[Epilepsy warning]

Lightning streaked across the dark sky. Rain bore down onto the earth and washed away anything that opposed it.

Aqua blinked and shaked, trying to free his eyes from the persistent raindrops.

His voice cracked into a scream as a great force collided into him, carrying him off the ground.

He kicked and waved his paws in an attempt to orientate himself as he was tossed around in the mass of water.

With a blink of impact, the wind was knocked out of him.

Aqua tried to haul himself up only to slip back down into the muddy grass.

He rolled and blocked an oncoming paw whiskers away from his face. But he didn’t have the strength to hold it as it wrestled his away and grabbed his throat.

Aqua clawed at the arm but it didn’t let go. He cried, urged the water around him, but his calls were ignored.

The world started to blur.

He let out a desperate gasp as the paw released him.

"...Are you certain you….."

"-What?" Aqua breathed.

"Are you certain you want to leave?"

"Yes," he answered with no hesitation.

The Water Champion’s towering silhouette was briefly illuminated as a loud boom was heard a heartbeat later.

"Come back when you've unlocked your powers."

Aqua sat up abruptly, heart racing and blood thumping in his ears.

With a groan, he gingerly held his side as his re-opened wound started to throb again.

"You're alive."

Foggy stopped by Aqua's open room, patting his head from either a shower or lifeguard duty.

"I was going to throw you into the tub but Tropi said that the ocean is free," he leaned on the doorframe.

"Fair enough," Aqua shook his head lightheartedly and walked with him to the kitchen.

Foggy took a seat out at the counter and pushed forward some pancakes to the lynx. "I reckoned you deserved a good breakfast after your delivery job. We found you unconscious on the doormat."

"How did I get back?"

"According to your teammate, by paw and tram."

Hearing those words felt surreal to Aqua.

Instead of taking a bite from the pancakes he reached out for his glass.

"Didn't fall into the factory's machinery yesterday, did you?" Foggy's eyebrows raised quizzingly.

Aqua's reflection shimmered as he took a greedy swig of water. "I beat Wild Fire in a duel."

His housemate's expression became unreadible. "How many Water Kinds were there to resuscitate you?"

"None, he was just holding back. Like a lot."

Foggy leaned back, "That explains the lack of fires over there."

"Mhm," Aqua agreed through his chewing.

***

Aqua took in a deep breath as he stepped into the cold sea water. He grit his teeth as the open wounds burned, but it wasn't long before the pain was reduced to a sting.

He closed his eyes and let the ocean waves wash away his worries.

"Aqua!!" A lively voice called.

He hesitantly opened his eyes to see the catalyst responsible for all of yesterday's events.

The small lynx ran across the beach, tumbled over an invisible obstacle and rolled, bouncing back up with no slow in momentum.

"You were so cool!!" Lunar yelled.

"Thanks…" he said before sinking back into the water.

He waited for her to get closer so they could talk but realised she was instead looking anxiously at the salty water.

"Can you swim?"

"No," her ears drooped.

"Step in. I'll teach you."

Lunar trudged forward through the small waves lapping at her paws until just her head was poking above the water.

"Move your paws like this in a circular motion. Imagine you're a piece of driftwood floating on the water. Make sure not to kick too fast so you waste energy but not too slow that you begin to sink."

With full concentration Lunar copied what was instructed and started to swim past Aqua.

“Yeah, just like that! You’re doing great!”

And she sank under water.

“Oop.”

Aqua quickly dove underneath her and lifted her up to the surface.

She coughed out some water and shook her head.

“We should’ve really started with a board instead haha. Sorry.”

“That was fun! I wanna try again!” She announced loudly.

“Oh wait. We didn’t get to Kragma yesterday, so we should probably get going.”

Aqua sighed. “True. I guess we should shoot off…”

After repeating the commute, they reached the flower field.

The half of the field which was unrecognisable before was now fully covered with vibrant blooming flowers.

Lunar walked alongside Aqua on the paw path in silent admiration for Mists' hard work.

Through a pathway shadowed by the snowy mountains they finally reached the station and got tickets to board the train.

With an excited leap Lunar settled in a carriage booth and stared outside the window.

She playfully rapped her paws on the table as her attention was drawn to a fancy looking booklet. It turned out to be the train’s menu.

“A free meal and drink is included in our tickets,” Aqua announced.

“Really?” Lunar’s eyes sparkled.

“Yup.”

She let herself get lost in the menu again for several minutes.

The small lynx passed the booklet to Aqua and grinned, “I think I’ll get today’s special.”

“This guy,” Aqua laughed.

An abrupt screech of metal startled the lynxes.

The carriage rattled violently and the lights flickered above them as the train came to a terrifying halt.