Chapter 17
My heart beats with each pulse of fin
I push myself ahead
Refuse to cease this crazy swim
Until I drop, half-dead
I don't look back nor slow my pace
My sight and mind grows dim
I know I must complete this race
Which only I can win!
Herlarding the end of classes, Zoras of all shapes and sizes poured out from every university building. Students danced and shouted in newfound freedom, or slouched and mumbled about their quantity of homework. Although sprinkles of rain still blanketed the ocean surface, grey clouds were beginning to thin out, promising a brighter tomorrow. The Arts building spat out the trio of Mikau, Japas and Evan, while Lulu swam off in another direction, claiming that she has a wad of work to do. Mikau and Japas wanted to rush home to write a song. But before running off, Mikau turned to Evan, who was swimming in their general direction.
"Hey Evan, are you coming back to the dorm with us?"
"Nah." Evan shook his head, his thick, serpentine tail sensitive to his every movement. "I'm going to see Mr. Bayn. I'm thinking he might consider me for those self-defence lessons."
"Oh, okay. ....What?!" Mikau did a double-take mid-water. His eyes were as round as orbs. "You're not serious, are you? Why?"
"I ment it when I said I would like to take lessons with Mr. Bayn." Evan crossed his arms and stood up straight, even though he can't stand in the middle of the ocean. "Think about it. He's offering to teach you for free, out of class time. If he's willing to take me, then I can drop Phys Ed and take another music course or something. And I like self-defence, I really do."
Mikau gaped at Evan increduosly, his eyes wide in disbelief. Japas swam in between the two. "I don't really know what's going on, guys, but another music course sounds breezy to me. You should take it, Mikau!"
"You haven't seen Mr. Bayn, Japas. He's our Phys Ed teacher. Sure, he's nice and all, but he's about as predictable as a Morpha. I'd rather pass." Japas looked bemused at the statement but shrugged it off. The Zorian Hero shivered involuntarily. Then he turned to Evan. "Do whatever you like, man. It's up to you."
Evan nodded and swam towards the gym. "See you tomorrow, guys!"
"'Kay. Good luck! " Mikau waved good-bye to Evan and turned to his best friend. "Sooo...Where were we?"
Japas' features suddenly lit up with anticipaiton. "Wanna race?"
Mikau barked out a laugh. "You're kidding."
"Nope."
"You'll lose."
"Watch me."
"My pleasure." Mikau smirked at the challenge. How foolish. Surely Japas knows Zorian Heros are the swiftest creatures in the sea!
A smile snuck up on Japas' face and he suddenly darted forward. Yawning, Mikau let Japas take the lead for a little while. Then, in a fluid roll of motion, Mikau raced ahead, chasing after his adversary. In no time at all, he had caught up to Japas who might as well be floating motionless compared to the speed of his competitor. The Zorian Hero drew alongside his friend and expected to see Japas' face warped in frustration. But Mikau recieved the surprise of his life when Japas suddenly streaked ahead with two, then three times his top speed!
"What!?" Mikau shouted, releasing a cloud of bubbles out of his mouth. He stalled momentarily, shocked. "No way! Impossible!" But Japas laughed while Mikau said this. His voice faded as the distance between them grew.
Gritting his teeth in renewed determination, the Zorian Hero burned every muscle in his body to catch up. His tail was a rod flat against his back and he pressed his arms against his body to reduce friction. He extended his arm fins and flipped them backwards to achieve maximum speed. Dispite all this, Mikau still found himself in the bubbles left by Japas' wake for most of the race. The normally fifteen minute stretch of water flashed by in a mere six minutes at the breakneck speeds the two Zoras were swimming at. Only during the final few meters of the race did Mikau manage to inch ahead of his opponent, relying on hidden reserves of strength.
