They came across the river about 15 minutes later. Shadow had filled the intervening time peppering Annie with various questions about magic and affinities. Apparently, another thing dark mages were good at was information gathering and extra-sensory spells. It was very likely her ear-sight was an inherent dark magic ability, although her acid spit and shadow-port fit much less well. Her mom had sounded pretty excited about the prospect of being able to study her abilities whenever they finally made it to Glossa. Shadow was honestly excited about it too.

Shadow had a drink out of the river and laid down to rest while Annie and Jonas stripped down to their underclothes to more thoroughly wash their gear. Annie took the opportunity to wash Shadow’s half-destroyed outfit as well, which was appreciated. She really hoped Annie could fix it later.

Shadow was lying on the riverbank, trying to integrate all the stuff she’d learned about magic as her eyes drifted around, watching the river's slow, languid currents. It was really wide, much wider than the one in the village. It was quite impressive the humans had built a bridge over it. She didn't think she would ever stop being impressed by all the things people could accomplish when they put their minds to it. Her musing was interrupted when a wet Jonas walked over, his clothing and armor now blood-free. A quick look at him showed that he'd managed to save it from any obvious staining.

Shadow smelled soap on him, which had probably helped. They must have picked some up in town.

“So, you been having a good time learning all that magic mumbo jumbo?” He asked with a grin, sitting down next to her.

Shadow looked over at him and grinned back, nodding.

He patted her on the back.

“Good to hear. But, while we’re here, I was wondering, do you know how to swim?” he asked.

She blinked at him and tilted her head.

‘Like a fish?’ she asked. That seemed an odd question.

“Yeah, like a fish.” He answered, before he noticed her obvious confusion. “Or, well, like a shadeling would swim. Or a human. I mean… could you get yourself across that river and keep your head above the water?”

Jonas squinted at her.

“You’ve never heard of swimming?”

Shadow dropped her ears back a little, giving Jonas a slightly defensive look.

She’d heard of swimming! She just thought it was only something fish did. Or crocodiles. She didn’t think it was something humans did. Or shadelings, for that matter.

‘I’ve heard of it! I just didn’t realize it was something people did.’ She wrote.

Jonas raised his eyebrows.

“Huh. Can’t believe we’ve never talked about that. I guess that means you can’t swim then.” he asserted.

Shadow shrugged. Maybe she could swim. She’d never tried, so she didn’t really know. She’d assumed it was just something she wasn't capable of. Whenever she thought about going into the deeper waters of the river, she felt an instinctual fear. This one had been with her since the day she was born, telling her the deep water was dangerous. Between that and the incident where Annie’s shirt had tried to drown her, she hadn’t really considered the possibility of… being able to swim.

“Would you like to learn?” He asked with a smile. The man looked excited.

Shadow could sense something else there too, like… he almost seemed a little nervous. For whatever reason, it seemed like doing this was important to the man. Her father figure.

Oh! That reminded her. She answered his question with a completely different question.

‘What should I call you if not Dad? What do you call a father figure?’ she asked, tilting her head at him.

“Oh! I, uhh…” Jonas fumbled, clearing his throat, his cheeks showing red through his beard. “Hadn’t realized you were taking the father figure thing so seriously. Um… how about… you just call me Uncle Jonas.” Jonas stated, seeming as pleased as he was surprised by her question.

Shadow wasn’t quite sure why he would be her uncle, given she was pretty sure he wasn’t Annie’s brother, but if Annie was allowed to be her mom, despite having nothing to do with her creation, she saw no reason Jonas couldn’t be given the same leeway.

‘Okay, Uncle Jonas!’ Shadow wrote with a grin.

Her new uncle gave her a small shove, but he was clearly happy.

“Hah! I could get used to that. But really, want to give it a try?” Jonas asked again, motioning to the river.

Shadow looked out at it again. She still felt that instinctual fear of the deep water, but it was hardly a deterrent after what she had just been through in the branches. If she could manage that, overcoming her small fear of the water was hardly worth mentioning.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

She gave Jonas a nod, and got up, ready to give this a try.

----------------------------------------

She left her belt on the riverbank. It was joined by her shirt, but only after Jonas had a quick talk with Annie about it. Apparently, going shirtless “shouldn’t really be an issue” for now. Shadow had wondered about that, but Annie said she’d cover it later, when they had a talk about babies. She apparently wanted some time to prepare for that.

Shadow had no idea how babies related to how socially acceptable it was to wear or not wear a shirt, but whatever. She supposed she would learn.

As for her current situation, it meant she only had to wear her pants in the water, which she was grateful for. The garment was much less comfortable in the water. It felt more restrictive, and she needed as little restriction as possible, because, as it turned out, no, she definitely could not swim.

Her first attempt had her flailing about underwater for a few seconds before Jonas fished her out. She’d been prepared for it, though, so there was no panicked clawing or biting this time, only ineffectual thrashing.

