Ankyra Sound Tidechaser

Quietly, Chacal slipped away from her homeland on the cliffs, and made her way along the shoreline until she came to the elbow shaped cove that was Ankyra Sound. The tide had come in, so only a thin strip of beach separated the ocean from where the beach grass began to grow on high banks made from sand, and held together with beach grass. She meandered through the scattered bits of driftwood and dried kelp toward the water's edge, and began to scan the area for any sign of a riptide. The waves pulsed and ebbed at the shore in even, regular waves. She could see no break in the seafoam, that might indicate danger- so she assumed that passage might be safe. 

In a few months, she thought, there would be another Seafoam run. She couldn't say with any certainty that she would be permitted to be involved in the next, or that they would even host another event that involved swimming. She had still not reached a rank honoured enough to put her in the running for the next challenge, and she still felt that it was unfair to have a race based in the water, as Valravn was directly opposed to the idea. She'd heard that Merlin had nearly been lost to the drag of the current- and had begun to consider actively protesting the event. It was dangerous and unfair. 

Nevertheless- part of her still wanted to win. And she knew that if she wanted to win, she would have to train. With the shape of the bay, she felt that swimming from one edge of the Sound to the next might be an adequate challenge. She would not have to stray very far from the shore- she could even bend her path and swim along the shoreline if at any point she felt the current was too strong- and she also had an innate belief that no matter what would happen, the ocean would return her to the shore, and all she would have to do would be to keep her head above water. 

More easily said than done- but she was a capable enough swimmer, or so she thought. So, at the water's edge, she continued to scan the surface, watching to see if the pattern of the waves changed or shifted, as she began to stretch out her legs, and the muscles along her back and ribs, in preparation for a swim.