"I....win!" Mikau hissed, drawing ahead of Japas. Mere moments before a crash against the dorm's outer wall, Mikau flared his arm fins, using them as a crude brake. He flipped his legs forward and pushed his feet against the building, using the stone wall to complete his stop. Japas, on the other hand, didn't even bother to slow down. He swam right into a tunnel in the dorm. Shouts, screams and the occational profanity in the hallway marked the trail of the racing Zora who was unable, or unwilling, to stop.
"Japas, wait!" Mikau called after his friend. He tried to give chase, but he knew that with the pedestrians in the way and his lost momentum, he would never catch up. Instead, Mikau headed towards the nearest ramp leading to the airside floors and began to run. Goddesses knew how Japas could suddenly swim so fast, but his speed on land is another matter altogether.
Japas emerged from the other side of the dorm and finally slowed down enough to look behind him. He waited for the flash of bladed fin or flukeless tail that was the signature features of his best friend. Nope, Mikau hasn't caught up yet. Japas smirked to himself, an expression that usually scares small children out of their candy, and swam towards a ramp tilting upwards. Once on the ramp, out of water, the Zora stopped and removed an odd item from his pack. He rotated the object twice in his hand thoughtfully, then locked his scrutinizing gaze upon it.
The object was a blue fruit which fit comfortably in the palm of his hand. But unlike normal plants, this fruit had little leafy feathers growing out of it to resemble a wing of some sort. Japas held the fruit over his head and squeezed. Liquid from the fruit dripped into Japas' hair and turned into fluid magic which coursed through his veins, leaving a tingling sensation. Charged with the newfound powers those juices gave him, the Zora started to run. He ran with inhuman speed, taking longer, faster strides all the way up to the seventh floor of the dorm. He practically flew through the hallway, dodging or even leaping over the occational Zora pedestrian. As Japas neared Mikau's room, he turned a sharp corner, misjudged the distance between his head and the door, collided with it, and managed to knock himself unconsious.
In the hallways, Mikau caught sight of a blue blur which zipped around a corner in the direction of his dorm. That's one really fast Japas! But when the Zorian Hero finally caught up to the swift streak, he saw his friend lying prone against his dorm door with a developing bump on the head. He concluded that Japas either did his usual enter-a-room-without- checking-if-the-door-was-open thing or he got mugged. On closer examination, Japas' pack was still on him so the former scenerio was the most likely. Mikau unlocked the door, slung Japas over his shoulder and dumped him into the bath pool in his dorm.
"Ack, pthhph!! *sputter* Ww...what!? Mikau! You dumped me in a pool of water!" Japas cried accusingly. "And HA! I won the race!"
"You did not!" Mikau huffed self-righteously. "I touched the dorm before you did!"
"Nuh-uh. I got to your dorm door first! THAT'S where the finish line is!"
"Well you should have mentioned that earlier, fish!" Mikau unlatched his carrier bubble and made himself comfortable on a seaweed-woven chair. He took three sugared sardines out of a shell and threw the rest to Japas, who caught them with his teeth. "On another note, how did you swim and run so fast?"
"I've been working out." Japas replied innocently. The tail of a sardine poked out of his mouth.
"My tail, you have. You know as well as I do that it's physically impossible for normal Zoras to swim faster than Zorian Heros. It's a fact!" Mikau shook a sardine at Japas as if shaking an accusing finger.
Of course, Japas snapped up the sardine and nearly took the finger with it. "Don't get too full of yourself, buddy." He said between swallows of fish flesh. But Mikau was still waiting for an answer to his question. Under the Zorian Hero's unwavering glare, Japas was compelled to answer.
"Alright, alright. I'll spill." Japas smiled and shook his head helplessly. "For the running speed, it's a property of the 'Pegesus Seed', which grows only in the southern continent." He reached into his pack and handed over a fruit for Mikau to examine. "Just squeeze the juice over your head and you can run really fast for a while. Don't do it now, I only have five of those left!" Japas snatched the seed out of Mikau's curious hands.
