“Of course you do,” She chuckled and I handed the plate to the man behind the table of refreshments with a thank you.
“Oooh! Look!” I gasped and three men came out of the water, huge masks coloured with pastes and rough cut gems. Pearls lined the exaggerated eye holes.
“This is part of their ceremonial historical retelling. Folklore, many mainlanders call it. They wear these costumes and re-enact the meeting of their gods,” Atlas filled in.
I nodded.
The men in those strange fish-looking marks went over to the women adorned in lotus flower chains and some pearly white ovals on their foreheads. The dance began immediately upon touching hands, a mingling of rich coloured skirts and visceral movements.
Their forms moved along to the gentle lapping of the lulling waves, limbs flowing with such speed and grace while the flames crackled and roared in the centre of their sandy stage.
The sand beneath my toes got steadily cooler the longer I watched until a soft sound pierced the rapid beats of the drums. The locals all froze and then fell to their knees, worshipping the moment the moonrays caressed the lagoon.
"It is time," Atlas whispered and I shivered. He had dipped his head to tell me this and I felt my body move with him, leading us over and up the craggy steps carved into the stone ledge. Below the lip, pitch-black water as tempting as a Siren's song stood completely still. Another long melodious thrum on the air sounded and the elders slowly climbed up behind our group. Their forms bedecked in woven fabrics, eyes soulful and peering up reverently to the moon, they began to hum again.
One last blow of that white and golden conch shell, I pulled away and stood on bare feet. When did I lose my shoes?
Morgan tugged my free hand.
"Now," Atlas whispered into my ear.
I dove into the water like I’d kicked off from a spring board. Morgan followed and a total of thirty bodies hit the water after us. Any idea of surfacing disappeared the longer I stayed under. I could feel Morgan trying to pry me up for air but I shook off her hand.
A brief flash in the din caught on someone else swimming closer. Atlas grinned underwater, eyes flashing with something unrecognisable. He reached out but I pushed my arms forward, propelling my body back and further into darkness. I didn’t need company right now, I needed this magical water to keep cradling me like this.
Pure, untainted and so full of life. It overrode my other senses, my instincts screaming to stay. I needed to hover in the darkness and soak it all in.
I lashed out when hands lurched me up and into the air. I glared at Josh, gritting my teeth and snarling. "Don't touch me!" I snapped.
"You're going too far in, Niamh!" He said while everyone else laughed or dunked each other in the blessed waters. None paid attention to us.
"Is there a problem?" Atlas asked from an arms reach behind me and I turned to face him, jaw clenched. "There is a spot further out. Would you like to swim over there?"
I barely stopped the happy trill from bubbling up my throat and nodded quickly, his hand taking mine and leading me out into more open and unoccupied water. Josh shouted after us but I ignored him with a grin up to the moon. "This is amazing!" I breathed, itching my hip, nails barely scratching through the dress.
I dove under after shaking my hand free, eyes wide. I wouldn’t miss the sight of moonlight spearing through darkness for anything. I could weave between them too, with how sharp they looked in the inky black of the water.
This time when hands touched my wrists, I flashed a wide grin at Atlas. He held his breath and peered around in wonder as well, telling me that no matter how many times you saw something, it could still be as awe-inspiring as the very first time.
A rogue laugh bubbled up from my throat and I slapped a hand over my mouth. Too late, bubbles streamed up past our heads to the surface.
I expected the water to rush in and swallow up any air in my lungs. I knew the stages of drowning, had listened to lecture upon lecture from Miles and his fathers at one point or another. I knew the dangers, had toed the fine line between them and safety. Yet, here with no more oxygen in my lungs, soul-deep relaxation flooded my system.
I hovered there in that weird limbo until the water above our heads churned with swimmers overhead. Our ascent was slow and steady. I popped up with a grin, sure to appear right in front of Morgan. Her gentle paddling cut short and she squealed in fright, arms pinwheeling backward. I laughed as I rose up onto my back, running my hands through my wet mop of hair.
Morgan held a hand to her chest. "Jesus! You keep doing that, and I'll go prematurely grey!" Morgan bellowed and tried to dunk me when I snickered. “Brat!”
I took the abuse with grace, splashing her because it was my right as her bratty best friend.
