Row, Row, Row Your Boat (2)

Writers: AL, Kastaka
Date Posted: 16th March 2009

Characters: K'sen, Ri'len
Description: K'sen and Ri'len are partnered up and K'sen has a bit of difficulty.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 1, day 12 of Turn 5

"Try turning your paddle a bit so it's more vertical against the water rather than flat." The bronzerider suggested, then smiled as K'sen seemed to start getting the hang of it. "There you go!"

K'sen fluffed a few more strokes here and there, but became increasingly confident as they got the boat out further into the water, putting his strong muscles to good use. Soon they were approaching the point where they needed to turn around.

"Good job." Ri'len called back as encouragement. "Just put your paddle on the same side as mine and we'll be able to turn."

K'sen swung his paddle around confidently, but made the mistake of looking into the water as he plunged it back into the other side. It looked very deep out here, and they had come an awfully long way when he'd just been concentrating on keeping up the paddling, and the boat tilted very unpleasantly when he leaned over to try to look back and see where the shoreline was...

"Straighten up." Ri'len reached back to catch on to K'sen. "Keep your head, stay straight and low in the boat." The greenrider looked almost...ill. Ri'len really didn't want to take a dunking into the water if he didn't have to.

K'sen's first instinct was to wrestle the other boy off him, but fortunately he came to his senses and straightened up before his instincts got the better of him. His one-handed grip on the oar was weak and shaky, but he managed to get it back in the boat and from there onto the correct side for turning. He looked pleadingly at the other boy, hoping they could get going soon. "Let's... let's get back to land," he stuttered, cursing himself inwardly for how pathetic he sounded.

"Yeah, okay." Something was wrong with K'sen. Was he getting seasick? It wasn't a very big boat and Ri'len couldn't imagine that such a short trip would cause illness, but different people were susceptible to different things. "Do you need a break? I can get us both back if you need to just relax."

"I'll be fine," insisted K'sen, although it was somewhat between clenched teeth. Now he knew that the other boy thought he was a hopeless moron. What a trip this was turning out to be. He dug his paddle angrily into the water to show that he meant it, swinging the boat around wildly.

"Whoa!" Ri'len lowered his center as the boat teetered at the force. The bronze weyrling stuck his paddle into the water to keep them from going around in circles and managed to get it straightened out. "Careful there."

"Let's go," muttered K'sen, pawing the water with his paddle like a caged feline. He just wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible, or at least get back to the bit where he could concentrate on the counting and the pulling, and feel like he was making a contribution rather than an unpleasant mess.

Ri'len glanced back at the greenrider and nodded. He wasn't too happy with the tone, but if the young man was nervous because of seasickness or something else, perhaps that could account for it. The bronze weyrling straightened and began to count off. A few moments later, they were back in sync and making good time, even catching up with some of the boats who had gotten a fairly good head start.

K'sen soon got back into his stride as they set out back across the water. Having something to do and approaching the shore once more took the edge off his nerves, and he tried hard not to think too much about where he was or anything other than keeping the paddle moving in time.

"You're doing great." Ri'len called out in encouragement when they were halfway to the line. They had passed three other boats, a surprising turn of events. Of course, it wasn't really a race in the sense that anyone won anything, but he knew that a lot of weyrlings would be considering it such. "Not long now."

Only grunting in reply, K'sen continued to concentrate on rowing, pulling just the right amount of weight to balance Ri'len's strokes.

The team overtook two more boats and made it. They weren't first, but they weren't last and that was good enough for Ri'len. The young man eased out of the boat and began to pull it more onto the shore, his pants getting soaked, but it would allow K'sen to get less wet. "Here we go. We didn't do too badly, eh?"

K'sen was very glad to be back on shore, or at least in shallow enough water to walk in, and jumped out of the boat to help Ri'len pull it in. "No thanks to me," he apologised. "Shards, I'm sorry for being such a hopeless case out there in the middle," he offered worriedly as he reviewed the events of the journey.

"Hey, it's okay." Ri'len straightened once they had gotten the boat far enough on the shore, then clapped K'sen on the back. "You did fine. Next time you'll do even better, right?"

"Right." K'sen didn't look or sound particularly convinced. He didn't want to think about ever going out on the water in one of those things again, right now.

Last updated on the March 16th 2009

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Row, Row, Row Your Boat (2)