"As for swimming speed, look at this." Japas pointed at one of the rings on his left hand. He took it off and gave it to Mikau for closer examination. The ring itself was made of some simple silvery metal, but it held a small, blue colored gem in the shape of a waterdrop. Mikau examined it closely, holding it closely to his face, then turned to Japas with a questioning glance.
"It's called a 'Swimmer's Ring'" Japas tried to sound all superior dispite the fact that he's sitting in a bath pool with a fish scale dangling on his lower lip. "A souvenier from Holodrum that I got as a gift. The thing about rings from Holodrum is that they sometimes possess special powers. Like Termina's masks. This Swimmer's Ring let's the wearer increase his swimming speed at will!"
"How does it work?" Mikau inquired. He put the ring on his left index finger and admired it from afar.
"It's like how our magic converts into electricity. You just concentrate your magic into the ring. It's easy." Japas smiled at his own explination. His expression of glee turned into one of confusion when Mikau walked past him. "Hey. Hey! Where're you going?"
Mikau waggled his fingers, once of which bore the Swimmer's Ring. "THIS, I've got to try!" Japas hastened to follow his friend and turned the corner just in time to see the Zorian Hero swan dive off the ramp into the frigid waters below.
"Careful, this is gonna be a bit weird. It's your first time using a ring." Japas cautioned a short while later. The two Sleeks bobbed in the ocean just outside the dorm building, heedless of the droplets of rain dancing on their heads. Beneath them, the first wave of students returning from school have just arrived and were disappearing into the honeycomb of holes riddling the dorm. The surface of the water broke occationally, caused by a stray Zora breaching the boundary between sea and sky.
Mikau took a breath and said, "Okay...Let's work this thing..." Japas' instructions on using a ring seemed easy enough. Mikau flexed his electric glands, which were behind his collarbone, and created a visable ball of magic/electricity around his neck. The blue energy coursed down his left arm and down his hand, until the Swimmer's Ring was at the center of the ball. The energy was gone in the next instant, but the ring glowed, mirrored in the water like a small moon.
"I'll say this again: be careful! I don't know how fast you might go with the Swimmer's Ring on top of your natural Zorian Hero speed." Japas fussed over Mikau like a mother hen. He held Mikau's hand and looked back and forth between the ring and Mikau's face. "Don't do anything I might do!"
Mikau guffawed at Japas' last comment. "Amen! I agree with you...whooooaaaaaa!!" Without thinking about it, Mikau accidentally flicked an arm fin backwards. The next thing he knew, he was propelled ten feet away from where he was just floating.
Mikau stared at the ring, amazed at the power it possessed. The ring winked right back. "Whoa..." The Zorian Hero said breathlessly. Japas scrambled towards Mikau. "That's some serious speed! I wasn't even thinking about moving and I did!"
Japas laughed aloud, caught in his friend's sense of wonder. "Try again!"
The Zorian Hero nodded and this time, willingly drove himself forward. There were no words that could describe the sensation of speed he experienced. And what speed! This was exhilaration at it's most intense! It was as if no friction existed between Mikau and the waters right against his skin. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that it was impossible but heck, who cares? Nothing existed except the roar of his fins slicing liquid in his ears and the endless blue that he was rapidly putting behind him. Occationally, he could hear the screams of, "Goddesses, what was that?!" and "Aaaah! Something just swam past me!" and other exclaimations, but Mikau discarded them as useless. It was only the Zorian Hero's inhuman reaction rate that kept him from crashing into Zora pedestrians.
A trickle of light from the surface attracted Mikau's attention. It was the sun. A bare crack of the orb peeked through an opening in the clouds, lighting up the water under which a certain Zorian Hero ran a race against himself. Mikau whipped his tail to one side and pointed his fins downwards. The result was Mikau racing towards that light at a breakneck speed. He wondered if he could jump high enough to breach the clouds and touch the sun itself. Not quite, but when he leaped out of the ocean in a spray of liquid crystal, he was high enough to see the distant mainland beyond the university. He gracefully dove back into the water without so much as a ripple.
