New dragon awaiting challenger

"Here?" Shimmer asks. "Won't that be difficult?"

Sirius chuckles. "Probably. But wouldn't it be fun?"

"Maybe..." Shimmer says. "does it get any deeper? Might make it a bit more interesting."

"Let's find out," Sirius says, and dives under the surface. As he passes beneath Shimmer, he runs his tail-tip along the length of her underside, and reflects that in some respects, water makes a better element for tickle matches because neither dragon can press parts of their bodies to the ground to keep them out of reach.

He sees that much of the lake is shallow, but that toward the center it is as deep as the nose-to-tail length of four or five dragons. Also, deeper down, it becomes dark enough that two dragons swimming down there would not be able to see one another unless they were almost nose to nose.

Shimmer giggles as she feels his tail and waits for him to surface.

Sirius bobs to the surface. "It's perfect!" he tells her. "Come and look!" He playfully splashes her and then ducks under again, descending toward the deep part of the lake.

Shimmer takes a breath and follows him down. She can't help but glance at his hind paws as they swim down.

Sirius swims down, heading for the deep part of the lake. He darts down into the dark waters, waiting till he gets deep enough that visibility is difficult. When he decides he's reached that point, he suddenly changes direction, wondering if Shimmer will see him and follow him in the turn, or keep going past him. He cannot see her, but listens for the sound of her moving through the water.

Sirius disappears into the darkness and shimmer looses sight of him. "Where'd he go?" She slows down a little but keeps swimming in the same direction. She extends her hind paws down into the darkness and spreads her toes slightly, expecting to find the muddy bottom to protect her most vulnerable point.

Sirius cannot see Shimmer either, but as luck would have it, one of her paws lands on his shoulder. He grabs hold of it and wiggles a claw in between her toes.

Shimmer squeals, releasing a flurry of bubbles and wrenches her leg free. Retreating into the darkness. "So that's his game." She thinks. She dives deeper.

Sirius chuckles as Shimmer retreats back into the darkness. He listens for her, but now can't hear her. Moving slowly, with his head turning from side to side, he lets himself sink lower into the dark water, trying to detect her either by sight or hearing. But in this darkness, the two dragons would have to be nearly touching to actually see one another.

Shimmer slowly swims in a wide circle. Suddenly, both of Sirius' hind paws emerge from the darkness, less than 1 foot away. She freezes, wondering if he saw her.

Sirius swims on, wondering where Shimmer has gotten off to.

Shimmer smirks, reaches forward and rakes her claws up and down sirius' arches. At the same time, she begins to nibble his toes.

Sirius bursts out laughing, bubbles erupting from his mouth as he does so. He flounders in the water, trying to turn himself around.

Shimmer smirks and keeps on tickling, worming her tongue between his toes.

Sirius wriggles like an eel, trying to get out of Shimmer's grasp. He realizes that when underwater, one tends to run out of air more quickly when being tickled, so he knows he's got to get to the surface soon.

Shimmer continues to tickle, holding has ankles to keep him still while her tongue goes to work on his arches.

Sirius' tail snakes around behind Shimmer, looping around and pulling her towards him as its tip wiggles against her belly.

Shimmer yelps as she is pulled towards him, but maintains a solid grip on his ankles and continues to tickle. This causes her to flip upside down and her toe claws brush against Sirius' nose.

Sirius gets an inspiration, and grabs Shimmer's ankle. He pushes his muzzle against her foot and blows a stream of bubbles between her toes.

Shimmer squeals with laughter, she leans forward and takes the toes of his left foot into her mouth and swirls her tongue around them.

Sirius howls with laughter at the tickling, but this causes an even greater flood of bubbles to be forced in between Shimmer's toes.

Shimmer laughs even harder but this causes her tongue to flick between his toes even faster. She tries to clamp her toes over his nose to stop the bubbles and pushes her arch against his mouth.