Fish Out of Water

[Candira]

Season of the Summer, Day 1, 511 AV Rain coated her bare skin, tracing rivulets and creating streams from her hairless scalp to her connected toes. A distant crack of thunder snapped in the sky; no light followed, and the sky remained littered with the tiny dots of the stars. She soared through the air on the back of a great puffer fish, her legs splayed between the deadly points and feet comfortable in stirrups. In her hands was a rough reign, attached to the beast's small mouth, hidden from this angle on its broad back. They moved awkwardly, the blow fish whirling its fins through the air and kicking its tail. The pair bobbed, up and down, up and down, over the reflected stars of the ocean. Night had descended on the sea, and the stars glittered like dots in a black sheet. They bounced back; the surface of the ocean was, for once, still, completely still, and smooth and slick as glass. Where did the rain go? No clouds rolled above her, and no ripples broke the surface below her. She peered down, tilting the fish, and moved in a great circle. The dark depths flickered with the passing of a fish, glowing and dashing the stars away with its light. Her blowfish's passing marked the surface, only that it hid the stars. She could not see her face, or the fish, or anything under the water. Wasn't she afraid of the dark? Another crack broke the sky. "I wonder what's in the stars," her sister said. Danee rode behind Candira, her arms wrapped protectively around her sister's waist and her flat nose nuzzled in her head tentacles. "Or in the deep depths of the ocean," Candira replied, uninterested. The sky was big, but the ocean was bigger. The land was grander. Why did her sister look is such far off places for adventure or beauty? "Just water," she answered, simply, like always. "Always water. Even here, in they sky, there is rain." Candira could not see her face, but why did she have a tattoo? Something ... ugly, coating her shoulder and tickling her jaw. "No, there's so much more in our ocean! The coral grows, the current moves, even the ground changes. Nothing is the same, one day to the next." Where did this strange wisdom come from? Candira leaned back against her sister, enjoying her company. A star fell, exploding against the far-off mass that was land. Another rumbled rolled through the sky, the impact's noise on the distant horizon. Her sister shrugged, pulling on a rope. "Then why will you travel?" A ship sat heavily in the water, the side rails and deck barely three feet from the inky surface. Water coated the surface of the boat; it was beginning to sink. Her sister's quick hand over hand tugging dragged them closer. She tied them to the edge, hopped off the blow fish, and landed with a small splash on the deck. The girl held up a lamp, peering at Candira through the dark night. The light cast a strange shadow on her face, hiding her eyes in shadow, and the fire flickered in the drizzle. Haunted, Candira climbed to the deck. A wheeze of air sounded behind her; the fish deflated, hanging small and limp. It flopped in the air, still floating. She leaned against the far rail, the stars begging her to count them. "I travel because ... " Why did she travel? Wasn't she going to stay in Charbosi? Didn't she want to know what was in the world? Why was she on the fish, and where was she going? Why did her sister leave without her? "You don't know why you are leaving home?" her sister scorned. Danee hopped onto the rail, swinging her feet over the black waters. "I don't like ships, much. Half the time, the people are mean, the other half they want to know everything about you." "What do you look for, Candira?" she sister asked again. A black hump on the horizon peaked from beneath the water, sinking lazily back down with only a small ripple left behind. "I, I ... " She ran her finger along the edge of the lamp, lip trembling. She did not want to become upset in front of her sister. "I just want to know Mizahar," she whispered. She had no grand plan but a small inkling of desire to trace her Danee's footprints in the sand. What if that was not enough for her sister? What if the other Charoda had higher expectations? What if? What if? "Good," her sister's words cut through her panic with as much force as the thunder. The light flared, and she jumped back, afraid of being burned. Danee's face came into view fully. Ugly, gruesome, black arms stretched across her neck and clawed at her face. A small eye rested on her collarbone. It would eat her, it would consume her. What was it? "Don't forget about me." Candira's eyes snapped open, and she found herself clutching a head tentacle. Her dream faded easily from her mind, unimportant as she began to think of her day ahead. Today, Candira would leave home to journey and witness the never-ending rain in Falyndar. And everything seemed right.