She waved to her friend, and I saw two of the long limbs shoot up out of the water. Talina laughed and blew a kiss down to her.
I smiled, looking at Talina’s happy face. “Spurn is pretty amazing. Where we’re from, no one could comprehend a world without land. Some people have never even been in the ocean before.”
I was starting to wonder if, in the end, Talina was another person I’d have to convince to leave. She had more here than she realized.
“I can’t imagine that. There is nothing comparable to the silence and majesty that comes from dancing through the oceans, riding the currents, seeing the beauty that lies beneath.”
“Stop,” I said with a sigh. “You’re making me so jealous. I’ll never get to experience that. You’re pretty lucky to have almost the best of both worlds.”
“Yeah, I guess I’ve never thought of it that way. I’ve always hated my defects, the things that made life so hard for me here.” She looked away, the breeze blowing her emerald hair back in one long thick stream. “Now I have to start believing in that which makes me special, unique. If I’m to accept your story then there’s no other like me in all of the worlds.”
“That’s it, girl. Embrace your differences, and flip off all those who don’t recognize all that’s awesome about you,” Lucy said, hearing the end of our conversation as she walked up behind us.
Talina smiled. “Flip off?”
Lucy waved a hand in her direction. “It’s something we do on Earth, and it basically means go eff yourself.”
“Eff yourself?” Talina parroted again.
I laughed. She was never going to understand Earth slang, and since we had no idea what the Spurn equivalent would be, we couldn’t explain.
“I think that’s their way of saying take a long dive into a shallow sand bank.” Raror put an arm around his sister.
Comprehension crossed her features.
“I’m not sure I’ll ever be confident enough to tell anyone that, but I’ll work on it.” She looked petrified at the thought.
We moved as a group to sprawl on the meshy beds spread along the top deck of the pontoon. It was nice to have some down time; it seemed as if life was reasonably relaxed on Spurn. Swimming and lying around. As I lay back to stare into the pink skies I realized there were no clouds. I was pretty sure I hadn’t seen any since we arrived. Just the pink half-sun days and the four blue moons nights.
“Does it rain here?” I said, reaching my hands behind me so I could prop my head up.
“What’s rain?” Talina and Raror asked at the same time.
My eyes widened. The water planet had no rain. That was weird ...
“When water falls from the sky,” Lucas answered. “We don’t get a lot of rain on First World. I hear it’s more common on Earth.”
“Water has never fallen from our sky. That would be amazing to see.” Talina’s voice sounded wistful.
How had this world ended up being mostly water? What was their water source?
“You’ll get to see rain when we leave Spurn,” I said, ignoring the reappearance of Raror’s scowl.
He seemed pretty confident that she wouldn’t get permission to leave. What did he know that we didn’t?
It didn’t take long for the men to become bored and decide to jump in the water. They were all strong swimmers, and Raror promised they’d be able to keep up with the boat. Lucy, Talina and I stayed to continue the glorious task of getting a tan. The wraps didn’t cover too much skin so we had plenty of the half-sun exposure. It was weak enough that there was no chance of burning.
After an hour I rolled over onto my front, cradling my head in my arms. Lucy shifted next to me.
“I’m going downstairs to check Sammy hasn’t drowned,” she said, getting to her feet.
Talina nodded, before following her. She probably didn’t like to be out of the water for too long. I felt better knowing she’d be looking after Lucy in the water.
“Mmm, hmmm,” I mumbled drowsily into my arms.
My mind drifted. The sun felt so good, recharging and regenerating me.
Eventually boredom kicked in. I got to my feet. I wasn’t very practiced at lazing around. I was ready for some swim time.
I made my way down the stairs, and then stepped out onto the open deck area of the lower level. Leaning my head over the side, I expected to see everyone swimming alongside the pontoon. Instead, they were all sitting in a huge side net. Okay, that’s how they were keeping up with the seahorses’ speed.
The net ran almost the full length of the pontoon with the majority dragging in the water, which was perfect, considering I wasn’t the strongest swimmer. I could just lie back and be pulled along for the ride.
“Just jump in, Abbs.” Lucy kicked her legs out in front, her hands tangled in the side netting so as not to be thrown out accidentally.