#galena jumping off of something was not enough had to write dug doing it too

[shroudandsands]

Prompt #25: Perpetuity

The wind rushed past him. Colors bled into an unintelligible stream of light. A swirl of sight and sound that lasted for just as long as he could stay lost somewhere between the air and the water below- Which rushed to take him in its gentle embrace.

It’d be easy to think that the swim back to shore was his least favorite part of his life. To climb his way to incredible heights, at times clawing his way up them. To crest the peak of it and stare out upon the distance and the sky and the setting sun. To throw himself from it to experience the greatest thrill any person alive could, feeling every piece of him come alive from the sheer rush of it. To sink deep into the waters below and come to something of a kind of peace. Of course. He’s had those thoughts a million times by now. It was an easy, constantly satisfying routine. At this point there were coastlines off of Vylbrand that he could count every stone. Trace every crack in the cliff as he was falling. And name every plant as he climbed up once again. It was familiar. It was comforting. It was, in some ways, a calming piece of a hobby meant only for the absolutely fucking nuts. And he was pretty high on that scale. So. The swim back to shore.

He let the roll of a wave pull him in towards the shoreline until he could get his feet down and steady in the sand. His hair pushed back to get seawater out of his eyes, his drenched shirt pulled off and wrung out once he could finally stand, his boots yanked off so they could drain out for a little while. The whirl of the wind was still in his ears as he watched Sif while away the mid-day sun with the latest of their takes- Swiped coconuts from a merchant and a few jars of lye that would shore up the stockpile for the next few moons. He could feel the salt on his skin as she looked up at him. A wave of the spoon from in front of their fire. A roll of her eyes as she saw him stripping before he could even make it all the way out of the water. “Y’ really think yer gonna be doin’ this forever, Walker?” She shouted out, the spoon pointed at him in that judgemental way that only a wooden spoon could really manage. “Tha’s the plan, lass! That’s the plan.” She clicked her tongue as she returned to stirring the pot whilst he slowly made his way across hot sand and rock to reach her. His shirt badly tethered to a makeshift line, his boots dropped onto a flat rock in the sun, a towel pulled into his hands and left to sit on his head while he dried off.

“How far along are y’ yet, lass?” He bumped her- she bumped him back before making a noise of frustration that he was still wet- and looked over the edge of the pot. “Ain’t far. Since we’re settin’ up early fer yer fun li’l death defyin’ hobby- yer still a maniac, by th’ way- I fig’red I’d just get us started. Yer gonna be takin’ over soon enough anyways.” She tapped the spoon a couple of times over the pot before chucking another piece of wood into the flames underneath. “I need m’ beauty rest.” “Yer beauty rest.” “Aye, y’ain’t the only one here needin’ enough sleep t’ stay pretty an’ prime fer public appearances.” “An’ ‘ere I thought you were jus’ naturally funny lookin’ all the time. Now yer sayin’ y’ have t’ work to look like tha’?” He got whacked with a boot. “Alrigh’, alrigh’ jus’- Jus’ ‘and m’ the damn spoon an’ get yer clown-y sleep y’ darlin’ lass-” He got whacked with the other boot.

The swim back to shore, if you took everything individually, was certainly not the best part of the whole event. Salt water all over him. Drenched clothes. The annoying task of fighting the waves and the tide as he made his way back to land. But he supposed (inwardly, at least. It’s not as if anyone was having this conversation with him.) that if taken as a part of the whole moment, the whole day, the moment from climbing up to starting over again… He glanced into the pot as the oil within slowly started to thicken. He pulled it off the heat for a moment as he searched for their jar of lye crystals… An eyeballed handful and another toss onto the fire for stirring.

Yeah. He liked this part. “That’s the plan, lass,” He murmured to himself. Even as the salt stuck to his skin. Even as she laid against a tree, hat over her face. “That’s the plan.”