L: A seal and an otter surface onto an Arctic ice sheet together, resting a bit after catching themselves a meal on a dive. The otter shakes the water off herself. "So glad to get some of my favorite fish in me again!"
G: The seal smiles as he lies on his back, relaximg a little after their enjoyable swim together. "It was a relaxing little time to just swim, too... Actually, since we're both full, how about we just focus on swimming? The sights below the ice are rather beautiful, after all."
L: "They are, yeah! Just relaxing on a swim sounds nice! Should we head under from the edge, or see if we can find a hole to dive in through?"
G: "I wanna get into the water right away, admittedly! I do know the way to some holes when we need to breathe, so let me know when to go up for air, OK?" The seal smiles, pushing himself to the edge as he takes some deep gasps.
L: "That'll work, yeah!" The otter heads back to the edge as well, breathing deeply to get ready for what might become a long dive.
G: But they've been diving for a long time, naturally. Air shouldn't be a problem for a while... He sucks in one last gasp before diving underwater and pushing through the water with his flippers.
L: The otter holds her breath as well, hopping into the water to join her friend. She smiles at them, and starts to swim deeper so she can get under the ice sheet.
G: The seal would swim quickly down towards the entrance into the beautiful cave-like ice sheet, swimming inside and smiling at the otter, paddling his flippers.
L: Staying close to the seal, the otter happily looks up at the underside of the ice, thankful for the sunlight managing to get through so she can see.
G: The seal leads the way through the icey waters, swimming through the lit areas while staying close to the otter.
L: Deciding to go deeper, the otter gestures for the seal to follow as she starts swimming down, wanting to see if she can reach the bottom.
G: He smiles as he follows her down to the bottom, kicking his tail deeper into the depths.
L: As the water pressure gradually increases and the light dims, the otter eventually gets to a point where she won't be able to see if she goes any deeper. Admitting defeat, she starts swimming back up to a more reasonable depth, while just starting to feel a need to breathe.
G: The seal has some experience with the pressure, but it wasn't much better for him. And he would follow the otter up towards the surface, though he would slow down and check in. His lungs are bigger than hers, after all...
L: The otter is blushing a little, but smiles at the seal, still doing fine for now. She happily gives him a hug as thanks for checking on her.
G: The seal would blush lightly and wrap his flippers around her, swimming up towards the ice sheet once more before swimming onward, away from the edge they dove from.
L: After another minute or so, the otter starts to audibly strain a little. Not too long after that, she taps on the seal, wanting him to lead her to an air source.
G: The seal nods in response, swimming onward until he sees a familiar light.
Although it's a rather small one, only big enough to fit the otter. That's fine, though. He wanted to push himself a bit further.
L: The otter swims up to the hole and sticks her head through to breathe. It doesn't take all that long for her to catch her breath, and she dives back down, thinking at first she's making room for the seal but quickly realizing he won't fit regardless.
G: The seal smiles, swimming away from it. All the while ignoring the very slight burning starting to appear in his lungs...
L: Staying next to him, the otter looks a little concerned about him not having gotten a chance to breathe, but isn't all that nervous since he still looks fine.
G: He's fine, at least. His lungs don't hurt too badly, and he's used to ignoring it for a little while. He picked up the pace and swam a little faster, further from the small air pocket.
L: The otter happily stays with the seal, deciding to hold onto him for a little while instead of swimming.
G: As the seal kept swimming, he would feel his chest hurting a little more, now, putting a flipper against his chest. "Mm..."
L: Now that it's clear he needs air, the otter gets a bit concerned again, but she knows he likes to push himself some. Still, hearing his strain, the otter gives the seal a few pats on the back to help keep him calm.
G: He smiles at the otter, hiding his expression to show that he's OK. He's calm and relaxed, having felt these heaves before.
L: Thinking she might have just misunderstood and that the seal is still fine, the otter nods and continues swimming.
G: But he also went down a path that he hasn't been down in a long while. He isn't sure how far the next air pocket was, which wasn't helping.
L: While she's not familiar with this area herself, the otter assumes the seal is. She's feeling a need to breathe again, but she's still fine for now.
G: "M... Mmf..." Soon, the signs of needing air only intensified as the seal kept on swimming, stopping and holding his flippers over his mouth.
L: The otter rubs the seal's back to try to help keep him calm, and she looks around for any air source. There doesn't seem to be one nearby...
G: The seal cries and swims onward, trying to continue onward while searching desperately for light. Another heave hits his chest...
L: Now starting to strain a bit herself, the otter whines a little and pinches her nose, realizing she and the seal might be lost under the ice sheet.
G: And, unfortunately, they are. He keeps pushing onward using just his tail, his lungs crying out for air while muffled whines echoed in the water...
L: Soon enough, the otter needs to cover her mouth as well, swimming with only her back legs as her whines start getting more frequent.
G: The seal keeps swimming, holding one flipper against the top as if trying to find some way to break through! "Mm... Mm... Mmfgh... MMGBLBLBL!" He lets out a small cloud of bubbles, a dark red blush appearing on his face.
L: Seeing how much her friend is struggling, the otter tries beating against the ice to see if any part of it happens to be thin enough to break through. "M-mm... Mmblblrp!"
G: The seal eventually holds his mouth, kicking and hitting the ice with his back in some desperate attempt to escape! "Mm... Mm... Mmfgh..."
