Silver Waves

Fourteen

The storm came crashing in just as all of the girls were settling onto the pebble beach for the night. The Crafters put down their half-finished creations, storing seaweed baskets and bags in a rock-ringed pool of water to keep them from drying out before they were finished. Their sharp, thin, seashell needles and unfinished knives were placed atop a tall rock to keep them from the tide. The Gatherers stashed the extra kelp in another pool, weighting the vegetation down with rocks and shells that they had picked up for the crafters to use.

Ren was asking Sprigg if she might sharpen a shell or stone so that she could finally shave her head again when the first peal of thunder shook the cave.

The entrance tunnel became shadowed as the sky turned dark, and the cave became black as pitch. Lena, terrified of storms, gave a fearful whimper as the rain began to lash and the thunder growled in earnest. Dalma hugged her younger friend close and whispered to her, stroking her short, straight hair comfortingly. Their sisterly relationship had grown; they hadn't been good friends on the island as they were both competitive and constantly sought to do better than one another, but their trauma had bonded them, changing their dislike into a close friendship. 

The girls lined up on the beach, their submerged tails tugged incessantly by the harsh waves that entered the cave. Nami had always loved storms, and curled onto the pebbles, the water washing over her up to her shoulders. She closed her eyes and sighed contentedly as Kaia and Fil snuggled onto the beach to her left.

Despite the howling wind, the cave was dry and warm, and the Tribe members no longer really felt bothered by cold; they had developed even warmer body temperatures to combat the coolness of the water they now called home.

There were still quiet conversations echoing through the shelter, overshadowed by rolling thunder and the hiss of rain that was beginning to strike the sea. Nami caught the tail end of Sen's conversation with Sprigg, about how she missed her sister, Teena, terribly, but was glad that the older, betrothed woman hadn't been taken with the rest of them.

Thinking of Teena reminded Nami of how desperately she missed her Tribe. Since she was captured, she had tried to push those feelings down, afraid to hope, afraid that she would never see her loved ones again; it was better to push their memories away, lest they distract her from being the strong, leader-like figure that her friends needed her to be.

After the battle that had been waged as the pirates dragged her and her friends away, she wasn't even sure if her loved ones were alive. If she gave in and pictured her closest friends and family, lying under the earth in the jungle, their clothing and possessions hanging from tree branches, she would have curled into a ball and stayed like that, refusing food and water, wanting to waste away. She needed to be stronger than that, and so she didn't think about the people she'd left behind.

Now, though, she let herself sink into the memories. Osprey's face drifted into Nami's mind, and then morphed into Inana's, and then into Danan's, her closest male friend, whom she had always hunted with. She missed her close-knit island community, the love they had all shared, the peace that would have been forever unbroken if not for Jerrick and his crew.

At the thought of Jerrick, a feeling like a hot coal settled inside Nami. Hatred. She pictured the cruel captain and his grimy, rotted black smile, his lank and greasy black hair. It seemed that, moonborn as he was, pale as his skin shone, everything about the terrible man was black as pitch. He seemed diseased, disgusting, morphed and changed by his greed and brutality. She thought of Fae, and her anger grew. She remembered Endel, and added him to the list of people she wanted to avenge.

Just as she was beginning to feel like her rage would fill her until she burst, a beautiful song began to drift through the cave, disrupting Nami's thoughts. Always an empath, Fil had recognized the undercurrents of fear, anxiety, and anger in the Tribe's attitudes. Her voice trilled out, somehow silvery as moonlight, as she sang to calm the nerves of the islanders. The echo of the cave made the song all the more ethereal; the melody quickly evoked yawns and sleepy mumbles from the comforted girls.

Nami's anger dissipated with the song, and she let the music fill her mind, slipping peacefully into the half-dreaming state of near sleep. The tension in the cave relaxed, and Ren, slightly afraid of the dark, swam to rest beside Nami on her right.

The Tribe was almost asleep when Sen, who had been lazily playing with a shell, suddenly squeaked in surprise. Fil's song faded as the Tribe peered into the darkness to see what had startled their friend. Even their enhanced eyesight was murky in the ink-black cave, until a pale azure glow faded into view.

Sen held the palm-sized shell out to the group. The brown, banded scallop was glowing with subtle, sky-blue bioluminescence, akin to the stripes on the girl's tails. Wordlessly, Sen passed the shell to Ren and picked up a small pebble, squeezing it in her hand. When she opened her fingers, the Tribe inhaled in collective wonder as the rock was revealed, glowing with blue light.

"This is..." Sen whispered, trailing off, unable to find the words to describe her ability. She examined the glowing stone in her palm, as if making sure it was real, and then set it gently, almost reverently, down amongst the other pebbles on the beach. It glowed like a cerulean ember among the grey-black of its neighbors.

She scooped up some water in her webbed hands, bringing it to her face, just close enough for the liquid to brush her lips as she whispered, "Thank you, Ame." She opened her hands to let the water flow back to the ocean, and, like the first time that Oona had mentioned the ocean goddess, the water of the cave sparkled, for a moment, with a subtle shine, lighting up the dark enclosure.

The prayer of thanks was repeated by the other girls, gratitude filling the cave, echoing off the rocks and water, before they slowly drifted back to their spots on the beach, each marveling about their new lives, and wondering what changes would come next.

Fil resumed her song, and Nami relaxed, listening to the music fade as she slipped into sleep.