[Hold your breath.]
"Wha-?"
Axel's warning came seconds before Nathan found his head underwater. Immediately shutting his eyes and mouth, Nathan was shocked that Griffin would dunk him without warning. Seconds later, he found himself above water again.
"Why would you do that?" He coughed.
"Sorry, Nate." Griffin sounded like he was holding back laughter. "But that is the fastest way to get used to the water."
Nathan glared at the man. "You seriously couldn't have warned me though?"
Griffin just smiled as he brought the two of them deeper. "Alright, this should be about chest level for you," he said as he moved Nathan to be standing in front of him.
Nathan glared at Griffin's waist when he noticed that the water only came up that far on the larger man. "Now what?" He asked sullenly.
"Now we start moving. I'll hold onto you for now. Come on, try to walk towards me."
**********
Over the next hour Nathan worked on his mobility while Griffin held onto him and gave him tasks to do.
"Can we please take a break?" Nathan asked breathlessly.
Griffin looked him over carefully. "Of course. I think that might be enough for the day actually. Your stamina's still low after all."
With that, Griffin scooped up Nathan and walked back to shore.
[This might take a little longer than we thought,] Kael said. [Even I didn't think he was this weak.] Kael felt bad for the wolf, who he could see was shaking slightly from overexertion.
"It was still a really good start though," Griffin replied. "At least he can stand in the water on his own. I think once he's able to walk by himself we'll be able to move out of the water, starting with just standing again."
While Griffin was working out a plan he'd set Nathan down on a large boulder nearby and was toweling his hair dry.
"How'd that feel, Nate?"
"I'm tired. Like, really tired."
"We'll be back to the cabin shortly. We can have lunch then you can take a nap."
Nathan closed his eyes as he laid back on the warm, sun-soaked rock. "Good."
Griffin let him lay there for a few minutes while he dried himself off. "Come on," he said as he scooped the wolf back up. "Let's go get some food."
They had a rather quiet stroll back to the cabin, only talking to point stuff out to each other.
After a filling lunch of salad and sandwiches, Griffin was doing the dishes before asking Nathan, "So, do you want to go straight to bed or do you want to take a bath and get cleaned up first?"
Nathan perked up at the question. "Bath? You have a bath?"
"Yup. You must not have noticed the small hut on the back side of the cabin. There's a small bath there. I put it there so it was closer to the shed so I wasn't hauling so much wood into the cabin to heat it."
Nathan nodded his head at the explanation. "Makes sense. If you don't mind, I'd love a bath."
"Of course I don't mind. I wouldn't have offered if I did. Just give me a minute to finish up."
Griffin hurried to finish what he was doing before turning to the wolf.
"All done. Let's go get you a bath."