Shadows of the Deep

Fallen

Weightlessness.

That was the first thing Layra felt as the darkness faded from her mind and she became aware of her body again. She was floating or flying atleast, Layra breathed in slowly waiting for gravity to slam her back into reality. Nothing happened.

She opened her eyes cautiously.

Blue.

That was the only thing she saw around her. A blue that faded into black emptiness away from. She looked at her hands and her eyes widened in shock. They were not hands at all, but where her four fingers would have been was now fused together forming a smooth paddle-like structure. Her thumb was no longer short and stuby  but was long and sharp like the edge of a knife.

Layra waved her hands around as though convinced they would return to normal if she shook hard enough. She abandoned her efforts after a minute and looked at the rest of her body.

She felt gidy. 

Her breast were smaller and smooth into her torso seamlessly, no navel botton. Pink leather type skin simmered with a red glow and flowed down her waist where her pelvis should be. Layra eyes trailed down her body in amazement as she saw what should have been her legs were almost fifty or more long tentacles and oral arms of a jellyfish. They where a translucent pink about five metres in lenght and seemed to dance in an endless wind.

"What!" 

Layra grabbed at her throat as a gurgle of water escaped her lips and writhed  in disgust as she felt what could only be described as the cordal fins of a Siamese fighting fish. Three rows wrapped around  her neck and fluttered at her touch and sending a strangle ripple through her body.

It was then Layra realised, she was not floating in the air, rather was submerged and breathing underwater. 

Panic began to spread through her senses, making her frantically swivel her body from left to right. To her surprise the tentacles responded and fluttered through the water making a current that turned her to the direction her mind wanted. 

 "I have to get to the surface!" More gurgles of water came from her lips and Layra began to swimming up to the rhythm of her oral arms and tentacles.

Before she could make any proper distance, something caught her attention. Rippling through the water toward her was a sound, soft and strong, rising and falling to an unsung tune. Layra stopped and listened. 

The notes were clear as a summer morning making warmth blossom deep within her. Layra turned her head side to side wanting to get a glimpse of the creature creating the beautiful song. She strained her eyes through the hazy dark blue vastness before her until not a few metres from her she saw it. The shadowy outline of an arched building became visible.

Layra began to swim closer, her tentacles twisting and slithering like snakes to her desire. As she drew nearer she became aware of railings folding around itself making a round room, and six curved arches came together at the top forming a perfect crystal water drop.

The notes grew louder,pulling Layra closer, a yearning tugging at her heart. She wanted to dance to the song, swinging her body to the beat of the song until her shattered into a million pieces. The music entranced her so, her paddle-like arms out stretched before her.

Then she saw them. 

Twelve silhouettes dancing with the finest grace around the gazebo. Their bodies swaying and twirling with the rise and fall of the song.

 Layra pushed foward wanting to see her choir. Slender hands trashed above graceful heads and legs flashed in blurs below naked bodies. There was no distinguising between male and female features, just smooth glimmering skin, of all the shades of the rainbow. Long black eyelashes graced their closed eyelids and blue tongues flashed in and out their mouths as they sang. On both sides of their heads were three ears each raising behind the other, fanning up from large to small. 

Layra found herself humming along although she was sure she had never before heard the song.  Then it all came rushing back, how she got here...

                                                      ~°~

Layra felt the cold air brush her warm cheeks making her gasp from it ferocity. She had just laid down the large blue leather bound book on the bed away from the strangeness of the swirling gate before her. It was circular with blue vines encasing it's frame, small fishes that glimmered in the light making them seem alive and a whirlpool of flashing white and blue lights from what would be the door way.

Being a sixteen year old scholar was one thing, but being a sage was another. She was the youngest in her village and had been warned not to meddle with the strange magic described in the blue book. 

 "Old scales!" Layra exclaimed under her breath entrances by the swirling lights, admonishing the ignorance of the villagers.

 She knew it was a bit dangerous to do this, but what choice did she have? A plague had set upon the people.

A foul stench had besieged the village from the mass grave dug miles away with the dead bodies of those who could no longer survive the thirst.

 "I will find it and restore our lives!" Layra said with determination. Taking one last glance at the book she step forward.

 " AH! " 

A space opened before her feet and she fell. Darkness enveloped her.

                                                 ~°~

The water vibrates with the twelve voices as they hummed stonger now, their hands beckoning Layra forward. With an excitement she pushed forward, hovering just outside the arches doorway and beheld her singers. Their turned in perfect circles, flowing black hair rapping about their body, adorning them in an eerie glow.

Layra's cordal find ripples with energy and her voice joined theirs raising until together the song reached crescendo, and no thoughts or life existed outside of the clear vibrant note.

The twelve beautiful creatures wrong their bodies in such complicated  movements Layra could no look away. Her own body twisted and turned I til she could no longer breath.

Then silence fell.

A coldness spread throughout Layra's body jerking her out of her stupor. She whipped her head around and stared in horror.

There within the billowing arches, stood not twelve gorgeous creatures of the ocean, but twelve black bodies traced with intricate silver veins all throughout their bodies. 

Lifeless eyes glared at from white dilated pupils, edged with a silver iris and flowing black sclera.

Layra froze with fear as she recognises used the terrifying shadows.

In the pages of the blue leather bond book, two words resounded in her mind.

The fallen.