#kelpie stuff

I nearly died right at the start.

Honestly, it's amazing that I didn't.

Whoever my original parents were, they don't mean anything to me. They left me alone in the ocean before I could even remember their faces.

A half blind toddler swimming by itself for who-knows-how long before, by some tiny stroke of luck, came upon an island.

I found myself on a beach of gray sand, with nothing but ragged clothes and aching lungs. I knew it was a gamble, one last coin flip for my life, that one way or another I would probably die on that sand.

I knew all that, but I didn't care. I was tired.

So I laid there on solid ground, taking deep breaths, the waves still brushing my tail, and I looked up at the sky. I let my good eye drift in slow patterns across the scattered expanse of stars, taking in the way they seemed to float and flicker in place. It was not an inky void like I'd thought, but full of subtle blues and violets stretching between space. The stars blinked in many colors too.

At some point, my eyes drifted shut, but I kept thinking of the colors. I thought they'd be the last thing I saw.

As I faded into sleep, I barely heard soft footsteps in the sand.