Chapter Four: Not Quite Baywatch

"Maria! I'm coming for you! I'm coming!" Shadow yelled, unaware of how all around him the liquid was trying to suck him underwater, was soaking his pelt and making it heavy. His limbs were moving wildly, somehow managing to keep him above water even if Shadow was oblivious to what he was actually doing. All his attention was focused on the single tangle of limbs in the middle of the pool, the frail figure in the sky blue bikini fighting for her life and how it seemed to take ages and eternity to reach her...

A black-furred arm grabbed Maria's shoulder, Shadow yanking her upwards with all of his impressive strength. Instantly, the girl went limp in his grasp and stopped her mad thrashing, letting herself be dragged to the surface. Shadow was so glad he didn't have to go against her natural struggling that he didn't question his good luck. As soon as her head broke the surface and the hedgehog had started to pull her towards the ladder, all of his focus still on his precious cargo and any signs that she was okay, her head turned and she gave a relieved smile.

"Shadow...thank you."

"Maria..." the hedgehog managed to gasp in between gritted teeth as he was struggling to keep them both afloat, finally grabbing the first rung of the ladder. She took hold of one of the sides.

"You saved me!"

"Heh. Yeah. Do you believe me now when I say swimming pools are a bad place?" Shadow asked, panting as they were both hanging onto the ladder in the aftermath of the rescue.

"But why? Shadow, you were swimming after all!" Maria called to him, clambering up the ladder agilely, smiling down at her companion. Shadow followed her up the rungs somewhat more slowly, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Say...you aren't walking as if you just had a cramp in your foot." Shadow stated as they were both on firm ground again.

"Er..." Maria's expression turned shifty for just a moment. "Would you believe me if I started limping from now on really, really badly?"

"WHAT!"

"Hey, it worked, didn't it? You learnt how to swim! Which style did you chose after all?"

"I can't believe it." Shadow was strangling his towel at the moment, resisting the urge to push his faker of a friend into the pool again. But of course, in the face of Maria's smile all indignancy on his part immediately vanished. "Right. Topic swimming hereby closed. And don't you believe I'll come to your rescue ever again if it's anything else but someone pointing a gun at your chest!"

Maria laughed.

...

And still today late at night aboard the ARK, sometimes you can hear the water in the pool splashing. There, below the pale light of the unseeing moon and the stars, will be a small black figure moving in the water...eternally practicing the Dog Paddle.

Fin

Whee, finished! :D Bad news is I'm going travelling again, tho, this time to the Netherlands. GOOD news is I'll be back before the end of next week and you can all look forward to chapter 22 of Burning Arrow, Wildfire Heart! :D Can Sonic save Knuckles before the Guardian gets kidnapped by gargoyles? ;)

Meanwhile, hope you enjoyed this little short story here and thank you all so much for reading an reviewing!

--Taranea, 15/8/09