Tales From The Raindrop Forest - Anthology

The Calling | talesofthedeep contest

I sat down at the edge of the little cabin, though I was careful I didn’t let my feet touch the water below me.

The cold wooden planks under me felt unnatural. I hated being in this place, cut off from the welcoming arms of the sea. The wooden cabin looked like a house but felt like a prison to me.

The sun was setting in the distance, spreading its last rays in a futile attempt to relight the falling sky. The orange glow made the water turn purple, the few clouds drifting along the sky were a dark grey. The sea was calm today, I noticed as I listened to the constant clash of the waves against the cabin’s poles. It was barely noticeable, but I felt its call anyway.

I wished I could go back to the sea. I mean, my cabin was right in the middle of the sea, high atop its poles, but that wasn’t the same. I wanted to feel the cold touch of the water streaming past my gills, I wanted to brush my hand through the seaweed, waving lazily in the currents. I wanted to see the Emperor’s palace again, with its intricate pink shells and its shining golden walls.

But most of all, I wanted to go back to Serena, and I knew she was worth more than anything to me. Would she be wondering where I was yet?

Determined to distract myself from the call, I turned to my house. It was simple as could be, and everything was made of wood. Stupid wood, I thought, dead material, stripped of all water from its core. The nature of the building materials of humans was of death, and I knew I would never get used to it.

Not even my body felt right. The limbs were weak, the fingers were small and fragile. I could never bring myself to look into the broken glass mirror in the corner of the room, knowing full well I would be scared of the blonde locks that fell down from my head and the sad, grey eyes that seemed just as lifeless as the wood my house was built of.

I turned towards the wooden table to make myself a meal, but when I checked the basket I saw there was nothing left. I wanted to be angry, but I stopped myself. It was my own fault, and it was no use being angry at myself.

The fisher that had once lived here had left me behind a storage filled with dried meat and rusty pans, with which I had been able to feed myself lavishly. I wondered whether he’d been the one to build this place.

But he would never have been able to bring all those logs of wood far into the ocean. I remembered swimming under the strange wooden poles, reaching all the way to the sea floor. There had been wood down there, and fallen stones.

Maybe there had been a village here, swept away by the sea in a fit of rage. Or maybe they had called its wrath upon themselves. I knew from first-hand experience the sea could be ruthless, even if it were unreasonable.

I heard a lone seagull flying through the sky, its distant call screeching through the air. Serena always liked when they screamed their sorry song, but I hated the sound. Seagulls were stupid. Now that was something I could be angry at.

I went outside again and was struck by the sudden darkness that engulfed me, now that the sun had disappeared on the other side of the sea. A few stars were dotted along the deep blue canvas of the night sky, the moon was slowly rising towards its place in the sky.

I laid down on the wooden planks and reached my arm towards the water, unable to wait any longer. Before I touched it, I listened to the soft splashing of the water.

Then, I reached out my finger and as I touched the sea’s surface, I felt a tremble that shook my house. For a moment I feared it wouldn’t stay upright, but before I could pull back my arm, a large wave appeared not so far away, and it bristled towards me, ever growing in size.

Though I'd never felt fear when in the sea, I felt sweat on my forehead, and a shudder of fear went down my spine. The wave grew and it seemed to roar, white foam spreading from its sides like wild water horses. My brothers, I thought, but I knew it was just an illusion.

When I pulled back my finger, the wave seemed to dissolve as if it had lost its mind, as if the sea had pulled away her vigorous attention as soon as I lost contact. The sea returned to its calm state, and it seemed like nothing had happened at all.

She’s still mad at me, I thought. But why wouldn’t she? It was the most important law of the sea for its inhabitants never to mingle with the land-dwellers, whether they were birds, ants or humans.

I had never cared much for humans, anyway. Like all kelpies, I’ve always had a healthy disdain for the two-legged creatures, living at the sea’s shore with their tall, graceful movements and shouting voices. I could take their form, as all kelpies could, but I'd never be one of them.

But that was before I met Serena.

She was different than the other humans. She would sit at the edge of the water, listening to the music of the waves.

I had loved her right away, and she had loved me.

The sea was against us, but I would not let it stop me.

I felt how my shape changed to a white horse, and I breezed at the sea defiantly. With a long neigh, I dived down into the sea, ready to face every challenge it could thrust at me.