The Five Calamities

Chapter One

"You like it here, don't you?" As usual, the voice spoke from somewhere beneath the waves. It sounded like a mighty rushing waterfall but had the tenderness of a calm stream.

The air was filled with the smell of salt. Everywhere he looked, there was water, reaching even the furthest horizon. He looked beneath him, and then he was sinking. He had had this dream countless times, that he knew he could breath just fine underwater.

Without a second thought, he took his breath. The water around him bubbled as if it was laughing, and he smiled back at it.

"To think that you are still not able to come here without worrying about drowning..." The voice spoke all around him.

On the surface, he could only hear the voice flowing around him as the waves rose and fell, but once he was inside the water, the voice came from all around him, as if the voice was the water itself.

"At least this time I didn't struggle or hesitate," he spoke without opening his mouth, which was open in a wide grin, remembering the first few times he had this dream and how he always thought that he was drowning and struggling to breath.

"Indeed," the voice drawled, "you are getting used to being here."

"Now that I am getting used, why can't I still see your form?" That was the one thing he had been unable to do. In every dream, he could only hear this voice but not see where it was coming from.

"Water has no form, but encompasses its vessel," the water shimmered before him and a fish appeared. "And just like water, I too have no form but can only be according to the vessel I occupy. For instance, I can be this fish," the fish swarm towards him, and it shimmered again, turning into a shark, "or I can be this shark. I can only be according to the vessel I occupy."

"Did you never have a body?" He asked.

The water seemed to pause for a moment before it resumed its flow, as if it was surprised by his question. "I had once, a long time ago."

"Can you not go back to that form? I would like to see it. "

"I had that form a long time ago, and it only existed in my memory. However, that memory has been lost to time, and I cannot remember it, hence, I cannot become it because it is the memory that guides the transformation. Without the memory, I do not know what it looked like for me to be it once more," the last part was spoken with a sense of nostalgia.

He thought for a second and asked, "If you were to choose a new form, what would it be?"

The water around shimmered with excitement and he could feel it too.

"If I was to choose a new form," the water gathered in a single spot, bubbling as it slowly revealed a pair of legs, then a waist, a torso, the arms, a neck and finally a face he knew very well, "I have chosen this body to become my new vessel."

He felt a sharp pain in one of his fingers, and as he held up his hand, a ring-shape began glowing on his middle finger. He saw, with horror and dread on his face, the water-turned-image of him reach out its hand and he felt a strong force pull him backwards.

As his vision began to darken and his senses dampen, he heard the water say, "Soon I shall be freed from this accursed prison, and I shall free my siblings. Rejoice, Ahlan, you shall be the new vessel for the Calamity of water."

Within the raging storm pulling him backwards, Ahlan felt himself dissolve into the water currents and lost consciousness.

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