- Where is it from?
- I don’t know!
- It moved against the tide…
- How?
- I have never seen such stillness.
- Let me see.
- Move aside.
- We want to see!
The Bahamût crowded together, swimming round the unnerving object, it yet keeping their distance from the silent thing. They bristled at its presence, it was so still, so utterly different. The pod swam in circles, wanting to see the object, to be close to it but fear swam among them keeping them at a safe distance.
The young one knew it was unlike anything the Kinswomen of her Pod had seen before. She swam slower that the rest, staring at the motionless thing, hard and unyielding like rock and at the same time delicate and in need like a newborn. It amazed and delighted and repelled her. It resisted definition, an unyielding dark icicle in an endless ocean of warm currents. Yet, as she continued to stare at the artefact, she sensed a strange resonance rumbling at its centre, that her kinswomen seemed oblivious to.
- Ugly thing, jagged and harsh.
- It is peculiar, the way light dances across it.
- I don’t understand – where’s from!
- What is it, really?
The Kinswomen talked and talked and talked. As usual, they debated and discussed as the tides ebbed and flowed about them taking their own sweet time, they would talk till the great seas dried up if they could. The young one waited, nodding here and there, pretending to listen, but tuning into the delicate resonance coming from the artefact. Then, as the debate dragged on around her, she swam a little closer and touched it, only lightly, as if comforting a scared calf, and only for a moment.
But, oh what a moment!
A burst of icy darkness in her mind. The sound of a thousand bubbles hitting the surface at once. Cascading emotion, streams of longing, a long held in cry and there it was – a creature unlike anything on the celestial seas – alone, afraid, shivering in a vast, dry space. It seemed so sad, so isolated, so very far away. She gasped and tears welled in her eyes. The nearest kinswomen pulled her away and they felt the rough edges of the sorrow dissolve like a memory and tears filled their eyes too.
- Foolish child!
- For the love of the pod, daughter what have you done?
She shook her head, as much to clear her mind as to express any lack of understanding. The young one had caught only the briefest glimpse but felt in her heart that the creature was attached to this object in some way and needed her help. She wanted, she needed to see more. Heart racing, she swam toward the object but one of her older kinswomen forced her back.
- I need to know more!
- I know. That’s what I fear – this need don’t feel like yours.
- I can say more once I touch it again!
The older kinswoman was insistent, she would not the young one let pass.
- Breathe, be calm, child. I need you to share what you’ve seen first. Open your heart up to all of us.
She looked deep into the elder one’s calming grey eyes; the current shifted slightly bringing fresh waters to the pod.
- I saw an ageless child in need of help. I saw the start of a great journey. I saw a dying and re-birth and it was all so beautiful.
Be First to Comment