Tideline

Chapter Twenty-Three

I was asleep when Caspian came to my room.

The door chirped pleasantly, alerting me to someone's presence. I sat up with a yawn, looking myself over to make sure I was decent by Human standards. I had quickly come to understand a concept they called 'naked,' and that Humans felt it was an unacceptable way to present one's self. I swung my legs over the bed side and reached for my cane. Then I hobbled to the door and opened it. Standing outside was Caspian.

*Áuliiel,* He signed, then said. "Can I enter?"

I signed back, *Caspian, yes, good see you.*

He walked into the room, his chest bare and crisscrossed with scars. I had spent enough time with Caspian to learn that there were more scars then just the flesh ones. He didn't reveal much, but there was a sadness to him, a darkness to his eyes and a shadow over every word. I wanted to bring light to his gaze and brightness to his voice. I wished I could sing and soothe his mind and dreams, but my voice remained silent and I had to struggle with unfamiliar hand gestures and words.

"Good to see you too," Caspian said, his voice stumbling slightly. "I wanted...would you like to see the sim-room?"

There were words I understood, but 'sim-room was not one of them. I frowned. *see?*

"Sim-room," Caspian said, repeating the word in sign. "I'll show you."

Caspian lead me through the ship to a vast room covered in white. It was empty, just white walls, a white floor and a white ceiling gleaming high above with bright lights. He smiled at me, then started to press commands in the control panel near the door.

"I think you might like this," he said.

The white room rippled and vanished. Now we stood upon sand, a gleaming stretch of it that seemed to spread far beyond the room confines. And before me was the sea. I could hear the roar, the bellow of its song as it hurled waves upon the shore and dashed spray into the air. The wind whistled and whispered through my hair and across my skin, and even the air was filled with the scent of water and life.

I fell to my knees to the sand. It was grainy and warm from the sun, which shone bright gold high above. But something was different about this sea, it smelled different from the waters of my home, there was more of a tang, a bite to it. There was so much sand, more than I had ever seen in my life, and when I looked behind me there was rolling hills of sand covered in razor-thin green plants.

"This is the ocean, on Earth," Caspian spoke and signed all at once. He gestured toward the seas and said, "ocean," *ocean.*

I tried to walk toward the water, but it was hard to walk in the sand, harder than walking on a flat surface. Caspian had to help me and when I touched the water it was cool and soft and everything that water should be. The feel of water on my skin was tsǔnāl; a word that described its softness, its wetness and everything in the way water touched you all in one word. Humans had no such word. I watched the waves curl around my feet, water rippling across my toes while the wet sand pulled at me and sent me tumbling into the water. I didn't mind, it felt wonderful, but Caspian gave a shocked cry and immediately helped me up.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think." He held me close, his skin warmer than the sand, warmer than even the sun above. This close I could smell him, a spicy and fresh scent that filled my nose and overwhelmed the scent of the sea.

I stared up into his brown eyes, seeing faint reflections of light, and then the shadows slid back across his gaze and he stepped back.

"Sorry," *sorry.*

I wanted to step back into his arms but there was more than just air between us. Instead I looked back across the waters and signed. *ocean.* I paused, then signed my people's word for the ocean. *Óshkwênn.*