CPOCT- R1P3- Drowning

Benji was convinced that this was the single largest park in the world.  He'd seen buffalo in a pen and found a horse track without coming close to seeing houses on the other side of the park.  He was presently circling around the bison pen with his arms hugged around himself. He wanted nothing more than to crawl farther inside his coat and warm up. He'd been startled to discover that what could only be called frostbite had crept farther up his arms.  The first two joints in his fingers were now black or navy while light blue and white crept all the way to his knuckles.  He was getting scared.  

"Maybe I should head back into the city.  This place is so huge. I'll never find my opponent." He kicked a stone and watched it roll away.  The longer he walked the more he missed the warm cabin and teasing Jason.  His cousin really was a good guy, but his constant mothering was what made Benji loathe being in a small place with him. Jason always seemed to have something to say about what he'd been doing wrong and it didn't help that he brought up subjects that he'd rather not talk about.  Benji decided that he'd say something to his cousin about that the next time he saw him because really Jason wasn't his mother, and he didn't need to act like it.  He looked up when he heard footsteps.  A dark haired teen was running down the path stealing looks over his shoulder.  At first Benji had thought it might be that girl again, but when he looked closer he realized that the person running was neither female nor wearing outrageously short shorts.  

"Hey, wait up!" He waved to the runner,  but the boy merely glanced in his direction and continued on his way.  Was that a sword that he saw in the teen's hand?

"Or not…" Wonder what that was about. Frowning, he walked back the way that the teen had come.  He trudged down the path.  He was so intent on going back the way the dark-haired boy had travelled that he was not paying attention to his surroundings.  He was surprised when he heard a voice calling to him.  Benji turned to see a young adult sitting cross-legged by the side of the lake.  The brunette's hair was rolled into dreadlocks.

"Oh hey, I didn't see you." Benji started to raise a hand to wave, but stopped and shoved it back in his coat pocket.  There was really no need to go freaking people out with his hands. Khuna raised an eyebrow.  The pale blonde that had come to the lake was otherworldly at best.  There he was in a winter coat with an orange snow board and snow goggles. It was apparent that he had come from a place that was not this one.  My opponent perhaps?

"Don't worry about it," he charmed, "Aren't you warm?" The blonde shook his head. "Oh, getting sick then? Why don't you come down here and we'll see if I can't get you home." Khuna grinned when the frosty man started down toward him.

"No, it's just chilly for me. I'm from…uh…Texas. My friends took off without me." Khuna was glad that the boy was a poor liar.

"That's no good.  Can you reach them?" The snowboarder shook his head.

"Nah, left my phone at the cabin. We came here for some snowboarding, but it looks like I'll be hoofing it back to the top."

"Oh no, really, I can give you a ride there.  I didn't catch your name by the way."

"Benji." Benji smiled.  He was glad to find someone in the city that would actually talk to him.

"Well Benji, the name's Eric.  Good to meet you."

"You too.  Were you swimming?" Benji had noticed the water dripping steadily from Eric's hair and looked around for signs of a towel or some scrap of material that the man sitting beside him might have used to dry himself.  

"Yeah, it's pretty warm in there." Khuna eyed the way that Benji's breath escaped in little puffs.  At first he thought he'd imagined it, but there it was again.  His breath had done that before too, but during the winter when it was actually cold.  He opted not to say anything.

"So, are you from around here?"

"Nah, I'm just visiting." Benji looked him over.

"Oh? Who?"

"A friend I've met a few times before." Benji nodded along with Eric's answers.  He could tell that something was different about the stranger, but he simply could not place what it could be.

"Just out on your own for a bit then?" Eric tilted his head.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah.  She's not really a fan of parks. Shall we?" Khuna got to his feet and offered a hand to Benji.  The silly boy took it.  However, Khuna did not want to eat him and have the overseer or whoever it was say that he had not fought his opponent.  He could do it in a more accepted way after all.  He looked up the hill for a moment before knocking Benji into the water.  The blonde fell in easily. He'd probably expected someone a bit weaker when he'd met Eric.

