. But, unlike Petra he wasn't the child of a Count, raised to luxury and waste.
No… he was the grandchild of one, raised deep in the woods in middle of a forest in a fairly run down bakery and modest sized house with thirteen people in it. It made a difference. Probably half of the real reason why it had happened that way. So that they'd all grow up knowing how to be humble. It worked, so why not?
Petra wanted to go swimming then, new magical house or not, which seemed reasonable. It was a cool enough device, but it really couldn't compare to the ocean out in front of them. The expanse of water was… humbling. Until about a year before he'd never seen anything like it. Oh, the descriptions of it were part of his basic education, but it just went on and on… A vast stretch of blue and green that made the world smell of salt and sand. Rot too, but he didn't think about that too hard, not wanting to ruin the moment for himself. Being blind, even for a little bit, had taught him to appreciate things when he saw them. It could all be taken away in an instant after all.
Grabbing both towels the pretty giant girl took his hand and playfully tugged at his arm, which made him follow her instantly. She was huge, and really, he wasn't. So not much choice in it as far as he went. Laughing he started to walk with her, stumbling a little over the stones of the beach. Petra stood then, as if waiting for something after she tossed the towels down. After a bit she raised her eyebrows and smiled at him with a bit of a leer on her face.
“Are you going with your clothes on? Strip already!”
Tor froze.
It wasn't that Petra hadn't seen him naked before, they'd both showered in the same room even, but the idea of taking off his clothing in a public place seemed wrong. Dirty and evil. That wasn't the way here though, was it? That was Two Bends thinking, a backwoods town. Even his own parents had told him that he had to be the one to adapt to new situations when he left and not demand foolishly that other people changed to meet him and the quaint ways he knew. Even if he didn't always understand it or if it made him uneasy. Right. He had to do it… But he was still nervous. What if people saw him and laughed, like in his dream? Tor mentioned that to Petra, trying to buy time, she just shrugged and gave him a wink.
“Well, if either of them sees you naked, I can guarantee they won't point and laugh. Well, maybe at how skinny you've let yourself get, but they won't point at your penis like that. Unless pointing out how much bigger it is than they'd have expected? Even then it would be unlikely. Who cares about such things anyway? Don't worry about it.”
Easy for her to say, clothed as she was in swimming gear. Well. Tor stripped naked and forced himself not to cover up with his hands in shame, walking to the water as boldly as he could manage. That meant he probably looked stiff, slightly afraid, and nervous, but wasn't acting like someone had stolen his clothing at the swimming hole for a prank. The rocks got smaller for some reason near the water. Not pebbles, but about the size of rounded coins. Leaning down he picked a few up, getting a curious look from Petra who stopped suddenly. Instead of making her ask he just shrugged and explained.
“I can put fields on these. They won't be regularly shaped like what I normally do, but if I make a small cutting field, or an etching one for the sigil… though I've never done that, I won't really need copper at all. I mean if I can't afford to buy anything for a while. It's harder to work in stone, but I think I can do it now. In bulk I mean. I did the new equalizers in glass and that’s the same thing, as far as copying goes.”
It was a good plan, but his giant girl friend snickered and shook her head. Tor paused realizing how that would have sounded if he'd said it out loud. Girlfriend. He'd just meant it wasn't Rolph, who he thought of as his giant friend. That was all. Wasn't it? Well, he and Petra weren't dating, but they were supposed to, weren't they? He'd asked her and everything, and well, she'd said yes, so…
He dropped the stones, deciding to collect some up later. Nothing ever went better in life just because you were distracted. Except the nudity parts, at least the public ones. The water was neutral in temperature, after the first moment of coolness as the heat equalizing field around his neck adjusted to it. He'd probably lose the field in the water or something, but he had more back in his room, provided no one had run off with them yet. He decided not to worry about it. Petra acted cold though. Not freezing, but that cool water on a hot day thing people did.
They played and splashed for a while, Tor getting the worst of it, since they went out far enough for his friend to stand with the water nearly to her chin, which meant he was swimming the whole time, treading water.
He knew how to swim of course. His parents had made sure of that. For all the kids, the whole town of Two Bends really. He'd never thought of as being odd before, because it just meant that most of the kids could hang out at the swimming hole. That was nice in the heat of summer, so seemed normal to him. Everyone did it.
Kolb had tested him and said he swam as well as anyone, in his first year at school, but ocean swimming was harder. He kept getting hit in the face with waves and bobbing up and down nearly two foot each time. Petra did too, so he wasn't alone in it. That wasn't too bad, but even though he closed his eyes when it happened he still ended up with salt singing when he opened them again. Part of the oceans charms no doubt. Of course if you needed salt, it wasn't a bad thing at all.
More than once he started to float away and Petra had to reach out and grab his arm, gently pulling him back to their spot in the water. Finally she suggested they swim out past the breakers, which made things a lot easier for him at least. Petra swam easily through the water and he had to kind of copy her, diving into the waves as they came. This kind of thing obviously wasn't new to her, but then she'd grown up in Warden, also right on the water. The same water, Tor realized, if further south and with nicer beaches. The swimming didn't last that long, because Petra stopped after about twenty minutes of moving parallel to the beach, back and forth so they could see the little house he'd put there the whole time… and pointed, single finger coming above the water for a few seconds while she kicked hard enough to raise out of the water a bit, bobbing upwards.
People had come. It looked like everyone. All the people he knew in Printer at least, as long as he didn't count Kevin, or Dan Baker.
Well, great. Holly and Kolb were back, so maybe he'd have his things finally. Of course he was naked and all the girls were standing there and waving to them. Waving them in. Tor stiffened and sank, not moving in mortification.
Yes, drowning would keep him from being embarrassed. He steeled himself wondering if he could force himself to take a breath underwater, which he didn't think he could, so, reluctantly, he kicked back to the surface and sputtered a little. If he couldn't escape that way, what could he do?