Call of the Water (COMPLETE)

12. AZORA'S STORY

Mathias was looking at me, his stare still unfriendly. For a long time he didn't say anything, not a word. He just sat there, on the windowsill, while the cold air kept filling the room, slowly but steadily. Then he averted his eyes and let them rest on the overcrowded desk.

Leaned against the door frame as if an invisible glue affixed me there, I wrapped my arms tighter around my body. I let my gaze fall on Professor Fortius' desk as well. Tidiness definitely wasn't one of his virtues - papers and folders laid scattered all over its surface.

"Why wouldn't your race care about you?" Mathias' voice startled me.

"Like you said, you wouldn't understand," I replied.

"Believe it or not, I know a thing or two about abandonment." His eyes rested on me again, dark under the lowered eyebrows.

"I wasn't abandoned. My parents..." I paused when the images of their faces appeared in my mind. They faded over time, but I still remembered how my mother's hair would sway in the water, or how my dad's smile would bring out dimples on his face.

"Why were you alone? What happened to your parents?" The way he looked at me made me feel as if I were being interrogated for a crime I didn't commit.

"They died." It was still hard to let those words roll off my tongue. His eyes lingered on me, so I blinked several times to chase away traitorous tears. "My father was killed by a wounded longtail shark he was hunting. Soon after that, my mother was crushed to death by an anchor thrown off a ship while she was collecting shells. I was only six years old at the time." One of the tears refused to stay at bay, but I wiped it off with the back of my hand.

"Couldn't have somebody taken you in?" he asked. His voice somehow lost some of the sharpness it had when he spoke to me before.

"No. My race doesn't do that. If you're not their flesh and blood, it's as if you're invisible," I replied in a shaky voice, after which we both went silent. I wasn't trying to make him feel sorry for me, I just wanted to show him that I had a good reason for choosing to live on land.

"That's messed up," he stated.

"Maybe. But that's how it is in the kingdom I used to call my home. If you're alone, you only have two options – to give up and face death or to find a way to survive. But surviving isn't living."

"And where did you find your humans?" he asked after a minute of silence. "Or did they find you?"

I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell him. I had been avoiding looking directly at his face, but something in his voice made me look up. There was something strange in the way he looked back at me. For the first time it didn't feel like he wanted to see me drowned.

I sighed and decided to continue. "On that day, the sunset was beautiful. Well, to me it was. But not to those who were sailing. The sea was restless, it spoke very loudly. Waves on the surface made it look like it was boiling. Underwater, I was safe. Tucked under the bulged rock, I was observing the setting sun, all alone. I was always alone. That's the fate of the forgotten ones." I lowered my gaze, trying to keep it together.

After only a short moment, Mathias said: "Go on."

Lifting my head, I met his dark eyes that were still looking at me in anticipation. Therefore, I resumed. "I saw a ship sailing the sea above me. The waves tossed it around like driftwood. As it was passing by, someone fell into the rough sea. A woman fell overboard. I could see her trying to fight the waves. Her limbs were fluttering as she struggled to stay afloat. But I could see that she was losing the battle.

"The ship sailed away. Nobody noticed that she fell, so nobody came to the rescue. She tried to call for help but her voice wasn't loud enough to outvoice the stormy sea. I witnessed the exact moment she gave up the fight. Her limbs went listless when the water filled her lungs and her body began to sink. I moved without even realizing it. I swam towards her, grabbed her and started swimming, dragging her through the waves. After all, I was a much stronger swimmer.