Ten minutes later, Mikau started to slow down. The world around him was beginning to take recognizable shape again, rather than a speed-blurred streak of color. He wondered if he was getting tired or if the Swimmer's Ring was beginning to lose it's power. Suddenly, something grabbed his wrist, yanking him backwards.
"AAahh! Wha...?" The hand, as it turned out to be, yanked the Swimmer's Ring off Mikau's index finger then released him. After a moment of adjustment to a relatively still landscape, Mikau realized that the hand belonged to Japas.
"Great Goddesses, man! You're like a kid on crack with one of these!" Japas claimed, slipping the ring back onto his hand. But his expression of annoyance turned into one of mild concern when he noticed that Mikau still needed time to focus his eyes. "You okay? So how was it?"
"It ruled! Holy...! Everything was just blowing by me and uugghh..." Mikau suddenly held his head in pain. He felt as if the world started moving and was leaving him behind. "Uhhh. I feel nauseous. Goddesses, I never thought I would swim fast enough to get dizzy!"
"Ah, what a fish!" Japas laughed. " 'ere. Let me help you." He slid Mikau's arm over his shoulder and helped him make his way home. "Man, for an overgrown, blade-finned guppy, you sure are heavy! Oh, by the way, I want to give you this." The Sleek buried his other hand in his pack and it came out holding an odd black and white ring.
"Another ring? Ooooo, what power does this one have?" Mikau found the energy to snatch at the ring but Japas held it out of reach.
"Down, boy." Japas chided. "This is the 'Friendship Ring'. Why? I don't know. It's got no special power. The tradition of the ring is that if you have one, you're supposed to give it to someone you introduce magic rings to. There's twenty of them in existance and they've been all around the world." Japas finally yielded his ownership of the ring to Mikau.
"Hey, there's a music note on it! How fitting." Mikau tried to put the ring on one of his fingers, but it was too big. Instead, he slipped it into his belt buckle for the moment. The two friends made their way back to Mikau's dorm slowly, because Japas was doing most of the swimming and Mikau's body weighed him down. They had to endure the weird glances they got from people who thought it odd for one Zora to carry the other. Once they were home, they found Tijo already in the dorm, peacefully reviewing his class notes.
"Wow, I'm surprised that I got home earlier than you guys!" Tijo said without looking up. He licked a finger and used it to turn a page of a book. When he did chance a glance at Japas and Mikau, he stood up in concern. "Mikau! What's wrong? What happened to you?" Mikau had his eyes half closed and limped like a Redead, collapsing on a chair. He sighed heavily, seeming to deflate as air escaped his lungs and molded himself comfortably into the seat. He didn't fall asleep, but it was clear that he didn't feel like talking right now. Japas shook out his arms and stretched; his muscles were sore after carrying that Zorian Hero up from the tideline.
"So what happened?" Tijo repeated, this time directing his question to Japas.
"He swam too fast." Japas explained, nodding sagely.
"Huh?"
"He used a ring!"
"Huh?!" Now Tijo was totally lost.
Japas sighed. "Never mind. It's a long story."
End of Chapter 17
In the Zelda Oracle series, Link uses magic rings for special powers. I guess that if you've never played either game, you would be confused by the mechanics of rings and such.
So...how many people bothered to visit my website for chapter illustrations? I updated the Ocean Eternal page a bit, as well as some other areas of my site, if you're willing to look.
Now is a good time to explain my update schedule. I update once every two to four weeks, depending on a number of factors including schoolwork and my writing speed. At the time that I post this chapter, I'll writing the beginning of chapter 20. I like to pace my readers and myself rather than posting as soon as I finish. I also give myself time for revisions so I don't end up completely redoing a chapter after it has been posted. I update chapter illustrations as soon as I finish them.
