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( prologue )
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THE OCEAN WAS ITS LIVING ORGANISM IN ITS OWN WAY. To breathe out was a wave crashing down on a shoreline and to breathe in was the wave recoiling to reveal shells within the sand. A heartbeat for every creature that swam around, a heartbeat for every typhoon and tsunami, and a heartbeat for everything that had ever been created because of it.
Su'leio sat at the edge of her Mauri pod, one leg bent with her knee touching her chest and the other hanging over the edge to keep in contact with the cooling sensation of the sea. Her eyes had been trained on the simple waves beneath her that came from the circulating ilu, the way the swirls contracted in ways nothing else ever could in her eyes.
Her best friend sat crisscrossed behind her pleating her hair to arrange in multiple tiny braids. Tsireya, that was her name, hummed quietly enough for it to have blended in to create an ocean song once she had gotten to her last braid. The two friends, though very chipper when together, hadn't spoken very much towards the end of the hair-braiding session due to the sounds of their great sea washing away all of their thoughts.
"And... done," Tsireya finally broke their comforting silence admiring her work of the hair that had been braided and then tied up with a small dimpled smile on her features. Su'leio took this as her chance to recoil her leg from the water to face her friend crisscrossing her legs and pulling a few braids forward in front of her face to gaze at them. The two girls frequently did each other's hair when they had enough time to be together so none of it was out of the ordinary for them.
"Oh, you added the shells into them like last time," Leio observed aloud grinning at the few braids that hung framing her face.
Before Tsireya could even think about responding to her friend, the sound of horns reverberating through the entire Metkayina reef had sung. Su'leio's ears twitched at the sound and her head snapped into the direction of the far side of the reef and her eyes widened at the sight.
Ikran. Five of them flew high above the village, their wings cascading large shadows over the water. Leio had only heard stories of such creatures, living all the way in the forest, but never did she ever think she would live to see one in front of her.
