Ocean Beasts and Where to Find Them.
I’m in a ‘kin chat and a piece of conversation struck me particularly inspirational. So I had to write based on it.
It was about Ocean Demons. And this piece is meant to somewhat reflect that, and the two who’s words formed most of the Dialogue I wrote with. I added as Needed. It lacks a certain amount of detail typical to me because I do not know the speakers well enough and wanted to express them.
“I could have told you that.” She said sweetly. But in her tone there was the hint of laughter. This current beneath her words that says she flirts with the things that people cannot find. Because they do not know quite where to look; or should not truly be looking at all. That is the nature of these things.
Her companion smiled, his sharp eyes seemed to catch gold in the light for a moment. Or perhaps amber suited better. Entirely the better for catching. Trapping. Ensnaring the unwary and never letting go. He smiled a little wider and then snapped his teeth together, lowering his brows to appear looming.
“They are huge-” he said, sitting up straighter. “-And have many-” his teeth snapped hard with the word “-many teeth.” The word ‘teeth’ seemed to imply that the only reason they were called that was because they resided inside the mouth. An innocuous word made sinister. Even fangs could not have suited better, with the way this was portrayed. It brought to mind innocent Red Riding Hood ‘My, Grandmama, what big teeth you have!’
The two of them seemed so strange but nothing about them looked too out of the ordinary. Nothing too out of place for a couple Hipster Hippies or whatever the kids called themselves these days, anyway. Intelligent though. That was for sure.
“People have simply no idea what lies beneath.” Her hands flowed with her words, implying that there was far, far more yet to never know than humanity thought there was to never know.
She was drawing a mermaid. Not the typical busty woman, toothpick thin with tits that went on for days, carefully hidden behind little scallop shells. It had an anatomical rightness to it that one could not quite put their finger on. And the way she drew it implied that she knew this look almost intimately. “No idea.” She concluded to the paper. For now she seemed done with discussing the discovery made by some oceanographer about the bottom of a piece of the ocean with its vents. Her thoughts returned to her drawing and her cup of steaming tea.
Her companion though looked at the tv once more then sort of chuckled. About him hung this wolfish air which was not helped by his reprise. He seemed to shiver for a moment and scowled.
“They drown you with their wings.” He points casually over his shoulder as though to display such a thing. “They charm with song. Or rise with the moon and board ships. Come ashore and hunt; those which aren’t the deep, open ocean creatures anyway.” He licked his lips and tucked into a piece of pie, eying the tv once in a while in earnest.
I dared to ask. And perhaps, perhaps that was my mistake. Or my blessing. You decide. “You two seem to know better than this scientist. Could you show me one of these things you’re talking about?” Perhaps it would wipe the smug look off his face, or the knowing distant expression from hers.
They both looked up though, at one another and then back at me. I swear for a moment there was a certain quality there that was not quite human. I would never be able to tell you why I thought that way. What made me see it so. But that is what I saw. They nodded at me and spoke not another word.
They ate their pieces of pie and she drank her tea as though we were not sitting in booths next to one another and made some chat about the discovery the anchor reported. But when they were done they stood and paid and looked at me expectantly. So I followed.
The lanky young man walked as though each step was one closer to him simply taking flight. While in her turn the young lady seemed to flow with grace. We crossed the tarmac and into the hot dry sand. Not stopping, nor slowing as the waves at high tide reached to meet us.
In silence they turned and walked along the wet sand. Water lapping their bare feet. I followed, several times trying to strike up conversation. Ask what it is they are going to show me. For a hot minute I was sure they were taking me out her to be mugged. Leave me lying dead on the sand. But neither one seemed actually threatening. And neither one was carrying bags or tools. Though that did not mean there was nothing in their pockets.
It seemed to be forever when they finally slowed and stopped, with it so close to dusk. We had come to a section of beach close to a rocky granite cliff face. Around us in the stone were deep and shallow pools of water, teeming with life and brightly reflective like glass. As the waves came in low I was sure I could hear something like a voice, a whispering hiss. “I guard the borders where the water meets the land, at the beaches, at the cliffs, at the streams inland, at anything distantly connected the ocean.”
“Do you hear that?” I asked again, in vain hope of an answer. “Someone else is here?” But I do not know if it was their words in the dinner or if it was the time of day. I looked at the wet sand we stood on, a boarder land between salt water and sea strand and I thought ‘that voice will get me.’
The pair gestured at me as though to express something. The young lady walking off into the sea, clothing pressing to her, she seemed unaffected by the waves. Nearly chest deep she turned around and flicked her fingers towards us. In horror I saw him change into something I had considered a monster. Or would have were I not bombarded by scents and sounds. Sights and a feeling of vastness.
He flew away on great feathered wings and she dove into the water, never resurfacing. Though I swear with my keen eyesight I saw a flash of scales, like a great big fish. I was left sitting on the shore. For sat I had, as the surf ate the sand from beneath my thick paws. Distantly I saw something else that looked a lot like I did. If I pricked my ears I could hear it, I was sure, speaking the same words I felt inside my new bones.
“I guard the Ocean from the Land and those which seek to soil it.
I ward the Land from the Ocean vast, and those who would seek to harm it.
I am the guardian of the Strand. Chosen for my Persistence.
I will walk the physical and Astral realm, and share not to mortals my existence.”