My heart beats with each pulse of fin
I push myself ahead
Refuse to cease this crazy swim
Until I drop, half-dead
I don't look back nor slow my pace
My sight and mind grows dim
I know I must complete this race
Which only I can win!
Herlarding the end of classes, Zoras of all shapes and sizes poured out from every university building. Students danced and shouted in newfound freedom, or slouched and mumbled about their quantity of homework. Although sprinkles of rain still blanketed the ocean surface, grey clouds were beginning to thin out, promising a brighter tomorrow. The Arts building spat out the trio of Mikau, Japas and Evan, while Lulu swam off in another direction, claiming that she has a wad of work to do. Mikau and Japas wanted to rush home to write a song. But before running off, Mikau turned to Evan, who was swimming in their general direction.
"Hey Evan, are you coming back to the dorm with us?"
"Nah." Evan shook his head, his thick, serpentine tail sensitive to his every movement. "I'm going to see Mr. Bayn. I'm thinking he might consider me for those self-defence lessons."
"Oh, okay. ....What?!" Mikau did a double-take mid-water. His eyes were as round as orbs. "You're not serious, are you? Why?"
"I ment it when I said I would like to take lessons with Mr. Bayn." Evan crossed his arms and stood up straight, even though he can't stand in the middle of the ocean. "Think about it. He's offering to teach you for free, out of class time. If he's willing to take me, then I can drop Phys Ed and take another music course or something. And I like self-defence, I really do."
Mikau gaped at Evan increduosly, his eyes wide in disbelief. Japas swam in between the two. "I don't really know what's going on, guys, but another music course sounds breezy to me. You should take it, Mikau!"
"You haven't seen Mr. Bayn, Japas. He's our Phys Ed teacher. Sure, he's nice and all, but he's about as predictable as a Morpha. I'd rather pass." Japas looked bemused at the statement but shrugged it off. The Zorian Hero shivered involuntarily. Then he turned to Evan. "Do whatever you like, man. It's up to you."
Evan nodded and swam towards the gym. "See you tomorrow, guys!"
"'Kay. Good luck! " Mikau waved good-bye to Evan and turned to his best friend. "Sooo...Where were we?"
Japas' features suddenly lit up with anticipaiton. "Wanna race?"
Mikau barked out a laugh. "You're kidding."
"Nope."
"You'll lose."
"Watch me."
"My pleasure." Mikau smirked at the challenge. How foolish. Surely Japas knows Zorian Heros are the swiftest creatures in the sea!
A smile snuck up on Japas' face and he suddenly darted forward. Yawning, Mikau let Japas take the lead for a little while. Then, in a fluid roll of motion, Mikau raced ahead, chasing after his adversary. In no time at all, he had caught up to Japas who might as well be floating motionless compared to the speed of his competitor. The Zorian Hero drew alongside his friend and expected to see Japas' face warped in frustration. But Mikau recieved the surprise of his life when Japas suddenly streaked ahead with two, then three times his top speed!
"What!?" Mikau shouted, releasing a cloud of bubbles out of his mouth. He stalled momentarily, shocked. "No way! Impossible!" But Japas laughed while Mikau said this. His voice faded as the distance between them grew.
Gritting his teeth in renewed determination, the Zorian Hero burned every muscle in his body to catch up. His tail was a rod flat against his back and he pressed his arms against his body to reduce friction. He extended his arm fins and flipped them backwards to achieve maximum speed. Dispite all this, Mikau still found himself in the bubbles left by Japas' wake for most of the race. The normally fifteen minute stretch of water flashed by in a mere six minutes at the breakneck speeds the two Zoras were swimming at. Only during the final few meters of the race did Mikau manage to inch ahead of his opponent, relying on hidden reserves of strength.
