Sea Story Part Three
Posted: Tuesday, 13 May 2008 |
8 comments |
A cold, wet nose brushed her own....in her mind she thought, as she had so many mornings before, "Get off, hound!" and opened her eyes to smile at the eager dog waking her to be let out at some unearthly morning hour...
and froze in terror....no sunlight, here, no down filled quilt to cower under, nothing of her own familiar bedroom.....
A corpse-green light pervaded all she saw and in an instant she recognised being deep underwater. Instinct made her immediately hold her breath, arms flailing in blind panic, and she tried to swin upward and got a scant few feet but no more...looking down, lungs burning now, she saw weed wrapped around her feet, as if they had been tied together and bound to the slurry of the sea bed.
In her panic she never saw, at first, the seals, all she could think of was trying to hold her breath as long as possible as she struggled to bend and wrestle with the weed, which slipped through her clumsy fingers and eluded her grasp...sparks of light began to bloom in her sight, her lungs felt as if they were blowing up and swelling in her chest, burning, her heartbeat thudded in the pain of her head and she let go the weed and thought, I should stop, if this is it, if this is drowning, should stop.....and she floated, gently, sight fading as she began to black out.....
she closed her eyes, waiting for the end, feeling she could never hold her breath much longer...
A bump on her nose, soft but insistent, opened them again, and she looked into the deep brown eyes of her hound...but no...no...not a hound, a seal, and it kept bumping her, touching her nose, bumping her belly, her arm, until it lowered its head and swam into her belly again, with a sharp knock, forcing her mouth open, and she breathed....
and as she did so, water rushed into her lungs, and in the mindlessness of thought she believed the end was now, and it wasn`t so bad really, no more pain, she couldn`t even feel her lungs fill, and a strange kind of peace began in her, flowing out of its own accord to meet the waters flowing in, a euphoria that sharpened her sight so that she saw past the depths of the dark and took account of the creatures there, the finned, gilled seafolks, the seals, the myriad fish of kinds she`d never seen near the shore of the land....colours bloomed and glowed in that sight, gentle lights pulsed and quickened before darkening again, forests of weed waved in currents she felt along every inch of her body....
And she waited, for death to come.....and she waited, for death to come....and she waited....
and was watched by the creatures and watched back as seals swam around her, seeming to dance and play, one, smooth, sleek and playful swimming circles around her legs and body...
her body...which was now naked as the day she was born!
She giggled..and saw bubbles dance from her mouth....maybe she was hallucinating, as she died...maybe this was drowning, some kind of water-madness.....
she looked down at herself....her hands spread out before her, webbing between fingers, skin that looked smooth....and faintly green.....and watched as one of the other seafolk, the same `man` who had brought her here, reached down and with a sharp talon sliced through the weed that bound her feet...and she moved free, though the water, like air, like flying, not feeling the slightest drag of it upon her, webbed feet ruddering her way, til she moved closer to the seafolk and stopped...and turned, slowly around, just looking, barely thinking, afraid to think in case she came to the realisation she might be mad after all, or that this was some kind of strange afterworld given to dead islanders....
The water..she could see it...it moved and shifted around her, light from very far above filtered down and shone like sunbeams did on the upground....currents passed by carrying bubbles and heat and strange, ethereal creatures that swam and ate from them....
But she did not feel it, she may as well have been aboveground, because this, now, to her, was like air.....
The seafolk began to move away, swimming with grace and ease, and the one who had untied her gripped her arm briefly, pointing to follow, and so she did...
cities lay under the ocean, ancient and vast, pillars of stone uneroded by time and wave and she glimpsed busts of long gone emperors and kings, and amid some of these ruins lay wrecks, skeletons of ships the like of which had not been seen by her generation before, stark and barnacle covered things, crusted, like jewels...but still recognisable ships....
and more modern vessels lay, too, and she read names painted, bright still upon their hulls, and one or two, she recognised, and remembered....
They followed a definate route...for all the ocean looked `empty` there were roads there under the currents, though she didn`t recognise their markers, but felt them, felt the routes she took like some strange kind of homing beacon....
A great vast darkness up ahead.....a cavern so enormous she was not sure she could see the edges of it....inside, light points flickered and glimmered....the seafolks ahead of her quickened their swimming and she kicked feet and undulated body to keep up, a subconsciously now-natural motion to her, and swam into that darkness with her new companions....
(still going, if that`s ok?)
Posted on Hermit Life at 18:29
Comments
HL: you really must publish your tales!
carol from with baited breath
Can't wait for the next instalment HL.
Carol from IBHQ
If that's OK? IF THAT'S OK? Are ya mad woman! Don't you dare stop now!
Salty from Dublin
This is becoming the highlight of my day! You realise you'll have to keep writing this :) I can't wait for the next one, the descriptions are so real, so beautiful.
GerCelt from Dublin, Ireland
I found myself holding my breath with her. You can't stop now!
AZ from USA
HL, you do write beautifully, adn imaginatively. DO you know the piece of music entitled "La cathedral englotie" or something similar (can't manage French accents or spelling): anyway, "The Drowned Cathederal". I got an inkling of the music as I read your text. Please keep going!
Barney from Swithiod swimming with praise
The first thing I've done for the past few days is come in from work and straight on to your blog for the next instalment.. This is a stupendous tale, I LOVE IT!! Broke my heart at the burial scene though
jan from i want to be a mermaid too!
You can just imagine a romance is in the air with the merman like creature! an enchanting story, it gives you the feeling of hope, a belief that if you lose someone so precious and important to you, life is still as yet unpredictable and can twist and turn until an unexpected (although teeny bit unorthodox) scenario you may never have considered previously becomes a beautiful part of your life, fills the gap of what is lost perhaps?although I do believe (hope) the hound still plays an important part in the story, and will return at some point, as those lost to us which are loved are never trully forgotten? hopefuly the merman like creature did not cause the death of the hound??? sorry over analysing story, but cant help it as I am so intrigued! Excellent story! have you had any of your written work published yet or if not will you do so in the future?
lostgirl from ware is the love (ps- bring back the hound!)
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