Sea Story Part 4
Posted: Friday, 16 May 2008 |
At first, the darkness engulfed her, and only the awareness of those swimming around her kept her moving....she could feel the water eddying and swirling around them, could follow their progress ahead and around by this, like some strange kind of sonar...and as they glided forwards, the dark began to recede, dimly, soft green light like an underwater sunrise growing steadily, and her newly sharpened sight began to see what lay around her.....
and in awe...she stopped swimming, and hung there, suspended in the water, gawping like a child at the stars....
She was in some kind of cavern..could dimly make out the roof of it overhead, far overhead....points of light strewn across the surface of the rock face, hung like chinese lanterns, coloured, bright, pretty....she saw some of these move and dart off and realised they were fish, sea creatures, pulsing gently with their own inner light.....
near the base of the cavern walls, which stretched into a vast distance, cave entrances beckoned, and light glowed, also, softly, from within these, and she watched the finned creatures, the seafolks, enter and leave, for all the world like to citizens of an upground town going about their business....unheeding of her, the stranger in their midst, staring rudely like a common tourist....
The finman touched her arm again, lightly, and waited, then kicked his feet ahead and beckoned her to follow, and she did, her eyes picking out details, captured images she knew she would never forget....seachildren, playing like upground children, chase, but swimming and twisting, turning and darting quickly out of reach...one of them saw her looking and giggled liquidly at her, bubbling the water with mirth....
So many fish, so many kinds she had never seen upground in book or documentary, and she knew instinctively these would never come to light, and perhaps only deep sea fishermen would ever catch the merest glimpse of these creatures and keep alive the tales of `monsters` in the deep....
but they weren`t monsters....and though some of them defied belief, having no discernible shape or form, shifting and changing with each glance, they moved with great grace and ease in this, their natural element...
And she saw structures, made structures....pillars of stone, culled from the sunken worlds, put together with no obvious function except aesthetics, jarring metal beams garnered from sunken ships, laid out like church arches and strewn with weed of many colours, drifting in the currents like banners....
Swimming close to some of the cave entrances she saw they were decorated too...and gasped at the things used to do so....ancient gold coins glinted around doorways, glowing softly in the phosphorescent light, jewels the size of her fist set among broken pieces of old chinese pottery, a mish mash of decor that looked rich, meant to be, brought together for beauty alone, with no thought of wealth or posession....only, simply, pretty things to look at....old chests lay outside some of these doorways, curved lids open, iron banding rusted, filled with shells and pebbles and chunks of coral, spiked and gorgeously, richly coloured....
When the finman touched her shoulder again she knew she had stopped to stare...looking at him, she saw humour in his green eyes, an understanding, and blushing, she followed again the path he swam...
At the base of the biggest marble pillar she had seen, he stopped and turned to look at her...this was no normal pillar...it wasn`t straight but curved and looked to have been carved at some point, and disappeared into the sandy bottom of the cavern floor....she swam close to it....no..it wasn`t marble...barnacles grew upon it, wisps of weed fluttered from it, and she put out a hand to touch the surface of it....and darted back in fright as the pillar moved, slowly, throwing up clouds of silt and sand as a giant foot lifted from beneath.....
and she swam backwards, afraid, hands pedalling the water as quickly as she could, until she could see...and look upwards....
the pillar was indeed, a leg...the carving, the strong, supple muscle of a calf, and the foot shook itself gently to rid the toes of silt, murking the waters for a moment..
her eyes sought upward and she followed the form of the pillar, seeing the blodk of rock beyond it, the largest seat she had ever seen, the muscular thighs resting upon it, the taughtness of a belly and the muscle of a strong, breathing chest....
a curl of beard hiding a thick neck, and high, high above her, sharp cheeks and the hollows in which eyes were set, and turning, now, towards her.....
A crowd of seafolk had gathered around her, the finchildren darting around her legs, tugging her hair, her hands, pulling her up toward that terrifying face....
the vastness of this creature awed her, numbed her mind, made her wonder if, once more, she had died, and this was the afterworld, or if she was still in the throes of drowning, and this was some deep water rapture....
she felt hands around her waist, strong, webbed hands, and the body of her finman behind her, supporting her, guiding her upwards until she came to be in front of that giant, enigmatic face...
As a child, she had read books, of Poseidon, of Neptune, of Aegir...gods of the sea, powerful, capricious, titanic....all of those, this creature was....hair that looked as if it had been carved from driftwood curled around his shoulders, cheeks that were sharp and strong shadowed eyes that were deepset and....blank.......no pupils dilated or looked outward....no coloured irises enlivened those eyes....only white blankness lived there...yet she knew he saw....and that he looked at her....and a chill of absolute terror froze her in place, for that gaze captured her and held her prisoner more than the thickest chains could have...