"I....win!" Mikau hissed, drawing ahead of Japas. Mere moments before a crash against the dorm's outer wall, Mikau flared his arm fins, using them as a crude brake. He flipped his legs forward and pushed his feet against the building, using the stone wall to complete his stop. Japas, on the other hand, didn't even bother to slow down. He swam right into a tunnel in the dorm. Shouts, screams and the occational profanity in the hallway marked the trail of the racing Zora who was unable, or unwilling, to stop.
"Japas, wait!" Mikau called after his friend. He tried to give chase, but he knew that with the pedestrians in the way and his lost momentum, he would never catch up. Instead, Mikau headed towards the nearest ramp leading to the airside floors and began to run. Goddesses knew how Japas could suddenly swim so fast, but his speed on land is another matter altogether.
Japas emerged from the other side of the dorm and finally slowed down enough to look behind him. He waited for the flash of bladed fin or flukeless tail that was the signature features of his best friend. Nope, Mikau hasn't caught up yet. Japas smirked to himself, an expression that usually scares small children out of their candy, and swam towards a ramp tilting upwards. Once on the ramp, out of water, the Zora stopped and removed an odd item from his pack. He rotated the object twice in his hand thoughtfully, then locked his scrutinizing gaze upon it.
The object was a blue fruit which fit comfortably in the palm of his hand. But unlike normal plants, this fruit had little leafy feathers growing out of it to resemble a wing of some sort. Japas held the fruit over his head and squeezed. Liquid from the fruit dripped into Japas' hair and turned into fluid magic which coursed through his veins, leaving a tingling sensation. Charged with the newfound powers those juices gave him, the Zora started to run. He ran with inhuman speed, taking longer, faster strides all the way up to the seventh floor of the dorm. He practically flew through the hallway, dodging or even leaping over the occational Zora pedestrian. As Japas neared Mikau's room, he turned a sharp corner, misjudged the distance between his head and the door, collided with it, and managed to knock himself unconsious.
In the hallways, Mikau caught sight of a blue blur which zipped around a corner in the direction of his dorm. That's one really fast Japas! But when the Zorian Hero finally caught up to the swift streak, he saw his friend lying prone against his dorm door with a developing bump on the head. He concluded that Japas either did his usual enter-a-room-without- checking-if-the-door-was-open thing or he got mugged. On closer examination, Japas' pack was still on him so the former scenerio was the most likely. Mikau unlocked the door, slung Japas over his shoulder and dumped him into the bath pool in his dorm.
"Ack, pthhph!! *sputter* Ww...what!? Mikau! You dumped me in a pool of water!" Japas cried accusingly. "And HA! I won the race!"
"You did not!" Mikau huffed self-righteously. "I touched the dorm before you did!"
"Nuh-uh. I got to your dorm door first! THAT'S where the finish line is!"
"Well you should have mentioned that earlier, fish!" Mikau unlatched his carrier bubble and made himself comfortable on a seaweed-woven chair. He took three sugared sardines out of a shell and threw the rest to Japas, who caught them with his teeth. "On another note, how did you swim and run so fast?"
"I've been working out." Japas replied innocently. The tail of a sardine poked out of his mouth.
"My tail, you have. You know as well as I do that it's physically impossible for normal Zoras to swim faster than Zorian Heros. It's a fact!" Mikau shook a sardine at Japas as if shaking an accusing finger.
Of course, Japas snapped up the sardine and nearly took the finger with it. "Don't get too full of yourself, buddy." He said between swallows of fish flesh. But Mikau was still waiting for an answer to his question. Under the Zorian Hero's unwavering glare, Japas was compelled to answer.
"Alright, alright. I'll spill." Japas smiled and shook his head helplessly. "For the running speed, it's a property of the 'Pegesus Seed', which grows only in the southern continent." He reached into his pack and handed over a fruit for Mikau to examine. "Just squeeze the juice over your head and you can run really fast for a while. Don't do it now, I only have five of those left!" Japas snatched the seed out of Mikau's curious hands.
