Silver Waves

Eight

The group rocked in the gentle waves, flicking their tails to keep afloat. They were silent after Sen's question, thinking about what they could possibly do, what could possibly come next. Nami took in the slack, scared faces of her friends, glowing under the moonlight. The shock and trauma of the last few days showed on their faces: their capture, their imprisonment, the cruelty they faced, the near-death experience, and now their new forms... It was too much, Nami decided. They needed to rest and process before anything else.

Raina mumbled something about hunger and sleep. Fil, always the first to panic in unfamiliar situations, began to breathe heavily, her eyes wide. Kaia put an arm around her shoulder, and began inhaling deeply, exhaling slowly, encouraging Fil to match her pace.

We need a plan, Nami thought. Before panic sets in. She backed slightly away from the group, lashed her tail a bit to push herself up out of the water until the waves lapped around her hips, and raised her voice. "Okay," she said, clapping her hands.

The Tribesfolk looked up at Nami, relief on their faces, reassured by their friend's commanding, confident tone, happy that the frightening uncertainty was being taken out of their hands, that decisions were about to be made.

Nami felt much less self-assured than she let on, but she pushed power and certainty into her words. "First thing, we can't just float out here forever. We need to get somewhere safe."

"But, where?" Dalma piped up, gestured around at the empty sea. "We have no idea where we are." She fiddled with the ends of her headscarf, which had somehow managed to continue holding her halo of puffy hair back through the Tribe's whole ordeal.

Nami bit her lip, trying to think. Without her voice to fill the void, the rest of the girls began to debate amongst themselves, slowly getting louder as they lobbied their own ideas.

"We could just wait here-"

"If we keep swimming straight, eventually we'll reach somewhere we could stay-"

"...navigate with the stars..."

"Or maybe we could-"

"I'm hungry-"

"...find the pirates..."

Nami quickly got frustrated, unable to think over the cacophony. She clapped her hands over her ears to drown out the noise, but the rising voices of the girls wriggled in anyway. Worried and scared, confused and unsteady, her temper already short, she snapped.

"SHUT. UP!" Her voice cracked over her Tribemates, silencing them immediately. "Let me THINK!" She lashed her tail instinctively and bobbed up out of the water, towering over her friends until she splashed back down, scattering moonlit water droplets over the other girls.

The Tribesfolk stared at Nami with wide eyes. She immediately felt guilty, especially looking into the eyes of the younger girls, who glanced apprehensively at their usually calm, collected, older-sister-like figure, their looks darting to and then away from her, scared to linger. Oona, always sensitive at the best of times, had tears welling in her eyes.

"Sorry," Nami said quickly. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She swam to Oona and hugged her gently, kissing the top of her head. "I didn't mean to shout. I'm just..." she trailed off and barked a humorless laugh, pushing her long, loose hair off of her forehead with both hands. "I'm just scared." She sank sheepishly into the waves until only her shoulders and above were unsubmerged.

Kaia took her friend's hand and squeezed, smiling gently, encouragingly. Nami squeezed back and took a deep breath, closing her eyes, calming herself. "Alright," she said, opening her eyes and sweeping her gaze over her friends. "First thing," she began again, "we need to find somewhere safe to stay." Unused to constant motion and the resistance of the water, the muscles of her stomach and new tail were beginning to burn. "I think Fil was right when she said that if we keep swimming straight, we'll eventually reach... something."

Nami looked up to the moonlit, star-speckled sky, and used the positions of the celestial bodies to pinpoint her position. She lowered her eyes, looking south, like she could see over the empty miles of ocean to her home island.

Osprey's face rose in her mind, and she closed her eyes. She knew from the position of the sun when she was dragged above deck for her whipping that the pirates had been heading north. She felt a small hand slip into hers, and looked down into Ren's face.

The young girl smiled sadly at Nami, and asked quietly, "We can't go home, can we?"

As low as the question was, the rest of the group heard it clearly, and stopped their soft chatter to hear the response. They looked at Nami, hope and sadness mingling on their faces. Nami shook her head. Dejected understanding was felt all around.

She was silent for a moment, organizing her thoughts. We're alive. We were given another chance, with new bodies. I don't know how it happened, but I'm not wasting this opportunity. She looked into the traumatized faces of her friends, taking in their fear and sadness, and her anger flared. It scared her, almost, how easily her thoughts turned to revenge. Her Tribe were peaceful people, never warring, rarely infighting. Nami wasn't aware that she could hold so much hate within herself, but the rage that thumped through her veins in time with her heart was unrelenting.

She took a deep breath, and her voice was calm and quiet when she spoke. "The pirates will attack other islands. They'll take other girls. I'm not returning to Nyct until..." she took a shuddering breath, and steeled herself. "Until I do something about them."

Lena swam up to her friend, taking her other hand. "Until we do something," she stated. There were mumbles of agreement from the floating Tribe members.

Nami stared levelly at the reserved, determined faces of the girls around her, bobbing in the waves, and nodded. "Until we do something."