The Ancient Guardians

The Ancient Guardians (Water, Chap. 2)

THE ANCIENT GUARDIAN OF WATER

Chapter 2 (may be suject to change should I add another before)

It wasn't dark, as it should be. Everything was brightened by pillars of light, shining through from unknown heights above. The view revealed by the rays of light was blurry and it seemed like I was seeing it from midair. There was a blue-greenish hue to everything in sight, even the sky. My sense of space came back and I realized where I was now that I could feel my body; I wasn't in the air, I was underwater. An endless seafloor was spread before me, although completely bereft of marine-life. Looking up I couldn't see a trace of the surface, so I was pretty far below. I swam forward a little, feeling the familiar sensations of water flowing around me. Suddenly, a current formed in front of me; its pattern was discernable with the light caressing the outlines. It flowed towards me and curled in on itself a few times over. After a moment, I noticed it was forming a shape. A pair of legs became clear, curving into hips and a torso with two round orbs at the chest, followed by arms extending outward and a head on top of it all. The rest of the current continued from the head in a likeness of hair. It was a woman's body... and it looked a lot like me. Two blue lights appeared in the head like eyes opening. I thought of a question and the words immediately formed on my lips: "What are you?"

            The woman's form came closer. She put her hand in the middle of her chest, "I am you..." her voice was a clear whisper that echoed through the sea around us, then she gestured the hand towards me, "And you are me. Together we are one."

            "Water..." I responded. The woman nodded at the word. "What am I doing here? Where IS here?" I asked.

            The blue lights thinned horizontally as if she was squinting. "You are unconscious. I cannot say for certain where we are, but it is deep... very deep. I must speak with you while I can."

            "While you can?"

            She turned around and looked at the scenery while talking. "Normally this place is pitch-black and you are too far away to hear; we could never meet. But now I am able to speak with some help from beyond." She extended her arms outwards to indicate the brightened sea.

            "Whose help?"

            She turned back to face me. "Something that is thought to be lost..." She beckoned me to follow with her hand. "Come."

            I swam with her as she let herself drift away to the left. "What do you have to tell me?" I asked her.

            "That it is not your fault." She said.

            "What isn't my fault?"

            "The battle... its failure; I know you are blaming yourself for it."

            "It was nobody's fault." I told her.

            She suddenly stopped and the blue lights looked directly at me. Then I heard the dreadful sound of my own voice echoing around us: I should've been stronger. I should've said something. Maybe I could've stopped Bob somehow. I should've known something wasn't right. I must've been a burden to the others. "We are one." She continued. "You did not have enough time to be strong. Refusing the plan would not have changed the others' minds. You could not have known. You were not a burden; without you there would have been no escape." She shook her head. "It was not your fault. It was someone else's." Then she turned her gaze away and started drifting off again.

            I kept following her. "Whose fault was it?"

            "The heavy one." She answered.