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THE next day.
“Aaaaaah! People, there are people everywhere!” Lushera shrieked, looking down at the beach from the road up on an embankment.
There were several swimming spots set up in the rivers of Alhyura, water created by the power of Setrayu’s dracovitae.
Parasols stood in rows along the sand—sand made artificially with magic—and throngs of people in swimsuits enjoying themselves, each in their own way. Some swam, some sunbathed, some ran out to play with beach balls made of leather, some built sandcastles, some ate food. Vendors with stalls swarmed the beach like ants, hoping for these crowds so they could sell toys and food. This was the first time Lushera had seen the pastime of swimming so well commercialized.
Lushera came wearing her new red one-piece swimsuit, though…she wasn’t certain it really qualified as a one-piece. The main mass of fabric only covered her trunk, while the frill at the bottom didn’t even deserve the name “skirt.”
The fabric for her swimsuit was spun from iron spider silk then treated with a special resin and chemicals. This let it dry quickly and kept it from getting heavy even when it was soaking wet, making it the go-to material for swimsuits. Adventurers used to get regular jobs for gathering iron spider silk, and swimsuits were a luxury item. That changed when people developed the technology for raising iron spiders on farms, and the luxury items turned into cheap swimsuits, and the spider silk jobs turned into the occasional job for hunting down an escaped iron spider.
Kaphal was wearing a bright red swimsuit just like Lushera, but the design was a little extreme. There was a top that cradled her ample bosom like a hammock, then a bottom that looked like simple panties, with a sarong wrapped around her waist that resembled fluttering flames. They hadn’t purchased this swimsuit. Kaphal created it as part of her magic for forming a human body. Viola oversaw the design.
“What a lovely sight…” sighed Viola. She was also in a swimsuit, seeming pleased with the whole situation.
Her swimsuit was an utterly plain, non-embellished navy one-piece that covered her trunk. According to Viola, this swimsuit was used in a particular country for children when they learned how to swim, and that fact made the swimsuit suddenly look questionable to Lushera. Where did she even get it? And why was she wearing it?
And more importantly, why was Viola still wearing her bottle-bottom glasses even when going swimming? Was she actually planning on swimming?
They walked down the sun-heated sands, water mist mixing with the air and taking the edge off the heat on their skin. Some cads who saw Kaphal stood there, their mouths gaping, while others even whistled at her.
“All right… Well, we came without having any real plan. What do we do now?” asked Lushera.
“How about this?”
“Gah!” Lushera jumped back when cool water suddenly splashed her in the face.
At some point, Viola had taken out a water bottle in the shape of some plant that shot out water like a little fountain. She cackled when she saw Lushera’s shock.
“…A water gun?” asked Lushera.
“It’s a toy. You can play fight with them.”
“Sounds fun, but Mom will probably break it if she uses it.”
“Oof, you’re right.”
The toy Viola brought was the type that shot out water when you pushed a trigger. Kaphal still had a little trouble using tools that required a certain level of force.
“Well then, how about you just try swimming around a bit? There are fewer people farther out,” suggested Viola.
“…xxxx, deep… Wash xxxx…”
Lushera realized Kaphal was letting out what sounded like a low growl and staring at the river, muttering something in Draconic. It was true that the center of the river was deep enough that an adult wouldn’t be able to touch the bottom.
“Lushera swim?” asked Kaphal.
“That’s why we came. I’m definitely going to swim.”
“Humans drown.” She took Lushera’s hand firmly in hers.
“Don’t worry. I used to bathe all the time in the river near our nest.”
“Know river there. I protect.” She refused to budge, seemingly on edge.
Kaphal must know that Lushera was far sturdier than a normal human at this point. It was likely dragons almost never died by drowning, so perhaps she didn’t have a good grasp of how dangerous different things were to humans.
Lushera thought for a moment, and then—
“Hiya!”
“Lushera?!”
She gripped Kaphal’s hand tight and raced off, dragging Kaphal with her into the river.
A splash, swirling foam, a moment of weightlessness.
The two floated, completely soaked.
“Ah!” The cool water washed Lushera clean.
Kaphal’s face popped up from the water. She looked like a wet dog, her long hair sticking to her.
“Heehee, your fragment form can’t stand against me,” teased Lushera.
“Hmph…”
“It’s okay, I can swim. Watch!” Lushera twirled through the flow. She kicked the water with her superhuman strength. It roared, and she shot off like a loose pole spear. She twisted, and the water opened a path for her. She slipped between the other swimmers, going faster than any of them, and she zipped a lap around the swimming area and came back. “See?” she said.
“…Okay. No worry.” Kaphal begrudgingly gave her approval. She couldn’t really complain when Lushera had shown her she could swim like a fish.
“By the way, Kaphal, can you swim?” asked Viola as she blew up a floating ring with magic. It seemed she really didn’t plan on swimming.
Now that she mentioned it, Lushera realized she assumed Kaphal would be fine since she hadn’t really said anything about herself on the topic, but they hadn’t checked if she could swim in that form.
“Easy. I okay,” said Kaphal. She plunged into the deeper area like a beast leaping into water, and then she stuck only her bottom half out of the water as she thrashed about, moving forward like she was trying to fly.
“Mom?!”
“Huh? Why xxxx?” She was able to get herself back upright, but it was only momentarily. As soon after she slipped completely underwater where she spiraled back to Lushera. She stayed deep in the water for a moment, bubbles floating up, before finally planting her feet on the river’s bottom and standing up.
“This okay,” she said.
“Mom, I wouldn’t call that swimming.”
Only her head poked out, her flame-like hair spreading on the surface of the water.
“Do dragons even ‘go swimming’? They likely don’t see bodies of water deep and vast enough for that, other than the blue dragons, who live in the oceans,” said Viola, her glasses gleaming as she floated gently by on her large blow-up ring.
“First time swim in water,” said Kaphal. “Before, swim in lava.”
“L-Lava…? Your scales must be out of this world…” said Lushera, recoiling in horror slightly despite Kaphal seeming quite happy as she explained.
For a moment Lushera had thought she was better than Kaphal at something, but that moment was brief as she was reminded of the fundamental difference between humans and dragons. She felt a chill, a brief flash of something colder than the water. She would be trying to prove she was equal to these beings who live by an entirely different scale.
“Ho-ho, how interesting! Red dragons clean themselves with fire…” said Viola.
“Yes, sometimes use lava to clean off,” said Kaphal.
Well, even if they did bathe in lava, that didn’t mean they went and did a butterfly stroke in pools of lava. It made sense that Kaphal wouldn’t know how to swim.