She was currently focused, practicing her paddling motion as Jonas held her level in the water. She was trying to tune it so she pushed as much water as possible. Jonas, in the meantime, was busy frowning at her tail. All of her swimming attempts had ended pretty quickly with her backside sinking, followed shortly by the rest of her as soon as he’d let her go.

Jonas grunted, and motioned for her to stop her paddling.

“You’ve got to use your tail somehow. It’s too heavy for you to just let it sit there like dead weight. It’s dragging you under, regardless of what you do with your legs.” He stated, looking a little troubled.

Shadow nodded at him. She agreed with that assessment. She felt like her front half was doing okay but no matter what she did with her back legs they just sank. Her tail was pretty heavy, so that made sense to her.

‘What should I do with it?’ she asked.

Jonas’s frown deepened.

“I’m… not really sure. Don’t have a tail myself. Maybe… wave it back and forth? Like a fish?” he suggested.

She nodded, but stopped when she realized she might be able to copy something slightly closer to her body shape.

‘Maybe I can use it like a crocodile’s!’ Shadow wrote, excited. She’d seen the big beasts wiggle their tails like it was some sort of snake, and that seemed to push them through the water pretty quickly. Her tail wasn’t shaped quite the same, but maybe it would work for her anyway?

“Sounds good to me! Let me know when you’re ready.” Jonas said.

Shadow readied herself and gave him an affirmative nod.

He let her go and she started paddling for all she was worth, cranking her tail back and forth as hard as she could.

She grinned, eyes open wide, heart pumping as the water churned. She started to move forward—and promptly sank.

Jonas fished her out. She took a deep breath and blew her nose, clearing out the water.

Well, that went well… she thought to herself sarcastically.

Shadow gave Jonas a frustrated look.

‘That didn’t work at all!’ she complained.

Jonas gave her a wry smile. “I do believe you should give it another go, but maybe rein in the enthusiasm a bit. Remember, form over power. You did flail about impressively, but you weren’t looking much like a crocodile.” He informed her.

Oh. Right…

Her ears drooped and she gave him an embarrassed grin. He’d already told her to focus on form over power three times now, but she kept getting overexcited. She couldn't help herself. It just felt like working harder should be more effective in the moment.

Her next try went much better. She still ended up sinking, but she made some decent forward progress before that happened.

By her sixth try, she was swimming. She’d gotten the flowing movement of her tail down enough that it was actually keeping her above water now. She still didn’t feel graceful, and she wasn’t exactly flat on the surface, but at least she wasn’t sinking! She managed to get herself turned around, and paddle-wiggled her way back over to Jonas.

As soon as he had a hold of her she could spare some concentration to write.

‘I did it!’ she exclaimed, panting as she wrote.

Swimming was hard work!

“Yes you did! Good job! I knew you had it in you!” Jonas said, giving her a squeeze. Annie clapped, smiling at the pair from the riverbank.

She’d finished cleaning herself off earlier, but had started working in her journal while Shadow and Jonas practiced. It wasn’t like they were in any particular hurry, especially considering they needed to let Kirrik catch back up.

“Aright, how about you swim to the riverbank and we call it a day. You have enough juice left in you to make it?” he asked, grinning at her.

She felt good seeing the big smile on Jonas's face. She was happy she succeeded, and the fact that it made her uncle happy too was an extra bonus.

She nodded at him. They were only about 10 feet out. She wasn’t that tired.

He let her go, and she valiantly swam back to the riverbank. She took a deep breath. As happy as she was to have learned a new skill, it was nice to have ground back under her paws again.

Unfortunately, her wet pants felt even worse when on dry ground. They were surprisingly heavy and clung to her. Normally, it was really easy to ignore them when they were on, but like this, they were decidedly uncomfortable.

She heard chuckling and looked over to see Annie giving her an amused grin.

“Give yourself a minute or two to drip off, and then you can put your shirt back on and go change into some dry pants,” Annie advised.

‘But I just changed earlier!’ Shadow objected. Changing was annoyingly difficult.

Annie shrugged, raising her hands “Just a suggestion. From the way you looked, I thought you’d rather be dry. You can stay wet if you want to, but those pants aren’t going to dry nearly as fast as your scales.” Annie stated matter-of-factly.

A few minutes was all it took before Shadow gave in and got changed. Wet pants really were uncomfortable. She returned from behind a tree, in dry clothes now, feeling much better. She had definitely managed the whole affair faster this time.

“How about we find a good spot to make camp around here? We still have an hour or two of daylight, but there’s no need to hurry, and we’ve all had a long day.” Annie asked, looking to Shadow and Jonas for agreement.

Shadow nodded, and Jonas answered with a “Sounds good to me.”

The day had certainly been eventful. She wouldn’t mind resting a little bit early.