20 Ymiden 700
Oram gazed wonderingly at the colorful round stone, still dripping, as his brother held it aloft. ”Can I see it?” he asked breathelessly.
Osric smirked. ”Sure,” he said, waving the rock around over his head. ”See it?”
”You know what I mean!” Oram harumphed, and started to wade closer to where his older brother stood. The water was waste high on Osric, making it almost chest-high on the younger Mednix.
Osric’s smirk grew even smugger as he started to retreat, deeper into the pond. ”Come and get it!” he taunted, backing ever farther away. Oram followed until the water lapped his skinny shoulders, then halted.
”Stop going deeper!” he protested, bobbing up and down impatiently. ”Dad! Make Os stop going deeper!”
Oleg sat on a rock at water’s edge, whittling a try stick. He paused and peered up at Oram’s call. ”You could always swim after him,” he suggested.
”Or can’t swim,” rejoined Osric, still smirking. Oram glared at him, all the more resentful because it was true.
”You just wait!” the younger boy fumed. ”Some day dad’ll teach me how to swim, and then I’ll come after you and take all your stupid rocks.”
”No,” came the voice from shore. Startled, both boys turned to face their father. ”No, we will not ‘just wait’. Let’s teach Oram how to swim now.” The boys looked questioningly at each other. ”So, what do you say?” asked Oleg. ”Ready to learn how to swim, Or?”
Oram smiled and nodded. His father smiled back, then glanced over at his older son. ”Alright. Os, do you remember the first thing you learned when you learned how to swim?”
Os frowned in concentration. ”How to hold my breath?” he guessed.
”I already know how to do that!” Oram chimed in, and ostentatiously breathed in and puffed out his cheeks to demonstrate.
Their father made an encouraging gesture with his hand. ”Before that?” he prompted.
Os’ face brightened. ”Blow bubbles!” he exclaimed.
Oram blew out the breath he was holding, and he wrinkled his nose. ”Blow bubbles?" he exclaimed indignantly. "That’s kid stuff! I wanna swim!”
His older brother turned to him, suddenly all business. ”You’ll swim. Someday. Right now, you blow bubbles. Watch.”
Without waiting for his younger brother to respond, Osric bent forward and plunged face-down into the pond, only the very back bit of his head above the surface. A few trills later, bubbles started appearing on either side of his head. As they did, his body slowly sank below the surface. A few more trills passed, and then with a splash he resurfaced, puffing and dripping. Now you try it,” he told Oram, grinning wickedly. ”It should be easy; like you said, it’s ‘kid stuff’”
