The Scholar 2: Embrace
Salty air stung my nose. A cold breeze swept my blankets from me, then toyed with my nipples & pubic hair. Slowly, thoughtfully, a voice whispered, "Yes, I would like a taste of this form."
When I tried to sit up, wind pushed me down. A man stood over me, surprising me with the contrast of his long, ripply gray hair & his tall, very fit, body...which was barely covered by a translucent water-colored toga. I blushed to see his sex & looked away.
He stood, glaring with deep sea eyes. "No. You wanted to mount my statue & be ravished by the ocean. Here I am. Look at me."
"I...I am sorry, sir. But I made a promise..."
He grinned & the stormy mood was over. "Good. When one makes vows, one should keep them. Get up. I want to teach you how to swim in good form. No," he added when I got up & moved to the closet. "No false modesty or I will lick you with wavelets from toes to head." To make sure I behaved, he plucked me up & took me out himself.
*
We swam in a salt infinity pool overlooking a deep, forested valley. I was thrilled to see it was a natural pool, filled with fish, reefs, even islands in the end so deep it looked black & forbidding. I lit up once I was in the water & it made him smile. "Stand & balance," he said when I was in the shallow end.
"Sure!"
A wavelet almost took me off my feet. "Sure!" he mocked.
I quieted & nodded. No play; work. Focusing, I found my balance, rooted myself with gravity & was just in time for the bigger wavelet that swept over my thighs. When he had me go deeper, I obeyed & refocused much faster; the waist-high wave swayed me, but did not knock me down.
We did that until I could stand in up to my neck & not be pulled down when he tugged my ankles. Then came floating lessons, diving lessons & swimming lessons. When I tried to avoid the deepest end, he started teaching me breathing lessons.
Once I had those, he picked me up & hurled me into the deep end.
Biting down a startled cry, I inhaled rapidly & was okay when I went in deep...deep...deeper.
No. No panicking. I held my breath, breathing out a little at a time, & kicked my way back to the surface. Whew! I gasped in air & waved at him.
"Again!" he roared. Water lifted me high, high, higher & I had to focus on breathing & not gaping at being so high up. Breathing more & more deeply, I was ready.
Or was I? The drop was so sudden, I woofed out & had to inhale before I was in the water. Light vanished; I was in so deep that the water was blacker than night. Could I even...?
That's when I found gills opening on my neck, frilling out. Ooooh. Fighting the instinct to hold my breath, I opened my mouth & inhaled through nose in mouth. No choking! My lungs were changed, accepting the water without pain. Other changes rolled through me, & suddenly I could breathe.
*Yes!* I thought, & swam downwards using the kick-flutter motion he'd taught me. *Mother, help,* I thought to the earth herself. *Remind me which way is down & which way up, please?*
*Child finding mother. Of course. Accept my call when I need you.*
*Always.*
A warm washing through my abdomen. *Shapeshifting is yours. Ask Hare to teach you.*
Oooh. *Thank,* I began.
*MY daughter. My choice to award or punish.* Amusement, then she was silent.
Still I swam downwards, seeking. There had to be an Easter egg down here; some reward for going so deeply into my lessons. Adapting to the pressure, I finally saw a glowing light. Wait. A trench? Seriously? I was in water this deep, in northern Illinois? That made no sense! But there was the red, boiling; there were the aqua waters surrounded by life. The water was warming.
And then I saw the slow spiraling purple energy to one side, forming a gate. Swimming to it, I looked & saw it turn violently green. Tentacles began rising, seeking; gaping remora teeth were bared & dozens of chuckled shook the water & earth.
Startled, I was thrown back, past thinking, to instinct, to my Dream-self. And my Dream-self did what she/I automatically did when she/I was threatened; we called lightning, focused it & sent it bolting out, one limb for each tentacle.
The tentacles withered & vanished.
Now there was a door covered in chains. I was fully in control now. Feeling the lightning power ebb away, I willed it to come back. It struggled, but I refused to let go. If I could shapeshift & be in this deep water, then I could summon all of my Dream powers. Anger at the locks & chains, I focused harder, willed deeper & shaped lightning into one huge bolt.
And I fired it.
The chains vanished, a scream echoing across the water.
As the doors opened, I yelped. What had I done??
I swam back up, adjusting to the depths, to the change in pressure & light so easily that I knew Gaia & Poseidon were both aiding me. When I popped to the surface, he swept me into his arms & pushed the water out of my lungs. Once I could breathe again, my gills closing with ease, he frowned at me forbiddingly. . "Don't ever go that deeply. You were in the Marianas Trench. If your call to Gaia hadn't reached Her, or worse yet, hadn't pleased Her, you would be dead!"
"But the purple..."
"NO!" he roared. The pool water rose & frothed like a sea under storm.