"As for swimming speed, look at this." Japas pointed at one of the rings on his left hand. He took it off and gave it to Mikau for closer examination. The ring itself was made of some simple silvery metal, but it held a small, blue colored gem in the shape of a waterdrop. Mikau examined it closely, holding it closely to his face, then turned to Japas with a questioning glance.
"It's called a 'Swimmer's Ring'" Japas tried to sound all superior dispite the fact that he's sitting in a bath pool with a fish scale dangling on his lower lip. "A souvenier from Holodrum that I got as a gift. The thing about rings from Holodrum is that they sometimes possess special powers. Like Termina's masks. This Swimmer's Ring let's the wearer increase his swimming speed at will!"
"How does it work?" Mikau inquired. He put the ring on his left index finger and admired it from afar.
"It's like how our magic converts into electricity. You just concentrate your magic into the ring. It's easy." Japas smiled at his own explination. His expression of glee turned into one of confusion when Mikau walked past him. "Hey. Hey! Where're you going?"
Mikau waggled his fingers, once of which bore the Swimmer's Ring. "THIS, I've got to try!" Japas hastened to follow his friend and turned the corner just in time to see the Zorian Hero swan dive off the ramp into the frigid waters below.
"Careful, this is gonna be a bit weird. It's your first time using a ring." Japas cautioned a short while later. The two Sleeks bobbed in the ocean just outside the dorm building, heedless of the droplets of rain dancing on their heads. Beneath them, the first wave of students returning from school have just arrived and were disappearing into the honeycomb of holes riddling the dorm. The surface of the water broke occationally, caused by a stray Zora breaching the boundary between sea and sky.
Mikau took a breath and said, "Okay...Let's work this thing..." Japas' instructions on using a ring seemed easy enough. Mikau flexed his electric glands, which were behind his collarbone, and created a visable ball of magic/electricity around his neck. The blue energy coursed down his left arm and down his hand, until the Swimmer's Ring was at the center of the ball. The energy was gone in the next instant, but the ring glowed, mirrored in the water like a small moon.
"I'll say this again: be careful! I don't know how fast you might go with the Swimmer's Ring on top of your natural Zorian Hero speed." Japas fussed over Mikau like a mother hen. He held Mikau's hand and looked back and forth between the ring and Mikau's face. "Don't do anything I might do!"
Mikau guffawed at Japas' last comment. "Amen! I agree with you...whooooaaaaaa!!" Without thinking about it, Mikau accidentally flicked an arm fin backwards. The next thing he knew, he was propelled ten feet away from where he was just floating.
Mikau stared at the ring, amazed at the power it possessed. The ring winked right back. "Whoa..." The Zorian Hero said breathlessly. Japas scrambled towards Mikau. "That's some serious speed! I wasn't even thinking about moving and I did!"
Japas laughed aloud, caught in his friend's sense of wonder. "Try again!"
The Zorian Hero nodded and this time, willingly drove himself forward. There were no words that could describe the sensation of speed he experienced. And what speed! This was exhilaration at it's most intense! It was as if no friction existed between Mikau and the waters right against his skin. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that it was impossible but heck, who cares? Nothing existed except the roar of his fins slicing liquid in his ears and the endless blue that he was rapidly putting behind him. Occationally, he could hear the screams of, "Goddesses, what was that?!" and "Aaaah! Something just swam past me!" and other exclaimations, but Mikau discarded them as useless. It was only the Zorian Hero's inhuman reaction rate that kept him from crashing into Zora pedestrians.
A trickle of light from the surface attracted Mikau's attention. It was the sun. A bare crack of the orb peeked through an opening in the clouds, lighting up the water under which a certain Zorian Hero ran a race against himself. Mikau whipped his tail to one side and pointed his fins downwards. The result was Mikau racing towards that light at a breakneck speed. He wondered if he could jump high enough to breach the clouds and touch the sun itself. Not quite, but when he leaped out of the ocean in a spray of liquid crystal, he was high enough to see the distant mainland beyond the university. He gracefully dove back into the water without so much as a ripple.