Muscle like carved marble shifted and moved like liquid, and he raised an arm, creating currents and swirls of water in which the finchildren danced and darted, and unfurling giant fingers, he held open a palm...and let the children settle there, and thin stone lips curved into a gentle smile as they bestowed little kisses upon the giant fingers and held onto the hand, pretending to swing from each finger, chasing one another along the length of a forearm, and back, to settle and sit upon the palm....
The massive head turned, slightly, and the other arm outstretched and once more, a great hand unfurled, but this time no finchild came near, none of the seafolk did, except her finman, using his hands around her waist to guide her to it.....
So it was, with blank, pale, seeing eyes upon her, she stood upon that giant palm and waited....
The cavern, the finfolk, the lights and creatures all vanished in an instant from her sight. Her minds eye took over and flickering visions of unknown events flashed over her mind and she shuddered at the intensity and speed of them....they slowed...and she watched the story of this underwater king unfold, of his deeds....saw the dichotomy of this being..saw the benevolence which kept his finfolk from the prying eyes of the upworlds, which kept evils of the far deep from their doors, which assured them plenty, make for them a haven and gifted them a lifespan of almost eternity.....
saw too, the destructive force of an angry god, of the whim of tidal waves which took islands under the sea, stole cities to drown them in a fury of temper and spleen,...saw anger at the greed of ships which cast vast nets that snagged upon coral, upon ancient wrecks, upon seafolk., upon creatures that lived in the depths and would die in the harshness of sunlight....saw a giant hand reach up and grip the hull of a ship, crush it with ease, drag it under, cast it like matchwood into the sea silt...troublesome no more....
she watched a history of humankind where appeasement was offered, gold cast overside for safe journeys in chancy waters and winter storms, saw the blood of sacrifice drifting down into the deep, bloated, scarlet, gifted to a temperamental, judgemental god, the corpse of the slain leaving his bones behind to fertilise the sea earth.
She watched time pass, civilisations be stolen by the encroaching, changing, sea levels, heard temple bells toll beneath the waves, ghostly, haunting thosoe upground still....watched lava erupt from the seabed to spew its heat and rock above, replacing lost worlds, creating new landscapes, watched this giant creature as he himself watched with cool detachment the unfolding, shifting face of the earth over aeons of time...
Her finman snatched her upwards, away, before the hard fingers closed around her legs....the giant hand withdrew, the muscular arm retracted and the fingers once more rested upon a massive thigh, though she saw the finchildren play, still, upon the other hand.
Those blank, staring eyes withdrew from hers and the head turned back to the children and once more, the lips curved in a smile, soft, wistful.....
Her legs trembled..her mind retaining all she had seen, struggling to make sense of it all...the finman held her waist still and guided her back down, far down, to the cavern floor, holding her safely, letting her drift with him, until they settled and stood, firm, not floating, not swimming, standing.
Her tears added to the salt of the ocean, unnoticed. This..this was too much....this was the fairy tale she would have read as a child, tucked up safe in bed, before dreaming of playing with seahorses as a mermaid....this...this couldn`t be real...
But he held her head in his hands and gently brought his forehead to touch hers, and she was forced to close her eyes as softer, dimmer visions invaded her mind once more....
And she saw her hound, full of life, sniffing and shuffling through the marram grass of the shore, saw her catch sight of the white target of a rabbit tail, saw her take off and chase, oblivious to anything except the hunt, and across the road, and not seeing the car, the speeding car that hit her, throwing her into the ditch, a soft yelp of pain, a whimper, then darkness as consciousness left....
saw the finned creature leave the water, ungainly on land, as if air pressed heavily upon him, careful to keep from her sight...watched as he reached the hound and, seeing death near, reached webbed hands into the body of the collie as if passing through mist, reaching for the soul of the beast, carrying the precious cargo back to the shore, gratefully sinking into the waves, down, beneath the sea....
and the hound, unfeeling, died alone in the ditch, unnoticed....
but she watched as the green eyed finman held, carefully in his hands, a point of glowing light, and watched as, the deeper he went, the larger the light grew, taking form, liquid brown eyes, damp inquisitive nose, whiskers, sleek brown coat, taking form that befitted the water roads, streamlined and graceful....and letting go, he let the seal swim free.....
With a gasp she opened her eyes, moved back, breaking contact...the seal who had bumped her, who nose she had felt that woke her to this dreaming world....her hound? Her hound.......?
Thin lips smiled soft in an unlined face, green eyes confirmed what she knew.....
Only one more to go, then that`s it! Yup, I know, total, unashamed flight of fancy there. :D
and in awe...she stopped swimming, and hung there, suspended in the water, gawping like a child at the stars....
