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When we happen again to be walking these mountain paths in the early dawn a few mornings later, above a certain lake, we notice the young woman swimming below us in a section of the lake that appears from our point of view to be deep, clear, and blue. A farther end of the lake is also clear, but we can see that it is shallower than where she swims. Most of the lake is not as clear, with heavy growth of subsurface foliage in murky pink or purplish water.
She dives, then returns to the surface, using her momentum to lift her upper body out of the water, kicking with her legs into a full pirouette as she nearly leaves the water, then arching back underwater, imitating, as it were, a dolphin playing. For all that she dances in the water, she hardly raises any spray or splash.
(There are indeed dolphin-like mammals in the seas of this world.)
And we see the young man in the paths near us, running, as he usually does in the early mornings. He slows to a stop above us, observing the young woman, apparently pleasantly impressed with her skill. Abruptly, his expression changes to one of alarm and concern, and he descends rapidly off the path, proceeding lightly through the foliage in front of us.
At the shore of the lake, he calls out sharply as the young woman comes to the surface.
She waves in reply, and he repeats his warning.
Now she swims toward him to ask questions, but he waves her off, indicating the subsurface foliage she is swimming into and pointing to the clear end of the lake, apparently giving some explanation. She treads water as she listens, then, with some reluctance, nods assent and swims back through the clear path she had followed to the deeper waters, to continue her exercises in the safer, shallower end.
The young man, having observed her safe retreat, nods in satisfaction mixed with concern, then turns and continues his course in the clearing mists above the lake.
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[JMR20190312: Backed up here:
https://joel-rees-economics.blogspot.com/2018/05/bk-we-0-02-warning.html
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