The Oceanum

The Puddle Goes Upriver

      I groaned, feeling awful as consciousness returned to my body slowly. My arms tingled, and my tail burned with sharp pain when it twitched involuntarily. I was still underwater, I think? I opened my eyes to see something I had never seen before. I was in a small metal... thing... full of water. It had an open top and was angled funnily. Whatever it was, my tail and the top of my arms were hanging out of it, making the dry flesh burn uncomfortably. I tried to move, but pain shot through my tail and the skin on my arms cracked and bled from being so dry. How long was I asleep?

       Movement bombarded my sensitive ears as I noticed the water above me shaking. It was sloshing around the metal container, some falling out of the sides onto the floor of whatever I was in. I saw no moon, nor sun, just wooden slats that let little light through. It felt like I was constantly moving in one direction, and the shaking was making me nauseous.

       Finally, the moving and shaking stopped, a door opening near me and letting light through. A body quickly blocked it though, and a face entered my field of vision. "Ah, the creature is awake! I wonder how you are doing. That wound in your tail certainly doesn't look good." He rambled. He obviously didn't know that I could understand him, because he started talking about the 'figures' I'd fetch him and who he could sell me to. A bubbling noise beside be caught my attention. There were bubbles coming from a rock sitting next to me, oxygenating the water, I think. 

       My attention whipped back to the man when he brushed a hand across my dry tail. Bright blue scales flaked off of it, revealing peeling, grey skin underneath. I hissed at him, my tail flipping angrily, and he jumped back before getting hit. "Whoa, fish, calm yourself. I know you don't like me but I'm sure we can get along?" He smiled at me, his face distorted through the water. I simply hissed again, the magic still in effect. I think that the magic won't go away until I see Mos- The Oceanum again.

       Tears pricked my eyes when I thought of when I last saw him. The anger and helplessness in his eyes that I could do nothing to alleviate. The harsh words. The tears that weren't shed but were still there, at the surface of everything. I wondered if he was thinking about me, as I sat in a container in a container, with a man who wanted to sell me because he thought I was a fish-person. I didn't mean to call him by his name. I really didn't, it just slipped out. I was relieved to finally be able to call him something less formal than just 'The Oceanum'. It made me feel as if I finally knew something about him.

       Too late now. I thought bitterly, watching as the man sat in a seat next to the container, and whistled softly to himself. He was watching me closely, waiting for me to make a move so he could retaliate. I tried to speak to him, to give him words for his treatment of me, but nothing came out of my mouth but water and a small, warbling noise. 

       He perked up at the sound and looked at me cautiously. "There's that sound! The sound that led me to you. Do it again, fish, I am sure it will give me quite the penny when the nobles hear that. Don't worry though, we're almost at the market where you'll be sold. Isn't that great?" His rambling made little sense to me, as it jumped around from subject to subject, but I got the main idea of it.

       I was property,

       I was inland, away from the sea,

       And I couldn't escape.

       This last thought brought salty tears to my eyes as I stared at the man who was now looking at me with renewed interest. I knew what he was interested in, but that did little to comfort me as he went about his business, pulling a knife out of his pocket and cutting a piece of fish apart. He held it out to me and shook it a little. "Here, fish, it's food. Fish, actually. Oh, the irony. A fish eating a fish, hah!" He laughed to himself as he dropped the fish into the container next to my face. I snapped it up hungrily, knowing that it may be awhile before I got another bite to eat. 

       The fish tasted weird, lacking the saltiness of the sea, and brought yet another wave of homesickness crashing over me. When I was little, my father had always told me to stay away from the ocean, so I had this huge plan to go inland and see the world, but I never had the money to. Now, even thinking of the sea I had once longed to leave made tears want to leak from my eyes.

       Another small splash pulled me from my thoughts as I saw another dead fish floating on the surface of the water. I simply turned my head and ignored it; I didn't feel like eating anymore. The man looked at me weirdly, then began ignoring me and playing with something I couldn't see. He sat there for a few more minutes before leaving, shutting the door tightly behind him.

I tried to roll over and get out of the container, but the pain in my tail grew too great, and I stopped, panting. The strange wooden box began moving again, the water continued its sloshing, and I renewed my efforts not to lose the fish I had just eaten.

*****

       After who knows how long, the wooden box stopped moving and loud voices were heard, coming closer and hurting my sensitive ears. They were speaking an unknown language, the guttural tones grating my ears harshly. The door was thrown open and four huge men shoved their bodies in the door and stared at me, their dark hair and thick mustaches making them look slightly silly. They each picked up a corner of the metal container and somehow slipped back out of the door with me in tow. 

       The rough movements of the men's lumbering made me hiss in pain as my body was jostled in several different directions, my head even hitting the edge of the metal on some occasions. They took several more steps before the container tilted, and I was dropped roughly into an incredibly cold pool of water. I immediately put some distance between me and the men, ignoring the sharp pain in my tail, and when I was a safe distance away, I hissed loudly at them. This only drew a strangled laugh from one of the men, who immediately began making cooing noises at me as if I was a damn child. I shrieked loudly and started at my own loudness. I didn't know I could do that, but now that I could, I was going to ruin their ears at every chance.

       The men, however, were less than amused, and abruptly left for somewhere unknown. I watched warily as they brought back a scrawny man in suspiciously cliché black robes and pointed at me. He took one look and backed away, screeching something in that unknown language at the men before him. He hollered and pointed accusingly for a few more minutes before backtracking and leaving the confused buffoons standing where they were. Apparently, the men were not expecting disobedience from the strangely clad character, but boy were they wrong.

       They settled after a while for shaking their fists at me and leaving me in the pond by myself. Alone. With the fish. Ugh, this was going to be a long day. So, instead of moping, I turned myself around in as many directions possible trying to get a good look at my tail. What I saw was not pretty. White flesh turned almost brown hung limply from the end of my tail, close to the fin. It hurt really bad and the fresh water I was in was not helping clean it out at all. Instead, all I felt was extremely uncomfortable and slightly bloated as I swam sluggishly through the water. Whatever I was going to do, I would have to do fast, because I didn't think I could survive very long so far from the ocean.

       From what The Oceanum taught me, my parents could stay so far from the Ocean because She didn't have such a strong hold on them, and because they revoked their titles as Oceanum before leaving, making them more human than they once were. But I wasn't in that situation. No, I was young, unexperienced, and extremely friendly with Her, so my body was taking being so far away from Her very hard. Actually, I was sure that the distance was killing me faster than the wound and the dry skin.

       After a couple hours of studying the edges of the pond, I noticed a small stream leading away from the pond. It wasn't a big stream by any means, but I had to take a chance. Little did I know that there was more than the Ocean by my side at that time...