fh_trips | Zakynthos, Wednesday Morning/Afternoon

See Vette, see Vette look at the fish, and then look at Sidon, and then smile a little and nod her head.

"Just give me a moment to pack my things up." She considered the bread for a moment, and then took another moment to tear chunks off of it, to scatter for any scavenging birds that might be nearby. She smiled broadly as they descended to a cacophony of seabird shrieking, and then she considered the fruits she'd brought. With a shrug, she pulled the scarf off from where it was covering her lekku, and carefully folded the fruits up in it. The bread wouldn't survive a dip in the water. The fruit would likely fare better. She took another moment still to tie the makeshift sack to her belt, and then looked up at Sidon with a grin. "You're welcome to babble all you like, you know. I like listening."

To him. She liked listening to him.

"But we can babble just as well in the caves, too, can't we?"

"Indeed we can!" Sidon laughed, wiping his mouth a little with the back of his hand, as he'd gone to take one good bite out of some of the fish while she scattered the crumbs and gathered the fruit. "And with much more interesting acoustics, as well! Come, then, we'll head over this way; I found a good spot where we can start that should be nicely out of the way of the usual boats and tours."

"Well, then," Vette said, standing and dusting some sand from her clothes, "lead on!"

People were absolutely staring at them, which she noticed more now that she had left the cover of her parasol, but having Sidon there was emboldening, somehow. Not just because he was massive and could probably bite anyone who tried something funny in two. Just... the confidence, the fact that he didn't seem to worry about that sort of thing.

She was a little in awe of that, honestly. She didn't know how he did it.

Confidence, indeed. Sidon had even waved a few time, recognizing a few of the fishermen and other people he'd interacted with the day before, offering a smile and a dedicated attempt at a greeting in their language. He hadn't picked up much more than that, sure, but he felt they would appreciate it.

The results were...mixed. Most of them still didn't know what to make of this aggressively friendly giant red creature, but he either didn't notice or he didn't seem to mind, and it definitely seem to slip beyond his attention that they were additionally curious that there was someone smaller and blue with him this time, too.

It would be far less of a concern when they reached the spot he was talking about, where the shore started to jut up into the cliffs that hit the caves around the bend in the bright blue sea. "Here we are!" he announced proudly, turning to send a grin toward Vette before sweeping his arms open to the panorama. "Beautiful, isn't it? Right around those cliff, we'll find our caves...and who knows what else!"

Probably....not much else, honestly, but one never knew!

"Adventure, probably," Vette supplied, smiling up at him. "In my experience, caves almost always mean adventure."

Usually by way of vicious local fauna.

"This... this really is pretty," she added, looking out over the water in awe. "I've been a lot of places in my life, but never somewhere quite like this."

Sidon was quiet for a little bit, just to let Vette enjoy it for a moment, enjoying it himself, and maybe allowing him to enjoy the fact that he'd helped her enjoy it by acting as tour guide for her. "Whenever you're ready," he eventually offered, "just say the word! Or there's still a bit more fish, if you'd like more before I return to it to the sea!"

He might had had just a little bit more himself.

"We could put some of the fish in the fruit bag," she offered, "if we want to snack in the caves? But I think I'm about ready to see what all the fuss is about."

About the caves? About, ah, riding a Zora?

Who knew? She might or might not even clarify if asked about it!

Oh, but it was obviously the caves! That was the whole reason they were there, was it not? What else could she have possibly been referring to?

"I suppose if you don't mind your fruit starting to taste like fish!" Sidon chuckled, which didn't sound too bad to him for obvious reasons, but he had a feeling that Vette, especially after recalling her speaking of fruits from her home before, would rather them to continue tasting like fruit. He felt sure she'd likely go along with it either way, so he just shrugged and lobbed the remains of the fish into the water with a small grunt from the effort. "No matter, really, now other fish can enjoy it, and there's plenty more where that came from! Let us go!"

Was it really necessary for him to get into the water by crouching down and backflipping into it, putting a pretty good spin through the air before diving smoothly into the cove? No, of course not, but did he do it anyway? Absolutely! He grinned and swam closer where she could easily reach him without too much trouble.

