When Tavras went fishing along the coast, he did not require a spear nor any other kind of implement. He stood in the surf, arms extended as if he could Bend Water to his will. As a god of water, indeed, he could do that.

The water parted and out of its folds, several fish rose from the surf. “Thank you, friends, for your lives.”

When the fish landed on the beach, they had already died.

Tavras walked back onto the sand after them. “Would you like to help with the fire, Val? Feel free to hang out here with Foofy if you would rather. It is your day off, after all.”

Her face felt a little warm from shame because she did not want to help him, in all honesty. “I would like to stay here with Foofy. I will make sure that he doesn’t eat all of the fish without us.”

“That sounds fine to me.” Tavras gave her a small wave as he walked off to fetch wood for a cooking fire.

Beneath the shining sun, Val laid across the beach and beckoned Foofy to come over to her. “Foofy, come.” Her voice was too high-pitched to be a command, but understanding the invitation, Foofy came over anyway.

As dogs sometimes do, he lay down just far enough away that Val had to reach an uncomfortable distance to pet him.

“Foofy, come closer,” she whined. Of course, Val could always get up and move closer to Foofy herself, but she felt too lazy to even do that much on her first day off. Instead, she lay here and reached to stroke Foofy’s fur.

“Wow, you really did need a day off,” Tavras said, having returned with a bundle of wood in his arms. Soon, a small fire crackled on the beach for him to cook by. All of those fish were set onto sticks to cook, including the ones for Foofy.

While they may have just been fish cooked over a fire, they tasted absolutely delicious. “How do you cook these so well? I mean, they’re perfect!” Val said with her mouth full. Maybe Tavras had developed an ability to cook excellent seafood, as well.

“It would be an insult to the fish’s lives to not cook them to anything other than perfection.” Tavras ate slowly and respectfully in comparison to Val.

“I’m sorry to all of the fish that I have insulted over this past month,” she whispered.

Tavras laughed. “Don’t feel bad. They are just fish, practically meant for us to eat them.”

Breakfast finished up without much else for conversation. With a flash of water out of thin air, Tavras put out the fire.

Free of his cooking duties, he ran in a half-circle around her. “Come on, Val! Don’t you want to have fun on your day off?” His arm waved around in an invitation for her to follow him.

Val hauled herself to her feet and took up a light jog after Tavras, towards the ocean.

“We have visitors today!” he called. “Would you like to meet my friends?”

A ways ahead of them, some bumps appeared on the surface of the water. Unlike the waves, these protruded in the shape of dorsal fins with a gray coloration. Some sprays and splashes later, and a few dolphins launched into the air.

A small gasp caught in Val’s throat. “Oh, wow!” The sight of the dolphins inspired her to run after Tavras. As she waded through the surf, she paused to turn back to Foofy.

His feet froze on the beach, a fair ways away so that the ocean’s edge could not possibly lap at his paws. Foofy stared down to the water with his ears laid back, a very unhappy Dobie face.

“Aw, Foofy.”

“Let your dog be,” Tavras said, coming back to her with the next wave. “He can watch us from the beach if he doesn’t like water.”

It was Tavras’s fault that Foofy had become so afraid of water. Before the incident with the sea serpent, Foofy had been willing to try and play in the water, despite his distaste for the big waves and deep water. Now, it seemed that he would not even let a drop of water touch his paws.

Val made note of Foofy’s fear of water. Maybe she could help him overcome that fear one day, but for now, she really wanted to see the dolphins. With one last sad glance back to Foofy, Val followed Tavras farther out to sea.

Out here, the dolphins swam close to Val and Tavras in the water, still shallow enough for them to stand. Their elegant forms raced near the bottom, encircling them in their paths. One broke through the water immediately in front of Tavras.

“Hello, dear friend.” His hands reached out to cup the dolphin’s chin. Tavras lowered his lips to its nose in giving it a tender kiss.

As much as she liked to watch Tavras kiss the dolphin, Val flitted her eyes away. Perhaps she enjoyed seeing that too much, based off of the warmth that was now swelling within her chest.

“Are you jealous of my friend?” Tavras asked, though the dolphin retreated back into the water.

