More often than not, Lizzie’s gaze wandered and went up. This deep in the ocean, it was difficult to see where the water would eventually break apart and reveal the surface, that cold air on her wet skin and the knowledge that she could be vulnerable.
Not that the ocean itself did not hold any dangers, either.
The threat had been eliminated. The salmon, wherever they’d come from, had been pushed back. Not defeated, but they had retreated far enough that the inhabitants of Lizzie’s kingdom could breathe and live freely again, without the concerns for fights on their close borders or to contract that horrible illness.
She’d been by her brother’s side from the moment he started showing symptoms. No matter how her healers and doctors told her that it was unsafe to be in his presence, she remained by his side. How could she even consider swimming away from him, when he always held her hand so tenderly, when his voice broke after every third word, how he looked so weak and scared - which only grew as time passed.
There hadn’t been a cure. Lizzie had been fighting to get one made, but none of her doctors succeeded. They only ever found ways to suppress the illness and ease the passing of those who had contracted it.
Her brother could not die. Lizzie would not let that happen.
So she sought and sought and sought until all of her options were exhausted and then she sought some more. They were the only ones left, damn it! Her and him. They could’ve had hundreds of siblings, but nature had made a different call. She hadn’t gone through all this effort to hide his egg, to nurture and love it, just to give up on her now sickly brother.
One strait hadn’t been explored by the healers…
The decision had been difficult. Her world shattered all the same as it would have, had her brother passed away. She’d been against it, vehemently argued there had to be another way, but her brother insisted. In his sick delirium, he thought it was a good idea. And because she had a hard time saying no to her little brother, she eventually complied and agreed to let him go.
The surface world did not know the salmon illness. The surface world did not have to suffer its consequences nor did they even know how devastating it was to the denizens of the waves. And, as theorized by one bold doctor, staying on land could cure him all the same.
Unfortunately, being separated from the ocean meant to lose one’s memories.
Her brother knew the risks, begged her to take that chance. It’d be fine, he promised he’d remember and come visit all the time. She said her goodbyes with tears in her eyes and a letter in hand, for him to find and remember her by. So that, when his memories had faded and he stumbled upon this letter, he would remember anew and come seek her out.
Now, she looked up, in the direction of where her brother was living. On that cold surface world, where very little made sense and where she could not follow indefinitely, lest she forget too.
Though the forgetting already started.
Her brother… the name is on the tip of her tongue. Yet, her mind refused to give up the name of her only surviving sibling.
How long has it been since he’d left? Even that knowledge was unavailable.
One day, perhaps, she would look up and not remember why. She hoped that day would never come.
