The Cinders of Dezu

16th: The Tribe of the Lake (1)

Cairo's head bobbed. He felt water dripping down his face. The warmth of the sun beat down on his forehead. The contrast of warmth cooking his skin for a long period combined with the cool droplets was uncomfortable. Not uncomfortable enough, though, because he had soon dozed off again.
He did this a few more times before he felt a very wet and very unforgiving hand slap him repeatedly on the cheek. He opened his eyes to see a face. But it was a face like none he'd seen before. The eyes that stared back at him were deep and bulbous with dotted reflections in them that sparkled like stars. It was as though he gazed into twin microcosms of a galaxy. Below them was a nose that partially protruded from the face like a lump, only to reveal two slits for nostrils that flared from water tight to wide as they sniffed him.

The mouth opened partially to reveal jagged teeth that weren't particularly vicious looking, but certainly looked more formidable than that of a human mouth. The face wasn't snarling or showing much more expression than looking over him methodically. Cairo was frozen for a moment as he recognized the mane of fins that surrounded its face. Before, he couldn't see the face in detail. But it was clear now this was the same creature that had looked down into his room from the roof of the cabin.
His memory wouldn't give him much more than that. He had blacked out for some reason. The creature was pulling something that he felt tighten around his chest. He looked down and realized he was tied down. He was strapped firmly against something. It was wooden and curved. A log? His chest and legs were strapped down to it. The rope was strong but was wet and green. It looked like something not found on land.

He was too drowsy to react too much at this point but he began to notice the prettiness of the face that strapped him down. It's form was aquatic and extreme but it had an undeniable elegance to it, even beauty. It didn't seem malicious to him. He realized the creature was female. She crawled all around him pulling at the ropes. They weren't too tight. She just seemed to be making sure they were secure.
It was at this point that he noticed her retractable claws that were gripping the wood he was mounted on. The log was a wide stake, he thought maybe ten times his body width. It seemed smooth which is why the claws suddenly became very noticeable. She moved out of his field of vision to crawl around the back. Now he could see his predicament a bit clearer. He had been hoisted high above water. It was a body of water that was reasonably wide, the edge of which was about five hundred feet away met by large rocky walls that lifted about fifty feet out of the surface. The walls surrounded him in a circle as far as he could see in his field of vision, like he was in some kind of watery arena.

At the top of the walls he saw movement. It was more creatures like the one crawling on the stake with him. There were a variety of shapes of sizes, male and female, but all clearly the same species. They lined the tops of the crags, speaking to each other, many of them staring in his direction.
He started to feel awake enough to feel the fear swelling inside of him. He began breathing heavily and felt the ropes tighten against his chest with each breath. He felt a hand on his cheek again, gently this time. The female creature guided his face toward the water straight ahead of him.

His gaze was directed to a group of the aquatic humanoid creatures that were rising up in unison from the water. Their belly and torsos were above the surface and they were organized in a way that almost looked like an Olympic swim team. They were perfectly spaced apart and they all turned to face the creatures on the walls. In unison they extended their arms with with their palms face up and bent them at the elbow. They then turned and all looked up to face Cairo. Cairo felt his head hit the wood behind him at the sudden intense gaze of so many strange faces. The group repeated the same arm gesture towards him before receding under water.

The creatures on the walls erupted in a screeching sound like he had never heard. Something like a repetitive clicking mixed with a high pitched battle cry. They lifted their arms in the air as they did so. Cairo looked around frantically and caught sight of the female creature beside him. She had the claws on her hand and foot dug deeply into the wood next to him as she looked out to the crowd with her other leg hanging and the her other arm lifted to the sky. An unseen chorus began.