"Now climb on my back, and don't hesitate to hold on tight! And please tell me if I start going too fast; I can be quite the unstoppable force once I get myself going."

Vette chewed her lip for a moment as she considered her path from nice, solid ground over to nice, solid Sidon, and decided, to heck with it, she was going to get wet either way, and if she somehow managed to mess this up terribly, Sidon was right there to make certain she didn't drown. She leaned in as close as she could get and then just kind of threw herself at his back before she could let herself think too hard about the position that put her in with Sidon, and then...

... Then, well, she was pretty much clinging to him for dear life from behind.

"This is okay?" Because yep, she was holding on pretty tightly, there, wide-eyed. "You'd tell me if I was doing it wrong, right?"

And Sidon kicked his legs underneath him smoothly to keep them easily afloat while staying still, chuckling lightly. "Absolutely!" he assured her. "Your grip is exceptional. Perfect! Now, I'll start slowly forward, so you can get a feel for it."

And so he did, pressing down into the water with a sweep of his arms to get them going, a steady kicking of his legs to keep them moving. Very slowly. Veeeerry carefully.

Everything from her hips down and right up the front of her was so waterlogged, and now they were moving forward, and there was water on all sides now, even if dry land was still a stone's throw away, and yeah, Vette was still not loosening that grip for love or money.

"Okay," she breathed, eyes still wide. "Okay, this is good. I can do this."

Give her a minute and she'd get past 'holy frak, water, holy frak, sea' far enough to start processing other things, like the way he was being so adorably considerate in letting her get used to this before going any faster, and maybe a little of how he was moving, muscles shifting under her while he worked his arms and legs, and most definitely just how solid a presence he was, strong and confident and honestly really nice to be close to while she clung for dear life.

... He smelled nice. Was that weird to say about a guy who smelled mostly like fish and seawater? Well, he did. She'd add that to the list, too.

"You can do this!" Sidon agreed, laughing a little, unable to not launch into what was basically his catchphrase at this point. "You are doing this, and quite splendidly, I might add."

He, on the other hand, would have had to admit a little bit of difficulty, should anyone ask. It was a surprising challenge to have to go slow for a change, to not just naturally bolt forward when he was used to basically moving as swift and fast as he could.

It wasn't just that, either...and it wasn't the weight of her there or her tight grip or anything like that; those, he barely seemed to notice. But there was this nearly overwhelming...presence of her there, on his back, holding herself close to him as he tried to move in ways that didn't disturb or bother her, that he found incredibly distracting in ways he had not expected.

Which seemed odd. He'd given hatchlings rides through the lakes and rivers and up waterfalls at the time!

But Vette was hardly a hatchling, now, was she?

Not even a little bit, yeah. She hadn't been a kid in a lot of respects for quite some time. She laughed a little, shook her head.

"I haven't fallen off yet," she replied. "But I've seen you swim, Sidon. The real test is going to be when you're doing more than just paddling around, I'm sure."

She was really not sure how to take a compliment at face value, here. It didn't hurt that Sidon would probably have said the same thing to anybody, right?

Just because Sidon absolutely would have said the same thing to anybody, that didn't make it any less untrue.

Not in this case, anyway.

"Well, then," he said, grinning, "I suppose we shall just have to go faster, then, won't we?"

That, he felt, served plenty of warning for the slight jolt that came with him kicking into a quicker pace, still held back and reserved, but far easier, fast enough that kicking his legs alternately wouldn't do, and they moved together now more as if they were one unified tail than two separate appendages.

Well, that little jolt was going to lead to Vette making a bit of a surprised squeak all the same, her arms tightening around him all the more. If she wasn't so concerned about falling off, she would probably risk actually trying to sit up, but between all the water and... maybe how nice it was to just kind of cling for a bit...

Well.

"And he's off," she laughed, once she was a little more adjusted to this new speed. "Is that the best you can do?"

... It was absolutely a challenge, yes. From the soaked-through Twi'lek girl clinging desperately to the pretty Zora boy.

Sidon felt he shouldn't be so easily baited like that, he knew he should probablystill take it easy, but...

...she had asked, had she not? It would just be...simply rude not to answer.

