Tideline

Chapter Eight

 My mother started to call me as soon as the first rays of sunlight slipped over the horizon. I was far out at sea, with nothing but waves and water all around. High in a sky were a pair of i'korená flying in a graceful mating dance. The long, slender bodies coiled in loops and twists while their great wings rode the air as easily as my rider slipped through the waves. They were close enough that I could see the delicate, lean heads with their muzzles full of razor-sharp teeth and golden eyes glinting amid rainbow scales. They were beautiful and I wondered what it would be like to fly as easily as they did, to kiss the sky and dance amid the clouds, to soar far and away from everyone and everything.

I'korená spent their entire lives in the air, free. My people were content to spend their entire lives imprisoned on our world.

I tried to ignore my mother's messages and frantic calls. I had little time now. Either my mother would find me first, or the alien would find a way to escape. Either way I was racing against time, racing against the wind that cut through the waves and flung cold spray into my face. Racing against my thoughts that churned out doubt and uncertainty even while my throat told me that this was the right course. I just had to trust myself.

The Deep Dwellers resided in a section of the sea north of the city. It would take me all day, at top speed, to reach them. Grimly I set the rider at its fastest pace and rode across the sea. The sun crawled across the sky overhead, and below the tides fell lower and lower. As the sun slid lower down the sky and the moons began to rise, so the tide rose with them, and the waves grew higher and wilder. The rider flung itself over one wave only to plummet down the steep sides. I dared not take to the skies as the winds were strong this night, pulling at my hair and whipping the already rough waters into a frenzy.

My heart was beating as fast within my chest and a frantic song hummed in my throat. I had to hope I was doing the right thing, but part of me couldn't help but doubt. It settled in my chest like a dark cloud, mirroring the heavy storm clouds overhead. It seemed ominous that a storm was forming this night, same as the night that I found the alien. Lightning had begun to split the sky apart into brilliant fragments and thunder rumbled through the night when I finally reached the cluster of i'hanái that formed foundation of the Deep Dwellers' city.

There was nothing above the waves, the branches were bare and there were no i'balā clinging to the massive trunks. Instead the Deep Dwellers chose to live purely under the water, beneath the tideline rather than rising and falling with it like the rest of my people. Their city was built closer to the roots of the i'hanái, as close to the seabed as they could get. They used advanced tech and body-shaping to adapt to the cold and pressure, but I didn't have that luxury. Instead I found a small waystation which offered masks and gear to help non-Deep Dwellers survive the trip down to their city.

"Remember, you can't stay down there for too long," the elderly attendant said as he helped me find the proper gear and put it on. "Even with this tech you're still built for the tideline, not the depths."

"Thank you, I understand."

I adjusted my mask one more time before climbing back onto my rider. I set the controls for diving and steered the rider beneath the waves. The sky was already dark, and beneath the waves it was darker. I immediately felt the drop in temperature, even with the bodysuit warming me. Lower and lower I dropped, as the pressure began to rise. The mask and gear helped to compensate, but I could feel the sheer weight of water pressing against my skin and scales. Fish and glowing i'shèla swirled amid the submerged branches of the i'hanái, dancing with the currents that twined about the enormous trunks. In the distance I could make out the massive bulk of a fful, and I could hear its mournful song vibrating through my bones. The lower I went, the less life I began to see until there was only i'shèla rippling amid the lights of my rider.