Atlas surfaced with his own amused smile and tucked the lotus back into place. I didn't understand that bellying softness in his eyes as he smiled down to me and swam closer. One moment I was staring down to the waters, the next practically lying on Atlas' chest as he gazed up to the sky.
“This is what I live for every month. Her gaze is gentle, the waters like an embrace," Atlas mused in his warm voice.
“Her?" I asked, watching the silver orb in the sky with half-lidded eyes. It was a nice feeling here, in the middle of the moon's rays and the waters as dark as the night sky.
“The moon. She's always watching over us, isn't she?" He asked, helping me roll in the water and lie on the surface with my body facing up.
“She is," I smiled up to the rays of moonlight casting light everywhere. "I'm jealous."
He blinked in surprise and confusion as he turned his head to stare.
"You get to live here. You get to feel this," I sighed. "Of course I may be misunderstanding, but this is still a little slice of Heaven."
"Almost," He countered, looking lost in thought. "It can be Hell too."
"I have no doubt," I murmured and let go of the tether. I took that chance to float down further than before. Atlas didn't try to fetch me this time and I shut my eyes, embracing the tender hook and pull of the water. I drifted for what felt like hours until my toes brushed shifty sand. The very bottom of the lagoon and every hair on my body stood on end.
I gasped, expelling my breath in one long sigh. Again, no desperate desire to scramble for air hit me.
I didn’t recall any delays in drowning stages and every last bit of oxygen just left me.
My eyes caught on the budding shades around me. Shafts of pure moonlight illuminated sections of the sand underfoot. Beyond my sliver of faint silver light, something glided just out of range. It vibrated and clicked, swayed and writhed. Sand and silt kicked up a trail of their movement. Something else dwelled here and it didn’t immediately jump out or snatch at me.
It couldn't be human with that eerily beautiful slither and distinctive mass circling me.
I felt the vibrations as it tick closer, feather-light touches of scales and thin membrane along my arm and hand.
A pair of white orbs blinked, then a soft blue glow from a lantern. Whatever approached settled enough to float a foot ahead of me. They hid in the gloom, the size of my fist and gleaming with intelligence. My hand twitched, reaching up toward the creature staring me down.
A webbed feather-light finger slowly crept out of the darkness and into the light, thicker than mine by far. Close enough to touch, to take.
A little tug along the water pulled my hair up and into my face, I eased a hand up, pushing my hair back from where it clouded around my face. Those big, bright eyes closed one, twice. A little more and I'd grab that webbed claw. I swayed closer, licking my lips.
Something at the back of my mind prodded and squeezed an uncomfortable ache but I wanted... needed to accept its silent offer.
My fingers closed around the talon and I felt the rough scales rustle against my smoother skin. Another came out from the darkness to tap my nose, so bizarre and unexpected I giggled at the gesture. The tiny diamond scales covering the outstretched 'hand' were gorgeous when my mother hand fell over the limb. With every brush along the scales, whatever this new creature was led me away from the light, into the warm darkness.
One foot in front of the other.
Some distant part of my muddled brain took in my lungs and the whole not-drowning thing but I had bigger, lovelier things to think about. Like this stranger. My breathing came out clearer than ever far, far away from the surface. A few little bubbles streamed up past my cheeks while my feet took off from the sand with every few steps. Never did the slow, gentle leading turn urgent or dangerous (though I was sure Miles would disagree).
The two blinking eyes got closer when I kicked off a particularly strong step. A long and whip-like scaly press grazed my side. It slithered like an eel with harsher sweeps that disturbed the sand. Almost a dulled sand-paper quality to it. I didn’t stop to think, I went with my gut instinct and pressed on. My free hand stretched out and I let out a soft laugh at the visible shiver from the stranger.
My palm pressed against what might be the snout of the creature. The raised nubs brushed against my skin, then nudged closer. It tickled when they nuzzled my stomach and a forked tongue lashed out to find my arm. I wouldn’t be a tasty treat, barely even a snack if the rest of him was as proportionate as his head.
It reminded me of the long hours I’d spend outside in the moonlight. Where a cool silvery film would wrap around my skin, this physical one didn’t make any sudden or violent movements. I never felt safer. A rumble danced along the water and I leaned further until my forehead rested against theirs. The two huge eyes slid shut. "Mmm," I hummed and the creature made a weird barking sound, the only time I startled here.