So with his bark of a laugh being the only warning the pretty, clinging Twi'lek girl would get from the determined Zora boy before he lowered his head low to the surface of the water, all but locked his arms to his side, and pushed himself even faster.

Still not nearly as fast as he could go, mind, but hardly anything to shake a spear at!

Whoa.

There wasn't really another word for it. Once Sidon got going, he really got going, and Vette got the impression that he could go faster still if he wanted to. She was making a noise herself and she was mostly certain that it should have been screaming, all things considered, the speed and the water combined.

But no, it was laughter. Pure, simple, delighted laughter as she held on tightly and enjoyed everything about this moment. If he was showing off, he was more than welcome to continue doing so.

Come, now, if he was really showing off, they'd have gotten a little bit of air as well as sea in there.

But Sidon could tell that he'd found a good pace, the right speed, though hearing Vette's laughter over the sound of the water rushing past him made his heart surge in a way that almost made the rest of him follow by default. But he kept steady and he kept consistent, as he hurried out further around the bend of the cliffs, to reveal the chain of jagged white rocks along the shore that hid the scattering of caves that brought them out here in the first place.

Yes, this was perfect, wasn't it? Water splashing up around them, the scenery shifting not far off; Vette was almost disappointed to see the rocks ahead as they started giving way to caves, because it meant the trip there would have to end. She reminded herself that there would be a trip back, too, and the caves were the entire reason they'd come out this far anyway.

She was having the time of her life out here. And he was-- he was amazing. And she was kind of at a loss for how in the world this was even happening, right now. She had to be just... stupidly lucky.

That's what it was. Dumb luck. Amazing, impossible, exhilarating dumb luck.

Well, just because they were almost there didn't necessarily mean they had to be finished so soon, did it? As far as Sidon was concerned, the time it too to get there was far too short, certainly not long enough for Vette to really even get a feel for it, and they had the whole sea spread out around them, besides! So he was going to take advantage of that and swim out in a long, quick circle away from the shore first, where he was also so bold as to attempt the smallest of jumps.

Because now he was absolutely just showing off.

"Ohmygosh!"

See Vette, see Vette gasp in some crazy combination of delight and shock, tightening her grip as Sidon jumped, and then giggling like an idiot and pressing her face against his shoulder for a moment as she recovered from both.

At least it was only a moment, though she was briefly tempted to stay there for a few moments more. She was grinning again as she lifted her head, giving him another squeeze just so he knew she was alright. Or maybe as encouragement? She felt safe out here with him, and was starting to really get into this. If he wanted to show off, well, she was finding that she was very keen to have him show off.

Clearly, this now required Sidon to enjoy at least one more sweeping loop through the water with a few more little jumps, even though he was pretty certain there was probably little more he could do to inspire a reaction quite as wonderful as that one.

He was fairly certain he could do this all day and be perfectly content with it, but he would be loathed to traipse anywhere near the point where even a minute portion of the excitement would start to wane for Vette. So after those extra few jumps, he turned his head slightly to call out, "Shall we head in now?"

Vette needed a moment to not go, 'Awww,' there, but she wasn't too terribly heartbroken, either. It was much easier to babble about how neat that had been when there wasn't water trying to splash up into her mouth as she spoke, anyway.

"Let's," she said, a laugh still evident in her voice. "We've got to come back this way too, right?"

"We wouldn't necessarily have to," said Sidon, who didn't much care for the idea of presenting an alternative but felt it was important to at least be honest about it, as he turned back toward the shore in an arc that was unnecessarily wide to take up a bit more time, "but it would be significantly easier," and more preferable, "to do so.

"Now," he added, slowing down a little on the approach, because that...made it easier to talk, yes, clearly, that was the reason why, "as far as the caves go, I can see one of two options: there's one we can enter via the water that flows through it and keep swimming, or there's one just off that small strip of beach there accessible by land. And as it is your tour, I shall naturally divert to the lady's choice."

Lady's choice in this particular situation was very, 'well, if I get to CHOOSE to start like this...'

The lady was also not going to put it that way, no.

"Well," Vette mused, "we're on a roll now, right? And I bet the cave you get to by water isn't going to be as busy as the one with some beach in front of it, too..."

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