L: The otter's attempts to escape become frantic, uncovering her mouth to use both her front paws, and she calls for help without thinking. "HBLELP, WEBL'RE GOBLNNA DRBLOWN! MM!" She quickly covers her mouth again, wishing she hadn't used up that air.
G: Out of fear and surprise, the seal swam over to the otter and whines, eventually pulling her close to his mouth for an air kiss...
L: The otter accepts the air, greedily gasping as much as her strained lungs can hold. She feels a little bad about taking the seal's air, but not enough that it stops her.
G: Plus, he's willingly doing this... But his chest still hurts a lot more, and now with less air in his lungs, his desperation has grown even further! "M... Mmgh..."
L: The stale air hasn't done a whole lot for the otter, but it definitely helped. She nuzzles the seal's face to try to help him calm down, then points off in a random direction, knowing that just floating in place won't help them find a way out.
G: The seal nods, especially with how little air is keeping him conscious, right now! He pushes off in the direction the otter pointed in, holding off on the gasp that his body wants so dearly...
L: Bubbles trickle from the otter's lips even as she covers her mouth again, while she holds onto the seal to try to conserve her breath, knowing she likely won't last as long as him.
G: The seal pulls away, chest heaving again as he atrempts to force his way out, slamming against the ice sheet above them... And at least a few small cracks are forming, but he can't keep this up!
L: "MM!" Noticing the cracks forming, the otter tries to help break through, though doesn't accomplish much with her smaller body. Blushing heavily from her need for actually fresh air, some bubbles spurt from her mouth before covers it with both front paws, her cheeks bulging bigger.
G: Maybe a bit more... but his cheeks turn blue, nearly gasping water every push against the top! "Mm! Mm! Mmf! MGBLBL...!"
L: The otter pauses her attack on the ice, curling inward and whimpering as her blush turns purple. "MMBLBLP! MMM!"
G: Eventually, he would gasp water, wrapping his flippers around his neck as he gurgles, still trying to escape the ice! "Hlk... GLK...!! GLBKBK...!"
L: "NBLO!" The otter shouts again, losing more air and getting herself a blue blush. Seeing her friend starting to drown gives her even more motivation to break through the ice, slamming against it with force she didn't know she was capable of.
G: It broke a little more, and it's weakening a little bit... But the seal would eventually give in and succumb to darkness, going limp...
but on the other side, there seemed to be sillhouettes...
L: As the seal starts to sink, the otter finally gasps as well, choking on the water. She keeps hitting the ice for a bit longer, before she lacks the strength to keep that up, starting to limply follow her friend into the depths...
G: After a while, the two would feel some pushes against their chests as they're brought back...
The seal starts coughing and waking up, opening his eyes to see who saved them...
It seems like they found a group of penguins who saw their desperation...
L: The otter goes into a coughing fit as she wakes up from drowning, soon seeing the penguins that had saved her and the seal. She isn't quite able to talk yet, but she weakly smiles at the group.
G: The seal did the same, though he still has to gasp some more.
The penguins stay to make sure they're fully recovered, though judging by some light gasping by some of them, it took a bit for them to bring them up.
L: After a little bit, the otter manages to talk again, though her voice is somewhat hoarse. "Th-thanks... I-I really thought that'd be it for us..."
G: "Just glad we heard you and that we were nearby..." One penguin asked, while another looked at the seal as he finally recovers.
The seal nods a little and looks up. "Sorry... I got us lost, and we came in from the ocean entrance."
L: The otter hugs the seal as her breathing calms down, then she looks at the penguins. "It was at least fun at first... We're so lucky you guys just happened to be here!"
G: "Well... Just make sure you don't do it too often, in case we aren't around. Even if pushing yourself can be fun..." Some penguins laughed at the response.
"Yeah... It is rather fun..." The seal blushes at that.
L: "I don't plan on doing that again, yeah. If I ever do, I'm not going far under the ice again, that was kind of a bad idea."
G: "Well... Maybe next time we drown, we do it near the surface..." The seal tries to joke.
L: The otter laughs a little. "Yeah, we need to make sure someone's gonna see us once we're out."
G: "We'll make sure to do that, next time..." The seal smiles.
"If you come by... I'm sure we wouldn't mind swimming with you." A penguin would offer.
L: "Sure! Hopefully you guys are more familiar than we are with this area, but you wouldn't really have to know much for that to be the case."
G: "Yeah. So I assume you're coming back to drown?" The penguin talking to them teases, causing the seal to blush.
L: "Not intentionally! I mean, it might happen, but that felt awful, I'm not going through that again if I can help it!"
G: "Yeah, we'll pass..." The seal would say.
The penguin laughs a little. "It's just a joke, don't worry! But the offer to swim with us still stands, if you want it."
L: "We can definitely swim together, sure, but maybe some other time. Still kind of shaken up..." The otter looks over at the hole she and the seal had been brought up through.
G: The seal sighs a little. "Let's... not use that, again... Not today, anyway..." He would suggest, especially since their home is a bit of a swim.
L: "Yeah, I kind of just want to relax for a while after that. Maybe we ought to head home for now."
G: "Yeah. Thanks for the offer, though." The seal waves bye before heading back.
L: The otter waves to the penguins as well before going with the seal.