An arm ripped me away from the little bubble of peace. I was wrenched up, claws brushing my sides when the iron grip dragged me up at an alarming speed. I struggled against the bastard carrying us upwards, clawing at the darker hand. When I cast one last glance down, the creature had disappeared into the darkness again. An arm wrapped around my waist carefully and I whirled around with teeth bared.
Atlas held me up in the sharp, frigid air, legs kicking underneath. His eyes ran from my neck to my sopping hair that hid the skin there to my jaw. "Enjoy the dive?" He breathed.
"Very much!" I shot back, still sore and barely holding back the anger of being abducted and held like a damsel. "Something on my neck?"
"Nothing," He smiled, more carefree while he removed his arm. "So, I take it you like the waters."
"More than anything," I gruffed, paddling back and away from his reach. "I’ll have to come back here. This lagoon has to be deeper than the part I got to."
"Absolutely dauntless, you are," He chuckled.
I'd often dreamed of the dark abyssal areas documentaries would show, wonder what monsters lurked below. We used to pretend to be the monsters swimming in the depths no humans could handle. Now? Perhaps those ‘monsters’ wouldn't be so monstrous after all.
I splashed Atlas when he followed me, having caught up to my strokes through the water.
Morgan sliced through the water to beat Miles and Josh to us. I laughed when she glomped on me and sent us tumbling back underwater. She never won our water battles and didn’t fare any better with splash wars. I resurfaced and had to drag her up too when I winded her with my tumbling and spinning under the water.
Miles and Josh were better with handling my stamina and tumbling but didn’t engage, smarter for it.
“Someday I’ll get ya,” Morgan managed once she stopped hacking out a lung. “I noticed you went for a long, long dive there.”
“Guilty,” I flashed a sheepish grin to Miles as he pursed his lips. “But don’t worry. I didn’t get eaten by whatever Nessy cousin they have here. I think I’ll make friends with whatever water gods are here.”
“Don’t make me start pinching your ear again. You don’t want me to drag you all the way back to the bungalow, do you?” He threatened with his brows hunched low. I believed him too. Him and his deadly ear pinch of Parental Disappointment got me three times already.
He let me splash around and swim, diving and weaving around him and Josh for an hour longer. Morgan had migrated beyond our huddle to go chat up some locals that had joined us in the water. Her and her man eating ways charmed a fair few of them with little effort. Miles and I suffered together, even managing a game of tag. He had a swimmers body, sleek and nimble in the water so he could almost keep up with me. Josh came a close second, more power than anything. He had made a point to hover just on the outside of our little game.
I let out a soft keen when Miles all but threw me over his back. One, two, three mandatory dunks later and I let him drag me out of blessed waters I had long fallen for. Most of the other swimmers were gone, either closer to the main resort where music pumped and more alcohol. A few other fellow visitors milled around and chatted with the locals and people that were still waiting for their vacation to end.
Atlas lagged behind us when Miles carried me up and out of the water. Atlas’ steady jog out of the water made me think ‘commercial’ and I rolled my eyes at the few men and women salivating over his shirtless body. Why would they be drawn to him when the water was right there?
Morgan waved over to us from where she sat, almost draped over a man. He had wandering hands too, holding hers and playing with a few curls that hung around her face. Qeha, or Kay to the tourists that had trouble pronouncing it, chatted about the many special coves Morgan would love. He had a loud, bright voice and it matched her own chaotic energy. Miles set me down on my own two feet, rubbing at his temples.
Atlas passed us by with an assured ‘He’s over 21’. Hard to believe, but fine. He looked 18, with his boyish grin and face.
He winked and flirted while the Elders left the vicinity, taking the majority of their people with them.
“I would love to show you the best spots,” The man (not boy) offered, loud enough for us to hear. Morgan drooped for a second before back to high spirits. “By the Lady’s grace, we met. I wouldn’t want to miss my chance.”
Smooth. Morgan fell for it with a dopey grin and daring peck to his cheek. She complained while Qeha gave her his own parting kiss and jogged away to catch up with the others. Just maybe, I silently prayed, he’d be the one she’d settle with. Stranger things had happened and she always liked the playful, adventurous types.
While she stared longingly after him, I peeked back over to the Black Lagoon.
A glimpse of a spindly claw dropped back into the water with a quiet splosh.
Maybe I'd make a few new friends too. I would love for that gentle giant to be the first.
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