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Ajax loved water. Loved the woosh of it as it rolled back and forth, how it chased him up the beach only to retreat a moment later, goading him into rushing after it. Only for the cycle to repeat, over and over and over again. He was a simple child who liked simple things, except today was different. There was something in the water, a dark shape flitting about, close enough to the shore to see but just out of reach. Tantalisingly so. He had no idea what it was, or what it even could be but the few questions that sprung to mind were quickly abandoned as his undying sense of impulsiveness kicked its way to the surface. The whats and whys didn’t matter, nothing did, except that he wanted it, whatever it was.

He padded closer, allowing the waves to roll over his paws, splash up around his knees as he leaned forward, the bluest of eyes widening in curiosity as he looked at the strange little thing. It was small, about the size of his paw and a dark greyish colour, long and thin, like a stick but not. Since you know, as far as he knew sticks didn’t have little flicky things at their sides nor did they swim. He wasn’t sure though, since he didn’t know much.

But what he did know, was that he was gonna get it! Right now!

Leaping head first into the waves, he got nothing but a mouthful of water and salt in his eyes as he thrashed and splashed. Where had it gone? He coulda sworn the thing was-oh there, right there it was! Flinging himself to the left, he lost his footing against the sand and kicked wildly, head just barely staying afloat as his tail began to thrash in excitement beneath the water. There it was again, moving away whip quick as it darted to the side, narrowly avoiding a swipe of his kitty claws as he sought after it. Completely unaware of the fact he shouldn’t be out there alone, least of all considering going deeper…

But who could stop him? No one was around, and it was too late to back out now. Not when he was having the time of his life, soaked to the bone, the floof of his tail a swishing orange blur beneath the surface. This was where he was meant to be, felt it in his bones, in the wide smile tugging at his cheeks. Nothing or nobody could stop him, it was decided.

Resuming his pursuit, he twisted beneath the surface, noticing that the thing was moving all weird, tilting to the side as though it was hurt. Unable to use both of its flicky things at the same time. He almost pouted, was almost put off since chasing something that wasn’t at full strength didn’t seem so fun. Like he was cheating somehow, but he’d already gotten this far and decided he’d wanted it, so what was the point in giving in? No point, no reason. He wanted what he wanted and it was as simple as that.

Lashing forward, the felt the very tip of its end flappy things brush against his teeth before he snapped down as hard as his jaw would allow. The taste of blood and salt rushed forward, lingering on his tongue and he couldn’t help but grin with gritted teeth. He’d caught it, it was his now and no one could take it from him. Not even the sea. And it tried, tossed him back and forth with waves, made it hard to surface as he kicked as much as his little legs would allow. Not that he’d realise, it was a near miracle he hadn’t drowned, that he’d tempted fate and would always continue to do so just because he could. Cause it was what he wanted, for better or for worse.

A little tired but victorious, his paws soon managed to touch the bottom once more. And so with the small, scaly sea thing clutched in his mouth he waded his way back to dry land. Looking like nothing more than a drowned pup, all saggy fur with dark grains of sand clinging to his coat here and there. He wasn’t gonna eat it, what was the point in that? But flinging it up and down sounded like a fun time to him. And so he tossed the thing about, laughing to himself when it landed on top of his muzzle, resulting in him swaying back and forth as he attempted to balance it. It fell of course but he was quick to snatch it back up before the waves could drag it away.

This whole swimming and catching thing was a whole lot of fun, he’d have to do it again sometime!