Her heart skipped a beat. In a way, yes, Val felt very jealous of that dolphin. If only she could be the one that Tavras kissed, she might not have had to feel quite so envious, then.

“I could give you a dolphin friend too,” Tavras said, taking away the hopeful possibility that he had been teasing her about the kiss.

Her voice wavered a little as she said, “Yes, please.” Regardless, Val would enjoy seeing one of the dolphins up close.

Another dolphin approached them and breached the water in front of her. This one, Val got to hold in her hands. The dolphin’s skin felt slick and smooth, almost like rubber. From either the thick layers of its skin or the amount of blubber underneath, the dolphin’s neck felt luxurious and soft, yet firm. She leaned down to plant her own kiss on the tip of the dolphin’s nose.

With a flip and a splash backwards, the dolphin retreated in a much flashier display than Tavras’s dolphin had. Likely, he had been the one who had requested for it to do that extra trick for Val.

She turned to him and tried to give him her very best smile. Nothing had happened between them over this past month but they had gotten to know each other better. She really wanted something to happen between them already. Val wanted him to pick up on her effort to flirt so badly, it nearly hurt. “Are you jealous of my dolphin?” she repeated back to him.

“Yes, but then again, I cannot help but envy all creatures of the sea just a little bit.”

Her shoulders slouched with defeat. Yet again, Tavras had given one of those serious answers that he could only produce when he spoke of anything related to water.

They stayed out here in the ocean, watching the dolphins swim and jump, and let out their frequent whistles and whines.

“Let’s swim with them,” Tavras said. A whistle of his own left his lips, drawing two dolphins over to them. “Grab onto their dorsal fins like this.” He did so, and let the dolphin take off with him.

“Oh, wow!” Val could feel her eyes light up, and she wasted not a moment before she latched onto her own dolphin. “Go, dolphin friend! Beat Tavras.”

That dolphin of hers took off after the first one, swimming faster so that they could pull up alongside Tavras on his dolphin. From there, her dolphin eased into the same pace, letting them swim alongside each other with the dolphins. Apparently, a race was not going to happen but that would be acceptable, given her view.

Val let her cheek rest over top of the dolphin’s back. Its slippery skin felt refreshing to her own, better than any lotion or beauty products that could possibly be placed upon her face. Her head turned out to see the vibrant island that they had left behind. “Would they do this with us if not for you?”

“It could be possible, but it definitely doesn’t hurt to have a good friend of the sea to ask them to play.”

The dolphins swam out to deeper water, further away from the island so that more of the ocean could be seen surrounding it. When Val turned to look the other way, she could see nothing but open water, and Tavras holding onto his own dolphin.

His eyes gazed out to the horizon where the sea met the sky. The smaller wisps of his hair blew with the gentle breeze, both from the ocean breeze and the movement of the dolphins. Tavras turned his attention inward and met Val’s eyes.

Her body reacted in an entirely uncustomary way. Normally, Val’s heart raced in the presence of Tavras, but now, her pulse seemed to lengthen alongside the seconds of this moment.

The dolphins raced back in towards shore where they returned them to their original starting location.

“Well, we need to say goodbye to our friends.” Tavras stroked one dolphin on the bridge of its nose, trailing up between its eyes. “They have to get back to doing dolphin things now.”

Val tittered out a laugh and gave her dolphin a parting kiss. “Thank you so much for the ride.”

The dolphins rejoined their pod and all of them took to the sea in some bounding leaps.

“Let’s head back too, Val,” Tavras said. His hands found hers in the water, and he pulled her along as he swam, much like the dolphins had just done with them. The way that he swam on his back, Val could easily pull herself nearer to him and lay over his chest.

Just as she had laid her head against the dolphin’s back, she let her cheek now rest over top of Tavras’s chest. “That was really nice,” she said softly. One of her hands trailed along the front of his shirt, appreciating this way that he swam with her. Maybe he had intended this as something romantic after all.

Tavras lifted his head from the water to gaze down at her. “Was it?” he asked. The light in his eyes held a great deal of passion, a ton of enthusiasm, and perhaps a little mischief.

With a tight swallow, Val still hoped that he would pick sometime today to be their first kiss. In her opinion, this moment could not be more perfect. She continued to gaze at him with wide eyes.