The water splashed as the 8 women burst through the water surface. Jannick was on the edge of his seat, his eyes glued to the Live stream in front of him. The 8 women ploughing through the water, was a familiar sight. He had watched it many times. Sometimes he was even part of it. The smooth strokes of finalists made him oh so envious, his own form was so far behind, matching any of the master's on screen a distant dream. Normally his thoughts would end there, but today a growing sense of excitement joined his usual envy.
Today their strokes were just a little longer than normal, the atmosphere just a little more heated. He could feel it even through the camera and screen. Today was special. The front runners head-to-head were setting a world record pace. The hall was completely captivated, together with Jannick and so many others behind the screens, they cheered them on. It was like the world itself was screaming, "Come on, you can do it!"
Jannick was in a daze, in his years of following his sport, there never was a day like this, three world records, along with two Olympic records, shattered on a single day. He was glad to have witnessed such a day. It didn't even stop at the swimmers today the athletes all over the world broke personal, national and world records.
The excitement from watching such stunning performances was still trapped in his muscles, it crawled over his skin like an army of ants. Jannick grabbed the excitement and his bag, heading to the local pool, this momentum was just too good to waste.
The water closed around him, enveloping him in its loving embrace. For this small moment, there was only his momentum and the silence, as he shot forward. The motions of the dive a little stiff a little clumsy and he soon resurfaced. Tensing his core, reaching forward, pulling back, the leg stroke swift and steady, his breaths deep and sparse. Jannick was in his element, he felt could almost taste the ghost, of that fate full day a few months ago. The personal bests he and his clubmates set that day, unreachable. He hated it, so much work, so many kilometers in the water. The missed schoolwork he piled up. All for naught, like the world was mocking him, his body hated him, denied him the progress he craved.
"Ding Dang Dong", the school bell announced over the speakers. As Jannick joined the struggle to pack his back as fast as possible, he still lost hopelessly to his friends of course. Luckily, he still caught up to them in the hallway, to join in on their conversation. "You guys coming to the pool later", Mala asked hopefully. "I heard the good ice cream got restocked", she sweetened the deal. "Yeah, I'll be there", Jannick chimed in, not that it was necessary. With only oral exams left, school had slowed down greatly in their final year, so he spend all that sweet free time in the local pool hanging out with his friends, the neighbors, his parents in a pinch and of course training like a madman. He was this close to catch the ghost of Tokio as the seemingly unreachable slew of personal records, that haunted so many athletes since the Tokio Olympics. "Naw, sorry guys its DnD night today", Paul declined. Mala the master of calendars, had of course forgotten, the weekly event, "So it's, just you and me then?" Jannick shrugged, "Seems like it".
Exhausted he balanced the wet pair of trunks on the balcony chair, that had just been freed from his other pair. The day had been fun, together with a few other teens they had made full use of the empty kids pool, to wage heated battles and matches. In the breaks they relaxed together, enjoyed the advertised ice cream and of course played a few rounds of their favorite card game. After Mala left to catch the last bus, Jannick made use of the remaining time to get in a few laps. All the fun from earlier regrettably stopped him from finally betting his records, but he was really close he knew it.
"Bing", the notification sound from his phone cut through his exhausted haze. He reached out to take a look. "The east coast of the USA was reportedly hit by a magnitude 8 earthquake." Oh fuck, that sucks. But wait east coast, that's not where earthquakes are supposed to happen. What's going on.
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The final oral exams passed Jannick and his friends were finally free. They spend the time swimming, chatting and reading. Paul had a place on a university nearby as he wanted to study math. Mala sadly had to move away to a different town, for her medical studies. Jannick stayed at home, he really didn't know what to do now that he was done with school, so he decided to do a social year in the local elementary school. The goodbye from Mala was really sad seeing her leave really hurt, not seeing her almost every day made his time at the pool just that much lonelier.
"Come on Jannick, you can do it!", Mala called out to him. As usual in the last week she was already at the top of the slope they were climbing. Jannick huffed and puffed, he could do a kilometer in the water no problem, but these last two hundred meters were killing him. Who came up with the idea of building stairs up a mountain, they weren't even good stairs, barely more than conveniently placed boulders. Mala could jump them up gracefully. After all she had gotten into hiking after moving to Heidelberg. He on the other hand hadn't gotten that much exercise, after starting his FSJ. His last big success was a new personal best after Mala had left and he spend a lot more time training. The time at the elementary school was treating him well, he had a lot of quiet time managing the library and entertaining the kids in the after-school program was fun as well.
Even though his FSJ was really relaxed. The week he had spent with Mala was really revitalizing, seeing his best friend again and spend so much time in nature together released shackles he didn't know existed. As he slowly caught up to Mala, he let his gaze wander over the rolling hills. They reminded him of this one kid, that always went to the library to read the dinosaur books over and over again. He could easily imagine a Pterosaur soaring through the air, looking out for food.
They were making a small break on some logs arranged around the trees. Currently they were discussing, the best rituals to conduct here. They also brought some cookies as snacks, which were really nice after the climb. After half of the cookie, he picked up his backpack and they powered on.
"So, what's your favorite dinosaur?", Jannick asked, the images of the Pterosaur still in his mind. "What, I don't know. Why would you ask that?", Mala was understandably confused. "There is this one kid at school always going on about dinosaurs...", he explained. Mala relented,"Ok fair point, I guess Titanosaurus or something just the massive size, you know." "Thats kind of lame, Archaeopteryx is way cooler, and anyway don't you know size doesn't matter", Jannick was a little disappointed. "If you don't wanna know, why ask. How would you know size doesn't matter anyway?" "Annnyway, flight or gliding is so awesome, that's way better than size, right?", Jannick didn't relent.
"If you like flight so much, what bird would you be?", Mala changed the topic. Jannick was a little surprised by the question, but he had started with the weird questions earlier. His first instinct was an eagle or something like that, but if he could fly, he wanted to be good at it, nice maneuvers and long distances. The swallows he had seen as a child came to mind, how they danced through the air in the summer and migrated across the globe in winter. The idea really appealed to him. He could fly anywhere he wanted while still being able to perform pretty stunts in the air, he could almost fell the wind rushing around him.
Then a voice erupted in his mind, smashing aside all other thoughts, "You have been heard, Dreams can now come true!" He scrambled to get his thoughts back into order. Being awoken from his deep musings so violently, his mind was in tatters. "Did you here that just now, in your head", Malas voice was like an anchor for his thoughts. "What does it mean anyway. Dream can already come true.", she continued on. Jannick really wanted to answer, but for some reason he couldn't get his thoughts together. His inner eye kept flashing with a few memories, but most of all, his daydreams of being a swallow repeated over and over again. Sometimes slower sometimes faster.
As the image slowly faded from his vision, he suddenly realized, that Mala was holding him in a tight hug. Jannick wanted to say something, respond to her words, sooth her worries. However, before he could formulate these feelings into thoughts or actions, all of it was swept away, "Congratulations your Dream has been chosen! You gained the Skill: [Dream of Flight]"