estdeus_innobis | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Dream.

There is a great sea. The sky is grey, the water green, and the seafoam is the flecked white of milk on the turn. The shore is stone and shingle, and the cliffs are bone-shades. Will you wake on the little fishing boat that rides the waves, wary of great beasts that lurk beneath the surface, or on the cold and stony shore? Or perhaps as some watery thing yourself, breathing in water as cold as ice and with a salt-iron taste like blood?

[OPEN TO ALL]

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Why I am here I do not know. Did we travel here? And where are my people? I don't know. Sit here I do on the shore and look at the sea, smell the salt air, and what I do know is this is a place of power. "Beware of serpents," said a man who walked past me not so long ago, but I have never had cause to fear them. If there are dragons in the water, let them come. For now I have nets to mend. I do not remember starting them, but they are in my hands and I somehow know the craft of it, and so I set to mending.

I know how to swim, and I’m usually pretty good at not panicking, but ice water pushing at my nose and mouth and turning me this way and that has me scrabbling for any kind of purchase. Something smooth and slick and a hundred times larger than my body brushes against me, shoving me out of the way as it slides past. I can’t see what it is, and I can’t go still in hopes that it won’t notice me. Can’t even make a sound.

The thing that could swallow me whole, that I can’t even open my eyes to see, moves on. I fight my way towards what feels like up, and my head breaks the surface at last. I raise one hand to clear my eyes, trying to get a look around me as they sting. There are cliffs in the distance. This is not the open sea, thank God. And I do know how to swim.

When my arms feel like they cannot possibly keep moving for one more stroke, the beach is there, all small, sharp stones. I lie gasping on them, the wind around me pulling at my clothes. It’s cold, but it’s not water. I push myself up to my knees, then my feet, which are bare, of course, my boots kicked off in the water long ago.

There are people in the distance, I can see. Here, someone must be better than no one. I push my hair out of my eyes and begin picking my way toward them.

I am back in Pontarlier and yet and yet I am not. I flow along with the water as we rush down to the the other river and then I am flowing into it, along with it, down to the next river where I can touch the boats. I think of Harman and his family. People with the River in their blood.

I follow the boats down to the sea. It feels different, tastes different. I struggle to follow the boats. There is only one now. I move closer to it realizing that I am swimming now, like I did in the River with Karina. I can feel my arms and legs but also the water. It is as if I am more water than flesh. That my shape is only that. A shape to contain me because my water is not the same as the sea for all that it too flows in me. Through me.

I am a witch, dark-eyed, afire.

I am salt, brittle, purifying.

I am water, protean, cleansing.

I am a sea, tempestuous, life-giving.

I am a fish, cold-eyed, wisdom-granting.

I am a serpent, sharp toothed, wise.

(I am really a witch)

Dancing. I'm dancing in the sky! I wish Daddy was here, I know Mommy is cos we're flying and I can't fly by myself. Look! There's lots of water and its green, and there's a boat like in a picture! There's big snakes and other things in the water too, but I'm not afraid of them. I've seen lots, even a fire one who got mad at me cos I asked if he was my pony. There's people down there too! "Ohh! Can I go down?" I ask Mommy. She'll probably say "No, not yet." like she always does.

Wait.. I'm floating down! She's not here! I hope she doesn't catch me.

The rocks are cold but the water is colder and it fizzes! Jumping up and down in it makes it warmer though. No more yelling when it touches my feet. The wind hits my face and I can smell ... Daddy?!

"Daddy!" I laugh and yell, running in the not too high water, spinning like Mommy does so he knows I'm ok.

Swimming swimming water coiling all things serve turning turning smell of meat in the water smell of meat but not yet glide and glide and glide

I see the gleam of sea as I clear the forest, and then the wind's gone and I'm falling, falling. The water's so cold it feels like a knife to the breast, and my red cloak which saved me is now dragging me down into the dark. I manage to tear the strings open, and kick my way to the surface. I cough hard. There's things swimming in the water under me, but I can't panic. I won't. I didn't come this far just to die now. And so I push hard for the shore.

"I don't know you (http://community.livejournal.com/estdeus_innobis/405311.html?thread=10273087#t10273087)," I say, "nor anyone here. But I meant no harm, and hope I have caused none." And my companion asks where they have come from, and that is a good question, but I add my own. "And why? This is a place to travel to or through, but so many at once--nine of us at once--seems unlikely to happen by pure chance."

"I'm glad you're alright (http://community.livejournal.com/estdeus_innobis/405311.html?thread=10294335#t10294335)," I say, touching her arm lightly. "And it's beautiful, it's like a heterodyne chime." It's a sunlight disc under a cloudy sky, warm and bright in my fingers, and when I hold it up I can see what it could fit into, the bright lines of gears and springs that could be.

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