A girl, a dolphin and a grown-up kid

Writers: Jelena, Paula
Date Posted: 1st March 2012

Characters: Milga, Naton
Description: Milga and Naton meet for the first time and discuss their craft.
Location: Dolphin Hall
Date: month 6, day 3 of Turn 6

Milga pulled herself up from the water to the float.
"Millga playyy!" the young dolphin she had swam with called and nudged
her legs with his nose.

"Milga played with you for almost candlemark," the apprentice girl
said and gave him a pat.
Which was whole of her lunch break, she had skipped the meal again.
She rather swam with dolphins than ate, which was not a good thing for
a growing teen.
She looked around and found her towel. She needed to get try and
dressed up for the next class. She sighed. She hated theory lessons.
She was good at all practical lessons, but theory... her basic
knowledge had gaps and she had to work twice as hard to fill them in.

Naton had been on his way to set up the classroom when he caught sight
of a young apprentice in the water. He had always enjoyed watching
apprentices play with the young dolphins and he couldn't help but stop
and look at them for a while. When she came out of the water, the
journeyman walked up to the float and greeted her with a smile. "Hello
Milga," he said, having caught her name from her play with the
dolphin. "I'm Senior Journeyman Naton, I was just observing how well
you get along with that darling there. My compliments."

"Thank you, sir," Milga replied, with drawing into her shell again.
She did that around humans. Among dolphins she was free.

Naton smiled encouragingly at the girl as he noticed how shy she was.
"Have you known him long?" he asked with a gesture towards the eager
young dolphin. Perhaps talking about dolphins would ease her up a
little. Now he had taken the effort to start a conversation, Naton
would feel silly just walking away because the girl wasn't as
talkative as he was.

"About a turn, since I came to the Hall," Milga replied and glanced
the dolphin in question. He squirted water and she smiled.

Chuckling at the dolphin as he squirted water, Naton moved closer to
the water's edge. "What is is name again? I only just arrived and I'm
still trying to learn all the new names! Human and dolphins'."

"Me Antosss," the young dolphin tried his best to splash the journeyman.

"Behave, Antos," Milga scolded him.

Naton only laughed as the water splashed over his feet. "It's quite
alright," he said with a grin. "I wouldn't have become a dolphineer if
I was afraid of getting wet!" He said as he sat down at the edge of
the flat and called the dolphin closer. " And what games do you and
Milga like to play, Antos?" he asked, while looking back over his
shoulder to Milga, to make sure she wasn't sneaking away.

"Mostly just swimming and towing me across the water. Oh, and some
leaping over an obstacle," Milga replied and found herself smiling
when she was remembering their plays.

Naton grinned. "Typical dolphin boy, is he?" he asked cheerfully,
observing the dolphin in the water. "Do you get to work together in
class, sometimes, too?"

"Sometimes," Milga said with slight shrug. "Usually, it's the older
dolphins that work with apprentices."

Naton nodded. "It's nice to have a special friend, though," he said
kindly. "I had a dolphin friend like that when I was an apprentice.
She became my partner later." Naton's expression softened as he
mentioned his lost friend.

"What happened to her?" Milga asked.

"She got really sick," Naton said as his eyes fell downwards for a
moment. Then he looked the girl in the eyes again with a sad smile.
"It was better for her that she left in the end, though. I´m happy for
her, that she doesn´t have any pain anymore." Naton tried to give it a
positive spin. He was sure Milga had to deal with such things in her
education, but death wasn´t a subject he was comfortable discussing
with young folk.

"I'm sorry," Milga murmured softly. She had seen enough people and
dolphins die to know it was inevitable. Life on a island hold was
sometimes harsh and cruel. You just learned to cope with it. It had
also taught her to understand other's pain.

"Yeah, me too," Naton said with only a small smile. "But that is life,
right? No use mourning forever, Deet would want me to keep playing,
and play I will!"

Milga just nodded. wordlessly agreeing with him.

"Well, partnering with a dolphin is a true gift. I hope you get to
experience it too some day." Naton said as his true smile returned to
his face.

"So do I," Milga replied with a small smile. Then she heard the bell
ring. "Oh, my class begins!" and she was still on the pier!

"Well, you'd better hurry, then!" Naton said with a laugh. "Don't want
to be late, do you?" If she got in trouble for it, he would have a
word with her teacher that it wasn't her fault she was a little late,
but that didn't mean she didn't have to hurry. "I will see you around,
I'm sure."

"Yes,sirree!" Milga replied and then she ran.

Last updated on the March 9th 2012

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A girl, a dolphin and a grown-up kid