The calendar said it was October. The leaves were turning to autumnal hues and being blown away from their branches by the wind. The weather, now, was cool enough to necessitate a jacket. In fact, today was a particularly cold day, perhaps more befitting of November than of early October. And yet, there Todd stood, wearing his swimming trunks, shivering but refusing to acknowledge the cold. The calendar may have said it was autumn, but that didn’t mean that summer fun had to be over!

The pool was still out, which was actually due to his parents simply being particularly busy and not having the energy remaining after work and chores to put away the pool. Nonetheless, Todd took it as a sign, an implicit approval for him to continue having fun in the pool. It may have been cold enough to have him shivering, but that wouldn’t stop him at all!

He did not even hesitate, getting a running start before diving into the pool. Immediately, his body began trying to tell him that this was a terrible idea. The water was so cold that it was painful, and he very nearly gasped upon entering the water, which would have been quite bad. However, almost immediately after the initial pain and discomfort, those things felt almost... unimportant. Despite his body trying to tell him that what he was doing was dangerous and that he should get out immediately, somehow this simply felt... right.

He swam around underwater, the water flowing through his hair. Right away, were he paying attention, this should have been his first hint that something was wrong, for his hair was now longer and fluffier than it had been before. But he didn’t notice it, nor did he notice the snowy-white fur starting to cover his body, at least not until his fur-covered hand came into view. But even then, he did not wonder what was going on. This, too, simply felt right.

He continued swimming around under the water. It was not a large pool to swim around in, but nor was he large himself. In fact, he was getting smaller by the moment. Normally, he would be alarmed at feeling his now-too-large clothes slip off around him, but now it felt inconsequential. He had plenty of fur to cover himself up, after all. What need did he have for clothes?

He was a mere two feet in size now, and by this point the water no longer stung at all. In fact, it felt just right to him. He continued his swimming, not having even a slight issue adjusting to his body changes. He’d been taught to swim with hands and feet, with longer legs than arms, but he had no problems swimming with cute little bluish-white paws and four equally-sized legs. The only hindrance was his six fluffy white tails growing in, but even that was only minor, a little bit of extra drag in the water. He was an Ice-type Pokémon, after all, not a Water-type, so of course he wouldn’t be perfectly-suited for optimal swimming under the water.

Finally, he decided to make his way out of the water. He swam to the edge and poked his short, fuzzy muzzle out of the water, smelling the crisp autumn air with a clarity that a human nose simply wasn’t capable of. He then pulled his head above the water’s surface, his fox-like ears moving a bit, listening to the sounds of the wind blowing around dried leaves and of migrating Taillow flying above.

He then climbed up onto the edge of the pool, the water in his fur starting to freeze into little ice crystals. He shook the ice off his body, creating a pretty shimmering cloud of ice around himself, then looked toward the house he’d come from. A part of him remembered having lived in there, but he dismissed the notion quickly. How silly it would be for him to spend time cooped up in a house like that! Instead, he looked back toward the pool, then opened his mouth and started letting out freezing cold air to free the surface of the pool. It may have been early autumn, but it wasn’t too early for some winter fun on the ice!