The Island

Part Four: Water

============== Rotation 6/21/XX

My vision is tunnelling, I can feel my connection with the world loosening as I sink deeper into the water -- I can't get air, all life being dragged from my lungs by an icy clawed hand --

Garrett sat straight up, cold sweat matting his sapphire hair to his forehead.

Garrett often had dreams about drowning. Nightmares, really. He checked the clock beside his bed, it read,

3:42.

He might as well train.

The Team Aqua compound consisted of a series of huts and bungalows -- Garrett didn't know if the other Teams had similar compounds or different, he'd never been outside the compound and the building at the heart of The Island that all the Primaries met up in. The stairs and tunnel to that building had their own hut.

Garrett, a Primary, was a reasonably well-built guy, a solid 6'0", with violet eyes, glittering blue hair and maybe a little stubble growing in if he was lucky.

Pulling on the sky-coloured uniform and dusting off the remnant anxiety from his dream, he walked from the hut that he and his Secondary shared and out onto the adjoining docks -- they extended a good 20 feet out into the ocean.

Taking a deep and only slightly hesitant breath, Garrett took a running start and catapulted himself off the docks into a graceful swan-dive.

He immediately felt his legs fusing together, bones rearranging themselves, secondary respiratory systems activating. Opalescent blue scales making themselves known from... wherever they made themselves known from.

Transitioning from land-creature to sea-creature was always a little awkward at first, but Garrett had gotten pretty good at it over the last...

How long had he been here? He didn't really remember. He felt as if he'd been here for his entire life, and yet he couldn't keep a detailed memory over a week.

He remembered reading somewhere that repressed trauma causes memory loss.

Where did he read that?

Distracted by his own thoughts, he didn't notice Jax until they swam into each other. The orca-tailed boy whirled around but broke into his signature well-meaning (if not wicked-looking) grin when he saw Garrett. He noticed that Jax was hiding something behind his back.

"Ey! Didn't think I'd see you so early down here -- I thought you hated being underwater before sunrise," Jax said, swimming a few feet backwards.

"Let me see what you have, Jax," Garrett smiled,

"A knife!"

"No!"

"Why not?" he said, defiantly but sheepishly producing a bone knife with a tortoiseshell handle. Garrett had to hand it to him, it looked really well crafted.

"I thought we talked about this," Garrett laughed, plucking the blade from Jax's hand. "No weapons underwater. We don't want to accidentally hurt the wildlife."

His orca tail thrashed lightly, a sure sign of frustration. Then Jax smiled his crap-eating smile and said,

"Oh yeah? Then what are these?"

At this, Jax produced a pair of golden throwing knives.

"Where did you get those?"

"I could ask you the same. No WeApOnS aLlOwEd UnDeRwAtEr, I thought."

"They were a gift from Team Terra."

Jax paled. His usually fun-loving and sod-all attitude turned to one of sober urgency in a millisecond.