Ten minutes later, Mikau started to slow down. The world around him was beginning to take recognizable shape again, rather than a speed-blurred streak of color. He wondered if he was getting tired or if the Swimmer's Ring was beginning to lose it's power. Suddenly, something grabbed his wrist, yanking him backwards.
"AAahh! Wha...?" The hand, as it turned out to be, yanked the Swimmer's Ring off Mikau's index finger then released him. After a moment of adjustment to a relatively still landscape, Mikau realized that the hand belonged to Japas.
"Great Goddesses, man! You're like a kid on crack with one of these!" Japas claimed, slipping the ring back onto his hand. But his expression of annoyance turned into one of mild concern when he noticed that Mikau still needed time to focus his eyes. "You okay? So how was it?"
"It ruled! Holy...! Everything was just blowing by me and uugghh..." Mikau suddenly held his head in pain. He felt as if the world started moving and was leaving him behind. "Uhhh. I feel nauseous. Goddesses, I never thought I would swim fast enough to get dizzy!"
"Ah, what a fish!" Japas laughed. " 'ere. Let me help you." He slid Mikau's arm over his shoulder and helped him make his way home. "Man, for an overgrown, blade-finned guppy, you sure are heavy! Oh, by the way, I want to give you this." The Sleek buried his other hand in his pack and it came out holding an odd black and white ring.
"Another ring? Ooooo, what power does this one have?" Mikau found the energy to snatch at the ring but Japas held it out of reach.
"Down, boy." Japas chided. "This is the 'Friendship Ring'. Why? I don't know. It's got no special power. The tradition of the ring is that if you have one, you're supposed to give it to someone you introduce magic rings to. There's twenty of them in existance and they've been all around the world." Japas finally yielded his ownership of the ring to Mikau.
"Hey, there's a music note on it! How fitting." Mikau tried to put the ring on one of his fingers, but it was too big. Instead, he slipped it into his belt buckle for the moment. The two friends made their way back to Mikau's dorm slowly, because Japas was doing most of the swimming and Mikau's body weighed him down. They had to endure the weird glances they got from people who thought it odd for one Zora to carry the other. Once they were home, they found Tijo already in the dorm, peacefully reviewing his class notes.
"Wow, I'm surprised that I got home earlier than you guys!" Tijo said without looking up. He licked a finger and used it to turn a page of a book. When he did chance a glance at Japas and Mikau, he stood up in concern. "Mikau! What's wrong? What happened to you?" Mikau had his eyes half closed and limped like a Redead, collapsing on a chair. He sighed heavily, seeming to deflate as air escaped his lungs and molded himself comfortably into the seat. He didn't fall asleep, but it was clear that he didn't feel like talking right now. Japas shook out his arms and stretched; his muscles were sore after carrying that Zorian Hero up from the tideline.
"So what happened?" Tijo repeated, this time directing his question to Japas.
"He swam too fast." Japas explained, nodding sagely.
"Huh?"
"He used a ring!"
"Huh?!" Now Tijo was totally lost.
Japas sighed. "Never mind. It's a long story."
End of Chapter 17
In the Zelda Oracle series, Link uses magic rings for special powers. I guess that if you've never played either game, you would be confused by the mechanics of rings and such.
So...how many people bothered to visit my website for chapter illustrations? I updated the Ocean Eternal page a bit, as well as some other areas of my site, if you're willing to look.
Now is a good time to explain my update schedule. I update once every two to four weeks, depending on a number of factors including schoolwork and my writing speed. At the time that I post this chapter, I'll writing the beginning of chapter 20. I like to pace my readers and myself rather than posting as soon as I finish. I also give myself time for revisions so I don't end up completely redoing a chapter after it has been posted. I update chapter illustrations as soon as I finish them.