Jana fled her cottage home in tears which mixed with the torrential rain outside. Her gasps and sobs were muffled by lightning and thunder which tore open the sky and drenched her in sheets of water. She fled for the docks where the sea heaved and tossed up sprays of white foam. Inside, she left the last argument in a series of arguments which had begun when she was four. Her family didn't understand her and didn't want to make the effort to understand her. She was too different from everyone else in the village and now her father decided violence was the only way to sort her out. In the deluge of summer rain, her cheek still burned from where he struck her. She sprinted blindly for the shore where she found her father's skiff pulled onto the cliff above the docks.
Pain and misery overwhelming any common sense as Jana took the skiff and pushed it down the wooden stairs to the scrawny docks which trembled in the angry sea. Being dead would be better than living at home. She was ready to risk it all if it meant a life away from her family. Jana paused only a moment before she pushed the skiff into the bay and lashed the sail. The wind took the small boat like a toy and shot her across the waters. As the skiff hit the lip of a crashing wave, her and the boat went airborne, crashing hard on the hateful waters. Nearly tossed into the sea, Jana knew she had made a huge mistake. The wind was too strong to pull the sail in, and in moments she was hundreds of strides from the shore and sailing further from home. She could only watch helpless as the cottages on the cliffside shrank from view, obscured by the gushing rain. Out on the seaward horizon, the end of the world rushed to meet her. Lightning tore open the sky like neon veins, and Jana knew the true anger of Hawart.
She knelt in the skiff and prayed to Alexandria for a safe return home. She promised a life of devotion and even promised to be a normal boy if she made it home safe. Her prayers went unheard as a whelming wave launched her several strides in the air. She looked over the side, and her heart dropped into her boots to see the sea so far below her. Lightning struck the restless waves only feet from her, and the air smelled strange. Her skiff hit the water hard, and a knowing crack sounded in the howling wind. Another wave lifted her up, toppling the skiff.
Jana didn't fight. Any semblance of a normal life as a normal girl left her mind. She didn't struggle as the hateful waves overtook her. She let her heavy dress drag her to the deep. Underwater, she opened her eyes to see webs of sea foam bend and stretch above her. Under it all, there was peace in the dark water. The perennial cold water of the sea grew warmer as she found a sense of peace. Down here, under the wake, no one could judge her or harm her. The icy water felt like a warm hug as it took her. Down here, she could be who she was always meant to be. No one could find her here. And if no one could find her, no one could harm her. She closed her eyes as the last of her air was consumed.
Jana awoke to lips on her lips. She gasped then spat up water, throwing it up on herself. A slippery hand cupped her face. The light of the air was a twist of orange and gray. Outside, the storm retreated. The wake of the sea sloshed at her feet. She was in a grotto, probably one of many that dotted the rocky coastline, formed from centuries of an angry tide. She looked up to see a figure over her. He almost looked like a man. He was tall, broad, and pale, but his face was not hume. What looked like thick, white fins hung from his cheeks. He nose was flattened out with two slits for nostrils and his large black eyes stared at her with concern. He was a manani! One of the legendary sea folk. She gasped at the realization. He touched her face with his cold clammy hand then croaked something in Old Script.
"You saved me," she said, forgetting to hide the boyish cantor of her voice. His large hand touched her hand. Inky splotches covered his arms and naked, pale body like tattoos.
