Night Swimming

This is one of favorite styles of writing: Insert your favorite here..

There really is nothing quite like it. The feel of being somewhere in the dark, remote, where you know you are otherwise safe but naked in the natural world like the creator meant us to be. You shuck down, putting your clothes in a friendly pile beside another pile of amiable glad rags and step tentatively toward the water's edge. You can feel the earth beneath your feet, damp, growing damper, cool, but not uncomfortably so. There is a movement of air but not enough to chill the skin, and your toes reach the water's edge and it laps over the top of your feet and the water is something above tepid.

They take your hand, your companion. You never thought that one of their kind would enjoy swimming, but apparently any physical experience is enjoyable to them. You walk into the water together, the water first at the middle of your calves, then your knees, then mid thigh, then hip, to the waist up to the center of your chest. They let go of your hand and launch themselves out into the water. You do the same, taking an opposite direction, feeling your body dive into the dark water. You come up, your head back so that your hair will be slicked back away from your face. You paddle, staying above water and watch your companion look at you as they dive back down.

There are no bubbles streaming from them, as they have reason to breathe. The water is not opaque and you can see the brilliant whiteness of their skin under the rippling water of the pond you are swimming in. They come up right there, the only indication of their presence is the movement of the water in response to their bodies cutting through that element like the hot blade through butter. The water beads up on their bodies just as it does yours. You take a breath and dive and swim as fast as your body can propel you, but they are a hundred times stronger and they meet you on the opposite side of the pond.

The moonlight on the water makes the surface look like molten silver, the only silver they will know that will not burn their skin. Between the silvery play of the celestial orb the water is black, black as ink, night time waters. And how long have they swum in the waters of time and walked the night and known the shadows as intimate friends.

Now they swim away and you know they are not swimming as hard or as fast as they could swim. What sort of game shall you play? Marco Polo? Follow the leader? Will you have a contest to see who can hold their breath the longest? Other games? They wait for you and you swim up to them, opening your mouth as you come out of the water to exhale and inhale at the same time and they wrap their arms around you.

What have you gotten yourself into? Will they be like the nymphia and pull you down into the inky depths and keep you there? Or will they steal your breath another way? They guide your hands around their waist and launch themselves on their backs, swimming away with you secured against them. You can feel their bodies moving against yours as they lead you into the deepest part of the pool. Their legs are kicking, their bodies turning, their back muscles stretching, their shoulders pulling, propelling you along as their arms sweep water behind them, and all the while they are looking at you. You trust them, their preternatural strength, their otherness and when they stop, their legs are still kicking, keeping the both of you afloat, they begin to turn in the water, an aquatic pirouette and then you realize you are both going under. They lean forward and feel you fill your lungs, their arms go about you, their mouth covers yours and as you go under, you know you could drown and not care.