"What was that for?" Benji struggled his way to shore with obvious anger.  Eric smirked.  

"Oh sorry man, you just looked like you might need a swim." He let up any pretense of being a human and charged at the blonde with his teeth bared.  Something shot over his head whistling by his ear. Benji had fallen on his rear in his attempt to put some distance between himself and the horse.  Khuna looked back to see an icicle sticking out of a tree. So everyone here knows about kelpies and controls the elements. That would have been nice to know. For all he knew the teen was not his opponent after all and was the same as the boy that had run off earlier.  Or maybe they were both part of the others. He hadn't thought of that before.

"Why is everyone turning into animals today?!" Benji's arm was still raised toward Khuna.  The horse's ears flicked back.  The horse moved closer very purposefully.  One step at a time Benji backed into the water.  He wasn't the best swimmer with a coat on, but he was confident that he would handle it better than a horse.  He was waist deep in the water when the beast leapt into the water and disappeared. Not good not good. He flailed desperately toward land.  He'd been wrong about the water, and he knew he couldn't outrun the beast, but if he got into a tree he would be safe.  Sharp teeth sunk into his leg and he shot ice blindly in the direction that he hoped his attacker was without taking time to wonder at the ice that flew from his fingertips. The pressure if not the pain let up.  He did not make it far before a large mass shoved him back toward the deeper water.  In desperation he thought of the way he'd made a shield from the fire back in the city.  He could see the dark shape in the water rocketing toward him at speeds faster than any horse had a right to swim.

"Come on come on come on," he chanted placing his arms in front of him. He felt something cover his arms and lift him higher in the water at the same time that the mass slammed into the shield.  

Khuna was unceremoniously knocked back from his prey.  His snout throbbed.  Maybe he would just eat the boy and save himself all of this trouble after all. He lifted his head out of the water to see what could have possibly been considered the most humorous thing he'd seen in years.  The blonde's shield was still on his arms and, since the ice was lighter than he was, he was tipping back into the water while the shield floated above him.  So he will drown afterall.

He sunk back into the water and approached the pale boy.  He was struggling against the ice that was sticking to his jacket futilely. He saw Khuna and struggled harder.  Khuna wondered idly if the blonde might have a father or mother. Perhaps he had a friend back home looking for him.  The man, Benji, was beginning to struggle less and less as oxygen left his body.  

----

"Eric, why don't we ever go swimming?" Jessie always asked him that question in the summer, and he always hated having to dodge her question.

"The water's not that clean you know…" She was giving him an almost patronizing look.

"I'm not that worried you know." Maybe she wasn't, but that didn't help him be less scared.  She was the only friend he had, and she was terribly fragile.  The winter that they'd met he'd only helped her because he wasn't interested in eating. She'd fallen through the ice and couldn't find the hole she'd made.  He was familiar with creatures drowning, but this little girl seemed to be handling it so well.  She wasn't panicking yet. Just swimming blindly along the surface.  He had to help her. So he swam along under her nudging her and poking her back toward the place that she'd broken through.  It was then that he'd lifted her out of the ice and kept her warm on the run back to town.  He had been so thankful that she'd been unconscious so she did not see how quickly they made it to town.  He'd gone to the first house he found and gone in with her.  He'd even waited with her when once she'd woken up until her parents came to get her.

"Well, let's face it you're not the best swimmer." That was his stock reply.  In the five years he'd known her that was the only time that they had been in the water together. There she was, the same girl that hadn't been afraid of the ice.  Why would she be afraid of swimming with him?

----

He snapped back to Benji. He was pale and floated in the water under the ice that he'd used only a minute earlier to protect himself.  Jessie wouldn't approve of him just letting someone drown the way that he'd nearly done for her. He broke the surface and brought his hooves down on the ice.  After several strikes it finally shattered. He dragged the unconscious blonde ashore.  Once he was content that Benji was breathing he waited impatiently for him to wake up.