She was in some kind of cavern..could dimly make out the roof of it overhead, far overhead....points of light strewn across the surface of the rock face, hung like chinese lanterns, coloured, bright, pretty....she saw some of these move and dart off and realised they were fish, sea creatures, pulsing gently with their own inner light.....
near the base of the cavern walls, which stretched into a vast distance, cave entrances beckoned, and light glowed, also, softly, from within these, and she watched the finned creatures, the seafolks, enter and leave, for all the world like to citizens of an upground town going about their business....unheeding of her, the stranger in their midst, staring rudely like a common tourist....
The finman touched her arm again, lightly, and waited, then kicked his feet ahead and beckoned her to follow, and she did, her eyes picking out details, captured images she knew she would never forget....seachildren, playing like upground children, chase, but swimming and twisting, turning and darting quickly out of reach...one of them saw her looking and giggled liquidly at her, bubbling the water with mirth....
So many fish, so many kinds she had never seen upground in book or documentary, and she knew instinctively these would never come to light, and perhaps only deep sea fishermen would ever catch the merest glimpse of these creatures and keep alive the tales of `monsters` in the deep....
but they weren`t monsters....and though some of them defied belief, having no discernible shape or form, shifting and changing with each glance, they moved with great grace and ease in this, their natural element...
And she saw structures, made structures....pillars of stone, culled from the sunken worlds, put together with no obvious function except aesthetics, jarring metal beams garnered from sunken ships, laid out like church arches and strewn with weed of many colours, drifting in the currents like banners....
Swimming close to some of the cave entrances she saw they were decorated too...and gasped at the things used to do so....ancient gold coins glinted around doorways, glowing softly in the phosphorescent light, jewels the size of her fist set among broken pieces of old chinese pottery, a mish mash of decor that looked rich, meant to be, brought together for beauty alone, with no thought of wealth or posession....only, simply, pretty things to look at....old chests lay outside some of these doorways, curved lids open, iron banding rusted, filled with shells and pebbles and chunks of coral, spiked and gorgeously, richly coloured....
When the finman touched her shoulder again she knew she had stopped to stare...looking at him, she saw humour in his green eyes, an understanding, and blushing, she followed again the path he swam...
At the base of the biggest marble pillar she had seen, he stopped and turned to look at her...this was no normal pillar...it wasn`t straight but curved and looked to have been carved at some point, and disappeared into the sandy bottom of the cavern floor....she swam close to it....no..it wasn`t marble...barnacles grew upon it, wisps of weed fluttered from it, and she put out a hand to touch the surface of it....and darted back in fright as the pillar moved, slowly, throwing up clouds of silt and sand as a giant foot lifted from beneath.....
and she swam backwards, afraid, hands pedalling the water as quickly as she could, until she could see...and look upwards....
the pillar was indeed, a leg...the carving, the strong, supple muscle of a calf, and the foot shook itself gently to rid the toes of silt, murking the waters for a moment..
her eyes sought upward and she followed the form of the pillar, seeing the blodk of rock beyond it, the largest seat she had ever seen, the muscular thighs resting upon it, the taughtness of a belly and the muscle of a strong, breathing chest....
a curl of beard hiding a thick neck, and high, high above her, sharp cheeks and the hollows in which eyes were set, and turning, now, towards her.....
A crowd of seafolk had gathered around her, the finchildren darting around her legs, tugging her hair, her hands, pulling her up toward that terrifying face....
the vastness of this creature awed her, numbed her mind, made her wonder if, once more, she had died, and this was the afterworld, or if she was still in the throes of drowning, and this was some deep water rapture....
she felt hands around her waist, strong, webbed hands, and the body of her finman behind her, supporting her, guiding her upwards until she came to be in front of that giant, enigmatic face...
As a child, she had read books, of Poseidon, of Neptune, of Aegir...gods of the sea, powerful, capricious, titanic....all of those, this creature was....hair that looked as if it had been carved from driftwood curled around his shoulders, cheeks that were sharp and strong shadowed eyes that were deepset and....blank.......no pupils dilated or looked outward....no coloured irises enlivened those eyes....only white blankness lived there...yet she knew he saw....and that he looked at her....and a chill of absolute terror froze her in place, for that gaze captured her and held her prisoner more than the thickest chains could have...
Muscle like carved marble shifted and moved like liquid, and he raised an arm, creating currents and swirls of water in which the finchildren danced and darted, and unfurling giant fingers, he held open a palm...and let the children settle there, and thin stone lips curved into a gentle smile as they bestowed little kisses upon the giant fingers and held onto the hand, pretending to swing from each finger, chasing one another along the length of a forearm, and back, to settle and sit upon the palm....
