Moonlight streamed over the ship as Risa knelt before the tall imposing svefra, whose red blonde hair glowed like fire from each moon beam. The woman above held a feathered staff with a red stone at the top carved into a raindrop. The dress worn before Risa was elaborate and jeweled, much more than the simple top, low on the shoulders and neck for the training, and trousers she had on herself. The sky and sea were calm fortunately, though she'd already been out here for hours.
Risa continued to grab at her neck and tried to concentrate on the small fish between her and the older woman, the task at hand. Risa hadn't eaten since they began and the fish looked more appetizing than it looked educational. Risa looked up at the blue eyes above her, unmoving like the focus of a predatory bird.
The flesh of her neck warped and distended as she pulled. Risa grabbed the knife from the top of her hand mirror and pulled the fish body close. Carefully she lifted the individual filaments of the gills, the arches and raker shapes. Laying the knife aside she went back to her work, trying to shape the skin of her neck, small amounts of blue color tinting her skin as she worked. It was a hard task, every tug had to be focused and driven towards the final goal. Risa examined her work in her hand mirror.
"Mother, I can't get it!" Risa cried out at last. The shape of her own flesh on her neck looked nothing like the gills of the fish. Her neck just looked bloated and malformed with a crevice of skin running where it shouldn't have been. "I'll never be good at morphing! Why do you even bother?!" Risa slammed her hands down into the damp planks below.
The staff moved quick, before Risa had saw her mother shift her weight, and knocked her head. It wasn't very hard, wouldn't cause a bruise her mother knew, but that didn't stop the pain from searing out from the strike. Risa cowered a little and tried to move her hands up to feel her head, but they wouldn't move from where she had slammed them.
"Child, do not test my patience." her mother spoke, her voice sounding firm yet withered like an old dry tree, beyond the years her mother's face appeared. "If you cannot morph then why must you scratch the ship below you? You disrespect the Lia and you disrespect me." Risa pulled at her hands again, retching them free of the ship's surface. Somehow her anger had caused two talons to shape on each of her pointer fingers. Risa bowed her head.
"It is a warm night, but you must master this now. The Lia and I both demand this of you." Her mother stood still again, like a vigil statue more than a person. "But why, mother? What good is this power? It's more parlor trick than skill anyway!" Her mother sighed and sat down, laying the staff aside. She patting the ground beside her. "Come, child. We must talk."
Risa crawled to her mother, resting her head on her shoulders. "You'll be a woman in just a few weeks time. You'll get our pod tattoo and you'll be your own responsibility. I've spent my life watching you, caring for you when many of our pod told me to let you grow on your own." Her voice was slowed and soothing now, like the wind through the sails on a soft day. "But I did so because long ago, before you were thought of, I was young and just as restless as you. I wanted freedom and peace. So I left my pod."
"I took a casinor and departed. I didn't want to be my own Lia or make my own pod. I just wanted to be alone." Her mother's hand gingerly touched the staff now. "The world outside the sea and beaches we call home is unimaginable. I could tell you a hundred tales of the things I've seen, of each face. There are lives and traditions with nothing but hardship, living in places no human should be. You've lived a sheltered life, even for a Svefra, but you can understand how much more of the world there is."
"But for every moment of joy we have, each celebration the others partake there is a matching moment of sorrow in the world. People live and they die and they take with them memories and journeys and knowledge that is forever lost to the gods. When I returned from my travels..." Her mother brought up her arm, showing an old tattoo of an otter holding a shell. "This is all I have left of my home. My original pod was shipwrecked, destroyed. They were reclaimed by Laviku just before you were born."
"I was fortunate to find a Svefra pod to take us before you were born. But there are so many in the world not as fortunate or blessed as us. That's why you must learn morphing. None of us can stop horrible things from happening, but we can prepare for it when they do. Now please, we must practice."
Risa moved herself back in position as her mother stood before her again. She smiled up at her generally silent mother. "Thank you... for talking to me..." Risa whispered, laying the mirror in front of her as she began to focus again.
