Eleara's Tale ; I was pretty fine with my old life

Chapter 4; A New Me

A few days have passed, just five more days until my birthday, the seventh of Chronolith. Although it has been quite cold since Morvainex, I don't feel it much, but it has snowed some days, like today. Mom and Dad are busy preparing for my party so we don't get to do much together, but Dad promised to actually teach me polymorph afterwards so it's fine. I'm currently practicing spells outside since I'm allowed into the front yard now. I'm mostly just throwing balls of water around, nothing much really, but I've realized that the spell that I'm doing to launch the water doesn't really have a magic circle like in anime. It's just a faint blue glow. It's still fun though.

I feel like I have an endless pit of mana now, I never feel like I'm even close to running out, and water magic has become much easier. I stop throwing around water and decide to try a new mana type. Poison is just the same so I'm left with dark, which I'm supposed to have an affinity to, earth, which is the same as before, and fire, which is one of the basics. Dark sounds fun so I'm doing that.

I try to expand the shadow under me and lo and behold, my shadow is now bigger than me. I make a spike come out of this shadow and when I open my eyes, there is this spike as tall as me, seemingly devoid of all color and light. I make it move around and It flails around like a tendril. I hold out my hand and make it wrap around it. It does exactly what I picture, wrapping around my wrist a few times.

The tendril gently gripped my wrist and squeezed gently. It's surprisingly soft like a sort of pillow yet it lacked the warmth of a normal appendage. I make everything dissipate and the tendril slinks back into the shadow which flows back under me. I decide that that's enough training for today and go back inside to Sunshine. She's been a lot more lethargic recently, probably because of the cold. She normally stays in my bedroom on my bed. As I'm going inside I hear a familiar, loud, energetic voice call out to me.

Arva: Eleeeaaara!

I turn around and see Arva with her dad and my parents.

Arva: Want to come to a pond with me?!

Eleara: ... Sure! Let me get some clothes and get Sunshine!

Arva: Okay!

I go inside and change I to what I would assume is swimming clothes for arachne. It's like a leotard but it wraps around my abdomen. I put a dress over it and picked up Sunshine, walking back out to them.

Mom: You're quite smart Eleara, I didn't tell you where your swimsuits were.

I immediately realize the mistake I made.

Eleara: Well... It looked like I could swim in it so I took that.

It seems I've gotten out of this situation now. Eleara one, reincarnation zero! The four of us walk for a bit in the opposite direction to the town until we split off of the main path, going into the surrounding forest. I cling to my mother for most of the journey until we reach a clearing. There is a large, crystal-clear lake in the middle.

I go up to it, it isn't frozen over. Arva throws off her dress and jumps in almost instantly. I just manage to catch the dress, stopping the water that splashed towards me and sending it back into the pond. She stays under for a few seconds before surfacing again, looking refreshed and excited. She is wearing a dark blue tube top. I give her dress to her father and give mine and Sunshine to my mother.

I reluctantly step into the water, it isn't that cold, or I just can't feel it. I'm starting to doubt that I can swim with this body, not yet anyways. I step in more until the water is about halfway up my abdomen and sit down, letting the water come up to just below my chest.

The water feels quite nice. I look around under the water and see Arva speeding around under there. It's clear enough to see how she swims, she uses her tail like an eel, there's even a fin that runs along the top of her tail, probably retractable. I see her start to swim to me, straight to me. She shoots out of the water, splashing it all over me. I can see that she did that on purpose, so game on.