The massive head turned, slightly, and the other arm outstretched and once more, a great hand unfurled, but this time no finchild came near, none of the seafolk did, except her finman, using his hands around her waist to guide her to it.....
So it was, with blank, pale, seeing eyes upon her, she stood upon that giant palm and waited....
The cavern, the finfolk, the lights and creatures all vanished in an instant from her sight. Her minds eye took over and flickering visions of unknown events flashed over her mind and she shuddered at the intensity and speed of them....they slowed...and she watched the story of this underwater king unfold, of his deeds....saw the dichotomy of this being..saw the benevolence which kept his finfolk from the prying eyes of the upworlds, which kept evils of the far deep from their doors, which assured them plenty, make for them a haven and gifted them a lifespan of almost eternity.....
saw too, the destructive force of an angry god, of the whim of tidal waves which took islands under the sea, stole cities to drown them in a fury of temper and spleen,...saw anger at the greed of ships which cast vast nets that snagged upon coral, upon ancient wrecks, upon seafolk., upon creatures that lived in the depths and would die in the harshness of sunlight....saw a giant hand reach up and grip the hull of a ship, crush it with ease, drag it under, cast it like matchwood into the sea silt...troublesome no more....
she watched a history of humankind where appeasement was offered, gold cast overside for safe journeys in chancy waters and winter storms, saw the blood of sacrifice drifting down into the deep, bloated, scarlet, gifted to a temperamental, judgemental god, the corpse of the slain leaving his bones behind to fertilise the sea earth.
She watched time pass, civilisations be stolen by the encroaching, changing, sea levels, heard temple bells toll beneath the waves, ghostly, haunting thosoe upground still....watched lava erupt from the seabed to spew its heat and rock above, replacing lost worlds, creating new landscapes, watched this giant creature as he himself watched with cool detachment the unfolding, shifting face of the earth over aeons of time...
Her finman snatched her upwards, away, before the hard fingers closed around her legs....the giant hand withdrew, the muscular arm retracted and the fingers once more rested upon a massive thigh, though she saw the finchildren play, still, upon the other hand.
Those blank, staring eyes withdrew from hers and the head turned back to the children and once more, the lips curved in a smile, soft, wistful.....
Her legs trembled..her mind retaining all she had seen, struggling to make sense of it all...the finman held her waist still and guided her back down, far down, to the cavern floor, holding her safely, letting her drift with him, until they settled and stood, firm, not floating, not swimming, standing.
Her tears added to the salt of the ocean, unnoticed. This..this was too much....this was the fairy tale she would have read as a child, tucked up safe in bed, before dreaming of playing with seahorses as a mermaid....this...this couldn`t be real...
But he held her head in his hands and gently brought his forehead to touch hers, and she was forced to close her eyes as softer, dimmer visions invaded her mind once more....
And she saw her hound, full of life, sniffing and shuffling through the marram grass of the shore, saw her catch sight of the white target of a rabbit tail, saw her take off and chase, oblivious to anything except the hunt, and across the road, and not seeing the car, the speeding car that hit her, throwing her into the ditch, a soft yelp of pain, a whimper, then darkness as consciousness left....
saw the finned creature leave the water, ungainly on land, as if air pressed heavily upon him, careful to keep from her sight...watched as he reached the hound and, seeing death near, reached webbed hands into the body of the collie as if passing through mist, reaching for the soul of the beast, carrying the precious cargo back to the shore, gratefully sinking into the waves, down, beneath the sea....
and the hound, unfeeling, died alone in the ditch, unnoticed....
but she watched as the green eyed finman held, carefully in his hands, a point of glowing light, and watched as, the deeper he went, the larger the light grew, taking form, liquid brown eyes, damp inquisitive nose, whiskers, sleek brown coat, taking form that befitted the water roads, streamlined and graceful....and letting go, he let the seal swim free.....
With a gasp she opened her eyes, moved back, breaking contact...the seal who had bumped her, who nose she had felt that woke her to this dreaming world....her hound? Her hound.......?
Thin lips smiled soft in an unlined face, green eyes confirmed what she knew.....
Only one more to go, then that`s it! Yup, I know, total, unashamed flight of fancy there. :D
Posted on Hermit Life at 08:15
Comments
Drat--more suspense
carol from you just keep me hanging on
HL, thank you for a wonderful tale... you are a real story-teller and you use words wisely and well. JK Rowling has nothing on you!
Barney from Swithiod stunned
told you the hound would come back ...! albeit as a seal ... :-)
soaplady from a fit of glee ... :-)
Oh HL, you've surpassed yourself. This is lovely. Hurry uuuuupppp!!!!
Ellie from here being gobsmacked
HL you are a wonderful writer..what talent! Can't wait for final instalment
Jan from waiting impatiently
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