She didn’t know where she was, but she knew it was soft and warm and she was cushioned on all sides. She knew her eyes were wide open, but her world was sightless and black. Amongst the velvety soft pressure all around her in this strange, womb like existence she began to take note of something else.. something gritty. Just slightly at first, but as time went on it became more and more annoying, grating against her skin, sloughing against her body. She began to squirm, slowly at first but then with more force, rolling her body back and forth, trying to find some place away from the sandy grit that was irritating her.

With a chill blast and a burst of murky light that was blinding nonetheless to her, suddenly she found herself sprawled on the sand of a beach, the wind howling violently around her, the clouds overhead boiling angrily.

She pushed up, the sand around her buffeting against her completely bare skin as she dragged herself to standing. The chill from the ocean spray sunk into her body, reverberating through to her bones and her very core.

The waves pounded rocks on natural jetties jutting out to sea on both sides, the sound of water slapping rock with a rhythmic and unstoppable force competing with the screaming wind. There was only a sliver of water calm enough to enter into— and Arulisse found herself doing just that.

As her belly button sunk beneath the silvery surface, it started to rain and the crackle of lightning overhead filled her nostrils with the smell of ozone.

One more step and she felt a tentacle clasp about her ankle, yanking her suddenly and abruptly beneath the surface and towing her down, down, down into the murky depths below. It felt like someone had encased her entire body in a vice, like someone was trying to crush her and freeze her to death all at once. She wished she would just die, she prayed in her mind to whoever may be listening that she would just die and end the pain.

And suddenly she was floating again in the gloom, her eyes struggling to adjust to the complete lack of light.

A face appeared— the face of an older man, his eyes the same color as the storming seas she had waded into, his hair tangled with a type of poisonous, rare seaweed she remembered the Dhe’nar trading for. It came closer to her own, his gaze boring into hers. She wanted to look away but found herself unable.

“Come.”

The word felt like a hammer pounding at her skull.

In an instant she was awake.

“I will,” she whispered to the still air of the night. And she knew it was the truth.



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